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As automotive technology has been developed, gear whine has become a prominent contributor for cabin noise as the masking has been decreased. Whine is not the loudest source, but it is of high tonal noise which is often highly unpleasant. The gear noise originates at gear mesh. Transmission Error acts as an excitation source and these vibrations pass through gears, shafts and bearings to the housing which vibrates to produce noise on surrounding air. As microgeometry optimization target to reduce the fundamental excitation source of the noise, it has been favored method to tackle gear whine noise, especially for manual transmission. However, practicality of microgeometry optimization for the planetary gear system has been still in question, because of complex system structure and interaction among multi mesh gear sets make it hard to predict and even harder to improve. In this paper, successful case of whine noise improvement by microgeometry is presented.

The focus of this paper is to develop an innovative vehicle layout and optimize vehicle body structure with the latest lightweight steel technologies, such as hydro-forming and hot stamping. Our BIW structure achieved a mass savings of 28 kg (−10%) compared to the mass of baseline BIW structure. (Base BIW : MD_Elantra)

With its advantage on the economic and environmental reason the preference of vehicles with diesel engine is growing in the domestic market as well as European market. And automobile makers are enthusiastic in the development of diesel engine vehicles with more comfortable interior atmosphere in order to meet consumers' requirements. Generally, when compared with gasoline engine, diesel engine has much bigger vibratory input to the mounting structure and produces higher level in interior noise and body vibration. In this paper, the improvement of NVH quality at the idle state of an SUV car with DI diesel engine has been achieved through tuning engine mounts based on TPA (Transfer Path Analysis) for low frequency vibration and interior booming noise.

CO2 emission is more serious in recent years and automobile manufacturers are interested in developing technologies to reduce CO2 emissions. Among various environmental-technologies, the use of solar roof as an electric energy source has been studied extensively. For example, in order to reduce the cabin ambient temperature, automotive manufacturers offer the option of mounting a solar cell on the roof of the vehicle [1]. In this paper, we introduce the semi-transparent solar cell mounted on a curved roof glass and we propose a solar energy management system to efficiently integrate the electricity generated from the solar roof into internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles. In order to achieve a high efficiency solar system in different driving, we improve the usable power other than peak power of solar roof. Peak power or rated power is measured power (W) in standard test condition (@ 25°C, light intensity of 1000W/m2(=1Sun)).

The power trunk lid system is a device that automatically opens and closes the trunk lid by motor, for the purpose to improve user’s convenience. This technology was applied only to high-end large cars such as Equus and Genesis. But as preference for high convenience features increases, the scope of application is gradually expanding to semi-large and mid-sized cars. Therefore, the necessity of securing profitability through cost reduction was emerged, and it made us to develop the power trunk lid system by spindle drives. Compared to the conventional swing arm drive type, the spindle drive type may achieve cost savings, lightness and easy of assembly by optimizing the required motor specifications. However, since it uses a planetary gear with high gear ratio and the high rotation speed of the motor, operating noise is relatively large.

During a new vehicle development process, there are several requirements for side impact test that should be confirmed. One of the requirements is the prevention of door opening during side impact test. Even though there are many causes for door opening problem, this study deals with inertia effect by impact energy. Until now, there have been two classical methods to prevent car door from opening in side impact. One is the increment of the inertia resistance by increasing the mass of the balance weight and the spring force. The other is the application of the blocking lever. Unfortunately, in spite of our efforts, the door opening problem occurs occasionally. Therefore, to improve the problem fundamentally, this paper proposes a new blocking lever mechanism that work similar to ball-point pen structure. The proposed mechanism fixes the blocking lever when the opening directional inertia force is applied to the door outside handle during side crash.

In this paper, a reconfigurable object-oriented simulator is proposed to analyze the performance of Bluetooth Voice Communication Package (VCP) for telecom purposes like hands-free vehicular communication. It consists of a graphical user interface (GUI) for research or validation engineers to investigate system specific performance. For example, a research engineer can utilize this GUI to analyze a system performance using different noise reduction filtering techniques in vehicular hands-free applications. Also, a validation engineer can utilize this GUI to evaluate vehicular Bluetooth audio quality for different vehicles at different driving conditions (e.g. speeds, fan levels, etc.). The proposed Bluetooth VCP model consists of modules like Audio Equalization (EQ), Acoustic Echo Canceller (AEC), and Noise Suppression (NS). This dynamic GUI platform provides the scope to add and analyze new proposed filtering techniques.

This paper presents a novel method predicting the variation of sound quality of interior noise depending on the change of the proprieties of absorption materials. At the first, the model predicting the interior noise corresponding to the change of the absorption material in engine room is proposed. Secondly the index to estimate the sound quality of the predicted sound is developed. Thirdly the experimental work has been conducted with seven different materials and validated the newly developed index. Finally, this index is applied for the optimization of absorption material to improve the sound quality of interior noise in a passenger car.

Shudder vibration of a hydraulic power steering system during parking maneuver was studied with numerical and experimental methods. To quantify vibration performance of the system and recognize important stimuli for drivers, a shudder metric was derived by correlation between objective measurements and subjective ratings. A CAE model for steering wheel vibration analysis was developed and compared with measured data. In order to describe steering input dependency of shudder, a new dynamic friction modeling method, in which the magnitude of effective damping is determined by average velocity, was proposed. The developed model was validated using the measured steering wheel acceleration and the pressure change at inlet of the steering gear box. It was shown that the developed model successfully describes major modes by comparing the calculated FRF of the hydraulic system with measured one from the hydraulic excitation test.

The purpose of this study is to develop a dynamic model that can accurately predict the motion of the door handle and counterweight during side impact crash tests. The door locking system, mainly composed of the door outside handle and door latch, is theoretically modeled, and it is assumed that the door outer panel can rotate and translate in all three directions during a side impact crash. Additionally, the numerical results are compared with real crash video footage, and satisfactory qualitative agreement is found. Finally, the simplified test rig that efficiently reflects the real crash test is introduced, and its operation is analyzed.

The method of Front End Auxiliary Drive (FEAD) system optimization can be divided into two ways. One is to use a mechanical device that decouples crank pulley from torsional vibration of crank shaft by using characteristics of spring. The other is to control belt tension through auto-tensioner in addition of alternator pulley device. Because the former case has more potential to reduce belt tension than the latter case, the development of mechanically decoupled crank pulley, despite of its difficulty of development, is getting popular among the industry. This paper characterizes latest crank pulley technologies, Crank Decoupler and Isolation Pulley, for torsional vibration reduction through functionality measurement result which composed of irregularity, slip, tensioner movement, belt span vibration, bearing hubload of idler and so on. Also it investigates their potential of belt tension reduction through steady state point fuel consumption test on dynamometer.

Usually, fibrous materials with porosity can dissipate the energy of the sound wave penetrating them, so can be the useful sound absorbing materials to reduce the noise in the vehicle. The fibrous materials have been used for the various types of automotive components as the sound absorbing materials, which can be placed close to the noise source, in the noise paths and near the receiver such as passengers. Although all materials can absorb a little amount of sound energy, the term “acoustical material” has been primarily applied to those materials that can provide the higher sound absorption performance above the ordinary levels. One of the examples of fibrous acoustic materials for automotive components is the sound absorbing felt composed of the fibers which have the several characteristics such as the material type, the cross-sectional shape and the fiber density (can be expressed as denier) related to the sound absorbing performance.

In the past few years, technological innovations in the automobile industry took vehicle performance to the next level. One such innovation is frame integrated panel door. This type of door helps automobile companies to have the advantages of both conventional panel and frame type doors. Though it has a good number of advantages, there are some drawbacks too. It requires improvements in its quality, NVH performance, weight and etc. Quality of a door is low due to the limitations in structural design and manufacturing technologies. And it is difficult to have a robust structure which leads to degradation of key performing factors such as NVH. For a lightweight vehicle, it is important to design an optimized structure for saving weight, without compromising its performance. In order to overcome these drawbacks a new optimized design structure is required for door system.

This Study describes about the development of new concept' rear wheel guards for the reduction of Road Noise in the passenger vehicles. The new wheel guards are proposed by various frequency chamber concept and different textile layers concept. Two wheel guards were verified by small cabin resonance and vehicle tests. Through new developing process without vehicle test, Result of road noise will be expected if this concepts and materials of wheel guard are applied into automotive vehicle. As this concept consider tire radiation noise frequency and multilayers sound control multilayers, 2 concepts reduced road noise from 0.5 to 1.0dB. The proposed method of part reverberant absorption is similar to results of vehicle tests by part absorption index. Furthermore, optimization of frequency band in wheel guards will reduce more 0.5 dB noises. As a result of the application of Aimed Helmholtz and Multilayers concept, this paper classifies reduction of the road noise, cost and weights.

The engine indicated torque is not delivered entirely to the wheels, because it is lowered by losses, such as the pumping, mechanical friction and front auxiliary power consumption. The front auxiliary belt drive system is a big power consumer-fueling and operating the various accessory devices, such as air conditioning compressor, electric alternator, and power steering pump. The standard fuel economy test does not consider the auxiliary driving torque when it is activated during the actual driving condition and it is considered a five-cycle correction factor only. Therefore, research on improving the front end auxiliary drive (FEAD) system is still relevant in the immediate future, particularly regarding the air conditioning compressor and the electric alternator. An exertion to minimize the auxiliary loss is much smaller than the sustained effort required to reduce engine friction loss.

Hydroforming process is an emerging manufacturing technology which allows engineers to use continuous closed section without flange for spot weld in a given package envelope. In this research, Hydroforming is applied to a front pillar and a roof side rail for improvement of obstruction angle, body stiffness and roof crush resistance. In addition, the joints of front / center pillar that were integrated into the hydroforming part and structure of package tray were improved. As a result, front pillar width is reduced by 23%, body torsional stiffness is increased by 45% and roof crush resistance is improved by 35%.

48V mild hybrid engine is one of major eco-friendly technology for global CO2 reduction policy. The 48V mild hybrid engine enables to operate torque boost, recuperation and ISG status by MHSG(Mild Hybrid Starter and Generator). The FEAD(Front End Auxiliary Drive) system is a very important role to transfer MHSG power to crankshaft at the mild hybrid engine. The conventional FEAD configuration is relatively simple because it transfers power from crankshaft to auxiliary drive components in one direction. But the FEAD configuration of 48V mild hybrid engine is not simple due to bidirectional power transmission between crankshaft and MHSG. For instance, in case of torque boost mode, the tight side of auxiliary belt is entry span of MHSG. On the contrary, the tight side of auxiliary belt is exit span of MHSG at recuperation mode.

This paper focuses on the optimization of the cross-section of a panel type impact door beam. The key parameters of the cross-section of the beam were artificially changed by using a geometry morphing tool FCM (Fast Concept Modeler), which is plugged in to CATIA. Then, the metamodel of FE (Finite Element) analysis results was created and optimized using LS-OPT. The ANOVA (Analysis of Variance) analysis of results was carried out to find the factor of weight reduction. Finally, a new cross section concept was proposed to overcome the limitation of old structure. The optimization was carried out for the beam with the final cross-section to have 10 % or more reduction in total weight.

In this paper, an optimization technique for thin walled beams of vehicle body structure is proposed. Stiffness of thin walled beam structure is characterized by the thickness and typical section shape of the beam structure. Approximate functions for the section properties such as area, area moment of inertia, and torsional constant are derived by using the response surface method. The approximate functions can be used for the optimal design of the vehicle body that consists of complicated thin walled beams. A passenger car body structure is optimized to demonstrate the proposed technique.

In this study, several design factors are considered to predict door deformation. Door deformation is mainly influenced by air flow around A-pillar and door static stiffness. Therefore design factors can be divided into two categories. First, design elements determined by the appearance of a car affect to the air flow around A-pillar. Second, door static stiffness is determined by engineering design parameters. Kriging method is used to predict door deformation by means of the design factors. Door deformation can be successfully predicted with this method.