Methodology for bus structure torsion stiffness and natural vibration frequency prediction based on a dimensional analysis approach

Engineering bus design requires testing of bus structures prototypes in order to guarantee a certain level of strength and an appropriate static and dynamic behavior of the bus superstructure when exposed to road loads. However, experimental testing of real bus structures is very expensive as it requires expensive resources and space. If testing is done on a scale bus model the previous required expenses are considerably reduced. Therefore, a novel methodology based on dimensional analysis applied to bus structure prediction to evaluate the bus structure static and dynamic performance is proposed. The static performance is evaluated attending to torsion stiffness and the dynamic in terms of the natural vibration frequencies and rollover threshold. A scale bus has been manufactured and dimensionless parameters have been defined in order to project the results obtained in the scale bus model to a larger model. Validation of the proposed methodology has been carried out under experimental and finite element analysis.     

Evaluation and visualization of stratified ultra-lean combustion characteristics in a spray-guided type gasoline direct-injection engine

To comply with reinforced emission regulations for harmful exhaust gases, including carbon dioxide (CO₂) emitted as a greenhouse gas, improved technologies for reducing CO₂ and fuel consumption are being developed. Stable lean combustion, which has the advantage of improved fuel economy and reduced emission levels, can be achieved using a sprayguided-type direct-injection (DI) combustion system. The system comprises a centrally mounted injector and closely positioned spark plugs, which ensure the combustion reliability of a stratified mixture under ultra-lean conditions. The aim of this study is to investigate the combustion and emission characteristics of a lean-burn gasoline DI engine. At an excess air ratio of 4.0, approximately 23% improvement in fuel economy was achieved through optimal event timing, which was delayed for injection and advanced for ignition, compared to that under stoichiometric conditions, while NO_x and HC emissions increased. The combustion characteristics of a stratified mixture in a spray-guided-type DI system were similar to those in DI diesel engines, resulting in smoke generation and difficulty in three-way catalystutilization. Although a different operating strategy might decrease fuel consumption, it will not be helpful in reducing NO_x and smoke emissions; therefore, alternatives should be pursued to achieve compliance with emission regulations.     

Durability prediction for automobile aluminum front subframe using nonlinear models in virtual test simulations

This research work presents fatigue life evaluation techniques for an automotive vehicle aluminum front subframe using virtual test simulation technology with nonlinear suspension components model. The technology was used for improving the accuracy of the polynomial model used in conventional analysis. The proposed nonlinear suspension components models were developed using direct approach. The effects of the nonlinear elements on the prediction of the fatigue life were also analyzed. Actual aluminum front subframe was tested using half-car road test simulator to verify the accuracy of the models. It was found that the proposed nonlinear models yield more accurate results than conventional polynomial models. The proposed virtual test simulation technology with nonlinear suspension components model can be used to predict fatigue life for vehicle chassis structures more accurately.     

Realization of pmp-based control for hybrid electric vehicles in a backward-looking simulation

Optimal control is generally not possible without information about the future coming up, and it is not easy to obtain an optimal solution even though the information is given a priori. In this paper, a control concept based on Pontryagin’s Minimum Principle (PMP) is introduced as an efficient solution to generate an optimal control trajectory for Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HVEs) when the performance of the vehicles is evaluated on scheduled driving cycles at a simulation level. The main idea of the control concept is to minimize Hamiltonian, which is interpreted as equivalent fuel consumption, and the Hamiltonian is characterized by a co-state, which is interpreted as a weighting factor for the electrical usage. A key aspect of the control problem is that an appropriate initial condition of the co-state is required to satisfy the boundary condition of the problem. In this study, techniques to calculate the Hamiltonian in different hybrid configurations are introduced, and a methodology to look for the initial condition of the co-state is studied, so that the controller is able to realize a desired State Of Charge (SOC) trajectory. To address the issue, we utilize a shooting method with multiple initial conditions based on the concept of the Newton-Raphson method, and all these techniques are realized in a backward looking simulator. The simulation results show that the PMP-based control is a very efficient approach to produce the optimal control trajectory, and the performance is compared to the optimal solution solved by Dynamic Programming (DP).     

Vehicle velocity estimation using effective inertia for an in-wheel electric vehicle

In this study, a vehicle velocity estimation algorithm for an in-wheel electric vehicle is proposed. This algorithm estimates the vehicle velocity using the concept of effective inertia, which is based on the motor torque, the angular velocity of each wheel and vehicle acceleration. Effective inertia is a virtual mass that changes according to the state of a vehicle, such as acceleration, deceleration, turning or driving on a low friction road. The performance of the proposed vehicle velocity estimation algorithm was verified in various conditions that included straight driving, circle driving and low friction road driving using the in-wheel electric vehicle that was equipped with an in-wheel system in each of its rear wheels.     

Comparison study on characteristics of nano-sized particle number distribution by using condensation particle counter calibrated with spray and soot type particle generation methods

In the year 2011, the Particle Measurement Program (PMP) in Europe started the regulation of the diesel vehicle’s nano-sized particle number density (PN) due to its high degree of harm to the human body. Concretely, the standard level of PN emission was introduced in the Euro 5+ and 6 emissions regulation with a limit (<6.0 × 10¹¹#/km) for diesel light-duty vehicle. Therefore, the determination of suitable and sophisticated instruments for reliable particle sampling and analysis was essential in taking exact experimental data. Now, among the PN emission measuring devices suggested by the PMP, condensation particle counter (CPC) is a key equipment for measuring the particle number density in real time and it has been used extensively. However, CPC can cause different results depending on operating conditions of the saturator and condensation that induce different rates of particle growth. This study was conducted to analyze the effect of CPC calibrated by a two-particle generator with spray and soot type methods applied on the nano-sized particle distribution’s parameters such as number concentration and linearity. Also, in order to ensure the reliability for particle sensor system named as PPS, which had emerged as a useful diagnostic to making spatially and temporally resolved quantitative measurements of diesel PN concentration, it was compared with calibrated CPC system. As a result, nano-sized particle measuring system with CPC calibrated by spray type particle generator had a much higher counting efficiency, indicating a larger nano size available than soot type particle generator. And, comparative experimental results on the correlation between the particle number of CPC to a reflectance PPS system showed that above 5,000 #/cm ³ in number concentrations measured by CPC as well as PPS were found to be similar with good linear relationship.     

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.     

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.