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Vehicle exhaust waste-heat recovery with thermoelectric power generators can improve energy efficiency, as well as vehicle fuel economy. In the conventional structure, the hot-end of thermoelectric module is directly connected with the outer wall of the exhaust pipe, while the cold-end is connected with the water pipe’s outer wall of the vehicle engine cooling cycle. However, the variety of vehicle engine operating conditions leads to the instability of the hot-end temperature, which will reduce the generating efficiency of the thermoelectric modules and also shorten its service life. This research is on the basis of constructing a heat transfer oil circulation, and to study the action principles and implementation methods of it.

When vehicle traveling on the bumpy road or vehicle acceleration and deceleration, which will cause the body vibration of vehicle, at the same time, a large part of energy would be absorbed by the shock absorber transforms the mechanical energy into heat energy dissipated. In order to recycle the energy of vibration and keep the stability of running car, this paper provides the shock absorber of energy recovery that recycling the energy dissipated from the traditional absorber. The shock absorber includes rod and rodless chamber cavity, the two parts contain oil outlet and oil inlet, which connected to a bridge type loop of hydraulic to make pulsating oil pressure towards one direction, when the shock absorber vibration causes pulsating oil pressure, it drives hydraulic pump operation. Because the output shaft of the hydraulic pump fixedly attached to the input shaft of generator, so the generator produces electricity for recycling energy[1].

Nowadays, off-highway vehicles enjoyed a significant status in the national defense and civil construction. There is no doubt that the working conditions of off-highways are quite different from the conventional passenger cars, hence, their suspensions are particularly designed. Since the hydro-pneumatic suspension technology is maturely applied in engineering machinery, this paper presents a concept for a novel energy-harvesting device, which is applied in off-highway vehicles based on hydro-pneumatic suspension, namely, electro-hydraulic energy-harvesting suspension (EHEHS). The EHEHS took the fundamental of mechanism-electronic-hydraulic system, which consisted the following elements: a cylinder, 2 check valves, a hydro-pneumatic spring, a hydraulic motor, a DC motor, a processing circuit and a battery. In the EHEHS system, the cylinder is used to transmit the vibration energy into hydraulic energy, which is stored in hydro-pneumatic spring.

In order to overcome hysteresis and dead zone problems caused by friction for the proportional solenoid valve, and improve rapidity and stability of the pneumatic system on hydraulic retarder, a closed-loop control strategy based on valve coil current was proposed. The high-frequency low-amplitude dither signal was introduced into the proportional solenoid valve. With the proper dither signal, the stick-slip motion of the valve core was transformed into a steady one, and its dynamic performance was improved. Consequently, response time of retarder was reduced during gear changing. The proportional valve coil current was measured as a feedback for a closed-loop control strategy. Combining with the closed-loop strategy, the PI control algorithm was adopted to make sure that valve current was in accordance with the target value. Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) signal was used for the driving of proportional solenoid valve.

In this paper a new pressure control method of a modified accumulator-type Electro-hydraulic Braking System (EHB) is proposed. The system is composed of a hydraulic motor pump, an accumulator, an integrated master cylinder, a pedal feel simulator, valves and pipelines. Two pressurizing modes are switched between by-motor and by-accumulator to adapt different pressure boost demands. A differentiator filtering raw sensor signal and calculating pedal speed is designed. By using the pedal feel simulator, the relationship between wheel pressures and brake force is decoupled. The relationships among pedal displacement, pedal force and wheel pressure are calibrated by experiments. A model-based PI controller with predictor is designed to lower the influences caused by delay. Moreover, a self-tuning regulator is introduced to deal with the parameter’s time-varying caused by temperature, brake pads wearing and delay variation.

The hydraulic retarder, an important auxiliary brake, has been widely used in heavy vehicles. Under the non-braking working condition, the air resistance torque in the working chamber, which is formed by the rotor of hydraulic retarder's stirring the air, causes pumping loss. This research designs a new type of hydraulic retarder, whose helium is charged into working chamber through closed loop gas system under non-braking working condition, can reduce the parasitic power loss of transmission system. First, under non-braking working condition, the resistance characteristics are analyzed on the base of hydraulic retarder pumping model; then, considering some parameters, such as the volume of chambers and the initial gas pressure, the working chamber gas charge model is established, and the transient gas charge characteristics are also analyzed under non-braking working condition.

The closed cabin temperature is anticipated to be cooled down when it is a bit hot inside the driving car. The traditional air-condition lowers the cabin temperature by frequently switching the status of the compressor, which increases the engine’s parasitic power and shortens the compressor’s service-life. The semiconductor auxiliary cooling system with the properties of no moving parts, high control precision and quick response has the potential to assist the on-board air-condition in modulating the cabin temperature with relative small ranges. Little temperature differences between the cabin and the outside environment means that the system energy consumption to ensure the occupant comfort is relatively low and the inefficiency could be made up by the renewable energy source.