Design process to minimize roof surface defects using a flexural function and Finite Element analysis

The appearance and exterior precision of passenger cars aesthetics has become an important factor in the automotive industry. During vehicle assembly, the curvature of the roof can change slightly and create cosmetic defects that affect the exterior appearance. The critical factor causing curvature change on the roof is the thermally driven expansion of an elastomer-based mastic sealer which is applied between the exterior roof panel and support rail during the frame assembly process. Therefore the expansion of the mastic sealer was modeled to predict the curvature change in the roof panel. In order to evaluate the causes and predict the curvature change quantitatively, a Finite Element (FE) simulation of the oven heating and mastic curing was performed. Validation of the simulation model was performed by comparing the local deformation and amount of the curvature change on the roof obtained from the actual process. In order to minimize the curvature change, the Taguchi method was used in conjunction with the FE model where a total of eight factors were chosen to perform a sensitivity analysis. In order to exclude the deformation due to residual stress resulting from the oven process, it was selected as a noise factor. Response was taken as the maximum curvature change calculated by a flexural function which was used to distinguish absolute curvature that is not affected by the horizontal or vertical movement of roof panel. A total of 18 cases were analyzed with length of each sealer, pitch of sealer, and rail location being identified as the most influential factors affecting the curvature change. Using the optimum values, the amount of curvature change in the roof panel was reduced by 12 percent.     

Pressure model based coordinated control of VGT and dual-loop EGR in a diesel engine air-path system

This paper describes a pressure-model-based coordinated control method of a variable geometry turbine (VGT) and dual-loop exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) in a diesel engine air-path system. Conventionally, air fraction or burnt gas fraction states are controlled for the control of dual-loop EGR systems, but fraction control is not practical since sensors for fractions are not available on production engines. In fact, there is still great controversy over how best to select control outputs for dual-loop EGR systems. In this paper, pressure and mass flow states are chosen as control outputs without fraction states considering the availability and reliability of sensors. A coordinated controller based on the simple control-oriented model is designed with practical aspects, which is applicable for simultaneous operations of high pressure (HP) EGR, low pressure (LP) EGR, and VGT. In addition, the controller adopts the method of input-output linearization using back-stepping to solve the chronic problems of conventional pressure-based controllers such as coupling effects between operations of HP EGR, and VGT. The control performance is verified by simulation based on the proven GT-POWER model of a heavy-duty 6000cc diesel engine air-path.     

Trigger algorithm of vehicle automatic crash notification system

The Automatic Crash Notification (ACN) system is an effective technology to decrease the crash response time, improve the level of post-accident rescue and alleviate the severity of injuries. To realize this system, a vehicle terminal is developed. And based on a moving window integral algorithm, the trigger algorithm of ACN system is designed. By comparing the effect of different window widths on the trigger algorithm, we select the window width of the moving window integral algorithm as 8 ms. After system is triggered, different notify types was determined according to the change of velocity in the moving window. A sled impact simulation test shows that the impact can be identified rapidly and also the notify types can be judged by the trigger algorithm. A vehicle road test proves that the ACN system has no false trigger cases. The outcomes of this study support identifications of accidents and crash severities for both occupants and emergency centers.     

Application of a modified thermostatic control strategy to parallel mild HEV for improving fuel economy in urban driving conditions

A modified thermostatic control strategy is applied to the powertrain control of a parallel mild hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) to improve fuel economy. This strategy can improve the fuel economy of a parallel mild HEV by operating internal combustion engine (ICE) in a high-efficiency region. Thus, in this study, experiments of a parallel mild HEV were conducted to analyze the characteristics of the hybrid electric powertrain and a numerical model is developed for the vehicle. Based on the results, the thermostatic control strategy was modified and applied to the vehicle model. Also, battery protection logic by using electrochemical battery model is applied because the active usage of battery by thermostatic control strategy can damage the battery. The simulation results of the vehicle under urban driving conditions show that the thermostatic control strategy can improve the vehicle’s fuel economy by 3.7 % compared with that of the conventional strategy. The results also suggest that the trade-off between the fuel economy improvement by efficient ICE operation and the battery life reduction by active battery usage should be carefully investigated when a thermostatic control strategy is applied to a parallel mild HEV.     

Experimental study of EGR cooler regeneration aided by oxygen-fed NTP and air-fed NTP

Based on non-thermal plasma (NTP) technology fed by oxygen and air as the gas source respectively, the experimental system of exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) cooler regeneration was built to do a study at different regeneration temperatures. By measuring the concentration of main active substance and CO_x in regeneration process, the influence of temperature on regeneration aided by oxygen-fed NTP and air-fed NTP was investigated. The experimental results indicate that EGR cooler can be regenerated both by air-fed NTP and oxygen-fed NTP at a wide temperature range of 18 °C ～ 300 °C. By comparison of the regeneration with oxygen-fed NTP and air-fed NTP, it can be easily known that the regeneration effect is most remarkable at 150 °C with oxygen-fed NTP and at 120 °C with air-fed NTP. In addition, when the temperature is below 150 °C especially at 120 °C, the regeneration efficiency of air-fed NTP is lower than oxygen-fed NTP, nevertheless, when the temperature is above 150 °C, air-fed NTP has a superiority in regeneration and the higher the temperature is, the more obvious the superiority will be.     

Automobile aerodynamics influenced by airfoil-shaped rear wing

Computational model is developed to analyze aerodynamic loads and flow characteristics for an automobile, when the rear wing is placed above the trunk of the vehicle. The focus is on effects of the rear wing height that is investigated in four different positions. The relative wind incidence angle of the rear wing is equal in all configurations. Hence, the discrepancies in the results are only due to an influence of the rear wing position. Computations are performed by using the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations along with the standard k-ε turbulence model and standard wall functions assuming the steady viscous fluid flow. While the lift force is positive (upforce) for the automobile without the rear wing, negative lift force (downforce) is obtained for all configurations with the rear wing in place. At the same time, the rear wing increases the automobile drag that is not favorable with respect to the automobile fuel consumption. However, this drawback is not that significant, as the rear wing considerably benefits the automobile traction and stability. An optimal automobile downforce-to-drag ratio is obtained for the rear wing placed at 39 % of the height between the upper surface of the automobile trunk and the automobile roof. Two characteristic large vortices develop in the automobile wake in configuration without the rear wing. They vanish with the rear wing placed close to the trunk, while they gradually restore with an increase in the wing mounting height.     

Real-time empirical NO<Subscript>x</Subscript> model based on In-cylinder pressure measurements for light-duty diesel engines

This paper proposes a real-time empirical model of NO_x emissions for diesel engines. The proposed model predicts the level of NO_x emissions using an empirical model developed based on the thermal NO formation mechanism, the extended Zeldovich mechanism. Since it is difficult to consider the exact physical NO formation phenomena in real-time applications, the proposed algorithm adapts the key factors of the NO formation mechanism from the extended Zeldovich mechanism: temperature of the burned gas, concentration of the gas species, and combustion duration where NO is generated. These factors are considered in a prediction model as four parameters: exhaust gas recirculation rate (EGR rate), crank angle location of 50 % of mass fraction burned (MFB50), exhaust lambda value, and combustion acceleration. The proposed prediction model is validated with various steady engine experiments that showed a high linear correlation with the NO_x emission measured by a NO_x sensor. Furthermore, it is also validated for transient experiments.     

Resource-aware integration of AUTOSAR-compliant ECUs with an empirical wcet prediction model

This paper presents an integration method of AUTOSAR-compliant ECUs which can evaluate resource constraints in an early-stage of development. There are three types of resources for an ECU (timing, memory, and interface) which should be carefully managed for successful ECU integration. The proposed method consists of three steps: measurement, prediction, and evaluation. In the first step, a method to measure resource factors for AUTOSAR-compliant software architecture is introduced. Based on the method, a worst-case execution cycle of a runnable, memory section usages of a software component, and interface of legacy ECUs can be obtained. In the second step, the obtained factors are quantitatively predicted according to the architectural designs of the integration ECU. In the case of the timing resource, the worst-case execution time of the integration ECU can be precisely predicted by a proposed empirical model. In the last step, the resource constraints such as CPU, memory, network utilizations can be evaluated with predicted resource factors before implementation. The proposed method was applied to the integration of an in-house engine management system composed of two ECUs. The method successfully provided quantitative measures to evaluate architectural designs of three different integration scenarios.     

Flamelet combustion model for stratified EGR distribution in a diesel engine

Numerous research has been devoted to finding a method to simultaneously reduce NOx and soot emissions from diesel engines. In-cylinder EGR stratification is a technique that simultaneously reduces NOx and soot using a nonuniform EGR distribution in the combustion chamber. To study the potential of in-cylinder EGR stratification, a new combustion model is required that considers the non-uniform EGR distribution and the chemical kinetics. In this study, a new combustion model, the Flamelet for Stratified EGR (FSE) model, was developed to consider the non-uniform in-cylinder gas distribution based on chemical kinetics. The concept of the FSE model is based on using multiple flamelets with the multizone concept. To describe the non-uniform gas distribution, the combustion chamber is divided into several zones by oxygen concentration at the start of injection. Then, the flamelet equations are solved at the boundary of each zone. The final species mass fraction of each cell is calculated using linear interpolation between two results from the boundaries. In this paper, the FSE model was validated under in-cylinder EGR stratification conditions, and then, the potential of in-cylinder EGR stratification was studied by using the FSE model. The effect of in-cylinder EGR stratification was verified under various injection timing, engine speed, and road conditions with optimized engine geometries. The results shows simultaneous NOx and soot reductions under the stratified EGR condition.