Automotive Science and Engineering
Volume:12 Issue: 4, Autumn 2022

Due to increase in the number of goods carrying tricycles, the amount of noise and pollution on our roads has increased. To optimize the control of the engine noise emission for tricycle, different absorptive material liners have been introduced into muffler design. In this study, the performance of Aerogel, Ceramic, Kenaf fibre, Polyester and Rockwool as absorptive material liners on the transmission loss under 20 ℃, 60 ℃, 100 ℃, 150 ℃ and 200 ℃ temperature treatment for goods carrying tricycle was evaluated. The analysis averaged over all temperature treatments showed that introducing absorptive materials into the muffler improved the performance by 71.56 %, 84.12 %, 86.31 %, 89.37 % and 93.99 % for Aerogel, Rockwool, Ceramic, Polyester and Kenaf fibre respectively. Similarly, analysis averaged over all absorptive material treatments disclosed that the muffler with absorptive material liner under 60 ℃, 100 ℃, 150 ℃ and 200 ℃ temperature treatment improved the performance over the muffler without a liner by 85.1 %, 80.8 %, 87.5 % and 92.3 % respectively. The flow resistivity values for the absorptive material liners used was inversely proportional to the transmission loss except the Kenaf fibre which had the highest transmission loss though with second highest flow resistivity. PLSR analysis showed that Aerogel, Rockwool, Ceramic, Polyester and Kenaf fibre yielded better prediction accuracy than the No liner by 33.88%, 32.75%, 30.45%, 30.41% and 22.35% respectively. The study has confirmed that introducing absorptive material liners in mufflers used by goods carrying tricycles can optimize the performance.

Due to the complex geometry and thermos-mechanical loading, cylinder heads are the most challenging parts among all parts engines. They must endure cyclic thermal and mechanical loading throughout their lifetime. Cast aluminum alloys are normally quenched after solution treatment process to improve aging responses. Rapid quenching can lead to high residual stress. Residual stress is one of the main reasons for failure of cylinder heads. The effect of residual stress on the thermal stress and low cycle fatigue life (LCF) of cylinder heads was studied. For this goal, Solidworks software was used to model the cylinder heads. Then the thermo-mechanical analysis was performed to determine the temperature and stress field in ANSYS software.  Finally, the fatigue life analysis that considers residual stress effect was done. The results of finite element analysis (FEA) proved that the effect of residual stress in LCF is significant which is not negligible. Thus, residual stress must be considered in the thermo-mechanical fatigue analysis of the engines cylinder heads. The numerical results showed that the area where the maximum temperature and stress is occurred is where the least LCF is predicted.

Go-karts are popular sport mini-car in western countries, and there are gaining prominence in developing countries such as Nigeria. Its performance is determined by the chassis design and the braking system is its lifeline. Because of the lack of a suspension system and differentials, a good chassis must be able to bend and twist.
This Go-kart is powered by a Yamaha Vino Automatic Petrol 2-stroke Engine that generates approximately 4.1kw of power at 9018rpm. It boasts slick tyres for increased grip and a hydraulic disc brake for smooth and effective braking in both wet and dry conditions. The focus of this paper is on the braking system and material characterization of its structural members
Simulation static study with Autodesk Inventor yielded the following results Mass Density 281.550 lbmass/ft3 Yield Strength 40.000 ksi Ultimate Tensile Strength 50.000ksi. Design calculations were performed, and the best possible result was obtained. Ergonomics, safety, cost of manufacturing, and reliability are all considered.

The braking system has always been considered one of the most significant vehicle subsystems since it plays a key role in safety issues. To design such a complex system, modeling can be a helpful tool for designers to save time and costs. In this paper, the hydraulic braking system of a B-Class vehicle was modeled by simulating the relationship between brake components such as pedals, boosters, main cylinders, and wheel cylinders, with the vehicle dynamics by using the existing models of the tire and their dynamic relationships. The performed modeling was compared with the results of a concerning vehicle's direct movement. The results of this comparison showed that our modeling is very close to the experimental data. The braking distance parameter was selected to examine the effects of each braking component on the vehicle dynamics. The results of investigating the effect of different parameters of the braking system on the dynamic behavior of the vehicle indicated that the main cylinder diameter, the diameter of the front and rear wheels’ brake cylinders, the effective diameter of the front disk, and the diameter of the rear drum are the most effective design parameters in vehicle's braking system and optimal results are obtained by applying changes to these parameters.

Electric vehicles are attaining significant attention recently and the current legislation is forcing the automotive industry to electrify the productions. Regardless of electric energy accumulation technology, drive technology is one of the vital components of EVs. The motor drive technology has been mainly developed based on the application which required position/velocity control. In automotive application, however, torque control is an important aspect since the drivers have already used to drive the vehicle based on torque control approach in traditional powertrain system. In this article, a model-based approach is employed to develop a controller which can guarantee the precise control of the induction motors torque for a micro electric vehicle (EV) application regardless of operating conditions. The implementation of the control drive was conducted in MATLAB/Simulink environment, followed by Model In the Loop simulation and testing at various test conditions to confirm the robustness of the developed drive. Direct Torque Control (DTC) with optimum voltage vector selection method is employed to control the motor torque that requires fewer power electronics to process its operation and hence lowers the cost of implementation. The result shows the practicality of the designed control system and its ability to track reference torque commands. Vitally, the controlled approach shows fair abilities to control IMs to produce torque at both the motoring and regenerative modes which is a highly important requirement in electrical propulsion powertrains. Furthermore, the controller’s response time was within the industrial standard range which confirms its suitability for industrial implementation at low cost.

As alternatives for future refrigeration, heat pumping, air conditioning, or even power generation plants are emerging due to the regulatory changes, R744 (carbon dioxide) is considered as a serious alternative to be the successor of other Halogenated Hydrocarbons Refrigerants (HHR) for the AC-system of vehicles. This paper investigates the heat transfer performance of R744 through a subcritical vehicular condenser, designed and manufactured for the first product based on NP01 platform (Iranian vehicle), at different operating conditions in terms of refrigerant mass flow rate and wind velocity. The experiments carried out in order to investigate the effect of mass flow rate, the R744 inlet temperature was observed to have sudden fluctuations. At the condenser outlet, for the smallest mass flow rate, the least variation of temperature was observed. It was also found out that for higher air velocities through the condenser, the stabilized temperature after the condenser was lower. The results show that the performance of the designed and manufactured automotive condenser based on R744 refrigerant is acceptable which makes it a suitable candidate for automotive applications.
As alternatives for future refrigeration, heat pumping, air conditioning, or even power generation plants are emerging due to the regulatory changes, R744 (carbon dioxide) is considered as a serious alternative to be the successor of other Halogenated Hydrocarbons Refrigerants (HHR) for the AC-system of vehicles. This paper investigates the heat transfer performance of R744 through a subcritical vehicular condenser, designed and manufactured for the first product based on NP01 platform (Iranian vehicle), at different operating conditions in terms of refrigerant mass flow rate and wind velocity. The experiments carried out in order to investigate the effect of mass flow rate, the R744 inlet temperature was observed to have sudden fluctuations. At the condenser outlet, for the smallest mass flow rate, the least variation of temperature was observed. It was also found out that for higher air velocities through the condenser, the stabilized temperature after the condenser was lower. The results show that the performance of the designed and manufactured automotive condenser based on R744 refrigerant is acceptable which makes it a suitable candidate for automotive applications.