Search Results

This paper proposes a new evaluation method of analyzing stability and design of a controller for an electric power steering (EPS) system. The main purpose of the EPS system’s control design is to ensure a comfortable driving experience of drivers, which mainly depends on the assist torque map. However, the high level of assist gain and its nonlinearity may cause oscillation, divergence and instability to the steering systems. Therefore, an EPS system needs to have an extra stability controller to eliminate the side effect of assist gain on system stability and attenuate the unpleasant vibration. In this paper, an accurate theoretical model is built and the method for evaluating system quality are suggested. The bench tests and vehicle experiments are carried out to verify the theoretical analysis.

The fully decoupled brake by wire system is a complex system consisting of mechanical components such as springs and rubber and hydraulic structural components coupled together. Compared to conventional braking systems, it is characterized by the full decoupling of the brake pedal from the brake wheel cylinders in normal braking mode, and the pressure fluctuations in the wheel cylinders do not affect the pedal feel. In order to predict brake pedal feel in a passenger car, a dynamic model was developed for both normal and backup braking modes, taking into account the variation of the volume modulus of the brake fluid and the frictional forces of the master cylinder pistons. The influence of different pedal input speeds on the pedal feel characteristic curve was analyzed using static vehicle tests and the related parameters of the braking system were identified in order to correct the design data.

A fourth-order mathematical model for I-EHB (integrated electro-hydraulic brake) system was derived from its mechanical and hydraulic subsystems. The model was linearized at equilibrium state and then was verified by AMESIM software. The friction model of the system was analyzed based on static friction and viscous friction. A bench test was designed to identify the parameters of friction model. As the I-EHB system worked at different braking conditions, a PID-based switching controller was designed to track the target servo cylinder pressure. Both simulations and experiments results showed that, the response time of pressure was less than 120ms, and there was no overshoot, which helped handling different braking conditions and improving the braking safety and comfort.

Sliding mode control with a disturbance observer (SMC-DO) is proposed for suppressing the sprung mass vibration in a quarter-car with double-wishbone active suspension system (ASS), which contains the geometry structure of the upper and lower control arms. The governing equations of double-wishbone ASS are obtained by the balance-force analysis of the sprung mass in ASS. Considering uncertainties in damping, stiffness, and external disturbance acting on the sprung mass, we design a disturbance observer based on a sliding mode control (SMC) to estimate these uncertainties under the unknown road excitation. By the Lyapunov minimax approach, the uniform boundedness and the uniform ultimate boundedness of ASS with the proposed control are rigorously proved. Through co-simulation of ADAMS software and MATLAB/Simulink software, the sprung mass acceleration of ASS can be obtained with and without the proposed control.

To reduce the heating energy consumption of electric vehicles in winter, a switching control strategy for multiple heating modes formed by three heat sources, including air, motor waste heat, and positive temperature coefficient (PTC) heaters, is designed. Firstly, an integrated thermal management system (ITMS) simulation model for the heat pump air conditioning system, battery thermal management system, and motor thermal management system is established based on the AMESim software. Secondly, the influence of ambient temperature and motor outlet coolant temperature on the heating performance of three cabin heating modes is studied. Specifically, the three cabin heating modes include the pure motor waste heat source heat pump mode, the pure air-source heat pump mode, and the dual heat source heat pump mode with waste heat source and air source. Based on the analysis results, the opening and closing strategies for the three cabin heating modes are discussed.

As the main power source of new energy vehicles, the durability and fatigue characteristics of the battery pack directly affect the performance of the vehicle. The battery pack system was modelled using multi-body dynamics software, with 7 and 13 degree of freedom models developed. Using the established model, the intrinsic properties of the battery pack are computationally analyzed. To calculate the dynamic characteristics, a sinusoidal displacement excitation is applied to the wheel centre of mass, and the displacement and acceleration of the battery pack centre of mass are calculated for both models.The displacement and acceleration curves at the centre of mass of the battery pack of the two models are compared. The results show that the amplitude of the displacement and acceleration curves at the centre of mass of the 13 degrees of freedom model of the battery pack has decreased significantly.

A road test on semi-trailers is carried out, and accelerations of some characteristic points on the braking system,axles,and truck body is measured,also brake pressure and noise around the support frame is acquired.The measured data was analyzed to determine the causes of the brake noise, and the mechanism of the noise of the drum brake of semi-trailers during low-speed braking was investigated. The following conclusions are obtained: (1) Brake noise of the drum brake of the semi-trailer at low-frequency is generated from vibrations of the brake shoes, axle, and body, and the vibration frequency is close to 2nd natural frequency of the axle. (2) Brake noise is generated from stick-slip motion between the brake shoes and the brake drum, where the relative motion between the brake drum and the brake shoes is changed alternately with sliding and sticking, resulting in sudden changes in acceleration and shock vibration.

This paper presents an adaptive H2/H∞ control strategy for a semi-active suspension system with unknown suspension parameters. The proposed strategy takes into account the damping force characteristics of continuous damping control (CDC) damper. Initially, the external characteristics of CDC damper were measured, and a forward model and a back propagation (BP) neural network inverse model of CDC damper were proposed using the measured data. Subsequently, a seven-degree-of-freedom vehicle with semi-active suspension system and H2/H∞ controller was designed. Multiple feedback control matrices corresponding to different sprung mass parameter values were determined by analyzing time and frequency domain performance. Finally, a dual observer system combining suspension state and parameter estimation based on the Kalman filter algorithm was established.

The application of turbochargers in fuel vehicles brings high-frequency noise, which seriously affects the vehicle's ride comfort. The hiss noise of a turbocharged car is improved in this paper. Firstly, under different operating conditions and whether the air intake system is wrapped, the noise in the vehicle cabin and the driver's right ear is tested, and the noise sources and noise characteristics are identified. Then, the acoustic calculation model of the muffler is established, and the transmission loss (TL) of the original muffler behind the turbocharger (MBT) is calculated. The TL of the muffler is measured by the double-load impedance tube method. The finite element calculation model is verified by comparing the TL of muffler calculated with tested. Thirdly, the MBT is redesigned. The improved muffler significantly improves the performance of eliminating high-frequency noise, and its TL beyond 20 dB is expanded to the band of 1600 ~ 3500 Hz.

In the manufacturing of battery boxes using the aluminum extruded process, poor consistency of products and a short life of the die for making aluminum structural sections are usually observed. A new method of producing battery boxes is proposed that combines steel stamped and aluminum extruded process. This paper first describes the design requirements for a battery box using a new process, and several important issues such as weld seam arrangement and error proofing in the manufacturing process are discussed. To address the issue of weld seam arrangement, the following three principles should be considered in the design: These principles include that the profile lap angle should be above 90°, three or more beams should not be lapped too closely together, and multiple brackets in close proximity should be designed as one unit.

A test bench is proposed to be developed to measure relevant mechanics responses of lithium-ion batteries during different charge and discharge processes. It primarily consists of two parts: a mechanical structure part and a measurement and control part. The test system composed of an upper/lower battery fixing spacer and a battery is the core part of the mechanical structure part. This measurement and control part mostly contains an environmental control, an acquisition as well as a charge discharge system.

This paper designs the important components and structure of the integrated electro-hydraulic brake system (I-EHB). Firstly, the simplified linear system is modeled, and the transfer function without considering the nonlinear disturbance such as system friction is derived, and the correctness of the linear system is preliminarily verified by AMESim. Then set up the I-EHB system test bench, and use the Stribeck friction model to identify the friction torque parameters in the static and kinetic friction stages of the system to obtain a more accurate friction model. Finally, based on the I-EHB system model of friction disturbance, a pressure-speed-current three-loop cascade PID controller is designed, and a feedforward controller based on the system model is added to form the control structure of “pressure feedforward compensation + pressure-speed-current closed-loop cascade PID”.

The elliptically shaped bearing (ESB) with a rigid, elliptical inner race and a flexible, thin-walled outer race is the most easily damaged core component of harmonic drive. The ESB rotates under cycle load of alternating stress due to its special elliptic structure. Hence, the fault features of ESB such as fatigue spalling and pitting are apt to be concealed by the excitation of impulses caused by alternating between major axis and minor axis. In order to diagnose the fault on raceway surfaces of ESB, a new method of CMWT-FH based on Continuous Morlet Wavelet Transform (CMWT) and FFT-based Hilbert (FH) spectrum analysis is proposed to extract the fault feature.

A liquid-cooled plate is an important component for cooling batteries inside a battery package system. The structure of the liquid-cooling plate significantly affects the temperature conditions of power batteries and the energy consumption of the liquid-cooling system. However, there is a lack of precise knowledge regarding the specific factors that contribute to these impacts. In this study, the influence of structural parameters of flow channel on the heat dissipation performance is studied to solve above problems. A test bench for measuring battery pack cooling performances was built, and pressure drop of liquid-cooled plate and maximum temperature of battery were measured. A CFD model for liquid-cooled plate performance calculations was developed. Using the established model, pressure drop, and maximum temperature were calculated. The measured data are compared with the calculated date, which validate the proposed model.

The characteristics of suspension elastic elements (i.e., spring, damper and anti-roll bar) are directly related to the handling and ride comfort performances, how to tune the characteristics of suspensions' elastic elements is always a big issue in developing the chassis of a vehicle. In this paper, a multi-body dynamics model of a passenger car within MSC.ADAMS® is integrated with iSight FD®, an optimization tool, to carry out a multi-objective optimization for improving the behavior of vehicle handling and ride comfort. The characteristics of suspension elastic elements (i.e., spring, damper and anti-roll bar) are considered as design variables. For handling, the objectives are defined by the measurements from multi-body dynamics simulation of typical double lane change according to ISO3888 standard. For ride comfort, the frequency-weighted RMS (Root Mean Square) value of vertical acceleration of the front seat rail according to ISO2631 standard is set as the objective.

The kinematic model of the double roller tripod joint is established in order to analyze its kinematic characteristics and provide theoretical basis for its application and improvement. By means of spatial coordinate transformation, the translational and rotational motion equations of the rollers relative to the tracks and trunnions, the motion equation of the center of the tripod and the equations of the input/output angular displacement error and bending angle are derived. The motion simulation of the double roller tripod universal joint was carried out in ADAMS so as to verify the established kinematic model. The results show that the rollers of the double roller tripod joint only have periodic translational motions relative to the tracks while the rollers have both periodic translational and rotational motions relative to the trunnions. The tripod’s center does the circular motion on the tripod plane with the angular velocity 3 times of the input angular velocity.

To solve the problems of ethnic size difference and model simplification in existing research, three kinds of lower limb finite element models of adult male with percentile 5, 50 and 95 were established based on the size characteristics of Chinese human body.The bionic reliability of the models was verified according to three different lower limb biomechanical experiments. Through the simulation analysis of pedestrian lower limb with different percentiles in side impact, it was found that in the pedestrian low-speed side impact accident, the lower percentile human body has a higher risk of lower limb injury,especially the injury of knee joint. The soft foam structure can play a better cushioning and energy absorption role in the impact process. The response parameters decrease with the decrease of percentile.In addition,the soft foam can significantly reduce the risk of lower limb injuries when impacting the lower limbs laterally at low speed.

An experiment is carried out to measure creep groan of a drum brake located in a trailer axle of a truck. The noise nearby the drum brake and accelerations on brake shoes, axle and trailer frame are collected to analyze the occurring conditions and characteristics of the creep groan. A multi-body dynamics model with 1/4 trailer chassis structures is established for analyzing brake component vibrations that generates the creep groan. In the model, the contact force between brake cam and brake shoes, the contact friction characteristics between brake linings and inner circular surface of brake drum, and the properties of chassis structure are included. Dynamic responses of brake shoes, axle and trailer frame during the braking process are estimated using the established model and the responses are compared with the measured results, which validate the model.

As the power of electric vehicles (EVs), lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are subjected to a variety of mechanical loads during electrochemical operation. Under this operating environment, lithium-ion batteries are at risk of internal short circuit, thermal runaway and even fire, threatening the safety of electric vehicles. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the mechanical behaviors and failure mechanisms of the battery separator to improve the safety of lithium-ion batteries under mechanical loads. In this study, uniaxial tensile, through-thickness compression and biaxial punch tests were performed to characterize two types of separators, dry-processed polypropylene (PP) separators and wet-processed ceramic-coated separators, and to analyze and compare their mechanical properties and failure modes. The comprehensive mechanical tests show that the failure modes of the different separator types are different, with the more anisotropic separator having more complex failure modes.

Two-layer engine front end accessory drive systems (TEFEADS) are adopted generally by commercial vehicles due to the characteristics of the accessory pulleys, which have large torque and moment of inertia. An overrunning alternator decoupler (OAD) is an advanced vibration isolator which can reduce the amplitude of torsional vibration of alternator rotor effectively by an one-way transmission and they are more and more widely used in vehicles. This paper established a model of a generic layout of a TEFEADS with an OAD. The coupling effect between the TEFEADS, the nonlinear characteristics of OAD, the torsional vibration of crankshaft and the creeping on the belt were taken into account. A nine pulleys model was provided as a study example, the dynamic responses, which are respectively under steady and accelerating conditions, of the system were calculated by the established method and compared with the bench experiment.