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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)

Non-Asbestos Organic (NAO) disc pads and Low Steel Lomet disc pads were subjected to high and low humidity conditions to discover how humidity affects these two classes of formulations for physical properties, friction, wear and noise characteristics. The 2 classes of formulations show similarities and differences in response to increasing humidity. The humidity effect on deformation of the surface microstructure of the gray cast iron disc is also investigated. Humidity implications for pad quality control and brake testing are discussed.

The existing FCEV have been developed with only a few vehicle models. With the diversification of both passenger and commercial FCEV lineups, as well as the increasing demand for vehicle trailer towing, there is a growing need for high-capacity fuel cell stacks to be applied in vehicles. However, at the current level, there are limitations and issues that arise, such as insufficient power output and reduced driving speed. As a results, the importance of thermal energy management has been increasing along with the increase in required power. Traditional cooling performance enhancement methods have mainly focused on developing increased hardware specifications, but even this approach has reached its limitation due to package, cost and weight problem. Therefore, it is essential to develop a new cooling system to solve the increases in heat dissipation.

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.

This paper proposes a simplified method to make the flux table considering the magnetic flux variation of the IPMSM (Interior Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machine) caused by temperature change in vehicle traction applications. Nowadays, normally an IPMSM with a rare-earth magnet is used for HEV traction applications. But because the flux density of the magnet varies with temperature, the optimal operating points, such as MTPA (Maximum Torque Per Ampere) and MTPV (Maximum Torque Per Voltage) of the motor drift according to temperature change. Those operating points can be expressed in a lookup table, that is, a flux table obtained by off-line experiment, which produces the DQ-axis current command with respect to the torque and flux reference. To reflect this temperature dependence in control, usually flux tables are generated at high, medium and low temperatures. Conventionally, all the three tables are constructed by experiment, which takes a great deal of time.

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.

A study for improving the resistance to fretting corrosion of SCr 420 pinion gear was conducted. Fretting is the damage to contacting surfaces experiencing slight relative reciprocating sliding motion of low amplitude. Fretting corrosion is the fretting damage to unlubricated contacting surfaces accompanied by corrosion, mostly oxidation that occurs if the fretting occurs in air. Two kinds of conventional heat treatment and a newly designed one suggested for improving the resistance to the fretting corrosion of pinion gear were compared each other to find out what is the main factor for generating fretting corrosion phenomenon. Increased carbon potential at both the heating and diffusing zone and reduced time of tempering was found out to be a solution for improving the resistance to fretting corrosion of forged and heat treated gear steel. On the contrary, modified carbo-nitriding using ammonia gas has been getting worse the fretting corrosion problem.

A study of unsteady compressible flow for two types of exhaust manifold and CCC (Close-Coupled Catalyst) systems attached to a 4-cylinder DOHC gasoline engine was carried out to investigate the flow distribution of exhaust gases and finally to make the conversion efficiency of catalyst better. An experimental study was conducted, using LDV technique, to measure the velocity distributions inside exhaust manifolds and CCC under practical engine conditions. In this study, through experiment and calculation, the effects of geometric configuration of exhaust manifold on flow maldistribution in monolith were mainly investigated to understand the exhaust flow structure in terms of flow uniformity and to improve the conversion efficiency. As a result of this fundamental study, the modified exhaust manifold (Type B) was designed and manufactured. Full load performance tests and vehicle emission tests were performed to see the effects of flow characteristics on engine performance and emission.

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.

The effects of pad properties and thermal coning of discs on high speed judder were investigated using dynamometer and vehicle tests. The friction materials of different thermal conductivities were manufactured and the discs were design-modified to control the thermal coning during braking under high speed conditions. Brake Torque Variation(BTV) was measured to evaluate the judder propensity in the dynamometer tests and the vibration on steering wheel and brake pedal was measured in the vehicle tests. The results showed that the increase of thermal conductivity of pad could not affect the judder propensity during high speed braking below 350°C of disc temperature, however better disc design reduced judder propensity due to the lower thermal deformation. Moreover, the increase of pad compressibility can reduce judder propensity due to the increase of damping capacity.

As the AVN display in the car interior becomes larger and located above the center fascia, the driver's visual visibility is becoming important. In addition, since an expensive touch sensor is installed, a transparent electrode cost reduction technology for a display touch sensor that can replace an indium material, which is an expensive rare metal, is required. In this paper, we developed new transparent electrode materials and manufacturing methods for the touch sensor film which light reflectance is low and flexible without a separate low-reflection multi-layer, so that the design freedom is high and the material cost is low. By optimizing the amount of fluorine doping ratio in tin oxide, excellent electrical conductivity and high optical transmittance are secured, and the surface reflectance is reduced by adjusting the diameter and length of the silver nanowire. As a result, it was shown that the AVN display image and font readability was improved.

The instrument panels are made to meet stiffness requirements and also interior safety regulation such as head impact test. Nowadays, CAE is widely used to predict the test results in advance. However, considering fracture phenomena, the characteristics of material takes a significant role for the simulation of the real tests. In this paper, high speed tensile tests and fracture tests of specimens representing typical stress-states were performed to make a fracture criterion of a plastic material (PC/ABS). The suggested method was validated by comparing simulation with test results.

Ar plasma treatment was carried out to reduce the sheet resistance of indium tin oxide (ITO) thin films. To verify how the concentration of oxygen vacancies in the film increased with the Ar plasma treatment time, cumulative and continuous plasma treatments were conducted. In addition, to improve the transmittance and reduced the sheet resistance the PDMS layer was as a stamp on the surface of ITO. The oxidation of the PDMS stamp appears to be a key factor to improve the characteristics of ITO thin film. Furthermore, an indium-tin-oxide (ITO) thin film with approximately 50 nm thickness was successfully synthesized on glass substrates by using a fully aqueous sol-gel process. The annealing temperature and argon plasma treatment time appear to be key factors in reducing resistivity and increasing the transmittance of the thin film.

The driver’s seat in heavy trucks is designed for an upright driving posture with narrow back and cushion angles; thus, the seatback offers very little support. This makes the sitting posture prone to shifting during long trips, leading to loss of comfort and increase in fatigue. Sitting posture stability allows initial posture to be maintained during long drives, and the lack of stability causes fatigue and body pain during the drive. This study confirmed that enhancement of sitting posture stability of the driver’s seat in heavy trucks requires appropriate support from the cushion. The study also analyzed the support characteristics of each part of the cushion, and presented development guidelines of new cushion. Although subjective assessments of sitting posture stability have been performed, this study presented a method for quantitative and efficient assessment of sitting posture stability using the PAM-COMFORT simulation tool and virtual testing.

Recently, the environmental temperature of vehicles is changing due to the electrification of vehicles and improved internal combustion engine system to reduce carbon emissions. However, mechanical properties of plastic materials change very sensitively to environmental temperature changes, and mechanical properties decrease when exposed to high temperatures. Therefore, it is important to estimate lifespan estimation of plastic parts according to temperature changes. In this paper, reliability analysis process to estimate the maximum service temperature of plastic parts was developed using aging data of material properties, environmental condition data of automotive parts, and field driving condition data. Changes in the mechanical properties of plastic materials such as glass fiber reinforced polyamide materials were tested. The environmental exposure temperature of the vehicle and parts was measured, and the general driving pattern of the vehicle was analyzed.

A series of experiments and computational analysis were carried out on the flow around a bluff body. Some non-streamlined ground vehicles, buildings and pipelines near to the ground could encounter very dangerous situations because of the unsteady wind loading caused by the periodic vortex shedding behind the bluff body. A two-dimensional bluff body model was used to simulate flow in the wake region. Spectral analysis of the velocity profiles in the underbody region was also used to examine the influence of the underbody flow in the wake region. By using a flow visualization technique, the critical gap height and the separation line on the ground were investigated for various gap heights and boundary layer thicknesses. Additionally, the 2-D Incompressible Navier-Stokes equation with an ε - SST (Strain Shear Stress Transport) turbulence model was used for comparison with experimental results.

Impact resistance of plastic underbody parts was studied using simulated injection-molded specimen which can be tested according to different types of material used, injection molding variants like position and number of injection molding gates, and features of ribs. Material applied was glass fiber reinforced polyamide which can be used in underbody parts. Test was performed using several combinations of injection molding gates and rib types. From the test result, optimal design guide for plastic underbody parts was determined. Also, new high impact resistant plastic material made of glass fiber reinforced polyamide 66 (PA66) and polyamide 6 (PA6) alloy was developed and the material properties useful for CAE were determined. As a case study, oil pan and muffler housing were designed following the optimal design guide and CAE. And the reliability of the sample muffler housing designed was verified.

The primary purpose of using a plastic material instead of conventional aluminum cast for intake manifold is to reduce its weight and cost. Moreover, the use of plastic for intake manifold is regarded as a key for further development of so called an “intake modular system”. As a secondary effect, the engine power can be increased with the help of improved interior surface roughness and lowered air temperature. With regard to NVH, however, plastic intake manifold is considered somewhat negative since it is less rigid and less dense than aluminum one. In this paper, the mechanism that plastic intake manifold affects the performance and NVH of in-line 4 cylinder gasoline engine is presented. In connection with engine performance, air flow efficiency of not only intake manifold itself but also other components of intake system and also cylinder head is evaluated.

Optimal Composition of Light-weight BMC (Bulk molding compound) for automotive headlamp reflector using Glass bubble was investigated. Glass bubble (G/B) normally has low heat conductivity which has a bad influence on cycle time making products like reflectors. It was very important to improve the productivity of Light-weight BMC by means of finding optimal composition of base resin, curing agent and other additives. This study focused on the ideal ratio of each component of BMC, unsaturated polyester resin, glass bubble, inorganic filler, glass fiber and additives. Mechanical and environmental properties of the product which was made of optimized light-weight BMC were evaluated to compare with the properties of the product which was made of existing BMC.