International Journal of Automotive Manufacturing and Materials

Simulation of Vibration Characteristics of the Front MacPherson Suspension of a Sightseeing Vehicle

Deli Li, Ling Rong, Nairui Mao, Yuanmei Song, Ruquan Liang, Jinwen You — Wed, 16 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0800

Article

Simulation of Vibration Characteristics of the Front MacPherson Suspension of a Sightseeing Vehicle

Deli Li ^1,2, Ling Rong ¹, Nairui Mao ¹, Yuanmei Song ^1,*, Ruquan Liang ^1,*, and Jinwen You ¹

¹ School of Mechanical & Vehicle Engineering, Linyi University, Linyi 276000, China

² College of Engineering Science and Technology, Shanghai Ocean University, Shanghai 201306, China

^* Correspondence: ymsong321@163.com (Y.S.); liangruquan@lyu.edu.cn (R.L.)

Received: 7 July 2024; Revised: 24 September 2024; Accepted: 10 October 2024; Published: 16 October 2024

Abstract: This paper utilizes MATLAB/Simulink to simulate the vibration characteristics of the quarter-front MacPherson independent suspension of a sightseeing vehicle under random road conditions. Key performance indicators, including vehicle body acceleration, suspension deflection, and tire dynamic load, are comprehensively investigated. Focusing on the influence of suspension stiffness and damping on ride comfort and the service life of the vehicle, we conduct a comparative analysis by gradually changing the stiffness and damping parameters from the original design. Comparison of the simulation results across different stiffness and damping settings provides a profound understanding of how these parameters significantly affect the ride comfort and service life of the sightseeing vehicle. These findings not only provide valuable guidance for the design and manufacturing of customized optimized suspension systems for sightseeing vehicles, but also enrich the content and broaden the scope of current research.

Combustion Management of Neat Dimethyl Ether Combustion for Enabling High Efficiency and Low NOx Production

Simon LeBlanc, Binghao Cong, Navjot Sandhu, Long Jin, Xiao Yu, Ming Zheng — Wed, 23 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0800

Article

Combustion Management of Neat Dimethyl Ether Combustion for Enabling High Efficiency and Low NO_x Production

Simon LeBlanc, Binghao Cong, Navjot Sandhu, Long Jin, Xiao Yu and Ming Zheng *

Department of Mechanical, Automotive and Materials Engineering, University of Windsor, 401 Sunset Avenue, Windsor, ON N9B 3P4, Canada

* Correspondence: mzheng@uwindsor.ca

Received: 30 June 2024; Revised: 30 September 2024; Accepted: 10 October 2024; Published: 23 October 2024

Abstract: Modern compression ignition engines heavily rely on exhaust gas recirculation to reduce NO_x emissions. Despite this, complex and expensive after-treatment systems are still necessary to comply with stringent emission regulations. Conventional diesel combustion operates on a robust and readily controllable mode through which the high-pressure fuel injection and combustion processes are intimately coupled. The heterogeneous nature of direct injection systems is liable to the NO_x-soot trade-off inherent to diesel-fueled engines. Dimethyl ether (DME) presents a unique fuel that is reactive, volatile, and oxygenated, offering significant potential to address emission challenges with reduced reliance on aftertreatment systems. In this research, the combustion management of neat DME fuel was investigated using a high-pressure direct injection system. Principally, the suitability of single-shot fuel scheduling as a combustion management technique for DME under low NO_x production was explored. The transient high-pressure injection behaviour of DME was characterized with an offline test bench. A single-cylinder research engine platform was employed to study DME combustion characteristics. A wide range of engine conditions was investigated, including injection pressures from 200 bar up to 880 bar and engine loads from 1 bar up to 17 bar indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP). The combustion management of DME as it relates to fuel injection and operating boundary conditions was emphasized throughout the work. To accomplish this, tests were conducted at direct comparison conditions to diesel operation. Most notably, the DME combustion process finished in a shorter period than diesel, albeit with a significantly longer injection duration. At most operating conditions, the soot emissions were below that of upcoming emission regulations without particulate filter exhaust treatment. Even under high engine load operation—17 bar IMEP—of neat DME, the NO_x emissions could be readily contained via EGR management to 51 ppm engine-out NO_xduring which soot reached a maximum of 1.0 FSN. Such operating circumstances of high engine load and low oxygen availability (overall lambda of 1.2) exhibited a deterministic combustion timing control via injection timing while performing with low combustion noise (4.8 bar/°CA) and high burning efficiency (98.5%).

Study on Naphtha Combustion in HCCI Engines

An Lu, Junior James Achumu, Junfeng Yang — Mon, 28 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0800

Article

Study on Naphtha Combustion in HCCI Engines

An Lu ¹, Junior James Achumu ² and Junfeng Yang ²^,*

¹ School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China

² School of Mechanical Engineering, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK

* Correspondence: j.yang@leeds.ac.uk

Received: 15 July 2024; Revised: 18 October 2024; Accepted: 22 October 2024; Published: 28 October 2024

Abstract: The chemical kinetics model studies have been conducted in this paper to assess ignition characteristics of coal-based naphtha (with carbon range C₃–C₁₀, RON of 54) for use in advanced engines. Reactivity of coal-based naphtha (CBN) was compared with two surrogate models: PRF54 (46 mole% n-heptane/54 mole% iso-octane) model and 3-component (42.561 mole% NC₇H₁₆, 43.683 mole% IC₈H₁₈ and 13.756 mole% IC₆H₁₄) model. Both two models reasonably predicted the ignition delay times (IDTs) of CBN at 10, 15 bar and 640–900 K. In addition, the experimental and simulation study of coal-based naphtha HCCI combustion was carried out. CHEMKIN-PRO software was used to simulate the effects of intake temperature (T_in) and equivalent ratio (Φ) on the combustion process of naphtha HCCI engine. The results show that the combustion of coal-based naphtha HCCI is sensitive to the T_in. With the increase of T_in, the combustion phase of HCCI is obviously advanced, the concentration of OH and HO₂ increases in the middle and low temperature reaction process, and the corresponding curve moves forward as a whole. The change of Φ has little effect on the concentration of OH and HO₂ before ignition, and the change of ignition time with the mixture concentration is not obvious. It should be pointed out that when the T_inis high or mixture is rich, the coal-based naphtha HCCI engine is prone to knock, and the peak phase will appear before top dead center (TDC). This phenomenon is especially obvious when the T_inis very high. It can be seen that the coal-based naphtha is suitable for low-temperature lean combustion.

A Lightweight Approach to Understand Forest Roads for New Nnergy Vehicles

Luping Wang, Yuan Feng, Shanshan Wang, Hui Wei — Mon, 11 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0800

Review

A Lightweight Approach to Understand Forest Roads for New Nnergy Vehicles

Luping Wang ^1,*, Yuan Feng ¹, Shanshan Wang ², and Hui Wei ³

¹ Laboratory of 3D Scene Understanding and Visual Navigation, School of Mechanical Engineering, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, No. 516 Jungong Road, Shanghai 200093, China

² Intel Asia-Pacific Research & Development Ltd., No.880 Zixing Road, Shanghai 201100, China

³ Laboratory of Algorithms for Cognitive Models, School of Computer Science, Fudan University, No. 825 Zhangheng Road, Shanghai 201203, China

* Correspondence: 15110240007@fudan.edu.cn

Received: 16 June 2024; Revised: 21 October 2024; Accepted: 24 October 2024; Published: 11 November 2024

Abstract: Scene understanding is a core issue for autonomous vehicles. However, its implementation has been thwarted by various outstanding issues, such as understanding forest roads in unknown field environments. Traditional three-dimensional (3D) point clouds or 3D estimation of fused data consume large amounts of memory and energy, making these methods less reliable in new energy vehicles with limited computational, memory, and energy resources. In this study, we propose a lightweight method to understand forest roads using a low-cost monocular camera. We extracted and clustered spatially similar texture projections based on oblique effect. Through the relative relationship between vanishing points and texture projections, contour lines can be estimated. After that, searching for the corresponding supporting evidence lines, we can segment the surface of the forest road, which can provide a decision basis for the automatic driving control system of new energy vehicles with limited resources. Unlike deep learning methods that are extremely resource-consuming, the proposed method requires no prior training, no calibration, and no internal parameters of the camera. At the same time, pure geometric reasoning makes the method robust to the ever-changing colors and lighting in the forest environment. The percentage of correctly classified pixels is compared to the ground truth. The experimental results show that the method can successfully understand forest roads and meet the requirements of autonomous navigation in forest environments for new energy vehicles with limited resources.

Deterioration Analysis of Real-world SCR Catalysts in Diesel Vehicles

Thu, 28 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0800

Article

Deterioration Analysis of Real-world SCR Catalysts in Diesel Vehicles

Tongliang Zhang ^1,2,3, Yu Sun ³, Xusheng Xiang ⁴, Wenqing Ding ^2,3, Zhen Chen ⁴, Caiyue Dong ⁴, Yating Li ³, Yulong Shan ^3,*, Yunbo Yu ^2,3 and Hong He ^1,2,3

¹ School of Rare Earths, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China

² Ganjiang Innovation Academy, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ganzhou 341119, China

³ State Key Joint Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China

⁴ Dongfeng Commercial Vehicle Co., Ltd., Shiyan 100049, China

* Correspondence: ylshan@rcees.ac.cn

Received: 12 August 2024; Revised: 22 October 2024; Accepted: 24 October 2024; Published: 28 November 2024

Abstract: To investigate the real-world poisoning of Cu-SSZ-13 NH₃-SCR (Selective Catalytic Reduction with NH₃) catalysts in diesel vehicles, three used catalysts from vehicles that have traveled different distances were analyzed. The deterioration observed in these catalysts significantly differs from laboratory simulations due to the combined effect of multiple poisoning factors. The degree of catalyst deterioration is positively correlated not only with driving distance but also with the specific types of poisoning encountered. In real-world conditions, hydrothermal aging is not the primary poisoning factor. Instead, the main cause of Cu-SSZ-13 deactivation is the poisoning by chemical elements such as sulfur and iron. Sulfur poisoning reduces catalytic activity, and the regeneration of the catalyst depends on the species formed. This study reveals that the accumulation of chemical poisons is the primary reason for the deterioration of Cu-SSZ-13 catalysts in real-world conditions. Therefore, reducing toxic components in diesel engine exhaust is essential for maintaining catalyst performance.

A Control System Design for an Intelligent Unmanned Automotive

Yundi Yang, Xin Gao, Jinwen You, Dengbo Zhang, Zhuo Zhang, Yuanmei Song — Wed, 04 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0800

Article

A Control System Design for an Intelligent Unmanned Automotive

Yundi Yang ^†, Xin Gao ^†, Jinwen You, Dengbo Zhang, Zhuo Zhang and Yuanmei Song *

School of Mechanical & Vehicle Engineering, Linyi University, Linyi 276000, China

* Correspondence: ymsong321@163.com

† These authors contributed equally to this work.

Received: 1 August 2024; Revised: 18 September 2024; Accepted: 28 November 2024; Published: 4 December 2024

Abstract: This study is dedicated to developing a control system for an intelligent unmanned delivery vehicle with rear wheel independent drive. This design includes kinematic analysis based on AT89C51 microcontroller, control software development, arc path interpolation technology and control system circuit design. Typically, a high-precision digital encoder was designed to be installed on the rotating shaft of the motor to produce two pulse signals with a phase difference of 90 degrees, which is essential for determining the motion state of the motor. And the detection of the motor’s rotation direction was achieved through a cleverly designed forward circuit. This system will continuously monitor the driving trajectory concluding from the initially predetermined route and the actual trajectory. As a result, this miniature vehicle is engineered to autonomously navigate and meticulously control its movement trajectory with high precision and efficiency, effortlessly navigating both straight lines and intricate arcs, which propelled a significant enhancement in both the overall level of production automation and the efficiency of manufacturing processes.

Simulation Study on Heating Performance of Thermal Management in Heat Pump Air Conditioning Systems for Electric Vehicles

Yihan Zhao — Wed, 04 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0800

Article

Simulation Study on Heating Performance of Thermal Management in Heat Pump Air Conditioning Systems for Electric Vehicles

Yihan Zhao

School of Management, Shenyang Jianzhu University, Shenyang 110168, China; zhaoyihan@sjzu.edu.cn; Tel./Fax: +86-024-2469-2209

Received: 29 September 2024; Revised: 26 November 2024; Accepted: 2 December 2024; Published: 4 December 2024

Abstract: With the advent of the electric vehicle (EV) revolution, the market share of EVs has been steadily increasing, accompanied by growing interest in the heat pump air-conditioning system (including cooling and heating functionalities) of electric vehicles. As the second-largest energy-consuming system in a vehicle, the air-conditioning system significantly impacts driving range, especially under winter heating conditions, where excessive energy consumption can greatly reduce the vehicle’s range. This study addresses the issue of high energy consumption of heat pump air-conditioning systems in winter. By constructing a one-dimensional model of the heat pump air-conditioning system for electric vehicles, the study analyzes the impact of compressor speed, EHX opening, and recirculation ratio on energy consumption and heating capacity under WLTC operating conditions at an ambient temperature of −5 °C. The results indicate that an EHX opening of 450 steps, an external air circulation ratio of 30%, and a compressor speed of approximately 5000 RPM provide optimal heating performance for the heat pump air-conditioning system. This simulation offers insights for optimizing heat pump air-conditioning systems and improving the driving range of electric vehicles. Further optimization could enhance EV range issues and boost the market competitiveness of this type of electric vehicle.