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For fracture cracks that occurred in the tight coupling exhaust manifold durability test of a four-cylinder gasoline engine with EGR channel, causes and solutions for fracture failure were found with the help of CFD and FEA numerical simulations. Wall temperature and heat transfer coefficient of the exhaust manifold inside wall were first accurately obtained through the thermal-fluid coupling analysis, then thermal modal and thermoplastic analysis were acquired by using the finite element method, on account of the bolt pretightening force and the contact relationship between flange face and cylinder head. Results showed that the first-order natural frequency did not meet the design requirements, which was the main reason of fatigue fracture. However, when the first-order natural frequency was rising, the delta equivalent plastic strain was increasing quickly as well.

The performance of an organic Rankine cycle (ORC) that recovers heat from the exhaust of a heavy-duty diesel engine was simulated. The work was an extension of a prior study that simulated the performance of an experimental ORC system developed and tested at Oak Ridge National laboratory (ORNL). The experimental data were used to set model parameters and validate the results of that simulation. For the current study the model was adapted to consider a 15 liter turbocharged engine versus the original 1.9 liter light-duty automotive turbodiesel studied by ORNL. Exhaust flow rate and temperature data for the heavy-duty engine were obtained from Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) for a range of steady-state engine speeds and loads without EGR. Because of the considerably higher exhaust gas flow rates of the heavy-duty engine, relative to the engine tested by ORNL, a different heat exchanger type was considered in order to keep exhaust pressure drop within practical bounds.

The lightweight design of a vehicle can save manufacturing costs and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. For the off-road vehicle and truck, the chassis frame is the most important load-bearing assembly of the separate frame construction vehicle. The frame is one of the most assemblies with great potential to be lightweight optimized. However, most of the vehicle components are mounted on the frame, such as the engine, transmission, suspension, steering system, radiator, and vehicle body. Therefore, boundaries and constraints should be taken into consideration during the optimal process. The finite element (FE) model is widely used to simulate and assess the frame performance. The performance of the frame is determined by the design parameters. As one of the largest components of the vehicle, it has a lot of parameters. To improve the optimum efficiency, sensitivity analysis is used to narrow the range of the variables.

At present, many electric vehicles are often equipped with only a single-stage final drive. Although the single-stage speed ratio can meet the general driving requirements of electric vehicles, if the requirements of the maximum speed and the requirements for starting acceleration or climbing are met at the same time, the power demand of the drive motor is relatively large, and the efficient area of the drive motor may be far away from the operating area corresponding to daily driving. If the two-speed automatic transmission is adopted, the vehicle can meet the requirements of maximum speed, starting acceleration and climbing at the same time, reduce the power demand of the driving motor, and improve the economy under certain power performance. This is especially important for medium and large vehicles.

Driving comfort is one of the most important indexes for automobile comfort. Driving posture comfort is closely related to the drivers' joint angles and joint torques. In present research, a new method is proposed to identify the most comfortable driving posture based on studying the relation between drivers' joint angles and joint torques. In order to truly reflect a driving situation, the accurate human driving model of 50 percent of the size of Chinese male is established according to the human body database of RAMSIS firstly. Biomechanical model based on accurate human driving model is also developed to analyze and obtain dynamic equations of human driving model by employing Kane method. The joint torque-angle curves of drivers' upper and lower limbs during holding wheel or pedal operation can be obtained through dynamic simulation in the MATLAB. Through curve-fitting analysis, the minimum joint torque of a driver' limb and the optimal joint angel can be found.

In order to meet the Euro IV HD diesel engine emission standard legislation limits, an efficient SCR system is adopted for PM optimized YC6L350-40 HD diesel engine serving in China. This paper presents tests made on the engine. The engine had base NOx emission of 8.8g/kwh over the ESC and 8.7g/kwh over the ETC. Outfitted with a 24.7 liter 300cpsi SCR catalyst, the engine NOx emission dropped to 3.2g/kwh over the ESC and 3.5g/kwh over the ETC.

A 3-D numerical analysis model of transient heat transfer among the multi-component coupling system in combustion chamber of internal combustion engine has been developed successfully in the paper. The model includes almost all solid components in combustion chamber, such as piston assembly, cylinder liner, cylinder head gasket, cylinder head, intake valves and exhaust valves, etc. With two different coupling heat transfer modes, one is the lubricant film heat conduction between two moving components, another is the contact heat conduction between two immovable solid components, and with the direct coupled-field analysis method of FEM, the heat transfer relation among the components is established. The simulation result dedicates the transient heat transfer process among the components such as moving piston assembly and cylinder liner, moving valves and cylinder head. The effect of cylinder head gasket on heat transfer among the components is also studied.

A new type of dual fuel supply system has been developed. This system is able to economically convert conventional diesel engines into dual-fuel engines like LPG/Diesel engines and CNG/Diesel engines, which are capable of either using single diesel fuel or using dual-fuel including both diesel and CNG fuel or both diesel and LPG fuel. These diesel-LPG engines have been applied to the diesel buses in the public transportation of Guangzhou city, one of the biggest cities in China, owning to their low soot emissions, excellent operating performances and extremely low cost as well. Compared with the diesel baseline engine, it was found that there were a significant reduction in soot emission and an improvement of the fuel consumption with the diesel-LPG engine. Also the strategy on LPG content is discussed in order to meet the demands for soot emission, fuel economy, transient performance and output power at the same time.

While the car ownership increasing all over the world, the unutilized thermal energy in automobile exhaust system is gradually being realized and valued by researchers around the world for better driving energy efficiency. For the unexpected urban traffic, the frequent start and stop processes as well as the acceleration and deceleration lead to the temperature fluctuation of the exhaust gas, which means the unstable hot-end temperature of the thermoelectric module generator (TEG). By arranging the heat conduction oil circulation at the hot end, the hot-end temperature’s fluctuation of the TEG can be effectively reduced, at the expense of larger system size and additional energy supply for the circulation. This research improves the TEG hot-end temperature stability by installing solid heat capacity material(SHCM) to the area between the outer wall of the exhaust pipe and the TEG, which has the merits of simple structure, none energy consumption and light weight.

The closed cabin temperature is anticipated to be cooled down when it is a bit hot inside the driving car. The traditional air-condition lowers the cabin temperature by frequently switching the status of the compressor, which increases the engine’s parasitic power and shortens the compressor’s service-life. The semiconductor auxiliary cooling system with the properties of no moving parts, high control precision and quick response has the potential to assist the on-board air-condition in modulating the cabin temperature with relative small ranges. Little temperature differences between the cabin and the outside environment means that the system energy consumption to ensure the occupant comfort is relatively low and the inefficiency could be made up by the renewable energy source.

Typical vehicle speed deceleration occurs at the freeway exit due to the driving direction change. Well conducting the driver to control the velocity could enhance the vehicle maneuverability and give drivers more response time when running into potential dangerous conditions. The freeway exit speed limit sign (ESLS) is an effect way to remind the driver to slow down the vehicle. The ESLS visibility is significant to guarantee the driving safety. This research focuses on the color variable ESLS system, which is placed at the same location with the traditional speed limit sign. With this system, the driver could receive the updated speed limit recommendation in advance and without distraction produced by eyes contract change over the dashboard and the front sight. First, the mathematical model of the drivetrain and the engine brake is built for typical motor vehicles. The vehicle braking characteristics with various initial speeds in the deceleration area are studied.

In this paper a new pressure control method of a modified accumulator-type Electro-hydraulic Braking System (EHB) is proposed. The system is composed of a hydraulic motor pump, an accumulator, an integrated master cylinder, a pedal feel simulator, valves and pipelines. Two pressurizing modes are switched between by-motor and by-accumulator to adapt different pressure boost demands. A differentiator filtering raw sensor signal and calculating pedal speed is designed. By using the pedal feel simulator, the relationship between wheel pressures and brake force is decoupled. The relationships among pedal displacement, pedal force and wheel pressure are calibrated by experiments. A model-based PI controller with predictor is designed to lower the influences caused by delay. Moreover, a self-tuning regulator is introduced to deal with the parameter’s time-varying caused by temperature, brake pads wearing and delay variation.

Vehicle hydraulic retarders are applied in heavy-duty trucks and buses as an auxiliary braking device. In traditional cooling systems of hydraulic retarders, the working fluid is introduced into the heat exchanger to transfer heat to the cooling liquid in circulation, whose heat is then dissipated by the engine cooling system. This prevents the waste heat of the working fluid from being used effectively. In hydraulic retarder cooling system based on the Organic Rankine Cycle, the organic working fluid first transfers heat with the hydraulic retarder working fluid in Rankine cycle, and then outputs power through expansion machine. It can both reduce heat load of the engine cooling system, and enhance thermal stability of the hydraulic retarder while recovering and utilizing braking energy. First of all, according to the target vehicle model, hydraulic retarder cooling system model based on Rankine cycle is established.

With the continuous increasing requirements of commercial vehicle weight and speed on highway transportation, conventional friction brake is difficult to meet the braking performance. To ensure the driving safety of the vehicle in the hilly region, the eddy current retarder (ECR) has been widely used due to its fast response, lower prices and convenient installation. ECR brakes the vehicle through the electromagnetic force generated by the current, and converted vehicle mechanical energy into heat through magnetic field. Air cooling structure is often used in the traditional ECR and cooling performance is limited, which causes low braking torque, thermal recession, and low reliability and so on. The water jacket has been equipped outside the eddy current region in this study, and the electric ECR is cooled through the water circulating in the circuit, which prolongs its working time.

In this research, the Mg2Si1-xSnx thermoelectric material is used in the exhaust temperature difference power-generating system, and the material's heat transfer characteristic and power-generating characteristic were analyzed. Firstly, steady heat transfer model from vehicle exhaust to cooling water was established. Then the impact of Sn/Si ratio to the thermoelectric characteristic parameter was analyzed. Finally, considering the influence of varying thermal conductivity to the heat transfer process along the material's heat transfer direction, when the cold end temperature of thermoelectric materials was controlled by cooling water respectively boiling at 343K and 373K, the thermoelectric conversion efficiency and power output of Mg2Si1-xSnx thermoelectric materials with different x value were evaluated based on simulation calculation.

The hydraulic retarder is an auxiliary braking device generally equipped on commercial vehicles. Its oil temperature change influences the brake performance of hydraulic retarder. The Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) is a good means to recover exhausted heat. Moreover, it can cool oil and stably control oil temperature with the help of heat absorption related with evaporation. Comprehensively considering the heat-producing characteristics of hydraulic retarder and the temperature control demand, the aimed boundary conditions are determined. Also the changing rules about the working medium flow rate are obtained. In this work, the heat-producing properties of hydraulic retarder under different conditions and the oil external circulating performance is firstly analyzed. By researching the system’s adaptation to the limiting conditions, the aimed temperature to control is prescribed.

The hydraulic retarder is an important auxiliary braking device. With merits such as its high braking torque, smooth braking, low noise, long service life and small size, it is widely used on modern commercial vehicles. Transmission fluid of traditional hydraulic retarder is cooled by engine cooling system, which exhausts the heat directly and need additional energy consumption for the thermal management component. On account of the working characteristics of hydraulic retarder, this study designs a set of waste heat recovery system based on the Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC). Under the premise of ensuring stable performance of hydraulic retarder, waste heat energy in transmission fluid is recycled to supplement energy requirements for cooling system. First of all, a principle model, which is scaled down according to D300 retarder`s thermal power generation ration of 1:100, is established. Then through theoretical calculations, components' structural parameters of the ORC are determined.

The cooling system with two fans is generally driven by electrical motors in the small cars. Compared with the traditional cars, heavy duty trucks have the larger heat dissipation power of cooling system. The motors power consumption of dual fans will be larger and the two electrical motors will occupy a large space in the engine cabin. Hydrostatic drive refers to the cooling fan is driven by hydraulic motor, but it has the low transmission efficiency. According to the engine water temperature value and the actual working status of the hydraulic system, the actual speed of cooling fan can be controlled by the computer, which guarantees the normal working water temperature of the engine. Hydrostatic drive is generally applied to heavy vehicles, engineering machinery and excavators as driving source of cooling fan which contains the advantages of large output power, overload protection, continuous speed regulation and flexible space arrangements.

Whether the available energy of the on-board battery pack is enough for the driver’s next trip is a major contributor in slowing the growth rate of Electric Vehicles (EVs). What’s more, the actual capacity of the battery pack depend on so many factors that a real-time estimation of the state of charge of the battery pack is often difficult. We proposed a big-data based algorithm to build a battery pack dynamic model for the online state of charge estimation and a stochastic model for the energy consumption prediction. And the good performance of sensors, high-bandwidth communication systems and cloud servers make it convenient to measure and collect the related data, which are grouped into three categories: standard, historical and real-time data. First a resistance-capacitance ( RC )-equivalent circuit is taken consideration to simplify the battery dynamics.

It’s not easy to start the engine in winter, especially in frigid highlands, because the low temperature increases the fuel’s viscosity, decreasing the lubricating oil flow ability and the storage performance of battery. Current electrical heating method can improve the engine starting performance in low temperature condition, but this method adds an external power to the engine, leading to the engine cannot maintain an efficient energy utilization. A warming device using the solar energy is designed to conserve the energy during the daytime, and directly warm up the engine at the time when the engine turns off for a long time, especially during the night. A solar collector installed on the top of the vehicle is used to convert the solar energy to the thermal energy, which is then transferred to the heat accumulator that contain the phase-change medium which can increase the heat storage performance.