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Far-side occupants are not addressed in current government regulations around the world even though they account for up to 40% of occupant HARM in side impact crashes. Consequently, there are very few crash tests with far-side dummies available to researchers. Sled tests are frequently used to replicate the dynamic conditions of a full-scale crash test in a controlled setting. However, in far-side crashes the complexity of the occupant kinematics is increased by the longer duration of the motion and by the increased rotation of the vehicle. The successful duplication of occupant motion in these crashes confirms that a sled test is an effective, cost-efficient means of testing and developing far-side occupant restraints or injury countermeasures.

The debate surrounding roof deformation and occupant injury potential has existed in the automotive community for over 30 years. In analysis of real-world rollovers, assessment of roof deformation and occupant compartment space starts with the post-accident roof position. Dynamic movement of the roof structure during a rollover sequence is generally acknowledged but quantification of the dynamic roof displacement has been limited. Previous assessment of dynamic roof deformation has been generally limited to review of the video footage from staged rollover events. Rollover testing for the evaluation of injury potential has typically been studied utilizing instrumented test dummies, on-board and off-board cameras, and measurements of residual crush. This study introduces an analysis of previously undocumented real-time data to be considered in the evaluation of the roof structure's dynamic behavior during a rollover event.

The Particulate Matter Index (PMI) is a tool that provides an indication of a fuel’s tendency to produce Particulate Matter (PM) emissions. Currently, the index is being used by various fuel laboratories and the Automotive OEMs as a tool to understand the gasoline fuel’s impact on both PM from engine hardware and vehicle-out emissions. In addition, a newer index that could be used to give an indication of the PM tendency of the gasoline range fuels, called the Particulate Evaluation Index (PEI), is shown to have a good correlation to PMI. The data used in those indices are collected from chemical analytical methods. This paper will compare gas chromatography (GC) methods used by three laboratories and discuss how the different techniques may affect the PMI and PEI calculation.

Obesity rates are increasing among the general population. This study investigates the effect of obesity on ejection and injury risk in rollover crashes through analysis of field accident data contained in the National Automotive Sampling System-Crashworthiness Data System (NASS-CDS) database. The study involved front outboard occupants of age 15+ years in 1994+ model year vehicle rollover crashes. Occupants were sorted into two BMI groups, normal (18.5 kg/m2 ≤ BMI < 25.0 kg/m2) and obese (BMI ≥30 kg/m2). Complete and partial ejection risks were first assessed by seating location relative to roll direction and belt use. The risk of serious-to-fatal injuries (MAIS 3+F) in non-ejected occupants were then evaluated. The overall risk for complete ejection was 2.10% ± 0.43% when near-sided and 2.65% ± 0.63% when far-sided, with a similar risk for both the normal and obese BMI groups.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of two-stage pilot injection parameters on the combustion and emissions of pilot diesel compression ignition natural gas (CING) engine at low load. Experiments were performed using a diesel/natural gas dual-fuel engine, which was modified from a six-cylinder diesel engine. The effect of injection timing and injection pressure of two-stage pilot diesel were analyzed in order to reduce both the fuel consumption and total hydrocarbon (HC) and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions under low load conditions. The results indicate that, because injection timing can determine the degree of pilot diesel stratification, in-cylinder thermodynamic state, and the available mixing time prior to the combustion, the combustion process can be controlled and optimized through adjusting injection timing.

Fuel lean combustion and exhaust gas dilution are known to increase the thermal efficiency and reduce NOx emissions. In this study, experiments are performed to understand the effect of equivalence ratio on flame kernel formation and flame propagation around the spark plug for different low turbulent velocities. A series of experiments are carried out for propane-air mixtures to simulate engine-like conditions. For these experiments, equivalence ratios of 0.7 and 0.9 are tested with 20 percent mass-based exhaust gas recirculation (EGR). Turbulence is generated by a shrouded fan design in the vicinity of J-spark plug. A closed loop feedback control system is used for the fan to generate a consistent flow field. The flow profile is characterized by using Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) technique. High-speed Schlieren visualization is used for the spark formation and flame propagation.

As material cleanliness and bearing lubrication have improved, wheel bearings are experiencing less raceway spalling failures from rotating fatigue. Warranty part reviews have shown that two of the larger failure modes for wheel bearings are contaminant ingress and Brinell damage from curb and pothole impacts. Warranty has also shown that larger wheels have higher rates of Brinell warranty. This paper discusses the Brinell failure mode for bearings. It reviews a vehicle test used to evaluate Brinell performance for wheel bearings. The paper also discusses a design of experiments to study the effects of factors such as wheel size, vehicle loading and vehicle position versus the bearing load from a vehicle side impact to the wheel. As the trend in vehicle styling is moving to larger wheels and low profile tires, understanding the impact load can help properly size wheel bearings.

The high popularity of automobiles has led to frequent collisions. According to the latest statistics of the United Nations, about 1.25 million people worldwide die from road traffic accidents each year. In order to improve the safety of vehicles in driving, the active safety system has become a research hotspot of various car companies and research institutions around the world. Among them, the more mature and popular active security system are Forward Collision Warning(FCW) and Autonomous Emergency Braking(AEB). However, the current active safety system is based on traditional sensors such as radar and camera. Therefore, the system itself has many limitations due to the shortage of traditional sensors. Compared to traditional sensors, Vehicle to Everything (V2X) technology has the advantages of richer vehicle parameter information, no perceived blind spots, dynamic prediction of dangerous vehicle status, and no occlusion restriction.

Spine degeneration can lower injury tolerance and influence injury outcomes in vehicle crashes. To date, limited information exists on the effect of age and sex on thoracic spine 3-dimensional geometry. The purpose of this study is to quantify thoracic spinal column and canal geometry using selected geometrical measurement from a large sample of CT scans. More than 33,488 scans were obtained from the International Center for Automotive Medicine database at the University of Michigan under Institutional Review Board approval (HUM00041441). The sample consisted of CT scans obtained from 31,537 adult and 1,951 pediatric patients between the ages of 0 to 99 years old. Each scan was processed semi-automatically using custom algorithms written in MATLAB (The Math Works, Natick, MA). Five geometrical measurements were collected including: 1) maximum spinal curvature depth (D), 2) T1-to-T12 vertical height (H), 3) Kyphosis Index (KI), 4) kyphosis angle, and 5) spinal canal radius.

High-precision and real-time ego-motion estimation is vital for autonomous vehicle. There is a lot GPS-denied maneuver such as underground parking lot in urban areas. Therefore, the localization system relying solely on GPS cannot meets the requirements. Recently, lidar odometry and visual odometry have been introduced into localization systems to overcome the problem of missing GPS signals. Compared with visual odometry, lidar odometry is not susceptible to light, which is widely applied in weak-light environments. Besides, the autonomous parking is highly dependent on the geometric information around the vehicle, which makes building map of surroundings essential for autonomous vehicle. We propose a lidar inertial odometry and mapping. By sensor fusion, we compensate for the drawback of applying a single sensor, allowing the system to provide a more accurate estimate.

Lane-changing is a typical traffic scene effecting on road traffic with high request for reliability, robustness and driving comfort to improve the road safety and transportation efficiency. The development of connected autonomous vehicles with V2V communication provide more advanced control strategies to research of lane-changing. Meanwhile, four-wheel steering is an effective way to improve flexibility of vehicle. The front and rear wheels rotate in opposite direction to reduce the turning radius to improve the servo agility operation at the low speed while those rotate in same direction to reduce the probability of the slip accident to improve the stability at the high speed. Hence, this paper established Four-Wheel-Steering(4WS) vehicle dynamic model and quasi real lane-changing scenes to analyze the motion constraints of the vehicles.

Traffic accidents avoidance is one of the main advantages for automated vehicles. As one of the main causes of vehicle collision accidents, lane changing of the ego vehicle in case that the obstacle vehicles appear in the blind spot with uncertain motion intentions is one of the main goals for the automated vehicle. An intention-aware lane changing collision assistance strategy basing on traffic situation assessment in the complex traffic scenarios is proposed in this paper. Typical Regions of Interest (ROI) within the detection range of the blind spots are selected basing on the road topology structures and state space consisting of the ego vehicle and the obstacle vehicles. Then the motion intentions of the obstacle vehicles in ROI are identified basing on Gaussian Mixture Models (GMM) and the corresponding motion trajectories are predicted basing on the state equation.

In the recent decades, tremendous effort has been made in automotive industry to reduce vehicle mass and development costs for the purpose of improving fuel economy and building safer vehicles that previous generations of vehicles cannot match. An accurate modeling approach of sheet metal fracture behavior under plastic deformation is one of the key parameters affecting optimal vehicle development process. FLD (Forming Limit Diagram) approach, which plays an important role in judging forming severity, has been widely used in forming industry, and localized necking is the dominant mechanism leading to fracture in sheet metal forming and crash events. FLD is limited only to deal with the onset of localized necking and could not predict shear fracture. Therefore, it is essential to develop accurate fracture criteria beyond FLD for vehicle development.

An investigation of high speed direct injection (DI) compression ignition (CI) engine combustion fueled with gasoline (termed GDICI for Gasoline Direct-Injection Compression Ignition) in the low temperature combustion (LTC) regime is presented. As an aid to plan engine experiments at full load (16 bar IMEP, 2500 rev/min), exploration of operating conditions was first performed numerically employing a multi-dimensional CFD code, KIVA-ERC-Chemkin, that features improved sub-models and the Chemkin library. The oxidation chemistry of the fuel was calculated using a reduced mechanism for primary reference fuel combustion. Operation ranges of a light-duty diesel engine operating with GDICI combustion with constraints of combustion efficiency, noise level (pressure rise rate) and emissions were identified as functions of injection timings, exhaust gas recirculation rate and the fuel split ratio of double-pulse injections.

The energy dissipated by the fracture of wooden utility poles during vehicle impacts is not currently well documented, is dependent upon non-homogenous timber characteristics, and can therefore be difficult to quantify. While there is significant literature regarding the static and quasi-static properties of wood as a building material, there is a narrow body of literature regarding the viscoelastic properties of timber used for utility poles. Although some theoretical and small-scale testing research has been published, full-scale testing has not been conducted for the purpose of studying the vehicle-pole interaction during impacts. The parameters that define the severity of the impact include the acceleration profile, vehicle velocity change, and energy dissipation. Seven full-scale crash tests were conducted at Exponent's Arizona test facility utilizing both moving deformable and non-deformable barriers into new wooden utility poles.

The diesel particulate filters (DPF) are considered the most robust technologies for particle emission reduction both in terms of mass and number. On the other hand, the increase of the backpressure in the exhaust system due to the accumulation of the particles in the filter walls leads to an increase of the engine fuel consumption and engine power reduction. To limit the filter loading, and the backpressure, a periodical regeneration is needed. Because of the growing interest about particle emission both in terms of mass, number and size, it appears important to monitor the evolution of the particle mass and number concentrations and size distribution during the regeneration of the DPFs. For this matter, in the presented work the regeneration of a catalyzed filter was fully analyzed. Particular attention was dedicated to the dynamic evolution both of the thermodynamic parameters and particle emissions.

The present paper describes the results of a cooperative research project between GM Powertrain Europe and Istituto Motori - CNR aimed at studying the capability of GM Combustion Closed-Loop Control (CLCC) in enabling seamless operation with high biodiesel blending levels in a modern diesel engine for passenger car applications. As a matter of fact, fuelling modern electronically-controlled diesel engines with high blends of biodiesel leads to a performance reduction of about 12-15% at rated power and up to 30% in the low-end torque, while increasing significantly the engine-out NOx emissions. These effects are both due to the interaction of the biodiesel properties with the control logic of the electronic control unit, which is calibrated for diesel operation. However, as the authors previously demonstrated, if engine calibration is re-tuned for biodiesel fuelling, the above mentioned drawbacks can be compensated and the biodiesel environmental inner qualities can be fully deployed.

The primary function of an airbag control module is to detect crashes, discriminate and predict if a deployment is necessary, then deploy the restraint systems including airbags and where applicable, pretensioners. At General Motors (GM), the internal term for airbag control module is Sensing and Diagnostic Module (SDM). In the 1994 model year, GM introduced its SDM on some of its North American airbag-equipped vehicles. A secondary function of that SDM and all subsequent SDMs is to record crash related data. This data can include data regarding impact severity from internal accelerometers and pre-crash vehicle data from various chassis and powertrain modules. Previous researchers have addressed the accuracy of both the velocity change data, recorded by the SDM, and the pre-crash data, but the assessment of the timing of the pre-crash data has been limited to a single family of modules (Delphi SDM-G).

Given the current proliferation of active safety features on new vehicles, especially for Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and Highly Automated Driving (HAD) technologies, it is evident that there is a need for testing methods beyond a vehicle level physical test. This paper will discuss the current state of the art in the industry for simulation-based verification and validation (V&V) testing methods. These will include, but are not limited to, "Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL)", “Software-in-the-Loop (SIL)”, “Model-in-the-Loop (MIL)”, “Driver-in-the-Loop (DIL)”, and any other suitable combinations of the aforementioned (XIL). Aspects of the test processes and needed components for simulation will be addressed, detailing the scope of work needed for various types of testing. The paper will provide an overview of standardized test aspects, active safety software validation methods, recommended practices and standards.

As a new brake-by-wire solution, the electro-booster (Ebooster) brake system can work with the electronic stability program (ESP) equipped in the real vehicle to realize various excellent functions such as basic force boosting (BFB), active braking and energy recovery, which is promoting the development of smart vehicles. Among them, the BFB is the function of Ebooster's servo force to assist the driver's brake pedal force establishing high-intensity braking pressure. After the BFB function failure of the Ebooster, it was not possible to provide sufficient brake pressure for the driver's normal braking, and eventually led to traffic accidents. In this paper, a compensation redundancy control strategy based on ESP is proposed for the BFB failure of the self-designed Ebooster.