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Continuously variable transmissions (CVT) provide superior fuel economy by enabling internal combustion engines to operate at their “sweet spots”. However, there is still potential to improve CVT system’s mechanical efficiency, and further enhance vehicle-level fuel economy. In the past, extensive research work has focused on the core continuously variator unit (CVU) that includes pulleys and a belt or chain. Another thread of research has centered on optimization of CVT clamping force control to reduce hydraulic system loss. Nonetheless, to the best of our knowledge, very little research has looked into the planetary gear sets and clutches that enable the CVT system to switch between forward, neutral and reverse gears. The state-of-the-art reverse clutch usually consists of multiple friction and steel plates, and is normally open during all forward driving maneuvers. The relative speed between friction and steel plates is identical to turbine speed, which generate spin loss.

The vehicle driveline suffers low frequency torsional vibration due to the abrupt change of input torque and torque fluctuation under variable frequency. This problem can be solved by model based control, so building a control oriented driveline model is extremely important. In this paper, an on-line recursive identification method is proposed for control oriented model and validated based on an electric car. First of all, the control oriented driveline model is simplified into a six-parameter model with double inertia. Secondly, based on stability analysis, motor torque and motor speed are chosen as input signal for on-line model identification. A recursive identification algorithm is designed and implemented based on Simulink. Meanwhile a detail model of the vehicle which considering driveline parameter variation is built based on ADAMS. Thirdly, on-line identification is conducted by using co-simulation of ADAMS and Simulink.

The wedge clutch takes advantages of small actuation force/torque, space-saving and energy-saving. However, big challenge arises from the varying self-reinforced ratio due to the varying friction coefficient inevitably affected by temperature and wear. In order to improve the smoothness and synchronization time of the slipping process of the wedge clutch, this paper proposes a self-tuning PID controller based on Lyapunov principle. A new Lyapunov function is developed for the wedge clutch system. Simulation results show that the self-tuning PID obtains much less error than the conventional PID with fixed gains. Moreover, the self-tuning PID is more adaptable to the variation of the friction coefficient for the error is about 1/5 of the conventional PID.

A toothed chain continuously variable transmission concept is studied. By designing positive engagement at top overdrive ratio, we explored the potential to improve CVT mechanical efficiency. The low cost solution could improve fuel economy by 0.7% in FTP composite cycle. Preliminary multi-body dynamic simulation is also completed using VL-Motion to concept-proof the technical feasibility of disengagement and engagement. To address the noise issue resulted from abandoning the random pitch design in production chain, we proposed an alternate chain pitch sequence but more experimental data is required to validate the design.

This paper describes a uniform Hardware-In-the-Loop (HiL) test rig for the different types of Electronic Braking System (EBS). It is applied to both modular testing and integrated testing. This test rig includes a vehicle dynamic model, a real-time simulation platform, an actual brake circuit and the EBS system under test. Firstly, the vehicle dynamic model is a highly parameterized commercial vehicle model. So it can simulate different types of commercial vehicle by different parameter configurations. Secondly, multi-types of brake circuit are modeled using brake components simulation library. So, it can test the EBS control unit independently without the influence of any real electro-pneumatic components. And a software EBS controller is also modeled. So it can test the algorithm of EBS offline. Thirdly, all real electro-pneumatic components without real gas inputted are connected to the real-time test platform through independent program-controlled relay-switches.

The ever-growing number of interacting electronic vehicle control systems requires new control algorithms to manage the increasing system complexity. As a result, torque-based control architecture has been popular for its easy extension as the torque demand variable is the only interface between the engine control algorithms and other vehicle control systems. Under the torque-based control architecture, the engine and AT coordinated control for upshift process is investigated. Based on the dynamics analysis, quantitative relationship between the turbine torque of HTC and output shaft torque of AT has been obtained. Then the coordinated control strategy has been developed to smooth the torque trajectory of AT output shaft. The designed control strategy is tested on a powertrain simulation model in MATLAB/Simulink and a test bench. Through simulation, the shift time range in which the engine coordinated control strategy is effective is acquired.

In order to improve the anti-disturbance performance of engine-load and the effect on speed control for the diesel engine, the paper presents the fuzzy-PID speed control strategy in the architecture of torque-based control. The engine-load estimation algorithm is designed based on the mean-value-model and crankshaft dynamics model, and the estimation precision is validated by engine test in both steady and dynamic conditions. Through the experiment verification of the diesel engine, the fuzzy-PID control strategy based on load estimation can significantly improve the anti-disturbance performance of engine-load in the speed control.

The cylinder-by-cylinder variations have many bad impacts on the engine performance, such as increasing the engine speed fluctuation, enlarging the torsional vibration and noise. To deal with this problem, the impact mechanism of cylinder-by-cylinder variations on low order torsional vibration has been studied in this paper, and subsequently a new individual cylinder control strategy was designed by processing the instantaneous crankshaft rotation speed signal, detecting the cylinder-by-cylinder variation and using feed-back control. The acceleration characteristics of each cylinder in each engine cycle were compared with each other to extract the variation index. The feed-back control algorithm was based on the regulation of the fuel injection according to the detected variation level.

It is found that biodiesel has a great potential to reduce the nitrogen oxides (NOx) and soot emissions simultaneously in low temperature combustion (LTC) mode. The objective of this study is to investigate the combustion and emission characteristics of 20% biodiesel blend diesel fuel (B20) under several exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) conditions for LTC application. An experimental investigation of B20 was conducted on a four-stroke common rail direct injection diesel engine at 2000rpm and 25% load condition. The EGR ratio was adjusted from 10% to 66%, and the injection pressure was tuned from 100MPa to 140MPa. The result showed that B20 generated less soot emission than conventional diesel with increasing EGR ratio, especially when the EGR ratio was beyond 30%. Soot emission increased with increasing EGR ratio up to 50% EGR, after which there is a steep decrease in particular matter (PM).

Dry dual clutch transmission (DCT) has played an important role in the high performance applications as well as low-cost market sectors in Asia, with a potential as the future mainstream transmission technology due to its high mechanical efficiency and driving comfort. Control system simplification and cost reduction has been critical in making dry DCT more competitive against other transmission technologies. Specifically, DCT clutch actuation system is a key component with a great potential for cost-saving as well as performance improvement. In this paper, a new motor driven clutch actuator with a force-aid lever has been proposed. A spring is added to assist clutch apply that can effectively reduce the motor size and energy consumption. The goal of this paper is to investigate the feasibility of this new clutch actuator, and the force-aid lever actuator's principle, physical structure design, and validation results are discussed in details.

A multi-task control template has been established for diesel engine control system in this paper. By analyzing the function requirements and control strategies of electronic diesel engine control system, the data flow diagram has been obtained. Based on the mechanisms and characteristics of the RTOS as well as the design methods of real-time system software, modules in data flow graph has been divided further. So that the multi-tasks of the control system have been drawn. Then each task's properties have been designed. Afterwards, every task and the embedded RTOS have been transplanted into Freescale MPC5554 microcontroller. After that the multi-tasks have been tested and optimized in a Hardware-in-the-Loop Simulation (HILS) system of dSPACE AUTOBOX. The results show good reusability and real-time performance and it can increase the efficiency of the diesel engine control software development.

Based on MATLAB/Simulink, the ECU application software components library for diesel engine has been designed in this paper. The hierarchic and modularized components library is an open research platform for the model-based control software development. Using the components technology, the requirements of the diesel engine ECU application software have been analyzed, upon which the detailed components partition and the components library design have been accomplished. Besides, based on this components library, a control prototype for the diesel engine has been established quickly and verified through the Hardware-in-the-Loop test. The ECU software design and test process based on the components library show a good flexibility of the library, and it can improve the configurability and reusability of the software and increase the efficiency of the control software development.

The method and steps for software modeling of the embedded control systems for diesel engine based on UML are described in this paper. In order to meet the software function and the features of the system, object-oriented modeling for diesel engine embedded control software system has been implemented. Requirements are depicted by use case diagram and the logic structure is depicted by class diagram. According to the domain knowledge and the class diagram, the sequence diagram and state diagram are developed to describe the dynamic behavior of the system. The level of software development has been enhanced to the system level by software modeling. It focuses on the automotive field, and can be easy to grasp the problem from the overall perspective and discover software design problems at the early stage. It is also convenient to solve the problems caused by the change of requirements. The model has an excellent flexibility so that it can be applied to different software platforms.

Long-term rise of oil prices, increasingly stringent emission regulations, combined with emerging regulations to reduce truck engine idling present a unique opportunity for hybrid trucks. Tutto Industria de Sistemas de Tracao Electrica is a Brazilian Company located in Caxias do Sul which is dedicated to develop and commercialize electric and hybrid drive trains for commercial vehicles. In this paper a case study for a Brazilian delivery truck application will be presented. First the fundamental architecture of a series hybrid delivery truck is described and simulation models for a conventional 8 t delivery truck and the responsive hybrid electric truck are built, and serve as a basis for powertrain components and control strategy analysis. Comparisons of the hybrid truck with the conventional truck are performed, and important factors relating to the vehicle performance (gross vehicle weight, drive cycles, control strategies) are investigated.

In-cylinder pressure sensor, which provides the means for precise combustion control to achieve improved fuel economy, lower emissions, higher comfort, additional diagnostic functions etc., is becoming a necessity in future diesel engines, especially for chemical-kinetics dominated PCCI (Premixed Charge Compression Ignition) or LTC (Low Temperature Combustion) engines. In this paper, new control strategy is investigated to utilize in-cylinder pressure information into engine start process, in order to guarantee the success of engine start and in the meantime prevent penalty of fuel economy or pollutant emissions due to excessive fuel injection. An engine start acceleration model is established to analyze the engine start process. “In-cylinder Combustion Analysis Tool” (i-CAT), is used to acquire and process the in-cylinder pressure data and deliver the combustion indices to ECU (Engine Control Unit). Feedback control is accomplished in ECU based on this information.

In this paper the experiments of hydraulic free piston diesel engine is described. The experimental data were obtained from measurement instruments on the free piston diesel engine that has been developed by Beijing Institute of Technology [ 1 ]. This article discusses the influences of compression pressure, injection timing, and combustion process to the free piston diesel engine principle. The compression process experiment shows that the piston velocity, the compression ratio can be controlled by adjusting the compression pressure. With the increasing of the compression pressure, there is a growing a compression ratio and piston velocity. The study on injection timing shows that the injection timing impacts the cylinder pressure peak value and the pressure peak arrival time. The combustion process is quite different from the crankshaft engine because of the unique piston movement characteristics of the hydraulic free piston engine.