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The objective of the research is to develop a lightweight yet stiff, 2 piston fixed brake caliper which can be used in formula student race car. To make a race car, its components need to be lighter. To stop a car with minimum stopping distance, it needs to have a sophisticated braking system with well-designed components. The designing of the caliper is carried out on the Altair Inspire software. The topology optimisation algorithm is used to minimise the weight of the caliper without compromising the stiffness. The structural analysis is also carried out on the Altair Inspire. The caliper is also tested for fatigue failure using Ansys.

Oxygenated fuels like biodiesel and ethanol possess prominent characteristics as an alternative fuel for diesel engines. However, these fuels are corrosive in nature and hygroscopic. This might results in material incompatibility with the fuel supply system of an automobile. The filter consists of a filter membrane that that traps the contaminants from the fuel and prevents them from entering into the combustion chamber. The operational hours of the filter membrane depend on the quality of fuel employed. The conventional filter is designed for fossil diesel operation and hence the filter life might degrade earlier in the case of oxygenated fuels like biodiesel or ethanol. The proposed work focuses on the impact of oxygenated fuels, viz. karanja and ethanol blended karanja biodiesel on the filter membrane and its flow characteristics. Two tests, pressure difference and contaminant retention test are carried out in accordance with Japanese standard D1617:1998.

The radiator as heat exchanger plays a very significant role in an engine cooling system by maintaining the coolant at an optimum temperature. The present study aims at improving the performance of an automobile radiator by using nano-coolants. Nano-scale particles have been tested and proven to have enhanced thermal conductivity than their bulk counterparts due to their increased surface area-to-volume ratio. Thus the nanoparticles dispersed in the base fluids called nanofluids are used as a radiator coolant to improve the performance of the radiator. Aluminum oxide (Al2O3)-based nanofluid at 0.04%, 0.08%, 0.15% by volume concentrations is used in two different base fluids, one being water and the other ethylene glycol (30%) (EG)-water mixture. Coolant is supplied at three different inlet temperatures at 40°C, 50°C, and 60°C and at five different flow rates ranging from 2 L/min to 6 L/min at an interval of 1 L/min.

The major challenge that is faced by most of the engine manufacturers nowadays is to meet the stringent emission norms with least modification in the engine design. In achieving the emission norms simplicity of the design has to be maintained as far as possible by optimizing the available emission control techniques. This paper deals with such optimal technique with reduced cost and up gradation of the engine from CPCB I to CPCB II in minimum time with minimum design changes. This difficult task is achieved by adopting direct continuous EGR and intercooler with appropriate injection timing and optimizing the fuel injection pump in a cost effective manner. The experiment is carried out on 2.86 litre turbocharged engine giving power output 44.5 kW @1500 rpm. In order to achieve the NOx emission norms LLR FIP is used, to retard the injection timing at part loads to reduce the in-cylinder temperature.

The cross flow design of a radiator and its heat transfer and temperature drop was simulated then validated by using a data acquisition system during both static and dynamic running conditions of a Formula SAE car. The data acquisition system simulated and validated the radiator's cross flow design and heat transfer, as well as the temperature drop, under static and dynamic conditions in a car. The optimal radiator design determines the engine's operating temperature and the desired temperature drop gain through proper design of the inner core, number of fins and tubes, and radiator material. The purpose of a properly designed radiator is to prevent the combustion engine from heating up above its operating temperature [1]. The radiator's design is based on the operating temperature of the CBR 600RR engine. The highest temperature recorded was around 105°C, and in the worst case scenario, it can reach 110°C.

The present study discusses the effects of engine combustion, performance and emission features of methanol-gasoline blend fired lean burn Spark Ignition (SI) engine. Performance features such as Brake Power (BP), Brake Specific Fuel Consumption (BSFC), Brake Thermal Efficiency (BTE), tail pipe emissions namely Hydrocarbon (HC), Carbon Monoxide (CO), Nitrogen Oxide (NO), Carbon di Oxide (CO2) and combustion characteristics viz. in-cylinder pressure, Heat Release Rate (HRR), Cumulative Heat Release (CHR) and variation of mean effective pressure were measured and compared with that of neat gasoline. Experiments were conducted on a modified sole cylinder four-stroke compression engine (Kirloskar TAF1) to operate as SI engine with a compression ratio of 10.5:1. A new manifold injection system and ignition system were developed by replacing the fuel injection pump and injector.

Nickel based superalloys have a wide range of applications due to high mechanical strength at high temperatures, fracture toughness and resistance to corrosion. However, because of their outstanding properties, it is considered as the difficult to machine materials. Inconel alloy X-750 is used extensively in rocket-engine thrust chambers. Airframe applications include thrust reversers and hot-air ducting systems along with large pressure vessels are formed from Inconel alloy X-750. Moreover, the comparative analysis of machinability aspect using coated carbide inserts is reported few. The current study explains the machinability investigation on Inconel alloy X-750 superalloys using coated carbides. To collect the experimental data, the L16 experimental design plan is used to experiment with a machining length of 40 mm.

Epoxy carbon fiber composite materials are known for their light weight and high performance. They can be effective substitutes for commonly used materials for making drive shafts. Fiber orientation angle plays a major role in determining such a drive shaft’s responses. The responses considered in this paper are critical buckling torque, fundamental natural frequency and total deformation. A drive shaft made of epoxy carbon unidirectional prepreg is generated using ANSYS 18.0 ACP Composite Prepost. The objective of this paper is to determine an optimal configuration of fiber orientation angles for four, five and six-layered epoxy carbon drive shaft which tends to increase critical buckling torque and fundamental natural frequency while decreasing the total deformation. The optimal configuration which satisfies this objective for the three responses is identified by Minitab 17 statistical software.

This paper summarizes the research work incorporated in the exploration of the potential of swirling in CI Engine and designing of a new mechanism, particularly at inlet, to deliver it to improve the in-cylinder air characteristics to eventually improve mixing and combustion process to improve the engine performance. The research is concentrated on the measures to be done on engine geometry so as to not only deliver advantage to any specific fuel. According to the CI combustion theory, better engine performance may be achieved with Higher Viscous Fuel by improving the in-cylinder air-fuel mixing by increasing the swirl (rotation of air view from top of the cylinder) and tumble (rotation of air view from front of the cylinder) of in-cylinder air inside the fuel-injected region. The proposed inlet component is embedded with airfoil and is suitably designed after being iterated from four steps.

The heat losses through exhaust gases and the engine coolant contribute significantly towards reduction in thermal efficiency of an Internal Combustion (IC) engine. This largely impacts the fuel economy and power output. Waste Heat Recovery (WHR) has proven to be an effective method of overcoming these challenges. A Rankine cycle is a reverse refrigeration cycle that circulates a working fluid through the four basic components namely the pump, evaporator, turbine and condenser. It is a popular WHR approach in automotive applications with varying levels of success in the past. As the heat transfer capability in organic working fluids is greater than the conventionally used inorganic fluids, the former is used to capture maximum waste heat from low grade heat sources such as the automobile engine. A dual-loop Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) is proposed for a heavy duty IC Engine with working fluids R245fa and R236fa for the High Temperature (HT) and Low Temperature (LT) loops respectively.

Today manufacturing industries have become more competitive and to survive, industries should be capable of accommodating the sudden market change. The conventional manufacturing systems like Dedicated Manufacturing Lines (DMLs) can produce high volume of product but difficult to cater to varying product types. On the other hand, Flexible Manufacturing System (FMS) is capable of handling product variety but not suited for mass production, The Reconfigurable Manufacturing System (RMS) gives the advantage of both the system, as it has the capability to adjust to both high volume requirement and product variety, and it able to upgrade to new process technology with minimal effort. In this work the reconfiguration is carried out in machine and system level. At machine level, a new inspection machine is proposed which can be used for multiple products with minimal adjustments and a special drilling and bore tool is suggested to reduce the cycle time and ramp up time when product changes.

Inconel 625, nickel based alloy, is found in gas turbine blades, seals, rings, shafts, and turbine disks. On the other hand, the manufacturing of this alloy is challenging, mainly when machining processes are used due to excellent mechanical properties. Application of nanofluids in minimum quantity lubrication (MQL) shows gaining importance in the machining process, which is economical and eco-friendly. The principal objective of this investigational work is to study the influence of three types of nanofluids in the MQL turning of Inconel 625 nickel based alloys. The used nanofluids are multi-walled carbon nanotubes (CNT), alumina (Al2O3) and copper oxide (CUO) dispersed in vegetable oil. Taguchi-based L27 orthogonal array is used for the experimental design. The parameter optimization of design variables over response is carried out by the use of Taguchi-based derringer's desirability function.

Nimonic 90A alloy is a nickel-chromium-cobalt alloy and found as a potential material for turbine blades, discs, forgings, a ring section, and hot-working tools. This paper presents the effect of concentration along with cutting speed and feed rate on Fz: cutting force, Ra: surface roughness and Vba: tool wear with the application of two different nanofluids (NFS) on turning of Nimonic 90A by TiAlN PVD carbide cutting inserts. The nanoparticles suspended in oil taken for present investigation are nAl2O3, nCNT, and groundnut oil. The Taguchi L9 orthogonal array and derringer’s desirability response surface has been employed for parameter design and optimal search. 3D surface plots, factor effect plots, Taguchi S/N, and variance tests are used to study the effect of concentration on the machining performance of Nimonic 90A. The statistical analysis revealed % concentration for nCNT and cutting speed for nAl2O3 are found as an influenced parameter on performance characteristics.

The objective of this study is to develop, demonstrate and validate the methodology of external aerodynamic analysis of a State Road Transport bus for prediction of drag coefficient and its impact on fuel consumption with experimental validation. It has been verified that vehicle consumes around 40% of the available engine power to overcome the air drag. This gives us a huge scope to study the effect of aerodynamic drag. Baseline model of State Road Transport Bus was evaluated for estimating fuel consumption using Computational Fluid dynamics (CFD) methodology. The CFD results were validated with the experimental data with less than 10% deviation. Bus design was optimized with an objective of reducing the fuel consumption with parameters like angle of windshield, rounding and tapering corners and rear draft angle. Optimized bus design is also ensured to meet functional specifications as per AIS052.

This paper describes the design of a novel pneumatic gear shifting system to replace the existing gear stick manual shifting system for ease of the driver while shifting gears. The aim of this work is to have a semi-automatic shifting (pneumatic shifting) removing the need for the driver clutch operation. The system consists of a solenoid valve, CO2 gas-pressurized cylinder, double-acting cylinder, and single-acting cylinder. On basis of the signal received the gear needs to be changed, the shifter opens or closes a magnetic valve assembly. The solenoid valve allows the compressed air into the piston that comes from a pressurized cylinder, in order to create the effect of shifting gears. The pedal shifter and buttons are used to shift the gears. The pedal shifter was designed by using a 3-D printing technique using PLA material. The microcontroller used is ATMEGA-328 in this system. There are three switches, one for upshift, downshift, and clutch respectively.

The surface properties have a vital role in the overall performance of the parts like brake shoe pad and other frame system. The mechanical and residual stress measurements of aluminium alloy 5083 were investigated on friction stir processed plates using the reinforcements of chromium oxide (Cr2O3) and titanium dioxide (TiO2) separately as well as combination of these powders. A comparative study was made to analyze the effects of reinforcements, tool type (cylindrical and threaded), parameters and the volume fraction of the reinforcements. The mechanical properties such as surface hardness and residual stress of the friction stir processed specimens were investigated. The experimental results shows that there was a significant increase in surface hardness (118 HRC) as well as a decrease in residual stress compare to the base metal. This study also reveals that the threaded tool with a reinforcement of Cr2O3 and TiO2 reflected better mechanical properties than the cylindrical tool.

Permanent magnet brushed DC (PMBDC) motors are mostly preferred in many automotive applications because of better power density and easier control. Five different automotive applications such as electric parking brake (EPB), power seat, power window, sunroof drive, and tire air pump are chosen and discussed in this paper. A step-by-step electromagnetic analysis is carried out for all the designed models. Low-cost ferrite-based magnets are used for cost reduction keeping the efficiency as high above 77% in all the models. Comparison on performance and cost are discussed in the conclusion section.

The drastic technological advancements in the field of autonomous vehicles and connected cars lead to substantial progression in the commercial values of automobile industries. However, these advancements force the Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) to shift from feedback-based reactive business analysis to operational-data based predictive analysis thereby enhancing both the customer satisfaction as well as business opportunities. The operational data is nothing but the parameters obtained from several parts of an automobile during its operation such as, temperature in radiator, viscosity of the engine oil and force applied over the brake disk. These operational data are gathered using several sensors implanted in different parts of an automobile and are continuously transmitted to backend computers to develop Digital Twin, which is a virtual model of the physical automobile.

This paper presents a methodology for predicting thermal comfort inside Midibus cabin with an objective to modify the Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) duct design and parametric optimization in order to have improved thermal comfort of occupant. For this purpose the bus cavity is extracted from baseline CAD model including fully seated manikins with various seating positions. Solar Load has been considered in the computational model and passenger heat load is considered as per BSR/ASHRAE 55-1992R standard. CFD simulation predicted the air temperature and velocity distribution inside passenger cabin of the baseline model. The experimental measurements have been carried out as per the guidelines set in APTA-BT-RP-003-07 standard. The results obtained from CFD and Experimental test were analysed as per EVS EN ISO7730 standard and calculated occupant comfort in terms of thermal comfort parameters like Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) and Predicted Percentage Dissatisfied (PPD).

Nowadays more and more people are concerned about the safety rating of their vehicle. The safety rating depends on the ability of the car to minimize the injury to the occupants post-crash. Crashworthiness of the vehicle is determined by carrying out various tests such as static and dynamic tests. Side crashes are one of the leading causes of fatal injury following front crashes. Side door strength is dependent on the door components such as latch and striker, hinge, door beam etc. Lateral stiffness is contributed significantly by the side door beam in the door structure. The side door beam limits the side intrusion into passenger compartment. This paper emphasizes the effect of intrusion beam materials and orientation in the side door strength with a numerical approach using ANSYS tool. These factors affect the strength and weight of the door. The simulation study with respect to door design is cost-effective and time-saving.