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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.

The hydraulic retarder, which is an auxiliary brake device for enhancing traffic safety, has been widely used in kinds of heavy commercial vehicles. When the vehicle equipped with the retarder is traveling in non-braking state, the transmission loss would be caused because of the stirring air between working wheels of the rotor and the stator no matter if the retarder connects in parallel or in series with the transmission [1]. This paper introduces an elaborate hydraulic retarder air-friction reduction system (AFRS) which consists of a vacuum generating module and pneumatic control module. AFRS works to reduce the air friction by decreasing the gas density between working wheels when the retarder is in non-braking state. The pneumatic control model of hydraulic retarder is built first. Then various driving conditions are considered to verify the performance of the AFRS. The stability of the AFRS is analyzed based on the complete driveline model.

Head-up Display (HUD) system can avoid drivers’ distraction on dashboard and effectively reduce collisions caused by emergency events, which is gradually being realized by researchers around the world. However, the current HUD only displays information like speed, fuel consumption, other information like acceleration and braking can’t be displayed yet. This research will use the indicator symbol‘s color and position change to remind drivers to brake or accelerate. Drivers can do driving operation timely and accurately. The system has the advantages of safety, intuition and real-time. The vehicle safe speed is calculated according to the road parameters, like adhesion coefficient and slope, and vehicle parameters, such as vehicle mass and centroid. Then, the appropriate braking operations are obtained by combining the vehicle driving state. The braking information is corresponded to the color and position change of the indicator symbol to prompt the drivers by the HUD interface.

Systematic research on dynamic model, simulation analyses, prototype production and bench tests have been carried out in recent years on the most popular energy-harvesting shock absorbers-the mechanical motion rectifier (MMR), and the hydraulic-electromagnetic energy-regenerative shock absorber (HESA). This paper presents a novel application of the HESA into bogie system of railway vehicles. In order to study the differences of suspension performance and energy harvesting property between first suspension system and second suspension system of the application, simulation models are built in AMESim to make comparison studies on the different department suspensions caused by the nonlinear damping behaviors of the HESA. The simulation results show that the system can effectively reduce the impact between wheel and rail tracks, while maintaining good potential to recycle vibratory energy.

To study the mechanism of the effect of low-viscosity oils on engine friction loss reduction so as to improve the vehicle fuel economy of the Worldwide harmonized Light vehicles Test Cycle (WLTC) by upgrading the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) viscosity grade of the factory fill oil from 5W30 to 0W20, eight 0W20 oil samples were blended with different doses of base oil, viscosity modifier (VM), and friction modifier (FM). Theoretical analysis by AVL-EXCITE simulation of the key friction pairs combined with practical engine friction torque test and vehicle WLTC fuel consumption tests were carried out. The results showed that 0W20 oils can effectively reduce the engine friction torque by 5.64 Nm and the friction loss by 11.95% with the throttle fully opened; while with the throttle closed, the friction torque decreased by 3.53 Nm and the friction loss by 11.26%, resulting to the improvement of the vehicle WLTC fuel economy by 2.08%.

A patented VCC (variable combustion chamber) piston mechanism is presented, by which excess in-cylinder pressure would be able to be limited effectively based on each working cycle while a spark-ignition engine running with higher CR (compression ratio) of 12.0:1. A conventional engine can be converted to a VCC engine just by replacing its typical pistons with VCC pistons. Besides the benefits that VCR (Variable Compression Ratio) has been still pursued so far, there would be other advantages for VCC engine, such as excellent fuel economy at each load not only at light loads, and the improvement of cycle-by-cycle variation of in-cylinder pressure, and high reliability with simple structure. The innovative design of VCC piston is introduced. The main design features of VCC piston are a VCC mechanism assembled between the piston crown and the piston skirt, and a special reset cam assembled at the wrist-pin end of the connecting rod.

Radiative cooling uses the cold space source to cool the object. The radiative cooling film prepared based on the principle can reduce the fuel consumption of automobile air conditioning refrigeration. In this paper, according to the passive radiative cooling principle, taking SiO2 as the radiative cooling film of infrared radiation material, the theoretical cooling value of the passenger compartment of the automobile is calculated and analyzed based on the heat balance equation. The influence of radiative cooling film on the temperature field of passenger cabins was studied by finite element analysis. The results show that the cooling film made of SiO2 as passive radiation material has an apparent cooling effect on the passenger cabins. At the ambient temperature of 35.15°C, the theoretical cooling temperature is 6.7K. When the radiative cooling film is applied to automobiles, the cooling value of the passenger cabin body, seat, instrument panel, and other parts reaches 2.2K-5.1K.

A new type of dual fuel supply system has been developed. This system is able to economically convert conventional diesel engines into dual-fuel engines like LPG/Diesel engines and CNG/Diesel engines, which are capable of either using single diesel fuel or using dual-fuel including both diesel and CNG fuel or both diesel and LPG fuel. These diesel-LPG engines have been applied to the diesel buses in the public transportation of Guangzhou city, one of the biggest cities in China, owning to their low soot emissions, excellent operating performances and extremely low cost as well. Compared with the diesel baseline engine, it was found that there were a significant reduction in soot emission and an improvement of the fuel consumption with the diesel-LPG engine. Also the strategy on LPG content is discussed in order to meet the demands for soot emission, fuel economy, transient performance and output power at the same time.

There are a large number of curves and slopes in the mountainous areas. Unreasonable acceleration and deceleration in these areas will increase the burden of the brake system and the fuel consumption of the vehicle. The main purpose of this paper is to introduce a speed planning and promotion system for commercial vehicles in mountainous areas. The wind, slope, curve, engine brake, and rolling resistances are analyzed to establish the thermal model of the brake system. Based on the thermal model, the safe speed of the brake system is acquired. The maximum safe speed on the turning section is generated by the vehicle dynamic model. And the economic speed is calculated according to the fuel consumption model. The planning speed is provided based on these models. This system can guide the driver to handle the vehicle speed more reasonably.

In the Plug-in hybrid electric bus, the power train parameter and control strategy significantly affect the economy and dynamic performance. Thus, the simultaneous optimization of power train parameter and control strategy is designed for the trade-off between the dynamic and economic performance. Depending on the parallel electric auxiliary control strategy in a plug-in hybrid electric bus, a vehicle dynamic simulation model is built with the software AVL Cruise. Aiming at the minimization of equivalent gas consumption and acceleration time from 0 to 50kmph, the gear ratio, final drive ratio, gear shifting strategy and control strategy are chosen as optimal variable, which significantly impact power performance and fuel economy. The driving performance and the driving range with full battery are considered as constraints. Based on the software Isight, multi-objective optimization model is built by adopting non-dominated sorting genetic optimization algorithm (NSGA-II).

Lane changing manoeuvers is an essential rudiment in vehicle driving and has a significant impact on the characteristics of traffic flow. In the case of traditional cars, the driver operates the vehicle to complete the lane change whilst for autonomous vehicles, completing the lane change requires planning the lane change trajectory and controlling the vehicle speed during the lane change. Unreasonable lane change trajectory and vehicle speed may cause the vehicle to lose stability, threaten driving safety, increase energy consumption and waste energy. This paper considers the safety and economy of the lane changing process, and proposes a new lane changing method for vehicles.

In winter, the temperature of the coldest month is below -20°C. Low temperature makes it difficult to start a diesel engine, combust sufficiently, which increases fuel consumption and pollutes the environment. The use of an electric power-driven auxiliary heating system increases the battery load and power consumption. Solar thermal energy has the advantages of easy access, clean and pollution-free. The coolant in the cylinder block of the diesel engine has a large contact area within the cylinder and is evenly distributed, which can be used as a heat transfer medium for the warm-up. A one-dimensional heat transfer model of the diesel engine block for the coolant warm-up is developed, and the total heat required for the warm-up is calculated by an iterative method in combination with the warm-up target.

Because of the long driving range and good power performance, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) have drawn much attention. And the current fuel-saving effect of PHEV still has a lot of room for improvement. The complex powertrain structure of PHEV makes the requirements for control strategy be increasing. Therefore, it is crucial to develop an efficient control strategy to ensure that the PHEV operates at optimal performance with an improved driving range. This paper establishes a mathematical model for fuel economy control of PHEV, by treating the torque distribution problem as a multi-stage decision optimization problem, and establishes a global energy management strategy based on a dynamic programming (DP) algorithm. Based on the actual physical model, this paper creatively solves the correction range of battery SOC value according to the charge and discharge power of the motor, which greatly reduces the calculation time of the DP algorithm.

In the intelligent speed planning system, real-time estimation of road slope is the key to calculate slope resistance and realize the vehicles’ active safety control. However, if the road slope is measured by the sensor while the commercial vehicle is driving, the vibration of the vehicle body will affect its measurement accuracy. Therefore, the relevant algorithm is used to estimate the real-time slope of the road when the commercial vehicle is driving. At present, many domestic and foreign scholars have analyzed and tested the estimation of road slope by the least square method or Kalman filter algorithm. Although the two methods both can achieve the estimation, the real-time performance and accuracy still need to be improved. In this paper, for traditional fuel commercial vehicle, the Kalman filter algorithm based on the kinematics and the extended Kalman filter algorithm based on the longitudinal dynamics are respectively used to estimate the road slope.

Heavy commercial vehicle drivers may frequently shift gears when they are running on long and downhill roads in mountainous area. In order to improve driving safety and fuel economy, it is necessary to predict the slope of the road ahead in real time and correct the driver's shift strategy in time. At present, the road slope estimation is mainly based on the real-time estimation of the road slope at the current position of the vehicle based on the vehicle driving information obtained by the sensors, but the road slope of the road section that the vehicle is about to reach has not been predicted. In this paper, based on the road slope information of the road section that the driver has driven through, combined with Geographic Information System (GIS) information and road design standards, the slope of the road section ahead is predicted.

The plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) gradually moves into the mainstream market with its excellent power and energy consumption control, and has become the research target of many researchers. The energy management strategy of plug-in hybrid vehicles is more complicated than conventional gasoline vehicles. Therefore, there are still many problems to be solved in terms of power source distribution and energy saving and emission reduction. This research proposes a new solution and realizes it through simulation optimization, which improves the energy consumption and emission problems of PHEV to a certain extent. First, on the basis that MATLAB software has completed the modeling of the key components of the vehicle, the fuzzy controller of the vehicle is established considering the principle of the joint control of the engine and the electric motor.

The drivers' hysteretic perception to surrounding environment will affect vehicular fuel economy, especially for the heavy-duty vehicles driving under complex conditions and long distance in mountainous areas. Unreasonable acceleration or deceleration on the slope will increase the fuel consumption. Improving the performance of the engine and the transmission system has limited energy saving potential, and most fuel-efficient driving assistant systems don't consider the road conditions. The main purpose of this research is to introduce an economic driving scheme with consideration of the prestored slope information in which the vehicle speed in mountainous slopes is reasonably planned to guide the driver's behavior for reduction of the fuel consumption. Economic driving optimization algorithm with low space dimension and fast computation speed is established to plan accurate and real-time economic driving scheme.

To face the challenges of fossil fuel shortage and air pollution problems, there is growing interest in the potential usage of alternative fuels such as bio-ethanol and bio-butanol in internal combustion engines. The literature shows that the acetone in the Acetone-Butanol-Ethanol (ABE) blends plays an important part in improving the combustion performance and emissions, owing to its higher volatility. In order to study the effects of acetone addition into commercial gasoline, this study focuses on the differences in combustion, performance and emission characteristics of a port-injection spark-ignition engine fueled with pure gasoline (G100), ethanol-containing gasoline (E30) and acetone-ethanol-gasoline blends (AE30 at A:E volumetric ratio of 3:1). The tests were conducted at 1200RPM with the default calibration (for gasoline), at 3 bar and 5 bar BMEP under various equivalence ratios.

In order to acquire low fuel consumption while the engine is running at low speeds and maintain the high power output of the traditional 4-valve engine at high speeds, multiple camshafts were applied in gasoline engines. An engine cycle simulation process of a gasoline engine with multiple camshaft profiles was presented in this paper. Engine cycle models were set up to describe external characteristic at 14 different speeds. A one-dimension model was used to describe the transient heat and mass transfer in pipes of the gasoline engine. In-cylinder combustion model was calibrated by engine test results. The simulation results showed a good agreement with engine testing results. Simulation and experimental research showed the volumetric efficiency and torque were low from 2500rpm to 3500rpm. Some parametrical study was presented for performance improvement of intermediate speeds, including changing induction-pipe length and putting off multiple camshafts shift.

Due to the increase of mining production and rising labor costs, manufacturers of construction and mining equipment are engaged in developing large tonnage mining truck with good dynamic performance and high transport efficiency. This paper focuses on the improvement of the dynamic performance of a 52t off-highway dump truck. According to the characteristics of its operating cycle, electric auxiliary drive system is installed in the front axle aiming at improving the utilization rate of ground adhesion. The new all-wheel drive hybrid electric system makes it possible for dump truck transports at a higher velocity. Both the conventional dump truck model and the new all-wheel drive hybrid truck model are built based on the AVL-Cruise platform. Meanwhile, under the premise of enough dynamic performance, fuel consumption can be minimized by collaborative optimization in Isight.