Engineering Commons^™

Evaporator Modeling And An Optimal Control Strategy Development Of An Organic Rankine Cycle Waste Heat Recovery System For A Heavy Duty Diesel Engine Application, Dhruvang Rathod

All Dissertations

The Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) has proven to be a promising technology for Waste Heat Recovery (WHR) systems in heavy duty diesel engine applications. However, due to the highly transient heat source, controlling the working fluid flow through the ORC system and maximizing the heat recovery is a challenge for real time application. To that end, this research resulted in the following main developments.

The first new development is in the area of heat exchanger modeling. The heat exchanger is a key component within the WHR system and it governs the dynamics of the complete ORC system. The heat exchanger …

Autonomous Vehicles Operating Collaboratively To Avoid Debris And Obstructions, Toan T. Le, Cole W. Oppenheim, James H. Gildart, Kyle M. Bybee

Mechanical Engineering

The purpose of this project is to demonstrate the safety and increased fuel efficiency of an automated collision avoidance system in collaborative vehicle platooning. This project was cosponsored by Daimler Trucks North America headquartered in Portland, Oregon, as well as Dr. Birdsong, and Dr. DeBruhl of Cal Poly. The mechanical engineering team consists of Cole Oppenheim, James Gildart, Toan Le, and Kyle Bybee who worked in coordination with a team of computer engineers. Vehicle platooning is a driving technique to increase the fuel efficiency of a group of vehicles by following a lead vehicle closely to reduce the drag experienced …

Comparison Of Lqr And Lqr-Mrac For Linear Tractor-Trailer Model, Kevin Richard Gasik

Master's Theses

The United States trucking industry is immense. Employing over three million drivers and traveling to every city in the country. Semi-Trucks travel millions of miles each week and encompass roads that civilians travel on. These vehicles should be safe and allow efficient travel for all. Autonomous vehicles have been discussed in controls for many decades. Now fleets of autonomous vehicles are beginning their integration into society. The ability to create an autonomous system requires domain and system specific knowledge. Approaches to implement a fully autonomous vehicle have been developed using different techniques in control systems such as Kalman Filters, Neural …

The Design Of An Innovative Automotive Suspension For Formula Sae Racing Applications, Jared Darius

Senior Honors Theses

This thesis details an analytical approach to an innovative suspension system design for implementation to the Formula SAE collegiate competition. It focuses specifically on design relating to geometry, mathematical modeling, energy element relationships, and computer analysis and simulation to visualize system behavior. The bond graph approach is utilized for a quarter car model to facilitate understanding of the analytical process, then applied to a comparative analysis between two transverse half car models. The second half car model contains an additional transverse linkage with a third damper, and is compared against the baseline of the first half car model without the …

Low Cost Vehicular Autonomy Using Radar And Gps, Nathan Jessurun, Ryan Gordon, Danielle Fredette

The Research and Scholarship Symposium (2013-2019)

This presentation describes a subset of the systems devised for this year's autonomous golf cart senior design project. Our goal is to explore the possibilities of low cost autonomy using only radar and GPS for environmental sensing and navigation. Although autonomous and semi-autonomous ground vehicles are a relatively new reality, prototypes have been a subject of engineering research for decades, often utilizing an array of sensors and sensor fusion techniques. State of the art autonomous ground vehicle prototypes typically use a combination of LIDAR and other distance sensors (such as radar or sonar) as well as cameras and GPS, sometimes …

Cfd Study Of Aerodynamic Drag Reduction Tool Of A Generic Sports Utility Vehicle (Suv), Samira Ishrat Jahan

Masters Theses

The Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) has been a popular automobile choice in North America for over 50 years due to its seating and hauling versatility and good towing capacity. This widespread popularity has resulted in manufacturers pushing for increased horsepower and cabin size. Unfortunately, the limiting factor has been fuel economy which is governed by the vehicle aerodynamics. A reduction in aerodynamic drag can result in better fuel economy. The goal of this study is to reduce the aerodynamic drag of a generic SUV and the efficient application of drag reduction devices to control flow separation. An initial study has …

A Fea/Cfd Study Of Heat Transfer To Semi-Trailer Disc Brake Wheel-End Components During A Braking Event, Justin P. Fisher

Masters Theses

Foundation air disc brakes bring Class 8 semi-trailers to a stop by converting kinetic energy into thermal energy. Recently, side skirts have been added to the underside of semi-trailers to improve fuel economy. The reduction in airflow under the trailer they create has potential to increase brake temperatures by reducing convection heat transfer. This will require an increase in conduction and radiation heat transfer to the surrounding wheel-end parts. Additional heat transfer to the surrounding parts could increase the temperatures in the hub and bearing to damaging levels.

CFD analyses were developed to model the airflow under the semi-trailer with …

Study Of Cooling-Drag In A Generic Passenger Car Using Cfd And Wind Tunnel, Md Maruf Hossain

Masters Theses

The focus of the study is to explore aerodynamic aspects of cooling airflow. As a result of this study, an efficient multi-domain aero-thermal model was developed to analyze the cooling drag of a generic passenger vehicle. Cooling drag is described as the additional force that the production vehicle has to overcome while moving in comparison to the force if all the openings were closed. Though this model was developed based on the sedan class vehicle, the applied methodology could be generalized for other ground vehicle types. As a part of the presented model, a unique simplified geometric model is developed …

Finite Element Model Validation And Testing Of An Off-Road Vehicle Under Dynamic Loading Conditions, Mackenzie Susan Cunningham

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

In the vehicle design life cycle, validation tests consume a significant portion of the available development time. With a short, one-year design cycle, the Embry-Riddle Baja Team leverages computer-aided engineering (CAE) tools to simulate critical test cases whose loading conditions can be accurately represented by a series of static loads and constraints. Using these conditions, a Finite Element Model (FEM) can be employed to accurately predict the effects of the loading conditions in the components. During the initial design of the front suspension, one major load case was determined to be the main failure load. However, after validation testing the …

Torsional Stiffness Of A Race Car, Reiley A. Schraeger, Cameron Kao, Raymond Deng, Omar Roman

Mechanical Engineering

Torsional stiffness plays a major role in any road vehicle. To understand torsional stiffness of a vehicle and make future iterations and improvements, a proper torsional stiffness jig is required to prove accurate and useful data. This report encompasses the new and improved testing jig and potential improvement ideas for more accurate results. With real data result relating to FEA calculations, designers can be confident in the FEA changes to torsional stiffness is accurate and will yield the probably results they desired. This report shows the methodology, manufacturing process and testing procedure to use on any Baja or SAE vehicle …

Sensing And Quantifying A New Mechanism For Vehicle Brake Creep Groan, Dejian Meng, Lijun Zhang, Xiaotian Xu, Yousef Sardahi, Gang Chen

All Engineering Faculty Research

This paper investigates the creep groan of a vehicle’s brake experimentally, analytically, and numerically. Experimentally, the effects of acceleration on caliper and strut, noise, brake pressure, and tension are measured. The results show that the measured signals and their relevant spectra broadly capture the complex vibrations of creep groan. This includes the simple stick-slip, severe stick-slip vibrations/resonances, multiple harmonics, half-order harmonics; stick-slip-induced impulsive vibrations, steady/unstable vibrations, and their transitions. Analytically, a new mathematical model is presented to capture the unique features of half-order harmonics and the connections to fundamental stick-slip/resonant frequency and multiple harmonics. The analytical solution and the experimental …

Myopic Versus Farsighted Behaviors In A Low-Carbon Supply Chain With Reference Emission Effects, Jun Wang, Xianxue Cheng, Xinyu Wang, Hongtao Yang, Shuhua Zhang

Mathematical Sciences Faculty Research

The increased carbon emissions cause relatively climate deterioration and attract more attention of governments, consumers, and enterprises to the low-carbon manufacturing. This paper considers a dynamic supply chain, which is composed of a manufacturer and a retailer, in the presence of the cap-and-trade regulation and the consumers’ reference emission effects. To investigate the manufacturer’s behavior choice and its impacts on the emission reduction and pricing strategies together with the profits of both the channel members, we develop a Stackelberg differential game model in which the manufacturer acts in both myopic and farsighted manners. By comparing the equilibrium strategies, it can …

The Autodrive Challenge: Autonomous Vehicles Education And Training Issues, Diane Peters, Jennifer Bastiaan, Juan R. Pimentel, Mehrdad Zadeh

Mechanical Engineering Presentations And Conference Materials

Automotive companies are focusing significant research and development efforts on autonomous vehicles. As they do so, they recognize the need for a large, well-trained workforce that is equipped to conduct these research and development projects, particularly in light of the projected shortages of STEM professionals in the United States. Some of these companies have found various ways to engage with professional societies and with universities to encourage the development of this workforce, and to promote themselves to STEM students while they are still in school. One such effort is the SAE / GM AutoDrive ChallengeTM, a new collegiate competition organized …

Edge Heterogeneous Hardware Evaluation Based On Real Connected And Autonomous Vehicles (Cavs) Workloads, Mustafa Ahmad

Research Opportunities for Engineering Undergraduates (ROEU) Program 2018-19

There has recently been a wide expansion of hardware to assist in autonomous driving tasks. On this project, we focus on using some state-of-the-art deep learning workloads in connected autonomous vehicle (CAV) scenarios,such as object detection and object tracking to evaluate the heterogeneous hardware.

Effect Of Yaw Angle On Flow Structure And Cross-Flow Force Around A Circular Cylinder, Ran Wang, Shaohong Cheng, David S.K. Ting

Mechanical, Automotive & Materials Engineering Publications

Flow around an inclined circular cylinder at yaw angles of α = 0°, 30°, 45°, and 60° has been numerically studied using the delayed detached eddy simulation at a Reynolds number of 1.4 × 104. Periodic boundary conditions are utilized to minimize the end effect. The focus is to explore the effect of yaw angle on the flow structure and the spatial distribution of the cross-flow forces. For the normal flow case, the modulation of the span-wise averaged lift force coefficient is found to be related to the unstable shear layer. For the inclined cases, contours of the sectional lift …

Modeling Of Optimized Neuro-Fuzzy Logic Based Active Vibration Control Method For Automotive Suspension, Mohammad Adom Safiullah

Masters Theses

In this thesis, an active vibration control system was developed. The control system was developed and tested using a quarter car model of an adaptive suspension system. For active vibration control, an actuator was implemented in addition to the commonly used passive spring damper system. Due to nature of unpredictability of force required two different fuzzy inference system (FIS) were developed for the actuator. First a sequential fuzzy set was built, that resulted lower vertical displacement compared to basic damper spring model, but system had limited effect with disturbances of higher magnitude and continuous vibrations (rough road). To improve the …

Dynamic Analysis Of Vehicle Performance For Changes To Rear Axle Housing, Diane Peters, Yaomin Dong, Vimal Patel

Mechanical Engineering Presentations And Conference Materials

This paper explores the performance improvements of a 2013 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 resulting from changes to the rear axle housing. In previous work, described in [1, 2], the rear axle housing was optimized in order to minimize its weight. It was expected that the decrease in weight would lead to improved fuel economy; in this work, the vehicle was simulated for the EPA highway drive cycle (HWFET) both before and after the optimization of the housing, in order to quantify the changes in fuel economy. It was found that the optimization of the housing did produce a modest improvement …

Modeling Chevy Volt Gen Ii Supervisory Controller In Charge Sustaining Operation, Saurabh Bhasme

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

This report is focused on the development of Chevy Volt Gen II powertrain supervisory controller modeling for charge sustaining operation of the vehicle. The modeling process incorporated vehicle parameters and maps provided. The overall powertrain model along with the supervisory controller is developed in MAT- LAB/SIMULINK programming platform. The powertrain model includes all components which are the IC engine, two electric motors & associated TPIM, Battery, transmission auxiliary pump and spin-losses. The supervisory controller includes the vehicle drive mode selection model, the torque blending logic for charge sustaining along with friction brake modeling. The model has been developed to perform …

Mpc-Based Autonomous Driving Control With Localized Path Planning For Obstacle Avoidance And Navigating Signalized Intersections, Sai Rajeev Devaragudi

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Connected and autonomous vehicles are becoming the major focus of research for the industry and academia in the automotive field. Many companies and research groups have demonstrated the advantages and the requirement of such technology to improve the energy efficiency of vehicles, decrease the number of crash and road accidents, and control emissions.

This research delves into improving the autonomy of self-driving vehicles by implementing localized path planning algorithms to introduce motion control for obstacle avoidance during uncertainties. Lateral path planning is implemented using the A* algorithm combined with piecewise Bezier curve generation which provides an optimum trajectory reference to …

Application Of Sensor Fusion For Si Engine Diagnostics And Combustion Feedback, Fnu Muralidhar Nischal

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Shifting consumer mindsets and evolving government norms are forcing automotive manufacturers the world over to improve vehicle performance and also reduce greenhouse gas emissions. A critical aspect of achieving future fuel economy and emission targets is improved powertrain control and diagnostics.

This study focuses on using a sensor fusion based approach to improving control and diagnostics in a gasoline engine. A four cylinder turbocharged engine was instrumented with a suite of sensors including ion sensors, exhaust pressure sensors, crank position sensors and accelerometers. The diagnostic potential of these sensors was studied in detail. The ability of these sensors to detect …

Autojack - Hydraulic Powertrain System, Tyce Vu

All Undergraduate Projects

A primary problem for mechanics and automotive enthusiasts is the risk associated with lifting and securing a vehicle with conventional jack stands. Often times, improper jack-stand installation results in the vehicle collapsing unexpectedly, causing injury and/or death. This problem can be minimized through the application of a newly re-designed vehicle lifting system. The conventional method for lifting cars is time consuming and can be unsafe in many circumstances. A better, safer, and more efficient lift design was needed; the AutoJack. The approach of the AutoJack design was entirely focused on the safety of lifting a vehicle. Safety was improved by …

An Analysis Of Resistance Spot Weld Quality Based On Acoustic And Electrical Signatures, Ivan Charles Butler

Theses and Dissertations--Manufacturing Systems Engineering

The union of a set of materials by way of Resistance Spot Welding is designed so that once fused together, a substantial amount of intentional, external force must be applied to separate the contents. Therefore, Resistance Spot Welding is often the preferred fusion method in high-volume manufacturing processes. The result of Resistance Spot Welding however is the formation of a weld nugget which is not visible to the naked eye. Destructive and/or ultrasonic methods applied off-line must be used to determine the quality of each weld; both inefficient and expensive processes. The following research analyzes the data fed back during …

Experimental And Numerical Simulation Of Split Hopkinson Pressure Bar Test On Borosilicate Glass, Mayank K. Bagaria

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

This study is an extension to the design of ceramic materials component exposed to bullet impact. Owing to the brittle nature of ceramics upon bullet impact, shattered pieces behave as pellets flying with different velocities and directions, damaging surrounding components. Testing to study the behavior of ceramics under ballistic impact can be cumbersome and expensive. Modeling the set-up through Finite Element Analysis (FEA) makes it economical and easy to optimize. However, appropriately incorporating the material in modeling makes laboratory testing essential. Previous efforts have concentrated on simulating crack pattern developed during 0.22 caliber pellet impact on Borosilicate glass. A major …

Automotive Driveline Backlash State And Size Estimator Design For Anti-Jerk Control, Kaushal Kumar Darokar

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Vehicle drivability is an important factor which more and more customers have started assessing before buying a vehicle. Customers carry out this assessment based on both vehicle reviews/ratings and based on the test drives. One of common maneuver which a customers perform during the test drive is sudden accelerator pedal tip-in or tip-out to accelerate or coast the vehicle. Clunk and shuffle are the phenomena that usually occur during this scenario causing driver discomfort. The clunk and shuffle are caused by the backlash and compliance physical properties of the driveline. Consequently, control strategy needs to be developed which can provide …

Modeling Of Thermal Dynamics In Chevrolet Volt Gen Ii Hybrid Electric Vehicle For Integrated Powertrain And Hvac Optimal Operation Through Connectivity, Nehal Doshi

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Integrated thermal energy management across system level components in electric vehicles (EVs) and hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) is currently an under explored space. The proliferation of connected vehicles and accompanying infrastructure in recent years provides additional motivation to explore opportunities in optimizing thermal energy management in EVs and HEVs with the help of this newly available connected vehicle data. This thesis aims to examine and analyze the potential to mitigate vehicle energy consumption and extend usable driving range through optimal control strategies which exploit physical system dynamics via controls integration of vehicle subsystems.

In this study, data-driven and physics-based models …

Effects Of Variable Valve Actuation On Exhaust Enthalpy And Engine Out Emissions, Zakarie Parker

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Vehicle emissions standards are becoming increasingly more strict as time progresses. Once all of the emissions devices are in their operational stage, these standards can be met with reasonable effort in powertrain design and calibration. However, the core of this system, the three-way catalyst, is non-operational until it has reached 200-350⁰C. Because of this, cold-start catalyst heating is extremely important in new vehicles. The objective of this project was to improve catalyst heating without increasing engine-out emissions. It was decided that the sensible heat portion of the exhaust enthalpy would be the best metric to judge differences between the different …

Anti-Roll Bar For Sae Baja Vehicle, Jennifer Bulgrin, Zachary A. Gnabah, Scott P. Toth

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This report explores the need to improve the Zips Baja vehicle handling performance. This will be achieved by designing an anti-roll bar system for the rear suspension of the Zips Baja vehicle to decrease the turning radius of the vehicle. The project develops specific goals to achieve increased performance, goes through the engineering design cycle to create a prototype, evaluate its effectiveness, optimize the design through several iterations, and design a final solution. After sub-functions have been determined, conceptual ideas for completing all sub-functions were evaluated and a conceptual design was selected to proceed into the embodiment design phase. Once …

Carbon Fiber Racing Wheel, Megan Sanok, Melissa Furdak, Sydney Schipani

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Industry today thrives off of competition; everybody wants their product to be the best. Across almost every field of manufacturing and design, there is a pattern of factors that companies strive for when producing their specialized products. The most effective companies can create a commodity that is relatively inexpensive, easy to manufacture, and has the ability to meet high standards. As engineers, it is ingrained in us that there is always room for improvement, and that we have been given the tools to make it happen.

When evaluating what needed to be improved in our daily lives, the SAE Zips …

Unsupervised Feature Learning For Point Cloud By Contrasting And Clustering With Graph Convolutional Neural Network, Ling Zhang

Dissertations and Theses

Recently, deep graph neural networks (GNNs) have attracted significant attention for point cloud understanding tasks, including classification, segmentation, and detection. However, the training of such deep networks still requires a large amount of annotated data, which is both expensive and time-consuming. To alleviate the cost of collecting and annotating large-scale point cloud datasets, we propose an unsupervised learning approach to learn features from unlabeled point cloud ”3D object” dataset by using part contrasting and object clustering with GNNs. In the contrast learning step, all the samples in the 3D object dataset are cut into two parts and put into a …

Sae Baja Custom Caliper And Upright Design, Katelynn R. Kise

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The Zips Baja Off-Road Racing team had a successful 2018 season however some aspects of the car needed to be updated and improved for the 2019 season. This reports captures the design cycle performed to improve the cost, integration, and reliability of the front braking caliper and upright.