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Automobile body panels made from advanced high strength steel (AHSS) provide high strength-to-mass ratio and thus AHSS are important for automotive light-weighting strategy. However, in order to increase their use, the significant wear damage that AHSS sheets cause to the trim dies should be reduced. The wear of dies has undesirable consequences including deterioration of trimmed parts' edges. In this research, die wear measurement techniques that consisted of white-light optical interferometry methods supported by large depth-of-field optical microscopy were developed. 1.4 mm-thick DP980-type AHSS sheets were trimmed using dies made from AISI D2 steel. A clearance of 10% of the thickness of the sheets was maintained between the upper and lower dies. The wear of the upper and lower dies was evaluated and material abrasion and chipping were identified as the main damage features at the trim edges.

The increasing use of aluminum in the design of Body In White (BIW) structures created the need to develop and verify repair methodologies specific to this substrate. Over the past century, steel has been used as the primary material in the production of automotive BIW systems. While repair methods and techniques in steel have been evolving for decades, aluminum structural repair requires special attention for such common practices as welding, mechanical fastening, and the use of adhesives. This paper outlines some of the advanced verification and testing methodologies used to develop collision repair procedures for the aluminum 2003 Jaguar XJ sedan. It includes the identification of potential failure modes found in production and customer applications, the formulation of testing methodologies, CAE verification testing and component subsystem prove-out. The objective of the testing was to develop repair methodologies that meet or exceed production system performance characteristics.

A new methodology to predict vehicle interior wind noise using CFD results has been developed. The CFD simulation replaces wind tunnel testing for providing flow field information around vehicle greenhouse. A loadcase model based on the CFD results is used to excite an SEA vehicle model. This new approach has been demonstrated on a production vehicle with success for the frequency range of 250-10K Hz. The CAE prediction of interior wind noise agrees within 0.2 sones from wind tunnel testing. The model has been used to evaluate wind noise performance with different door glass design parameters. A glass thickness change from 3.8 mm to 4.8 mm results in 1.1 sones improvement, which agrees well to 1.4 sones improvement from testing. Laminated glass with about 3 times higher damping results in 2.5 sones improvement. This methodology using CFD results can be used in the early stage of product development to impact designs.

A traditional vane type oil pump used inside the engines and the transmissions has equal angles or spacing between the vanes. The equal spacing intensifies pressure fluctuations generated within the pump leading to narrowband pressure spikes at the pump main order and its harmonics. Unequal spacing, however, can relax the severity of the spikes by breaking down the narrowband peaks and distributing them over a larger frequency range. Optimization of the angles within the pump design constraint can maximize the benefit of unequal spacing in reducing the pressure pulsations for a lower risk of engine or transmission whine. The scope of this paper is around the optimization process for vane spacing and different objective functions which can be used to obtain optimized solutions. The simulation results for optimized spacing based on two different objective functions for 7, 8 and 9 vanes are presented. The design constraints for the optimization are discussed as well.

Electric vehicles are highly sensitive to variations in environmental factors (like temperature, drive style, grade, etc.). The distribution of real-world range of electric vehicles due to these environmental factors is an important consideration in target setting. This distribution can be obtained by running several simulations of an electric vehicle for a number of high-frequency velocity, grade, and temperature real-world trip profiles. However, in order to speed up simulation time, a unique set of drive profiles that represent the entire real-world data set needs to be developed. In this study, we consider 40,000 unique velocity and grade profiles from various real-world applications in EU. We generate metadata that describes these profiles using trip descriptor variables. Due to the large number of descriptor variables when considering second order effects, we normalize each descriptor and use principal component analysis to reduce the dimensions of our dataset to six components.

To support its recycling efforts, Ford Motor Company is using a Raman based instrument, the RP-1, co-developed with SpectraCode Inc. to identify unknown polymeric parts. Our recycling initiative involves detailed dismantling of our vehicles into individual parts, calculating the percentage recyclability and making recommendations for the future use of recycled polymers. While Ford has voluntarily adopted the SAE J1344 marking protocol for identifying part material composition, a large number of unmarked parts still exist and require identification. This identification is being done with the help of RP-1. To facilitate this identification, we have generated an accurate reference library of Raman spectra for comparison to those of unknown materials. This paper will describe the techniques that were used to develop and refine the RP-1 reference library to identify automotive polymers, especially black/dark plastics.

For many years, the use of in-mold fasteners has been avoided for various reasons including: not fully understanding the load cases in the part, the fear of quality issues occurring, the need for servicing, or the lack of understanding the complexity of all failure modes. The most common solution has been the use of secondary operations to provide attachments, such as, screws, metal clips, heat staking, sonic welding or other methods which are ultimately a waste in the process and an increase in manufacturing costs. The purpose of this paper is to take the reader through the design process followed to design an in-molded attachment clip on plastic parts. The paper explores the design process for in-molded attachment clips beginning with a design concept idea, followed by basic concept testing using a desktop 3D printer, optimizing the design with physical tests and CAE analysis, and finally producing high resolution 3D prototypes for validation and tuning.

Growing demand for fuel-efficient or light weight vehicle has become a challenge for vehicle development. Upfront engineering process provides more opportunities for engineers to improve body weight efficiency. To accelerate the upfront body development process, the parametric concept modeling technology is commonly employed to generate parametric three-dimensional geometry, joints, modular components, concept welding, and finite element meshes. The topology optimization which determines the best structural layout without weight penalty has also been used during the conceptual design stage. The objective of this research is to explore the feasibility of integrating the advanced parametric concept modeling and both topology optimization and structural optimization technologies into upfront body architecture development process.

The Corrosion Task Force of the Automotive/Steel Partnership has developed the SAE J2334 cyclic laboratory test for evaluating the cosmetic corrosion resistance of auto body steel sheet. [Ref. 1] Since the publishing of this test in 1997, further work has improved the precision of J2334. In this paper, the results of this work along with the revisions to the J2334 test will be discussed.

The “adequate” number of integration points (NIP) required to achieve accurate springback simulation results is studied in this paper in an effort to clarify confusions reported in the literature and shed light on the origin of the confusion. A bending-under-tension model is adopted where springback solution can be obtained with analytical integration through metal thickness. Numerical integrations are then performed and compared with analytical solution to assess associated errors. A crucial distinction is made in the paper that, the model can be posed either as a displacement-value problem where both tension strain and bending radius are prescribed or as a mixed-value problem where the tension force and bending radius are prescribed. Although they are physically equivalent due to the uniqueness of solution, the numerical solutions are different. The associated errors in springback respond differently to the number of integration points employed.

Transfer functions, one of core components in Design for Six Sigma (DFSS), provide the needed relationships between design, process and materials parameters and the CTQs (Critical-to-Quality characteristics) in the product and process development cycle. Transfer function provides direct method for understanding and representing an over all product and process function. Transfer function also provides a strategy for customer voice cascade, function decomposition, physical modeling and concept generation. The concept of transfer function is not new. However, the development of transfer function is not trivial and is a creative and challenging task. In part I of this paper, we will discuss how to develop a transfer function in the DFSS framework. In part II of this paper, we devote our efforts in the discussion of selecting the best transfer function for design evaluation and optimization.

Trail-Braking (TB) is a common cornering technique used in rally racing to negotiate tight corners at (moderately) high speeds. In a previous paper by the authors it has been shown that TB can be generated as the solution to the minimum-time cornering problem, subject to fixed final positioning of the vehicle after the corner. A TB maneuver can then be computed by solving a non-linear programming (NLP). In this work we formulate an optimization problem by relaxing the final positioning of the vehicle with respect to the width of the road in order to study the optimality of late-apex trajectories typically followed by rally drivers. We test the results on a variety of corners. The optimal control inputs are approximated by simple piecewise linear input profiles defined by a small number of parameters. It is shown that the proposed input parameterization can generate close to optimal TB along the various corner geometries.

In structural design optimization, it is challenging to determine the optimal dimensions and material for each component simultaneously. Material selection of each part is always formulated as a categorical design variable in structural optimization problems. However, it is difficult to solve such mixed-variable problems using the metamodelbased strategy, because the prediction accuracy of metamodels deteriorates significantly when categorical variables exist. This paper investigates two different strategies of mixed-variable metamodeling: the “feature separating” strategy and the “all-in-one” strategy. A supervised learning-enhanced cokriging method is proposed, which fuses multi-fidelity information to predict new designs’ responses. The proposed method is compared with several existing mixed-variable metamodeling methods to understand their pros and cons. These methods include Neural Network (NN) regression, Classification and Regression Tree (CART) and Gaussian Process (GP).

Weight is a major factor during the development of Automotive Powertrains due to stringent fuel economy requirements. Light weighting constitutes a challenge to the engineering community when trying to deliver quieter powertrains. For this reason, the NVH (Noise Vibration Harshness) CAE engineers are adopting advanced vibro-acoustic simulation methods combined with topology optimization methods to drive the design of the under hood components for Noise Vibration and Harshness. Vibro-acoustic computational methods can be complex and require significant computation effort. Computation of Equivalent Radiated Power (referred to as ERP) is a simplified method to assess maximum dynamic radiation of components for specific excitations in frequency response analysis which in turn affects radiated sound. Topology Optimization is a mathematical technique used to find the best material distribution for structural systems in order to deliver a specific objective under clearly defined constraints.

Tire manufacturers have long grappled with the challenge of balancing the conflicting tire attributes of traction, rolling resistance, and treadwear. Improvements to one of these “magic triangle” attributes often comes at the expense of the other attributes. Recent regulations have further increased the pressure on manufacturers to produce optimized tires with minimal performance compromises. In order to meet this challenge, the tire industry is looking to new material systems beyond the traditional tire tread components. Polymeric materials beyond the base elastomers and processing oils used in tread provide opportunities to modify the physical and viscoelastic properties of tread. In this study, various polymeric materials were evaluated as additives in a model tire tread formulation. Hydrocarbon resin, high styrene resin, and thermoplastic styrene elastomers were added to the model formulation at various loading levels and through various addition strategies.

Time to torque (TTT) is a quantity used to measure the transient torque response of turbocharged engines. It is referred as the time duration from an idle-to-full step torque command to the time when 95% of maximum torque is achieved. In this work, we seek to control multiple engine actuators in a collaborative way such that the TTT is minimized. We pose the TTT minimization problem as an optimization problem by parameterizing each engine actuator’s transient trajectory as Fourier series, followed by minimizing proper cost function with the optimization of those Fourier coefficients. We first investigate the problem in CAE environment by constructing an optimization framework that integrates high-fidelity GT (Gamma Technology) POWER engine model and engine actuators’ Simulink model into ModeFrontier computation platform. We conduct simulation optimization study on two different turbocharged engines under this framework with evolutionary computation algorithms.

Thermally sprayed coatings have used in place of iron bore liners in recent aluminum engine blocks. The coatings are steel-based, and are sprayed on the bore wall in the liquid phase. The thermal response of the block structure determines how rapidly coatings can be applied and thus the investment and floor space required for the operation. It is critical not to overheat the block to prevent dimensional errors, metallurgical damage, and thermal stress cracks. This paper describes an innovative finite element procedure for estimating both the substrate temperature and residual stresses in the coating for the thermal spray process. Thin layers of metal at a specified temperature, corresponding to the layers deposited in successive thermal spray torch passes, are applied to the substrate model, generating a heat flux into the block. The thickness, temperature, and application speed of the layers can be varied to simulate different coating cycles.

Thermal fatigue presents a new challenge in cast aluminum engine design. Accurate thermomechanical stress analysis and reliable failure criterion are the keys to a successful life prediction. It is shown that the material stress and strain behavior of cast aluminum is strongly temperature and strain rate sensitive. A unified viscoplasticity constitutive relation is thus proposed to simultaneously describe the plasticity and creep of cast aluminum components deforming at high temperatures. A fatigue failure criterion based on a damage accumulation model is introduced. Damages due to mechanical fatigue, environmental impact and creep are accounted for. The material stress and strain model and thermal fatigue model are shown to be effective in accurately capturing features of thermal fatigue by simulating a component thermal fatigue test using 3D FEA with ABAQUS and comparing the results with measured data.

Over the past five years, the US Automotive Materials Partnership (USAMP) has brought together representatives from DaimlerChrysler, General Motors, Ford Motor Company and over 40 other participant companies from the Mg casting industry to create and test a low-cost, Mg-alloy engine that would achieve a 15 - 20 % Mg component weight savings with no compromise in performance or durability. The block, oil pan, and front cover were redesigned to take advantage of the properties of both high-pressure die cast (HPDC) and sand cast Mg creep- resistant alloys. This paper describes the alloy selection process and the casting and testing of these new Mg-variant components. This paper will also examine the lessons learned and implications of this pre-competitive technology for future applications.