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The University of Maryland team converted a model year 2000 Chevrolet Suburban to an ethanol-fueled hybrid-electric vehicle (HEV) and tied for first place overall in the 2000 FutureTruck competition. Competition goals include a two-thirds reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, a reduction of exhaust emissions to meet California ultra-low emissions vehicle (ULEV) Tier II standards, and an increase in fuel economy. These goals must be met without compromising the performance, amenities, safety, or ease of manufacture of the stock Suburban. The University of Maryland FutureTruck, Proteus, addresses the competition goals with a powertrain consisting of a General Motors 3.8-L V6 engine, a 75-kW (100 hp) SatCon electric motor, and a 336-V battery pack. Additionally, Proteus incorporates several emissions-reducing and energy-saving modifications; an advanced control strategy that is implemented through use of an on-board computer and an innovative hybrid-electric drive train.

This paper describes a case study led by Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) of Dayton, OH USA and Dearborn Group Inc. to prove the feasibility of employing Telematics technologies to the vehicle test and measurement industry. Many test functions can be automated through the use of secure wireless technologies. For example, vehicle data can be dynamically monitored on the vehicle and data meeting pre-determined criteria could be downloaded via the wireless communications center. Additionally, central, real-time wireless monitoring of vehicle fleets provides the vehicle fleet manager with the ability to manage multiple tests simultaneously, thus improving efficiencies and potentially reducing manpower costs and compressing test schedules.

Continuously Variable Cam Phasers (CVCP) controlling both the exhaust and intake camshaft phasing in combination with air assist direct fuel injection and a wide variable spark gap is utilized to reduce the fuel consumption for a 4-valve Turbo Charged (TC) Spark Ignition (SI) engine. The spark plug and the air-assisted direct fuel injector are integrated into one unit in order to facilitate packaging in a modern 4-valve combustion chamber. This integrated component is referred to as the Spark Plug Injector (SPI). CVCP's are used to reduce pumping work by diluting the charge with large amounts of residual exhaust gas. This strategy, along with stoichiometric homogeneous operation enables the use of a Three Way Catalyst (TWC), considered to be a prerequisite to meet the emission standards of Ultra Low Emission Vehicles (ULEV) II and beyond. The ignition quality deteriorates with increasing levels of residual exhaust gas dilution.

As part of the Army Test and Evaluation Command (ATEC) the Metrology and Simulation Division at the U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground (USAYPG) has the mission to measure and record the detrimental effects of firing conventional and experimental munitions on gun crews under live fire testing. In order to provide a safer environment for soldiers and to comply with national and international military specifications, the Measurements and Simulation Branch of the Metrology and Simulation Division at The U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground has developed a mobile system to quantitatively analyze and record the level of toxicity present in the crew compartment of a variety of military vehicles. The system is housed in a medium sized van that is self-contained with the exception of its power source.

The popularity of CAN (Controller Area Network) in the production vehicles is well established. As a result, CAN has been developed for use in many non-automotive applications. This gave rise to the development of an open higher layer CAN protocol known as DeviceNet. With the popularity of DeviceNet for Automation Systems, this technology has drastically decreased in cost. Although DeviceNet is quite complex to develop, it easier to implement than SAE J1939 due to the large number of commercial off-the-shelf product that is available. Also, there are many configuration and diagnostic tools available by the same means. There are more than 300 vendors of DeviceNet product. Researchers at the University of Warwick have built a vehicle demonstrator using CAN/DeviceNet modules. This paper will illustrate the ease of vehicle system integration utilising this popular technology.

A systems modeling approach is presented for assessment of harm in the automotive accident environment. The methodology is presented in general form and then applied to evaluate vehicle aggressivity in frontal crashes. The methodology consists of parametric simulation of several controlled accident variables, with case results weighted by the relative frequency of each specific event. A hierarchy of models is proposed, consisting of a statistical model to define the accident environment and assign weighting factors for each crash situation case, and vehicle and occupant models for kinematic simulation of crash events. Head and chest injury results obtained from simulation are converted to harm vectors, in terms of probabilistic Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) distributions based on previously defined risk analyses. These harm vectors are weighted by each case’s probability as defined by the statistical model, and summed to obtain a total estimate of harm for the accident environment.

This paper deals with the ongoing efforts at The Vehicle Research and Test Center (VRTC) in East Liberty, Ohio in promoting the safe operation of heavy trucks. The associated research evaluated two vehicle dynamics simulations for their accuracy in predicting tractor-trailer handling metrics. The goals of the research were threefold: 1. Establish a generic “benchmark” parametric data set for the three-axle truck/two-axle trailer vehicle 2. Demonstrate the accuracy of experimental data that was collected for the tractor-trailer vehicle of this study 3. Demonstrate the accuracy of two vehicle simulations by comparing their predicted responses to experimentally observed vehicle responses and metrics.

The new automatic transmission, A-HMT (Advanced Hydro-Mechanical Transmission) has been developed for the Honda ATV (All Terrain Vehicle), which is for wide applications such as utility, recreation, etc. The A-HMT system features high performance, durability and reliability attained by improving the structures from the original hydro-mechanical automatic transmission used for the scooter called “Juno”, which Honda had produced many years ago, working on the same principle. In addition to it, by applying the electronic control system, the highly responsive driveability that suits the requirements of ATV's has been realized. The A-HMT is installed in the new 500 cm3 ATV, FOURTRAX FOREMAN RUBICON, which has been introduced in the USA market since June 2000.

A breakthrough catalyst technology utilizing new mixed metal oxides in conjunction with Platinum Group Metals has been developed. Stable synergies are designed into the catalyst washcoat that enable high performance and durability to be achieved at low Platinum Group Metal usage. Extensive vehicle data is reported on catalysts aged using a variety of high-temperature accelerated aging cycles. Vehicle performance at the LEV, ULEV and LEV-II levels is discussed in the context of unique calibration-catalyst interactions. Conclusions concerning further areas of improvement and future applications are also reviewed.

The LEV II and EURO V legislation in 2007/2008 require a high conversion level for nitrogen oxides to meet the emission levels for diesel SUVs and trucks. Therefore, U.S. and European truck manufacturers are considering the introduction of urea SCR systems no later than model year 2005. The current SCR catalysts are based mainly on systems derived from stationary power plant applications. Therefore, improved washcoat based monolith catalysts were developed using standard types of formulations. These catalysts achieved high conversion levels similar to extruded systems in passenger car and truck test cycles. However, to meet further tightening of standards, a new class of catalysts was developed. These advanced type of catalytic coatings proved to be equivalent or even better than standard washcoat formulations. Results will be shown from ESC, MVEG and US-FTP 75 tests to illustrate the progress in catalyst design for urea SCR.

Due to energy and material considerations, vehicle manufacturers move in the direction of producing smaller and lighter vehicles. With further reductions in the weight of vehicles, aerodynamic forces emerge as a major factor in energy and stability calculations. The situation becomes more important when moving through driving tunnels. Because of the limited space of a driving tunnel, vehicles are usually forced to interfere severely. 1/25-scale models for domestic bus and passenger car are employed. Three-dimensional pressure measurements are recorded for analyzing the aerodynamic behavior and calculating the drag coefficient. Measurements are supported by numerical calculations and flow visualization. Results show that vehicle interference has a favorable effect on reducing drag. However, stability considerations should be noticed.

The 2000 Formula SAE Team at Lawrence Technological University (LTU) has designed a chain driven, three-piece aluminum differential unique from past years. This innovative design introduces an adjustable chain mount replacing conventional shackles. Made completely of aluminum, this device moves the entire rear drive train. The gear set remains to be limited slip with a student designed housing. The idea of an aluminum housing with manufactured gear set is a continued project at LTU. After cutting approximately 33% from the weight of the 1999 differential, the 2000 is geared toward a simpler, and smaller design, easier assembly and lighter weight. After reading this brief overview, the idea of this paper is to provide an understanding of the reasoning behind the choices made on the LTU driveline team. FIGURE 1

This paper reports on DaimlerChrysler's participation in the Ad Hoc Diesel Fuels Test Program. This program was initiated by the U.S. Department of Energy and included major U.S. auto makers, major U.S. oil companies, and the Department of Energy. The purpose of this program was to identify diesel fuels and fuel properties that could facilitate the successful use of compression ignition engines in passenger cars and light-duty trucks in the United States at Tier 2 and LEV II tailpipe emissions standards. This portion of the program focused on minimizing engine-out particulates and NOx by using selected fuels, (not a matrix of fuel properties,) in steady state dynamometer tests on a modern, direct injection, common rail diesel engine.

If fuel cell vehicles are to compete in the same marketplace as conventional vehicles, then they must provide the consumer with the same, or improved, levels of convenience, comfort, refinement and performance at the same, or lower, price. In 2003/4, several vehicle manufacturers are planning to launch their first commercial fuel cell vehicles onto the market. In this remarkably short timeframe, many systems must be integrated into a vehicle including the fuel cell system plus thermal and water management, cabin heating, ventilation and air-conditioning, control and on-board diagnostics, power electronics, electric motor and gearbox, suspension, steering, braking, refinement and crash protection. This paper presents a range of modelling techniques which allow the user to design and develop key systems, including the power management system, compressed air supply, thermal management and control algorithms.

The number of electronic control units (ECU) in modern automobiles has steadily increased lately. Joining them in a vehicle network causes complex bus structures, in which ECU's of different suppliers have to cooperate. In order to keep the development effort as small as possible, the automobile industry would rather have the possibility of testing these bus structures in an early state of development. This was the reason why we created a test system for the network management of a CAN-Low-Speed network, which supports the test of an electronic control system in many states of development. This test system is able to check different network structures and to search errors in the ECU's by checking the network management. This is done by an automatic test that generates an evaluation and a report.

In this paper, we deal with the automatic climate control for Recreational Vehicle (RV). The HVAC system used for RV was composed of front side and rear side. And, the HVAC system of front side differed from that of rear side in the characteristic of HVAC system. This system was economically optimized for automatic control over 2 separated zones. The development procedure of automatic climate controller was as follows. The first stage was to derive control equation from characteristic analysis of HVAC system and the structural characteristic of vehicle interior. In the second stage, the software (S/W) was designed and programmed to operate microprocessor which calculated previously mentioned equation. Finally, the hardware (H/W) design and building were performed to operate the HVAC system with the calculation results from microprocessor. The control performance of this automatic climate control algorithm and system was evaluated by experimental method.

Battery modeling is of major concern for Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV) and Electric vehicle (EV) modeling. The major issue lies in characterizing the battery power output in relation to battery's State of Charge (SOC) in various application conditions. In particular, the challenge is associated with the difficulty that the characteristic parameters of the battery, i.e. the accurate data on the open circuit voltage and the internal resistance are hardly obtainable in practical conditions. In this paper, a battery capacity representation and a practical way of battery modeling is introduced for simulation model development based on the experimental data. A realistic way of battery SOC representation is generated from the battery output data. Empirical formulation is derived from the data to correlate the battery current, voltage output with the battery SOC.

There has been very limited research on the biomechanics of occupant safety in the ambulance environment. Occupant protection or crash testing safety standards for these unique vehicles are lacking in the United States. Recent studies have identified ambulances as high risk passenger transport vehicles. This study was conducted to identify some of the occupant safety hazards in the ambulance environment and to determine the efficacy of some countermeasures to mitigate ambulance occupant injury. Accelerator sled testing of the ambulance rear patient compartment (ambulance box or rear cabin) with Anthropomorphic Test Devices was conducted under frontal impact conditions with a target sled pulse was 26 G and 30 mph. The ambulance box was configured with instrumented and uninstrumented Anthropomorphic Test Devices positioned as in the real world environment.

The effect of fuel preparation on time-resolved, engine-out hydrocarbon (HC) emissions over a Federal Test Procedure cycle [FTP (75CVS)] for a ULEV vehicle equipped with a 6 cylinder engine has been investigated. Using a single-cone injector, the HC mole fraction in Bag 1 increased by a factor of 3-4 during each of the three accelerations in the first 100 sec after start. No such increases were observed in Bag 3 when the engine was fully warm. The increases during accelerations in Bag 1 were reduced by a factor of 3 when using a Dual-cone fuel injector as a drop-in substitute. The total, tailpipe FTP (75CVS) mass emissions were 25% smaller when using the Dual-cone injector. These results demonstrate that fuel preparation can affect HC emissions from a vehicle very significantly during cold start as has been deduced previously during cold-start tests using a dynamometer-controlled engine.

Two limited-production hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) - a 1988 Japanese model Toyota Prius and a 2000 Honda Insight - were tested at Argonne National Laboratory to collect data from vehicle component and systems operation. The test data are used to analyze operation and efficiency and to help validate computer simulation models. Both HEVs have FTP fuel economy greater than 45 miles per gallon and also have attributes very similar to those of conventional gasoline vehicles, even though each HEV has a unique powertrain configuration and operation control strategy. The designs and characteristics of these vehicles are of interest because they represent production technology with all the compromises for production included. This paper will explore both designs, their control strategies, and under what conditions high fuel economy was achieved.