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This paper describes an automated path following system using vision sensor. Lateral control law for path following is especially underlined which is developed by using the backstepping control design methodology. To establish the proposed control system, the lateral offset to the reference path, the heading angle of vehicle relative to tangent line to the path, and path curvature are required. Those inputs to the controller have been calculated through Kalman filter which is frequently adopted for the purpose. The lane mark detection has been achieved in an ECU (Electric Control Unit) platform with vision sensor. The yaw rate and side-slip angle also needed in the controller are estimated by Kalman estimator. To show the performance of the proposed controller under different speeds, experiment has been conducted on a proving ground having straight and curve sections with the curvature of about 260m.

This paper describes an approach to simulate spindle coupled full vehicle durability tests for the purpose of completing virtual durability evaluations on components and full vehicles before a prototype is available. The reproduction of measured spindle loads was achieved on a virtual model of a passenger car coupled to a 4 Degree of Freedom (DOF) and 6 DOF spindle coupled test system. The tools and process improvements developed here will aid both test and analysis engineers in working closer together in solving their durability problems. By using Remote Parameter Control® (RPC®) technology in the virtual world, analysts have a new method to understand the virtual model by reproducing field-measured or generic road predicted signals for a variety of road surfaces. With newly created test rig models and a user friendly RPC™ iteration process, virtual testing that accurately replicates laboratory tests are now a reality.

In this paper, the vibration and noise reduction technology for diesel common rail injection system is studied. The NV problems of the injection system come typically from mechanical contacts (injector needle, pump) or fluid pulsations. They are exciting the injection system, which translates the excitations to the engine through the connection points. But it's not easy to identify the characteristic of internal excitation force exactly, so the simulation model based measurement test is considered at here. In order to predict the vibrations due to excitation related with the injection system of the diesel engine, the 1D/3D simulation models are used and the necessary dynamic tests, which are needed to create and validate the models, are done in the test bench.

A fractional recirculation of cabin air was proposed and studied to improve cabin air quality by reducing cabin particle concentrations. Vehicle tests were run with differing number of passengers (1, 2, 3, and 4), four fan speed settings and at 20, 40, and 70 mph. A manual control was installed for the recirculation flap door so different ratios of fresh air to recirculated air could be used. Full recirculation is the most efficient setting in terms of thermal management and particle concentration reduction, but this causes elevated CO₂ levels in the cabin. The study demonstrated cabin CO₂ concentrations could be controlled below a target level of 2000 ppm at various driving conditions and fan speeds with more than 85% of recirculation. The proposed fractional air recirculation method is a simple yet innovative way of improving cabin air quality. Some energy saving is also expected, especially with the air conditioning system.

This paper summarizes the validation of prototype vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) safety applications based on Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) in the United States under a cooperative agreement between the Crash Avoidance Metrics Partners LLC (CAMP) and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). After consideration of a number of V2I safety applications, Red Light Violation Warning (RLVW), Curve Speed Warning (CSW) and Reduced Speed Zone Warning with Lane Closure Warning (RSZW/LC) were developed, validated and demonstrated using seven different vehicles (six passenger vehicles and one Class 8 truck) leveraging DSRC-based messages from a Road Side Unit (RSU). The developed V2I safety applications were validated for more than 20 distinct scenarios and over 100 test runs using both light- and heavy-duty vehicles over a period of seven months. Subsequently, additional on-road testing of CSW on public roads and RSZW/LC in live work zones were conducted in Southeast Michigan.

In order to align with net-zero CO2 ambitions, automotive OEMs have been developing increasingly sophisticated strategies to minimise the impact that combustion engines have on the environment. Intelligent thermal management systems to actively control coolant flow around the engine have a positive impact on friction generated in the power cylinder by improving the warmup rate of cylinder liners and heads. This increase in temperature results in an improved frictional performance and cycle averaged fuel consumption, but also increases the piston to liner clearances due to rapid warm up of the upper part of the cylinder head. These increased clearances can introduce piston slap noise and substantially degrade the NVH quality to unacceptable levels, particularly during warmup after soak at low ambient temperatures. Using analytical techniques, it is possible to model the thermo-structural and NVH response of the power cylinder with different warm up strategies.

This study presents the NVH characteristics of a passenger vehicle with a three-cylinder engine and a Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT) and an optimization procedure to achieve balance between fuel economy and NVH. The goal of this study is to improve fuel economy by extending the lock-up area of the damper clutch at low vehicle speed and to minimize booming noise and body vibration caused by the direct connection of the engine and transmission. Resonance characteristics of the chassis systems and driveline have been studied and optimized by the experiment. NVH behavior of the vehicle body structure is investigated and modifications for refinement of booming and body vibration are proposed by simulation using MSC NASTRAN. Calibration parameters for CVT control are optimized for fuel economy and NVH. As a result, the lock-up clutch area has been extended by 300RPM and the fuel economy has been improved by about 1%, while the NVH characteristics of the vehicle satisfy the targets.

The purpose of this paper is an attempt to make a good compromise between ride and handling without deteriorating each other. Compromise between ride and handling has been a problem for suspension designer. Attempts are made by varing suspension parameters. Effects of each combination has been tested with basic ride and handling test methods. For ride to maintain a constant natural frequency through all load range was a primary target. And for handling to get adequate roll angle at 0.5g lateral acceleration was a target. In conclusion, combination of polyurethane suspension bump and normal rear spring was proved to be able to provide the best compromise, low cost, light weight and better performance. This also showed polyurethane bumper could carry out spring aids successfully.

In-cylinder flows such as tumble and swirl have an important role on the engine combustion efficiencies and emission formations. In particular, the tumble flow which is dominant in current high performance gasoline engines has an important effect on the fuel consumptions and exhaust emissions under part load conditions. Therefore, it is important to understand the effect of the tumble ratio on the part load performance and optimize the tumble ratio for better fuel economy and exhaust emissions. First step in optimizing a tumble flow is to measure a tumble ratio accurately. In this research the tumble ratio was measured, compared, and correlated using three different measurement methods: steady flow rig, 2-Dimensional PIV (Particle Image Velocimetry), and 3-Dimensional PTV (Particle Tracking Velocimetry). Engine dynamometer test was also conducted to find out the effect of the tumble ratio on the part load performance.

This paper presents a transient vibration analysis of a nonlinear full-vehicle. The full-vehicle model consists of a powertrain, a trimmed body, a drive line, and front and rear suspensions with tires. It is driven by combustion forces and runs on a road surface. By performing time-domain simulation, it is possible to capture nonlinear behavior of a vehicle such as preload due to gravitational force, large deformation, and material nonlinearity which cannot be properly treated in the conventional steady state analysis. In constructing a full-vehicle, validation process is essential. Validation process is applied with respect to the assembling sequence. The validation starts with component levels such as tires, springs, shock absorbers, and a powertrain, and then the full-vehicle model is constructed. Model validation is done in two aspects; one is model accuracy and the other is model efficiency.

As the current and future emission regulations become stringent, the research on exhaust manifold with CCC (Close Coupled Catalyst) has been the interesting and remarkable subject. To design of exhaust manifold with CCC is a difficult task due to the complexity of the flow distribution caused by the pulsating flows that are emitted at the exhaust ports. This study is concerned with the theoretical and experimental approach to improve catalyst flow uniformity through the basic understanding of exhaust flow characteristics. Computational and experimental approach to the flow for exhaust manifold of conventional cast type, stainless steel bending type with 900 cell CCC system in a 4-cylinder gasoline engine was performed to investigate the flow distribution of exhaust gases.

The market demands for CO2 reduction and fuel economy have led to a variety of new gear set concepts of automatic transmissions with 4 planetary gear sets and 6 shift elements in recent years. Understanding the relationship between the torque of clutch and brake and gear ratio in the design stage is very important to assess new gear set concepts and to set up the control strategy for enhancing shift quality and to reduce the heat generation of clutch and brake. In this paper, a new systematic approach is used to unify the relationship between torque and gear ratio during the gear shift for all multi-step planetary automatic transmissions. This study describes the unified concept model with a lumped inertia regardless of the specific transmission layout and derives the principal unified relationship equations using torque and energy analysis, which prove that the sum of brake torque is always gear ratio -1 in every in-gear.

There are various tests for evaluating how well a vehicle protects people in a crash. The frontal and offset crash test is one of the most important tests that evaluate the crashworthiness of a vehicle. In this paper, we will discuss some parameters that have a major effect on the amount and pattern of intrusion into the occupant compartment during the frontal and offset crash test. And the characteristics of impact are described according to the types of chassis frame, T-type frame and #-type frame. The T-frame has worse performance than #-frame in crash, So it is necessary to make stronger dash compartments in T-frame. We will design a vehicle which has optimized body, chassis structure and material selections by controlling major parameters of frontal crash performance.

Fuel sloshing noise is involved with flow motion inside fuel tanks as well as structural characteristics of vehicles. Therefore it is necessary to introduce Fluid-Structure Interaction (FSI) analysis to predict sloshing noise phenomena more accurately. Purposes of this paper are to verify the reliability of the FSI method and suggest new CAE analysis processes to predict fuel sloshing noise. The vibration of floor panels induced by sloshing impact is evaluated through FSI analysis. A series of tests is carried out to validate simulation results. The numerical optimization of parameters is also carried out to reduce computation time. In addition, effects of sloshing noise factors are discussed based on simulation and test results. Lastly, a method to predict fuel sloshing noise by exerting sloshing load on a vehicle is suggested.

This paper investigates the sensitivity of stiffness of front and rear suspension systems on the structure-borne road noise inside a vehicle cabin. A flexible multi-body dynamics based approach is used to simulate the structural dynamics of suspension systems including rubber bushings, suspension arms, a subframe and a twist beam. This approach can accurately predict the force transfer to the trimmed body at each suspension mounting point up to a frequency range of 0 to 300 Hz, which is validated against a force measurement test using a suspension test rig. Predicted forces at each mounting point are converted to road noise inside the cabin by multiplying it with experimentally obtained noise transfer functions. All of the suspension components are modeled as flexible bodies using Craig-Bampton component mode synthesis method.

The air fuel ratio of current gasoline engine is mostly controlled by various air flow meters. When CVVT (Continuous Variable Valve Timing) device is applied to gasoline engine for higher engine performance, MAP (Manifold Absolute Pressure) sensor can not be applied anymore due to intake valve motion. Therefore HFM (Hot film airflow meter) is used for measuring the intake air flow instead of MAP sensor. Usually HFM has a little sensitivity in flow direction, therefore reverse flow from engine to air cleaner can not be measured. Also, HFM maker request enough straight duct length nearly 10 times of a duct diameter making a fully developed flow. But, most vehicles have no enough space to install such an intake system in engine room. Thus the inserted duct was applied to confirm the stable fully developed flow in air duct. The various duct configurations in front of HFM effect on the sensitivity of HFM.

Generally, vehicles do not need power during deceleration. Therefore, the fuel efficiency can be improved by stopping the fuel injection in this period. However, when the fuel cut is activated, NOx is emitted immediately after fuel cut. During the fuel cut period, a large amount of fresh air flows into the catalytic converter installed on a vehicle since there is no combustion. Thus, the catalytic materials are converted into an oxidizing atmosphere. As a result, NOx purification performance of the catalyst deteriorates, and eventually NOx is emitted when combustion restarts. The quantity of NOx in this period is relatively small. However, in case of increasing fuel cuts, emission problem could arise. Therefore, in order to meet the stringent regulation such as LEV III-SULEV20 or 30, the number of fuel cuts need to be limited. The problem is that this strategy leads to a disadvantage of fuel efficiency.

With the advent of cars with computerized engines, drivers sometimes suffer discomfort with “check engine” light problem, and as a result, insist on increasing levels of reliability in their cars. Hence, reliability of the wiring harness has become a very important automotive design characteristic. On one hand, the more secure an engine mounting system is, the more stable the engine wiring harness is. In order to enhance their durability, car manufacturers need to perform many validation tests during the development phase which involves a lot of time and cost. In this study, a newly developed lab-simulation test is proposed to qualify the design of engine mounting and engine wiring early in the design cycle and reduce time and expense. The lab-simulation test has contributed to a significant cost and time reduction and has shown good correlation to the original proving ground test.

Transmission error has been well known as the main source of excitation about transmission gear whine noise. To minimize transmission error in the gear system, various analysis methods have been studied and applied for long time. Many researchers were focused on gear micro geometry to achieve the low level of transmission error. But, if the gear is misaligned by several factors such as clearance and manufacturing tolerance error, then the gear noise can rapidly and unexpectedly be increased. To overcome this problem, this new analysis method has been developed and introduced. A transmission system simulation model was constructed, which considers various factors of transmission components such as clearance, stiffness and so on. The deformation and vibration characteristics of finite element models were validated by making comparison with frequency response function experiment.

In order to reduce total drag during aerodynamic optimization process of the passenger vehicle, induced drag should be minimized and pressure drag should be decreased by means of applying streamlined body shape. The reduction of wake area could decrease pressure drag, which was generated by boundary layer separation. The induced drag caused by rear axle lift and C-pillar vortex can be reduced by the employing of trunk lid edge and kick-up or an optimized rear spoiler. When a rear spoiler or kick-up shape was installed on the rear end of a sedan vehicle, drag was reduced but the wake area became larger. This contradiction cannot be explained by simply using Bernoulli’s principle with equal transit or longer path theory. Newtonian explanation with COANDA effect is adopted to explain this phenomenon. The relationships among COANDA effect, down wash, C-pillar vortex, rear axle lift and induced drag are explained.