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CHEVROLET has made its new air-suspension system easily interchangeable in production line assembly with standard full-coil suspension by adopting a 4-link-type rear suspension with short and long arms. A feature of the system is the mounting of the leveling valves within the air-spring assemblies. These valves correct riding height continually at a moderate rate, regardless of whether the springs are leveling or operating in ride motion. The system provides constant frequency ride—ride comfort remains the same whether the car is occupied by the driver alone or is fully loaded.

A wet multi-plate clutch, designated as the “starting clutch”, is used to replace the torque converter in the automatic transmission in order to improve vehicle fuel economy. The transmission ratio spread must be increased to compensate for the torque multiplication of the torque converter and avoid penalizing the 0-60 mph acceleration performance. The main challenge of this concept is the control of the starting clutch to ensure acceptable vehicle drivability. This paper describes the system of a five-speed starting clutch automatic transmission vehicle and shows vehicle test results. Vehicle test data show that (i) the fuel economy benefit of the starting clutch is significant, and (ii) a starting clutch transmission can be designed to equal or better the 0-60 mph acceleration performance of a torque converter transmission by proper selection of the gear ratios.

USING a high-speed motion picture camera, flame photographs were taken of the combustion process associated with the starting of hot gasoline engines. Compression ignition at isolated points followed by normal combustion caused peak cylinder pressures to occur prior to top dead-center under some low-speed engine conditions. In addition, an abnormal combustion phenomenon was observed in the last part of the charge to burn. The reaction rate was appreciably faster than normal for the engine speed and much slower than is usually observed in knocking combustion at normal engine speeds.

THIS description of the hydraulic control used with the hydra-matic transmission reveals how the control operates to change ratios under power without direction from the driver. The control's pattern of automatic shifting for ordinary, high-range driving has been selected as the best compromise between top performance and low ratio of engine noise to wind noise. The control's low range shifts gears according to performance dictates alone, furnishing greater power for extreme conditions at low speeds and enabling the driver to use his engine as a brake on steep descents. Heart of the control system is a double hydraulic governor, sensitive both to car speed and throttle opening. THIS paper, as well as the two that follow, one by Messrs. Nutt and Smirl and the other by Mr. Kimberly, make up a symposium on automatic transmission components presented at the 1947 SAE Summer Meeting.

Variable valve actuation has become a very popular feature in today's engines. With many of these systems being hydraulically actuated, the engine lubrication system requires enhancement to support their function. To expand the system's operational range with respect to speed and temperature, a traditional solution has been to increase oil pressure by increasing pump displacement. To better optimize the system, a variable displacement vane pump has been adapted to the engine lube oil system. Based on existing transmission pump technology, a pivoting cam ring design is employed that is able to vary the pump's displacement as a function of pump regulating oil pressure which in-turn provides a net reduction in its drive torque. While others have addressed this issue using complex and expensive pressure regulating systems, this passive solution requires no valves or additional hardware.

The Cadillac Electronic Climate Control heating and air conditioning system provides automatic control of the passenger compartment temperature. It utilizes a microcomputer to control the operation of electrical, mechanical and vacuum components that regulate the amount and temperature of air delivered into the car to maintain the “customer set” comfort level. The first step in the evolution of this new system was to define the performance requirements. With this established, the system was then designed, tested and developed in the laboratory and on the road until this desired performance was achieved.

This study examined whether the effect of subsidiary tasks on driving performance can be predicted from stationary (static) testing. Alternative methods for assessing the performance of drivers during their use of in-vehicle information systems were examined. These methods included static testing in stationary vehicles, as well as dynamic, on-road testing. The measures that were obtained from static tests were evaluated in terms of how well they could predict measures obtained from driving performance during on-road testing (which included concurrent use of secondary information systems). The results indicated that measures obtained in static test settings were highly correlated with corresponding measures obtained from on-road performance testing.

This study assembled a database of anatomic dimensions of Indy Car drivers and developed procedures that can be used as models for future compilations of anatomic data from specialized populations. The database defines the body configuration for the Indy Car driver population and indicates that the current HYBRID III, midsize male crash dummy will provide a reasonable approximation of that population if used in investigations involving issues of crash protection. This study took advantage of a unique opportunity to assemble an anthropometric database from a specialized population which was compared to an existing database collected from a comparable sub-set of the United States population.

This study is an extension of previous work on driver air bag deployment loads which used the mid-size male Hybrid Ill dummy. Both small female and mid-size male Hybrid Ill dummies were tested with a range of near-positions relative to the air bag module. These alignments ranged from the head centered on the module to the chest centered on the module and with various separations and lateral shifts from the module. For both sized dummies the severity of the loading from the air bag depended on alignment and separation of the dummy with respect to the air bag module. No single alignment provided high responses for all body regions, indicating that one test at a typical alignment cannot simultaneously determine the potential for injury risk for the head, neck, and torso. Based on comparisons with their respective injury assessment reference values, the risk of chest injury appeared similar for both sized dummies.

This paper describes the recent efforts on developing an automotive climate control system throughout integrating an electrically-controlled variable capacity scroll compressor with a fuzzy logic control-based refrigerant flow management. Applying electrically-controlled variable capacity compressor technology to climate control systems has a significant impact on improving vehicle fuel economy, achieving higher passenger comfort level, and extending air and refrigerant temperature controllability as well. In this regard, it is very important for automotive climate control engineers to layout a system-level temperature control strategy so that the operation of variable capacity compressor can be optimized through integrating the component control schemes into the system-level temperature control. Electronically controlled expansion devices have become widely available in automotive air conditioning (A/C) systems for the future vehicle applications(1, 2, 3 and 4).

During the automotive brake system design and development process, a large number of performance characteristics must be comprehended, assessed, and balanced against each other and, at times, competing performance objectives for the vehicle under development. One area in brake development that is critical to customer acceptance due to its impact on a vehicle's perceived quality is brake pedal feel. While a number of papers have focused on the specification, quantification and modeling of brake pedal feel and the various subsystem characteristics that affect it, few papers have focused specifically on brake corner hoses and their effect on pedal feel, in particular, during race-track conditions. Specifically, the effects of brake hose fluid consumption pedal travel and brake system response is not well comprehended during the brake development process.

Side impact pendulum tests were conducted on Eurosid I and Biosid to assess the biofidelity of the thorax, abdomen and pelvis, and determine injury tolerance levels. Each body region was impacted at 4.5, 6.7, and 9.4 m/s using test conditions which duplicate cadaver impacts with a 15 cm flat-circular 23.4 kg rigid mass. The cadaver database establishes human response and injury risk assessment in side impact. Both dummies showed better biofidelity when compared to the lowest-speed cadaver response corridor. At higher speeds, peak force was substantially higher. The average peak contact force was 1.56 times greater in Biosid and 2.19 times greater in Eurosid 1 than the average cadaver response. The Eurosid I abdomen had the most dissimilar response and lacks biofidelity. Overall, Biosid has better biofidelity than Eurosid I with an average 21% lower peak load and a closer match to the duration of cadaver impact responses for the three body regions.

This paper describes the results of an ongoing project in the GM Motorsports Safety Technology Research Program to investigate Indianapolis-type (Indy car) race car crashes using an on-board impact recorder as the primary data collection tool. The paper discusses the development of specifications for the impact-recording device, the selection of the specific recorder and its implementation on a routine basis in Indy car racing. The results from incidents that produced significant data (crashes with peak decelerations above 20 G) during the racing seasons from 1993 through the first half of 1998 are summarized. The focus on Indy car crashes has proven to provide an almost laboratory-like setting due to the similarity of the cars and to the relative simplicity of the crashes (predominantly planar crashes involving single car impacts against well-defined impact surfaces).

A family of adult and child size dummies was developed under the direction of two task groups of the SAE Mechanical Human Simulation Subcommittee of the Human Biomechanics and Simulation Standards Committee. These new child size dummies represent fiftieth percentile children who are 6 months, 12 months, 18 months, 3 years, and 6 years old. The sizes and total body weights of the dummies were based on detailed anthropometry studies of children of these ages. The techniques used to establish the segment masses and the resulting design goals are detailed. Appropriate impact response requirements were scaled from the biofidelity response requirements of the Hybrid III, taking into account the differences in size, mass and elastic modulus of bone between adults and children. The techniques used to establish the biomechanical impact response requirements for the child dummies are discussed and the resulting biomechanical impact response requirements are given.

An objective, biomechanically based assessment is made of the risks of life-threatening brain injury of frontal crash test results. Published 15 ms HIC values for driver and right front passenger dummies of frontal barrier crash tests conducted by Transport Canada and NHTSA are analyzed using the brain injury risk curve of Prasad and Mertz. Ninety-four percent of the occupants involved in the 30 mph, frontal barrier compliance tests had risks of life-threatening brain injury less than 5 percent. Only 3 percent had risks greater than 16 percent which corresponds to 15 ms HIC > 1000. For belt restrained occupants without head contact with the interior, the risks of life-threatening brain injury were less than 2 percent. In contrast, for the more severe NCAP test condition, 27 percent of the drivers and 21 percent of the passengers had life-threatening brain injury risks greater than 16 percent.

TURBOGLIDE is the deluxe automatic transmission of the General Motors Chevrolet. One of its most important features is that its performance ratio is available at any throttle position, enabling control of torque ratio and engine output by the throttle pedal. The system includes a five-element torque converter, pump, three turbines, and the dual stator. The entire installed unit weighs 148 lb, a result of the general arrangement and the use of aluminum in the case and bell housing. The authors discuss the basic operating principle of the transmission, the arrangement, performance, torque distribution, control system, and valve body.

The purpose of the Cadillac DeVille Night Vision System is to provide drivers with visual information beyond with the range of their headlamps. It can also help drivers see beyond the glare of oncoming vehicle’s headlamps. With increased visual range the driver may have more time to react to potentially dangerous situations. The system consists of a thermal imaging camera, a head-up display, and image controls. The camera senses temperature differences of objects in the road scene ahead and creates a thermal image of the scene. The head-up display projects this image onto the windshield creating a virtual image that appears at the front edge of the vehicle’s hood just below the driver’s line of sight. This paper will describe the system requirements and parameters of the 2000 Cadillac DeVille Night Vision system.

A test series using eight unembalmed cadavers was conducted to investigate factors affecting the creation of cervical spine damage from impact to the crown of the head. The crown impact was accomplished by a free-fall drop of the test subject onto a load plate. The load plate striking surface was covered with padding to vary the contact force time characteristics. The orientations of the head, cervical spine, and torso were adjusted relative to a laboratory coordinate system to investigate the effects of head and spinal configuration on the damage patterns. Load and acceleration data are presented as a function of time and as a function of frequency in the form of mechanical impedance.

A spectroscopic diagnostic system was designed to study the effects of different engine parameters on the chemiluminescence characteristic of HCCI combustion. The engine parameters studied in this work were intake temperature, fuel delivery method, fueling rate (load), air-fuel ratio, and the effect of partial fuel reforming due to intake charge preheating. At each data point, a set of time-resolved spectra were obtained along with the cylinder pressure and exhaust emissions data. It was determined that different engine parameters affect the ignition timing of HCCI combustion without altering the reaction pathways of the fuel after the combustion has started. The chemiluminescence spectra of HCCI combustion appear as several distinct peaks corresponding to emission from CHO, HCHO, CH, and OH superimposed on top of a CO-O continuum. A strong correlation was found between the chemiluminescence light intensity and the rate of heat release.