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An experimental study of the acoustic characteristics of automotive catalytic converters is presented. The investigation addresses the effects and relative importance of the elements comprising a production catalytic converter assembly including the housing, substrate, mat and seals. Attenuation characteristics are measured for one circular and one oval catalytic converter geometry, each having 400 cell per square inch substrates. For each geometry, experimental results are presented to address the effect of individual components in isolation, and in combination with other assembly components. Additional experiments investigate the significance of acoustic paths around the substrate and through the peripheral wall of the substrate. The experimental results are compared to address the significance of each component on the overall attenuation.

As part of determining the circumstances of a crash, sometimes components or component assemblies are evaluated to identify if they were damaged as a result of the crash or if they lost function prior to the crash. What role the loss of function may have contributed to the crash is useful in determining if they lost function prior to the crash. The causes and conditions for a brake rotor hub separation from the spindle of a vehicle with tapered roller bearing designs are analyzed through both component level testing and full vehicle testing. Laboratory tests were performed on component assemblies where loads were applied to the wheel assembly and the residual damage to the components was documented. In addition, full vehicle testing was conducted to evaluate the effects of a hub and rotor separation on vehicle control and to document evidence on the components. Real world case studies of hub and rotor separations are presented.

It is very important and unquestionable that we need to have a clear technical requirement for Air Brake Systems and its components, since it is one of most important regarding safety. Looking to heavy commercial vehicles and possible air brake system failures, everything becomes clearly to pay total attention for these normative and regulatory requirements. Historically, the development of Brakes technology has started on EUA and Europe and consequently two strong and distinct requirements were structured: FMVSS 121 and ECE-R13. From decades people are trying to harmonize these requirements and for passenger cars, the evolution was faster. However, for commercial vehicles there are more peculiarities considering regional applications and some of them cultural and implementation time. As globally market is growing so fast as well new markets around the world, become fundamental the clearly understanding of these similarities, variants, peculiarities and correlated requirements.

Innovations in mobility are built upon a management of complex interactions between sub-systems and components. A need for CAE tools that are capable of system simulations is well recognized, as evidenced by a growing number of commercial packages. However impressive they are, the predictability of such simulations still rests on the representation of the base components. Among them, a wet clutch actuator continues to play a critical role in the next generation propulsion systems. It converts hydraulic pressure to mechanical force to control torque transmitted through a clutch pack. The actuator is typically modeled as a hydraulic piston opposed by a mechanical spring. Because the piston slides over a seal, some models have a framework to account for seal friction. However, there are few contributions to the literature that describe the effects of seals on clutch actuator behaviors.

Closures systems performance is a trade-off between NVH (Noise, Vibration and Harshness) and DCE (Door Closing Efforts) requirements. Dynamic sealing performance and sheet metal rigidity are the key contributors for a stable system. The seals actuate like a spring on the system. Higher seal load is good for NVH performance, adding more dumping to the system, but it will negatively affect DCE, as it will demand additional energy to close the system. Nominal seal load must be defined to achieve a balance between these attributes. This study is about dynamic sealing profiles with variable seal load, which provides tunable solutions to address the trade-off between NVH and DCE on the side doors or rear closures. Dynamic sealing weatherstrips are made of sponge EPDM extruded profiles with a specified load, defined by its CLD (Compression Load Deflection), which is given by the cross section design.

Typically, modern automotive engine designs include separate cylinder heads and cylinder blocks and utilize a multilayer steel head gasket to seal the resulting joint. Cylinder head bolts are used to hold the joint together and the non-linear properties of head gasket provide capability to seal the movement within the joint, which is essential for engine durability and performance. There are three major failure modes for head gasket joint: fluid or gas leakage due to low sealing pressure, head gasket bead cracking due to high gap alternation and scrubbing/fretting due to pressure and temperature fluctuations causing lateral movement in the joint. During engine operation, the head gasket design should be robust enough to prevent all three failure modes and the resulting design must consider all three major failure modes to provide acceptable performance.

With the increasing demand for fuel efficient vehicles, technologies like superplastic forming (SPF) are being developed and implemented to allow for the utilization of lightweight automotive sheet materials. While forming under superplastic conditions leads to increased formability in lightweight alloys, such as aluminum, the slower forming times required by the technology can limit the technology to low to mid production levels. One problem that can increase forming time is the reduction of forming pressure due to pressurizing (forming) gas leaks, during the forming cycle, at the die/sheet/blankholder interface. Traditionally, such leaks have been successfully addressed through the use of a seal bead. However, for advanced die technologies that result in reduced cycle times (such as hot draw mechanical performing, which combine aspects of mechanical preforming of the sheet metal followed by SPF), the use of seal beads can restrict the drawing of sheet material into the forming die.

Recent fuel cost increases have changed engine cost/benefit design guidelines and, therefore, renewed interest in engine friction reduction. At a typical part throttle engine operating condition, the mechanical friction (including oil pump & water pump) of a conventional four-cylinder engine consumes approximately 22% of the indicated power. A1 psi (6.9 kPa) MEP reduction in mechanical friction can result in an EPA, M-H fuel economy improvement of l%-2%, depending on the engine/vehicle configuration. This paper reviews various friction measurement methods and presents motoring friction data for several small engines (four and six cylinder). The friction of various components, including the valve train, pistons, rings and rods, seals and engine auxiliaries (alternator, water pump and oil pump) are also shown. Component design modifications for reducing friction are discussed, and projections and measurements of fuel economy gains for improved components are presented.

The traditional moveable glass window seal development process has relied heavily on physical prototypes for design verification. Due to frequent styling changes and an overall reduction in design time, physical prototypes for the glass window seals have proven to be inadequate. Utilization of computer aided engineering (CAE) tools is necessary in order to shorten lead time. CAE tools will help to decrease expensive prototyping, free up valuable manufacturing line time, and improve overall quality. A cross functional approach has been applied to expand the scope beyond traditional methods of moveable glass window seal design, such as wedged boarding, into new computerized modeling methods. The CAE was used to address major requirements of the glass window seals including glass velocity, glass stall force, sealing-ability, seal durability, seal assembly, seal appearance, and regulator motor current.

Several of the authors have recently developed procedures to efficiently evaluate experimentally the relative contributions of various wind noise paths and sources. These procedures are described and, as a case study, results are provided for the noise in the interior of a production automobile subjected to wind tunnel airflow. The present measurements and analysis indicate that for the tested vehicle significant contributions to interior noise are provided by underbody and wheel well flows, radiation from the roof and seal aspiration. A significant tone associated with vortex shedding from the radio antenna was also noted.

On August 9, 1995, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) established the Agency's service information regulations. These regulations, in part, required each Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) to either provide enhanced information to equipment and tool companies, or make its OEM-specific diagnostic tool available for purchase by aftermarket technicians. In 2001, Ford Motor Company developed a Microsoft Access database containing tested and verified vehicle data providing necessary module information from Ford Motor Company's specific diagnostic tools. The database was presented to the Equipment and Tool Institute (ETI) during the 2001 ETI Tech Week in Detroit. The format is being considered a recommended practice by ETI, and could be used by any OEM seeking a guideline for providing the necessary On-Board Diagnostics (OBD) protocol information.

Valve covers are a primary source of radiated engine noise. In this paper, we discuss an analytical approach that captures the complicated nonlinear response of the cam cover gaskets and grommets without the need for a prohibitively large finite-element model of the cam cover system. We utilize a detailed local analysis of the gasket and grommet components and abstract their isolation characteristics for later use in a global NVH (Noise-Vibration-Harshness) system analysis.

This paper provides measurement and analysis on rotor in-plane mode induced squeal. Methodology is presented to simultaneously acquire both temporal and spatial squeal operational deflection shapes (ODS). Rotor accelerations both in the in-plane and out-of-plane directions were measured during squeal along with rotor's normal ODS using a laser vibrometer. Modal measurement and analysis of the rotor and pad in the in-plane and out-of-plane directions were conducted as installed in system condition. The test results indicating rotor modal coupling in the in-plane are provided, and out-of-plane directions, and conclusions on in-plane mode induced squeal are proposed. In addition, the countermeasure for squeal reduction is discussed.

Mechanical losses in electric machines can contribute significantly to overall system losses in an electric drive [1]. With a permanent magnet synchronous machine (PMSM), measuring mechanical losses is difficult without an un-magnetized rotor. Even with an un-magnetized rotor, physical testing can be time consuming and expensive. This paper presents a simple theoretical model of mechanical drag in an electric machine. The model was built using calculations for bearing, seal, and windage drag and was compared to experimental results from testing with un-magnetized motors. Based on this information, the model was modified to better represent the physical system. The goal of this work is to understand the contributors to mechanical drag, to be able to estimate mechanical losses without physical testing, and to be able to quickly evaluate design choices that could reduce mechanical losses.

Press-in-place gasket stability is required to maintain consistent and predictive sealing compression in a sealing joint utilizing a housing groove and a mating component sealing surface. Without proper balance between height of the groove and height of the gasket, the sealing joint can be compromised. Hence, automotive engineers balance design variables with the desire to achieve long term sealability and gasket stability. The percentage of gasket out of groove was varied to study the interactions of this design control and the resultant deviation of gasket centerline to the groove centerline. Finally, an optimal percentage of gasket out of groove is recommended.

This paper proposes a novel probabilistic approach for multidisciplinary design optimization (MDO) under uncertainty, especially for systems with feedback coupled analyses with multiple coupling variables. The proposed approach consists of four components: multidisciplinary analysis, Bayesian network, copula-based sampling, and design optimization. The Bayesian network represents the joint distribution of multiple variables through marginal distributions and conditional probabilities, and updates the distributions based on new data. In this methodology, the Bayesian network is pursued in two directions: (1) probabilistic surrogate modeling to estimate the output uncertainty given values of the design variables, and (2) probabilistic multidisciplinary analysis (MDA) to infer the distributions of the coupling and output variables that satisfy interdisciplinary compatibility conditions.

For the application of advanced clean combustion technologies, such as diesel HCCI/LTC, a compressor with high efficiency over a broad operation range is required to supply a high amount of EGR with minimum pumping loss. A compressor with high pitch of vaneless diffuser would substantially improve the flow range of the compressor, but it is at the cost of compressor efficiency, especially at low mass flow area where most of the city driving cycles resides. In present study, an ultra low solidity compressor vane diffuser was numerically investigated. It is well known that the flow leaving the impeller is highly distorted, unsteady and turbulent, especially at relative low mass flow rate and near the shroud side of the compressor. A conventional vaned diffuser with high stagger angle could help to improve the performance of the compressor at low end. However, adding diffuser vane to a compressor typically restricts the flow range at high end.

Due to global trends and government regulations for CO2 emission reduction, the automotive industry is actively working toward vehicle electrification to improve fuel efficiency and minimize tail-pipe pollutions. Silicon IGBTs and power diodes used in today’s HEV inverter systems are mature and reliable components, but have their limitation on energy losses. SiC, on the other hand, has potential to offer additional boost of efficiency for the HEV drive system. In recent years, commercial SiC MOSFETs have improved significantly in performance. However, reliability concerns and high prices still limit their overall competitiveness against silicon. Ford Motor Company has partnered with semiconductor manufacturers to evaluate SiC products for automotive applications. In this study, 900V SiC MOSFET modules from Wolfspeed are tested and compared with an 800V silicon IGBT module of similar power handling capability.

Rubber is one of the most used materials currently selected to produce automotive parts, but, for specific applications, some improvement is required in its properties through the addition of some components to the rubber compound formulation. Because of that, mechanical, thermal, and chemical properties are enhanced in order to meet strict requirements of the vast range of application of the rubber compounds. In addition to improving material properties, the combination of different substances, also aims to improve processability and reduce the costs of the final product. Recently, the use of nanofillers has been very explored because of their distinctive properties and characteristics. Among the nanofillers under study, graphene is known for its high-barrier property, thermal and electrical conductivities, and good mechanical properties.