Search Results

A new approach to achieve better customer perception of overall vehicle quietness is the sound balance improvement of vehicle interior sound during driving. Interior sound is classified into 3 primary sound source shares such as engine sound relative to revolution speed, tire road noise and wind noise relative to vehicle speed. Each interior sound shares are classified using the synchronous time-domain averaging method. The sound related to revolution order of engine and auxiliaries is considered as engine sound share, tire road noise and wind noise shares are extracted by multiple coherent output power analysis. Sound balance analysis focuses on improving the relative difference in interior sound share level between the 3 primary sound sources. Virtual sound simulator which is able to represent various driving conditions and able to adjust imaginary sound share is built for several vehicles in same compact segment.

The series-parallel hybrid electric vehicle(HEV), which employs a planetary gear set to combine one internal combustion engine(ICE) and two electric motors(EMs), can take advantages of both series and parallel hybrid system. The efficient powertrain operating point of the system can be obtained by the instantaneous optimization of equivalent fuel consumption. However, heavy computational requirements and variable constraints of the optimization process make it difficult to build real-time control strategy. To overcome the difficulty, this study suggests the control strategy which divides the optimization process into 2 stages. In the first stage, a target of charge/discharge power is determined based on equivalent fuel consumption, then in the second stage, an engine operating point is determined taking power transfer efficiency into account.

In order to investigate the characteristics of top ring groove deposit formation in gasoline and diesel engine, engine test and simulation test were performed. From component analysis of used oils sampled from actual running engines, oxidation and nitration for gasoline engine and soot content for diesel engine were selected as main parameters for evaluating oil degradation. In gasoline engine, deposit formation increases linearly with oxidation and nitration, and especially, oil oxidation is a dominant factor on the deposit formation rather than nitration. And, deposit formation increases gradually in low temperature ranges below 260°C even if oils are highly oxidized, but it increases rapidly if piston top ring groove temperature is above 260°C. In diesel engine, deposit formation is highly related to soot content in lubricating oils.

In this paper, a design procedure for the optimized light weight front cross member, which is a sub frame of the car chassis, without sacrificing basic functional requirements is presented. As the first step, optimal structural integrity was calculated and extracted using a CAE technique with the available volume constraint of the package layout. Quantitative design loads for the cross member was achieved by measurement. Dynamic load analysis using ADAMS was also performed to determine the loads. Later, these calculated loads were applied to the FEM stress analysis of the cross member. Furthermore, durability analysis was also performed using load profile database measured from ‘Hyundai Motor Co. Proving Ground’. Four constant amplitude durability tests and two static tests were performed on the cross member prototypes to confirm design reliability.

Supervisory control strategy of a hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) provides target powers and operating points of an internal combustion engine and an electric motor. To promise efficient driving of the HEV, it is needed to find the proper values of control parameters which are used in the strategy. However, it is very difficult to find the optimal values of the parameters by doing experimental tests, since there are plural parameters which have dependent relationship between each other. Furthermore variation of the test results makes it difficult to extract the effect of a specific parameter change. In this study, a model based parameter optimization method is introduced. A vehicle simulation model having the most of dynamics related to fuel consumption was developed and validated with various experimental data from real vehicles. And then, the supervisory control logic including the control parameters was connected to the vehicle model.

Low-pressure molding compound (LPMC) is a new kind of composite material which can be used for automotive body panels. LPMC has similar mechanical properties compared to conventional sheet molding compound (SMC) but excellent moldability due to the different thickening system. In this paper, we prepared LPMC hood prototype for a passenger car using a low-cost tooling. Inner panel and outer panel were made of general-density- and low-density-grade LPMC, respectively, in order to maximize weight reduction maintaining surface quality. Physical properties containing tensile strength, flexural modulus, notched Izod impact strength of those samples were investigated. In addition, CAE simulation was also done for strength analysis of the hood assembly.

Invisible Passenger-side Airbag (IPAB) door system must be designed with a weakened area such that the airbag will break through the Instrument Panel (IP) in the intended manner, with no flying debris at any temperature. At the same time, there must be no cracking or sharp edges at the head impact test (ECE 21.01). Needless to say, Head impact test must keep pace with the deployment test. In this paper, we suggested soft airbag door system that is integrally molded with a hard instrument panel by using Two-shot molding. First of all, we set up the design parameters of IPAB door for the optimal deployment and head impact performance by CAE analysis. And then we optimized the open-close time at each gate of the mold so that the soft and hard material could be integrally molded with the intended boundary. We could make the boundary of two materials more constant by controlling the open-close time of each gate with resin temperature sensor.

Due to technological evolutions and social demands, motor vehicles are requested to be enhanced in terms of occupant safety and comfort. As a result, many countries are reinforcing crash regulations and new car assessment programs. Automotive seats are essential parts for providing passenger safety and comfort and have become most important. Many automotive companies concentrate on optimization of the seat structure. This paper presents an overview of the recent evolution of the seat structures and gives a development procedure covering seat frame design, optimization and validation. Through the study, a competitive frame design is drawn as a case result and a design guideline and a standard development procedure is established

Urea-SCR system consisted of combined deNOx catalysts with wide range of temperature window, injector, sensor and injection controller. Synthetic gas activity test and NOx conversion efficiency test on the engine bench were carried out to evaluate and improve the performance of this system. To better suit the application of the urea-SCR system without engine modification, temperature of catalyst and engine RPM were used as input data to control amounts of urea aqueous solution that reacts with NOx. We concentrated on designing types of deNOx catalysts and controlling amounts of urea solution under different driving conditions to achieve higher NOx reduction and wider temperature window. Designed urea-SCR system showed substantial NOx reduction performance and relatively wide temperature window under different driving conditions.

Hard panel types of invisible passenger-side airbag (IPAB) door system must be designed with a weakened area such that the airbag will deploy through the Instrument Panel (IP) in the intended manner, with no flying debris at any required operating temperature. At the same time, there must be no cracking or sharp edges in the head impact test (ECE 21.01). If the advanced-airbag with the big difference between high and low deployment pressure ranges are applied to hard panel types of IPAB door system, it becomes more difficult to optimize the tearseam strength for satisfying deployment and head impact performance simultaneously. We introduced the ‘Operating Window’ idea from quality engineering to design the hard panel types of IPAB door applied to the advanced-airbag for optimal deployment and head impact performance. To accurately predict impact performance, it is important to characterize the strain rate.

As CO2 emissions from vehicles is gaining a global attention the low fuel consuming power-train is in much greater demand than before. Some alternatives are suggested but the HSDI diesel engine would be the most realistic solution. Vehicle simulation shows that low fuel consuming car can be realized by applying 1∼1.2L HSDI diesel engine in vehicles weighing about 750kg. While the direct injection diesel engine has been researched for a long time enhancement of mixing between air and fuel in a limited space makes it challenging area to develop a small swept volume HSDI diesel engine. We are investigating small HSDI diesel engine combustion technologies as an effort to realize low fuel consuming vehicle. Our main objective in this study is to have a better understanding of the combustion related parameters from such a small size HSDI diesel engine in order to improve engine performance.

Emission of carbon dioxide from mobile sources seriously concerned to solve greenhouse effect and high price of gasoline in some countries have resulted in the development of lean-burn concept engine. In spite of many studies on the lean deNOx catalyst, we have no clear solution to obtain high fuel economy and high efficiency of NOx conversion in lean-burn application. This paper describes applicability and problems of NOx adsorber system to partial lean-burn vehicle, the development of three-way catalyst with improvement of washcoat technology based on three-way catalyst used for gasoline application, and comparison test results of evaluations is synthesized gas activity test, Federal Test Procedure (FTP) test, etc. This study shows improved three-way catalysts in partial lean- burn vehicle have max. 89% of NOx conversion in FTP without adding rich spike and regeneration functions to engine management system.

This study suggests new types of catalysts that show low hydrogen sulfide emission without scavenger such as NiO. Hydrogen sulfide can be reduced by changing the physicochemical properties of washcoat components. Synthesized gas activity tests were performed to investigate the effect of modified washcoat on hydrogen sulfide formation and catalytic activity. BET surface area tests, X- ray diffraction tests, and gas chromatography tests were also carried out to examine the characteristics of catalysts. Preparation methods for catalysts were focused on minimizing the adsorption of sulfur species on catalysts. The first approach is heat treatment of cerium oxide to reduce adsorption sites for sulfur compounds. But this leads to deterioration of CO and NOx conversion efficiencies. The second one is adding new types of promoters that increase thermal durability and dynamic oxygen storing function of cerium oxide.

The new concept oxidation for diesel engine has been developed. It has been designed to use under circumstances of the "dry condition" of exhausted emission, which indicates low soluble organics and high dry soot concentration under high exhaust gas temperature. For the reliability and performance of catalysts in dry condition, several design concepts were established. First of all, extremely low sulfate formation on catalyst at high temperature conditions, and an improved soluble organic burning characteristics was required. A minimization of deposition of the particulate component, especially sulfate, was obtained from the adjustment of washcoat loading and material property. Six different types of catalysts have been prepared and tested in a laboratory. Diesel vehicle test showed the possibility that soluble organic could be removed mostly with minimal sulfate formation.

Recently weight reduction is increasingly needed in automotive industry to improve fuel efficiency and to meet a CO2 emission requirement. In this paper, we prepared composite body panels for the lightweight vehicle based on a small passenger car. Fender, roof, door, side outer panel, and tailgate are made from hand layup using a glass/carbon hybrid reinforcement. Hood is made from low pressure sheet molding compound (SMC) to investigate feasibility of mass production. Both hand layup and low pressure SMC materials are newly developed and their physical properties are examined. CAE simulation was done for strength analysis and optimization of thickness for the body panels.

Conventional steering system has a mechanical connection between the driver and the front tires of the vehicle, but in steer-by-wire system, there is no such a connection. Instead, actuators, positioned in the vehicle's front corners receive input from the control module and turn the front wheels accordingly. In steer-by-wire system, steering wheel is an important part that not only transfers driver's steering input to the controller but also provides a road feedback feeling to the driver's hand. Thus the reactive torque actuator, providing road feedback, plays an important role in steer-by-wire system. In conventional steer-by-wire-system, a motor was used as a reactive torque actuator. But using motor has some disadvantages such as an oscillatory feeling, and improper and potentially dangerous acceleration of the steering wheel by the motor when driver's hands are released from steering wheel abruptly.

Hands-free stability, one of the handling characteristics of a vehicle, is a stability criterion evaluated in case of a driver's steering wheel release after a certain steering input during driving. During the development process, a hands-free-unstable vehicle needs many steering and suspension parts to be repeatedly tested to improve the performance. In this paper, CAE methods are proposed to investigate easily the influence of the steering and suspension design parameters on the hands-free stability. And the results of CAE methods were compared with the prototype vehicle test to verify the validity of the methods.

Voice Recognition (VR) systems have become an integral part of the infotainment systems in the current automotive industry. However, its recognition rate is impacted by external factors such as vehicle cabin noise, road noise, and internal factors which are a function of the voice engine in the system itself. This paper analyzes the VR performance under the effect of two external factors, vehicle cabin noise and the speakers’ speech patterns based on gender. It also compares performance of mid-level sedans from different manufacturers.

Currently, diesel engine-out exhaust NOx emission level prediction is a major challenge for complying with the stricter emission legislation and for control purpose of the after-treatment system. Most of the NOx prediction research is based on the Zeldovich thermal mechanism, which is reasonable from the physical point of view and for its simplicity. Nevertheless, there are some predictable range limitations, such as low temperature with high EGR rate operating conditions or high temperature with low EGR rates. In the present paper, 3 additional considerations, pilot burned gas mixing before the main injection; major NO formation area; concentration correction, were applied to the previously developed real-time NO estimation model based on in-cylinder pressure and data available from ECU. The model improvement was verified on a 1.6 liter EURO5 diesel engine in both steady and transient operation.

A nano-sized PM and THC emission characteristics were investigated according to the fuel injection strategy such as a pressure and timing in the GDI engine. On the part-load condition, the particulate emissions exhibited a strong sensitivity to the injection timing. The fuel injection pressure also had a great association with the nano-particles and THC. A size of PM exhausted from the GDI engine located near 10nm on the part-load. In contrast, accumulation mode particles within 60 - 80nm mainly exhausted during the cold transient start phase. Increment of fuel injection pressure positively affected on the nano-particle and THC emissions during the start of the engine, as well.