Automotive Engineering Commons^™

Design Of Timing Circuit For Fuel Injection Conversion And Development Of Laboratory To Analyze Engine Performance Using A Dynamometer, Aditi Jayram Limaye

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

A fundamental facility was built to analyze some of the basic parameters involved in engine performance, namely torque and power output of the engine. One of the objectives was to convert a carbureted engine into a fuel injection or (Fl) engine. This was achieved by designing and creating a timing circuit that is required to trigger the electronic fuel injector or (EFI). The facility was designed around a dynamometer and a fuel delivery system; that provided a specialized tool to analyze engines and injectors.

The results from the carbureted experiments and the FI experiments were compared to the rated specifications …

Use Of A Rolling Road System In Crosswind Conditions, Mau-Kuo Chen

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Wind tunnel testing continues to play an important role in vehicle aerodynamic development. Accurate results are strongly associated with whether the wind tunnel can closely simulate the on-road conditions, including the Reynolds number and all boundary conditions. Rolling road systems (or moving belts) have been a successful tool for many auto makers and racing teams to simulate the relative motion between the stationary vehicle model and the floor in the test section. The mechanism of the rolling road system is simple, but how it affects the adjacent flow field and how this flow interacts with the flow underneath the vehicle …

Modeling, Identification, Validation And Control Of A Hybrid Maglev Ball System, Ahmed Elhussein E. Mekky

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

In this thesis, the electrodynamics of a single axis hybrid electromagnetic suspension Maglev system was modeled and validated by applying it to a single axis hybrid maglev ball experiment. By exploring its linearized model, it was shown that the single axis hybrid Maglev ball has inherently unstable dynamics. Three control scenarios were explored based on the linearized model; (1) Proportional, Deferential (PD) control, (2) Proportional, Deferential, Integral (PID) and (3) PID controller with pre-filtering. This thesis has shown that a PID controller with a pre-filtering technique can stabilize such a system and provide a well-controlled response.

A parametric system identification …

Interface Circuit For A Multiple-Beam Tuning-Fork Gyroscope With High Quality Factors, Ren Wang

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

This research work presents the design, theoretical analysis, fabrication, interface electronics, and experimental results of a Silicon-On-Insulator (SOI) based Multiple-Beam Tuning-Fork Gyroscope (MB-TFG). Based on a numerical model of Thermo-Elastic Damping (TED), a Multiple-Beam Tuning-Fork Structure (MB-TFS) is designed with high Quality factors (Qs) in its two operation modes. A comprehensive theoretical analysis of the MB-TFG design is conducted to relate the design parameters to its operation parameters and further performance parameters. In conjunction with a mask that defines the device through trenches to alleviate severe fabrication effect on anchor loss, a simple one-mask fabrication process is employed to implement …

Stability Analysis, Modeling, Simulation And Experimental Testing Of An Ems Maglev System With Structural Flexibility, Aravind M. Hanasoge

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Vehicle-guideway interaction studies of Magnetically Levitated (Maglev) vehicles indicate that structural flexibility can adversely affect the overall stability and performance of such systems. This is one of the reasons why guideways are generally made very rigid. This in turn leads to increased cost of the overall system since guideway construction forms a significant portion of the overall cost. In this dissertation, the influence of structural flexibility on the stability of Electromagnetic Suspension (EMS) Maglev systems is studied. It is shown how inherently unstable and flexible structure EMS Maglev systems can achieve guaranteed stability by using collocated actuators and sensors, along …

Computational Analysis And Validation Of The Hans Head And Neck Support, Kapil Tyagi

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

One of the major causes of racing fatalities is basilar skull fracture from excessive head motions and neck loading in a frontal impact. There are many head/neck restraints available in the market but HANS head and neck support has proved to be the most efficient one in sled testing. This paper evaluates and compares the performance of the HANS device in MAthematical DYnamic MOdel (MADYMO) software with the sled testing. The tests were conducted for the frontal impact motions, with a crash pulse of 45 G's.

The goal of the tests was to evaluate the performance of HANS without the …

External Aerodynamics Of Heavy Ground Vehicles: Computations And Wind Tunnel Testing, Ilhan Bayraktar

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Aerodynamic characteristics of a ground vehicle affect vehicle operation in many ways. Aerodynamic drag, lift and side forces have influence on fuel efficiency, vehicle top speed and acceleration performance. In addition, engine cooling, air conditioning, wind noise, visibility, stability and crosswind sensitivity are some other tasks for vehicle aerodynamics. All of these areas benefit from drag reduction and changing the lift force in favor of the operating conditions. This can be achieved by optimization of external body geometry and flow modification devices. Considering the latter, a thorough understanding of the airflow is a prerequisite.

The present study aims to simulate …

Computational Fluid Dynamic Study Of A Nascar Winston Cup Series Race Car, Terry L. Meek Jr.

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Since the goal of NASCAR racing is to win and since drag is a force the vehicle must overcome, a thorough understanding of the drag generating airflow around and through the automobile is greatly desired. The external airflow contributes to most of the drag that a car experiences and most of the downforce the vehicle produces. Therefore, an estimate of the vehicle's performance may be evaluated using a computational aerodynamics model. This thesis presents a computational fluid dynamic (CFD) analysis of a NASCAR Winston Cup series race car to investigate the salient flow characteristics.

Before a computational analysis could be …

Application Of Reanalysis Techniques For Pattern Design Of Spot Welds, Young San Kim

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Extensive benchmarking on competitive cars has shown that the durability of vehicles, assembly-induced variations, and assembly cost are directly related to the quality and number of spot welds. On most luxury cars, approximately 4,500 to 5,000 spot welds are found. On less expensive cars, the range is from 3,500 to 4,500. These cars usually inherit more noise, rattles, squeaks, and other quality-related problems. These problems have motivated the search for a new capability to systematically place welds in the most critical areas, with a minimum number of welds for car bodies, while satisfying all performance requirements (e.g., stiffness, stress distribution, …

Emissions Studies For A Natural Gas-Fired Internal Combustion Engine, Carlos M. Buitrago

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Since 1991, a University owned truck has been operating with natural gas. In order to improve emissions performance a different fuel management strategy was developed. With the help of Siemens Automotive in Newport News, VA, a liquid fuel injector was modified to handle natural gas. The basic engine was tested to determine the benefits in emissions that the multi-point injection system can have over the single point injection system that had been used previously. Pre-catalyst, raw exhaust-gas data for the more important pollutants were taken and analyzed in both systems under different loads and intake manifold pressures. In addition, to …

Shape Sensitivity Analysis And Optimization Of Skeletal Structures And Geometrically Nonlinear Solids, Ching-Hung Chuang

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Formulations and computational schemes for shape design sensitivity analysis and optimization have been developed for both skeletal structures and geometrically nonlinear elastic solids. The continuum approach, which is based on the weak variational form of the governing differential equation and the concept of the material derivative, plays a central role in such a development.

In the first part of this work, the eigenvalue and eigenvector sensitivity equations for skeletal structures are derived with respect to configuration variables of joint and support locations. This derivation is done by the domain method as well as the boundary method. The discrete approach for …