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In cold climatic regions (25°C below zero) thermal comfort inside vehicle cabin plays a vital role for safety of driver and crew members. This comfortable and safe environment can be achieved either by utilizing available heat of engine coolant in conjunction with optimized in cab air circulation or by deploying more costly options such as auxiliary heaters, e.g., Fuel Fired, Positive Temperature Coefficient heaters. The typical vehicle cabin heating system effectiveness depends on optimized warm/hot air discharge through instrument panel and foot vents, air directivity to occupant's chest and foot zones and overall air flow distribution inside the vehicle cabin. On engine side it depends on engine coolant warm up and flow rate, coolant pipe routing, coolant leakage through engine thermostat and heater core construction and capacity.

Most of the energy consumed in today's mobility industry is derived from fossil fuels. The demand for clean, renewable and affordable alternative energy is forcing the automotive industry to look beyond the conventional fossil fuels. Fuels options like liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), compressed natural gas (CNG) and ethanol blends are quickly finding widespread acceptance as alternative sources. This paper presents the results of experimental studies conducted on a 1.2-liter MPI engine with three different alternate fuels. The fuels considered for the evaluation (apart from base gasoline) are 10% ethanol-blended fuel (E10), LPG (gaseous propane: butane mix) and CNG (gaseous methane). Experiments were conducted to compare their effect on engine performance and emissions. The test results show that E10 has the lowest power drop whereas CNG has the highest power drop (12%) as compared to gasoline. The maximum power drop in LPG is 4%, which is close to the theoretical predictions.

The vehicle Heating, Ventilation and Air conditioning (HVAC) system is designed to meet both the safety and thermal comfort requirements of the passengers inside the cabin. The thermal comfort requirement, however, is highly subjective and is usually met objectively by carrying out time dependent mapping of parameters like the velocity and temperature at various in-cabin locations. These target parameters are simulated for the vehicle interior for a case of hot soaking and its subsequent cool-down to test the efficacy of the AC system. Typically, AC performance is judged by air temperature at passenger locations, thermal comfort estimation along with time to reach comfortable condition for human. Simulating long transient vehicle cabin for thermal comfort evaluation is computationally expensive and involves complex cabin material modelling.

Groan is a low frequency noise generated when moderate brake pressure is applied between the surfaces of the brake disc and the brake pad at a low-speed condition. Brake groan is often very intense and can cause large numbers of customer complaints. During a groan noise event, vehicle structure and suspension components are excited by the brake system and result in a violent event that can be heard and felt during brake application. The cause of noise is friction variation of stick-slip phenomenon between friction material and disc. Creep groan is the structure-borne noise that is related to dynamic characteristic of the vehicle. However, it has been mainly improved through friction material modifications in the past. In this paper, transfer path of creep groan noise was analyzed by means TPA and structural countermeasure to creep groan noise was suggested. This paper discusses the approach for prediction and mitigation of brake groan noise for passenger vehicles having disc brakes.

There has to be a good co-relation/ relationship between the pedal effort applied, pedal travel, deceleration level achieved and stopping distance for “good brake feel”. Brake feel also depend upon the time lag between the force applied on brake pedal and the response of braking system. Hence “brake feel” can be improved by reducing the response time of the brake system. Many vehicles are having “poor brake feel” complaints, pertaining to the above mentioned reasons. This paper relates to an improved brake system for automobile in which reduction in reaction time was done by artificially increasing differential pressure head across vacuum booster diaphragm. Brake booster is given an input of compressed air to the valve body during actuation, thereby increasing the differential pressure across the diaphragm. The compressed air is bled from turbocharger-intercooler of the vehicle which is stored in a reservoir, with one way valve, while cruising.

Reduction of NOx (Oxides of Nitrogen) and particulates from engine exhaust is one of the prime considerations in current research and development in automotive industry. The present paper describes the combustion optimization done on a four cylinder, 4 liter DI diesel engine to meet stringent Euro-III emission norms. The engine FIE (Fuel Injection Equipment) and injector geometry was optimized for performance and emission. Smoke measurements were considered as indicative of soot, to predict particulate emissions. This was done to simplify the overall process and save development time. It was concluded that by combining the flexibility of electronically controlled fuel injection begin, with improved nozzle technologies, with higher spray velocities and spray penetration, a considerable reduction in NOx and particulate emissions can be achieved. This can serve as a low cost solution, without any exhaust after-treatment systems.

When an automobile negotiates a flooded region, water is splashed due to the rotational motion of the wheels. This water enters the air intake system of the turbocharged intercooled engine along with air and can pass through the turbocharger, intercooler and enter the engine. As water is an incompressible fluid, the piston cannot compress water inside the cylinder which leads to connecting rod bending and severe engine damage. This paper explains how the same has been resolved using CFD methodology and proposes the re-designed model of mud cover as a solution to this problem. The entire process has been streamlined and major time and cost reduction achieved by using simulation for optimization. The simulated results have been validated by extensive trials for correlation and outdoor tests for durability. Same analysis technique is used as a template to modify the air intake system.

The use of Wheel Force Transducers (WFTs) to acquire data for laboratory simulation is becoming standard industry practice. However, in test rigs where we have only the suspension module and not the complete vehicle, does the reproduction of the orthogonal forces and moments at the wheel centre guarantee an accurate replication of the fatigue damage in the suspension components? The objective of this paper is to review the simulation methodology for a highly non-linear suspension in a 3 DOF (degree-of-freedom) suspension test rig in which the simulation was carried out using only the three orthogonal loads and vertical displacement. The damage at critical locations in the suspension is compared with that on the road and an assessment of the simulation using the WFT is made based on a comparison of the damage on the road vs. the rig.

EU directive 2005/64/EC on type approval of motor vehicles with respect to their Reusability, Recyclability and Recoverability ( RRR ) requires vehicle manufacturers to put in place the necessary arrangements and procedures for Parts, Materials and Weight (PMW ) data collection from full chain of supply. This is required to perform the calculations of recyclability rate and recoverability rate in line with ISO 22628. Commonly practiced data collection methodologies included spreadsheet and use of internationally available IT support system for collection of material data. Data complexity and prohibitive cost for using Internationally available IT Support systems like IMDS (International Material Data System) has led to the in-house development of IT enabled Solution customizing Siemens PLM software product (Team centre Enterprise) and SAP (SRM suite).

For an automotive exhaust system, noise level and back pressure are the most important parameters for passenger comfort and engine performance respectively. The sound quality perception of the existing silencer design was unacceptable, although the back pressure measured was below the target limit. To improve the existing design, few concepts were prepared by changing the internal elements of silencer only. The design constraints were the silencer shell dimensions, volume of silencer, inlet pipe and outlet tailpipe positions, which had to be kept same as that of the existing base design. The sound quality signal replaying and synthesizing was performed to define the desired sound quality. The numerical simulation involves 3D computational fluid dynamics (CFD) with appropriate boundary condition having less numerical diffusions to predict the back pressure. The various silencer concepts developed with this preliminary analysis, was then experimentally verified with the numerical data.

Automotive embedded control systems need to implement real-time closed-loop control strategies for controlling valves, motors, etc. The implementation needs to focus on use of low cost hardware and efficient software with minimal foot-print so as to adequately meet the application requirement. This paper highlights the low cost hardware and software design concepts by way of a case study related to control of progressive EGR valve. The control strategy is based on "map-driven set-points" where percentage opening of the valve is stored in the form of 16x16 matrices. The set-points are accessed based on instantaneous throttle and engine rpm values which form the row and column indices of the map. The closed loop control algorithm eliminates the need for multiplication by implementing "feed-forward with integral control algorithm." A feed-forward map specifies the most likely PWM duty cycle to be applied to the valve for a given set-point.

Upcoming EU5 and expected emissions legislation BS5 in India in combination with efforts to optimize the overall fuel economy has created new challenges in the development of aftertreatment systems for passenger cars equipped with diesel engines. Since EU5 and BS5 emissions legislation will strongly be focused on the reduction of particulate matter it is likely that all vehicle applications will need aftertreatment systems with diesel particulate filters. High filtration efficiency combined with a high resistance to thermo-mechanical stress is a strong requirement for diesel particulate filters to meet EU5 and BS5 emission legislation. Besides those requirements the backpressure of particulate filters has to be considered since backpressure is also related to fuel economy and therefore CO₂ emissions.

Diesel engines tend to operate on lower exhaust temperatures, compared to their gasoline counterparts. Exhaust emission control becomes a significant issue at these lower temperatures, as any catalytic converter needs certain light off temperature to commence functioning. The trend so far has been to move the catalytic converters closer to the exhaust manifold, in order to get the benefit of higher temperatures - but most of the applications are limited to the location available after the turbo chargers. This is due the fact that very minute and efficient catalyst is required, if it has to be placed before the turbo charger. This catalyst also needs to be extremely durable to take care of high exotherms which occur within the catalysts and also to prevent any possible damage to the turbo chargers.

Anthropomorphic Test Devices (ATD) are the backbone of any crash research lab, their performance during the crash tests being of paramount importance to assess the vehicle performance. The Hybrid III 50th percentile dummy (H350) is one of the most recognized and accepted ATD for research in this field. However several unusual results of the dummy injuries in a vehicle crash test indicate some discrepancies exists in the dummy design. This prompted researchers to investigate such things and this paper is based on a project conducted to study the chest deflection of the hybrid 350 dummy. The project deals with assessing the dummy's chest deflection response sensitivity to load location as well as ambient operating conditions. The scope involved testing of the dummy chest by loading it quasi-statically on a UTM as well as dynamically impacting it on the dummy calibration rig. The chest deflection or thorax displacement data and loading data was gathered and analyzed further.

With the implementation of Emissions Stage 5 in Europe all passenger cars with diesel engines need after treatment systems with Diesel Particulate Filters (DPF). Therefore Indian post BS-IV regulations are expectedto force the introduction of DPFs for the Indian domestic market as well. In this paper a new low porosity Aluminum Titanate (AT) DPF generation is discussed and how this new product family can help address specific requirements for the Indian market. Two new technologies of the DuraTrap®AT DPFs complement the existing portfolio. One technology has an increased soot mass limit, the second new product significantly reduces the pressure drop over the filter.

Integrating safety features may lead to changes in vehicle interior component designs. Considering this complexity, design guidelines have to take care of aspects which may help in package feasibility studies that consider systems performance requirements. Occupant restraints systems for protection in side crashes generally comprise of Side Airbag (SAB) and Curtain Airbag (IC). These components have to be integrated considering design and styling aspects of interior trims, seat contours and body structure for performance efficient package definition. In side crashes, occupant injury risk increases due to hard contact with intruding structure. This risk could be minimized by cushioning the occupant contact through provision of SAB and Inflatable IC. This paper explains the methodology for deciding the package definitions using Knowlwdge Based Engineering (KBE) tools.

New noise regulations, with reduced noise limits, have been proposed by UN-ECE. A new method which aims at representing urban driving of the vehicles more closely on roads is proposed and is considerably different from the existing one (IS 3028:1998). It is more complex; we also found that some of the low powered vehicles can not be tested as per this method. The paper proposes ways of improvement in the test method. The new noise reduction policy options will have a considerable impact on compliance of many categories of vehicles. Technological challenges, before the manufacturers, to meet all performance needs of the vehicle along with the cost of development will be critical to meet the new noise limits in the proposed time frame.

The world today is majorly dependent upon fossil fuels for power generation, of which diesel forms an integral part. Diesel engines, having the highest thermal efficiency of any regular internal or external combustion engine, are widely used in almost all walks of life and cannot be dispensed with in the near future. However, the limited availability of diesel and the adverse effects of diesel engine emissions like nitrogen oxide (NOx) and soot particles raise serious concerns. Hence, their performance and emission improvement continues to be an avenue of great research activity. In this research work, the effects of blending Diethyl Ether with diesel in various proportions (5%, 10%, 15% and 20% by volume) were evaluated on engine performance and emissions of an industrial internal combustion engine.

Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) and Anti-Tank (AT) mines are a significant threat for military vehicles and their occupants. These explosive devices are designed for the destruction and damage of armored and other vehicles, by using them in battle fields on routes of army vehicles. The blast event results in effects like shockwave, fragments, fire, gases, blast overpressure as well as the vertical impulse load. A blast event affects occupants inside the vehicle in the form of various types of injuries (lower leg, spinal, chest, head etc) and trauma. The Lower leg is the foremost injured body region in a blast event. The term lower leg is used to designate the tibia, fibula and the foot/ankle complex in this paper. Detonations occurring under a vehicle produce high velocity floorboard flutter/deformation and transmit axial loads to lower leg and create injuries.

1 With increasing fuel price, the power train size is on a downward trend. For Fuel Economy maximization, the engine capacity and reduction ratios are getting reduced. So gradability of a vehicle is becoming a trade off factor for the power train size finalization in a car. At the same time OEMs are working hard to maintain profitability by reducing development and operational cost and time. In this complexly competitive scenario in automobile manufacturing, simulation is gaining an upper hand over actual testing as simulation consumes lesser time and resource as compared to actual testing. This paper is aimed at developing a simulation technique for restart or stop and start gradability which is a very critical parameter for finalization of engine torque characteristics and power train configuration. The simulation is done on AVL-CRUISE software.