Operating speed pattern optimization of railway vehicles with differential evolution algorithm

The railway transportation system has much advantage in eco-friendliness, punctuality and safety compared to any other transportation system. Most of the railway system administrators have to control and operate under limited resources such as trains and facilities. It is necessary to control traveling time and energy consumption for efficient operation in the railway systems, because the board rate of passenger is inconstant with time variance. It is common that the shorter traveling time causes the greater energy consumption. In this study, a new optimization method considering operation time or energy consumption is proposed by using differential evolution algorithm and some cases are reviewed. The total energy change due to operation time variation are investigated by using the proposed optimization method for tangent and gradient track conditions. Both cases, the total energy decreases exponentially. However, because of gradient the total energy are saturated after a certain time for gradient track.     

Multiaxial stress creep rupture mechanisms of AZ31 magnesium alloy

The maximum principal stresses, von Mises effective stresses and principal facet stresses at the time of creep rupture were compared in uniaxial, biaxial, and triaxial stress states for AZ31 magnesium alloy. The creep rupture of this alloy was experimentally controlled by cavitation, which was the result of a low damage tolerance, λ. Creep deformation could be correlated with the von Mises effective stress parameter. The failure-mechanism control parameter governing the stress state coincided with the experimental results of the rupture of the materials under multiaxial stress states. Finally, the theoretical prediction based on constrained cavity growth and continuous nucleation agreed with the experimental rupture data to within a factor of three.     

Vibration transmission reduction from a centrifugal turbo blower in a fuel cell electric vehicle

This paper presents a multi-body flexible dynamic analysis of a centrifugal turbo blower for a fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) based on the application of computer-aided engineering (CAE) to predict the acceleration at the mount position of the blower. This predicted acceleration is validated by using the measured acceleration data. The numerical simulation for the multi-body flexible dynamics of the blower is used not only to identify the most effective mount among four mounts in an FCEV by controlling the complex stiffness of the isolator, but also to suggest the range of complex stiffness of the isolator at the most effective mount. This numerical simulation technology can be useful for the estimation of the variation of vibration transmission for the structural modification of the turbo blower.     

Crash protection of Hybrid Electrical Vehicles for amending the KMVSS No. 91

This paper explores issues related to the electrical safety of Hybrid Electrical Vehicles (HEVs) during and after various crash events. Japanese and American federal regulations regarding occupant protection against high voltages in Electric Vehicles (EVs) and HEVs were surveyed and analyzed in this study. Front, side and rear impact tests for two types of HEVs were conducted to investigate electrolyte spillage, the retention of the propulsion battery system and the electrical isolation of the occupant. The test results met the related criteria. The test procedures and the criteria for occupant protection established through this study were amended to Korean Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (KMVSS) No. 91 to add the crash protection of the EVs and the HEVs.     

Prediction of the dimensional deformation of the addendum and dedendum after the warm shrink fitting process using a correction coefficient

The warm shrink fitting process is generally used to assemble automobile transmission parts (shafts/gears). However, this process causes a deformation in the addendum and dedendum of the gear depending on the fitting interference and gear profile, and this deformation causes additional noise and vibration between the gears. To address these problems, the warm shrink fitting process is analyzed by considering the error in the dimensional deformation of the addendum and dedendum found when comparing the results of a theoretical analysis and finite element analysis (FEA). A correction coefficient that reduces this error is derived through an analysis of the difference in the cross-sectional area between the shapes used for the theoretical analysis and that of the actual gear, and a closed-form equation to predict the dimensional deformation of the addendum and dedendum is proposed. The FEA method is proposed to analyze the thermal-structural-thermal coupled field analysis of the warm shrink fitting process (heating-fitting-cooling process). To verify the closed-form equation using the correction coefficient, measurements are made of actual helical gears used in automobile transmissions. The results are in good agreement with those given by the closed-form equation.     

Feature-Based Cad System Buildup for Passenger Airbag Design

The passenger airbag (PAB) requires a large volume and fast deployment because of the large distance between the dashboard and the passenger. And various shapes and sizes of the PAB are required depending on the type of vehicle. However, since the PAB modeling process for each design change is complicated and time consuming, the design parameters of the PAB could not be well investigated. In this study, a unique feature-based CAD system has been proposed that easily constructs PAB CAD model and then generates PAB FE model for collision analysis. Main keypoints and widths of PAB that determine the shape and size have been extracted by analyzing the geometric-feature of airbag. The PAB CAD model can be easily constructed by inputting keypoints and widths information. Then, from the constructed PAB CAD model, the PAB FE model is automatically generated. Finally, the generated PAB FE model can be directly employed for collision analysis, thereby reducing the modeling time of the PAB and enabling efficient parametric studies on design.     

Disturbance Observer-Based Sideslip Angle Control for Improving Cornering Characteristics of In-Wheel Motor Electric Vehicles

In this paper, a robust sideslip angle controller based on the direct yaw moment control (DYC) is proposed for in-wheel motor electric vehicles. Many studies have demonstrated that the DYC is one of the effective methods to improve vehicle maneuverability and stability. Previous approaches to achieve the DYC used differential braking and active steering system. Not only that, the conventional control systems were commonly dependent on the feedback of the yaw rate. In contrast to the traditional control schemes, however, this paper proposes a novel approach based on sideslip angle feedback without controlling the yaw rate. This is mainly because if the vehicle sideslip angle is controlled properly, the intended sideslip angle helps the vehicle to pass through the corner even at high speed. On the other hand, the vehicle may become unstable because of the too large sideslip caused by unexpected yaw disturbances and model uncertainties of time-varying parameters. From this aspect, disturbance observer (DOB) is employed to assure robust performance of the controller. The proposed controller was realized in CarSim model described actual electric vehicle and verified through computer simulations.     

Modified lateral control of an autonomous vehicle by look-ahead and look-down sensing

This paper presents a modified lateral control method for an autonomous vehicle with both look-ahead and look-down sensing systems. To cope with sensor noise and modeling uncertainty in the lateral control of the vehicle, a modified LMI-based H lateral controller was proposed, which uses the look-ahead information of the lateral offset error measured at the front of vehicle and the look-down information of the vehicle yaw angle error between the reference lane and the centerline of the vehicle. To verify the safety and the performance of the lateral control, a scaled-down vehicle was developed, and the positioning of the vehicle was estimated with USAT. The proposed controller, which uses both look-ahead and look-down information, was tested for lane changing and reference lane tracking with both simulation and experiment. The simulation and experimental results show that the proposed controller has better tracking and handling performance compared with a controller that uses only the look-ahead information of the target heading angle error.     

Engine performance and toxic gas analysis of biobutanol-blended gasoline as a vehicle fuel

A comprehensive study evaluating the performance of biobutanol-blended gasoline in passenger cars was conducted because biobutanol is considered a better biofuel than bioethanol as it has no water solubility and it has a higher caloric value, giving it a higher energy value. Several kinds of samples—suboctane gasoline, 8 volume percentage and 16 volume percentage biobutanol—blended gasoline, and a 10 volume percentage MTBE-blended market sample (as the oxygencontaining gasoline)-were tested to evaluate the engine performance in terms of the detergency of the intake valves and combustion chambers, power, emissions, and fuel efficiency. Additionally, the toxicity of the emissions from these biobutanolblended samples was tested in order to assess the viability of biobutanol as one of the competitive potential substitutes for MTBE as an oxygenator in the near future. The results show that biobutanol-blended gasoline samples had relatively better detergency, relatively higher power, and similar levels of emissions compared with those of MTBE-blended gasoline. Formaldehyde was emitted from all of the samples at almost the same levels and within the error range, whereas biobutanolblended gasoline samples emitted approximately three times the amount of acetaldehyde than did the suboctane gasoline. This study shows that biobutanol is one of the best alternative bioalcohol fuels for use in the near future.     

Development of hot stamped center pillar using form die with channel type indirect blank holder

The hot stamping process has been used in the automotive industry to reduce the weight of the body-in-white and to increase passenger safety via improved crashworthiness. However, defects such as fracture and wrinkle occur when hot stamping is performed using a conventional drawing or forming method. In this study, a channel-type indirect blank holder (CIBH) is proposed to develop a high-strength center pillar in form-type hot stamping, so that the aforementioned drawbacks are overcome. This type of blank holder plays an important role in reducing severe wrinkling at the flange; such wrinkling leads to folding after the completion of form-type hot-stamping. First, we investigated the effect of the channel shape on the indirect blank holding force by using a simplified two-dimensional plane-strain stamping process. Second, we selected the slope angle and corner radius of the channel as the main shape parameters by finite element analysis and artificial neural network (ANN). It is known that fracture at the hot formed wall and wrinkle at the flange are significantly affected by the slope angle of the channel, and the appropriate value for eliminating fracture and wrinkle is determined to be 99°. By performing hot stamping using a form die with the selected channel, we can manufacture a high-strength center pillar without wrinkle and fracture.