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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 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.

Copper has been regarded as one of the indispensable ingredients in the brake friction materials since it provides high thermal diffusivity at the sliding interface. However, the recent regulations against environmentally hazardous ingredients limit the use of copper in the commercial friction material and much effort has been made for the alternatives. In this work, the role of the cuprous ingredients such as copper fiber, copper powder, cupric oxide (CuO), and copper sulfide (CuS) are studied using the friction materials based on commercial formulations. The investigation was performed using a full inertial brake dynamometer and 1/5 scale dynamometer for brake performance and wear test. Results showed that the cuprous ingredients played a crucial role in maintaining the stable friction film at the friction interface, resulting in improved friction stability and reduced aggressiveness against counter disk.

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.

The friction properties related to squeal noise was analyzed with the development histories and simplified computational method. Firstly, the development histories were investigated especially focusing on the case which the friction materials were modified to improve squeal noise occurrence. Based on the histories, the friction properties of selected friction materials were newly measured using dynamometer. The average friction coefficient levels, torque oscillations, the increment of friction coefficient during full-stop, and etc. were compared with the squeal noise occurrence, and the results showed that increase of friction properties cause production of squeal noise. The result suggested that the size of friction energy was important factors related to triggering the squeal noise. Also, the contact conditions between rotor disc and friction materials were significant factors deciding the noise occurrence.

Dash panel is the most important path of structure-borne and air-borne interior noise for engine-driven vehicles. Reinforcements, which are added to dash panel, are mainly designed in order to suppress the structure-borne noise contribution from the dash panel. However, the effects of dash reinforcements do not seem clear in the viewpoint of air-borne noise. In this paper, the insulation performance of a dash structure with spot-welded reinforcements is studied through several STL (Sound Transmission Loss) tests and STL simulations. The results of this study could be utilized for increasing the sound insulation performance of vehicle body structure.

For making metal touch feeling and lighting simultaneously, selective electroplating is widely applied in button, panel and etc. in interior/exterior parts of automotive. In this paper, new selective electroplating with printing are suggested as an alternative manufacturing process of two shot molding, PC (Polycarbonate) and ABS (Acrylonitrile-Butadiene-Styrene). Manufacturing process of selective electroplating with printing is as follows: For preventing to plate metal layer in area of letter or symbol, masking ink is printed on parts, button, panel, etc., with electroplatable PC+ABS. After conventional electroplating process, the part has electroplated metal layer except for the printed area. It had been studied the composition of ink and PC+ABS for obtaining skip plating and light transmittance on printed area.

The current sensor for motor control is one of the main components in inverters for eco-friendly vehicles. Recently, as the higher performance of torque control has become required, the current sensor measurement error and accuracy of motor controls have become more significant. Since the response time of the sensor affects the motor output power, the response delay of the sensor causes measurement errors of the current. Accordingly, the voltage vector changes, and a motor output power deviation occurs. In the case of the large response delay of the sensor, as motor speed increases, then difference between motoring and generating output power becomes larger and larger. This results in the deterioration of power performance in high-speed operation. The deviation of the voltage vector magnitude is the main cause of motor output power deviation and imbalance through the simulation.

An engineering strategy to develop a new 27-ton dump truck is introduced in the process of design and analysis. Main engineering concerns in development of the new dump truck are focused on reducing weight as much as 180kg without deteriorating structural strength and fatigue life of its upper body - deck and subframe. To achieve this goal, a stress analysis and a fatigue life prediction based on CAE technique are employed at the early stage of design process. A finite element model of the full vehicle was constructed for the strength analysis. Then the fatigue life was predicted through the strength analysis and an S-N curve of high strength steel. The S-N curve for welded structures made of high strength steel was used along with a prototype vehicle's endurance test in order to set strength targets. As a result, the upper body was successfully developed without any fatigue issues.

Lithium-ion battery has advantages of high energy density and cost effectiveness than other types of batteries. However due to the low mechanical stability, their performance is strongly influenced by environmental conditions. Especially, external pressure on a cell surface is a crucial factor because an appropriate force can improve battery cycle life, but excessive force may cause structural failure. In addition, battery pack is composed of various components so that uncertainties in dimension and material properties of each component can cause a wide variance in initial pressure. Therefore, it is important to optimize structural design of battery pack to ensure initial pressure in an effective range. In this paper, target stiffness of module structure was determined based on cell level cycle life test, then structural design has been optimized for weight reduction. Cell cycling tests were performed under different stiffness conditions and analyzed with regression model.

Conventional combustion models are suitable for predicting flame propagation for a wrinkled flamelet configuration. But they cannot predict the burned gas composition. This causes the overestimation of burned gas temperature and pressure. A modified method of combustion simulation was established to calculate the chemical composition and to investigate their ultimate fate in the burned gas region. In this work, the secondary products of combustion process, like CO and H2, were considered as well as the primary products like CO2 and H2O. A 3-dimensional CFD program was used to simulate the turbulent combustion and a zero dimensional equilibrium code was used to predict the chemical composition of burned gas. With this simple connection, more reasonable temperature and pressure approaching the real phenomena were predicted without additional time costs.

Numerous machine elements are operated in mixed lubrication regime where is governed by a combination of boundary and fluid film effects. The direct contact between two surfaces reduces a machines life by increasing local pressure. In order to estimate machine's life exactly, the effect of asperity contact should be considered in the lubrication model. In this study, new 3-dimensional partial elasto-hydrodynamic lubrication (PEHL) algorithm is developed. The algorithm contains the procedures to find out solid contact regions within the lubricated regime and to calculate both the pressure by fluid film and the contact pressure between the asperities of the solids. Using the algorithm, we conducted the PEHL analysis for the contact between the rotating shaft and the inside of pinion gear. To investigate the effect of surface topology two different surfaces with sinusoidal profile are used. Both film thickness and pressure are calculated successfully through the PEHL algorithm.

The rollcage for WRC race body/rollcage has been developed and optimized by DFSS methodology. It is designed on the principle of reducing it to a Min. of weight compared to the other OEM and the initial set-up model with the torsional stiffness and strength increased. As a result, 12% increased torsional stiffness, maximized strength and 3.7% weight reduction could be achieved. In terms of economics, it is feasible to have a production cost savings of about 11% per car and the effect is further, considering the development period is substantially decreased, 5 to 2 months. Also, in the process of optimizing rollcage structure, applicable items to monocoque body are suggested by investigating the parts and structures that highly affect the body performance.

An efficient method to determine optimal bushing stiffness for improving noise and vibration of passenger cars is developed. In general, a passenger vehicle includes various bushings to connect body and chassis systems. These bushings control forces transferred between the systems. Noise and vibration of a vehicle are mainly caused by the forces from powertrain (engine and transmission) and road excitation. If bushings transfer less force to the body, levels of noise and vibration will be decreased. In order to manage the forces, bushing stiffness plays an important role. Therefore, it is required to properly design bushing stiffness when developing passenger vehicles. In the development process of a vehicle, bushing stiffness is decided in the early stage (before the test of an actual vehicle) and it is not validated until the test is performed.

A new noble material for automotive bumper fascia has been developed by compounding of ethylene-propylene block copolymers with ethylene-α-olefin copolymers and some additives. Also mineral fillers are added, if necessary. This material is suitable for injection molding of large parts including automotive bumper fascia. By using selected rubbers which have proper melt viscosity, molecular weight, and co-monomer content, and adding modified polymer containing polar group, it has enhanced processibility and paintability maintaining general properties such as tensile strength, impact strength at low temperature, and thermal and UV stability. The remarkable characteristics of this material is good processibility compared to the conventional TPOs. This material has especially high melt flow index(20∼30g/10min at 230°C) and stable flow behavior at the processing conditions.

For the lightweight and compact cylinder block, new cast iron liner was developed, which has counter spiny form on the out side of the liner. Additionally, the outer surface was spray-coated with Aluminum in order to enhance the heat conductivity and to increase the grip force between the liner and the block. Without any redesign of cylinder block or crankshaft, the displacement of the engine could be increased from 1.25ℓ to 1.4ℓ by adapting this new liner only. This liner enabled to expand the engine displacement without both great dimension changes and production facility changes.

This study was conducted to develop and validate a multidimensional measure of shift quality as perceived by drivers during kick-down shift events for automatic transmission vehicles. As part of the first study, a survey was conducted among common drivers to identify primary factors used to describe subjective gear-shifting qualities. A factor analysis on the survey data revealed four semantic subdimensions. These subdimensions include responsiveness, smoothness, unperceivable, and strength. Based on the four descriptive terms, a measure with semantic scales on each subdimension was developed and used in an experiment as the second study. Twelve participants drove and evaluated five vehicles with different gear shifting patterns. Participants were asked to make kick-down events with two different driving intentions (mild vs. sporty) across three different speeds on actual roadway (local streets and highway).

As most of today's automatic transmissions adopt a electro-hydraulic control system, the role of electronically controlled solenoid valves occupies an important position. This paper presents a dynamic modelling technique of a proportional control solenoid valve(PCSV) for automatic transmissions in terms of the system identification theory, and analyzes the dynamic characteristics of the PCSV in frequency domain. Also we find that there are good matches between the nonlinear dynamic simulation results and the experimental data.

The present study focused on CrN-Cu nanocoatings composed of nano-meter grains with CrN, Cr and Cu functioning low-friction, anti-wear and heat resistance. The coatings were synthesized by hybrid PVD including metal arc source, magentron sputter source and ion-gun source. Although Cu has low hardness, the hardness of CrNCu is not declined because it was composed of below 20nm sized grains of CrN, Cr, and Cu. However, CrN-Cu had lower friction than CrN owing to Cu’s low shear strength. CrN-Cu films optimized using the Reaction Surface Method (RSM) showed the excellent tribological behavior and low coefficient of friction compared with DLC. The tribological properties of the Cr-Cu-N demonstrated superior wear resistance and low friction at normal and high temperature conditions. The CrN-Cu nanocoatings can be used for the downsizing automotive engines working at severe tribological conditions.

During the vehicle lifecycle, customers are able to directly perceive the outer panel stiffness of vehicles in various environmental conditions. The outer panel stiffness is an important factor for customers to perceive the robustness of the vehicle. In the real test of outer panel stiffness after prototype production, evaluators manually press the outer panel in advance to identify vulnerable areas to be tested and evaluate the performance only in those area. However, when developing the outer panel stiffness performance using FEA (Finite Element Analysis) before releasing the drawing, it is not possible to filter out these areas, so the entire outer panel must be evaluated. This requires a significant amount of computing resources and manpower. In this study, an approach utilizing artificial intelligence was proposed to streamline the outer panel stiffness analysis and improve development reliability.