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Vehicles produced in decades past were fitted with very few antennas. In most cases only an AM or FM antenna was required. In contrast to this, today's vehicles are fitted with a plethora of antennas to receive a wide variety of signals at a number of different frequencies. This work presents a wideband radiating structure capable of sending and receiving many of the signals required in a modern vehicle from a single device. The antenna is based on Planar Inverted Cone Antenna geometry. The effect of bending or curving the antenna substrate is investigated at values in the range that may be required for vehicular integration.

Operation of flex fuel vehicles requires operation with a range of fuel properties. The significant differences in the heat of vaporization and energy density of E0-E100 fuels and the effect on spray development need to be fully comprehended when developing engine control strategies. Limited enthalpy for fuel vaporization needs to be accounted for when developing injection strategies for cold start, homogeneous and stratified operation. Spray imaging of multi-hole gasoline injectors with fuels ranging from E0 to E100 and environmental conditions that represent engine operating points from ambient cold start to hot conditions was performed in a spray chamber. Schlieren visualization technique was used to characterize the sprays and the results were compared with Laser Mie scattering and Back-lighting technique. Open chamber experiments were utilized to provide input and validation of a CFD model.

The success of stratified combustion is strongly determined by the injection and ignition system used. A large temporal and spatial variation of the main parameters - mixture composition and charge motion - in the vicinity of the spark location are driving the demands for significantly improved ignition systems. Besides the requirements for conventional homogeneous combustion systems higher ignition energy and breakdown voltage capability is needed. The spark location or spark plug gap itself has to be open and well accessible for the mixture to allow a successful flame kernel formation and growth into the stratified mixture regime, while being insensitive to potential interaction with liquid fuel droplets or even fuel film. For this purpose several different ignition concepts are currently being developed. The present article will give an ignition system overview for stratified combustion within Delphi Powertrain Systems.

A turbocharged 2.0L 4-cylinder direct injection spark ignition (DISI) engine designed for use with gasoline is simulated using one dimensional engine simulation. Engine design modifications - increased compression ratio, 2-step valve train with dual independent cam phasing and fuel injection timing - are considered in an effort to improve fuel economy with gasoline and take advantage of properties of ethanol fuel blends (up to E85). This paper discusses a methodology to use the simulation to quantitatively evaluate the design modification effects on fuel economy. Fuel consumption predictions from the simulation for each design are evaluated. The goal is to identify the best design with the constraints of hardware physical limitations, engine residual tolerance and knock tolerance. The result yields a specification for a 2-step valve train design and phasing requirements that can improve fuel economy for each compression ratio design.

Today turbo-diesel powertrains offering low fuel consumption and good low-end torque comprise a significant fraction of the light-duty vehicle market in Europe. Global CO₂ regulation and customer fuel prices are expected to continue providing pressure for powertrain fuel efficiency. However, regulated emissions for NO and particulate matter have the potential to further expand the incremental cost of diesel powertrain applications. Vehicle segments with the most cost sensitivity like compacts under 1400 kg weight look for alternatives to meet the CO₂ challenge but maintain an attractive customer offering. In this paper the concepts of downsizing and downspeeding gasoline engines are explored while meeting performance needs through increased BMEP to maintain good driveability and vehicle launch dynamics. A critical enabler for the solution is adoption of gasoline direct injection (GDi) fuel systems.

The current paper presents a by cylinder IMEP estimator which operates completely free of direct cylinder pressure sensor measurement and which, when coupled with associated closed loop torque controller and commonly used engine control hardware, can provide significant improvement in the reduction to fuel sensitivity over conventional systems at minimal or no cost. Applications of the by cylinder estimator and closed loop torque/IMEP control are described including the use of the estimator during cold start before the O2 sensor is active. The application of the IMEP estimator and controller to cold start can provide significantly improved idle quality as well as enhanced robustness to degraded fuel quality. Closed loop combustion strategies using spark and fuel are described and experimental data from V6 engine testing are presented for the estimator and available closed loop controllers.

Within the pre-development phase of a vehicle validation process, the role of computational simulation is becoming increasingly prominent in efforts to ensure thermal safety. This gain in popularity has resulted from the cost and time advantages that simulation has compared to experimental testing. Additionally many of these early concepts cannot be validated through experimental means due to the lack of hardware, and must be evaluated via numerical methods. The Race Track Simulation (RTS) can be considered as the final frontier for vehicle thermal management techniques, and to date no coherent method has been published which provides an efficient means of numerically modeling the temperature behavior of components without the dependency on statistical experimental data.

Modern exhaust systems contain not only a piping network to transport hot gas from the engine to the atmosphere, but also functional components such as the catalytic converter and turbocharger. The turbocharger is common place in the automotive industry due to their capability to increase the specific power output of reciprocating engines. As the exhaust system is a main heat source for the under body of the vehicle and the turbocharger is located within the engine bay, it is imperative that accurate surface temperatures are achieved. A study by K. Haehndel [1] implemented a 1D fluid stream as a replacement to solving 3D fluid dynamics of the internal exhaust flow. To incorporate the 3D effects of internal fluid flow, augmented Nusselt correlations were used to produce heat transfer coefficients. It was found that the developed correlations for the exhaust system did not adequately represent the heat transfer of the turbocharger.

Contrails and aircraft-induced cirrus clouds are reputed being the largest components of aviation-induced global warming, even greater than carbon dioxide (CO2) exhaust emissions by aircraft. This article presents a contrail model algorithm specifically developed to be integrated within a multi-objective flight trajectory optimization software framework. The purpose of the algorithm is to supply to the optimizer a measure of the estimated radiative forcing from the contrails generated by the aircraft while flying a specific trajectory. In order to determine the precise measure, a comprehensive model is employed exploiting the Schmidt-Appleman criterion and ice-supersaturation regions. Additional parameters such as the solar zenith angle, contrail lifetime and spread are also considered.

Aviation turbine fuel and diesel fuel were blended with synthetic paraffins produced via two pathways and the combustion properties measured. Both aviation and diesel fuel containing synthetics produced from the fermentation of sugars, had a linear response to blending with decreasing ignition delay times from 5.05 - 3.52 ms for F-34 and 3.84 - 3.52 ms for F-76. For the same fuels blended with synthetics produced from the fermentation of alcohols, ignition delay times were increased out to 18.66 ms. The derived cetane number of the blends followed an inversely similar trend. Additionally, simulated distillation using ASTM D2887 at high synthetic paraffinic kerosene blend ratios resulted in the recovery temperatures being incorrectly reported. In this case, higher recovery volumes were at lower temperatures than earlier recovery points i.e. T90< T50, for SIP-SPK.

Onboard diagnostic regulations require performance monitoring of diesel particulate filters used in vehicle aftertreatment systems. Delphi has developed a particulate matter (PM) sensor to perform this function. The objective of this sensor is to monitor the soot (PM) concentration in the exhaust downstream of the diesel particulate filter which provides a means to calculate filter efficiency. The particulate matter sensor monitors the deposition of soot on its internal sensing element by measuring the resistance of the deposit. Correlations are established between the soot resistance and soot mass deposited on the sensing element. Currently, the sensor provides the time interval between sensor regeneration cycles, which, with the knowledge of the exhaust gas flow parameters, is correlated to the average soot concentration.

The complexity of automotive software and the needs for shorter development time and software portability require the development of new approaches and standards for software architectures. The AUTOSAR project is one of the most comprehensive and promising solutions for defining a methodology supporting a function-driven development process. Furthermore, it manifests itself as a standard for expressing compatible software interfaces at the Application Layer. This paper discusses the implementation of AUTOSAR requirements for the component structure, as well as interfaces to the Application Layer in a model-based development environment. The paper outlines the major AUTOSAR requirements for software components, provides examples of their implementation in a Simulink/Stateflow model, and describes the modelbased implementation of an operating system for running AUTOSAR software executables (“runnables”).

While the potential emissions and efficiency benefits of HCCI combustion are well known, realizing the potentials on a production intent engine presents numerous challenges. In this study we focus on identifying challenges and opportunities associated with a production intent cam-based variable valve actuation (VVA) system on a multi-cylinder engine in comparison to a fully flexible, naturally aspirated, hydraulic valve actuation (HVA) system on a single-cylinder engine, with both platforms sharing the same GDI fueling system and engine geometry. The multi-cylinder production intent VVA system uses a 2-step cam technology with wide authority cam phasing, allowing adjustments to be made to the negative valve overlap (NVO) duration but not the valve opening durations. On the single-cylinder HVA engine, the valve opening duration and lift are variable in addition to the NVO duration. The content of this paper is limited to the low-medium operating load region at 2000 rpm.

The thermal prediction of a vehicle under-body environment is of high importance in the design, optimization and management of vehicle power systems. Within the pre-development phase of a vehicle's production process, it is important to understand and determine regions of high thermally induced stress within critical under-body components. Therefore allowing engineers to modify the design or alter component material characteristics before the manufacture of hardware. As the exhaust system is one of the primary heat sources in a vehicle's under-body environment, it is vital to predict the thermal fluctuation of surface temperatures along corresponding exhaust components in order to achieve the correct thermal representation of the overall under-body heat transfer. This paper explores a new method for achieving higher accuracy exhaust surface temperature predictions.

This paper presents a model-based control system for SCR urea dosing employing an embedded real-time SCR chemistry model and a NH3 sensor. The control algorithm consists of a number of control features designed to enhance ammonia storage control and closed-loop compensation using the mid-brick NH3 sensor. An adaptive control algorithm is developed to demonstrate robustness of the feedback control system to compensate for catalyst aging, urea injection malfunction, or dosing fluid concentration variation. Simulation and engine dynamometer testing following ESC and FTP emission cycles are used to demonstrate the advantages of this control approach for meeting both NOx emission requirements and NH3 slip targets. Furthermore this paper demonstrates potential of a NH3 sensor for on-board diagnostics. Additionally the feasibility of implementing model based algorithms in a 32-bit floating-point environment with an automotive controller is examined.

Spot, or distributed, cooling and heating is an energy efficient way of delivering comfort to an occupant in the car. This paper describes an approach to distributed cooling in the vehicle. A two passenger CFD model of an SUV cabin was developed to obtain the solar and convective thermal loads on the vehicle, characterize the interior thermal environment and accurately evaluate the fluid-thermal environment around the occupants. The present paper focuses on the design and CFD analysis of the energy efficient HVAC system with spot cooling. The CFD model was validated with wind tunnel data for its overall accuracy. A baseline system with conventional HVAC air was first analyzed at mid and high ambient conditions. The airflow and cooling delivered to the driver and the passenger was calculated. Subsequently, spot cooling was analyzed in conjunction with a much lower conventional HVAC airflow.

The Gasoline Engine Management Systems for passenger cars have the OBD-II (On Board Diagnostic) for United States of America market, the EOBD (European On Board Diagnostic) for Europe and OBD-BR1 and OBD-BR2 for Brazil. This paper presents the differences between these four On Board Diagnostic Systems.

The use of advanced electron microscopy techniques to characterize both the bulk and near-atomic level microstructural evolution of catalyst materials during different dynamometer/vehicle aging cycles is an integral part of understanding catalyst deactivation. The study described here was undertaken to evaluate thermally-induced microstructural changes which caused the progressive loss of catalyst performance in a three-way automotive catalyst. Several different catalyst processing variables, for example changing the washcoat ceria content, were also evaluated as a function of aging cycle and thermal history. A number of thermally-induced microstructural changes were identified using high resolution electron microscopy techniques that contributed to the deactivation of the catalyst, including sintering of all washcoat constituents, γ-alumina transforming to α-, β-, and δ-alumina, precious metal redistribution, and constituent encapsulation.

This paper is about the use of the Six Sigma Methodology, to solve variation problems in the manufacture area, at one of the Delphi Automotive Systems unit that manufacturer electrical harness. The DMAIC framework was followed, the improvements were done, eliminating the rots causes, and the use of Six Sigma methodology, was showed very efficient in solve problems. The methodology power, is in using a structured frame work, the DMAIC (Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control), completing by quality quality tools (Pareto Chart, Five Why's, Cause and Effect Diagram) and statistical analyses, for example: variance analyses, hypotheses tests and Design of Experiments.

A high pressure outwardly opening fuel injector has been developed to produce sprays that meet the stringent requirements of gasoline direct injection (DI) combustion systems. Predictions of spray characteristics have been made using KIVA-3 in conjunction with Star-CD injector flow modeling. After some modeling iterations, the nozzle design has been optimized for the required flow, injector performance, and spray characteristics. The hardware test results of flow and spray have confirmed the numerical modeling accuracy and the spray quality. The spray's average Sauter mean diameter (SMD) is less than 15 microns at 30 mm distance from the nozzle. The DV90, defined as the drop diameter such that 90% of the total liquid volume is in drops of smaller diameter, is less than 40 microns. The maximum penetration is about 70 mm into air at atmospheric pressure. An initial spray slug is not created due to the absence of a sac volume.