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The question of whether increasing the fuel economy of light-duty natural gas fueled vehicles can improve their economic competitiveness in the U.S. market, and help the US Department of Energy meet stated goals for such vehicles is explored. Key trade-offs concerning costs, exhaust emissions and other issues are presented for a number of possible advanced engine designs. Projections of fuel economy improvements for a wide range of lean-burn engine technologies have been developed. It appears that compression ignition technologies can give the best potential fuel economy, but are less competitive for light-duty vehicles due to high engine cost. Lean-burn spark ignition technologies are more applicable to light-duty vehicles due to lower overall cost. Meeting Ultra-Low Emission Vehicle standards with efficient lean-burn natural gas engines is a key challenge.

The purpose of this research is to characterize the wear resistance of wheel treads made of polymeric woven and non-woven fabrics. Experimental research is used to characterize two wear mechanisms: (1) external wear due to large sliding between the tread and rocks, and (2) external wear due to small sliding between the tread and abrasive sand. Experimental setups include an abrasion tester and a small-scale merry-go-round where the tread is attached to a deformable rolling wheel. The wear resistance is characterized using various measures including, quantitatively, by the number of cycles to failure, and qualitatively, by micro-visual inspection of the fibers’ surface. This paper describes the issues related to each experiment and discusses the results obtained with different polymeric materials, fabric densities and sizes. The predominant wear mechanism is identified and should then be used as one of the criteria for further design of the tread.

In the next 20 years fully autonomous vehicles are expected to be in the market. The advance on their development is creating paradigm shifts on different automotive related research areas. Vehicle interiors design and human vehicle interaction are evolving to enable interaction flexibility inside the cars. However, most of today’s vehicle manufacturers’ autonomous car concepts maintain the steering wheel as a control element. While this approach allows the driver to take over the vehicle route if needed, it causes a constraint in the previously mentioned interaction flexibility. Other approaches, such as the one proposed by Google, enable interaction flexibility by removing the steering wheel and accelerator and brake pedals. However, this prevents the users to take control over the vehicle route if needed, not allowing them to make on-route spontaneous decisions, such as stopping at a specific point of interest.

Image segmentation has historically been a technique for analyzing terrain for military autonomous vehicles. One of the weaknesses of image segmentation from camera data is that it lacks depth information, and it can be affected by environment lighting. Light detection and ranging (LiDAR) is an emerging technology in image segmentation that is able to estimate distances to the objects it detects. One advantage of LiDAR is the ability to gather accurate distances regardless of day, night, shadows, or glare. This study examines LiDAR and camera image segmentation fusion to improve an advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) algorithm for off-road autonomous military vehicles. The volume of points generated by LiDAR provides the vehicle with distance and spatial data surrounding the vehicle.

The application of virtual engineering methods can streamline the product design process through improved collaboration opportunities among the technical staff and facilitate additive manufacturing processes. A product digital twin can be created using the available computer-aided design and analytical mathematical models to numerically explore the current and future system performance based on operating cycles. The strategic decision to implement a digital twin is of interest to companies, whether the required financial and workforce resources will be worthwhile. In this paper, two metrics are introduced to assist management teams in evaluating the technology potential. The usefulness and time savings metrics will be presented with accompanying definitions. A case study highlights the usefulness metric for the “Deep Orange” prototype vehicle, an innovative off-road hybrid vehicle designed and fabricated at Clemson University.

Automotive drive-by-wire systems have enabled greater mobility options for individuals with physical disabilities. To further expand the driving paradigm, a need exists to consider an alternative vehicle steering mechanism to meet specific needs and constraints. In this study, a cellphone steering controller was investigated using a fixed-base driving simulator. The cellphone incorporated the direction control of the vehicle through roll motion, as well as the brake and throttle functionality through pitch motion, a design that can assist disabled drivers by excluding extensive arm and leg movements. Human test subjects evaluated the cellphone with conventional vehicle control strategy through a series of roadway maneuvers. Specifically, two distinctive driving situations were studied: a) obstacle avoidance test, and b) city road traveling test. A conventional steering wheel with self-centering force feedback tuning was used for all the driving events for comparison.

This study was driven by the prevalence of older drivers’ overrepresentation in crashes caused by pedal application errors. Previous research has shown tasks prone to pedal errors, which include emergency braking, parking lot maneuvers and reaching out of the driver’s window. However, pedal usage characteristics of older drivers while performing on-road driving tasks are unknown. The objective of this research was to understand pedal usage characteristics of older drivers during on-road driving tasks in an instrumented vehicle. Twenty-six drivers over the age of 60 completed 10 stopping tasks as the baseline for stopping performance, a startle-braking task, two forward parking tasks and two reaching out of the vehicle tasks. Results for this instrumented vehicle study showed significantly positive correlations between stature and the percent of foot pivoting, and between shoe length and percent of foot pivoting in the baseline stopping tasks.

Ultrasonic spot welding (USW) is a promising joining method for magnesium to steel to overcome the difficulties of fusion welding for these two materials with significant differences in melting temperatures. In a previous paper, the results of ultrasonic spot welding of magnesium to steel, with sonotrode engaged Mg piece, was presented. In this study, same material combination (0.8-mm-thick galvanized mild steel and 1.6-mm Mg AZ31B-H24) was used, but with sonotrode engaging steel piece. Various welding time, from 0.4 to 2.0 sec, were applied. Tensile lap-shear test, optical metallography, and scanning electron micrography were conducted for joint strength measurement and microstructural evaluation. The joint strength reached over 4.2 kN at 1.8 sec welding time. Mg-Zn eutectic was formed at the interface, indicating the interfacial temperature over 344°C. The study demonstrated USW to be a viable process for potential manufacturing of mixed-metal joints.

Ultrasonic spot welds were made between sheets of 0.8-mm-thick hot-dip-galvanized mild steel and 1.6-mm-thick AZ31B-H24. Lap-shear strengths of 3.0-4.2 kN were achieved with weld times of 0.3-1.2 s. Failure to achieve strong bonding of joints where the Zn coating was removed from the steel surface indicate that Zn is essential to the bonding mechanism. Microstructure characterization and microchemical analysis indicated temperatures at the AZ31-steel interfaces reached at least 344°C in less than 0.3 s. The elevated temperature conditions promoted annealing of the AZ31-H24 metal and chemical reactions between it and the Zn coating.

Unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) may encounter difficulties accommodating environmental uncertainties and system degradations during harsh conditions. However, human experience and onboard intelligence can may help mitigate such cases. Unfortunately, human operators have cognition limits when directly supervising multiple UGVs. Ideally, an automated decision aid can be designed that empowers the human operator to supervise the UGVs. In this paper, we consider a connected UGV platoon under cyber attacks that may disrupt safety and degrade performance. An observer-based resilient control strategy is designed to mitigate the effects of vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) cyber attacks. In addition, each UGV generates both internal and external evaluations based on the platoons performance metrics. A cloud-based trust-based information management system collects these evaluations to detect abnormal UGV platoon behaviors.

The friction and wear characteristics of three commercially-available, electrolytic coatings for aluminum engine cylinder bores were compared to those of cast iron liners. A Ni/SiC electrocomposite, a hard anodized treatment, and a Plasma Electrolytic Oxidation (PEO) coating were investigated. ASTM standard test method G133-95, non-firing test method, for linearly reciprocating sliding wear was modified to use segments of piston rings and cylinder liners. Tests were conducted using Mr. Goodwrench™ 5W30 as a lubricant at room temperature. The normal force was 150N, the reciprocating frequency was 15Hz, the stroke length was 8mm, and the test duration was 60 minutes. Kinetic friction coefficients ranged from 0.1 to 0.22, typical of boundary lubrication. The Ni/SiC and cast iron samples exhibited the lowest friction. The wear resistance of the Ni/SiC coating was superior to that of cast iron.

Laser-induced incandescence is used to measure time-resolved diesel particulate emissions for two lean NOx trap regeneration strategies that utilize intake throttling and in-cylinder fuel enrichment. The results show that when the main injection event is increased in duration and delayed 13 crank-angle degrees, particulate emissions are very high. For a repetitive pattern of 3 seconds of rich regeneration followed by 27 seconds of NOx-trap loading, we find a monotonic increase in particulate emissions during the loading intervals that approaches twice the initial baseline particulate level after 1000 seconds. In contrast, particulate emissions during the regeneration intervals are constant throughout the test sequence.

Semi-volatile species in the exhaust can condense on the primary particulate matter (PM) forming significant secondary PM mass downstream1. We developed a new thermographic technique to measure the volatility of a particle population. The instrument is called vapor-particle separator (VPS)2. A two-parameter model was used to interpret the thermographic data3. These two parameters define volatilization potential and thermodynamic capacity of the particles. The volatization potential delineates the unique particle volatility, while the thermodynamic capacity illustrates the work required to eliminate the particles. The thermodynamic capacity is found much smaller for small particles than that for large particles.

In military applications, diesel engines are required to achieve high power outputs and therefore must operate at high loads. This high load operation leads to high piston component temperatures and heat rejection rates limiting the packaged power density of the powertrain. To help predict and understand these constraints, as well as their effects on performance, a thermodynamic engine model coupled to a finite element heat conduction solver is proposed and validated in this work. The finite element solver is used to calculate crank angle resolved, spatially averaged piston temperatures from in-cylinder heat transfer calculations. The calculated piston temperatures refine the heat transfer predictions as well requiring iteration between the thermodynamic model and finite element solver.

In this work, a novel opposed piston architecture is proposed where one crankshaft rotates at twice the speed of the other. This results in one piston creating a 2-stroke profile and another with a 4-stroke profile. In this configuration, the slower piston operates in the 2-stroke CAD domain, while the faster piston completes 2 reciprocating cycles in the same amount of time (4-stroke). The key benefit of this cycle is that the 4-stroke piston increases the rate of compression and expansion (dV/dθ), which lowers the combustion-induced pressure rise rate after top dead center (crank angle location of minimum volume). Additionally, it lowers in-cylinder temperatures and pressures more rapidly, resulting in a lower residence time at high temperatures, which reduces residence time for thermal NOx formation and reduces the temperature differential between the gas and the wall, thereby reducing heat transfer.

This paper presents on-going finite element modeling efforts of friction stir spot welding (FSSW) process using Abaqus/Explicit as a finite element solver. Three-dimensional coupled thermal-stress model was used to calculate thermo-mechanical response of FSSW process. Adaptive meshing and advection schemes, which makes it possible to maintain mesh quality under large deformations, is utilized to simulate the material flow and temperature distribution in FSSW process. The predicted overall deformation shape of the weld joint resembles that experimentally observed. Temperature and stress graphs in the radial direction as well as temperature-deformation distribution plots are presented.

Cabin heating of current electric vehicle (EV) designs is typically provided using electrical energy from the traction battery, since waste heat is not available from an engine as in the case of a conventional automobile. In very cold climatic conditions, the power required for space heating of an EV can be of a similar magnitude to that required for propulsion of the vehicle. As a result, its driving range can be reduced very significantly during the winter season, which limits consumer acceptance of EVs and results in increased battery costs to achieve a minimum range while ensuring comfort to the EV driver. To minimize the range penalty associated with EV cabin heating, a novel climate control system that includes thermal energy storage from an advanced phase change material (PCM) has been designed for use in EVs and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs).

The operation of internal combustion engines depend on the successful management of the fuel, spark, and cooling processes to ensure acceptable performance, emission levels, and fuel economy. Two different thermal management systems exist for engines - air and liquid cooling. Smaller displacement utility and spark ignition aircraft engines typically feature air cooled systems which rely on forced convection over the exterior engine surfaces. In contrast, passenger/light-duty engines use a water-ethylene glycol mixture which circulates through the radiator, water pump, and heater core. The regulation of the overall engine temperature, based on the coolant's temperature, has been achieved with the thermostat valve and (electric) radiator fan. To provide insight into the thermal behavior of the cylinder-head assembly for enhanced cooling system operation, a dynamic model must exist.

On a gasoline engine platform, homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) holds the promise of improved fuel economy and greatly reduced engine-out NOx emissions, without an increase in particulate matter emissions. In this investigation, a variable compression ratio (CR) engine equipped with a throttle and intake air heating was used to test the robustness of these control parameters to accommodate a series of fuels blended from reference gasoline, straight run refinery naphtha, and ethanol. Higher compression ratios allowed for operation with higher octane fuels, but operation could not be achieved with the reference gasoline, even at the highest compression ratio. Compression ratio and intake heat could be used separately or together to modulate combustion. A lambda of 2 provided optimum fuel efficiency, even though some throttling was necessary to achieve this condition. Ethanol did not appear to assist combustion, although only two ethanol-containing fuels were evaluated.

The deactivation of diesel oxidation catalysts (DOCs) by soot contamination and lube-oil derived phosphorus poisoning is investigated. Pt/CeO2/γ-AI2O3 DOCs aged using three different protocols developed by the authors and six high mileage field-returned DOCs of similar formulation are evaluated for THC and CO oxidation performance using a bench-flow reactor. Collectively, these catalysts exhibit a variety of phosphorus and soot morphologies contributing to performance deactivation.