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Polypropylene is typically reinforced with commodities that are non renewable and require a great deal of energy to produce. The marketplace needs a reinforcement that can offer beneficial physical properties, such as impact, while being attained from a renewable green source. Compounding flax fiber, which is traditionally an agricultural waste product burned by farmers, with polypropylene yields physical properties similar to traditional glass filled polypropylene. This combination should lead to cost saving opportunities while not sacrificing part performance. Presenter James Preston, Rhetech Inc.

Abstract Recently, electric heavy-duty tractor-trailers (EHDTTs) have assumed significance as they present an immediate solution to decarbonize the transportation sector. Hence, to illustrate the economic viability of electrifying the freight industry, a detailed numerical model to estimate the battery capacity for an EHDTT is proposed for a route between Washington, DC, to Knoxville, TN. This model incorporates the effects of the terrain, climate, vehicular forces, auxiliary loads, and payload in order to select the appropriate motor and optimize the battery capacity. Additionally, current and near-future battery chemistries are simulated in the model. Along with equations describing vehicular forces based on Newton’s second law of motion, the model utilizes the Hausmann and Depcik correlation to estimate the losses caused by the capacity offset of the batteries. Here, a Newton-Raphson iterative scheme determines the minimum battery capacity for the required state of charge.

Abstract The paper presents a complete description of the design and manufacturing of a Carbon Fiber/epoxy mold with an embedded Carbon Fiber resistor heater, and the mold performances in terms of its surface temperature distribution and thermal deformations resulting from the heating. The mold was designed for manufacturing aileron skins from Vacuum Bag Only prepreg cured at 135°C. The glass transition temperature of the used resin-hardener system was about 175°C. To ensure homogenous temperature of the mold working surface in the course of curing, the Carbon Fiber heater was embedded in a layer of a highly heat-conductive cristobalite/epoxy composite, forming the core of the mold shell. Because the cristobalite/epoxy composite displayed much higher thermal expansion than CF/epoxy did, thermal stresses could arise due to this discrepancy in the course of heating.

With the growing environmental concerns, biodegradable materials are gaining more importance. Biocomposites which are made from a combination of biological fiber such as flax and hemp together with plastics are finding a good number of applications in day to day life. Flax has good physical and mechanical properties that can be utilized in areas like construction, biomedical & bioproducts and electronics applications. The quality of fiber depends upon various unit operations used in the processing. Drying is one of the most important unit operations which significantly affect the quality of the fiber. The method of drying for removal of moisture from the fiber significantly affects the drying time and quality. In the present study the raw flax fiber was subjected to drying before and after chemical treatment. The physical properties such as; tensile strength, color and structural changes were measured for raw and chemically treated flax fibers.

The research on using natural fibres as the reinforcement in plastic composites has increased dramatically in the last few years. Flax fibres are renewable resources with low specific mass, reduced energy consumption, and relatively low in cost. These advantages make flax fibres recognized as a potential replacement for glass fibres in composites. Among plastic, polyethylene was concluded to be a suitable material used as matrix in natural fibre reinforced biocomposites. However there are few studies on this area so far. In this paper, the processing method of flax fibre-reinforced polyethylene biocomposites is introduced. Flax fibre polyethylene biocomposite consists of flax fibre as the reinforcing component and high density polyethylene as the matrix. Acrylic acid pre-treatment was applied to flax fibre to improve the bonding between fibre and polyethylene.

In a current competitive automotive market, weight and cost optimization is the need of an hour. Therefore it is important to explore use of alternative material which has less weight, low manufacturing cost and better strength. This paper presents methodology to achieve cost & weight reduction through use of Austempered Ductile Iron (ADI) instead of alloy forging. ADI casting has lower density, physical properties at par with alloy forgings and lower manufacturing cost. Pivot arm is the one of the critical component of twin axle steering system which transfers the hydraulic torque from steering gearbox to second forward axle via linkage system. In order to design lightweight pivot arm, existing chromium alloy steel material is replaced with the Austempered ductile iron (ADI). Pivot arm is designed and validated digitally as well as bench test and results are found to be meeting cost and weight targets.

Engine mounts are an integral part of the vehicle that helps in reducing the vibrations generated from the engine. Engine mounts require a simple yet complicated amalgamation of two very different materials, steel and rubber. Proper adhesion between the two is required to prevent any part failure. Therefore, it becomes important that a comprehensive study is done to understand the mating phenomenon of both. A good linking between rubber and metal substrate is governed by surface pretreatment. Various methodologies such as mechanical and chemical are adopted for the same. This paper aims to present a comparative study as to which surface pretreatment has an edge over other techniques in terms of separation force required to break the bonding between the two parts. The study also presents a cost comparison between the techniques so that the best possible technique can be put to use in the commercial vehicle industry.

1 One issue raised by the use of austenitic stainless steels in commercial vehicles is the increase in material costs. To reduce those material costs, a nitric acid electropolishing treatment was applied to SUS436L (18 Cr - 1.5 Mo - 0.4 Nb) and corrosion tests were conducted to compare its corrosion resistance to that of SUS316L(16 Cr - 12 Ni - 2 Mo). Compared to SUS316L, SUS436L subjected to nitric acid electropolishing indicated superior corrosion resistance. In addition, XPS and TEM analyses showed that while the SUS436L passivation film layer contained approximately twice as much chromium, its thickness was also generally reduced by approximately half, to 2 nm. These results suggest that electropolishing with nitric acid, which is highly oxidative, formed a fine passivation film.

Cast iron materials are used as materials for cylinder heads for heavy duty internal combustion engines. These components must withstand severe cyclic mechanical and thermal loads throughout their service life. While high-cycle fatigue (HCF) is dominant for the material in the water jacket region, the combination of thermal transients with mechanical load cycles results in thermomechanical fatigue (TMF) of the material in the fire deck region, even including superimposed TMF and HCF loads. Increasing the efficiency of the engines directly leads to increasing combustion pressure and temperature and, thus, lower safety margins for the currently used cast iron materials or alternatively the need for superior cast iron materials. In this paper (Part I), the TMF properties of the lamellar graphite cast iron GJL250 and the vermicular graphite cast iron GJV450 are characterized in uniaxial tests and a mechanism-based model for TMF life prediction is developed for both materials.

A complete thermomechanical fatigue (TMF) life prediction methodology is developed for predicting the TMF life of cast iron cylinder heads for efficient heavy duty internal combustion engines. The methodology uses transient temperature fields as thermal loads for the non-linear structural finite-element analysis (FEA). To obtain reliable stress and strain histories in the FEA for cast iron materials, a time and temperature dependent plasticity model which accounts for viscous effects, non-linear kinematic hardening and tension-compression asymmetry is required. For this purpose a unified elasto-viscoplastic Chaboche model coupled with damage is developed and implemented as a user material model (USERMAT) in the general purpose FEA program ANSYS. In addition, the mechanism-based DTMF model for TMF life prediction developed in Part I of the paper is extended to three-dimensional stress states under transient non-proportional loading conditions.

The cyclic material behavior is investigated, by strain-controlled testing, of 8 mm thick sheet metal specimens and butt joints, manufactured by manual gas metal arc welding (GMAW). The materials used in this investigation are the high-strength structural steels S960QL, S960M and S1100QL. Trilinear strain-life curves and cyclic stress-strain curves have been derived for the base material and the as-welded state of each steel grade. Due to the cyclic softening in combination with a high load level at the initial load cycle, the cyclic stress-strain curve cannot be applied directly for a fatigue assessment of welded structures. Therefore, the transient effects have been analyzed in order to describe the time-variant material behavior in a more detailed manner. This should be the basis for the enhancement of the fatigue life estimation.

The lifting and excavating industry are not as advanced as automotive in the use of modern CAE tools in the early stages of design and development of heavy machinery. There is still a lack of confidence in the integrity of the results from FE simulations and optimisation and this becomes a barrier to the adoption of virtual prototyping for vehicle verification. R&D of Tata Steel has performed tests on two forklift truck overhead guards supplied by a major manufacturer. Based on the international standard for Falling Object Protective Structures (FOPS) as an initial input to the method of testing, the main aim of this study was to generate as much test data as possible to correlate the Finite Element (FE) simulations of two tests - a static and a dynamic test. The static test was developed to deform the overhead guard plastically in a slow controlled manner, so it would be easier to correlate the measured data to FE simulation.

To reduce heat transfer between hot gas and cavity wall, thin Zirconia (ZrO2) layer (0.5mm) on the cavity surface of a forged steel piston was firstly formed by thermal spray coating aiming higher surface temperature swing precisely synchronized with flame temperature near the wall resulting in the reduction of temperature difference. However, no apparent difference in the heat loss was analyzed. To find out the reason why the heat loss was not so improved, direct observation of flame impingement to the cavity wall was carried out with the top view visualization technique, for which one of the exhaust valves was modified to a sapphire window. Local flame behavior very close to the wall was compared by macrophotography. Numerical analysis by utilizing a three-dimensional simulation was also carried out to investigate the effect of several parameters on the heat transfer coefficient.

Diesel engine manufacturers strive towards further efficiency improvements. Thus, reducing in-cylinder heat losses is becoming increasingly important. Understanding how location, thermal insulation, and engine operating conditions affect the heat transfer to the combustion chamber walls is fundamental for the future reduction of in-cylinder heat losses. This study investigates the effect of a 1mm-thick plasma-sprayed yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) coating on a piston. Such a coated piston and a similar steel piston are compared to each other based on experimental data for the heat release, the heat transfer rate to the oil in the piston cooling gallery, the local instantaneous surface temperature, and the local instantaneous surface heat flux. The surface temperature was measured for different crank angle positions using phosphor thermometry.

Drain and Fill plugs used on engines, transmissions, transfer cases and front and rear drive axles for class 5 – 8 vehicles.

Drain and Fill plugs used on engines, transmissions, transfer cases and front and rear drive axles for class 5 – 8 vehicles.

A cyclically pressurized hydraulic component made of compacted graphite iron (CGI) is examined in fatigue design. This CGI component has a notch, formed at the intersection of two drilling channels. This notch causes the stress to be locally elevated and may potentially serve as a fatigue initiation site. Traditional fatigue design approaches calculate the maximum stress/strain range acting at the notch and apply the Neuber correction when calculating fatigue life. It is, however, found that the fatigue life is dramatically underestimated by this method. This prompts the use of the critical distance method because the stresses are concentrated in a relatively small volume. When using the critical distance method, the fatigue life is correctly predicted. Finally, a fracture mechanics model of the crack check the reasonableness of the critical distance method results.

This project's objective was the development of a test procedure to evaluate the impact of the refrigerated van box on the fuel consumption of the refrigeration unit. The scope of the project included a review of the test procedures, the development of a testing methodology for measuring the fuel consumption of the refrigeration unit on a specific duty cycle, and testing with a view to validating the methodology. Road and track tests are subject to variations in conditions, and controlling or accounting for these variables as much as possible is an important part of ensuring accurate results. However, when testing a refrigerated van on the track or on the road, it is very difficult to eliminate variable external influences and to isolate the particular influence of the refrigerated van on the refrigeration unit's fuel consumption. For this reason, tests were conducted in an environmental chamber in controlled temperature and humidity conditions.

A full-scale burn test of a 1992 compact pick-up truck was conducted to evaluate how temperature distributions changed over time, the manner in which the fire spread, and how burn patterns produced during the fire correlated with important characteristics of the fire such as the area of origin. After the fire was initiated on the lower portion of the dashboard of the test vehicle, it spread locally to nearby dashboard material and, at the same time, developed a strong temperature gradient from the ceiling to the floor. Once the ceiling temperature reached about 600°C, the rate of fire spread increased and, within 1 minute, the passenger compartment was fully involved. Initiation of the engine compartment fire, which occurred about 4 minutes after the passenger compartment was fully involved, was consistent with fire spread through the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) duct that passed through the passenger's side of the bulkhead.

Compacted Graphite Iron (CGI) has been recognized for years as a unique material possessing a fortunate combination of properties intermediate between gray iron and ductile iron. This material, for reasons outlined in this paper, is ideal for cylinder blocks, heads and other cast iron components for diesel engines. It makes possible casting weight savings of up to 1/3 and/or increased power output. This paper will outline reasons why this is now possible, whereas it has seldom been applied in volume production heretofore. Physical and mechanical properties of CGI, which provide the opportunity for weight reduction and increased power, are discussed. Currently, most diesel engine cylinder blocks, heads, liners and many other castings are produced from gray iron, which requires relatively heavy sections to provide the strength, stiffness and durability necessary for commercial application.