Applied Mechanics and Materials Vol. 165

Abstract: In the past decade automotive industries being faced the exponential increase of in-vehicle electronic devices. The hydraulic systems are replaced with sophisticated electronic systems. Market demands for exploiting new in-vehicle technologies such as multimedia systems, internet access, GPS, Mobile communication, internal private network; engine, body and power train intelligent control and monitoring systems are increasing daily. These new needs make the wire-harness as physical pathway for power and data more complex. The amount of different data types transmission in vehicle networking requires higher bandwidth and subsequently applying expensive and advanced equipment. Furthermore functions and facilities lead to raise the number of electronic control units (ECU). The high cost of manufacturing and implementing the previous equipment and systems only can be justified to luxury vehicles high prices. This paper presents a conceptual model of in-vehicle networking which would lead to the appliance of considerable portion of these advanced systems in non-luxury vehicles. In this context, polymer optical fibers (POF) exploited to achieve high speed bandwidth and cost-effective solution to transfer huge amount of data and one ECU to control and manage body/cabin electronic devices. This paper suggests three red, blue and green lights for transferring video/audio, communication data network such as internet/vehicle internal network and body/cabin command lines respectively. Moreover, this concept model claims for reducing wire-harness with integration of command lines into multiplexed POF line.

Abstract: High silica MFI zeolite membrane was synthesized by hydrothermal method at 313 K on asymetri pore structure alpha alumina substrate, utilizing natural rice husk as the sources of silica. The top layer of substrate was about 0.1 µm. The calcination was conducted at 773 K to remove the organic template. This membrane has a good stability at high temperature and in organic solvent. The membrane structure was identified by X-ray diffraction (XRD). The permeation of some pure gases was carried out to detect pinhole or cracking by studying mass transfer mechanism in the membrane. The pervaporation performance of as-synthesized membrane showed good results. This process was able to produce fuel grade bioethanol (99.2%) with the separation factor about 14.

Abstract: This paper presents a 14DOF full vehicle model which consists of ride, handling and tire subsystems to study vehicle dynamics behavior. The full vehicle model is then verified with well-known vehicle dynamics software namely CarSimEd based on the driver input from the steering wheel. Three types of vehicle dynamics test are performed for the purpose of model verification namely step steer test, double lane change test and slalom test. The results of model verification show that the behaviors of the model closely follow the behaviors obtained from CarSimEd software with acceptable error.

Abstract: This is a preliminary research in energy optimization system (ENOS) for Electric Vehicle (EV) whereby eco-driving is one of the solutions. Eco-driving initiative is not only benefit to the environment by optimizing the energy consumption but also enhancing the propulsion performance of Electric Vehicle. The efforts to reduce energy consumption could be achieved directly by studying contributing factors from the propulsion characteristic and the behavior of the vehicle dynamics (longitudinal vehicle dynamics in particular). We derived a single expression to describe energy consumption which could be programmed as the eco-driving algorithm. The expression is started by developing sets of equation of motions of longitudinal vehicle dynamics and relates them with the propulsion behavior that includes the counter-force by the traction torque and battery management system for Electric Vehicle. This mathematical model is established to analyze the energy consumption which shows the parameters that are important in the strategy to acquire the optimal performance and efficiency. This whole effort is part of the strategy to develop algorithm for eco-driving program.

Abstract: With the concern of the foreseen reduction in fossil fuel resources and stringent environmental constraints, the demand of improving internal combustion (IC) engine efficiency and emissions has become more and more pressing. Hydrogen has been proved to be a promising renewable energy that can be used on IC engines. In this paper an evaluation and assessment of numerical and experimental investigations on performance and exhaust emission with hydrogen added to a spark ignited gasoline engine fuelled with gasoline and natural gas are performed. The experimental results showed that thermal efficiency, combustion performance, NOx emissions improved with the increase of hydrogen addition level. The HC and CO emissions first decrease with the increasing hydrogen enrichment level, but when hydrogen energy fraction exceeds 12.44%, it begins to increase again at idle and stoichiometric conditions. Numerical results showed that there is an increase in engine efficiency only if Maximum Brake Torque (MBT) spark advance is used for each fuel. Moreover, an economic analysis has been carried out to determine the optimum percentage of hydrogen in such blends, showing percent increments by using these fuels about between 10 and 34%.

Abstract: Drivers posture is one of the critical factors that should be investigated closely and thoroughly in the design and development of car drivers seat. A car driver controls the vehicle movements; therefore, his/her safety and comfort is important to avoid any road injury or unfortunate accident. The two main objectives of this study are to develop2D software for capturingimages of drivers postural angles and to collect comfortable drivers postural angles from the participants involved in the study, while they are driving the cars. To achieve this, an experiment was conducted by using this software for collectingcar drivers postural angles. Forty five Malaysian citizens took part in the data collection process. From the study, a 2D image capture method software for capturing driver postural angles were developed. Finally, a range of comfortable postural angles for Malaysian car drivers were proposed based on the participants perception with respect to safety and comfort.

Abstract: Thin-walled structures have been widely used in various structural applications asimpact energy absorbing devices. During an impact situation, thin-walled tubesdemonstrate excellent capability in absorbing greater energy through plastic deformation. In this paper, a review of thin-walled tubes as collapsible energy absorbers is presented.As a mean of improving the impact energy absorption of thin-walled tubes, the influence of geometrical parameters such as length, diameter and wall thickness on the response of thin-walled tubes under compression axial loading are briefly discussed. Several design improvements proposed by previous researchers are also presented. The scope of this review is mainly focus on axial deformation under quasi-static and dynamic compressive loading. Other deformations, such as lateral indentation, inversion and splitting are considered beyond the scope of this paper. This review is intended to assist the future development of thin-walled tubes as efficient energy absorbing elements.

Abstract: Dynamic response of automotive component materials which are carbon steel S50C and cast ironon its sound and vibration characteristichas been studied. This paper shows that I-kaz analysis method can be applied to characterise this dynamic behavior problem. In the present work, an excitation has been performed by an impact hammer at the center of a rectangular bar specimen instrumented with accelerometer and microphone to obtain sound and vibration time-histories. From the experimental results, it was found that the recorded sound and vibration signal has a transient characteristic with high oscillation. Frequency spectrum analysis shows that impact testing on any material will generate its own characteristic of frequency peak and constantboth for sound and vibration signal. From I-kaz analysis method, it can be concluded that I-kaz coefficient, for sound signal is proportional to the modulus of elasticity, density and Poissons ratio. It is also shown that for vibration signal is inversely proportional to these mechanical properties.Data scattering representation supported this pattern of .

Abstract: This paper presents the comparative study on two types of the clustering technique for decomposing Variable Amplitude (VA) loadings signals based on its amplitude. These two techniques are used to recognize clusters or patterns of fatigue damaging events in the record which will bring aboutthe majority of fatigue damage. However, one of the problems that existswhencomparing which technique will produce better clusters is the fact thata clustering validation index isneeded. In this study, techniques that were used were theFuzzy C-means and C-means. At first, the VA data weresegmented using the Running Damage Extraction (RDE) technique. Then, each segment produced wasanalysed using the strain life approach and global statistical signal values. Finally, the accuracy of each clustering technique wasmeasured based on the OV coefficient index. From the study, the index shows that the Fuzzy C-means technique produced much better clusters rather than the C-mean clustering technique.

Abstract: Liquid-suction or internal heat exchanger (IHX) is installed in vapor compression refrigeration systems to exchange energy between cool low-pressure gas and warm high-pressure liquid refrigerant. The aim of this research is to experimentally evaluate the effect of IHX adaptation in an automotive air conditioning system focusing on evaporator working conditions. In this new design of IHX, the high-pressure liquid passes through the central channel and the low-pressure vapor flows in several parallel channels in the opposite direction. The experimental set-up has been made up of original components of the air conditioning system of a medium sedan car, specially designed and built to analyze vehicle A/C equipments under real work conditions. The results show that low pressure drop will be imposed on the cycle using this type of IHX. Also, they confirm considerable decrease of compressor power consumption; it is intensified at higher evaporator air flow. A significant improvement of the coefficient of performance will be achieved with IHX too. The influence of operating conditions has been also discussed in this paper.