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The Air Induction system (AIS) must provide sufficient and clean air to the engine for its desired combustion thus enhancing engine performance. The critical functions which effect the performance are pressure restriction and acoustic performance. The ideal design of AIS effectively reduces the engine noise heard at snorkel, which contributes to the cabin noise. Good acoustic expertise and several tests are required to optimize the design of AIS. Multiple resonators are commonly used in passenger cars to attenuate the noise. This paper emphasize on One Dimensional (1D) approach to optimize the resonators in the AIS to meet the functional requirements. In AIS, the flow happens from the snorkel to the engine air intake whereas the engine noise propagates in the opposite direction. The unsteady mass flow through the intake valves causes pressure fluctuations in the intake manifold and these propagate to intake orifice and are radiated as noise which is heard at snorkel.

Noise pollution is a major concern for global automotive industries which propels engineers to evolve new methods to meet passenger comfort and regulatory requirements. The main purpose of an exhaust system in an automotive vehicle is to allow the passage of non-hazardous gases to the atmosphere and reduce the noise generated due to the engine pulsations. The objective of this paper is to propose a Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) approach followed to optimize the muffler for better acoustic performance without compromising on back pressure. Conventionally, muffler design has been an iterative process. It involves repetitive testing to arrive at an optimum design. Muffler has to be designed for better acoustics performance and reduced back pressure which complicates the design process even more.

An automobile door is a complex module, which consists of various fixed and movable subassemblies and components. Parameters such as safety, vehicle dynamics, aesthetic and strength are critical while designing the door assembly. Apart from the above, the design of door trim should minimize BSR (buzz squeak and rattle) at vehicle running conditions. Stiffness is one of the key engineering requirements which if not optimized will result in higher BSR levels and failure of the door trim components. In this study, more importance is given to optimize the stiffness of door trim. As per DVP (design verification and planning) standards of the OEMs, the range of deflection for the plastic trim parts is defined considering the conditions, comfort level and location of use. If stiffness is higher than the requirement, the door trim plastic parts are harder and will violate the quality and safety norms. If it is lower, then trim parts will not meet the functional requirements and safety norms.

The thermal comfort for the passenger inside the cabin is maintained by the HVAC system. To ensure a comfort for the 2nd row passengers in the cabin, it is very essential to design an efficient HVAC and rear console duct system which can deliver sufficient airflow with less pressure drop. The primary focus of the study is to assess existing airflow of the center console duct using CFD and propose improvement in its duct shape to meet the passenger comfort sitting in the rear seat. In this study, the vehicle cabin model, HVAC system and duct design was modeled using the design software UG. To analyze and estimate the behavior of the air flow of the system, a steady state simulation was performed using STAR CCM CFD software. The performance of the console duct system is judged by parameters like distribution of airflow, velocity at console duct outlet, pressure drop through the duct and the uniformity of the air flow at the passenger locations.

In today’s automotive industry, the A/C (Air-conditioning) system is emerging into a high level of technological growth to provide quick cooling, warm up and maintaining the air quality of the cabin during all-weather conditions. In HVAC system, TXV plays vital role by separating high side to low side of vapor compression refrigeration system. It also regulates the amount of refrigerant flow to the evaporator based on A/C system load. The HVAC system bench laboratory conducts the test at different system load conditions to evaluate the outputs from tests during initial development stage to select the right TXV in terms of capacity and Superheat set point for a given system. This process is critical in HVAC developmental activity, since mule cars will be equipped with selected TXV for initial assessment of the system performance.

In an Automotive air conditioning system, the air flow distribution in the cabin from the HVAC (Heating, ventilation and air conditioning), ducts and outlets is evaluated by the velocity achieved at driver and passenger mannequin aim points. Multiple simulation iterations are being carried out before finalizing the design of HVAC panel duct and outlets until the target velocity is achieved. In this paper, a parametric modeling of the HVAC outlet is done which includes primary and secondary vane creation using CATIA. Java macro files are created for simulation runs in STAR CCM+. ISIGHT is used as an interface tool between CATIA and STARCCM+. The vane limits of outlet and the target velocity to be achieved at mannequin aim points are defined as the boundary conditions for the analysis. Based on the optimization technique and the number of iterations defined in ISIGHT, the vane angle model gets updated automatically in CATIA followed by the simulation runs in STARCCM+.

The performance of the Transmission Oil Cooler (TOC) is influenced significantly by the TOC plumbing lines which transmit the oil from transmission system to the oil cooler and back. Designing the optimum TOC plumbing line with lesser pressure drop is the need of the hour considering the complex nature of the vehicle packaging. Reducing the pressure drop increases the oil flow rate through the transmission which results in optimum performance. Improved transmission efficiency in turn shall improve the engine efficiency and performance. The improvements obtained from increased transmission and engine efficiency shall result in an overall increase in vehicle fuel economy. Optimization solutions are required in the early product development cycle where the components are not readily available and/or are prohibitively expensive to do testing. In such scenarios, one-dimensional (1D) simulations shall be employed to compute the pressure drop for faster and economical solutions.

In an automotive air-conditioning (AC) system, the amount of work done by the compressor is also influenced by the suction line which meters the refrigerant flow. Optimizing the AC suction line routing has thus become an important challenge and the plumbing designers are required to come up with innovative packaging solutions. These solutions are required in the early design stages when prototypes are not yet appropriate. In such scenarios, one-dimensional (1D) simulations shall be employed to compute the pressure drop for faster and economical solution. In this paper, an approach of creating a modeling tool for suction line pressure drop prediction is discussed. Using DFSS approach L12 design iterations are created and simulations are carried out using 1D AMESim software. Prototypes are manufactured and tested on HVAC bench calorimeter. AC suction line pressure drop predicted using the 1D modeling co-related well with the test data and the error is less than 5%.