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An experimental campaign based on the harness and Event Data Recorder (EDR) of a production vehicle (Toyota Auris 2007, Generation 02EDR) was setup for laboratory experiments. The experiments involved triggering non-deployment events in the EDR by hitting the Airbag Control Module (ACM) with a pendulum style impactor with different pendulum weight, in frontal and rear directions and at different initial angles. The ACM was hit in three different conditions: ACM fixed, ACM free to move and ACM launched towards impactor. The wheel speed sensors were emulated with the same 7/14 mA pulses such that the vehicle was simulated to be moving with a ramping up and down speed during the impact. This was done such that the EDR data has vehicle speed in both its pre and post-crash data. The Bosch Crash Data Retrieval (CDR) tool was used to download the EDR data. Data from these experiments is shown and discussed. An in-house built sniffer was utilized to filter and store the relevant CAN bus data.

Research on turbocharging for FSAE at the University of Malta, has been ongoing for a number of years. 1D simulations were done to determine best design configuration and determine a lowered compression ratio. A decompression plate was installed on the Kawasaki 600 cc engine. Calibration of the engine was performed on the engine dynamometer. A hot-gas test stand for testing of the turbocharger was developed. The turbocharger speed was measured by a custom built hall-effect sensing setup that is compact enough to be implemented also in the FSAE vehicle. Bespoke camshafts with optimized valve timing determined through WAVE 1D simulations and designed with Valdyn® were machined. The turbocharged setup was used on the University of Malta FSAE vehicle in the FSAE Italy 2017 competition. Knock was investigated through in-cylinder pressure measurements and use of commercial knock sensor on the 600 cc engine.

A conversion to LPG of a SI engine that was originally carbureted gasoline is reported in this work. The conversion was implemented on a 1988 Skoda 120L with a 1174cc rear engine. The conversion to run on Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) was carried out using a programmable Engine Control Unit (ECU) that operated a single point fuel injection system. The LPG used was a commercially available mixture of butane and propane. The fuel injection system was designed to operate with the LPG in the liquid state. A circulating pump was used to maintain availability of LPG in liquid state at the inlet to the fuel injector. This made possible the use of similar fuel injection parts as in a gasoline system. Injection of the fuel in the liquid state provided cooling to the intake air as measured during driving of the vehicle and also on chassis dynamometer runs.