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Metallic foams or sponges are materials with a cell structure suitable for many industrial applications, such as reformers, heat catalytic converters, etc. The success of these materials is due to the combination of various characteristics such as mechanical strength, low density, high specific surface, good thermal exchange properties, low flow resistance and sound absorption. Different materials and manufacturing processes produce different type of structure and properties for various applications. In this work a genetic algorithm has been developed and applied to support the design of catalytic devices. In particular, two substrates were considered, namely the traditional honeycomb and an alternative open-cell foam type. CFD simulations of pressure losses and literature based correlations for the heat and mass transfer were used to support the genetic algorithm in finding the best compromise between flow resistance and pollutant abatement.

The paper deals with the design and manufacturing of a McPherson suspension arm made from short glass fiber reinforced polyamide (PA66). The design of the arm and the design of the molds have been made jointly. According to Industry 4.0 paradigms, a full digitalization of both the product and process has been performed. Since the mechanical behavior of the suspension arm strongly depends on constraints which are difficult to be modelled, a simpler structure with well-defined mechanical constraints has been developed. By means of such simple structure, the model for the behavior of the material has been validated. Since the suspension arm is a hybrid structure, the associated simple structure is hybrid as well, featuring a metal sheet with over-molded polymer. The issues referring to material flow, material to material contact, weld lines, fatigue strength, high and low temperature behavior, creep, dynamic strength have been investigated on the simple structure.

Concerns over energy security and global warming are beginning to be a serious issue for society and are also starting to drive customer purchasing decisions across many areas. Against this background there is an increasing call for motor sport to improve its environmental image, despite the fact that the global energy consumption and CO2 emissions attributable to motor sport are a very low proportion of the total. The real issue for motor sport in the face of the wider societal concerns is that, if it is truly at the cutting edge of relevant automotive engineering, it should be configured and managed in such a way as to drive technology for the betterment of mankind. The status quo is, it is contended, increasingly seen to be blatantly energy-profligate in the eyes of many people and this issue must be resolved if motor sport is to demonstrate the wider benefits of the technology developed by the huge financial investments committed to competing at the highest level.

This paper provides a review on state-of-art modern cooling systems employed for thermal cooling of electric motors for vehicle applications. In recent years, the pursue of a more sustainable and ecofriendly mobility has pushed the research towards the development of electric vehicle powertrain systems. Besides the evident advantages of the adoption of electric traction systems in terms of pollution and efficiency, the need of an effective cooling system for the electric machine components gained more and more importance in order to maintain high efficiency and ensure high durability. In fact, it is known that high temperatures can be harmful for the electric motor: besides the evident damages for mechanical parts, the influence on the permanent magnet properties is not negligible [1] [2]. In this fast-evolving environment, different solutions for the thermal problem have been researched and adopted, each one with its own pros and cons.

An expedient route to improving in-vehicle fuel economy in 4-stroke cycle engines is to reduce the swept volume of an engine and run it at a higher BMEP for any given output. The full-load performance of a larger capacity engine can be achieved through pressure charging. However, for maximum fuel economy, particularly at part-load, the expansion ratio, and consequently the compression ratio (CR) should be kept as high as possible. This is at odds with the requirement in pressure-charged gasoline engines to reduce the CR at higher loads due to the knock limit. In earlier work, the authors studied a pressure-charging system aimed at allowing a high CR to be maintained at all times. The operation of this type of system involves deliberately over-compressing the charge air, cooling it at the elevated pressure and temperature, and then expanding it down to the desired plenum pressure, ensuring a plenum temperature which can potentially become sub-atmospheric at full-load.

The paper deals with the “wise sensorization” of vehicle components. In the upcoming full digitalization of mobility, vehicle components are getting more and more sensorized. The problem is why, what, when and where vehicle components can be sensorized. The paper attempts a preliminary problem statement for the sensorization of vehicle components. A theoretical basic investigation is introduced, setting the main concepts on which extended sensorization is advisable or not. The paradigms of Industry 4.0 and Automotive 4.0 are addressed, namely sensors are proposed to be used both for monitoring the manufacturing process and for monitoring the service life of the component. In general, sensors are proposed to be used for multiple purposes. Two examples of sensorized components are briefly presented. One refers to a sensorized electric motor, the other one refers to a sensorized wheel.