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As automotive technology has been developed, gear whine has become a prominent contributor for cabin noise as the masking has been decreased. Whine is not the loudest source, but it is of high tonal noise which is often highly unpleasant. The gear noise originates at gear mesh. Transmission Error acts as an excitation source and these vibrations pass through gears, shafts and bearings to the housing which vibrates to produce noise on surrounding air. As microgeometry optimization target to reduce the fundamental excitation source of the noise, it has been favored method to tackle gear whine noise, especially for manual transmission. However, practicality of microgeometry optimization for the planetary gear system has been still in question, because of complex system structure and interaction among multi mesh gear sets make it hard to predict and even harder to improve. In this paper, successful case of whine noise improvement by microgeometry is presented.

The power trunk lid system is a device that automatically opens and closes the trunk lid by motor, for the purpose to improve user’s convenience. This technology was applied only to high-end large cars such as Equus and Genesis. But as preference for high convenience features increases, the scope of application is gradually expanding to semi-large and mid-sized cars. Therefore, the necessity of securing profitability through cost reduction was emerged, and it made us to develop the power trunk lid system by spindle drives. Compared to the conventional swing arm drive type, the spindle drive type may achieve cost savings, lightness and easy of assembly by optimizing the required motor specifications. However, since it uses a planetary gear with high gear ratio and the high rotation speed of the motor, operating noise is relatively large.

In terms of reducing the gear noise of automatic transmission, improvement of heat treatment distortion of the annulus gear is very important, because annulus gear is very sensitive heat treatment due to thin walled ring-like shape. Nitriding is very effective method to meet the both requirements for heat treatment distortion and durability of the annulus gear, as compared with conventional carburizing. However, conventional nitriding has problems to be applied for annulus gear, such as brittleness of compound layer and low adhesion strength between compound layer and matrix. In this research, we developed the high toughness nitriding and greatly improved the problems as mentioned above, by controlling gas pressure and temperature.

This paper proposes a modeling technique which is able to not only reliably and easily represent the hysteretic characteristics but also analyze the dynamic stress of a taper leaf spring. The flexible multi-body dynamic model of the taper leaf spring is developed by interfacing the finite element model and computation model of the taper leaf spring. Rigid dummy parts are attached at the places where a finite element leaf model is in contact with an adjacent one in order to apply contact model. Friction is defined in the contact model to represent the hysteretic phenomenon of the taper leaf spring. The test of the taper leaf spring is conducted for the validation of the reliability of the flexible multi-body dynamic model of the taper leaf spring developed in this paper. The test is started at an unloaded state with the excitation amplitude of 1∼2mm/sec and frequency of 132mm. First, the simulation is conducted with the same condition as the test.

Shudder vibration of a hydraulic power steering system during parking maneuver was studied with numerical and experimental methods. To quantify vibration performance of the system and recognize important stimuli for drivers, a shudder metric was derived by correlation between objective measurements and subjective ratings. A CAE model for steering wheel vibration analysis was developed and compared with measured data. In order to describe steering input dependency of shudder, a new dynamic friction modeling method, in which the magnitude of effective damping is determined by average velocity, was proposed. The developed model was validated using the measured steering wheel acceleration and the pressure change at inlet of the steering gear box. It was shown that the developed model successfully describes major modes by comparing the calculated FRF of the hydraulic system with measured one from the hydraulic excitation test.

The method of Front End Auxiliary Drive (FEAD) system optimization can be divided into two ways. One is to use a mechanical device that decouples crank pulley from torsional vibration of crank shaft by using characteristics of spring. The other is to control belt tension through auto-tensioner in addition of alternator pulley device. Because the former case has more potential to reduce belt tension than the latter case, the development of mechanically decoupled crank pulley, despite of its difficulty of development, is getting popular among the industry. This paper characterizes latest crank pulley technologies, Crank Decoupler and Isolation Pulley, for torsional vibration reduction through functionality measurement result which composed of irregularity, slip, tensioner movement, belt span vibration, bearing hubload of idler and so on. Also it investigates their potential of belt tension reduction through steady state point fuel consumption test on dynamometer.

A study for improving the resistance to fretting corrosion of SCr 420 pinion gear was conducted. Fretting is the damage to contacting surfaces experiencing slight relative reciprocating sliding motion of low amplitude. Fretting corrosion is the fretting damage to unlubricated contacting surfaces accompanied by corrosion, mostly oxidation that occurs if the fretting occurs in air. Two kinds of conventional heat treatment and a newly designed one suggested for improving the resistance to the fretting corrosion of pinion gear were compared each other to find out what is the main factor for generating fretting corrosion phenomenon. Increased carbon potential at both the heating and diffusing zone and reduced time of tempering was found out to be a solution for improving the resistance to fretting corrosion of forged and heat treated gear steel. On the contrary, modified carbo-nitriding using ammonia gas has been getting worse the fretting corrosion problem.

High speed natural light motion picture records synchronized with head gasket ionization probe and in-cylinder pressure data have been made in the transparent engine of different combustion chamber configurations. For knocking cycles, the head gasket ionization current method simultaneously taken with pressure data was able to find the location of knocking occurrence. To investigate the effects of combustion chamber configurations, the flame propagation experiments for pent-roof combustion chamber with center ignition ( Modified Type I engine ) and modified pent-roof ( Type II engine ) combustion chamber were performed with high speed natural light photography technique. The flame propagation of Modified Type I engine represents more uniform patterns than that of Type II engine. The investigation of knocking combustion was also made possible by observing flame propagation with the measuring techniques that use head gasket ionization probe and in-cylinder pressure data.

Suspension is a system which operates dynamically according to road condition unlike other system statically mounted to the body. Especially this is more remarkable in high performance vehicle because there are more high inputs from road to suspension than normal vehicle. For this reason, the tightening torque of suspension system of high performance vehicle is more important than other systems and normal vehicle. To support the clamping between parts against force from road when cornering, optimized tightening torque is required to maximize R&H performance. For this optimization, it should be conducted first to comprehend how much performance effects on vehicle by tightening torque. This paper presents relationship between tightening torque of suspension parts hardware and R&H performance.

The engine indicated torque is not delivered entirely to the wheels, because it is lowered by losses, such as the pumping, mechanical friction and front auxiliary power consumption. The front auxiliary belt drive system is a big power consumer-fueling and operating the various accessory devices, such as air conditioning compressor, electric alternator, and power steering pump. The standard fuel economy test does not consider the auxiliary driving torque when it is activated during the actual driving condition and it is considered a five-cycle correction factor only. Therefore, research on improving the front end auxiliary drive (FEAD) system is still relevant in the immediate future, particularly regarding the air conditioning compressor and the electric alternator. An exertion to minimize the auxiliary loss is much smaller than the sustained effort required to reduce engine friction loss.

Tuning the size and position of the cooling water holes in the head gasket during engine cooling system development is generally positioned at the final stage of the cooling system hardware design. Until now, the gasket hole tuning operation was dependent on the case study through repetitive CFD analysis. In this process, there was a difference in the optimization level by know-how and expertise of the person in charge. In this study, a gasket hole tuning technique was developed using optimization algorithms to improve the level of optimization. First, select factors and perform screening using the DOE(Design Of Experiments) method, and then find the optimal gasket hole size and arrangement through the optimal design process based on the results of the CFD analysis planned by DOE.

Various optimization schemes have successfully been utilized to design mounting brackets of chassis components, especially suspension systems, in the large commercial vehicle development process. Depending on the design status, different optimization schemes, i.e. size, topology, and shape, are applied. There are two key elements that determine types of optimization schemes used, which are design freedom and available analysis time. First, in a case that the design is already frozen near the mass production, so that only minimal design change and time is allowed, the size optimization is attempted. Second, in the middle of the design process where relatively more room for the change is available, the topology optimization is adequate to carry out, based on the basic CAD model.

The subject of this study is a centrifugal compressor for Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles (FCEV). Recently there is a growing interest in FCEVs since they are considered a realistic solution to environmental regulations for passenger cars to reduce emissions. Water vapor is the only byproduct of a reaction in the Proton Electrolyte Membrane (PEM) fuel cell stack which generates electricity with oxygen from the surrounding air and hydrogen from a fuel tank. Auxiliary systems called Balance of Plant (BOP) serve to provide air and hydrogen to the stack in a correct ratio. The compressor is one of key components of this system because compression of the intake air brings an increase in efficiency and power density of the FCEV. This paper presents the characteristics of a 10 kW class centrifugal compressor with an oil-free bearing system. It consists of a shaft, two airfoil journal bearings and a pair of thrust bearings.

Design optimization of a vehicle is required to increase a product value for noise and vibration performances and for a fuel-efficient car. This paper describes the development process of a high stiffness and lightweight vehicle. A parameter study is carried out at the initial stage of design using the mother car, and a design guide with a good performance is achieved early prior to the development of the proto car. Influences of body stiffness based on the relative weight ratio of the floor and side structures are analyzed. Results show that bending and torsional stiffness has a significant effect on weight distribution ratio. Influences of the distribution of side joint stiffness are analyzed through numerical experiments. Results reveal that the stiffness difference between the upper and lower parts should be small to increase the stiffness of a body.

Impact resistance of plastic underbody parts was studied using simulated injection-molded specimen which can be tested according to different types of material used, injection molding variants like position and number of injection molding gates, and features of ribs. Material applied was glass fiber reinforced polyamide which can be used in underbody parts. Test was performed using several combinations of injection molding gates and rib types. From the test result, optimal design guide for plastic underbody parts was determined. Also, new high impact resistant plastic material made of glass fiber reinforced polyamide 66 (PA66) and polyamide 6 (PA6) alloy was developed and the material properties useful for CAE were determined. As a case study, oil pan and muffler housing were designed following the optimal design guide and CAE. And the reliability of the sample muffler housing designed was verified.

Since the fuel efficiency of vehicle has become one of the big issues due to environmental pollution problems, many studies have been conducted on various methods such as improving powertrain performance and aerodynamic performance, reducing the weight of the vehicle and so on. There have been many new attempts to reduce weight but mostly about improving material property. In the case of vehicles sharing the same platform, the weight and cost of vehicle are mainly changed by the exterior styling. But, there is no solution to control the exterior styling in terms of the weight and cost of vehicle, yet. The purpose of this study is to find the way to save the weight and cost of vehicle while achieving the various performance and requirements of vehicle (safety, aerodynamics, driver’s visibility and so on) from exterior styling point of view. We focused on the weight difference of the vehicles that shared the platform and were same overall dimensions.

Hyundai Kia Motors started developing the under-floor of YF sonata, the base platform for mid-to-large size sedans, in order to reduce weight and improve body performance. For local dynamic rigidity, there are design improvement and additional support structures at suspension mounting area. The strength at the joint where longitudinal and transverse members meet is increased to improve the overall body stiffness, and also the riding comfort and handling. Impact performance and safety is also improved by straightening the major structural members and strengthening the joint areas, efficiently absorbing and inducing the impact energy through load paths. As the body of a vehicle is the constitution of numerous parts, increased strength at the joints and major structural members with more linear profiles have played crucial roles in the improvement in overall body performance.

To meet the indoor air quality guideline of newly manufactured vehicles in Korea, China, and other countries, low formaldehyde grade POM (Polyoxymethylene) is used for interior parts essentially. In this paper, formaldehyde scavengers from of 2 commercial low formaldehyde grade POM pellets were identified by LC-MS (Liquid chromatograph-Mass spectrometer) as sebacic dihydrazide and dodecanedioic dihydrazide respectively. The reaction products between formaldehyde and formaldehyde scavengers were also detected, which were converted from hydrazide to hydrazone. So, this kind of additive would be gradually consumed by repetitive molding process or exposure to heat according to formaldehyde emission increase. We are expecting to apply this analytical method and result for quality control and benchmark of low formaldehyde grade POM.

A new point of view in automatic transmission is proposed by R-R chart, which is a new analytic method based on the linearity of planetary gear and gear shift mechanism. The R-R chart is a visual tool to describe the whole motion of each rotational element of planetary gears in relation to the gear shift mechanism. Therefore, anyone can easily find on R-R chart not only the substance of the gear shift mechanisms in present automatic transmissions but also new gear shift mechanisms for the future automatic transmissions. This paper shows that the R-R chart is unique in 4-speed automatic transmissions with fixed compound planetary gear sets. As a result of the R-R chart application, this paper classifies the fixed compound planetary gear sets with 4 elements into 12 sets and the gear shift mechanisms into 3 types. Also, 4 R-R characteristic equations are derived as a correlation between speed ratios in 4-speed automatic transmissions.

In recent years, the emerging technology competitions in automotive industry are improving engine efficiency and electronizing for coping with stringent fuel-economy regulations. However, fuel-economy technologies such as engine down-sizing and numerous electronic parts entrust burden plastic materials acing as mainly electric insulation and housing to have to be higher performance, especially temperature endurance. Engineering plastics (EPs) have critical limitations in terms of degradation by heat. Heat-resisting additives in EP are generally used to be anti-degradation as activating non-radical decomposition of peroxide. However, it could not be effective way to impede the degradation in long term heat aging over 1,000 hours at high temperature above 180 °C. In this study, we suggested the new solution called ‘shield effect’ that is purposeful oxidation at the surface and local crystallization of EP to stop prevent penetrating oxygen to inside of that.