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To prevent braking recession, heavy commercial vehicles are often equipped with fluid auxiliary braking devices, such as hydraulic retarder. Hydraulic retarder can convert the vehicle’s kinetic energy to the fluid heat energy, which can enormously alleviate the main brake’s workload. The traditional hydraulic retarder can provide enough braking torque but has a delay during the braking. In this paper, a new type of magnetorheological fluid (MR fluid) hydraulic retarder is introduced by replacing the traditional fluid with magnetorheological fluid because of its linear braking torque and quick response. By changing the magnetic field intensity, it is easier to control the braking torque than the traditional hydraulic retarder. The rise of magnetorheological fluid temperature during the braking period will reduce the hydraulic retarder’s performance.

Braking energy recovery is an important method for Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) to save energy and increase driving range. The vehicle braking system performs regenerative braking control based on driver operations. Different braking operations have a significant impact on energy recovery efficiency. This paper proposes a method for planning the braking process of a BEV based on the Intelligent Vehicle Infrastructure Cooperative System (IVICS). By actively planning the braking process, the braking energy recovery efficiency is improved. Vehicles need to decelerate and brake before entering a curve. The IVICS is used to obtain information about the curve section ahead of the vehicle's driving route. Then calculating the reference speed of the curve, and obtaining the vehicle's braking target in advance, so as to actively plan the vehicle braking process.

Magnetorheological fluid (MRF) is used as the transmission medium of the hydraulic retarder. The rheological properties are regulated by changing the magnetic field to achieve accurate control of the retarder's braking torque. Under the action of the external magnetic field, the flow structure and performance of the MRF retarder will be changed in a short time. The apparent viscosity coefficient increases by several orders of magnitude, the fluidity deteriorates and the heat generated by the brake cannot be transferred through the liquid circulation, which will affect the braking torque of the retarder. Changing the surface area of the stator also has an influence on the braking torque of the retarder and the wall heat dissipation. In this study, the relationship between the braking torque of the MRF retarder and the stator surface area of the retarder was analyzed.

Hydraulic retarder has been widely applied on military vehicles and heavy commercial vehicles because of it could provide great brake torque and has lasting working time [1]. In order to reduce driver's frequent actions in braking process and prevent hydraulic retarder system from overheating, it is need to apply constant braking torque control, this control target has a strict requirement to hydraulic control system design. Many parameters often require repeated test to determine, which increases the R&D cost and extends the research cycle. This paper tries to find a time-efficient research method of hydraulic retarder control system through studying on a heavy military vehicle hydraulic retarder system. Hydraulic retarder model is set up through test data. The hydraulic control system is built based on AMESim. Controller model is set up based on PID control. The whole vehicle brake model is built based on MATLAB/Simulink.

Road simulation experiment in laboratory is a most important method to enhance the design quality of vehicle products. Presently, two main control techniques for road simulation—remote parameter control (RPC) and minimum variance adaptive control—are both defective: the former becomes an open-loop control after generating the drive signals, however the latter is essentially a kind of gradual control. To realize the closed-loop control and increase the control quality, this article brings forward a PID open-closed loop control method. Firstly taking the original road simulator as a group to identify, a nonlinear autoregressive moving average (NARMA) model was built with the dynamic neural network. Subsequently, this plant model was used to build the open-closed loop control system mentioned above. In the closed-loop a discrete PID controller was introduced to stabilize the system, while a P-type iterative learning control (ILC) was adopted to increase the control quality.

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.

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.

Fluid auxiliary braking devices can provide braking torque through hydraulic damping, fluid auxiliary braking devices can also convert vehicular inertia energy into transmission fluid heat energy during the braking, which can effectively alleviate the work pressure of the main brake. Traditional hydraulic auxiliary braking devices use transmission fluids to transmit torque, however, there is a certain lag effect during the braking. The magnetorheological fluid (MR fluid) can also be used to transmit torque because it has the advantages of controlling braking torque linearly and responding fast to the magnetic field changed. The temperature of MR fluid will increase when the vehicle is engaged in continuous braking. MR fluid temperature changes will cause a bad influence on the efficiency stability of auxiliary braking.

Using friction brakes for long time can increase easily its temperature and lower vehicle brake performance in the downhill process. The drivers' hysteretic perception to future driving condition could mislead them to stop untimely the engine brake, and some other auxiliary braking devices are designed to increase the brake power for reduction of the friction brake torque. The decompression engine brake has complex structure and high cost, and the application of eddy current retarder or hydraulic retarder on the commercial vehicles is mainly limited to their cost and mass. In this paper, an innovative brake guidance system for commercial vehicles with coordinated friction brakes and engine brake is introduced to guide the drivers to minimize the use of the friction brakes on the downhill with consideration of future driving conditions, which is aimed at releasing the engine brake potential fully and controlling the friction brake temperature in safe range.

In order to ensure driving safety, heavy vehicles are often equipped with hydraulic retarder, which provides sustained, stable braking torque and converts the vehicle kinetic energy into heat taken away by the cooling system when traveling on a long downhill. The conventional hydraulic retarder braking torque is modulated by adjusting the liquid filling rate, which leads to slow response and difficult control. In this paper, a new kind of magnetorheological (MR) fluid hydraulic retarder is designed by replacing the traditional transmission oil with MR fluid and arranging the excitation coils outside the working chamber. The braking torque can be controlled by the fluid viscosity of MR fluid with the variation of magnetic field. Compared with the traditional hydraulic retarder, the system has the advantages of fast response, easy control and high adjustment sensitivity.

The continuous braking for the brake drum will cause the brake thermal decay when the heavy truck is driving down the long slope in the mountain areas. It reduces the heavy truck’s braking performance and the braking safety. The engine braking and the hydraulic retarder braking both consume the kinetic energy of the heavy truck and can assist the truck driving in the mountain areas. This research proposes a combined hill descent braking strategy for heavy truck based on the recorded information of the slopes to ensure the braking safety of the heavy truck. The vehicle dynamic model and the brake drum temperature rising model are established to analyze the drum’s temperature variation during the downhill progress of the heavy truck. Then based on the slope information, the combined braking temperature variation is analyzed considering the characteristics of the engine braking, the drum braking and the hydraulic retarder braking.

Downhill mountain roads are the accident prone sections because of their complexity and variety. Drivers rely more on driving experience and it is very easy to cause traffic accidents due to the negligence or the judgment failure. Traditional active safety systems, such as ABS, having subjecting to the driver's visual feedback, can’t fully guarantee the downhill driving safety in complex terrain environments. To enhance the safety of vehicles in the downhill, this study combines the characteristics of vehicle dynamics and the geographic information. Thus, through which the drivers could obtain the safety speed specified for his/her vehicle in the given downhill terrains and operate in advance to reduce traffic accidents due to driver's judgment failure and avoid the brake overheating and enhance the safety of vehicles in the downhill.

The development of intelligent transportation improves road efficiency, reduces automobile energy consumption, and improves driving safety. The core of intelligent transportation is the two-way information interaction between vehicles and the road environment. At present, road environmental information can flow to the vehicle, while the vehicle’s information rarely flows to the outside world. The electronic throttle and electronic braking systems of some vehicles use sensors to get the state of the accelerator and brake pedal, which can be transmitted to the outside environment through technologies such as the Internet of Vehicles. But the Internet of Vehicles technology has not been widely used, and it relies on signal sources, which is a passive way of information acquisition. In this paper, an active identification method is proposed to get the vehicle pedal on-off state as well as the driver’s operation behavior through existing traffic facilities.

This paper addresses the brake pad particle emission during the braking process of a vehicle in motion. The frictional-constant contact between the disc brake and pads results in an increased temperature and wear of the pads. The emission of brake pad particles into the atmosphere leads to an increase in air pollution and hence becomes hazardous to the human body. In this paper, a wheel brake disc is installed in a ventilation system where the specific air flow is introduced in order to investigate the thermal performance and the emission of particles from the brake pads. A mathematical model using the fundamental parameters of the brake disc and ventilation system is established. The behavior of the heat transfer is studied using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The particle emission rate from the pads is calculated under the assumption of uniform constant pressure distribution at the contact surface of the brake disc and pad.

Road traffic accidents resulting from alcohol-impaired driving are increasing globally despite several measures, currently in place, to curb the trend. For this reason, recent research aims at integrating alcohol early-detection systems and driving simulator experiments to identify intoxicated drivers. However, driving simulator experiments on drunk driving have focused mostly on male participants than female drivers whose characteristics have scarcely been explored. Hence in this paper, vehicle dynamic control inputs on steering, braking, and acceleration performance of 75 licensed female drivers with an upshot of alcohol at four different blood alcohol concentration (BAC) levels (0%, 0.03%, 0.05%, and 0.08%) were investigated. The participants completed simulated driving in a fixed-based simulator experiment coupled with real-time ecological scenarios to extract discrete responses.

The tank truck has a wide range of application. When the liquid in the tank is not fully loaded, the lateral movement of the liquid in the tank will shift the center of gravity of the tank truck and make the vehicle less safe. It is easy to roll over when the tank truck is turning. This study combines the vehicle dynamic characteristics and geographic information, which gives the driver safe speed and safe braking distance tips before turning, to reduce the traffic accidents caused by driver's misjudgment. The dynamic model of the tank truck is established, through collecting the real-time information of the vehicle, the vehicle load and braking torque are calculated by the relevant dynamic model. The system needs to measure the deviation of the center of gravity in the tank truck movement process, and the deviation of the center of gravity has a great influence on the safety speed.

Heat generated by friction between the brake discs and the brake pad causes the disc temperature to rise, which affects the braking performance. This flux generated from the contact surface of the vehicle brake disc not only affects the braking performance but also tends to be wasted and pollutes the environment. However, an accurate system is needed to make efficient use of this generated heat flux, which is usually wasted. Thermoelectric generators (TEGs) are solid-state gadgets utilized in the conversion of heat to electricity. Hence, the aim of this study is to convert the heat flux generated at the disc contact surface into electrical energy by employing a thermoelectric generator. In Addition, the energy harvested energy to power the battery, which in turn charges the temperature monitoring systems. Thermoelectric generators were positioned at different geometrical points of the brake discs to achieve optimal efficiency and energy storage possibilities.

For cooperative adaptive cruise control (CACC) system, a robust following control algorithm based on fuzzy PID principle is adopted in this paper. Firstly, a nonlinear vehicle dynamics model considering the lag of driving force and acceleration constraints was established. Then, with the vehicle’s control hierarchic, the upper controller takes the relative speed between vehicles and the spacing error as inputs to output the following vehicle's target acceleration, while the lower controller takes the target acceleration as inputs and the throttle opening and brake master cylinder pressure as outputs. For the setting of target spacing, this paper additionally considers the relative speed between vehicles and the acceleration of the front vehicle. Through testing, compared with the traditional variable safety distance model, the average distance reduces by 5.43% when leading vehicle is accelerating, while increases by 2.74% in deceleration.

Intelligent sweeper vehicle is gradually applied to human life, in which the accuracy of garbage identification and classification can improve cleaning efficiency and save labor cost. Although Deep Learning has made significant progress in computer vision and the application of semantic network segmentation can improve waste identification rate and classification accuracy. Due to the loss of some spatial information during the convolution process, coupled with the lack of specific datasets for garbage identification, the training of the network and the improvement of recognition and classification accuracy are affected. Based on the Unet algorithm, in this paper we adjust the number of input and output channels in the convolutional layer to improve the speed during the feature extraction part. In addition, manually generated datasets are used to greatly improve the robustness of the model.

Mountainous area makes up more than half of the whole land area of China, the road of which is full of ups and downs. Heavy commercial vehicles as the main means of transport in mountainous areas, braking torque recession, even brake failure, often happens because of the overheating in long downhill journey, which seriously threatens the safety of the driving. Therefore, this paper presents an intelligent assistance system based on Geographic Information System and vehicle dynamics. The main brake duration and heat generation can be effectively reduced through adjusting the speed at the slope top, applying the engine auxiliary brake in the initial stage and choosing braking strategy appropriately, in order to prolong the downhill driving distance and improve the safety during continuous braking. This paper characterizes and analyses the road gradients and their effects on braking heat generation.