Development of Calculation Software for Automotive Side Swing Door Closing Energy

The existing research of the automotive side swing door and the closing angle via tests and simulations. In these tests, the closing energy is mainly conducted by measuring the closing energy door closing velocity and initial door closing angle are usually not taken into consideration, so the accuracy of the test data cannot be ensured, and, meanwhile, simulations require a great deal of manpower and time. Moreover, frequent tests would give rise to the increasing research and development costs. In this paper, in response to the deficiencies of these current methods, the complicated door closing process is decomposed into the closing processes of different subsystems of door, which includes weather strip seal＇, air-binding effect, door weight, hinge, check-link and latch. Mathematical models of those subsystems are established according to their working principles during the door closing process. In addition to the theoretical research, an Excel-based software using Visual Basic Application programming language is developed to realize the mathematical models, which aims to calculate the energy consumption of the subsystems. The energy consumption of different subsystems of a production vehicle door is measured to verify the accuracy of the calculation sottware developed. The proposed research provides not only the theoretical basis for the future door closing energy research, but also an interactive method and system, effectively improving the quality and efficiency of vehicle door design.

Application of deep learning for informatics aided design of electrode materials in metal-ion batteries

To develop emerging electrode materials and improve the performances of batteries,the machine learning techniques can provide insights to discover,design and develop battery new materials in high-throughput way.In this paper,two deep learning models are developed and trained with two feature groups extracted from the Materials Project datasets to predict the battery electrochemical performances including average voltage,specific capacity and specific energy.The deep learning models are trained with the multilayer perceptron as the core.The Bayesian optimization and Monte Carlo methods are applied to improve the prediction accuracy of models.Based on 10 types of ion batteries,the correlation coefficients are maintained above 0.9 compared to DFT calculation results and the mean absolute error of the prediction results for voltages of two models can reach 0.41 V and 0.20 V,respectively.The electrochemical performance prediction times for the two trained models on thousands of batteries are only 72.9 ms and 75.7 ms.Besides,the two deep learning models are applied to approach the screening of emerging electrode materials for sodium-ion and potassium-ion batteries.This work can contribute to a high-throughput computational method to accelerate the rational and fast materials discovery and design.

Lightweight Design of Automobile Drive Shaft Based on the Characteristics of Low Amplitude Load Strengthening

There are two kinds of internationally recognized approaches in terms of lightweight design.One is based on fatigue accumulated damage theory to achieve better reliability by optimal structural design; another is to use high performance lightweight materials.The former method takes very few considerations on the structural strengthening effects caused by the massive small loads in service.In order to ensure safety,the design is usually conservative,but the strength potential of the component is not fully exerted.In the latter method,cost is the biggest obstacle to lightweight materials in automotive applications.For the purpose of light weighting design on a fuel cell vehicle,the new design method is applied on drive shafts.The method is based on the low amplitude load strengthening characteristics of the material,and allows the stress,corresponding to test load,to enter into the strengthened range of the material.Under this condition,the light weighting design should assure that the reliability of the shaft is not impaired,even maximizes the strength potential of machine part in order to achieve the weight reduction and eventually to reduce the cost.At last,the feasibility of the design is verified by means of strength analysis and modal analysis based on the CAD model of light weighted shaft.The design applies to the load case of half shaft in independent axle,also provides technological reference for the structural lightweight design of vehicles and other machineries.

Structural characteristics of zeolite/TiO-2 composite and photocatalysis of toluene degradation

Zeolite/TiO-2 composite photocatalysts were prepared by adding a certain amount of mordenite in TiO-2, and degradation experiments on toluene through photocatalytic reactions were implemented. In this paper, these photocatalysts were characterized by using SEM, IR, RAMAN, XRD and UV-Vis to shed light on the microstructure and photocatalytic performance of the composite photocatalysts. The results indicated that the structural hydroxy of zeolite can participate in bonding reaction with TiO-2, the addition of zeolite can greatly reduce the diameter of nanometer TiO-2 particles in the composite photocatalysts, and enhance the ultraviolet light absorptance of the composite photocatalysts. When the percentage content of zeolite reached 20%, the photocatalytic performance of this catalyst would be highest, with the toluene conversion rate up to {94.58%}.

Fabrication and electrochemical performance of solid oxide fuel cell components by atmospheric and suspension plasma spray

The theory of functionally graded material(FGM)was applied in the fabrication process of PEN(Positive-Electrolyte-Negative),the core component of solid oxide fuel cell(SOFC).To enhance its electrochemical performance,the functionally graded PEN of planar SOFC was prepared by atmospheric plasma spray(APS).The cross-sectional SEM micrograph and element energy spectrum of the resultant PEN were analyzed.Its interface resistance was also compared with that without the graded layers to investigate the electrochemical performance enhanced by the functionally graded layers.Moreover,a new process, suspension plasma spray(SPS)was applied to preparing the SOFC electrolyte.Higher densification of the coating by SPS,1.61%,is observed,which is helpful to effectively improve its electrical conductivity.The grain size of the electrolyte coating fabricated by SPS is also smaller than that by APS,which is more favourable to obtain the dense electrolyte coatings.To sum up,all mentioned above can prove that the hybrid process of APS and SPS could be a better approach to fabricate the PEN of SOFC stacks,in which APS is for porous electrodes and SPS for dense electrolyte.

Self-excited vibration of driveline for vehicle launch

The launch shudder phenomenon induced by self-excited vibration of driveline was stud- ied with a compact car equipped with AMT as research object. The research showed that self-excited vibration was closely related with damping of driveline, the variation of friction coefficient, equiva- lent radius of friction plate and applied force of pressure plate. Six DOFs torsional vibration model of vehicle driveline was established according to the parameters of the certain compact car. The simula- tion was carried out and the result was compared with test data. It was found that the negative slope of friction coefficient with relative slip speed does not necessarily lead to self-excited vibration and the frequency of self-excited vibration on 1st gear is near to the 1st order of torsional natural frequen- cy. The influence of each viscous damping in driveline on self-excited vibration was analyzed by sim- ulation and the results showed that increasing the torsional dampings of half-axles and tires properly was effective to improve launch shudder phenomenon.

Simulation Analysis of Car Front Collision Based on LS-DYNA and Hyper Works

Based on the basic principle of vehicle crash analysis using the finite element method, a car finite element model was built by using Hypermesh software. To simulate the front collision test of the car, the LS-DYNA software is adopted to calculate the deformation of the car and the acceleration time history curves during the crashing process;the anti-impact capability of the car is evaluated from this simulation. The results demonstrate that the improvement of local structure can promote the crashworthiness of the car, but the further improvement needs a major change of the car structure.

Kinematic characterization and optimization of vehicle front-suspension design based on ADAMS

To improve the suspension performance and steering stability of light vehicles, we built a kinematic simulation model of a whole independent double-wishbone suspension system by using ADAMS software, created random excitations of the test platforms of respectively the left and the right wheels according to actual running conditions of a vehicle, and explored the changing patterns of the kinematic characteristic parameters in the process of suspension motion. The irrationality of the suspension guiding mechanism design was pointed out through simulation and analysis, and the existent problems of the guiding mechanism were optimized and calculated. The results show that all the front-wheel alignment parameters, including the camber, the toe, the caster and the inclination, only slightly change within corresponding allowable ranges in design before and after optimization. The optimization reduces the variation of the wheel-center distance from 47.01 mm to a change of 8.28 mm within the allowable range of ?10 mm to 10 mm, promising an improvement of the vehicle steering stability. The optimization also confines the front-wheel sideways slippage to a much smaller change of 2.23 mm; this helps to greatly reduce the wear of tires and assure the straight running stability of the vehicle.

Buildup and simulation of a truck model with rear air suspension using leaf spring as guiding rod

A new kind of commercial truck is presented, which has rear air suspension using leaf spring as guiding rod instead of original leaf spring. ADAMS/Car is used as a tool to build the whole truck model. The designed truck＇s constant-radius cornering analysis and its ride performance simulation analysis under B class random road condition are carried out according to national experimental method standards. Compared the simulation results with the field test results indicate that performance index of the designed air suspension truck＇ s constant-radius cornering and its ride performance meets the design requirements and reaches its prospective target. And resuhs from simulation are similar to those from tests in value and trend, which indicates the virtual prototype is correct. The model can be used further to opti,nize suspension parameters and do some design work on the control system of air suspension.

A Type-2 Fuzzy Approach to Driver-Automation Shared Driving Lane Keeping Control of Semi-Autonomous Vehicles Under Imprecise Premise Variable

The driver-automation shared driving is a transition to fully-autonomous driving,in which human driver and vehicular controller cooperatively share the control authority.This paper investigates the shared steering control of semi-autonomous vehicles with uncertainty from imprecise parameter.By considering driver’s lane-keeping behavior on the vehicle system,a driver-automation shared driving model is introduced for control purpose.Based on the interval type-2(IT2)fuzzy theory,moreover,the driver-automation shared driving model with uncertainty from imprecise parameter is described using an IT2 fuzzy model.After that,the corresponding IT2 fuzzy controller is designed and a direct Lyapunov method is applied to analyze the system stability.In this work,sufficient design conditions in terms of linear matrix inequalities are derived,to guarantee the closed-loop stability of the driver-automation shared control system.In addition,an H∞performance is studied to ensure the robustness of control system.Finally,simulation-based results are provided to demonstrate the performance of proposed control method.Furthermore,an existing type-1 fuzzy controller is introduced as comparison to verify the superiority of the proposed IT2 fuzzy controller.

Reconstruction of Car-Electric Bicycle Side Collision Based on PC-Crash

A collision model, an automobile model and a multi-rigid-body model in PC-crash are analyzed. By simulating a side collision accident between a car and an electric bicycle (EB), a method that reproduces the car-electric bicycle side collision accident based on PC-crash is presented according to some important information such as the final position, the contacting location between the cyclist and the car. A result is obtained by comparing with the reproduced result, the deformation of accident vehicle and the surveillance video. The rollover direction and fells-over sliding direction after the collision and the contacting location and wrap motion of cyclist and electric bicycle are fitting in with the real situation better compared with the reconstruction result in PC-crash. Then the responsive-surface method and MONTEKARLO method are used in MATLAB to analyze the uncertainty of the vehicle speed in reproduced scene results. And the range of values of the pre-collision speed is obtained which makes the reproduced result more objective and convincible that could provide the basis of the accident assessment.

THROTTLE CONTROL STRATEGIES IN THE PROCESS OF INTEGRATED POWERTRAIN CONTROL

Combining with the development of automated manual transmission （AMT）, the various throttle control demands are analyzed under different working conditions of AMT such as tracking acceleration pedal, start, shift and so on. Based on simulation, the responding throttle control strategies are proposed, and a simple but effective throttle control method is presented. The testing results have proved that the strategies are effective for improving the pedal tracking precision and the qualities of start and shift.

MODELING, VALIDATION AND OPTIMAL DESIGN OF THE CLAMPING FORCE CONTROL VALVE USED IN CONTINUOUSLY VARIABLE TRANSMISSION

Associated dynamic performance of the clamping force control valve used in continuously variable transmission （CVT） is optimized. Firstly, the structure and working principle of the valve are analyzed, and then a dynamic model is set up by means of mechanism analysis. For the purpose of checking the validity of the modeling method, a prototype workpiece of the valve is manufactured for comparison test, and its simulation result follows the experimental result quite well. An associated performance index is founded considering the response time, overshoot and saving energy, and five structural parameters are selected to adjust for deriving the optimal associated performance index. The optimization problem is solved by the genetic algorithm （GA） with necessary constraints. Finally, the properties of the optimized valve are compared with those of the prototype workpiece, and the results prove that the dynamic performance indexes of the optimized valve are much better than those of the prototype workpiece.

Precise Compound Control of Loading Force for Electric Load Simulator of Electric Power Steering Test Bench

Electric load simulator(ELS) systems are employed for electric power steering(EPS) test benches to load rack force by precise control. Precise ELS control is strongly influenced by nonlinear factors. When the steering motor rapidly rotates, extra force is directly superimposed on the original static loading error, which becomes one of the main sources of the final error. It is key to achieve ELS precise loading control for the entire EPS test bench. Therefore, a three-part compound control algorithm is proposed to improve the loading accuracy. First, a fuzzy proportional–integral plus feedforward controller with force feedback is presented. Second, a friction compensation algorithm is established to reduce the influence of friction. Then, the relationships between each quantity and the extra force are analyzed when the steering motor rapidly rotates, and a net torque feedforward compensation algorithm is proposed to eliminate the extra force. The compound control algorithm was verified through simulations and experiments. The results show that the tracking performance of the compound control algorithm satisfies the demands of engineering practice, and the extra force in the ELS system can be suppressed by the net torque corresponding to the actuator’s acceleration.

Dynamic Performance Analysis of Gas-Liquid United Hydraulic Hammer

In order to improve the impactor performance, the dynamic performance of gas-liquid united hydraulic hammer should be optimized. Based on the analysis of the operating principle for the hydraulic impactor, one simulation model of gas-liquid united hydraulic impactor was built with AMESim software. By setting different simulation parameters, curves of displacement, velocity, acceleration and cavity pressure were obtained under different working conditions. The key component can be obtained by the analysis of activity index. The whole simulation results provide a reliable basis for component selection and parameter optimization of hydraulic impactor.

METHOD FOR ADAPTIVE MESH GENERATION BASED ON GEOMETRICAL FEATURES OF 3D SOLID

In order to provide a guidance to specify the element size dynamically during adaptive finite element mesh generation, adaptive criteria are firstly defined according to the relationships between the geometrical features and the elements of 3D solid. Various modes based on different datum geometrical elements, such as vertex, curve, surface, and so on, are then designed for generating local refined mesh. With the guidance of the defmed criteria, different modes are automatically selected to apply on the appropriate datum objects to program the element size in the local special areas. As a result, the control information of element size is successfully programmed covering the entire domain based on the geometrical features of 3D solid. A new algorithm based on Delatmay triangulation is then developed for generating 3D adaptive finite element mesh, in which the element size is dynamically specified to catch the geometrical features and suitable tetrahedron facets are selected to locate interior nodes continuously. As a result, adaptive mesh with good-quality elements is generated. Examples show that the proposed method can be successfully applied to adaptive finite element mesh automatic generation based on the geometrical features of 3D solid.

Computational Prediction of a Novel Superhard sp^(3) Trigonal Carbon Allotrope with Bandgap Larger than Diamond

Searching for new carbon allotropes with superior properties has been a longstanding interest in material sciences and condensed matter physics.Here we identify a novel superhard carbon phase with an 18-atom trigonal unit cell in a full-sp^(3) bonding network,termed tri-C_(18) carbon,by first-principles calculations.Its structural stability has been verified by total energy,phonon spectra,elastic constants,and molecular dynamics simulations.Furthermore,tri-C_(18) carbon has a high bulk modulus of 400 GPa and Vickers hardness of 79.0 GPa,comparable to those of diamond.Meanwhile,the simulated x-ray diffraction pattern of tri-C_(18) carbon matches well with the previously unexplained diffraction peaks found in chimney soot,indicating the possible presence of tri-C_(18) carbon.Remarkably,electronic band structure calculations reveal that tri-C_(18) carbon has a wide indirect bandgap of 6.32 eV,larger than that of cubic diamond,indicating its great potential in electronic or optoelectronic devices working in the deep ultraviolet region.

Sound Quality Prediction of Vehicle Interior Noise under Multiple Working Conditions Using Back-Propagation Neural Network Model

This paper presents a back-propagation neural network model for sound quality prediction (BPNN-SQP) of multiple working conditions’ vehicle interior noise. According to the standards and regulations, four kinds of vehicle interior noises under operating conditions, including idle, constant speed, accelerating and braking, are acquired. The objective psychoacoustic parameters and subjective annoyance results are respectively used as the input and output of the BPNN-SQP model. With correlation analysis and significance test, some psychoacoustic parameters, such as loudness, A-weighted sound pressure level, roughness, articulation index and sharpness, are selected for modeling. The annoyance values of unknown noise samples estimated by the BPNN-SQP model are highly correlated with the subjective annoyances. Conclusion can be drawn that the proposed BPNN-SQP model has good generalization ability and can be applied in sound quality prediction of vehicle interior noise under multiple working conditions.

Analysis of Vehicle Seat and Research on Structure Optimization in Front and Rear Impact

This paper used the Hyper Mesh and LS-DYNA software to establish a dummy-seat finite element simulation model. The head, chest and neck injury of the dummy were analyzed respectively in the frontal impact and rear impact. It was indicated that modification of seat was needed to meet the requirements. The simulation results showed that the original model cannot provide effective protection for the occupants and need for structural improvements. According to the simulation results of deformation and stress conditions of the seat parts, the original seat structure was improved and optimized for four improvement schemes, including the structure optimization of the seat side panel, the center hinge, framework under the cushion and the backrest lock. The results indicated that the optimized seat improved the occupant protection performance by reducing occupant damage parameters compared with original seat, which illustrated that the optimization basically met the target.

Structure Parameters Optimization Analysis of Hydraulic Hammer System

In order to improve the impact performance, the structure of hydraulic hammer should be optimized. In this paper, the ranges of eight vital structure parameters of piston and reversing valve system of hydraulic hammer were selected firstly;and then found the best value of different parameters under experiments with the method of computer optimization and the parametric analysis method provided by ADAMS software. These methods worked and the best design values of parameters of hydraulic hammer were obtained. At last, the optimal impact energy of virtual prototype of hydraulic breaking hammer was calculated and compared with the original impact performance. The results reveal that impact performance of hydraulic hammer has been improved significantly.