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The hydraulic retarder is the most stabilized auxiliary braking system [1-2] of heavy-duty vehicles. When the hydraulic retarder is working during auxiliary braking, all of the braking energy is transferred into the thermal energy of the transmission medium of the working wheel. Theoretically, the residual heat-sinking capability of the engine could be used to cool down the transmission medium of the hydraulic retarder, in order to ensure the proper functioning of the hydraulic retarder. Never the less, the hydraulic retarder is always placed at the tailing head of the gearbox, far from the engine, long cooling circuits, which increases the risky leakage risk of the transmission medium. What's more, the development trend of heavy load and high speed vehicle directs the significant increase in the thermal load of the hydraulic retarder, which even higher than the engine power.

The head-up display system can overlay the real object with the projected image to assist the driver in driving. However, when road conditions are bad, the continuous vibration of the vehicle will cause the vehicle to tilt and shift. At this time, the projected image and the real object do not overlap well. This paper presents a correction algorithm for a head-up display system. The algorithm corrects the position of the projected image by inputting the tilt state of the vehicle. In this paper, the coordinate axis with the driver's eye as the origin is first established. Then the tilt state of the vehicle is decomposed into the rotation angle in three directions and the displacement in the vertical direction. Finally, the position of the projected image is corrected by inputting the tilt state of the vehicle so that the projected image can remain on the real object at all times. The simulation model is established in Unity3D.

In heavy truck driveline system, the components often include clutch, transmission, transfer case, drive shaft, etc. A fluid torque converter could be equipped in front of the transmission in order to improve the starting performance. Meanwhile, a hydraulic retarder could be introduced for auxiliary braking so as to adapt the truck to the brake on long downgrade in mountainous regions. Thus, the driveline heat load would have a notable increase. Both the fluid torque converter and the hydraulic retarder would produce a large quantity of heat, and a special cooling system is needed for adjusting the transmission fluid temperature with which the gains are potentially very large [1]. The heat load for driveline is often calculated based on empirical formula. For the heavy truck, however, if the heat value is underestimated, driveline components would suffer from overheated damage.

While the car ownership increasing all over the world, the unutilized thermal energy in automobile exhaust system is gradually being realized and valued by researchers around the world for better driving energy efficiency. For the unexpected urban traffic, the frequent start and stop processes as well as the acceleration and deceleration lead to the temperature fluctuation of the exhaust gas, which means the unstable hot-end temperature of the thermoelectric module generator (TEG). By arranging the heat conduction oil circulation at the hot end, the hot-end temperature’s fluctuation of the TEG can be effectively reduced, at the expense of larger system size and additional energy supply for the circulation. This research improves the TEG hot-end temperature stability by installing solid heat capacity material(SHCM) to the area between the outer wall of the exhaust pipe and the TEG, which has the merits of simple structure, none energy consumption and light weight.

The closed cabin temperature is anticipated to be cooled down when it is a bit hot inside the driving car. The traditional air-condition lowers the cabin temperature by frequently switching the status of the compressor, which increases the engine’s parasitic power and shortens the compressor’s service-life. The semiconductor auxiliary cooling system with the properties of no moving parts, high control precision and quick response has the potential to assist the on-board air-condition in modulating the cabin temperature with relative small ranges. Little temperature differences between the cabin and the outside environment means that the system energy consumption to ensure the occupant comfort is relatively low and the inefficiency could be made up by the renewable energy source.

Vehicle hydraulic retarders are applied in heavy-duty trucks and buses as an auxiliary braking device. In traditional cooling systems of hydraulic retarders, the working fluid is introduced into the heat exchanger to transfer heat to the cooling liquid in circulation, whose heat is then dissipated by the engine cooling system. This prevents the waste heat of the working fluid from being used effectively. In hydraulic retarder cooling system based on the Organic Rankine Cycle, the organic working fluid first transfers heat with the hydraulic retarder working fluid in Rankine cycle, and then outputs power through expansion machine. It can both reduce heat load of the engine cooling system, and enhance thermal stability of the hydraulic retarder while recovering and utilizing braking energy. First of all, according to the target vehicle model, hydraulic retarder cooling system model based on Rankine cycle is established.

With the continuous increasing requirements of commercial vehicle weight and speed on highway transportation, conventional friction brake is difficult to meet the braking performance. To ensure the driving safety of the vehicle in the hilly region, the eddy current retarder (ECR) has been widely used due to its fast response, lower prices and convenient installation. ECR brakes the vehicle through the electromagnetic force generated by the current, and converted vehicle mechanical energy into heat through magnetic field. Air cooling structure is often used in the traditional ECR and cooling performance is limited, which causes low braking torque, thermal recession, and low reliability and so on. The water jacket has been equipped outside the eddy current region in this study, and the electric ECR is cooled through the water circulating in the circuit, which prolongs its working time.

In order to obtain the comprehensive evaluation of thermal management system for the retarder, the complete driveline thermal management model is built. The characteristic parameters for the thermal management system are determined and the hydromechanical characteristics for the retarder are fixed by the rig test. On the basis of the same whole vehicle driving cycle, comparing to the traditional mechanical-drive system, the independent-drive system makes the working temperature of the heat source more stable. Meanwhile the parasitic power caused by the radiator fan is decreased markedly on the condition that the heat reject requirement of the heat source is satisfied.

In the Rankine cycle, the pressure differential generated by the phase change of the working fluid produces turbine output power, which enables the recovery of waste heat from the internal combustion engine. The heat transfer ability of the evaporator is the key factor that determines the quality of turbine's mechanical work. In this paper, the performance of the evaporator with two-phase zone and preheated zone is studied. After obtaining the thermal characteristics of diesel engine exhaust from the experimental data, the mathematical model of the evaporator is built according to the specific working conditions of ORC and geometrical parameters of the evaporator. Three typical engine operating conditions are used to estimate the heat transfer characteristics of the evaporator. The result shows that, in the evaporator, the heat transfer coefficient of the Rankine working fluid is much greater than the exhaust side of the engine.

The retarder is an important auxiliary braking device of heavy vehicles. However, the stirring air in the working wheels of the idle retarder would cause the transmission loss when the vehicle is traveling in non-braking state [1]. For certain driving conditions, the air-friction characteristics in the working wheels of the idle retarder are analyzed first. Then the relationship between the air density and the torque produced by stirring air is studied. The thermal characteristics of the retarder in the idle condition are also concerned according to the energy flow and heat transfer. Meanwhile, the increased transmission loss caused by the rising temperature of the stirring air and its inference on the transmission stability are also studied. Finally, the optimal range of air vacuum degrees in the working wheel of the idle retarder is determined and the evaluations for the air-friction and the heat transfer characteristics are given for the vacuum degrees.

With the improvement of occupants’ awareness on the driving safety, hydraulic retarder applications increase quickly. The traditional hydraulic retarder, on the one hand, exhausts the waste heat of transmission oil by the engine cooling system; on the other hand, the engine power should be consumed to drive the water pump and the engine cooling fan for maintaining the normal operation of the auxiliary braking system. In this study, the Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) instead of the traditional hydraulic retarder water-cooling system is applied to achieve the effective temperature control of the hydraulic retarder, while the waste heat of transmission oil could be recovered for saving vehicle energy consumption. The ORC fluid selection needs comprehensive consideration for the net power of the ORC and the optimal temperature range of the retarder transmission oil at both the inlet and outlet end, which is the key issue to ensure the stability and efficiency of the ORC system performance.

Vehicle exhaust waste-heat recovery with thermoelectric power generators can improve energy efficiency, as well as vehicle fuel economy. In the conventional structure, the hot-end of thermoelectric module is directly connected with the outer wall of the exhaust pipe, while the cold-end is connected with the water pipe’s outer wall of the vehicle engine cooling cycle. However, the variety of vehicle engine operating conditions leads to the instability of the hot-end temperature, which will reduce the generating efficiency of the thermoelectric modules and also shorten its service life. This research is on the basis of constructing a heat transfer oil circulation, and to study the action principles and implementation methods of it.

The hydraulic retarder is an auxiliary braking device used in heavy duty vehicle. It generates braking forceby liquid damping effect and makes inertial energy into thermal energy of the transmission medium when the vehicleis in thedownhill. The traditional thermal management system of the hydraulic retarder dissipates the heat of transmission medium out of the vehicle directly, which causes a big waste of energy, meanwhilethe thermal management system components need to consume engine power. This study applies organic Rankine cycle (ORC)cooling system to meet the high power cooling requirements of the hydraulic retarder and recover waste heat energy from the transmission medium at the same time and then supply energy to the thermal management system, which could save the parasitic power of the engine and improve the comprehensive energy utilization ratio of the vehicle.