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In the past, each noise shim supplier had its own specifications to describe the properties of their noise shims (often also called as shim or damping shim). Due to that, it was difficult to compare the physical properties of noise shims from different suppliers. The main task was to define common specifications for daily quality/development tests. Traceability in prototype status and production was introduced establishing a clear declaration of noise shim deliveries with batch no. and “use by” date. Harmonization was created through standardized tests and procedures. In addition, a common noise shim database for all noise shim manufacturers was established. A more realistic compressibility test was developed to estimate the additional compressibility of noise shims based on bare pads under cold and hot conditions. These values are important to describe the axial decoupling at low pressure and the maximal displacement at high forces.

Injuries of the Occipitoatlantoaxial (Occ-C2) region (also known as atlanto-occipital injuries) are the most common form of cervical injury in children aged ten years and younger. The crash studied in this paper is unique in that there were three children ages 3, 6 and 7 involved in a frontal crash with a delta V of 28mph with each child receiving a nonfatal Occ-C2 injury of varying degrees. The 3 and 6 year-old children were remarkably similar in height and weight to the 3 and 6 year-old Hybrid III ATD's. Also, unique to this case is the fact that the right rear 6 year-old occupant likely sustained an Occ-C2 injury prior to impact with the frame of the front passenger seat. This crash environment was recreated utilizing MADYMO occupant simulation software. The models for the Hybrid III 3 and 6 year-old ATDs were used to represent the occupants in this crash.

This paper presents an analysis of the displacement measurement of the Hybrid III 50th percentile male dummy chest in quasistatic and dynamic loading environments. In this dummy, the sternal chest deformation is typically characterized using a sliding chest potentiometer, originally designed to measure inward deflection in the central axis of the dummy chest. Loading environments that include other modes of deformation, such as lateral translations or rotations, can create a displacement vector that is not aligned with this sensitive axis. To demonstrate this, the dummy chest was loaded quasistatically and dynamically in a series of tests. A string potentiometer array, with the capability to monitor additional deflection modes, was used to supplement the measurement of the chest slider.

Electrically powered hydraulic steering systems (EPHS) are in mass production for about 6 years. They have been and still are very successful in the market as they follow the trend of supplying fully assembled and tested steering modules and the increasing demand for engine independent electrically powered systems. This paper illustrates the latest results of research and development in this sector leading to a new EPHS generation.

This paper presents a computational study of the effects of three parameters on the resulting thoracic injury criteria in side impacts. The parameters evaluated are a) door velocity-time (V-t) profile, b) door interior padding modulus, and c) initial door-to-occupant offset. Regardless of pad modulus, initial offset, or the criterion used to assess injury, higher peak door velocity is shown to correspond with more severe injury. Injury outcome is not, however, found to be sensitive to the door velocity at the time of first occupant contact. A larger initial offset generally is found to result in lower injury, even when the larger offset results in a higher door velocity at occupant contact, because the increased offset results in contact later in the door V-t profile - closer to the point at which the door velocity begins to decrease. Cases of contradictory injury criteria trends are identified, particularly in response to changes in the pad modulus.

The control of fuel delivery to minimize drivetrain oscillations is a major benefit to vehicle refinement and driveability. This paper describes the application of robust H-infinity loop-shaping control to the speed-fuel control loop. A one-degree-of-freedom controller structure (feedback only) is examined and applied to a small passenger car. Using careful implementation, the control algorithm is of low order and efficient requiring only limited microprocessor resources. The robust controller gives excellent performance when operated synchronously to engine rotation, where the dynamics become speed-dependent. Alternatively it can be operated satisfactorily at a fixed sample rate, asynchronous to engine rotation. The design is found to be eminently suitable for production.

This paper presents a load distribution-specific viscoelastic structural characterization of the Hybrid III 50th percentile male anthropomorphic test dummy thorax. The dummy is positioned supine on a high-speed material testing machine and ramp-and-hold tests are performed using a distributed load, a hub load, and a diagonal belt load applied to the anterior thorax of the dummy. The force-deflection response is shown to be linear viscoelastic for all loading conditions when the internal dummy instrumentation is used to measure chest deflection. When an externally measured displacement (i.e., a measurement that includes the superficial skin material) is used for the characterization, a quasilinear viscoelastic characterization is necessary. Linear and quasilinear viscoelastic model coefficients are presented for all three loading conditions.

The goal of the present work is to reduce the environmental impact of car gasoline engines by developing lightweight engine components. The use of light-weight metals such as aluminum results in substantial reductions in CO2 emissions. Traditionally aluminum alloys have been restricted to low temperature applications because of their poor mechanical properties at elevated temperature. However, novel fabrication methods such as spray forming and rapid solidification have overcome the temperature limitation. Coupled with a surface coating designed to withstand corrosion and wear at elevated temperatures, these high performance alloys may be considered to replace steel-based components in automotive engines. In this work, hypereutectic aluminum-silicon (Al-Si) alloys produced via different fabrication routes were tested for laser coating with a nickel-chromium alloy. Experimental results demonstrating the response of these alloys to laser coating are presented.

Some rollover testing methodologies require specification of vehicle kinematic parameters including travel speed, vertical velocity, roll rate, and pitch angle, etc. at the initiation of vehicle to ground contact, which have been referred to as touchdown conditions. The complexity of the vehicle, as well as environmental and driving input characteristics make prediction of realistic touchdown conditions for rollover crashes, and moreover, identification of parameter sensitivities of these characteristics, is difficult and expensive without simulation tools. The goal of this study was to study the sensitivity of driver input on touchdown parameters and the risk of rollover in cases of steering-induced soil-tripped rollovers, which are the most prevalent type of rollover crashes. Knowing the range and variation of touchdown parameters and their sensitivities would help in picking realistic parameters for simulating controlled rollover tests.

More than half of occupant lower extremity (LEX) injuries due to automotive frontal crashes are in the knee-thigh-hip (KTH) complex. To design the injury countermeasures for the occupant LEX, first the biomechanical and injury responses of the occupant LEX components during automotive frontal crashes should be known. The objective of this study is to develop a detailed biofidelic occupant LEX Finite Element (FE) model based on the component surfaces reconstructed from the medical image data of a 50th percentile male volunteer in a sitting posture. Both volumetric (unstructured) and structural mesh methods were used to generate the solid elements (mostly hexahedral type) to enhance the model simulation accuracy. The FE model includes the femur, tibia, fibula, patella, cartilage, ligaments, menisci, patella tendon, flesh, muscle, and skin. The constitutive material models and their corresponding parameters were defined based on literature data.

It is always a challenging task for the braking industry to maintain consistent friction material behavior during brake system development. Lack of consistency in friction behavior causes significant disruptions in efforts to integrate friction material with the foundation brake system. This is especially true when new friction formulations and/or manufacturing processes are introduced during an application program. Furthermore, every new program has new requirements that introduce new challenges and issues to the brake and friction manufacturers. As issues arise during the Application development, engineers devise countermeasures that often entail new engineering techniques and methods. Sometimes, such countermeasures amount to inventions to cover the inadequacy of lining behavior during brake integration.

Originally designed for measuring closed-loop contours such as those around a human thorax, the External Peripheral Instrument for Deformation Measurement (EPIDM), or chestband, was developed to improve the measurement of dummy and cadaver thoracic response during impact. In the closed-loop configuration, the chestband wraps around on itself forming a closed contour. This study investigates the use of the chestband for dynamic deformation measurements in an open-loop configuration. In the open-loop configuration, the chestband does not generally form a closed contour. This work includes enhanced procedures and algorithms for the calculation of chestband deformation contours including the determination of static and dynamic chestband contours under several boundary conditions.

Selectively reinforced, squeeze cast automotive pistons contain a boundary between the reinforced and unreinforced regions. This boundary is known as the macro-interface. Due to the difference in CTE between the composite and unreinforced matrix, the macro-interface can be the site of residual stress formation during cooling from the casting or heat treatment temperature. Subsequent thermal exposure, particularly thermal cycling, may produce cyclic stress at this interface causing it to experience fatigue. It has been found that matrix precipitates at the macro-interface and the aging behavior of the matrix also may play a role in defining the strength of the macro-interface during thermal cycling conditions.

The response and risk of injury for occupants in frontal crashes are more severe when structural deformation occurs in the vehicle interior. To reproduce this impact environment in the laboratory, a sled system capable of producing structural intrusion in the footwell region has been developed. The system couples the hydraulic decelerator of the sled to actuator pistons attached to the toepan and floorpan structure of the buck. Characterization of the footwell intrusion event is based on developing a toepan pulse analogous to the acceleration pulse used to characterize sled and vehicle decelerations. Preliminary sled tests with the system indicate that it is capable of simulating a complex sequence of toepan/floorpan translations and rotations.

Two sled systems capable of producing structural intrusion in the footwell region of an automobile have been developed. The first, System A, provides translational toepan intrusion using actuator pistons to drive the footwell structure of the test buck. These actuator pistons are coupled to the hydraulic decelerator of the test sled and are powered by hydraulic energy from the impact event. Resulting footwell intrusion is characterized using a toepan pulse analogous to the acceleration pulse used to characterize sled and vehicle decelerations. Sled tests with System A indicate that it is capable of accurately and repeatably simulating toepan/floorpan intrusion into the occupant footwell. Test results, including a comparison of lower extremity response between intrusion sled tests and no intrusion sled tests, indicate that this system is capable of repeatable, controlled structural intrusion during a sled test impact.

Recently, during the course of different experimental problem-solving activities on automotive vehicles, several examples have been found in which the identification of the cause of a particular vibration problem related to a specific component or subsystem involves detecting the presence of an impulsive effect on measured time signals. The difficulty in identifying such an effect arises due to the fact that the vibrational response signals measured during operation are dominated by relatively high amplitude harmonics which tend to mask the impulsive component. This article describes two case studies for this type of identification problem, a servo-assisted steering system and a front suspension shock absorber strut.

Injuries to the knee-thigh-hip (KTH) complex in frontal motor vehicle crashes are of substantial concern because of their frequency and potential to result in long-term disability. Current frontal impact Anthropometric Test Dummies (ATDs) have been shown to respond differently than human cadavers under frontal knee impact loading and consequently current ATDs (and FE models thereof) may lack the biofidelity needed to predict the incidence of knee, thigh, and hip injuries in frontal crashes. These concerns demand an efficient and biofidelic tool to evaluate the occurrence of injuries as a result of KTH loading in frontal crashes. The MADYMO human finite element (FE) model was therefore adapted to simulate bone deformation, articulating joints and soft tissue behavior in the KTH complex.

The air bag has proven effective in reducing fatalities in frontal crashes with estimated decreases ranging from 11% to 30% depending on the size of the vehicle [IIHS-1995, Kahane-1996]. At the same time, some air bag designs have caused fatalities when front-seat passengers have been in close proximity to the deploying air bag [Kleinberger-1997]. The objective of this study was to develop an accurate and repeatable out-of-position test fixture to study the deployment of air bags into out-of-position occupants. Tests were performed with a 5th percentile female Hybrid III dummy and studied air bag loading on the thorax using draft ISO-2 out-of-position (OOP) occupant positioning. Two different interpretations of the ISO-2 positioning were used in this study. The first, termed Nominal ISO-2, placed the chin on the steering wheel with the spine parallel to the steering wheel.

Steering control devices are used by people who have difficulty gripping the steering wheel. These devices have projections that may extend up to 14 cm toward the occupant. Testing indicated that contact with certain larger steering control devices with tall rigid projections could severely injure a driver in a frontal collision. In order to reduce this injury risk, an alternative, less injurious design was developed and tested. This design, which included replacing unyielding aluminum projections with compliant plastic ones, produced significantly lower peak contact pressure and less damage to the chest of a cadaver test subject, while maintaining the strength necessary to be useful.

Some rollover test methods, which impose a touchdown condition on a test vehicle, have been developed to study vehicle crashworthiness and occupant protection in rollover crashes. In ground-tripped rollover crashes, speed, steering maneuver, braking, vehicle inertial and geometric properties, topographical and road design characteristics, and soil type can all affect vehicle touchdown conditions. It is presumed that while there may be numerous possible combinations of kinematic metrics (velocity components and orientation) at touchdown, there are also numerous combinations of metrics that are not likely to occur in rollover crashes. To determine a realistic set of touchdown conditions to be used in a vehicle rollover crash test, a lateral deceleration sled-based non-destructive rollover initiation test system (RITS) with a fully programmable deceleration pulse is in development.