Automotive Science and Engineering

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 This paper studies the longitudinal control of a group of vehicles following a lead vehicle. A 
neighbor based upper level controller is proposed by considering communication delay and
actuator lag. Constant spacing policy is used between successive vehicles. Two different
approaches based on Lyapunov-Razumikhin and Lyapuniv-Krassovski theorems are presented to
stability analysis of closed loop dynamic. By simulation studies, it will be shown that the second
approach is less conservatism than the first one. We consider the bidirectional leader following
(BDLF) topology for inter-vehicle communication. Based on this structure, some sufficient
conditions assuring string stability of platoon is derived. At the end of paper, four different
scenarios are presented to study the robustness of algorithm against communication delay,
actuator lag, disturbance, heterogeny and communication losses. 

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Car design incorporates many engineering sciences where today, have led to the use of advanced technologies in automobiles to provide more satisfaction and comfort for the passengers, increase the quality of vehicles, efficiency and more pleasure than previous cars. These issues can be categorized into two groups in general. In the first group, the effects and performance of components involved in vehicle vibrations are considered, and in the second group, attention is paid to the importance of joints and junctions of these components. Heretofore, in order to minimize vehicle NVH (noise, vibration and harshness), an exuberance of efforts have been done to raise the passengers comfort. In the meantime, it should be noted that the engine mounts play a considerable and serious role in reducing vibration exchanged between the engine and chassis. In designing the engine mounts, the most important concern is to balance the two opposite criteria that come into the car as a result of different vibration inputs (road and motor). Generally, vehicle engine mounts are used by three types of targets (motor bearing weight, motor vibration absorption, motor overloading, acceleration or braking). With the development of the automotive industry, the tendency towards the use of more efficient engine mount categories, has been prepared.
This article describes a concise functional overview of the engine mount in automobiles; it illustrates operating frequency range, relationship of the P and boundary diagram of engine mounts with other car collections, torque roll axis, positioning public types of the car’s engine mounts; and it also compares their operations. Afterwards, the structure and the basic functional of hydraulic engine mount are described as the most common engine mount categories. Finally, advantages and disadvantages of various types engine mounts with capability of use in the vehicle (including elastomeric, hydraulic (with inertia track or/and decouplier or/and bell plate (plunger), semi-active (switchable) and active hydraulic engine mount) are compared with each other.

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In this paper a new type of multi-objective differential evolution employing dynamically tunable mutation factor is used to optimally design non-linear vehicle model. In this way, non-dominated sorting algorithm with crowding distance criterion are combined to fuziified mutation differential evolution to construct multi-objective algorithm to solve the problem. In order to achieve fuzzified mutation factor, two inputs as generation number and population diversity and one output as the mutation factor are used in the fuzzy inference system. The objective functions optimized simultaneously are namely, vertical acceleration of sprung mass, relative displacement between sprung mass and unsprung mass and control force. Optimization processes have been done in two bi- and three objective areas. Comparison of the obtained results with those in the literature has shown the superiority of the proposed method of this work. Further, it has been shown that the results of 3-objective optimization include those of bi-objective one, and therefore it gives more optimum options to the designer

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The Global Positioning System (GPS) and an Inertial Navigation System (INS) are two basic navigation systems. Due to their complementary characters in many aspects, a GPS/INS integrated navigation system has been a hot research topic in the recent decade. The Micro Electrical Mechanical Sensors (MEMS) successfully solved the problems of price, size and weight with the traditional INS. Therefore they are commonly applied in GPS/INS integrated systems. The biggest problem of MEMS is the large sensor errors, which rapidly degrade the navigation performance in an exponential speed. Three levels of GPS/IMU integration structures, i.e. loose, tight and ultra tight GPS/IMU navigation, are proposed by researchers. The loose integration principles are given with detailed equations as well as the basic INS navigation principles. The Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) is introduced as the basic data fusion algorithm, which is also the core of the whole navigation system to be presented. The kinematic constraints of land vehicle navigation, i.e. velocity constraint and height constraint, are presented. A detailed implementation process of the GPS/IMU integration system is given. Based on the system model, we show the propagation of position standard errors with the tight integration structure under different scenarios. A real test with loose integration structure is carried out, and the EKF performances as well as the physical constraints are analyzed in detail.

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Brake system performance significantly affects safety, handling and vehicle dynamics. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to discuss brake system characteristics and performance and component design parameters. We perform a detailed study of a specific brake system designed for Mercedes-AMG SLC-43, considering component design parameters and operational points, and finally conduct the vehicle braking system layout design. To this end, brake force and torque calculations and power dissipation modelling is performed. Then, ventilated brake discs are designed for the front and rear brakes. A main goal of the present article is to apply digital logic method to the material selection procedure among the candidate material proposed for brake components and rank the materials according to performance indices. The performance indices of five candidate materials were calculated and compared to select the best option for application in the brake disc. Finally, the calculations of the brake pedal, booster, cylinder, hoses and tubes are obtained.

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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.

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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.

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With respect to the limitations of fossil energy resources, different types of electric vehicles (EVs) are developed as suitable alternatives. Lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery cells play an extremely important role in EVs due to their unique features. But they need a thermal management system (TMS) to maintain their surface temperature uniformity and avoid them from thermal runaways. In the current study a phase change material (PCM) based TMS is introduced and applied to provide a uniform temperature distribution on a Li-ion battery cell surface. This PCM based TMS declines the final maximum temperature difference to (1/5) and (2/3) at 1 C and 2 C discharge rate respectively.
 

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In this paper, a new version of multi-objective differential evolution with dynamically adaptable mutation factor is used for Pareto optimization of a 5-degree of freedom vehicle vibration model excited by non-stationary random road profile. In this way, non-dominated sorting algorithm and crowding distance criterion have been combined to differential evolution with fuzzified mutation in order to achieve multi-objective meta-heuristic algorithm. To dynamically tune the mutation factor, two parameters, named, number of generation and population diversity are considered as inputs and, one parameter, named, the mutation factor as output of the fuzzy logic inference system. Conflicting objective functions that have been observed to be optimally designed simultaneously are, namely, vertical seat acceleration, vertical forward tire velocity, vertical rear tire velocity, relative displacement between sprung mass and forward tire and relative displacement between sprung mass and rear tire. Furthermore, different pairs of these objective functions have also been chosen for bi-objective optimization processes. The comparison of the obtained results with those in the literature unveils the superiority of the results of this work. It is displayed that the results of 5-objective optimization subsume those of bi-objective optimization and, consequently, this achievement can offer more optimal choices to designers.

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Hardware implementation of the Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) control strategy is an important stage of the development of the vehicle electric control unit (ECU). This paper introduces Model-Based Design (MBD) approach for implementation of PHEV energy management. Based on this approach, implementation of the control algorithm on an electronic hardware is performed using automatic code generation. The advantages of the MBD in comparison with the traditional methods are the capability of eliminating the manual coding complexities as well as compiling problems and reducing the test duration. In this study, hardware implementation of a PHEV rule-based control strategy is accomplished using MBD method. Also, in order to increase the accuracy of the results of the implementation, the data packing method is used. In this method, by controlling the primer and end data of the data packet transferred between the electronic board and the computer system, the noisy data is prevented from entering. In addition, to verify the performance of the implemented control strategy, hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulation is used with the two frequency rates. The results show the effectiveness of the proposed approach in correct and rapid implantation procedure.

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As an effective means of displacing fossil fuel consumption and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) have attracted more and more attentions. From the power grid perspective, PHEVs and PEVs equipped with batteries can also be used as energy storage facilities, due to the fact that, these vehicles are parked most of the time. Since, the temperature has a strong influence on the battery life-time and also the inherent characteristics of PHEV/PEV energy storage systems limit their use as appropriate resources for energy tuning, this paper, at first, presents a detailed model for energy storage systems of PEVs considering the cooling system and set temperature, and then, it proposes a reliable energy management method for scheduling of PEVs in the multi-microgrid (MMG) systems for both faulted and normal operations using parametric multi-objective function. The simulation results indicate that, considering proper energy management of energy storage systems of PEVs has significant influence on energy scheduling of MMG systems. For this investigation, all data analysis and simulations were done and implemented in MATLAB/Simulink environment.

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In this paper an idea for hybridization of conventional vehicles has proposed. The case study performed on one of the common vehicles on country roads i.e. Samand. This vehicle has high production volume but low fuel performance therefore hybridization of it could be attractive for its manufacture. This paper aims that the hybridization idea and its structure to need minimum mechanical modifications. In consequence attractiveness of this idea for industry could be high. A cost optimization has been performed for sizing of additional components such as electric motors and battery modules and the simulation results has been adopted to verify the proposed idea for case study with hybrid simulation of GT-Suit and MATLAB softwares.      

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Heavy articulated vehicles have low performance with respect to stability analysis due to their multifaceted geometry and dynamics especially when it comes to non-linear maneuvers. In this study in order to find out which statistical and dynamical factors have the most effect on stability of this type of vehicle without getting involve with their complex mathematical theory, combination of drive simulation and Taguchi method is used. Since the number and variety of factors are extensive, multi-step Taguchi method used. This method applied on values of modified rearward amplifications of each units of vehicle as a criterion of  lateral stability. Results show the high effect of suspension and load geometry of Vehicle Units on lateral stability and safety.

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Nowadays, with increasing environmental pollution and damages that threaten the health of the community, a lot of research is being conducted on reducing the emission from transportation sector as one of the main sources of total worldwide emissions. It is confirmed that one of the ways to reduce emission is to switch from fossil-based fuels to more environmentally benign fuels. Among the options, electric vehicles (EVs) have proven themselves as one of the best options. In this research study, a solar-based EV which is developed and built at University of Tehran is studied.  The environmental impacts assessment along with the energy consumption of this solar-electric vehicle is investigated

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One of the most significant issues of recent decades is pollution and dangers that may threat the environment. Different approaches were presented to protect the environment and target various sources of pollution. Old vehicles are one of the major sources of pollution in megacities as they consume and emit a lot of emissions. Therefore governments in different countries try to levy tax on pollution to motivate people to drive environment friendly and more efficient vehicles.
Tehran is one of the cities suffering rigorously from poor air quality. As a result, approximately 44 days in each year the air quality reckons as unhealthy for all residents. One of the suggested solutions is replacing conventional taxis across the city with hybrid electric vehicles. In this article this solution for the city of Tehran, Iran will be discussed and its feasibility will be evaluated using life cycle assessment.  
In order to conduct this, first data associated with air quality, pollution and taxis distribution in the city were presented. Then different designated vehicles were evaluated based on their technical performance and the emission they generate in different stages. Using the proposed model a comprehensive cost is defined and different vehicles were compared and the most viable choices by various considerations is introduced.

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Due to the increasing level of air pollution and the reduction of fossil fuels, the need for new technologies and alternative fuels is felt more than ever. Proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) are one of these technologies, which have been of great interest to the researchers due to the benefits of non-contamination, high efficiency, fast start-up, and high power density. The proper functioning of the fuel cell requires thermal management and water management within the cells. To this end, in this work, the effect of different parameters on the performance of PEM fuel cell was investigated. The results demonstrated that the performance of the cell increases with increasing the pressure in the low current densities, while in the high current density, performance decreases with increasing the pressure of the cell. Also, the study of the effect of relative humidity shows that increasing the relative humidity of the cathode does not have much effect on the performance of the cell while increasing the relative humidity of the anode improves the performance of the cell.

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In this paper, an intelligent system based on a novel algorithm for pulling out is designed and implemented. Through processing images of the surroundings of a vehicle, this very algorithm detects the obstacles and objects which are likely to pose danger to the vehicle while pulling out.  Two different methods are integrated into this system to detect obstacles and objects.  The first method, which is called Support Vector Machine (SVM), detects a broad range of moving objects around the vehicle drawing on training datasets.  Whereas, in the second method, types of obstacles and objects are detected using the area of the moving object within range. The system in question is implemented using both methods whose performance are compared in terms of computation and image processing speed; SVM and object area methods detected 93% and 96% of vehicles respectively. The utilization of this algorithm can contribute to the safety of vehicles while executing pullout maneuver and decreased the probability of crashing into fixed and moving obstacles in the surroundings.  Results of this research will be available to be used in the design and development of parking control systems. 

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This study uses real driving cycles of a city bus and a standard driving cycle “WLTP” to implement a full comparison for energy demand and fuel consumption for different propulsion systems (i.e., Diesel ICE, Fuel cell and Electric engines). To better understand the comparison, a life cycle assessment is conducted using “GREET” and “GHGenius” software, which represents a clear demonstration of side effects and emissions of each engine on the environment. The results show that for “WLTP” cycle the bus needs 2423kJ energy for traveling each kilometer while the averaged amount of energy for traveling one kilometer of real driving cycle reaches to 1708kJ. By computing total energy use of  an electric bus we conclude, electric buses use almost 58% of electric energy for driving and the rest is lost. Then fuel cell and internal combustion engine buses have energy efficiency of 36% and 24% respectively. Concerning LCA analysis, it becomes apparent that unlike efficiency, electric buses are not environmentally benign as fuel cell buses. LCA analysis showed that fuel cell buses that use steam reforming hydrogen production process are a cleaner option than electric buses. Finally, since diesel buses produce the most emission, especially CO2, and consume the most energy in the total life cycle, they have no advantage for public transportation fleet.

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Traffic control is a major and common problem in large-scale urban decision-making, particularly in metropolises. Several models of intelligent highways have been proposed to tackle the issue, and the longitudinal speed control of vehicles remains a key issue in the field of intelligent highways. Many researchers have been investigating the longitudinal speed control of vehicles. However, their proposed models disregard important and influential presumptions. In the present study, the longitudinal dynamics control of vehicles in the presence of nonlinear factors, such as air resistance, rolling resistance, a not ideal gearbox, an internal combustion engine and a torque converter, is investigated. Moreover, considering the presented model and using model reference adaptive control, a proper controller is designed to control the longitudinal speed of intelligent vehicles. The results of the proposed model, which is validated by commercial software, are in good agreement with real-world situations. Hence, a positive step is taken for controlling longitudinal speed of intelligent vehicles on an intelligent highway platform.