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Sheets of glass can now be inexpensively coated with highly conductive films (5 ohms/square) of tin oxide, using non-vacuum pyrolytic techniques. Such glass can be used in the production of electrically heated windows, suitable for defogging and defrosting, in transportation vehicles. This process can also be used for depositing electrochrormic materials such as tungsten oxide on the highly conductive tin oxide, for windows or sunroofs, which change colour and transparency with a small (up to 2 V) applied voltage.

A 2 μF capacitor was charged to voltages in the 1 - 10 kV range and discharged into a water column through a 38 μH inductor. At voltages up to about 6 kV, the water acted as a relatively high resistance and the circuit decayed as an overdamped RLC circuit. Resistance decreased with time. When the resistance dropped below about 10 Ω, the water would explode if the capacitor still had sufficient energy. The loudness was distinctly greater than an equivalent amount of gunpowder. During the explosion, resistance would drop still more, so the circuit would become underdamped and oscillatory. Remaining water droplets are cool to the touch, so there is no evidence that the water has boiled into steam, although that has to remain a possibility. A low impedance arc in air sometimes forms after the explosion so the explosion is not necessarily caused by an air arc.

Automobiles having conventional three-way catalytic converters emit a majority of their exhaust emissions within the first 2-3 minutes after engine cranking following a “cold-start”. Rapidly increasing the catalyst temperature of a catalytic converter to the light-off temperature of the catalyst is of paramount importance in curtailing tailpipe emissions. The technical feasibility of a new heating strategy based on an Electrically Initiated Chemically Heated Catalyst (EICHC™) approach has been demonstrated. A test apparatus incorporating an EHC and a spray-generating nozzle was constructed to conduct an extensive parametric study. A spray of methanol along with air was passed through the EHC preheated at different temperatures. With the EICHC™ approach, the time required to achieve catalyst light-off temperature within the EHC was reduced drastically. Supplying methanol to chemically heat the catalytic converter lowered considerably the electrical energy requirements.

Electrically Powered Hydraulic Steering (EPHS) has provided value in passenger car applications by reducing power consumption at engine idle, providing only the required power during high speed lane-keeping, and allowing engine-off operation of vehicles with alternative power sources. This work discusses the design modifications made to use EPHS for medium duty commercial vehicle applications. Configuration options along with communication and diagnostic interface are discussed. Bench tests show the steady-state performance of the system. Experiments are done on a medium duty truck with the EPHS as the sole source of steering power to determine the speed of steer at various vehicle speeds. Finally, the power consumption for the EPHS system is compared to a conventional engine driven pump.

Electrically Powered Hydraulic Steering (EPHS) was developed in the early 90s and previously applied to vehicle segments B and C (small and medium-sized passenger cars). Till now more than 10 million vehicles are in the field. The advantages consist of the well known power density coming along with the flexible package. Value is added due to the consequent development and usage of electronic control realized in compact physical units. As a result key features for chassis control systems like controllability, high dynamic performance, and low energy consumption are achieved while maintaining mature and robust hydraulic components. Recent market requirements in other segments, e.g. Sport Utility Vehicles (SUV) and Light Commercial Vehicles (LCV) require higher powered motor pump units and lead to the decision to develop products in this direction.

Back in the first two decades of automobile development, electric propulsion was a serious competitor for the internal combustion engine. Electrically-propelled vehicles, however, soon proved unable to satisfy users' increasing performance demands in terms of range, acceleration, top speed and hill-climbing, together with such factors as operating life, initial purchase price, running costs and reliability. Engineers investigating electric propulsion today face precisely the same unwelcome legacy as their predecessors, despite many and varied attempts in the meantime to improve the components of the electric vehicle's drive system (energy storage device, motors, controller). Progress in battery development, particularly in the case of the NaS system, has nevertheless enabled us at least partly to overcome the previous problems associated with electric drive systems, though it cannot be claimed that all obstacles to its commercial application have been eliminated as yet.

This paper describes an electrically scanned millimeter wave automotive radar with a wide detection region in a field of view (FoV) and near range. The wide FoV is realized by introducing a beam forming technique to a target search under a low signal-to-noise ratio condition. The short minimum detection range is realized by eliminating a detection error peculiar to frequency-modulated continuous wave radar for a close target. An experimental radar has been developed to confirm the wide detection region. The radar accomplishes the FoV of 40 degrees in azimuth and the minimum detection range of 0.5m.

The first commercially available, large area, electrically-controllable glazing products based on nematic droplet/polymer film (NCAP) technology are described. The products, which are sold under the tradename VARILITE™, can be switched in milliseconds between a highly translucent state (for privacy and glare control) to a transparent state (for good visibility} with the application of an AC voltage. The optical and environmental properties are reviewed and future applications to automotive glazing are considered. The requirements for laminating large area, complex-curved shapes are discussed and some initial results are presented.

Two different configurations of electrically-heated catalyst systems were installed on two new production vehicles. A 1990 Buick LeSabre was evaluated with a heated catalyst placed directly in front of the main production catalytic converter while a 1990 Toyota Celica was evaluated with an electrically-heated catalyst placed between the main close-coupled catalytic converter and a smaller downstream production catalytic converter. Initial laboratory studies involved examination of heating strategies to minimize electrical energy requirements, a variety of off-board battery and recharging configurations for their effect on emissions, and multiple air injection strategies to achieve minimum hydrocarbon emissions while avoiding a NOx penalty. Final efforts involved installation of optimized, complete on-vehicle electrically-heated catalyst systems for subsequent on-road mileage accumulation.

Demand for electricians was estimated based on projected increases in battery electric vehicle (BEV) sales. Total BEV sales were projected from current producer plans. Each scenario for charger type and charging location requires different combinations of electrical installation requirements. The need for types of charging will vary by location and individual preferences. Interviews with practicing electricians and field surveys were performed to assess current capabilities and the need for improvements. Very few current vehicle owners are prepared to make a smooth transition to even level 1 charging. It was determined that the demand for licensed electricians will increase by 25% over 20 years solely for the purpose of charger installation. However, this profession has been dropping over time and is under demand for growth from other areas such as green power.

In this study, the series hybrid electric system is recommended as suitable power systems of the motor vehicles in urban area. It is important for this system to improve the comprehensive energy efficiency when components are combined, and to evaluate it appropriately. In this report, the technique to grasp energy loss in detail that occurs when electric power flows complicatedly in the series hybrid power system has been examined and the energy efficiency of the series hybrid power system on urban driving has also been evaluated.

Electrification has been considered one of the major solutions to meet stringent U.S. fuel economy and CO2 targets of 2025. Numerous published researches are mainly focused on improving fuel economy for passenger cars, but less has been done for larger size light-duty vehicles, such as pickup trucks, SUVs and minivans, which contribute to a considerable amount of vehicle sales in the U.S. market. Due to larger vehicle size and different usage profile, it is expected that the ideal electrification architecture is different than that of a passenger car. The purpose of this study is to identify potential low-voltage electrification solutions for an existing class 2 pickup truck for fuel economy improvement, while taking into account cost effectiveness for large market penetration. One of the potential solutions is presented. In this paper, vehicle electrification configuration concepts are examined by computer simulations.

A virtual 'model' is generally a mathematical surrogate of a physical system and when well correlated, serves as a basis for understanding the physical system in part or in entirety. Drive Quality (DQ) defines a driver's 'experience' of a blend of controlled responses to an applied input. The 'experience' encompasses physical, biological and bio- chemical perception of vehicular motion by the human body. In the automotive domain, many physical modeling tools are used to model the sub-components and its integration at the system level. Physical Modeling requires high domain expertise and is not only time consuming but is also very 'compute-resource' intensive. In the path to achieving 'vDQP (Virtual Drive Quality Prediction)' goal, one of the requirements is to establish 'well-correlated' virtual environments of high fidelity with respect to standard test maneuvers. This helps in advancing many developmental activities from a Analysis, Controls and Calibration standpoint.

To meet the targets of Indian future emission legislation, an electrification and automation of today’s manual transmission technology is necessary. For this reason, IAV invented an electrified automated transmission family, based on well-known manual transmission technology. This low-cost automated manual transmission (AMT) approach is equipped with a 48 V electric machine and can be used as pure electric or hybrid drivetrain. Furthermore, it is possible to realize power shifts by using just one dry friction element. A small number of standard components combined with a low voltage electric machine and an electromechanical actuation system is sufficient to create a maximum of flexibility to meet future emission fleet targets, without having the disadvantageous high costs for a high-voltage electric system. To detect the optimal powertrain configuration, IAV used a unique advance development tool called Powertrain Synthesis.

The design and testing of innovative components and control logics for future vehicular platform represents a challenging task in the automotive field. The use of scale model vehicles constitutes an interesting alternative for testing assessment by decreasing time and cost efforts with a potential benefit in terms of safety. The target of this research work is the development of a customized scale vehicle platform for verifying and validating innovative control strategies in safe conditions and with cost reduction. Consequently, the electrification of a radio-controlled 1:5 scale vehicle is carried out and a customized remote real-time controller is installed onboard. One of the main features of this commercial product is its modular characteristics that allows the modification of some component properties, such as the viscous coefficient of the shock absorbers, the stiffness of the springs and the suspension geometry.

This paper describes installation and testing of electrified engine accessories and fuel cell auxiliary power units for a Class-8 tractor. A 2.4 kW fuel cell APU (Auxiliary Power Unit) has been added to supply a 42 V power supply for electrification of air conditioning and water pump systems. A 42/12 V dual alternator was used to replace the OEM alternator to provide safety back-up in case of fuel cell failure. A QNX Real Time Operating System-based (RTOS) Rapid Prototype Electronic Control System (RPECS™), developed by Southwest Research Institute (SwRI™), is used for supervisory control and coordination between accessories and engine. A Controller Area Network (CAN) interface, from the engine Electronic Control Unit (ECU), and the RS232 interface, from the fuel cell controllers, provide system data and control for RPECS. Custom wiring to the hydrogen, water pump, and air conditioning systems also provide data to RPECS. The water pump system controller is autonomous.

In this paper, we present our views on the electrification of agricultural machinery, especially electrification with voltages higher than 12 volts - even up to 700 volts. Requirements on modern agricultural machinery have changed drastically in recent decades. Electronic controls became standard - resulting in increased electrical power requirements. At Agritechnica 2007, John Deere and Rauch presented a tractor-implement combination using 400V AC, which prompted avid further development of this technology in agriculture. We will present our experiences with the electrification of some implements. For each development, we had a different focus and the results will be discussed. Furthermore, we will provide a short overview of possible efficiency improvements thanks to electrification and an analysis of the demands. A conclusion with an outlook on the real requirements and upcoming solutions from our perspective will complete this paper.

Purchasers of expensive new electric vehicles (EVs) or hybrid vehicles (HVs) seem likely to use them as intensively as possible, not merely as second cars. This paper investigates intensive-use strategies for such vehicles at private households by means of a digital simulation using the travel day data from the 1977 Nationwide Personal Transportation Study. A “car-of-choice” usage strategy, in which the next home-based trip at a multi-car household takes the electric or hybrid car whenever it is available and has adequate seating capacity and range, leads to almost as much EV/HV use and travel electrification as the absolute maximum possible with perfect planning. Under this simple strategy, a single EV with four seats and a 100-mile range at each multi-car household would electrify almost 60 percent of all vehicle miles of travel by multi-car households. Average EV travel would then be some 20 percent above the average for all personal vehicles.

The utility of energy efficiency and zero-emission of electric vehicles leads the way to electrify the urban public transport bus networks in many cities around the world. The purpose of this paper is to study the operational feasibility of transition the existing conventional combustion bus fleet to Electric bus fleet. The analysis is based on the data of the bus operation in Bangkok, Thailand. Traffic congestion as occurred in Bangkok is considered in the analysis. This research is focused on Fast charging technology of Electric vehicles. Instead of slow-charging overnight, Fast-charging is used during the regular layover time of the bus operation which is called Opportunity charging. The opportunity charging allows to extend the driving range of the electric buses which is a prominent problem of electric vehicles.

Cylinder deactivation is a fuel consumption and CO2 reduction technology for internal combustion engines that deactivates cylinders at light to moderate loads, allowing the remaining firing cylinders to operate near optimum efficiency. Dynamic Skip Fire (DSF) uses full-authority cylinder deactivation that allows any cylinder of the engine to be deactivated in sequence. In previous SAE papers, both DSF technology and the synergies between DSF and electrification (eDSF) have been described. Recent engine technology includes deactivation mechanisms that do not effectively incorporate individual cylinder control. Nevertheless, it is still quite possible to improve the efficiency of engines equipped with these ganged-deactivation mechanisms. By grouping all cylinders into a deactivation mode, no air is pumped through the cylinders as it would be during the corresponding conventional operation that deactivates fuel alone.