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Abstract Investigation of vehicle resistant forces and power losses is of crucial importance owing to current state of energy consumption in transport sector. Meanwhile, considerable portion of resistant forces in a ground vehicle is traced back to tires. Pneumatic tires are known to be a source of energy dissipation as a consequence of their viscoelastic nature. The current study aims to provide a modification to tire resistance by considering the power loss in a tire due to longitudinal slip. The modified tire resistance is comprised of rolling resistance and a newly introduced resistance caused by tire slip, called slip resistance. The physical model is chosen for parameters sensitivity study since the tractive force is described in this model via tangible physical parameters, e.g. tire tangential stiffness, coefficient of friction, and contact patch length.

Abstract Gasoline particulate filters (GPFs) are important aftertreatment components that enable gasoline direct injection (GDI) engines to meet European Union (EU) 6 and China 6 particulate number emissions regulations for nonvolatile particles greater than 23 nm in diameter. GPFs are rapidly becoming an integral part of the modern GDI aftertreatment system. The Active Exhaust Tuning (EXTUN) Valve is a butterfly valve placed in the tailpipe of an exhaust system that can be electronically positioned to control exhaust noise levels (decibels) under various vehicle operating conditions. This device is positioned downstream of the GPF, and variations in the tuning valve position can impact exhaust backpressures, making it difficult to monitor soot/ash accumulation or detect damage/removal of the GPF substrate. The purpose of this work is to present a unique example of subsystem control and diagnostic architecture for an exhaust system combining GPF and EXTUN.

Abstract This article presents a fault diagnosis approach for roller bearing by applying the autocorrelation approach to filtered vibration measured signal. An optimal Morlet wavelet filter is applied to eliminate the frequency associated with interferential vibrations; the raw measured signal is filtered with a band-pass filter based on a Morlet wavelet function whose parameters are optimized based on maximum Kurtosis. Autocorrelation enhancement is applied to the filtered signal to further reduce the residual in-band noise and highlight the periodic impulsive feature. The proposed technique is used to analyze the experimental measured signal of investigated vehicle gearbox. An artificial fault is introduced in vehicle gearbox bearing an orthogonal placed groove on the inner race with the initial width of 0.6 mm approximately. The faulted bearing is a roller bearing located on the gearbox input shaft - on the clutch side.

Abstract Rolling-resistance is leading the direction of numerous tire developments due to its significant effect on fuel consumption and CO2 emissions considering the vehicles in use globally. Many attempts were made to reduce rolling-resistance in vehicles, but with no or limited success due to tire complexity and trade-offs. This article investigates the concept of multiple chambers inside the tire as a potential alternative solution for reducing rolling-resistance. To accomplish that, novel multi-chamber designs were introduced and numerically simulated through finite-element (FE) modeling. The FE models were compared against a standard design as the baseline. The influences on rolling-resistance, grip, cornering, and mechanical comfort were studied. The multi-chambers tire model reduced rolling-resistance considerably with acceptable trade-offs. Independent air volumes isolating tread from sidewalls would maintain tire’s profile effectively.

Abstract To reduce fuel consumption and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from mobile air conditioning (A/C) systems, “U.S. Light-Duty Vehicle Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Corporate Average Fuel Economy Standards” identified solar/thermal technologies such as solar control glazings, solar reflective paint, and active and passive cabin ventilation in an off-cycle credit menu. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) researchers developed a sophisticated analysis process to calculate U.S. light-duty A/C fuel use that was used to assess the impact of these technologies, leveraging thermal and vehicle simulation analysis tools developed under previous U.S. Department of Energy projects. Representative U.S. light-duty driving behaviors and weighting factors including time-of-day of travel, trip duration, and time between trips were characterized and integrated into the analysis.

Abstract Tire-pavement interaction noise (TPIN) dominates for passenger cars above 40 km/h and trucks above 70 km/h. Numerous studies have attempted to uncover and distinguish the basic mechanisms of TPIN. However, intense debate is still ongoing about the validity of these mechanisms. In this work, the physical mechanisms proposed in the literature were reviewed and divided into three categories: generation mechanisms, amplification mechanisms, and attenuation mechanisms. The purpose of this article is to gather the published general opinions for further open discussions.

Abstract The high-frequency noise issue is one of the most significant noise, vibration, and harshness problems, particularly in battery electric vehicles (BEVs). The sound package treatment is one of the most important approaches toward solving this problem. Owing to the limitations imposed by manufacturing error, assembly error, and the operating conditions, there is often a big difference between the actual values and the design values of the sound package components. Therefore, the sound package parameters include greater uncertainties. In this article, an uncertainty analysis method for BEV interior noise was developed based on an interval model to investigate the effect of sound package uncertainty on the interior noise of a BEV. An interval perturbation method was formulated to compute the uncertainty of the BEV’s interior noise.

Abstract The dynamic characteristics of tires are critical in the overall vibrations of vehicles because the tire-road interface is the only medium of energy transfer between the vehicle and the road surface. Obtaining the natural frequencies and mode shapes of the tire helps in improving the comfort of the passengers. The vibrational characteristics of structures are usually obtained by performing conventional impact hammer modal testing, in which the structure is excited with an impact hammer and the response of the structure under excitation is captured using accelerometers. However, this approach only provides the response of the structure at a few discrete locations, and it is challenging to use this procedure for rotating structures. Digital Image Correlation (DIC) helps in overcoming these challenges by providing the full-field response of the structure.

Abstract Correlation analysis of subjective and objective evaluation for automobile sound quality is an important topic in automobile technology fields. In view of the deficiency of multi-dimensional linear regression analysis and the theoretical merits of grey system method, grey comprehensive relational degree was calculated to analyze the contribution of objective evaluation data to subjective evaluation. The main objective variables affecting the subjective feeling were determined. The variables include loudness, sharpness and shaking degrees. Grey GM(0,4) model was established as a quantitative expression for describing the subjective and objective evaluation correlation. The results of residual test and posterior-variance-test show that the established model was accurate and the model can be used to analyze and predict subjective and objective evaluation data of automobile sound quality.

Abstract In the selection of automobile noise reduction schemes, the lack of comprehensive quantitative index system and objective evaluation method is a serious problem. In this article, the methods of analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and gray target decision were used to solve the problem. Firstly, AHP and gray target decision method were introduced respectively in detail. Secondly, three automobile noise reduction schemes were illustrated. Four types of data were selected as the decision indexes, and the weight coefficients of all the decision indexes were calculated using the AHP. Then multi-attribute mixed weighted gray target decision model was established. The optimum scheme was obtained by the calculation of the off-target distance and the sorting of the calculation results. The proposed method can quantify the evaluation process and overcome the disadvantages of the traditional analogy method. The example shows that the method is feasible.

Abstract Catalytic converters, a primary component in most automotive emissions control systems, do not function well until they are heated substantially above ambient temperature. As the primary energy for catalyst heating comes from engine exhaust gases, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) that have the potential for short and infrequent use of their onboard engine may have limited energy available for catalytic converter heating. This article presents a comparison of multiple hybrid supervisory control strategies to determine the ability to avoid engine cold starts during a blended charge-depleting propulsion mode. Full vehicle and catalytic converter simulations are performed in parallel with engine dynamometer testing in order to examine catalyst temperature variations during the course of the US06 City drive cycle. Emissions and energy consumption (E&EC) calculations are also performed to determine the effective number of engine starts during the drive cycle.

Abstract The brake squeal phenomenon has bothered automobile manufacturers for a long time. Although having no ill effects on the braking performance, the squeaky noise is often a nuisance and one of the major complaints of many customers. In order to design quality and noise-free automobiles, the brake squeal issue has to be permanently tackled. Controlling brake squeal by the addition of damping on the disk and shape optimization has been suggested by many researchers. Other methods proposed in the literature include the use of a different brake pad material or an anti-squeal paste. However, the effect of the type of brake pad suspension on brake squeal has not been studied. In this article, we demonstrate that the use of a 4-element viscoelastic support can help prevent brake squeal for the practical vehicle speed range. For a 2-element support, we have identified a suitable control parameter and proposed an efficient active control for squeal prevention based on that.

Abstract During certain driving scenarios, low-speed engine vibrations get propagated to the driveline and affect the drivability of a vehicle. To reduce the impact of these vibrations, a locked torque converter lockup clutch (TCC) is allowed to temporarily slip to increase the damping in the driveline. However, the initial slow dynamics of the fluid path of the torque converter cause the vehicle to feel sluggish. In this article, we design a model predictive controller (MPC) that optimally controls the torque request from the actuator (i.e., engine or e-motor) and the lockup clutch capacity for reducing this sluggishness. The study is conducted for a light-duty vehicle and uses an experimentally validated, detailed full-order model (FOM) for developing and validating a computationally efficient, reduced-order driveline model (ROM).

Abstract Automotive vehicle includes various systems like engine, transmission, exhaust, air intake, cooling and many more systems. No doubt the performance of individual system depends upon their core design. But for performance, the system needs to be fastened properly. In automotive, most of the joints used fasteners which helps in serviceability of the components. There are more than thousands of fasteners used in the vehicle. At various locations, we found issue of bolt loosening and because of this design intent performance has not met by the system. During product development of ECS (Engine cooling system), various issues reported to loosening the bolt. The pre-mature failure of bolt loosening, increases the interest in young engineers for understanding the behavior of fastener in vehicle running conditions. This paper focuses on the design of wedge shape of washer to avoid bolt loosening.

Abstract Fuel consumption is at an all-time high, with crude oil set to get depleted in the next two decades. Drag force is one of the major components responsible for decreasing mileage and thus increasing fuel consumption in vehicles. Using passive modifications such as spherical depressions on the body surface, aerodynamic drag experienced by passenger vehicles can be significantly reduced. Spherical depressions are designed to delay flow separation, following which the wake size is reduced, resulting in a decrease in drag force. In this study, computer-aided design (CAD) models of generalized lightweight vehicles are made with dimples at the sides of the car, having a diameter of 60 mm and a center-to-center distance of 90 mm. Several models are created having depression aspect ratios (ARs) of 2, 4, 6, and 8, and each model is simulated to velocities of 22 m/s, 24 m/s, 26 m/s, 28 m/s, and 30 m/s.

Abstract The principal issue in choosing an energy management strategy (EMS) for hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) has been the way of determining the optimal share of electric energy in hybrid drive. In this article, a novel EMS is proposed that, along with maximum engine efficiency in the hybrid drive, can optimize the share of battery energy for the maximum efficiency of vehicle power train expanded with an imaginary power plant that, by delivering the electric energy to a grid, feeds the vehicle battery. It is proved that the expanded power train efficiency has the local maximum for a wide range of wheel power demand. The relation between the wheel power demand in hybrid drive, the share of battery energy, and the maximum efficiency of the expanded power train is conducted offline. Downloaded to the onboard control system, it enables the operation with the instantaneously optimal share of battery energy and the control system to operate with the low computational load.

Abstract In recent years, lean-burn gasoline Spark-Ignition (SI) engines have been a major subject of investigations. With this solution, in fact, it is possible to simultaneously reduce NOx raw emissions and fuel consumption due to decreased heat losses, higher thermodynamic efficiency, and enhanced knock resistance. However, the real applicability of this technique is strongly limited by the increase in cyclic variation and the occurrence of misfire, which are typical for the combustion of homogeneous lean air/fuel mixtures. The employment of a Pre-Chamber (PC), in which the combustion begins before proceeding in the main combustion chamber, has already shown the capability of significantly extending the lean-burn limit. In this work, the potential of an ultralean PC SI engine for a decisive improvement of the thermal efficiency is presented by means of numerical and experimental analyses.

Abstract This article aims to identify the best combination of intake port angle (IPA) and cylinder head pentroof angle (PA) of a gasoline direct injection (GDI) engine to achieve a simultaneous reduction in the fuel consumption and the exhaust emissions using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and optimization techniques. The present study is carried out on a single-cylinder, four-stroke GDI engine. The design space is bound by the range of the IPA (35°, 80°) and the PA (5°, 20°). The initial data set consists of 80 design points, which are generated using the uniform Latin hypercube (ULH) algorithm. CFD simulations were carried out at all the points in the initial data set using CONVERGE at engine speed of 2,000 rev/min and the overall equivalence ratio of 0.7 ± 0.05.

Abstract This article investigates an adaptive test design approach for the purpose of a model-based engine calibration. Two different new algorithms are presented to take engine boundaries during test execution into account and selectively calculate new test points to increase engine model quality and its input domain. The algorithms are implemented into an adaptive test design framework and evaluated by an engine simulation with artificial Brownian noise added. The results highlight an increase in input space evaluation volume and a decrease in engine model error, while meeting calculation time constraints.

Abstract Powder metallurgy is a widely used manufacturing methodology in the gearbox industry. Noise and vibration is a common cause for concern in the gearbox industry due to the continuous contact between gear teeth at high rotational frequencies. Despite this, limited research has been performed investigating the modal properties of powder metal products. This work investigates the damping ratios of a copper-infiltrated steel powder metal ring and a hot-rolled steel ring both experimentally and computationally. Negligible difference was observed between the damping ratios of the powder metal and hot-rolled steel rings. Two proportional damping models were investigated to predict the damping ratios of the powder metal ring. It was found that the Caughey damping model was the most accurate, generating damping ratios within 2.36% for a frequency bandwidth of up to 4000 Hz.