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Visibility through windscreen along with front lighting system is one of the most important elements of road safety. Windscreen also provides the good visibility to driver to drive safely during night time. As per the rule windscreen visual light transmission should be minimum 70%. Windshields are made-up of tinted glass which produces light transmission varying from 70% to 95%. Windscreen installation is various from vehicle to vehicle, the visual light transmittance at different installation angle and its effect to the visibility are not fully understood. Vehicle headlamps and front fog lamps are evaluated for the illumination without consideration of driver's visibility with the combination of wind screen and its installation angle. This paper describes the effect of different ranges of tinted wind shield glass on driver's visibility at various installation angle of windshield along with the headlamp illumination.

Natural Gas is one of the abundant fuel available on the earth and considered as a one of the cleanest fossil fuels. Most of the studies are conducted on CNG with different blends of hydrogen to improve the efficiency of engine and reduce the emission. However, components safety and its compatibility to these fuels were not studied in depth. Project was taken to understand material compatibility of CNG kit components and framing the National standards which can also be used for providing the inputs to international standards like ISO, ECE etc. Various components have been selected a sample base from CNG fuel kit for this study such as Refilling Valve, High Pressure Regulator and Gas Solenoid Valve, Rigid Pipe, low pressure flexible hose, etc. from renowned manufactures in the country and around the globe.

This paper describes the test methodology developed for evaluation of defrost and demist system performance. Test conditions for testing defrost and demist system and evaluation criterion is as mentioned in Automotive Industry Standard AIS 084. The paper describes the process of development of test set up and a test method for testing of defrost and demist systems. We initially started with particular method of performance evaluation including method of area measurement. Subsequently we evolved a method of performance evaluation using image analysis technique. This paper covers comparative study on methods of measurement.

Anthropometric data of a country is vital database for automotive design and other design applications. It is also an important parameter in population studies. Most developed countries have invested resources over the years to develop such a database and this information is accessed by many OEMs and major Design Houses. However, an updated and comprehensive Anthropometry of Indian Population is largely unknown. In the past, a few institutions have done projects to bring out a picture of the Indian Anthropometry. However, keeping in view the rapid industrialization and increase of India-specific designs which require an access to latest Anthropometric database, the project “SIZE INDIA” has been initiated. For the first time in India, a state of the art 3D Whole body scanner technology has been used and thereby large volume of data has been generated in a very short span of time.

Plastics (polymers) are nowadays clearly a material of choice in all application sectors including in Automobile sector. Automotive manufacturer have relived on new technology for vehicular accessories which are all made-up of different polymers like Acrylonitrile-Butadiene-Styrene (ABS), Poly Carbonates, Poly Methyl Methacrylate (PMMA), Acrylic, glass, resin etc. Although these components offer an impressive range of attractive properties, the effect of climatic conditions on the durability and performance of these materials is not fully understood. The durability, performance and rate of deterioration of these products are all significantly influenced by both the material composition, as well as the climatic conditions to which they are exposed. The degradation/ variation of the mechanical properties of the specimen treated at different environmental/ atmospheric conditions are a primary concern when recommending such a composite for particular use.

Fatigue design has to account for the scatter of component geometry, material behavior and loading. Scatter of the first two variables is mainly due to manufacturing and material sourcing. Loading on the other hand depends decisively on operating conditions and customer usage. Loading is certainly most difficult to determine. Tests on proving ground or even long-term real time measurements are used to obtain actual load time histories. Because of the costs of measurements and safety measure, real-time measurements are used exceptionally to gain changes in the usage profile. In this paper, an attempt has been made to find the difference in the extrapolated data to the actual data. A comparison has been made between the actual road distance of 2000 km to the extrapolated data of 100 km, 500 km and 1000 km to 2000 km. The front Axle channel is taken for the study.

Weathering is the adverse response of a material or product to climate, often causing unwanted and premature product failure. The research and literature review shows that, in addition to the standard signaling devices, the retro-reflective marking is intended to increase the visibility (recognition) over a wide range of distances and for an easy identification of vehicles. The main characteristics of retro-reflective marking are Type of material, Coefficient of retro-reflection, Efficiency, Colour, Aging, Soiling, Shape and Pattern. Materials used for the retro reflective materials offer an impressive range of attractive properties, however the effect of weathering conditions on the durability and performance of these materials are not fully understood. The initial study conducted to provide degradation effect on retro reflective material due to weathering and its effect on road safety by simulating the weathering conditions in the laboratory as a part of accelerated tests.

The Light Emitting Diodes (LED) have been in use for various applications for the last 35 years. Recent developments in LEDs have made them a good contender against incandescent lamps in automobile applications with the specific advantages of very low power consumption, flexibility and simplicity in designing and styling of the lamps and long life. The lamps used in automotive applications experience a wide spectrum of environmental conditions of temperature, humidity, vibrations, corrosive atmosphere, etc. In this paper an attempt has been made to measure LED lamp performance in terms of light output and variation in colour under variable temperature conditions. The effect of vibration was also evaluated on the mechanical stability of the LED lamps. Some initial studies of light output at two levels of usage were also conducted.

As a part of the Safety Test Facility Building initiated by ARAI, the bungee sled facility has been designed, setup and proven to meet the National and International Regulatory Requirements. The facility is being extensively used for Type Approval tests of safety belts, seats and their anchorages. The paper describes the capabilities of the facility, shares the first hand experience of the conflicting design considerations, infrastructure viz., civil structure, lighting, data acquisition, high speed videography and motion analysis software.

With a number of vehicles being developed in the country and implementation of safety standards becoming mandatory, proving of a vehicle for safety is becoming an area of high priority in India. Keeping this in view, a gravity sled facility has been established at ARAI for simulated crash testing. This paper describes the facility and its establishment as well as the development of suitable stopping devices to meet various applications. The risk of injury to the occupants in the event of crash is severe when structural deformation/breakage occurs in the vehicle interior, seat anchorages and the restraint systems. A simulated crash test facility such as sled is used for the development of these systems and their evaluation. This is the prescribed procedure for certification. Instead of using a complete vehicle crash facility, use of a simulated crash facility becomes cost effective. The simulated crash facility described here uses the gravity principle for acceleration of sled.

With increasing competition and globalization, the Indian Tractor Industry is gearing up to develop new proven design of tractors. The conventional methodology of trial and error design and its proving is becoming obsolete and practically too time consuming to meet the demands. Many designers are already in need of field data as the base for design. Prototype proving and reliability testing of the components and tractors in the laboratory has become the need of the day. All these requires quantification of service loads in the Laboratory. This paper describes in brief the methodology of these exercises, selection of instrumentation and data acquisition systems, typical problems of data acquisition on the tractors, based on the experience. This paper also provides illustrative examples of data acquisition and typical applications of the acquired data.