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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)

For the robust passenger NCAP(New Car Assessment Program) 5star and the stable neck injury performance, a new concept of passenger airbag has been required. Especially, the deployment stability and the vent hole control technology of the passenger airbag can be improved. According to these requirements, the deployment stability technique has been studied and the ‘Active Vent’ technology has been developed. As a result, these technologies have led to achieve the robust NCAP rating and are applied to the production vehicles.

As environmental problems such as global warming are emerging, regulations on automobile exhaust gas are strengthened and various exhaust gas reduction technologies are being developed in various countries in order to satisfy exhaust emission regulations. Exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) technology is a very effective way to reduce nitrogen oxides (NOx) at high combustion temperatures by using EGR coolers to lower the combustion temperature. This EGR cooler has been mass-produced in stainless steel, but it is expensive and heavy. Recently, high efficiency and compactness are required for the EGR cooler to meet the new emission regulation. If aluminum material is applied to the EGR cooler, heat transfer efficiency and light weight can be improved due to high heat transfer coefficient of aluminum compared to conventional stainless steel, but durability is insufficient. Therefore, the aluminum EGR cooler has been developed to enhance performance and durability.

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)).

This paper examines the effect of pulse-and-glide (PnG) driving strategies on the fuel efficiency when applied on parallel HEVs. Several PnG strategies are proposed, and these include the electrical, mechanical, and combined PnG strategies. The electrical PnG strategy denotes the hybrid powertrain control tactics in which the battery is charged or discharged according to the power demanded while maintaining the constant vehicle speed. On the other hand, the mechanical PnG strategy denotes the powertrain control tactics in which the vehicle accelerates or decelerates according to the power load while minimizing the battery usage. The combined PnG strategy involves both electrical and mechanical strategies to find a balanced point in between them. Here, a tradeoff relationship between the fuel efficiency and the vehicle drivability related to the tracking performance of the desired target speed is revealed.

In terms of reducing the gear noise of automatic transmission, improvement of heat treatment distortion of the annulus gear is very important, because annulus gear is very sensitive heat treatment due to thin walled ring-like shape. Nitriding is very effective method to meet the both requirements for heat treatment distortion and durability of the annulus gear, as compared with conventional carburizing. However, conventional nitriding has problems to be applied for annulus gear, such as brittleness of compound layer and low adhesion strength between compound layer and matrix. In this research, we developed the high toughness nitriding and greatly improved the problems as mentioned above, by controlling gas pressure and temperature.

A signal lamp performs a function to inform the position and behavior of the vehicle. And it represents a specific design identity of the vehicle or brand identity. Recently it implements the unique three-dimensional effect while using a LED. However, a number of LEDs and complex form of the lens shape have to be applied, so results in the size, weight, cost increase. In this study, the hologram technology that is an exemplary technique for implementing the described three-dimensional image is applied. With a hologram, it is possible to reproduce a complex shape three-dimensional image by using a hologram film. Therefore the number of parts can be reduced. And it is possible to copy the film has a mass production benefits.

Electric Power Steering (EPS) needs to meet both functional and stability requirements, it plays significant role in controlling vehicle motion. In the meantime, customers emphasizes natural steering feel which can reflect vehicle motion and road surface information while isolate unwanted external disturbances. In general, conventional EPS control algorithms exert assist torque according to driver torque measured from torque sensor, while maintaining stability using stabilizing compensator. However, there exist significant trade-off between steering feel and stability, because the performances of assist torque control and stabilizing compensator are strongly coupled. In this paper a torque feedback control algorithm for EPS system is proposed in order to overcome the trade-off, and to achieve more natural, robust steering feel.

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 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.

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.

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.

High speed natural light motion picture records synchronized with head gasket ionization probe and in-cylinder pressure data have been made in the transparent engine of different combustion chamber configurations. For knocking cycles, the head gasket ionization current method simultaneously taken with pressure data was able to find the location of knocking occurrence. To investigate the effects of combustion chamber configurations, the flame propagation experiments for pent-roof combustion chamber with center ignition ( Modified Type I engine ) and modified pent-roof ( Type II engine ) combustion chamber were performed with high speed natural light photography technique. The flame propagation of Modified Type I engine represents more uniform patterns than that of Type II engine. The investigation of knocking combustion was also made possible by observing flame propagation with the measuring techniques that use head gasket ionization probe and in-cylinder pressure data.

In diesel engine development, the new technology is coming out to meet the stringent exhaust emission regulation. The regulation demands more eco-friendly vehicles. Euro6c demands to meet not only WLTP mode, but also RDE(Real Driving Emission). In order to satisfy RDE mode, the new technology to reduce emissions should cover all operating areas including High Load & High Speed. It is a big challenge to reduce NOx on the RDE mode and a lot of DeNOx technologies are being developed. So the new DeNOx technology is needed to cover widened operating area and strict acceleration / deacceleration. The existing LNT(Lean NOx Trap) and Urea SCR(Selective Catalytic Reduction) is necessary to meet the typical NEDC or WLTP, but the RDE mode demands the powerful DeNOx technology. Therefore, the LNT & Urea SCR on DPF was developed through this study.

Road friction estimation algorithms had been studied for many years because it is very important factor for safety control and fuel efficiency of vehicle. But traditional solutions are hard to adapt in automotive industry because their performance is not sufficient enough and expensive to implement. Therefore, this paper proposes a road friction estimation algorithm based on a trained artificial neural-network which is low cost and robust. The suggested method doesn’t need expensive additional sensors such as optical or lidar sensor, also it shows better performance in real car environment compared to other algorithms based on vehicle dynamics. In this paper, we would describe this algorithm in detail and analyze the test results evaluated in real road conditions.

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.

In the latest works [12], we presented the guideline for reducing Metal pick up(MPU, the main component of disc scoring) by controlling the location of the roughness of disc, the brake pad friction coefficients and the disc slot's size. In this study, the previously studied iron transfer theory to 'Cu free' brake pad and the disc surface roughness controlling methods which are based on the mass production manufacturing process are applied. It is possible to suggest the ways to improve the scoring-free disc without reducing friction coefficient between the disc and pad, and any demerit such as increased wear and airplane noise like conventional slot discs [11].

This model based investigation is carried out in order to control the half order modulation for diesel engines using by virtual calibration approach and proposes a feedback control strategy to mitigate cylinder to cylinder imbalance from asymmetric cylinders torque production. Combustion heat release analysis is performed on test data to understand the root cause of observed cylinder to cylinder pressure variations. The injected fuel variations are shown to cause the observed pressure variations between cylinders. A feedback control strategy based on measured crank shaft position is devised to control the half order modulation to balance the combustion pressure profile between cylinders. This control strategy is implemented in Simulink and is tested in closed-loop with the diesel engine model in AMESim. The closed-loop performance indicates that the half order modulation is considerably improved while having minimal impact on the fuel consumption.

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.

Recently, as part of the effort to enhance fuel efficiency and reduce costs for eco-friendly vehicles, the R-gearless system has been implemented in the TMED (P)HEV system. Due to the removal of the reverse gear, a distinct backward driving method needs to be developed, allowing the Electronic Motor (e-Motor) system to facilitate backward movement in the TMED (P)HEV system. However, the capability of backward driving with the e-Motor is limited because of partial failure in the high-voltage system of an R-gearless system. Thus, we demonstrate that it is possible to improve backward driving problems by applying a new fail-safe strategy. In the event of a high-voltage battery system failure, backward driving can be achieved using the e-Motor with constant voltage control by the Hybrid Starter Generator (HSG), as proposed in this study.