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A disc-pad system is established to study impacts of surface topography on brake squeal from the perspective of statistical analysis. Firstly, surface topographies of brake disc and pad are precisely measured on the scale of micron and are statistically analyzed with a three-dimensional evaluation system. Secondly, the finite element model of brake disc and pad without surface topographies is created and verified through component free modal tests. Thereby the valid brake squeal model for complex modal analysis is built with ABAQUS. An effective method is developed to apply interface topographies to the smooth contact model, which consequently establishes sixty brake squeal models with topographies. Thirdly, impacts of surface topography on brake squeal are studied through comparison and statistical analysis of prediction results with and without topographies.

A 2 DOF nonlinear dynamic model of the automotive wiper system is established. Complex eigenvalues are calculated based on the complex modal theory, and the system stability as well as its dependence on wiping velocity is analyzed. Bifurcation characteristics of frictional self-excited vibration and stick-slip vibration relative to wiping velocity are studied through numerical analysis. Research of nonlinear vibration characteristics under various wiping velocities is conducted by means of phase trajectories, Poincaré map and frequency spectrum. The pervasive stick-slip vibration during wiping is confirmed, and its temporal and spatial distributions are analyzed by way of time history and contour map. Duty ratio of stick vibration and statistics of scraping residual are introduced as quantitative indexes for wiping effect evaluation. Results indicate that the negative slop of frictional-velocity characteristic is the root cause of system instability.

During a car launch, the driving torque from driveline acts on brake disk, and may lead the pad to slip against the disk. Especially with slow brake pedal release, there is still brake torque applies on the disk, which will retard the rotation of disk, and under certain conditions, the disk and pad may stick again, so the reciprocated stick and slip can induce the noise and vibration, which can be transmitted to a passenger by both tactile and aural paths, this phenomenon is defined as brake groan. In this paper, we propose a nonlinear dynamics model of brake for bidirectional, and with 7 Degrees of Freedom (DOFs), and phase locus and Lyapunov Second Method are utilized to study the mechanism of groan. Time-frequency analysis method then is adopted to analyze the simulation results, meanwhile a test car is operated under corresponding conditions, and the test signals are sampled and then processed to acquire the features.

CuO-water nanofluids was utilized as heat transfer medium in the cooling system of the diesel engine. By using CFD-Fluent software, for 0.5%, 1%, 3% and 5% mass concentration of nanofluids, 3-dimensional numerical simulation about flow and heat transfer process in the cooling system of engine was actualized. According to stochastic particle tracking in turbulent flow, for solid-liquid two phase flow discrete phase, the moving track of nanoparticles was traced. By this way, for CuO nanoparticles of different mass concentration nanofliuds in the cooling jacket of diesel engine, the results of the concentration distribution, velocity distribution, internal energy variation, resident time, total heat transfer and variation of total pressure reduction between inlet and outlet were ascertained.

Natural gas as an alternative fuel offers the potential of clean combustion and emits relatively low CO2 emissions. The main constitute of natural gas is methane. Historically, the slow burning speed of methane has been a major concern for automotive applications. Literature on experimental methane-gasoline Dual Fuel (DF) studies on research engines showed that the DF strategy is improving methane combustion, leading to an enhanced initial establishment of burning speed even compared to that of gasoline. The mechanism of such an effect remains unclear. In the present study, pure methane (representing natural gas) and PRF95 (representing gasoline) were supplied to a constant volume combustion vessel to produce a DF air mixture. Methane was added to PRF95 in three different energy ratios 25%, 50% and 75%. Experiments have been conducted at equivalence ratios of 0.8, 1, 1.2, initial pressures of 2.5, 5 and 10 bar and a temperature of 373K.

A control strategy has been designed for a city bus equipped with a pneumatic hybrid propulsion system. The control system design is based on the precise management of energy flows during both energy storage and regeneration. Energy recovered from the braking process is stored in the form of compressed air that is redeployed for engine start and to supplement the engine air supply during vehicle acceleration. Operation modes are changed dynamically and the energy distribution is controlled to realize three principal functions: Stop-Start, Boost and Regenerative Braking. A forward facing simulation model facilitates an analysis of the vehicle dynamic performance, engine transient response, fuel economy and energy usage.

Due to coupling of in-wheel motor and wheel/tire, the electric wheel system of in-wheel motor driven vehicle is different from tire suspension system of internal combustion engine vehicle both in the excitation source and structural dynamics. Therefore emerging dynamic issues of electric wheel arouse attention. Longitudinal vibration problem of electric wheel system in starting condition is studied in this paper. Vector control system of permanent magnet synchronous hub motor considering dead-time effect of the inverter is primarily built. Then coupled longitudinal-torsional vibration model of electric wheel system is established based on rigid ring model and dynamic tire/road interface. Inherent characteristics of this model are further analyzed. The vibration responses of electric wheel system are simulated by combining electromagnetic torque and the vibration model. The results indicate that abrupt changes of driving torque will cause transient vibration of electric wheel system.

The proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) system has emerged as the state-of-art power source for the electric vehicle, but the widespread commercial application of fuel cell vehicle is restricted by its short service life. An enabling high accuracy model holds the key for better understanding, simulation, analysis, subsystem control of the fuel cell system to extract full power and prolong the lifespan. In this paper, a quasi-dynamic lumped parameters model for a 3kW stack is introduced, which includes filling-and-emptying volume sub-models for the relationships between periphery signals and internal states, static water transferring sub-model for the membrane, and empirical electrochemical sub-model for the voltage response. Several dynamic experiments are carried out to identify unknown parameters of the model.

In recent years, particulate matters (PM) emissions from gasoline direct injection (GDI) engines have been gradually paid attention to, and the hydrous ethanol has a high oxygen content and a fast burning rate, which can effectively improve the combustion environment. In addition, Exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) can effectively reduce engine NOx emissions, and combining EGR technology with GDI engines is becoming a new research direction. In this study, the effects of hydrous ethanol gasoline blends on the combustion and emission characteristics of GDI engines are analyzed through bench test. The results show that the increase of the proportion of hydrous ethanol can accelerate the burning rate, shorten the combustion duration by 7°crank angle (CA), advance the peak moment of in-cylinder pressure and rate of heat release (RoHR) and improve the combustion efficiency. The hydrous ethanol gasoline blends can effectively improve the gaseous and PM emissions of the GDI engine.

The vibration characteristics of hybrid vehicles are very different from that of traditional fuel vehicles. In this paper, the active and passive control schemes are used to inhibit the vibration issues in vehicle hybrid powertrain system. Firstly the torsional vibration mechanical model including engine, motor and planetary gear subsystems is established. Then the transient vibration responses of typical working condition are analyzed through power control strategy. Consequently the active and passive control of torsional vibration in hybrid powertrain system is proposed. The active control of the motor and generator torque is designed and the vehicle longitudinal vibration is reduced. The vibration of the planetary gear system is ameliorated with passive control method by adding torsional vibration absorbers to power units. The vibration characteristics in vehicle hybrid powertrain system are effectively improved through the active and passive control.

Recently, electro-hydraulic brake systems (EHB) has been developed to take place of the vacuum booster, having the advantage of faster pressure build-up and continuous pressure regulation. In contrast to the vacuum booster, the pressure estimation for EHB is worth to be studied due to its abundant resource (i.e. electric motor) and cost-effective benefit. This work improves an interconnected pressure estimation algorithm (IPEA) based on actuator characteristics by introducing the vehicle dynamics and validates it via vehicle tests. Considering the previous IPEA as the prior pressure estimation, the wheel speed feedback is used for modification via a proportional-integral (PI) observer. Superior to the IPEA based on actuator characteristics, the proposed PEA improves the accuracy by more than 20% under the mismatch of pressure-position relation.

This paper presents a theoretical study of a finite hybrid piezoelectric phononic crystal (PC) beam with shunting circuits. The vibration transmissibility method (TM) is developed for the finite system. The uniform and non-uniform configurations of the resonators, piezoelectric patches and shunting circuits are respectively considered. The properties of the vibration attenuation of the hybrid PC beam undergoing bending vibration are investigated and quantified. It is shown that the proper relaxation of the periodicity of the PC is conducive to forming a broad vibration attenuation region. The hybrid piezoelectric PC combines the purely mechanical PC with the piezoelectric PC and provides more tunable mechanisms for the target band-gap. Taking the structural and circuit parameters into account, the design of experiments (DOE) method and the multi-objective genetic optimization method are employed to improve the vibration attenuation and meet the lightweight demand of the attachments.

The replacement of the ICE engine with an electric motor has led to a significant reduction in vibration and noise. The characteristics of the electric motor as part of the powertrain still need consideration from an NVH perspective, as there are still two highly tonal components generating noise to the cabin, albeit at higher frequencies. The radial electromagnetic force causes a structural vibration on the casing which changes with motor speed and can be used to indicate vehicle speed. The current excitation causes a primarily tangential force on the poles of the motor at a specific frequency, but both are narrow band and can cause annoyance. The traditional approach to predicting the sound radiation of electric motors is usually based on finite element analysis (FEA). While this method has the capability to estimate the time response, it is computationally too demanding and does not allow for early investigations at systems level.

To analyze the K&C (kinematics and compliance), handling and stability performance of the vehicle chassis, some simulations are usually performed using a multi-body dynamics software named ADAMS. This software introduces assumptions that simplify the components of the suspension as rigid bodies. However, these assumptions weaken the accuracy of the simulation of ADAMS. Therefore the use of flexible bodies in K&C and handling and stability simulation in ADAMS is needed to conduct more precise suspension system designs. This paper mainly analyses the influences of the subframe flexibility on handling and stability simulation in ADAMS/Car. Two complete vehicle models are built using ADAMS/Car and Hypermesh. The only difference between the two models is the subframe of the front McPherson suspension. One of the subframes is simplified as a rigid body. The other one is a flexible body built using the MNF file from Hypermesh.

Two control strategies, safety preferred control and master cylinder oscillation control, were designed for anti-lock braking on a novel integrated-electro-hydraulic braking system (I-EHB) which has only four solenoid valves in its innovative hydraulic control unit (HCU) instead of eight in a traditional one. The main idea of safety preferred control is to reduce the hydraulic pressure provided by the motor in the master cylinder whenever a wheel tends to be locking even if some of the other wheels may need more braking torque. In contrast, regarding master cylinder oscillation control, a sinusoidal signal is given to the motor making the hydraulic pressure in the master cylinder oscillate in certain frequency and amplitude. Hardware-in-the-loop simulations were conducted to verify the effectiveness of the two control strategies mentioned above and to evaluate them.

Modern thermal propulsion systems (TPS) as part of hybrid powertrains are becoming increasingly complex. They have an increased number of components in comparison to traditionally powered vehicles leading to increased demand in packaging requirements. Many of the components in these systems relate to achieving efficiency gains, weight saving and pollutant reduction. This includes turbochargers and diesel or gasoline particulate filters for example and these are known to be very sensitive to inlet boundary conditions. When overcoming packaging requirements, sub-optimal flow distributions throughout the TPS can easily occur. Moreover, the individual components are often designed in isolation assuming relatively flat and artificially quiescent inlet flow conditions in comparison to those they are actually presented with. Thus, some of the efficiency benefits are lost through reduced component aerodynamic efficiency.

Active engine mounts (AEMs) notably contribute to ensuring superior performance of vehicle’s noise, vibration, and harshness. This paper incorporates a filtered-x-least-mean-squares (FxLMS) controller into the active control engine mount system to attenuate the transmitted force to the body. To avoid the error caused by substituting the load cell for acceleration transducer, the FIR model of the secondary path was obtained by experiment. Finally, a hardware-in-the-loop testing system is built to verify the performance of the active engine mount. It can be observed from the test results that the vibration is reduced notably after control, which demonstrates the effectiveness of the active engine mount and the controller in vibration attenuation.

By changing the top-land radial clearance, this paper presents the effect of the piston crevice on the transient HC emissions of the first firing cycle at cold start on an LPG SI Engine. A fast-response flame ionization detector (FFID) was employed to measure transient HC emissions of the first firing cycle. At the same time, the transient cylinder pressure and instantaneous crankshaft speed of the engine were measured and recorded. The results show that increasing 50% crevice volume leads to 25% increase of HC emissions in the lean region and 18% increase of HC emissions in the rich region, however, the 50% increase of crevice volume contributes to 32% decease of HC emissions in the stable combustion region. For LPG SI engine, the HC emissions of the first firing cycle during cold start are relatively low in a wide range of the excess air ratio.

The prevention and control of brake judder and its various negative effects has been a key target of vehicle production. One of the effects is the steering wheel vibration during vehicle braking. Experimental and theoretical investigation into “steering wheel vibration due to brake judder” is extensively presented in this paper. The vehicle road test is carried out under controlled braking conditions. During the test, the accelerations of brake caliper assembly, suspension low and upper control arm, steering arm, tie rod and steering wheel, left and right wheel rotary speed, are measured by a multi-channel data acquisition system. The data processing focuses on order tracking analysis and transfer path analysis to work out the related resonant components. A disc brake assembly, with deliberately designed disc thickness variation and surface run-out combinations, is tested on a brake dynamometer.

Renewable sources of energy need to be developed to fulfill future energy demands in areas such as the Maldives where traditional sources of raw materials are limited or non-existent. This paper explores the use of an alternative fuel derived from coconut oil that can be produced in the Maldives and can be used in place of diesel fuel. The main advantage of this particular fuel is that it is a highly saturated oil with a calorific value close to standard diesel fuel. The viscosity of the crude coconut oil is much higher than standard diesel fuel. To reduce the viscosity and to make the oil more suitable for conventional diesel engines methyl esters were produced using the transesterification process (1). The engine performed well on the coconut oil methyl esters although there was a small reduction in power consistent with the lower calorific value of the alternative fuel. Comparative performance data together with the emission levels for the two fuels are presented.