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Advanced research in ABS (Anti-lock Braking System), traction control, electronic LSD's (Limited Slip Differential) and electrical powertrains have led to an architecture development which can be used to provide a controlled yaw moment to stabilize a vehicle. A steer assistance mechanism that uses the same architecture and aims at improving the vehicle response to the driver steering inputs is proposed. In this paper a feed-forward approach where the steering wheel angle is used as the main input is developed. An optimal control system is designed to improve vehicle response to steering input while minimizing the H2 performance of the body slip angle. The control strategy developed was simulated on a 14 DOF full vehicle model to analyze the response and handling performance.

This paper deals with simulation studies on surface densification of PM gears by rolling process using finite element method. The PM gear is considered as a porous continuum and analysis is performed using constitutive relations based on Gurson model for porous materials. The influence of various parameters such as initial position of mating gears, braking torque applied, friction between mating surfaces and roll stock allowance on the process have been studied. The density obtained by the process is highly influenced by the braking torque applied. The results presented provide a better understanding of the PM gear rolling process.

The mechanical and wear behaviour of an alloyed gray cast iron with ausferrite microstructure directly obtained on solidification has been compared with austempered alloyed gray iron. As-cast ausferritic gray iron shows finer ausferrite and graphite flake morphology compared to austempered alloy. The volume of retained austenite is about 30% higher in as-cast ausferritic iron due to higher amount of alloying additions. The mechanical and wear properties of as-cast ausferritic iron are almost similar to austempered alloy.

Formability of metals and alloys in general and aluminium alloys and steels in particular is of paramount importance in sheet metal forming in automobile industry. It is well understood that the evolution of preferred crystallographic orientation of crystallites or texture during prior thermo-mechanical processing of sheets plays an important role in determining formability. The formability of sheet is measured in terms of the Lankford parameter or the plastic strain ratio which is defined as the ratio of strain in width direction to that in the thickness direction (R = εw/εt). The variation of Lankford parameter with the rolling direction and standard and ΔR value is widely used in industry as a standard for estimating the formability of the rolled sheets.

Predicting the brake performance and characteristics is a crucial task in the vehicle development activity. Performance prediction is a challenge because of the involvement of various parts in the brake assembly like booster, master cylinder, calipers, disc and drum brakes. Determination of these characteristics through vehicle level tests requires a lot of time and money. This performance prediction is achieved by theoretical calculations involving vehicle dynamics. The final output must satisfy the regulations. This project involves the creation of a standalone application using MATLAB to predict the various brake performances such as: booster characteristics, adhesion curves, deceleration and pedal effort curves, behavior of brakes during brake and booster failed conditions and braking force diagrams based on the given user inputs. Previously, MS Excel and an application developed in the TK Solver environment was used to predict the brake performance curves.

Severe air pollution in cities caused largely by vehicular emissions, which requires urgent remedial measures. As automobiles are indispensable modes of personal and public mobility, pre-emptive efforts are necessary to reduce the adverse effects arising from their operation. A significant improvement in air quality can be achieved through large-scale introduction of vehicles with extremely low emission such as hybrid-electric and zero emission vehicles. Range extension of electric vehicles (EVs) is also of utmost importance to alleviate the handicap of restricted mileage of purely plug-in EVs as compared to conventional vehicles. This paper presents development of a polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cell stack used for the range extender electric vehicles. The Fuel cell stack for range extender vehicle operated in a dead end mode using hydrogen and air as open cathode.

There is a growing need for improved conceptual vehicle designs along with alternative materials to reduce the damage to the passengers and structures in aerospace and automotive industries. The energy absorption characteristics of materials play a major role in designing a safe vehicle for transport. In this paper, compression behavior and energy absorption of aluminum alloy AA6061 and AA7005 tubes in T4 and T6 conditions are investigated by experimental and numerical methods. The AA7005 and AA6061 tubes are solution heat treated and then aged to achieve the final strength in T6 condition. Experimental compression test results have shown improved energy absorption of tubes in T6 condition compared to tubes in T4 condition. There is less variation of energy among the tested samples. The mean load is compared with the results obtained from analytical formulae. Tensile properties have been obtained from tensile tests using UTM for both AA6061 and AA7005 tubes.

Yaw rate of a vehicle is highly influenced by the lateral forces generated at the tire contact patch to attain the desired lateral acceleration, and/or by external disturbances resulting from factors such as crosswinds, flat tire or, split-μ braking. The presence of the latter and the insufficiency of the former may lead to undesired yaw motion of a vehicle. This paper proposes a steer-by-wire system based on fuzzy logic as yaw-stability controller for a four-wheeled road vehicle with active front steering. The dynamics governing the yaw behavior of the vehicle has been modeled in MATLAB/Simulink. The fuzzy controller receives the yaw rate error of the vehicle and the steering signal given by the driver as inputs and generates an additional steering angle as output which provides the corrective yaw moment.

Hydrodynamic parameters play a major role in the dynamics and control of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV). The performance of an AUV is dependent on the parameter variations and a proper understanding of these parametric influences is essential for the design, modelling and control of high performance AUVs. In this paper, a six sigma framework for the sensitivity analysis of a flatfish type AUV is presented. Robust design techniques such as Taguchi’s design method and statistical analysis tools such as Pareto-ANOVA, and ANOVA are used to identify the hydrodynamic parameters influencing the dynamic performance of an AUV. In the initial study, it is found that when the vehicle commanded in forward direction, it is in bow down configuration which is unacceptable for AUV motion. This is because of the vehicle buoyancy and shape of the vehicle. So the sensitivity analysis of pitch angle variation is studied by using robust design techniques.