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To promote real time monitoring, In use performance ratio monitoring “IUPRm” checks has been enforced in India from Apr’23 as a part of BS6-2 regulation. Since IUPRm is representative of diagnostic frequency in real driving conditions and usage pattern. therefore, a clear understanding of real-world driving is required to define IUPRm targets. This paper shares methodology and Validation steps for defining IUPRm routes for Indian market. Methodology objective is to standardize the market operating conditions over a particular region. Selected Methodology consist of three steps: For defining IUPRm route framework, first step is to have a pre-market survey to know current In use performance ratio “IUPR” status and improvement areas in existing market vehicles. Second step is to define market representative localized on road routes based on the finding of Pre-market survey.

To promote real time monitoring, IUPRm checks has been enforced in India from Apr’23 as a part of BS6-2 regulation. Since IUPRm monitoring is representative of diagnostic frequency in real driving conditions and usage pattern. Therefore, a clear understanding of real-world driving is required to define IUPRm targets. This paper shares methodology and Validation steps for defining IUPR routes for Indian market. Methodology objective is to standardize the market operating conditions over a particular region. Selected Methodology consist of three steps: For defining IUPR route framework, first step is to have a pre-market survey to know current IUPR status and improvement areas in existing market vehicles. Second step is to define market representative localized on road routes based on the finding of Pre-market survey. Third step is to validate defined IUPR routes and correlate the output in reference to coverage of market operating conditions.

During thermal performance testing, achieving thermal balance between two fluid mediums of any heat exchanger is critical. Heat balance ratio (HBR) measures the heat transfer imbalance between two sides (source and sink) in a heat exchanger and also helps in ensuring accuracy of test data. There could be many factors which may lead to the imbalance in thermal performance of the sample under testing e.g. sensors accuracy, test operating range, sample orientation, hysteresis in the data acquisition systems etc. Therefore, a testing procedure needs to be established to achieve a better heat balance ratio as low as less than ±5%, which accounts for errors during instrumentation processes, flow losses & manual errors during testing. The current experimental study focuses on a typical coolant aluminium brazed heater core product which is used in automotive applications for passenger cabin heating during the cold climate conditions, windshield demisting and defrosting.

Squeak and rattle concerns accounts for approximately 10% of overall vehicle Things Gone Wrong (TGW) and are major quality concern for automotive OEM’s. Objectionable door noises such as squeak and rattle are among the top 10 IQS concerns under any OEM nameplate. Customers perceive Squeak and rattle noises inside a cabin as a major negative indicator of vehicle build quality and durability. Door squeak and rattle issues not only affects customer satisfaction index, but also increase warranty cost to OEM significantly. Especially, issues related to door, irritate customers due to material incompatibilities. Squeaks are friction-induced noises generated by stick-slip phenomenon between interfacing surfaces. Several factors, such as material property, friction coefficient, relative velocity, temperature, and humidity, are involved in squeak noise causes.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are becoming an effective way to serve humanitarian relief efforts during environmental disasters. The process of designing such UAVs poses challenges in optimizing design variables such as maneuverability, payload capacity and maximizing endurance because the designing of a BWB takes into account the interdependency between the stability and aerodynamic performance. The Blended Wing Body is an unconventional aircraft configuration which offers enhanced performance over conventional UAVs. In this study the designing of a BWB is investigated with an aim to achieve structurally sound and aerodynamically stable configuration. The design has been done by taking into consideration the side and top view airfoil for fuselage, because fuselage is a major lift generating portion in the UAV. For designing the control surfaces, the two major requirements for a controlled and safe flight of a UAV are its stability and maneuverability.

Internal combustion engine gets heated up due to continuous combustion of fuel. To keep engine working efficiently and prevent components damage due to very high temperature, the engine needs to be cooled down. Based on power output requirement and provision for cooling system, every engine has it’s unique cooling system. Liquid based cooling systems are majorly implemented in automobile. It’s important to keep in mind that during design phase that, cooling the engine will lower the power to fuel consumption ratio. Therefore, during lower ambient conditions, the cooling system should be able to uniformly increase the temperature of the engine components, engine oil and transmission oil. This is achieved by circulating the coolant through cooling jacket, engine oil heater and transmission oil heater, which will be heated by the combustion heat.

Improving fuel economy and to satisfy more stringent emission legislations the Vehicle electrification becomes more important one. Compared to the combustion engine an electric vehicle will use energy from the grid to recharge their HV battery and this is converted with much higher efficiency and less CO2 emission. This makes a significant role in the present transition from conventional to electric vehicles. The addition of new components, such as power electronics, electric machine and HV battery, increases the torque availability, energy but also the weight. In addition, although they have really high efficiency, they produce a significant amount of heat that has to be removed. Another thermal management issue in PHEV and BEV is cabin heating, since the engine heat is not available. To guarantee system efficiency and reliability, a completely new thermal management layout has to be designed.

Automotive fuel and emission regulations are becoming stringent decade over decade. These regulations are expected to be even more strict in future to control global warming, associated health issues and conserve energy. Automobile industries find it difficult to meet these regulations during the homologation cycle i.e. NEDC (New European Drive Cycle). Experiments and research indicated that engine structural parts achieve steady-state near end of the homologation cycle; which lead to account cold start effects as well during testing. Also, studies have proved that thermal efficiency of an IC engine is severely affected in cold start condition due to higher friction losses, incomplete combustion and their allied effects. Oil and coolant temperature helps in diminishing mechanical losses and achieving complete combustion. Hence, an effective distribution of combustion and friction heat during a cold start period is of utmost importance.

Squeak and rattle concerns account for approximately 10% of overall vehicle Things Gone Wrong (TGW) and are major quality concern for automotive OEM’s. Objectionable door noises are one of the top 10 IQS concerns under any OEM nameplate. Door trim significantly contributes to overall BSR quality perception. Door trim is mounted on door in white using small plastic clips with variable properties that can significantly influence BSR performance. In this paper, the performance of various door clips is evaluated through objective parameters like interface dynamic stiffness and system damping. The methodology involves a simple dynamic system for the evaluation of the performance of a clip design. Transmissibility is calculated from the dynamic response of a mass supported by clip. Parameters such as interface stiffness and system damping are extracted for each clip design. Variation of inner panel thickness is also considered when comparing clip performance.

Automotive OEMs are aggressively using different materials for interiors due to value proposition and variety of options available for customers in market. Excessive usage of different grade plastics with zero gap philosophy can cause stick slip effect leading to squeak noise. Even though systems and subsystems are designed using best practices of structural design and manufacturing tolerances, extreme environmental conditions can induce contacts leading to squeak noise. Appropriate selection of interface material pairs can minimize the possibilities of squeak conditions. Stick-slip behavior of different plastics is discussed in the present study, along with critical parameters during material compatibility testing in a tribological test stand. Friction coefficient of different material pairs for a defined normal load and sliding velocity are analyzed for patterns to recognize squeaks versus time.

Global automobile market is very sensitive to vehicle fuel economy. Gross vehicle weight has substantial effects on FE. Hence, for designers it becomes utmost important to work on the weight reduction ideas up to single component level. Fuel delivery pipe (Fuel Rail) is one such component where there is a big potential. Fuel rail is an integral part of the vehicle fuel system and is mounted on the engine. Primarily it serves as a channel of fuel supply from fuel tank through fuel lines to the multiple fuel injectors, which further sprays the fuel into intake ports at high pressure. Due to opening and closing of injectors, pulsations are generated in fuel lines, so fuel rail also acts as a surge tank as well as a pulsation damper. All these factors make the design of a fuel rail very critical and unique for a particular engine. Materials like aluminum, plastic and sheet metal are generally used for fuel rail manufacturing.

The durability evaluation of overhanging components of a vehicle (Ex: horn, radiator) is a challenge to durability engineers as resonance plays an important role in determining their fatigue life. As resonance cannot be avoided always, it is desirable to develop methods to evaluate life of the component in the presence of resonance. Though the existing vibration test standards suggest test profiles to evaluate resonance failures, there are cases in which, these methods do not yield the proving ground results. This may lead to unnecessary overdesign or unrealistic failures. In such cases it is suggested to generate a sweep endurance test procedure customized to the proving ground or actual roads. This paper studies a methodology for generating a sweep endurance test procedure for evaluation of resonating components. Responses like stress and accelerations were measured in test components in proving ground. Contribution of each frequency band towards overall damage is determined.

Automotive emission regulations in India are becoming stringent day-by-day. With the deterioration of air quality, the new techniques suitable under Indian condition to reduce the emissions from automotive vehicles are becoming extremely important. In India large percentage of the vehicle population is 2-wheeler vehicles using a mechanical control for the air/fuel ratio. A project was undertaken to develop the simple Electronic Control System (ECS) for 4-stroke 2-wheeler vehicles. With the unleaded petrol available in the India, catalytic converters are becoming popular and are used on almost all passenger car vehicles as well as 2-stroke 2-wheeler vehicles. Efficiency of the 3-way catalytic converters is optimum for all the three pollutants provided the Air Fuel (A/F) ratio is maintained at the stoichiometry. It is very difficult to maintain A/F ratio at stoichiometry with the mechanical controls presently used.