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The mechanical behavior of polyvinyl butyral (PVB) film plays an important role in windshield crashworthiness and pedestrian protection and should be depth study. In this article, the uniaxial tension tests of PVB film at various strain rates (0.001 s-1, 0.01 s-1, 0.1 s-1, 1 s-1) and temperatures (-10°C, 0°C, 10°C, 23°C, 40°C, 55°C, 70°C) are conducted to investigate its mechanical behavior. Then, temperature and strain rate dependent viscoelastic characteristics of PVB are systematically studied. The results show that PVB is a kind of temperature and strain rate sensitive thermal viscoelastic material. Temperature increase and strain rate decrease have the same influence on mechanical properties of PVB. Besides, the mechanical characteristics of PVB change non-linearly with temperature and strain rate. Finally, two thermal viscoelastic constitutive model (ZWT model and DSGZ model) are suggested to describe the tension behavior of PVB film at various strain rates and temperatures.

In this paper, the differences between multi-hole and single-hole spray contour under the same conditions were compared by using high-speed photography. The difference between the contour area of multi-hole and that of single-hole spray was used as a parameter to describe the degree of spray collapse. Three dimensionless parameters (i.e. degree of superheat, degree of undercooling, and nozzle pressure ratio) were applied to characterize inside-nozzle thermodynamic, outside-nozzle thermodynamic and kinetic factors, respectively. In addition, the relationship between the three dimensionless parameters and the spray collapse was analyzed. A semi-empirical equation was proposed for evaluation of the degree of collapse based on dimensionless parameters of flash and non-flash boiling sprays respectively.

Combustion visualizations were carried out in a constant volume vessel to study the partially premixed combustion of a gasoline-like fuel using high speed imaging. The test fuel (G80H20) is composed by volume 80% commercial gasoline and 20% n-heptane. The effects of ambient gas composition, ambient temperature and injection pressure on G80H20 combustion characteristics were analyzed. Meanwhile, a comparison of the EGR effect on combustion process between G80H20 and diesel was made. Four ambient gas conditions that represent the in-cylinder gas compositions of a heavy-duty diesel engine with EGR ratios of 0%, 20%, 40% and 60% were used to simulate EGR conditions. Variables also include two ambient temperature (910K and 870K) and two injection pressure (20 MPa and 50 MPa) conditions.

Dieseline combustion as a concept combines the advantages of gasoline and diesel by offline or online blending the two fuels. Dieseline has become an attractive new compression ignition combustion concept in recent years and furthermore an approach to a full-boiling-range fuel. High speed imaging with near-parallel backlit light was used to investigate the spray characteristics of dieseline and pure fuels with a common rail diesel injection system in a constant volume vessel. The results were acquired at different blend ratios, and at different temperatures and back pressures at an injection pressure of 100MPa. The penetrations and the evaporation states were compared with those of gasoline and diesel. The spray profile was analyzed in both area and shape with statistical methods. The effect of gasoline percentage on the evaporation in the fuel spray was evaluated.

Generally, noise will occur during steering with the hydraulic power steering system (hereinafter HPS). The noise producing in the rotary valve takes up a big proportion of the total one. To study the noise in the control valve, 2-D meshes of the flow field between the sleeve and the rotor were set up and a general CFD code-Fluent was used to analyze the flow inside the valve. The areas where the noise may be occurred were shown and some suggestions to silence the noise were given.

Electromagnetic Valve Actuation (EVA) is considered to be a potential substitute of conventional valvetrains for automotive engines. However, valve quiet-seating (soft-landing) is difficult to be achieved. The EVA system and hence its’ mathematic model is nonlinear. Therefore, when linear control is used for EVA, firstly, the model has to be linearized at an equilibrium point through Taylor expansion. Consequently, the linearized model and control are valid only for a small range around the equilibrium point. This paper presents a control strategy for the whole transition of EVA, which combines exact linearization with Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR). Firstly, the nonlinear EVA model is transformed to be linear in a new coordinate by using exact linearization, so the nonlinear model is not involved. Then the exact-linearized model is used for the EVA control with LQR.

Due to the high cost of torque sensors, a calculation model of transient torque is required for real-time coordinating control purpose, especially in hybrid electric powertrains. This paper presents a feedforward calculation method based on mean value model of turbocharged non-EGR diesel engines. A fitting variable called fuel coefficient is defined in an affine relation between brake torque and fuel mass. The fitting of fuel coefficient is simplified to depend only on three variables (engine speed, boost pressure, injected fuel mass). And a two-layer feedforward neural network is utilized to fit the experimental data. The model is validated by load response test and ETC (European Transient Cycle) transient test. The RMSE (root mean square error) of the brake torque is less than 3%.

Atomization of fuel sprays is a key factor in controlling the combustion quality in the direct-injection engines. In this present work, the effect of saturation ratio (Rs) on the near nozzle spray patterns of ethanol was investigated using an ultra-high speed imaging technique. The Rs range covered both flash-boiling and non-flash boiling regions. Ethanol was injected from a single-hole injector into an optically accessible constant volume chamber at a fixed injection pressure of 40 MPa with different fuel temperatures and back pressures. High-speed imaging was performed using an ultrahigh speed camera (1 million fps) coupled with a long-distance microscope. Under non-flash boiling conditions, the effect of Rs on fuel development was small but observable. Clear fuel collision can be observed at Rs=1.5 and 1.0. Under the flash boiling conditions, near-nozzle spray patterns were significant different from the non-flash boiling ones.

During the engaging process of sleeve and teeth ring in mechanical transmissions, their rotational speed and position differences cause multiple engaging ways and trajectories, and casual impacts between them will delay the engaging process and cause a long power off time for a gear shift. In order to reveal the engaging mechanism of the sleeve and the teeth ring, it is essential to build a high-fidelity model to cover all of their engaging ways and capture their speed changes for an impact. In this work, our contribution is that their impact process is modeled as a precise, continuous and nonlinear damping model, and then a hybrid automaton model is built to connect the system dynamics in different mechanical coupling relationships.

In quasi-static tension and compression tests of thermoplastics, full-field strain distribution on the gage section of the specimen can be captured using the two-dimensional digital image correlation method. By loading the test specimens made of a talc-filled and impact-modified polypropylene up to tensile failure and large compressive strains, this study has revealed that inhomogeneous deformation within the gage section occurs quite early for both test types. This leads to the challenge of characterizing the mechanical properties - some mechanical properties such as stress-strain relationship and fracture strain could depend on the measured section length and location. To study this problem, the true stress versus true strain curves determined locally in different regions within the gage length are compared.

A new dynamic tire model for estimating the longitudinal/lateral road-tire friction force was derived in this paper. The model was based on the previous Dugoff tire model, in consideration of its drawback that it does not reflect the actual change trend that the tire friction force decreases with the increment of wheel slip ratio when it enters into the nonlinear region. The Dugoff model was modified by fitting a series of tire force data and compared with the commonly used Magic Formula model. This new dynamic friction model is able to capture accurately the transient behavior of the friction force observed during pure longitudinal wheel slip, lateral sideslip and combined slip situation. Simulation has been done under different situations, while the results validate the accuracy of the new tire friction model in predicting tire/road friction force during transient vehicle motion.

Highly autonomous vehicles have drawn the interests of many researchers in recent years. For highly autonomous vehicles, a high-definition (HD) map is crucial since it provides accurate information for autonomous driving. However, due to the possible fast-changing environment, the performance of HD maps will deteriorate over time if timely updates are not ensured. Therefore, this paper studies the updating of lightweight HD maps in closed areas. Firstly, a novel two-layer map model called a lightweight HD map is introduced to support autonomous driving in a flexible and efficient way. Secondly, typical updating of scenarios in closed areas with non-paved roads is abstracted into operations including area border expansion, road addition, and road deletion. Meanwhile, a map updating framework is proposed to address the issue of map updating in closed areas. Finally, an experiment is conducted to demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed map updating approach.

At first, the dynamic electromagnetic characteristics of a pulsed solenoid valve is analyzed by experiments. The fast valve response is obtained by material modifications. Then, the intelligent solenoid driving method is discussed. The new techniques of the “active” PWM and the “d2i/dt2” detection are developed for feedback control of the solenoid holding current and the valve closure timing. Finally, the control and diagnosis method for the valve closure duration is investigated. A sensing mechanism utilizing momentary camshaft speed fluctuations of fuel injection pump is presented, which provides the basis for feedback control and diagnosis of the valve closure duration and diesel fuel injection process.

The driving power system can be combined with lasers, lights, etc., and applied to automobiles to achieve various functions. Under the general trend of the development of intelligent vehicles, people have higher and higher requirements for the accuracy and power of various equipment. However, as power increases, how to ensure the stability of factors such as current is a challenging problem. Therefore, it is extremely important to study and design a high-power drive system in this paper, so as to ensure a stable output of the current. The system is composed of power supply, load, secondary power supply and control chip. The choice of power supply and load is conventional model. The secondary power supply adopts step-down circuit, with synchronous rectifier chip, which can effectively reduce energy consumption, and with temperature protection device, which can ensure the safe and reliable operation of equipment.

A feasible method was developed to reconstruct the three-dimensional flame surface of SI combustion based on 2D images. A double-window constant volume vessel was designed to simultaneously obtain the side and bottom images of the flame. The flame front was reconstructed based on 2D images with a slicing model, in which the flame characteristics were derived by slicing flame contour modeling and flame-piston collision area analysis. The flame irregularity and anisotropy were also analyzed. Two different principles were used to build the slicing model, the ellipse hypothesis modeling and deep learning modeling, in which the ellipse hypothesis modeling was applied to reconstruct the flame in the optical SI engine. And the reconstruction results were analyzed and discussed. The reconstruction results show that part of the wrinkled and folded structure of the flame front in SI engines can be revealed based on the bottom view image.

High speed on-off valves (HSVs) are widely used in advanced hydraulic braking actuators, including regenerative braking systems and active safety systems, which take crucial part in improving the energy efficiency and safety performance of vehicles. As a component involving multiple physical fields, the HSV is affected by the interaction of the fields-fluid, electromagnetic, and mechanical. Since the opening of the HSV is small and the flow speed is high, cavitation and vortex are inevitably brought out so that increase the valve’s noise and instability. However, it is costly and complex to observe the flow status by visual fluid experiments. Hence, in this article a visual multi-physics system simulation model of the HSV is explored, in which the flow field model of the HSV built by computational fluid dynamic (CFD) is co-simulated with the model of hydraulic actuator established by AMESim.

Safety of buses is crucial because of the large proportion of the public transportation sector they constitute. To improve bus safety levels, especially to avoid driver error, which is a key factor in traffic accidents, we designed and implemented an intelligent bus called iBus. A robust system architecture is crucial to iBus. Thus, in this paper, a novel self-driving system architecture with improved robustness, such as to failure of hardware (including sensors and controllers), is proposed. Unlike other self-driving vehicles that operate either in manual driving mode or in self-driving mode, iBus offers a dual-control mode. More specifically, an online hot standby mechanism is incorporated to enhance the reliability of the control system, and a software monitor is implemented to ensure that all software modules function appropriately. The results of real-world road tests conducted to validate the feasibility of the overall system confirm that iBus is reliable and robust.

Injection rate control is considered as an effective way to optimize diesel combustion process, decrease emission and improve fuel economy. There are many injection rate shaping devices, but most of them still suffer from structure complexity and parameter sensitivity which limit their effectiveness and practicality. A new initial injection rate control method in solenoid-controlled diesel injection systems is introduced in this paper. The basic idea of this method is to maintain a small spill passage between plunger chamber and inlet port during initial injection period. The initial injection rate can be regulated by changing the closing timing of the solenoid-controlled spill valve. This method has the advantages of simple construction, flexible adjustment and stable performance. Computer aided analysis and design based on a simulation program of the system is conducted to compare and select the sizes of the small spill passage according to their effect on injection characteristics.

Polyoxymethylene dimethyl ethers (PODEn) have high cetane number, high oxygen content and high volatility, therefore can be added to gasoline to optimize the performance and soot emission of Gasoline Compression Ignition (GCI) combustion. High speed imaging was used to investigate the spray and combustion process of gasoline/PODEn blends (PODEn volume fraction 0%-30%) under various ambient conditions and injection strategies in a constant volume vessel. Results showed that with an increase of PODEn proportion from 10% to 30%, liquid-phase penetration of the spray increased slightly, ignition delay decreased from 3.8 ms to 2.0 ms and flame lift off length decreased 29.4%, causing a significant increase of the flame luminance. For blends with 20% PODEn, when ambient temperature decreased from 893 K to 823 K, the ignition delay increased 1.3 ms and the flame luminance got lower.

An experiment was carried out to investigate the effect of single and double-deck pre-chamber on the combustion characteristics of premixed CH4/air in a constant volume vessel using schlieren method. A special design was proposed for the visualization of the pre-chamber. Combustion with different initial temperatures (300 K, 400 K, 500 K) were observed at stoichiometric ratio to lean-burn limit. Although single-deck pre-chamber has advantages over double-deck pre-chamber in both initial flame development duration and main combustion duration, the latter could extend the lean-burn limit by up to 0.3 and promote the stability of ignition. It is also found that extensive distribution of active species in main chamber before ignition can accelerate speed of flame propagation enormously.