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The hydraulic retarder is the most stabilized auxiliary braking system [1-2] of heavy-duty vehicles. When the hydraulic retarder is working during auxiliary braking, all of the braking energy is transferred into the thermal energy of the transmission medium of the working wheel. Theoretically, the residual heat-sinking capability of the engine could be used to cool down the transmission medium of the hydraulic retarder, in order to ensure the proper functioning of the hydraulic retarder. Never the less, the hydraulic retarder is always placed at the tailing head of the gearbox, far from the engine, long cooling circuits, which increases the risky leakage risk of the transmission medium. What's more, the development trend of heavy load and high speed vehicle directs the significant increase in the thermal load of the hydraulic retarder, which even higher than the engine power.

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.

The anti-roll bar is an important structural component of the automobile, which can effectively prevent the automobile from rolling and improve the safety of the automobile during steering. In the design of the current anti-roll bar, the stiffness is determined by empirical or oversimplified mathematical models, often not reaching the optimal value. In this paper, eight parameters are used to determine the structure of the anti-roll bar. Combining the Deformation Energy theorem and Castigliano’s theorem, a mathematical model of the stiffness is established. The optimal solution and corresponding parameter values of the mathematical model are obtained by nonlinear programming and genetic algorithm. The influence of structural parameters on the anti-roll bar stiffness is analyzed, and the regular pattern of design is obtained. In addition, the finite element method is used to verify the stiffness solution model.

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.

In heavy truck driveline system, the components often include clutch, transmission, transfer case, drive shaft, etc. A fluid torque converter could be equipped in front of the transmission in order to improve the starting performance. Meanwhile, a hydraulic retarder could be introduced for auxiliary braking so as to adapt the truck to the brake on long downgrade in mountainous regions. Thus, the driveline heat load would have a notable increase. Both the fluid torque converter and the hydraulic retarder would produce a large quantity of heat, and a special cooling system is needed for adjusting the transmission fluid temperature with which the gains are potentially very large [1]. The heat load for driveline is often calculated based on empirical formula. For the heavy truck, however, if the heat value is underestimated, driveline components would suffer from overheated damage.

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.

The mountainous roads are rugged and complex, so that the driver can not make accurate judgments on dangerous road conditions. In addition, most heavy vehicles have characteristics of large weight and high center of gravity. The two factors above have caused most of the car accidents in mountain areas. A research shows that 90% of car accidents can be avoided if drivers can respond within 2-3 seconds before the accidents happen. This paper proposes a speed warning scheme for heavy-duty vehicle over the horizon in mountainous area, which can give the drivers enough time to respond to the danger. In the early warning aspect, this system combines the front road information, the vehicle characteristics and real-time information obtained from the vehicle, calculates and forecasts the danger that may happen over the horizon ahead of time, and prompts the driver to control the vehicle speed.

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.

Automotive Front Lighting System(AFS) can receive the steering signal and the vehicular speed signal to adjust the position of headlamps automatically. AFS will provide drivers more information of front road to protect drivers safe when driving at night. AFS works when there is a steering signal input. However, drivers often need the front road's information before they turn the steering wheel when vehicles are going to go through a sharp corner, AFS will not work in such a situation. This paper studied how to optimize the working time of AFS based on GIS (Geographic Information System) and GPS(Geographic Information System) to solve the problem. This paper analyzed the process of the vehicle is about to go through a corner. Low beams and high beams were discussed respectively.

The drivers' hysteretic perception to surrounding environment will affect vehicular fuel economy, especially for the heavy-duty vehicles driving under complex conditions and long distance in mountainous areas. Unreasonable acceleration or deceleration on the slope will increase the fuel consumption. Improving the performance of the engine and the transmission system has limited energy saving potential, and most fuel-efficient driving assistant systems don't consider the road conditions. The main purpose of this research is to introduce an economic driving scheme with consideration of the prestored slope information in which the vehicle speed in mountainous slopes is reasonably planned to guide the driver's behavior for reduction of the fuel consumption. Economic driving optimization algorithm with low space dimension and fast computation speed is established to plan accurate and real-time economic driving scheme.

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.

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.

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 current paper proposes a hydraulic interconnected suspension system (HIS) based on a hydraulic energy-regenerative shock absorber (HESA) comparatively with the passive suspensions. The structure and working principles of the HIS system are introduced in order to investigate the damping performance and energy regeneration characteristics of the proposed system. Then, the dynamic characteristics of the HIS-HESA system have been investigated based on a 4-DOF longitudinal half vehicle model. In the simulation, two different road inputs were used in the dynamic characterization of the HIS-HESA; the warp sinusoidal excitation, and the random road signal. In addition, a comparative analysis was provided for the dynamic responses of the half vehicle model for both the HIS-HESA and the conventional suspension. Furthermore, a parametric analysis of the HIS-HESA has been carried out highlining the key parameters that have a remarkable effect on the HIS-HESA performance.