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Safety is the cornerstone for Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and Autonomous Driving Systems (ADS). To assess the safety of a traffic situation, it is essential to predict motion states of traffic participants in the future with mathematic models. Accurate vehicle trajectory prediction is an important prerequisite for reasonable traffic situation risk assessment and appropriate decision making. Vehicle trajectory prediction methods can be generally divided into motion model based methods and maneuver model based methods. Vehicle trajectory prediction based on motion models can be accurate and reliable only in the short term. While vehicle trajectory prediction based on maneuver models present more satisfactory performance in the long term, these maneuver models rely on machine learning methods. Abundant data should be collected to train the maneuver recognition model, which increases complexity and lowers real-time performance.

Vehicle sideslip angle estimation is of great importance to the vehicle stability control as it could not be measured directly by ordinary vehicle-mounted sensors. As a result, researchers worldwide have carried out comprehensive research in estimating the vehicle sideslip angle. First, as the attitude would affect the acceleration information measured by the IMU directly, different kinds of vehicle attitude estimation methods with multi-sensor fusion are presented. Then, the estimation algorithms of the vehicle sideslip angle are classified into the following three aspects: kinematic model based method, dynamic model based method, and fusion method. The characteristics of different estimation algorithms are also discussed. Finally, the conclusion and development trend of the sideslip angle estimation are prospected.

Carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) composite materials have gained particular interests due to their high specific modulus, high strength, lightweight and perfect corrosion resistance. However, in reality, CFRP composite materials cannot be used alone in some critical places such as positions of joints with hinges, locks. Therefore, metal reinforcements are usually necessary in local positions to prevent structure damage. Besides, if uncertainties present, obtained optimal structures may experience in failures as the optimization usually pushes solutions to the boundaries of constraints and has no room for tolerance and uncertainties, so robust optimization should be considered to accommodate the uncertainties in practice. This paper proposes a mixed topology method to optimize metal and carbon fiber reinforced plastic composite materials simultaneously under nondeterministic load with random magnitude and direction.

The multi-body dynamics simulation and physical iteration were carried out based on the 4-channel road simulation bench, the solution of fatigue test bench which was suitable for cab with frame and suspension was designed. Large load and displacement above the suspension can be loaded on the test bench, and the same weak position of cab exposed on the road test can be assessed well on the fatigue test bench. The effectiveness of the bench test solution was verified though comparative study. And it has important reference for the same type of cab assembly with suspension in the fatigue bench test. According to the durability specifications of cab assembly, a multi-body dynamics model with a satisfactory accuracy was built. And the fixture check and virtual iteration analysis were used to verify the effectiveness of the solution. According to the road load signal analysis and multi-body dynamics analysis results, the test bench with linear guide and spherical joint was built.

The action of load on the component is crucial to evaluate the performance of durability. Another factor that affects fatigue life is the boundary conditions of the test specimen being tested by introducing unrealistic loads on the component of interest. The physical test is widely conducted in the laboratory. The fixture provides additional constraints on the test specimen as well as reaction forces to balance the test system [1]. The characteristics of the fixture involved in the test is important to analyze and assess the test results [2]. The impact of the reaction force of the fixture on the spindle-coupled axle road simulation test is presented in this article. A simplified 7-DoF (degrees of freedom) model is introduced to demonstrate the dynamic behavior of the vehicle. The influence on the internal load by the fixture has been analyzed. Followed by a more detailed MBS (multibodysystem) model to give a thorough understanding of the phenomenon.

Most centrifugal pendulum vibration absorber (CPVA) research focuses on the horizontal or vertical plane, ignoring the influence of gravity. However, with the wide application of CPVAs in the automobile industry, some gravity-related problems have been encountered in practice. In this study, employing the second kind of Lagrange equation, the differential equation of motion of a CPVA is established, and the first-order approximate analytical solution is solved using the method of multiple scales. The mathematical relations among the excitation torque amplitude and phase, gravity influence, absorber trajectory shape, absorber position, viscous damping coefficient, and mistuning level parameters are provided for study. Specifically, the second-order responses of four absorbers and two absorbers in a gravity field are studied, and the influence of the change in the torque excitation phase on the response of the absorber is thoroughly analyzed.

For distributed drive electric vehicles (DDEVs), the influence of the power ratio between the front and rear motors on the energy efficiency characteristics is investigated. The power-train systems of the DDEVs in this study are divided into two different power-train configurations. The first is with its front axle driven by wheel-side motors and the rear axle driven by in-wheel motors, and the second is with both the front and rear axles driven by in-wheel motors. The energy consumption simulation and analysis platform of the DDEV is built with Matlab/Simulink. The parameters of the key components are determined by the experiments to ensure the validity of the data used in simulation. At the same time, the vehicle’s average energy efficiency coefficient is defined to describe the energy efficiency characteristics of the power-train strictly. Besides, the control strategies for driving and braking of the DDEV based on energy efficiency optimization are presented.

In this paper, the principles, advantages and disadvantages of the main technology of variable strength design of automobile B-pillar Based on the finite element simulation technology, the local stress variable strength design effect of Automobile B-pillar structure is simulated, compared and evaluated. The simulation results show that with the same mechanical properties, the overall lightweight degree of B-pillar structure with variable strength design can be reduced by about 8.9%. With the expansion of the strengthening area of variable strength design of parts, the degree of lightweight of parts can be further improved. It can be seen that the local stress variable strength design method provides a new technical option for the lightweight design of automobile parts.

The price of fossil fuels and the increasing inexorable energy crisis have become vital issues for everyone. Tongji University EconoPower Racing Team was established to participate in the “Honda EconoPower Cup” annually. Every contestant in the competition must finish a certain distance in the fixed time, with the gasoline supplied by the committee. After that the committee will measure the fuel consumption of every team and calculate the distance per liter fuel (the farther the better) to determine the champion. In order to enhance the EP vehicle's achievement we've made some improvements, such as framework, body, engine's optimization and so on. In this passage we mainly state some details of our research approaches in framework, steering, transmission, shape and driving strategy. The main technologies were: friction reduction, lightweight, enhancement of power train efficiency, tire selection and driving strategy.

In this paper, a speed tracking controller is designed for the All-terrain vehicles. The method of feedforward with state variable feedback based on conditional integrators is adopted by the proposed control algorithm. The feedforward is designed considering the influence of the road slope on the longitudinal dynamics, which makes the All-terrain vehicles satisfy the acceleration demand of the upper controller when it tracks the desired speed on the road with slope varying greatly. The road slope is estimated based on a combined kinematic and dynamic model. This method solves the problem that road slope estimation requires an accurate vehicle dynamic model and are susceptible to acceleration sensor bias. Based on the vehicle dynamic model and the nonlinear tire model, the method of conditional integration is used in the state variable feedback, which considers the saturation constraint of the actuator with the intention of preventing the divergent integral operation.

The thermophysical parameters and amount of composite phase change materials (PCMs) have decisive influence on the thermal control effects of thermal management systems (TMSs). At the same time, the various thermophysical parameters of the composite PCM are interrelated. For example, increasing the thermal conductivity is bound to mean a decrease in the latent heat of phase change, so a balance needs to be achieved between these parameters. In this paper, a prismatic LiFePO4 battery cell cooled by composite PCM is comprehensively analyzed by changing the phase change temperature, thermal conductivity and amount of composite PCM. The influence of the composite PCM parameters on the cooling and temperature homogenization effect of the TMS is analyzed. which can give useful guide to the preparation of composite PCMs and design of the heat transfer enhancement methods for TMSs.

This paper presents an integrated modeling approach for real-time discretionary lane-changing decisions by autonomous vehicles, aiming to achieve human-like behavior. The approach incorporates a two-player normal-form game and a novel risk field method. The normal-form game represents the strategic interactions among traffic participants. It captures the trade-offs between lane-changing benefits and risks based on vehicle motion states during a lane change. By continuously determining the Nash equilibrium of the game at each time step, the model decides when it is appropriate to change the lane. A novel risk field method is integrated with the game to model risks in the game pay-offs. The risk field introduces regions along the desired target lane with different time headway ranges and risk weights, capturing traffic participants' complex risk perceptions and considerations in lane-changing scenarios.

With the widespread application of autonomous driving technology, occupant comfort has become a key topic. Occupant comfort of autonomous vehicles depends on the driving system’s performance, so studying the causes of occupant discomfort will help design driving systems. In addition to the discomfort in NVH and thermal comfort, occupant comfort is also affected by other factors such as safety perception. To study the impact of safety perception on comfort, this paper designed a road experiment and focused on the overtaking scenarios. Because the interaction between the ego vehicle and others is strong during overtaking, the occupants are more likely to receive visual stimuli, resulting in discomfort caused by safety perception. In the experiment, occupant discomfort scores were collected in real-time by the tool developed in this paper.

The performance of the rear axle plays an important role in the performance of vehicle, and its fatigue durability is an integral part in the vehicle development. Taking a SUV model as the research subject, a new methodology of multi-channel spindle coupled road simulator and fatigue simulation analysis for rear axle assembly was introduced in the paper, aiming to address the fatigue design and its verification for the rear axle in the development phase. Firstly, road loads in the proving ground was collected by arranging proper sensors. Secondly, physical iteration was performed on the multichannel spindle coupled road simulator by taking six component forces at the wheel hub as the target signals. Then, after the time waveform replication of the loads the durability test was conducted. Finally, the validated simulation model was successfully implemented to improve the fatigue life of the axle.

In this paper, Digital Image Correlation Method (DICM) is employed to measure the shear mechanical property of the new style automotive structural adhesive specimens and traditional spot welded specimens under quasi static uniaxial shear tensile test. This experiment adopts a non-contact measuring method to measure the strain of specimens. A CCD and a computer image processing system are used to capture and record the real-time surface images of the specimens before and after deformation. Digital correlation software is used to process the imagines before and after deformation to obtain the specimen's strain of the moment. And then both the force-displacement curve and the stress-strain curve during the tensile process could be obtained. The test and analysis results show that the new style structural adhesive specimens have a great advantage with the spot welded specimens. It provides experimental evidence for further improvement of this structural adhesive.

In this paper, an equivalent conversion method is proposed to apply the six-dimensional force road spectrum of the four-axle vehicle on the same platform to the three-axle through the axle load comparison. Further, the feasibility of the devolved equivalent conversion method is verified, and the fatigue performance improvement of the wishbone support structure of a commercial vehicle is finally achieved. Specifically, firstly, the load spectrum at each attachment point of the suspension for the three-axle vehicle is obtained through the iteration of the multi-body dynamic model. Furthermore, the finite element model of the suspension for the three-axle vehicle is established; the analysis of fatigue life for the suspension structure is performed by extracting stress amplitude through the multi-axis cyclic counting method and calculating equivalent force amplitude through McDiarmid’s criterion, combined with the SN curve of the material.

A compiled method of the programmed load spectrum, which can simplify and accelerate the fatigue bench test of a car body, is proposed and its effectiveness is checked by the fatigue simulation. By using the multi-body dynamics model with a satisfactory accuracy, the virtual iteration is applied to cascade body loads from the wheel hubs. Based on the rain-flow counting method and statistics theory, the distributions of the body loads are analyzed, and then the programmed load spectrum is compiled and simplified. Through comparative study, the simulation results of random and programmed load spectrum are found to agree well with each other in terms of the damage distribution and fatigue life, which demonstrates the effectiveness of the presented method.

Biomechanics and biodynamics are increasingly focused on the automotive industry to provide comfortable driving environment, reduce driver fatigue, and improve passenger safety. Man-centered conception is a growing emphasis on the open design of automobile. During the long-term driving, occupational drivers are easily exposed to the neck pain, so it is important to reduce the muscle force load and its fatigue, which are not usually considered quantitatively during traditional ergonomics design, so standards related are not well developed to guide the vehicle design; On the other hand, the head-neck models are always built based on the statics theory, these are not sufficient to predict the instantaneous variation of the muscle force. In this paper, a head-neck model with multi DOFs is created based on multibody dynamics. Firstly, a driver-vehicle-road model considering driver multi-rigid body model, vehicle subsystems, and different ranks of pavement is built.

The noise and vibration of electric vacuum pump (EVP) become a major problem for electric vehicles when the vehicle is stationary. This paper aims at the EVP’s abnormal noise of an electric vehicle when stationary. Driver’s right ear (DRE) noise was tested and spectrogram analysis was carried out to identify the noise sources. In order to attenuate this kind of abnormal noise, a new EVP rubber mount with a segmented structure was introduced, which optimized the transfer path of vibration. Then dynamic stiffness and fatigue life of the EVP mount with different rubber hardness were calculated through finite element analysis (FEA) approach. Bench tests of fatigue life and DRE noise were performed to validate the FEA results. Test data of the sample mount shows that sound pressure level of DRE was dramatically attenuated and thus passengers’ ride comfort was enhanced.

This study investigated the effects of underhood structure parameters (two types of air ducts, two types of inlet grilles and the opening angle of inlet grilles) on the cooling characteristics of the rear-engine bus; then, the optimum design scheme of the underhood was determined. The air-side resistance load of the cooling system, which is based on fan performance, was selected as the optimization objective. Simulations were created based on a porous media model and standard a k-ε model. The next step was to build a 1D/3D coupling simulation to utilize the advantages of 1D simulation’s fast convergence speed and 3D simulation’s extensive research range. Besides, the use of 1D/3D coupling simulation can efficiently avoid the errors of simulation results which arise from the non-uniform airflow on the cooling module. Results show that the airflow rate of the rectangular air duct increased by 7 to 11percent.