Automotive Science and Engineering
Volume:8 Issue: 2, Spring 2018

Deceleration or stopping the vehicle without any diving and lateral acceleration is essential to develop an effective braking system. The hydraulic braking system with intelligent braking called Antilock Braking system (ABS) and Electronic Stability Control (ESC) has been introduced.  However, due to the insufficient human effort, the ABS and ESC to some extent, not function well.  This has been emphasised to develop a DC motor assist hydraulic braking system by associating the wheel speed and engine fuel flow sensor to stop the vehicle in required braking distance without any diving and lateral movement.  This study investigates theoretically by Solid work simulation model and experimentally by product development. The simulation model has shown that a full load passenger car needs 15.7Mpa of braking pressure to stop 50km/h vehicle in 10m.  The experimental results of the model show that the pressure develops when the pedal fully applied without and with aids of the DC motor is 910 kPa and 1130 kPa respectively, which contribute to 23.3% of pressure increase.

The thermal balance analysis is a useful method to determine energy distribution and efficiency of internal combustion (IC) engines. In engines cooling concepts, estimation of heat transfer to brake power ratio, as one of the most significant performance characteristics, is highly demanded. In this paper, investigation of energy balance and derivation of specific heat rejection is carried out experimentally and numerically. Experiments are carried out on an air-cooled, single cylinder, four-stroke gasoline IC engine. The engine is simulated numerically and after validation with experimental data, the code is run to find out total and instantaneous thermal balance of engine. Results indicate that about one-third of fuel energy is converted to brake power and major part of energy is dissipated through exhaust and heat transfer. Experimental and numerical results show that by increasing engine speed, heat transfer to brake power ratio decreases. It is also observed that increasing engine speed leads to increase of exhaust power to brake power ratio. Finally two correlations for estimation of heat transfer and exhaust power to brake power ratios are obtained.

A combined hydraulic engine mount and buffer is proposed in this study for use in the mid-priced vehicle. In some vehicle design projects, an engine is selected to use in a new car design. To achieve the desired vibration conditions, the mount can be redesigned with exorbitant costs and long-term research. The idea of using a buffer in the combination of the conventional engine mount is to suggest a solution with affordable price which can improve mount vibration specifications. As a case study, the engine of Renault L90 (Dacia Logan), which name is K4M engine, is selected to use in the national B class automotive platform design. This automotive platform is designed at Automotive Engineering Research Center of Iran University of Science and Technology. The hydraulic engine mount is modeled in CATIA. Some tests are done to validate the simulation results. The conventional and buffer-equipped mount characteristics, which are determined by CATIA, is imported to Adams/Vibration software to evaluate the vibration behavior of the engine mounts. The results show that the use of buffer reduces the stiffness of mount, which should be 2 to 3 times lower than engine's frequency excitation. In some directions, the buffer-equipped mount has a better modal energy and isolation characteristics.

This paper mainly discusses the thermal behavior and performance of Lithium-ion batteries utilized in hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) based on numerical simulations. In this work, the battery’s thermal behavior is investigated at different C-rates and also contour plots of phase potential for both tabs and volume-monitored plot of maximum temperature inside the computational domain is illustrated. The numerical simulation is done via ANSYS Fluent traditional software package which utilizes the dual potential multi-scale multi-dimensional (MSMD) battery model to analyze the cell discharge behavior and investigate the thermal performance and potential variation(s). The results show that the maximum temperature of battery surface is proportional to the battery discharge rate, i.e., the higher the C-rate, the greater cell surface temperature. Moreover, an increasing symmetric pattern is noticed for volume monitor of maximum temperature over the simulation period. Finally, it is worth noting that the battery tab potential varies more quickly if the C-rate becomes greater. In fact, the lowest and highest rate of changes are observed for 1C and 4C, respectively.

Vertical dynamics modeling and simulation of a six-wheel unmanned military vehicle (MULE) studied in this paper. The Common Mobility Platform (CMP) chassis provided mobility, built around an advanced propulsion and articulated suspension system gave the vehicle ability to negotiate complex terrain, obstacles, and gaps that a dismounted squad would encounter. Aiming at modeling of vehicle vertical dynamics, basic and geometrical parameters defined and degrees-of-freedom specified on a compromise between accuracy and complexity of two models. Equations of motion provided on two linear and nonlinear 5-degree-of-freedom models using two different modeling methods. There is good agreement between time responses of two presented models. The main differences of two models observed in articulated suspension degrees-of-freedom while the vehicle subjected to high frequency maneuvers that cause severe oscillations on wheels and arms in comparison to vehicle body due to lower mass and inertia properties. The linear model can be used to design a controller and the nonlinear to predict vehicle motion more accurately. Sensitivity analysis of the influential parameters is also presented to specify effects of different parameters. Results of this study may be used to design articulated suspension and making next frequency analyses.

This article presents a phased array antenna employing MEMS phase shifter. The proposed phased array antenna consists of eight square patch antennas operating at 10.4 GHz with a bandwidth of 400 MHz. Feed line for each patch passes through a MEMS phase shifter realized by a series of bridges above the transmission line. The distance between the bridge and the transmission line underneath it is adjusted using a control signal applied to them, which in turn, introduces a loading effect on the feed signal. This changes the effective length of the feed line and provides phase shifts with 15-degree resolution. Low loss conversion units are employed in order to couple the phase shifter and microstrip lines. The integrated numerical analysis approach applied to phased array antenna employing MEMS phase shifter and the scattering parameters and radiation patterns at different steering angles demonstrate the effectiveness of employing MEMS phase shifters in designing phased array antennas. The proposed design methodology might be applied to other frequency bands, such as millimeter-wave for automotive applications. Employment of MEMS phase shifters instead of solid-state ones provides high linearity, high power handling, and wide frequency range of operation.