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The acoustics of automotive intake and exhaust systems is typically modeled using linear acoustics or gas-dynamics simulation. These approaches are preferred during basic sound design in the early development stages due to their computational efficiency compared to complex 3D CFD and FEM solutions. The linear acoustic method reduces the component being modelled to an equivalent acoustic two-port transfer matrix which describes the acoustic characteristic of the muffler. Recently this method was used to create more detailed and more accurate models based on a network of 3D cells. As the typical automotive muffler includes perforated elements and sound absorptive material, this paper demonstrates the extension of the 3D linear acoustic network description of a muffler to include the aforementioned elements. The proposed method was then validated against experimental results from muffler systems with perforated elements and sound absorptive material.

A new artificial intelligence (model order reduction) / finite element coupled approach will be presented for the risk assessment of battery fire during a car crash event. This approach combines standard crash finite element for the main car body with a reduced order model for the battery. Simulation is today used by automotive engineering teams to design lightweight vehicle bodies fulfilling vehicle safety regulations. Legislation is rapidly evolving to accommodate the growing electrical vehicle market share and is considering additional battery safety requirements. The focus is on avoiding internal short circuit due to internal damage within a cell which may result in a fire hazard. Assessing short circuit risk in CAE at the vehicle level is complex as there involves phenomena at different scales. The vehicle deforms on a macroscale level during the impact event.

Sound field around a moving body in a mean flow of fluid is commonly estimated with Ffowcs Williams and Hawkings equation. Similarly as Lighthill’s aeroacoustic analogy, Ffowcs Williams and Hawkings equation includes sound propagation phenomena in moving and inhomogeneous media, such as convection and refraction, implicitly within the source terms on the right-hand side of the equation. Consequently, the equation is primarily applicable when the surrounding fluid is quiescent everywhere outside the source region. In this work, we follow the approach of Phillips and derive an exact aeroacoustic equation for a moving body in an inviscid and isentropic flow, which separates source and propagation terms on the two sides of the equation. As such, the equation can be used even when the sound propagation effects have a significant influence on the sound field.

This paper proposes a specific parametric model order reduction (pMOR) scheme for the efficient evaluation of beam based structures. The model to be parameterized is a Finite Element (FE) model that represents a generic network of beams with a number of distinct cross-section types. The methodology considers geometrical parameters that describe the cross-section and the material properties of the beams as the design parameters of interest. An affine representation of the model is derived based on the description of the deformation of a uniform beam. This affine representation can be exploited for the hyper-reduction where the evaluation cost of the system matrices is reduced. The reduction of the system matrices is obtained through a projection based approach. For a given number of parameter combinations a modal basis is constructed. A global reduced order basis (ROB) is obtained through a principal component analysis of these local bases.

For vibration and acoustics vehicle development, one of the main challenges is the identification and the analysis of the noise sources, which is required in order to increase the driving comfort and to meet the stringent legislative requirements for the vehicle noise emission. Transfer Path Analysis (TPA) is a fairly well established technique for estimating and ranking individual low-frequency noise or vibration contributions via the different transmission paths. This technique is commonly applied on test measurements, based on prototypes, at the end of the design process. In order to apply such methodology already within the design process, a contribution analysis method based on dynamic substructuring of a multibody system is proposed with the aim of improving the quality of the design process for vehicle NVH assessment and to shorten development time and cost.

Optimization of engine warm-up behavior has traditionally made use of experimental investigations. However, thermal engine models are a more cost-effective alternative and allow evaluation of the fuel saving potential of thermal management measures in different driving cycles. To simulate the thermal behavior of engines in general and engine warm-up in particular, knowledge of heat distribution throughout all engine components is essential. To this end, gas-side heat transfer inside the combustion chamber and in the exhaust port must be modeled as accurately as possible. Up to now, map-based models have been used to simulate heat transfer and fuel consumption; these two values are calculated as a function of engine speed and load. To extend the scope of these models, it is increasingly desirable to calculate gas-side heat transfer and fuel consumption as a function of engine operating parameters in order to evaluate different ECU databases.

Within this work we demonstrate the implementation and evaluation of a vehicle-to-vehicle based intersection assistance system, relying only on communication between the vehicles and not requiring any communication with infrastructural components as it is the case with typical complex intersection assistance systems. It also requires no additional information like right-of-way or maps and works out-of-the-box for nearly all types of intersections. The intersection assistance system utilizes GPS, yaw rate, vehicle acceleration, speed and heading as indicators for a 3D path prediction. While the x-y layer aids in the detection of possible collisions, the z axis is used for detecting bridges and overpasses. By applying several sophisticated filter levels and algorithms, the amount of false positives can massively be reduced while the true positives can be maintained. Finally, the developed simple intersection assistance system is compared to a sophisticated intersection assistance system.

Although the ISO 26262 provides requirements and recommendations for an automotive functional safety lifecycle, practical guidance on how to handle these safety activities and safety artifacts is still lacking. This paper provides an overview of a semi-formal safety engineering approach based on SysML for specifying the relevant safety artifacts in the concept phase. Using specific diagram types, different views of the available data can be provided that reflects the specific needs of the stakeholders involved. One objective of this work is to improve the common understanding of the relevant safety aspects during the system design. The approach, which is demonstrated here from the perspective of a Tier1 supplier for an automotive battery system, covers different breakdown levels of a vehicle. The safety workflow presented here supports engineers' efforts to meet the safety standard ISO 26262 in a systematic way.

Accurate simulation tools are needed for rapid and cost effective engine development in order to meet ever tighter pollutant regulations for future internal combustion engines. The formation of pollutants such as soot and NOx in Diesel engines is strongly influenced by local concentration of the reactants and local temperature in the combustion chamber. Therefore it is of great importance to model accurately the physics of the injection process, combustion and emission formation. It is common practice to approximate Diesel fuel as a single compound fuel for the simulation of the injection and combustion process. This is in many cases sufficient to predict the evolution of the in-cylinder pressure and heat release in the combustion chamber. The prediction of soot and NOx formation depends however on locally component resolved quantities related to the fuel liquid and gas phase as well as local temperature.

From an acoustical point of view, the integration of seatbelt retractors in a vehicle is a real challenge that has to be met early in the vehicle development process. The buzz and rattle noise of seat belt retractors is a weak yet disturbing interior noise. Street irregularities excite the wheels and this excitation is transferred via the car body to the mounting location of the retractor. Ultimately, the inertia sensor of the locking mechanism is also excited. This excitation can be amplified by structural resonances and generate a characteristic impact noise. The objective of this paper is to describe a simulation method for an early development phase that predicts the noise-relevant low frequency local modes and consequently the contact of the retractor with the mounting panel of the car body via the finite element method.