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The automotive industry is currently increasing the noise and vibration requirements of vehicle components. A detailed vibro-acoustic assessment of the supplied element is commonly enforced by most vehicle manufacturers. Traditional End-Of-Line (EOL) solutions often encounter difficulties adapting from controlled environments to industrial production lines due the presence of high levels of noise and vibrations generated by the surrounding machinery. In contrast, particle velocity measurements performed near a rigid radiating surface are less affected by background noise and they can potentially be used to address noise problems even in such conditions. The vector nature of particle velocity, an intrinsic dependency upon surface displacement and sensor directivity are the main advantages over conventional solutions. As a result, quantitative measurements describing the vibro-acoustic behavior of a device can be performed at the final stage of the manufacturing process.

A novel approach to the Integration of Turbocompounding/WHR, Electrification and Supercharging technologies (ITES) to reduce fuel consumption in a medium heavy-duty diesel engine was previously published by FEV. This paper describes a modified approach to ITES to reduce fuel consumption on a heavy-duty diesel engine applied in a Class 8 tractor. The original implementation of the ITES incorporated a turbocompound turbine as the means for waste heat recovery. In this new approach, the turbocompound unit connected to the sun gear of the planetary gear set has been replaced by an organic Rankine cycle (ORC) turbine expander. The secondary compressor and the electric motor-generator are connected to the ring gear and the carrier gear respectively. The ITES unit is equipped with dry clutch and band brake allowing flexibility in mechanical and electrical integration of the ORC expander, secondary compressor and electric motor-generator to the engine.

The main operations for the manufacturing of auto parts are the cutting of the flange and the stamping. In order to perform accurate fatigue calculation it is necessary to have the material properties for each point of the structure. Usually, only the fatigue curve obtained on the flat sheet with polished edges is used because it represents the basic metal behaviour. The real edge quality decreases the fatigue limit while the hardening induced by the stamping increases it. To take these effects into account allows a better fatigue calculation of the structural part.

Members from the National Automotive Center (NAC) TARDEC-RDECOM are involved in a Power Budget Model and Duty Cycle Experimentation Project that is part of an Army Technology Objective (ATO). The main goal of this program is to develop models and simulations that will help engineers evaluate conceptual designs for use in propulsion and power delivery for the Army’s Future Combat System (FCS). The initial phase comprises mounting a Crew integration and Automation Test bed (CAT) Crewstation onto the Ride Motion Simulator (RMS) and then integrating a dynamics model. This paper will discuss the various components that were used in the integration, which consists of the Vehicle Dynamics Mobility Server (VDMS), a Combat Hybrid Power System (CHPS) Powertain, a SimCreator dynamics model, a Soldier-Machine Interface (SMI), and an Embedded Simulation System (ESS). This paper will also present the numerous challenges involving the system and software integration.

A full authority, dual channel, digital electronic control system on the PW2037 engine has been integrated into the 757 airplane that is scheduled for delivery late in 1984. The system allows optimizing engine performance without sacrificing engine stability and also integrates with the digital avionics system in the airplane, permitting simplified propulsion system operation and unprecedented availability of operating and maintenance information to the flight and ground crews.

A collaborative program between the Wheel Collision Center of Bath, PA and Lehigh University was undertaken to: (1) develop the process of repairing cast-aluminum automotive wheels, and (2) assess the structural integrity of the repairs. Structural integrity testing involved the application of bending moments to open the rim-to-flange juncture of the wheel cross section, simulating deformation in an accident. Of the various repair procedures employed, hot straightening, and hot straightening and welding were found to be essentially non-damaging to the wheel's structural integrity. The best properties in the welded material resulted from closely matching or slightly undermatching the wheel composition with that of the consumable welding electrode. Cosmetic welding has little effect on repair integrity, but cold straightening was found to decrease the maximum load to failure.

This research provides a capacitance based method for monitoring the integrity of tires and other polymeric products during manufacturing and throughout the useful product life. Tire and wheel failures and tire degradation were the reported cause for approximately 19320 vehicle crashes over a two and a half year period according to the U.S. Department of Transportation National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's 2008 survey. Tires are complex composite structures composed of layers of formulated cross-linked rubber, textiles, and steel reinforcement layers. Tire production requires precise manufacturing through chemical and mechanical methods to achieve secure attachment of all layers. Tires are subjected to a variety of harsh environments, experience heavy loads, intense wear, heat, and in many cases lack of maintenance. These conditions make tires extremely susceptible to damage.

In recent years the number of electronic systems fitted to road vehicles worldwide has increased, with further growth forecast. Many such systems are appearing in safety-critical or safety-related applications. An objective assessment of the integrity of the systems is necessary to ensure that the safety of the driver, occupants and other road users will not be compromised. Certain disciplines associated with reliability, namely environmental validation, failure mode and effects analysis and software verification and validation are examined. The need for a coordinated approach to system integrity is discussed, and the development of European standards and guidelines described.

Intel has been a major supplier of EPROMs since pioneering them in 1970. The EPROM, not intended for use in read/write applications, proved useful in research and development for prototyping. The EPROM market consisted almost exclusively of development labs in the mid- 70's. As the fabrication process matured and volumes increased, EPROMs' lower prices became attractive even for medium-volume production applications. Today, with new packaging technologies and continued improvements in processing, the EPROM fulfills high-volume manufacturers' needs for dedicated firmware. This paper discusses the role of plastic, one-time-programmable (OTP), EPROMs. It will cover the reliability aspects, cost advantages and compatibility with Intel's Quick-Pulse Programming™ algorithm that is being offered with Intel's OTP™ EPROMs. The paper concludes with a few comments on future trends including surface-mount technology and CMOS EPROMs.

A driving strategy determines the gear the automated transmission has to engage. Its task is to deal with the conflicting demands of fuel economy on the one hand and active human-like shift behavior on the other hand [1]. The Siemens Adaptive Transmission Control (SAT) achieves this task by evaluating the driving style and many specific situations. However, SAT is not capable of learning, i.e., it will react identically in repeated situations. With IntelligenTip® a next generation driving strategy is proposed that learns from driver interventions via +/- buttons. Experimental results demonstrate that IntelligenTip® yields an individualization of the shift behavior and is robust with respect to different driver types.

Agricultural Tractors consisting of a conventional manual transmission and dry friction clutch are mostly assembled with a mechanical type of clutch release mechanism where a defined amount of free play needs to be maintained between the clutch and Release Mechanism. A defined free play is required for efficient operation of clutch, Release Bearing as well as to ensure the durability of the system. As the clutch disc wears the free play between diaphragm spring or levers (as the case may be) and the release bearing is reduced. The rate at which the clutch disc wears is dependent on many factors like working condition of the tractor, grade of the friction lining material, experience of the driver, etc. This makes it very difficult to predict the exact timeline when the free play needs to be adjusted even though an approximate indication is given in instruction manuals. In today’s situation the adjustment of the free play is carried out manually and approximately.

For the use in flexible fuel vehicles able to operate with mixtures of alcohol fuels and gasoline, an intelligent alcohol sensor has been developed. Based on the measurement of the dielectric constant, this sensor overcomes the problems with optical measuring principles; these problems are due to sensitivity to different contents of aromatics. To increase the accuracy, a microprocessor evaluates the input signals (dielectric constant and other parameters). Thus, a compensation of misdetection due to impurities can also be achieved. The output characteristic of the sensor can be chosen freely; the output voltage can correspond to the alcohol content as well as to the required correction factor for the injection time.

In this paper we describe the methodology for building crash pulses using accelerometer crash pulses. This procedure is applied to a set of 9 Chevrolet Cavalier crash pulses derived both from rigid and offset-deformable barrier collisions. Five (5) of these are used to train a 7-state, fully-connected HMM. The HMM model acquired from the training pulses is next utilized for classification of the remaining four crash pulses that have been inter-mixed with random pulses of comparable strength. The log-likelihood of deploy pulses was around -200, whereas the log-likelihood of non-deploy pulses ranged between -2000. As the public databases provide us crash pulses only for airbag deployment events, we have tested our algorithm using randomly generated pulses as negative control. The statistical characteristics of the randomly generated pulses are made to approximate that of the true pulse.

In modern internal combustion engines a greater reduction of CO₂ emissions is required in order to significantly reduce fuel consumption and minimize the emissions of polluting gases, allowing them to fall within the strict limits set by current regulations. In a conventional engine control system, it is not possible to optimize the efficiency of the alternator in terms of emissions and fuel consumption, due to a constant voltage which is imposed and is not modifiable. On the contrary, in a system capable of controlling the voltage of the alternator, referring to such an alternator as "smart" hereafter, it would be possible to optimize its efficiency as a function of the vehicle/engine working points. This system requires first and foremost a communication protocol between the alternator and engine control unit, and a special sensor that gets data on the charging status of the battery.

The knowledge explosion in all areas is both an opportunity and a risk. In order to shape the effects as positively as possible and create sustainable added value, the amount of information must be processed in a targeted manner and important content must be separated from ignorable content. In the automotive industry and especially in the development of new components, it is possible to look back on many past projects and thus knowledge. However, the decisive factor is whether this information is available in a suitably processed form or the knowledge is even held by just a single expert. A new and intelligent method is therefore required to analyze existing data appropriately and at the same time prepare it ideally for further applications, such as use within forecast models based on Artificial Intelligence (AI). To achieve this, several steps need to be taken. Firstly, it is possible to perform a suitable segmentation of the component.

An intelligent amplifier has been developed which delivers output power to either a two or four speaker audio system. The amplifier determines the number of speakers present during the start-up sequence and configures itself either as two BTL amplifiers or four single ended amplifiers. The system does not require any wiring modifications to operate in either mode and will reconfigure itself on each start-up cycle allowing system modifications, such as adding speakers, without additional wiring or hardware modifications. Difficulties arise when determining the presence of speakers in an automotive environment. Extraneous noise sources such as door slams, hatch slams and engine cranking can cause erroneous measurements thus inappropriate configurations. The presented circuit was determined to be immune to these noise sources and is based upon: 1. Integration of measurements over a fixed period of time 2.

The paper will introduce the concept of intelligent automotive system services as an essential pattern for forthcoming Electric/Electronic (E/E) architectures. System services are infrastructure-related, having vehicle-wide functionalities with one central part (master) and optionally several peripheral parts (clients) as counterparts in every ECU. System services support the reliable operation, efficient administration and maintenance of car functions over the entire life cycle. System services constitute vehicle-wide, distributed functionalities. Therefore, a consistent, interoperable and scalable implementation and integration strategy is outlined. In addition, synergies to the standard core as well as to the AUTOSAR concept will be described.

The paper introduces an integrated view on the emerging domain of system services as important part of an automotive IT infrastructure. System services are essential to allow an adequate administration and reliable operation of complex automotive IT systems during production, operation or maintenance of a vehicle. System services are vehicle-wide services. They range from software installation and configuration services, safety and security services, system diagnosis services, communication, connectivity and network services, up to vehicle status or engergy management services. The paper will discuss requirements, architecture and implementation issues as well as organisational implications, based on lessons learned from a prototypical implementation at BMW Car IT GmbH.

As vehicles are getting electrified and more intelligent, the energy consumption of the auxiliary system increases rapidly. The auxiliary battery acts as the backbone of the system to support the proper operation of the vehicle. It is important to ensure the auxiliary battery has enough energy to meet the basic loads regardless the vehicle is in park or running. However, the existing methods only focus on auxiliary energy management when the vehicle is in a dynamic event. To fulfill the gap, we propose an intelligent strategy that detects the low state of charge (SOC) condition, temporarily turns down the auxiliary loads based on their priorities and charges the auxiliary battery at the maximum efficiency of the auxiliary power unit. In addition, the proposed strategy allows the vehicle to get the park duration update and make intelligent decisions on charging the auxiliary battery.

The development of electronic intelligence and the continually increasing intensive knowledge of driving dynamics make it possible nowadays to conceive intelligent vehicle systems and to make such systems available for series production, which are capable of substantially enhancing the active safety of commercial vehicles. Through the implementation of advanced subsystems, which can be integrated as software packages into the basic electronic braking system, it will be possible to expand the possibilities of introducing assistance systems, which are capable of both, helping and relieving the driver from stress in critical situations. The driver will be relieved of all duties which could divert his attention or cause severe stress. As a consequence, the active safety of commercial vehicles will be considerably increased.