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An experimental study was performed to develop a more fundamental understanding of the effects of secondary air injection (SAI) on exhaust gas emissions and catalyst light-off characteristics during cold start of a modern SI engine. The effects of engine operating parameters and various secondary air injection strategies such as spark retardation, fuel enrichment, secondary air injection location and air flow rate were investigated to understand the mixing, heat loss, and thermal and catalytic oxidation processes associated with SAI. Time-resolved HC, CO and CO₂ concentrations were tracked from the cylinder exit to the catalytic converter outlet and converted to time-resolved mass emissions by applying an instantaneous exhaust mass flow rate model. A phenomenological model of exhaust heat transfer combined with the gas composition analysis was also developed to define the thermal and chemical energy state of the exhaust gas with SAI.

The effects of charge motion and laminar flame speeds on combustion and exhaust temperature have been studied by using an air jet in the intake flow to produce an adjustable swirl or tumble motion, and by replacing the nitrogen in the intake air by argon or CO₂, thereby increasing or decreasing the laminar flame speed. The objective is to examine the "Late Robust Combustion" concept: whether there are opportunities for producing a high exhaust temperature using retarded combustion to facilitate catalyst warm-up, while at the same time, keeping an acceptable cycle-to-cycle torque variation as measured by the coefficient of variation (COV) of the net indicated mean effective pressure (NIMEP). The operating condition of interest is at the fast idle period of a cold start with engine speed at 1400 RPM and NIMEP at 2.6 bar. A fast burn could be produced by appropriate charge motion. The combustion phasing is primarily a function of the spark timing.

The performance of electric vehicles could be enhanced by more flexible drivetrain configurations combined with advanced control methods. Based on four wheel independent driving and front and rear axle modular steering configuration, which was proposed by our research group last year, the problem of slippery under close-to-limit conditions are further discussed and simulated. A new torque vectoring method based on obtainable parameters and variables in real driving situations is introduced to reduce the sideslip when turning on low friction surfaces or with high speed. This method is developed from a comprehensive index, which reflects the stability and maneuverability, by adding additional torques when stability could not be compensated enough by basic torque vectoring. Besides, an improvement of adding a simu-Torsen differential mechanism is made to the model of the vehicle, which enables another control method with the same purpose as before.

As mechanical damage induced thermal runaway of lithium-ion batteries has become one of the research hotspots, it is quite crucial to understand the mechanical behavior of component materials of lithium battery. This study focuses on the mechanical performance of separators and electrodes under different loading conditions and the error sources analysis for test results. Uniaxial tensile tests were conducted under both quasi-static and dynamic loading conditions. The strain was acquired through the combination of high speed camera and digital image correlation (DIC) method while the force was obtained with a customized load cell. Noticeable anisotropy and strain rate effect were observed for separators. The fracture mode of separators is highly correlated to the microscopic fiber orientation. To demonstrate the correlation microscopic images of separator material were obtained through SEM to match the facture edges of tensile tests at different loading directions.

Metal foil is a widely used material in the automobile industry, which not only is the honeycomb barrier material but is also used as current collectors in Li-ion batteries. Plenty of studies proved that the mechanical property of the metal foil is quite different from that of the metal sheet because of the size effect on microscopic scale, as the metal foil shows a larger fracture stress and a lower ductility than the metal sheet. Meanwhile, the fracture behavior and accurate constitutive model of the metal foil with the consideration of the strain rate effect are widely concerned in further studies of battery safety and the honeycomb. This article conducted experiments on 8011H18 aluminum foil, aiming to explore the quasi-static and dynamic tension testing method and the anisotropic mechanical behavior of the very thin foil. Two metal foil dog-bone specimens and three types of notched specimens were tested with a strain rate ranging from 2 × 10−4/s to 40/s and various stress states.

Plug-in electric vehicle (PHEV) has a promising prospect to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emission and optimize engine operating in high-efficiency region. According to the maximum electric power and all-electric range, PHEVs are divided into two categories, including “all-electric PHEV” and “blended PHEV” and the latter provides a potential for more rational energy distribution because engine participates in vehicle driving during aggressive acceleration not just by motor. However, the frequent use of engine may result in severe emissions especially in low state of charge (SOC) and ahead of catalyst light-off. This study quantitatively investigates the impact of oil viscosity and driving mode (hybrid/conventional) on oil dilution and emissions including particle number (PN).

Failure of high voltage cables (HVCs) which sometimes occurs in electric vehicle collision is one of the fuses that leads to severe thermal runaway of the traction battery system, which has not gotten thorough investigations. This paper presents an experiment and simulation study on the failure behaviors of HVCs under indentation loadings. Tests were performed with different combinations of indenter (cylinder indenter with a diameter of 5 mm which was labeled as D5, cylinder indenter with a diameter of 15 mm which was labeled as D15 and wedge indenter with an angle of 60° which was labeled as V60) and loading speed (1.5 mm/min for quasi-static and 2m/s for dynamic). Experimental results indicated that the failure behavior of HVCs was both influenced by the indenter shape and loading speeds. Sharp indenter will led to a component failure sequence from outmost to innermost.

Studying drifting dynamics and control could extend the usable state-space beyond handling limits and maximize the potential safety benefits of autonomous vehicles. Distributed electric vehicles provide more possibilities for drifting control with better grip and larger maximum drift angle. Under the state of drifting, the distributed electric vehicle is a typical nonlinear over-actuated system with actuator redundancy, and the coupling of input vectors impedes the direct use of control algorithm of upper. This paper proposes a novel automated drifting controller for the distributed electric vehicle. First, the nonlinear over-actuated system, comprised of driving system, braking system and steering system, is formulated and transformed to a square system through proposed integrative recombination method of control channel, making general nonlinear control algorithms suitable for this system.

In the past two decades, rapidly expanding economy in China led to burst in travel demand and pursuit of quality of life. It further promoted the rapid growth of China's passenger car market. China had already become the largest vehicle sales country, exceeding the U.S. in 2010. By the end of 2018, there had been over 240 million cars in China, with over 200 million passenger cars. The surge of car ownership has also brought a series of problems, like traffic congestion, long commuting time, insufficient parking space, etc. Therefore, some local governments in China introduced vehicle purchase restriction policies to control the growth and gross of vehicle stock. Different cities issued different rules. Lottery and auction mechanisms both exist. There are also differences in classification and licensing of electric vehicles. However, with the recent slowdown of economic development, China's car sales began to decline in 2018, and the trend of 2019 is also not optimistic.

A novel fault tolerant brake strategy for In-wheel motor driven electric vehicles based on integral sliding mode control and optimal online allocation is proposed in this paper. The braking force distribution and redistribution, which is achieved in online control allocation segment, aim at maximizing energy efficiency of the vehicle and isolating faulty actuators simultaneously. The In-wheel motor can generate both driving torque and braking torque according to different vehicle dynamic demands. In braking procedure, In-wheel motors generate electric braking torque to achieve energy regeneration. The strategy is designed to make sure that the stability of vehicle can be guaranteed which means vehicle can follow desired trajectory even if one of the driven motor has functional failure.

In low-temperature environment, heat supply requires considerable energy, which significantly increases energy consumption and shortens the mileage of electric vehicle. In the fuel cell vehicles, waste heat generated by the fuel cell system can supply heat for vehicle. In this paper, a thermal management system is designed for a the fuel cell interurban bus. Thermal management strategy aiming at temperature regulation for the fuel cell stack and the passenger compartment and minimal energy consumption is proposed. System model is developed and simulated based on AMESim and Matlab/Simulink co-simulation. Simulation results show that the fuel cell system can provide about 78 % energy of maximum heat requirement in -20 °C ambient temperature environment.

Rare earths are a group of elements whose availability has been of concern due to monopolistic supply conditions and environmentally unsustainable mining practices. To evaluate the risks of rare earths availability to automakers, a first step is to determine raw material content and value in vehicles. This task is challenging because rare earth elements are used in small quantities, in a large number of components, and by suppliers far upstream in the supply chain. For this work, data on rare earth content reported by vehicle parts suppliers was assessed to estimate the rare earth usage of a typical conventional gasoline engine midsize sedan and a full hybrid sedan. Parts were selected from a large set of reported parts to build a hypothetical typical mid-size sedan. Estimates of rare earth content for vehicles with alternative powertrain and battery technologies were made based on the available parts' data.

The first several cycles determine the quality of an engine start. Low temperatures and air/fuel ratio cause incomplete combustion of the fuel. This can lead to dramatic increases in HC and PM emissions. In order to meet Euro V legislation requirements which have stricter cold start emission levels, it is critical to study the characteristics of cold and warm starting of engines in order to develop an optimized operation. The NO and THC emissions were measured by fast CLD and Fast FID gas analyzers respectively and PM in both nucleation and accumulation modes were measured by DMS500. The coolant temperature was controlled in order to guarantee the experiment repeatability. The results show that at cold start using RME60 produced higher NO and lower THC than the other tested fuels while combustion of HVO60 produced a similar level of NO but lower THC compared with mineral diesel. Meanwhile, the nucleation mode of mineral diesel was similar to RME60 but higher than HVO60.

Particulate emissions from a production gasoline direct injection spark ignition engine were studied under a typical cold-fast-idle condition (1200 rpm, 2 bar NIMEP). The particle number (PN) density in the 22 to 365 nm range was measured as a function of the injection timing with single pulse injection and with split injection. Very low PN emissions were observed when injection took place in the mid intake stroke because of the fast fuel evaporation and mixing processes which were facilitated by the high turbulent kinetic energy created by the intake charge motion. Under these conditions, substantial liquid fuel film formation on the combustion chamber surfaces was avoided. PN emissions increased when injection took place in the compression stroke, and increased substantially when the fuel spray hit the piston.

Although energy harvesting systems are extensively used in different fields, studies on the application of energy harvesters embedded in tires for vehicle control are rare and mostly focus on solving power supply problems of tire pressure sensors. Sensors are traditionally powered by an embedded battery, which must be replaced periodically because of its limited energy storage. Heightened interest in vehicle safety is expected to drive increased design and manufacture of in-tire sensors, which in turn, translates to rising demand for power generation in tires. These challenges emphasize the need to investigate the substitution of batteries and in-tire energy harvesting systems. Current in-tire energy harvesting methods involve piezoelectric, electromagnetic, and electrostatic power generation, whose energy sources include tire vibrations, deformations, and rotations. Piezoelectric harvesters are generally compact but operate for short durations.

A dynamometer-mounted four-cylinder Saturn engine was used to accumulate combustion chamber deposits (CCD), using an additized fuel. During each deposit accumulation test, the HC emissions were continuously measured. The deposit thickness at the center of the piston was measured at the beginning of each day. After the 50 and 35-hour tests, HC emissions were measured with isooctane, benzene, toluene, and xylene, with the deposited engine, and again after the deposits had been cleaned from the engine. The HC emissions showed a rapid rise in the first 10 to 15 hours and stabilization after about 25 hours of deposit accumulation. The HC increase due to CCD accumulation accounted for 10 to 20% of the total engine-out HC emissions from the deposit build-up fuel and 10 to 30% from benzene, isooctane, toluene, and xylene, making CCDs a significant HC emissions source from this engine. The HC emissions stabilized long before the deposit thickness.

This paper developed a control system for the auxiliary power unit (APU) in off-road series hybrid electric special vehicle. A control system configuration was designed according to the requirements of the high voltage system in series hybrid electric special vehicle. Then optimal engine operating areas were defined. A gain scheduling engine speed PI controller was designed based on these areas. A closed loop voltage regulator was designed for the synchronous generator. The proposed control system was first validated on an APU control test bench. The test results showed the control system guaranteed the diesel APU good dynamic response characteristics while remaining stable output voltage. Finally, the APU control system was implemented on a diesel APU in an off-road series hybrid electric vehicle and a road test was conducted. The road test results showed the APU control system promised good performance in both vehicle dynamics and vehicle high voltage system.

Experiments were carried out to collect in-cylinder pressure data and microphone signals from a single-cylinder test engine using spark timingsbefore, at, and after knock onset for toluene reference fuels. The objective was to gain insight into the phenomena that determine knock onset, detected by an external microphone. In particular, the study examines how the end-gas autoignition process changes as the engine's spark timing is advanced through the borderline knock limit into the engine's knocking regime. Fast Fourier transforms (FFT) and bandpass filtering techniques were used to process the recorded cylinder pressure data to determine knock intensities for each cycle. Two characteristic pressure oscillation frequencies were detected: a peak just above 6 kHz and a range of peaks in the 15-22 kHz range. The microphone data shows that the audible knock signal has the same 6 kHz peak.

This paper presents tribological modeling, experimental work, and validation of tribology parameters of a single cylinder turbocharged diesel engine run at various loads, speeds, intake boost pressures, and cylinder liner temperatures. Analysis were made on piston rings and liner materials, rings mechanical and thermal loads, contact pressure between rings and liner, and lubricant conditions. The engine tribology parameters were measured, and used to validate the engine tribology models. These tribology parameters are: oil film thickness, coefficient of friction between rings and liner, friction force, friction power, friction torque, shear rate, shear stress and wear of the sliding surfaces. In order to measure the oil film thickness between rings and liner, a single cylinder AVL turbocharged diesel engine was instrumented to accept the difference in voltage drop method between rings, oil film, and liner.

Introduction of an array of new electrical and electronic features into future vehicles is generating vehicle electrical power requirements that exceed the capabilities of today's 14 volt electrical systems. In the near term (5 to 10 years), the existing 14V system will be marginally capable of supporting the expected additional loads with escalating costs for the associated charging system. However, significant increases in vehicle functional content are expected as future requirements to meet longer-term (beyond 10 years) needs in the areas of emission control, fuel economy, safety, and passenger comfort. A higher voltage electrical system will be required to meet these future requirements. This paper explores the functional needs that will mandate a higher voltage system and the benefits derivable from its implementation.