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Wide attention to fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) comes from two huge issues currently the world is facing with: the concern of the petroleum reserves depletion due to consequent oil dependence and the earth global warming due in some extent to vehicle emissions. In this background, Hyundai, along with its sister company Kia, has been building the FCEVs and operating their test fleet with several tens of units at home and abroad. Since 2004, 32 passenger vehicles have been offered for the Department of Energy's controlled hydrogen fleet and infrastructure demonstration and validation project in the U.S. In the meantime, from 2006, 30 passenger vehicles as well as four buses, featuring the in-house developed fuel cell stack and its associated components, are currently under the domestic operation for the FCEV learning demonstration led by the Ministry of Knowledge and Economy.

The series-parallel hybrid electric vehicle(HEV), which employs a planetary gear set to combine one internal combustion engine(ICE) and two electric motors(EMs), can take advantages of both series and parallel hybrid system. The efficient powertrain operating point of the system can be obtained by the instantaneous optimization of equivalent fuel consumption. However, heavy computational requirements and variable constraints of the optimization process make it difficult to build real-time control strategy. To overcome the difficulty, this study suggests the control strategy which divides the optimization process into 2 stages. In the first stage, a target of charge/discharge power is determined based on equivalent fuel consumption, then in the second stage, an engine operating point is determined taking power transfer efficiency into account.

In a multi-cylinder variable valve lift (VVL) engine, in spite of its high efficiency and low emission performance, operation of the variable valve lift brings about not only variation of the air-fuel ratio at the exhaust manifold, but also individual cylinder air-fuel ratio maldistribution. In this study, in order to reduce the air-fuel ratio variation and maldistribution, we propose an individual cylinder air-fuel ratio estimation algorithm for individual cylinder air-fuel ratio control. For the purpose of the individual cylinder air-fuel ratio estimation, air charging dynamics are modeled according to valve lift conditions. In addition, based on the air charging model, individual cylinder air-fuel ratios are estimated by multi-rate sampling from single universal exhaust gas oxygen (UEGO) sensor located on the exhaust manifold. Estimation results are validated with a one-dimensional engine simulation tool.

Due to aging of a battery over lifetime, the rated power and nominal energy capacity will be reduced compared with the initial rated power and capacity. These result in influences on the vehicle driving performance and fuel economy. To monitor and diagnose the aging of the battery, in this paper, the method of predicting the available rated power and energy capacity of Li-ion battery under in-vehicle condition is proposed. Under constant power test, available power is calculated from the estimated parameters using recursive least square method. Further, available energy capacity is evaluated through SOH(cn) defined by the ratio of initial state-of-charge (SOC) variation to present SOC (\GdSOC ⁿ /ΔSOC ⁿ ) variation under arbitrary in-vehicle driving cycles. To verify the proposed method, experiments for aging Li-ion battery are performed in hybrid electric vehicle.

Emission of carbon dioxide from mobile sources seriously concerned to solve greenhouse effect and high price of gasoline in some countries have resulted in the development of lean-burn concept engine. In spite of many studies on the lean deNOx catalyst, we have no clear solution to obtain high fuel economy and high efficiency of NOx conversion in lean-burn application. This paper describes applicability and problems of NOx adsorber system to partial lean-burn vehicle, the development of three-way catalyst with improvement of washcoat technology based on three-way catalyst used for gasoline application, and comparison test results of evaluations is synthesized gas activity test, Federal Test Procedure (FTP) test, etc. This study shows improved three-way catalysts in partial lean- burn vehicle have max. 89% of NOx conversion in FTP without adding rich spike and regeneration functions to engine management system.

This paper reflects an efficient and comprehensive approach for vehicle sound optimization integrated into the entire development process. It shows the benefits of early consideration of typical vehicle NVH features and of intensive interaction of P/T and vehicle responsibilities. The process presented here considers the typical restriction that acoustically representative prototypes of engines and vehicles are not available simultaneously at the early development phase. For process optimization at this stage, a method for vehicle interior noise estimation is developed, which bases on measurements from the P/T test bench only, while the vehicle transfer behavior for airborne and structure-borne noise is assumed to be similar to a favorable existing vehicle. This method enables to start with the pre- optimization of the pure P/T and its components by focusing on such approaches which are mainly relevant for the vehicle interior noise.

Recently weight reduction is increasingly needed in automotive industry to improve fuel efficiency and to meet a CO2 emission requirement. In this paper, we prepared composite body panels for the lightweight vehicle based on a small passenger car. Fender, roof, door, side outer panel, and tailgate are made from hand layup using a glass/carbon hybrid reinforcement. Hood is made from low pressure sheet molding compound (SMC) to investigate feasibility of mass production. Both hand layup and low pressure SMC materials are newly developed and their physical properties are examined. CAE simulation was done for strength analysis and optimization of thickness for the body panels.

High pressure fuel injection systems, such as common rail (CR) systems and electronically-controlled unit injector (EUI) systems, have been widely applied to modern heavy duty diesel engines. They are shown to be very effective for achieving high power density with high fuel efficiency and low exhaust gas emissions. However, the increased peak combustion pressure gives additional structural stress and thermal load to engine structure. Thus, proper material selection and thermal analysis of engine components are essential in order to meet the durability requirements of heavy-duty diesel engines adopting a high pressure injection system. In this paper, thermal analysis of a 12.9 ℓ diesel engine with an EUI system was studied. Temperatures were measured on a cylinder head, a piston and a cylinder liner. A specially designed linkage system was used to measure the piston temperatures. A radio-tracer technique was also used to verify the rotation of piston rings.

Hyundai has developed a Santa Fe fuel cell vehicle (FCV) in which methanol fuel processor is installed and integrated with PEM fuel cell system. Pure hydrogen is produced from the mixture of methanol and water by steam reforming followed by metal membrane purification and is then fed to fuel cell system to generate electrical energy. This system has the advantage of simplifying the integration of fuel cell subsystem and fuel processor subsystem. The operation of brassboard system has been carried out for performance evaluation and the development of fuel cell controller. And then the methanol reforming fuel cell system has been incorporated into electric drive train in the vehicle. AC induction motor is powered by the hybrid system using fuel cell and a nickel metal hydride battery as energy sources to improve the system efficiency and the acceleration response of the vehicle.

A nano-sized PM and THC emission characteristics were investigated according to the fuel injection strategy such as a pressure and timing in the GDI engine. On the part-load condition, the particulate emissions exhibited a strong sensitivity to the injection timing. The fuel injection pressure also had a great association with the nano-particles and THC. A size of PM exhausted from the GDI engine located near 10nm on the part-load. In contrast, accumulation mode particles within 60 - 80nm mainly exhausted during the cold transient start phase. Increment of fuel injection pressure positively affected on the nano-particle and THC emissions during the start of the engine, as well.

The Eco-driving indicator is a colored lamp on a cluster to lead a driver to smoothen acceleration of a vehicle. Informed by the indicator, a driver learns how deep to push a gas pedal for a better fuel economy. The Eco-driving guide system outputs a vehicle fuel efficient state by the Eco-driving indicator. It is based on BSFC map, engine torque map, A/T shift pattern data, engine operation status and transmission operating status. With the Eco-driving guide system, vehicle fuel efficiency can be improved by 4∼26%.

Recently, in accordance with the increased interest of consumer in fuel efficiency due to the phenomenon of high oil price, complaints against actual fuel efficiency in the road in comparison with the certified fuel efficiency have been raised frequently. Especially in case of the hybrid vehicle which is highly popular for the reason of its high fuel efficiency compared with that of existing gasoline car, deviation in the fuel efficiency will be higher compared with that of gasoline car in accordance with the driving mode (downtown/highway), driver's driving style (wild/mild) and external environmental condition (gradient/temperature/altitude). To solve them, this paper developed a method so that the SOC (State Of Charge), EV/HEV mode transition point can be controlled variably in accordance with the driving mode, driver's driving style and external environmental condition by making the most of characteristics of hybrid.

In order to achieve the proper automobile interior sound, the tailpipe noise of the exhaust system must be considered as a main contributor. This paper describes a study of the achievement of dynamic sound quality through exhaust system design. Firstly, we determined the vehicle's interior sound quality and established a target sound using a subjective assessment of 10 benchmark vehicles. The exhaust noise target is determined by means of transfer path analysis focusing on the noise source and how it's impacted by the muffler design. The exhaust system is commonly modeled as a combination of source strength and impedance. We obtained the source character by the wave decomposition method using two microphones and six loads ultimately leading to an optimized design of the inner muffler structure. Based on this study, we achieved dynamic interior sound and improved exhaust system performance.

In this project, phenomena in a SCR catalyst, such as heat transfer and catalytic reactions, are modeled numerically. The model is simplified to be integrated on an electronic control unit. The calibration process for this model has been developed, which is performed on gas bench and validated on a vehicle equipped with a Urea-SCR system and a Rapid Prototype Control Unit. With this simplified SCR reaction model, it is possible to estimate NH3 consumption and properly control the urea injection quantity with less calibration efforts.

In this research, an optical system for the detection of the flame propagation under the non-knocking and knocking conditions is developed and applied to a mass produced four cylinder SI engine. The normal flames are measured and analyzed under the steady state operating conditions at various engine speeds. For knocking cycles, the flame front propagations before and after knock occurrence are simultaneously taken with cylinder pressure data. In non-knocking and knocking cycles, flame propagation shows cycle-by-cycle variations, which are quite severe especially in the knocking cycles. The normal flame propagations are analyzed at various engine speeds, and show that the flame front on the exhaust valve side becomes faster as the engine speed increases. According to the statistical analysis, knock occurence location and flame propagation process after knock can be categorized into five different types.

Recently, flexible fuel vehicle (FFV) has been drawn great attention because of its response for immediate use as alternative fueled one. Hyundai FFV can be operated on arbitrary fuel mixtures between gasoline and M85 with the specially programmed electronic control unit (ECU) which can determine optimized fueling quantity and ignition timing as the methanol content by the signal from electrostatic type fuel sensor. In this paper, the results of various tests including engine performance, cold startability, durability and exhaust emission reduction have been described. Full load, cold mode durability tests and field trials have been carried out with some material changes and surface treatments in the lubricating parts and fuel system. But, more work on its durability improvement is still required.

This paper describes Hyundai's research and development work on a flexible fuel vehicle (FFV). The work on FFV has been conducted to evaluate its potential as an alternative to the conventional gasoline vehicle. Hyundai FFV described here can operate on M85, gasoline, or any of their combinations, in which the methanol concentration is measured by an electrostatic type fuel sensor. For that operation, a special FFV ECU has been developed and incorporated in the FFV. The characteristics affecting FFV operation, such as FFV ECU control strategy and injector flow rate, have been investigated and optimized by experiment. Various development tests have been performed in view of engine performance, durability, cold startability, and exhaust emissions reduction. The exhaust gas aftertreatment system being consisted of manifold type catalytic converter(MCC) and secondary air injection system has shown good emission reduction performance including formaldehyde emission.

The weight reduction and noise refinement of powertrain has been major concern in automotive industry although they are known as self trade-off. This paper presents various methods to deal with those problems for new Hyundai 1.5 liter powertrain. It was possible to reduce the weight of powertrain by using plastic for both headcover and intake manifold, aluminum for crankshaft damper pulley and stainless steel for exhaust manifold and by reducing the general thickness of cylinder block On the other hand, the noise refinement of vibration in the powertrain was made by optimizing the engine structure and by adapting the hydraulic lash adjuster valve train system, which was proved to be effective in mechanical noise of engine.

This study presents engine test results of HMC's piston-ported 2-stroke gasoline engine. This single cylinder engine of 400cc displacement has featured in direct injection(DI) of fuel and external blower scavenging of air. Two different concepts of DI system were adopted, one is high pressure fuel injection(HPFI) system for solid fuel only and the other is low pressure air-assisted fuel injection(AAFI) system. Two kinds of engines with different scavenging intake port shapes and areas were tested to find the effect of scavenging port type on engine performance. Also tested were trends of BSFC, BSHC and BSCO versus fuel injection timing and engine speed with HPFI and AAFI, respectively. Power and boost pressure at full load and BSFC and BSHC at part load were tested.

A flow model is a convenient tool for developing the engine intake system. Two flow models for the branched engine intake were developed by the finite difference method and the method of characteristics. The results from the models were compared with the experimental data and the appropriate boundary conditions were established for each model. Modeling the flow at the intake and exhaust valves with a cylinder and at the pipe branches were the most critical part of the flow models affecting the accuracy of the solutions. From two models, it was found that the finite difference model was simpler than the characteristic model in formulation with the better accuracy. The effects of valve timings and intake geometry were studied by the flow models to design the optimum intake system.