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The vehicle overload seriously jeopardizes traffic safety and affects traffic efficiency. At present, the static weighing station and weigh-in-motion station are both relatively fixed, so the detection efficiency is not high and the traffic efficiency is affected; the on-board dynamic weighing equipment is difficult to be popularized because of the problem of being deliberately damaged or not accepted by the purchaser. This paper proposes an efficient, accurate, non-contact vehicle overload identification method which can keep the road unimpeded. The method can detect the vehicle overload by the relative distance (as the characteristic distance) between the dynamic vehicle's marking line and the road surface. First, the dynamics model of the vehicle suspension is set up. Then, the dynamic characteristic distance of the traffic vehicle is detected from the image acquired by the calibrated camera based on computer vision and image recognition technology.

Mountainous area makes up more than half of the whole land area of China, the road of which is full of ups and downs. Heavy commercial vehicles as the main means of transport in mountainous areas, braking torque recession, even brake failure, often happens because of the overheating in long downhill journey, which seriously threatens the safety of the driving. Therefore, this paper presents an intelligent assistance system based on Geographic Information System and vehicle dynamics. The main brake duration and heat generation can be effectively reduced through adjusting the speed at the slope top, applying the engine auxiliary brake in the initial stage and choosing braking strategy appropriately, in order to prolong the downhill driving distance and improve the safety during continuous braking. This paper characterizes and analyses the road gradients and their effects on braking heat generation.

Road traffic accidents resulting from alcohol-impaired driving are increasing globally despite several measures, currently in place, to curb the trend. For this reason, recent research aims at integrating alcohol early-detection systems and driving simulator experiments to identify intoxicated drivers. However, driving simulator experiments on drunk driving have focused mostly on male participants than female drivers whose characteristics have scarcely been explored. Hence in this paper, vehicle dynamic control inputs on steering, braking, and acceleration performance of 75 licensed female drivers with an upshot of alcohol at four different blood alcohol concentration (BAC) levels (0%, 0.03%, 0.05%, and 0.08%) were investigated. The participants completed simulated driving in a fixed-based simulator experiment coupled with real-time ecological scenarios to extract discrete responses.

The retarder is an important auxiliary braking device of heavy vehicles. However, the stirring air in the working wheels of the idle retarder would cause the transmission loss when the vehicle is traveling in non-braking state [1]. For certain driving conditions, the air-friction characteristics in the working wheels of the idle retarder are analyzed first. Then the relationship between the air density and the torque produced by stirring air is studied. The thermal characteristics of the retarder in the idle condition are also concerned according to the energy flow and heat transfer. Meanwhile, the increased transmission loss caused by the rising temperature of the stirring air and its inference on the transmission stability are also studied. Finally, the optimal range of air vacuum degrees in the working wheel of the idle retarder is determined and the evaluations for the air-friction and the heat transfer characteristics are given for the vacuum degrees.

The articulated steering system is widely used in engineering vehicles due to its high mobility and low steering radius. The design parameters have a vital impact on the selection of the steering system assemblies, such as the operation stroke, pressure, and force of the hydraulic cylinders during the steering process, which will affect the system weight. The system energy consumption is also relevant to the geometry parameters. According to the kinetic analysis of the steering system and dynamic analysis of the steering process, the kinetic model of an engineering vehicle steering system is built, and the length and pressure variation of the cylinder is calculated and validated by the field test. The influence of the factors is analyzed based on the established model. To lower the system weight, needed pressure, and force, the multi-objective particle swarm optimization method is initiated to optimize the geometry parameter of the articulated steering system.

The hydraulic retarder is the most stabilized auxiliary braking system [1-2] of heavy-duty vehicles. When the hydraulic retarder is working during auxiliary braking, all of the braking energy is transferred into the thermal energy of the transmission medium of the working wheel. Theoretically, the residual heat-sinking capability of the engine could be used to cool down the transmission medium of the hydraulic retarder, in order to ensure the proper functioning of the hydraulic retarder. Never the less, the hydraulic retarder is always placed at the tailing head of the gearbox, far from the engine, long cooling circuits, which increases the risky leakage risk of the transmission medium. What's more, the development trend of heavy load and high speed vehicle directs the significant increase in the thermal load of the hydraulic retarder, which even higher than the engine power.

Using friction brakes for long time can increase easily its temperature and lower vehicle brake performance in the downhill process. The drivers' hysteretic perception to future driving condition could mislead them to stop untimely the engine brake, and some other auxiliary braking devices are designed to increase the brake power for reduction of the friction brake torque. The decompression engine brake has complex structure and high cost, and the application of eddy current retarder or hydraulic retarder on the commercial vehicles is mainly limited to their cost and mass. In this paper, an innovative brake guidance system for commercial vehicles with coordinated friction brakes and engine brake is introduced to guide the drivers to minimize the use of the friction brakes on the downhill with consideration of future driving conditions, which is aimed at releasing the engine brake potential fully and controlling the friction brake temperature in safe range.

Hydraulic retarder has been widely applied on military vehicles and heavy commercial vehicles because of it could provide great brake torque and has lasting working time [1]. In order to reduce driver's frequent actions in braking process and prevent hydraulic retarder system from overheating, it is need to apply constant braking torque control, this control target has a strict requirement to hydraulic control system design. Many parameters often require repeated test to determine, which increases the R&D cost and extends the research cycle. This paper tries to find a time-efficient research method of hydraulic retarder control system through studying on a heavy military vehicle hydraulic retarder system. Hydraulic retarder model is set up through test data. The hydraulic control system is built based on AMESim. Controller model is set up based on PID control. The whole vehicle brake model is built based on MATLAB/Simulink.

To make full use of engine exhaust heat and further improve the utilization of the energy efficiency of the heavy truck, thermoelectric module is used to contribute to thermoelectric power generation. The hot-end temperature of the module varies with the engine operating condition because it is connected with the exhaust pipe. The cold-end of the thermoelectric module is mainly cooled by engine cooling system. Increasing the temperature difference between the hot-end and cold-end of the thermoelectric module is a good way to improve the thermoelectric conversion efficiency. For the poor controllability of the hot-end temperature of the thermoelectric module, this study puts forward by lowering the cold-end temperature of the thermoelectric module so as to ensure the improvement of the thermoelectric conversion efficiency. The cooling circle for the cold-end of the thermoelectric module which is independent of the engine cooling system is built.

The continuous braking for the brake drum will cause the brake thermal decay when the heavy truck is driving down the long slope in the mountain areas. It reduces the heavy truck’s braking performance and the braking safety. The engine braking and the hydraulic retarder braking both consume the kinetic energy of the heavy truck and can assist the truck driving in the mountain areas. This research proposes a combined hill descent braking strategy for heavy truck based on the recorded information of the slopes to ensure the braking safety of the heavy truck. The vehicle dynamic model and the brake drum temperature rising model are established to analyze the drum’s temperature variation during the downhill progress of the heavy truck. Then based on the slope information, the combined braking temperature variation is analyzed considering the characteristics of the engine braking, the drum braking and the hydraulic retarder braking.

Vehicle auxiliary braking system is very significant to the brake safety. The eddy current retarder (ECR) has a good braking performance, but the braking torque would fade under high speed domain. In the contrary, the regenerative brake (RGB) could provide a satisfied braking performance in high speed domain. However, the braking torque in low speed domain is insufficient. This paper proposed a novel concept of the integrated energy-recuperation retarder (IEER), which would take advantage of the merits of both the ECR and the RGB to have a steady braking performance in all-speed domain. The IEER integrates the structures of rotary eddy current retarder (RECR) and the RGB, both of which share a stator. Braking torque of the IEER produced by stator core and armature-windings can stack together, and therefore the IEER can provide greater braking torque than the RECR. Besides, the IEER can recover electric energy from armature-windings.

When driving in mountainous areas, vehicles often encounter downhill conditions. To ensure safe driving, it is necessary to control the speed of vehicles. For internal combustion engine vehicles, auxiliary brake such as engine brake can be used to alleviate the thermal load caused by the continuous braking of the friction brake. For battery electric vehicles (BEVs), regenerative braking can be used as auxiliary braking to improve brake safety. And through regenerative braking, energy can be partly converted into electrical energy and stored in accumulators (such as power batteries and supercapacitors), thus extending the mileage. However, the driver's line of sight in the mountains is limited, resulting in a certain degree of blindness in driving, so it is impossible to fully guarantee the safety and energy saving of downhill driving.

The hydraulic retarder used in commercial vehicles can provide hydraulic damping to generate braking torque, reducing the pressure of the braking system on the slope section and increasing the safety. In this paper, the magnetorheological fluid with fast magnetic field reflection characteristics is used to increase the response speed of the hydraulic retarder, which can effectively reduce the response time of the hydraulic retarder. In this paper, the influence of the change of circumferential magnetic field on the braking torque of the magnetorheological fluid retarder is studied.

Magnetorheological fluid (MRF) is used as the transmission medium of the hydraulic retarder. The rheological properties are regulated by changing the magnetic field to achieve accurate control of the retarder's braking torque. Under the action of the external magnetic field, the flow structure and performance of the MRF retarder will be changed in a short time. The apparent viscosity coefficient increases by several orders of magnitude, the fluidity deteriorates and the heat generated by the brake cannot be transferred through the liquid circulation, which will affect the braking torque of the retarder. Changing the surface area of the stator also has an influence on the braking torque of the retarder and the wall heat dissipation. In this study, the relationship between the braking torque of the MRF retarder and the stator surface area of the retarder was analyzed.

Fluid auxiliary braking devices can provide braking torque through hydraulic damping, fluid auxiliary braking devices can also convert vehicular inertia energy into transmission fluid heat energy during the braking, which can effectively alleviate the work pressure of the main brake. Traditional hydraulic auxiliary braking devices use transmission fluids to transmit torque, however, there is a certain lag effect during the braking. The magnetorheological fluid (MR fluid) can also be used to transmit torque because it has the advantages of controlling braking torque linearly and responding fast to the magnetic field changed. The temperature of MR fluid will increase when the vehicle is engaged in continuous braking. MR fluid temperature changes will cause a bad influence on the efficiency stability of auxiliary braking.

The paper studies on the basis of VOITH R133-2 hydraulic retarder, the inlet and outlet structures of the oil passage on the stator are rearranged, which are made a more uniform structure distribution. In order to find out the characteristics of this kind of structure arrangement. The flow passage models for two different structures are established, and the internal flow field characteristics are studied by using the CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) method. The flow rules of the internal oil, the distribution of pressure field and velocity field as well as output braking torque are obtained. The results show that rearranged structure retarder has a more uniform pressure distribution and a lower output braking torque than original structure retarder. And the simulation verifies the effectiveness of simulating true flow by CFD in hydraulic retarder flow field and conduct retarder design and structure optimization.

Vehicle hydraulic retarders are applied in heavy-duty trucks and buses as an auxiliary braking device. In traditional cooling systems of hydraulic retarders, the working fluid is introduced into the heat exchanger to transfer heat to the cooling liquid in circulation, whose heat is then dissipated by the engine cooling system. This prevents the waste heat of the working fluid from being used effectively. In hydraulic retarder cooling system based on the Organic Rankine Cycle, the organic working fluid first transfers heat with the hydraulic retarder working fluid in Rankine cycle, and then outputs power through expansion machine. It can both reduce heat load of the engine cooling system, and enhance thermal stability of the hydraulic retarder while recovering and utilizing braking energy. First of all, according to the target vehicle model, hydraulic retarder cooling system model based on Rankine cycle is established.

In heavy truck driveline system, the components often include clutch, transmission, transfer case, drive shaft, etc. A fluid torque converter could be equipped in front of the transmission in order to improve the starting performance. Meanwhile, a hydraulic retarder could be introduced for auxiliary braking so as to adapt the truck to the brake on long downgrade in mountainous regions. Thus, the driveline heat load would have a notable increase. Both the fluid torque converter and the hydraulic retarder would produce a large quantity of heat, and a special cooling system is needed for adjusting the transmission fluid temperature with which the gains are potentially very large [1]. The heat load for driveline is often calculated based on empirical formula. For the heavy truck, however, if the heat value is underestimated, driveline components would suffer from overheated damage.

The hydraulic retarder is a significant auxiliary braking device [1] for the heavy duty vehicle. Traditionally, cooling circulatory system of the hydraulic retarder was coupled with the engine cooling system [2], and the thermal energy of the transmission medium would be cooled by the engine radiator ultimately. For this scheme, radiator's spare heat removal capacity could be fully utilized whereas the cooling system is very complicated and is hard to maintain. Furthermore, the corresponding of thermal management system lags behind the power change of the retarder. In this research, integrated cooling evaporation system is developed for the hydraulic retarder, which makes the cooling water contact with the transmission medium through the stator wall, so that it can rapidly response to the thermal variation of the retarder, keep the stability of the oil temperature and meanwhile reduce the risk of cooling medium leakage.

Heat generated by friction between the brake discs and the brake pad causes the disc temperature to rise, which affects the braking performance. This flux generated from the contact surface of the vehicle brake disc not only affects the braking performance but also tends to be wasted and pollutes the environment. However, an accurate system is needed to make efficient use of this generated heat flux, which is usually wasted. Thermoelectric generators (TEGs) are solid-state gadgets utilized in the conversion of heat to electricity. Hence, the aim of this study is to convert the heat flux generated at the disc contact surface into electrical energy by employing a thermoelectric generator. In Addition, the energy harvested energy to power the battery, which in turn charges the temperature monitoring systems. Thermoelectric generators were positioned at different geometrical points of the brake discs to achieve optimal efficiency and energy storage possibilities.