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The 12 papers in this techncial paper collection represent research in the areas of welding, riveting, joining, and fastening for automotive applications. Papers focus on the recent advances in the process optimization, analytical solution, numerical modeling, response evaluation as well as static and dynamic testing of traditional resistance spot welds, gas metal arc welds, friction stir spot welds, laser welds, rivets, mounts, adhesives, and fasteners.

"Spotlight on Design" features video interviews and case study segments, focusing on the latest technology breakthroughs. Viewers are virtually taken to labs and research centers to learn how design engineers are enhancing product performance/reliability, reducing cost, improving quality, safety or environmental impact, and achieving regulatory compliance. Fuel efficiency, or simply put, how to get more mileage out of the same amount of fuel has become one of the main goals to be achieved by new automotive technologies in the future, thanks in part to new government regulations. In the episode "Fuel Efficiency: Racing toward CAFE 2025" (21:24) AVL engineers show simulation and testing being used to design more fuel efficient vehicles, including the equipment that actually analyzes fuel economy.

"Spotlight on Design: Insight" features an in-depth look at the latest technology breakthroughs impacting mobility. Viewers are virtually taken to labs and research centers to learn how design engineers are enhancing product performance/reliability, reducing cost, improving quality, safety or environmental impact, and achieving regulatory compliance. As global concerns about the negative consequences of greenhouse gases on the environment increase, regulatory agencies around the world are taking serious steps to address the issue of tailpipe emissions In the episode "Fuel Efficiency: Fuel Economy Testing" (12:01), engineers at the EPA’s National Vehicle and Fuel Emissions Laboratory demonstrate how different vehicles are tested for emissions, and AVL’s technical team shows how accurate tailpipe emissions can be measured and reported.

The three major challenges in the power electronics in hybrid and electric vehicles are: System cost, power density and reliability. High temperature power device and packaging technologies increases the power density and reliability while reducing system cost. Advanced Silicon devices with synthesized high-temperature packaging technologies can achieve junction temperature as high as 200C (compared to the present limitation of 150C) eliminating the need for a low-temperature radiator and therefore these devices reduces the system cost. The silicon area needed for a power inverter with high junction temperature capability can be reduced by more than 50 - 75% thereby significantly reducing the packaging space and power device and package cost. Smaller packaging space is highly desired since multiple vehicle platforms can share the same design and therefore reducing the cost further due to economies of scale.

The presentation describes the aerodynamic development and optimization process of the three different new models of the Audi A6/A7 family. The body types of these three models represent the three classic aerodynamic body types squareback, notchback and fastback. A short introduction of the flow structures of these different body types is given and their effect on the vehicle aerodynamic is described. In order to achieve good aerodynamic performance, the integration into the development process of the knowledge about these flow phenomena and the breakdown of the aerodynamic resistance into its components friction- and pressure drag as well as the induced drag is very important. The presentation illustrates how this is realized within the aerodynamic development process at Audi. It describes how the results of CFD simulations are combined with wind tunnel measurements and how the information about the different flow phenomena were used to achieve an aerodynamic improvement.

An electrically-driven, intelligent brake unit has been developed, to be combined with a regenerative braking system in electric vehicles (EVs) and hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) which went into production in 2010 - 11. The brake pedal force is assisted by an electrically driven motor, without using vacuum pressure, unlike conventional braking systems. The actuator can be implemented to coordinate with a regenerative braking system, and to have adjustable pedal feel through use of a unique pressure-generating mechanism and a pedal-force compensator. In this paper, we describe features of the actuator mechanism and performance test results Presenter Yukio Ohtani, Hitachi Automotive Systems

When vehicles share certain information wirelessly via Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC), they enable a new layer of electronic vehicle safety that, when needed, can generate warnings to drivers and even initiate automatic preventive actions. Vehicle location and velocity provided by Global Navigation Systems (GNSS), including GPS, are key in allowing vehicle path estimation. GNSS is effective in accurately determining a vehicle's location coordinates in most driving environments, but its performance suffers from obstructions in dense urban environments. To combat this, augmentations to GNSS are being contemplated and tested. This testing has been typically done using a reference GNSS system complimented by expensive military-grade inertial sensors, which can still fail to provide adequate reference performance in certain environments.

Moir� method is useful to measure the shape and the whole-field distributions of displacement and strain of structures. There are many kinds of moir� methods such as geometric moir� method, sampling moir� method, Fourier transform moir� method, moir� interferometry, shadow moir� method and moir� topography. Grating method analyzing directly deformation of a grating without any moir� fringe pattern is considered as an extended technique of moire method. Phase analysis of the moire fringe patterns and the grating patterns provides accurate measurements of shapes or displacement and strain distributions. Some applications of these moir� methods and grating methods to dynamic shape and strain distribution measurements of a rotating tire, sub-millimeter displacement measurements from long distance for landslide prediction, real-time shape measurements with micro-meter order accuracy, etc. are shown. Presenter Yoshiharu Morimoto, Moire Institute Inc.

Research in plug in vehicles (PHEV and BEV) has of course been ongoing for decades, however now that these vehicles are finally being produced for a mass market an intense focus over the last few years has been given to proper evaluation techniques and standard information to effectively convey efficiency information to potential consumers. The first challenge is the development of suitable test procedures. Thanks to many contributions from SAE members, these test procedures have been developed for PHEVs (SAE J1711 now available) and are under development for BEVs (SAE J1634 available later this year). A bigger challenge, however, is taking the outputs of these test results and dealing with the issue of off-board electrical energy consumption in the context of decades-long consumer understanding of MPG as the chief figure of merit for vehicle efficiency.

Low Voltage Electric Drives are becoming very attractive for various applications in the Turf, Construction and Agricultural products being engineered today. Determining what the Customer Support Requirements are for Maintenance and Repair for the Life Cycle of the products is critical to the initial design process. Presenter Russell Christ

Optical fiber has begun replacing copper in avionic networks. So far, however, it has been mainly restricted to non-critical applications (video transmission to the flight deck, IFE?). In order to take advantage of the high-bandwidth, low weight, no EMI properties of optical fibers in all data transmission networks, it will be necessary to improve the testing. One part of the puzzle, which is still missing, is the self-test button: the possibility to check the network and detect potential failures before they occur. The typical testing tool of a technician involved in optical fiber cables is the ?light source ? optical power meter? pair. With this tool, one can measure the insertion loss of the fiber link. A second important parameter, the return loss at each optical connector, is not analysed. In addition, this is only a global measurement, which does not allow the detection of possible weak points.

The use of Engine Health Management (EHM) systems has been growing steadily in both the civilian and the military aerospace sectors. Barring a few notable exceptions (such as certain temperature and thrust margin monitoring) regulatory authorities around the world have not required these systems to be certified in any way. This is changing rapidly. New airframes and engines are increasingly being designed with the assumption that EHM will be an integral part of the way customers will operate these assets. This leads to a need for better guidelines on how such systems should be certified. The SAE E-32 committee on Propulsion System Health Monitoring is leading an industry-wide effort to develop a set of guidelines for certifying EHM systems.

The System Architecture Virtual Integration (SAVI) program is a collaboration of industry, government, and academic organizations within the Aerospace Vehicle System Institute (AVSI) with the goal of structuring a new integration process that relies on a single-truth architectural framework. The SAVI approach of Integrate, then Build provides a modern distributed development environment which arrests the propagation of requirements errors through the development life cycle. It does so by capturing design assumptions and shared properties of the system design in an authoritative, annotated architectural model. This reference model provides a common, analyzable framework for confirming that system requirements remain complete, consistent, and correct at all levels of system decomposition. Core concepts of SAVI include extensive use of model-based system engineering tools and use of a single-truth reference architectural model.

Up to now, the reliability achieved by COTS components was largely sufficient for avionics, in terms of failure rate as well as time to failure. With the implementation of new and more integrated technologies (90 nm node, 65 nm and below), the question has arisen of the impact of the new technologies on reliability. It has been stated that the lifetime of these new technologies might decrease. The drift is expected to be technology dependent: integration, technology node, materials, elementary structure choices and process pay a key role. Figures have been published, which gives smaller lifetime than the 30 years generally required for avionics. This would of course impact not only the reliability, but also the maintenance of COTS-based avionics. Hence a new policy should be defined for the whole COTS supply chain. Faced with these impending risks, different methodologies have been developed.

Plug-In Hybrid and Extended Range Electric Vehicle's have quickly become the focus of many OEM's and suppliers. Existing regulations and test procedures did not anticipate this rapid adoption of this new technology, resulting in many product development challenges. The lack of clear requirements is further complicated by CARBs consideration of CO2 inclusion in their next light duty OBD regulation. This presentation provides an overview of the regulatory requirements for OBD systems on hybrid vehicles that intend to certify in California. Near term challenges for EREV?s and PHEV?s are discussed, including concerns with the existing denominator and warm-up cycle calculations. Some proposals are made to address these concerns. Presenter Andrew Zettel, General Motors Company

This article characterizes the special features of drilling of CFRP/Titanium and -Aluminium stacks. Simplified theoretic models will show how CFRP/Titanium stacks should be machined without scratches and burn marks contacting carbon. Low axial forces and smart chip removal technology are the main characteristics of the drilling tool technology, optimized to reach H8 quality in one shot operation. Presenter Peter Mueller-Hummel, Cutting Tools Inc.