The aim of this study is the optimization of the parameters of interconnected Hydro-Pneumatic (HP) suspension system of a three-axle vehicle for ride comfort and handling. For HP suspension systems of equivalent vertical stiffness and damping characteristics, interconnected HP suspension systems increase roll and pitch stiffness and damping characteristics of the vehicle as compared to unconnected HP suspension systems. Thus, they result in improved handling and braking/acceleration performances of the vehicle. However, increased roll and pitch stiffness and damping characteristics also increase roll and pitch accelerations, which in turn result in degraded ride comfort performance. Therefore, in order to improve both ride comfort and vehicle handling performances simultaneously, an optimum parameter set of an interconnected HP suspension system is obtained through an optimization procedure. The objective function is formed as the sum of the weighted vertical accelerations according to ISO 2631. The roll angle, one of the important measures of vehicle handling and driving safety, is imposed as a constraint in the optimization study. Upper and lower parameter bounds are used in the optimization in order to get a physically realizable parameter set. Optimization procedure is implemented for a three-axle vehicle with unconnected and interconnected suspension systems separately. Optimization results show that interconnected HP suspension system results in improvements in both ride comfort and vehicle handling performance, as compared to the unconnected suspension system. As a result, interconnected HP suspension systems present a solution to the conflict between ride comfort and vehicle handling which is present in unconnected suspension systems.

Clutch energy is the thermal energy dissipated on the clutch disc, and it reaches its highest level during drive-off as a result of the difference between the angular speeds of the flywheel and clutch disc, and the torque transmitted. The thermal energy dissipated effects the clutch life. This study presents a new drive-off and thermal model to calculate the clutch energy for a rear wheel driven heavy-duty vehicle and to analyze the effects of clutch energy on temperatures of clutch pressure plate, flywheel and clutch housing. Three different driver profiles are used, based on the release of the clutch pedal in modulation zone: i) the pedal travels with the same speed all the way, ii) the travel speed of the pedal increases, iii) the travel speed of the pedal decreases. Vehicle test is performed to check the accuracy of the model. When compared to a simpler model that is widely used in the literature to calculate the clutch energy, the model used in this study calculates the clutch energy and angular speed behaviors of flywheel and transmission input shaft in better agreement with experimental results. Clutch wear and total clutch life are also estimated using the mean specific friction power.

In the study, investigation of fiber- reinforced composite materials that can be an alternative to conventional steel was performed by finite element analysis with the help of software. Steel and composite materials have been studied on a four axle truck chassis model. Three-dimensional finite element model was created with software, and then analyzes were performed. The analyses were performed for static and dynamic/fatigue cases. Fatigue cases are formed with the help of design spectra model and fatigue analyses were performed as static analyses with this design spectra. First, analyses were performed for steel and after that optimization analyses were made for the AS4-PEEK carbon fiber composite and Eglass-Epoxy fiber composite materials. Optimization of composite material analyzes include determining the total laminate thickness, thickness of each ply, orientation of each ply and ply stacking sequence. Analyzes were made according to macro mechanical properties of composite, micromechanics case has not been considered. Improvements in weight reduction up to %50 provided at the end of the composite optimization analyzes with satisfying stiffness performance of chassis. Fatigue strength of the composite structure depends on various factors such as, fiber orientation, ply thickness, ply stack sequence, fiber ductility, ductility of the matrix, loading angle. Therefore, the accuracy of theoretical calculations and analyzes should be correlated by testing.

In this study, the effects of sitting position of the driver on the whiplash neck injury have been analyzed experimentally by using hybrid III series 50 percentile male crash test dummy. A testing platform consisting of vehicle ground, driver foot rest, driver seat and a 3-point seatbelt has been prepared. This testing platform and the instrumented crash test dummy are prepared for tests according to the Euro NCAP whiplash testing protocol. The prepared test set-up has been exposed to 3 different acceleration-time loading curves defined in the Euro NCAP whiplash testing protocol by performing sled tests. 9 different sled tests have been performed with the combinations of 3 different seating positions of the crash test dummy and 3 different acceleration-time loading curves. The sensor data obtained from the crash test dummy and high-speed videos taken are analyzed according to the injury assessments criteria defined in the Euro NCAP whiplash testing protocol and the criticality of the whiplash injury is defined. It is seen that the backset distance of the driver head with the headrest and the height difference of the top of the head of the driver with the headrest have a great importance on whiplash injuries.

A detailed literature review is presented for the applications of the heat pump technologies on the electric vehicles Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) system. Due to legal regulations, automotive manufacturers have to produce more efficient and low carbon emission vehicles. Electric vehicles can be provided these requirements but the battery technologies and energy managements systems are still developing considering battery life and vehicle range. On the other hand, energy consumption for HVAC units has an important role on the energy management of these vehicles. Moreover, the energy requirement of HVAC processes for different environmental conditions are significantly affect the total energy consumption of these vehicles. For the heating process, the coolant of internal combustion (IC) engine can be utilized but in electric vehicles, we have not got any adequate waste heat source for this process. The heat pump technology is one of the alternative choices for the industry due to having high coefficient of performance (COP), but these systems have some disadvantages which can be improved with the other technologies. In this study, a literature review is performed considering alternative refrigerants, performance characteristics of different heat pump systems for electric vehicles and thermal management systems of electric vehicles.

The hybrid electric powertrain is a robust solution that allows for major improvements in both fuel economy and emission reduction. In the present study, a through-the-road hybrid vehicle model with an electric motor driving the rear axle and an Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) driving the front axle has been constructed. We then present a systematic method for the determination of a real time applicable optimal Energy Management Strategy (EMS) for a hybrid road vehicle. More precisely, we compare the performance of rule-based EMS strategies to an optimization-based strategy, namely ECMS (Equivalent Consumption Minimization Strategy). The comparison is conducted in parallel with a parameterization of the size of the internal combustion engine and the implementation of a Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT) that allows following the line of best fuel economy. For the FTP-75 driving cycle, the constrained engine On-off control algorithm is shown to offer a 28% improvement potential of fuel consumption compared to the conventional internal combustion engine while the ECMS strategy achieves an improved potential of nearly 33%.

Hardware-in-the-loop (HiL) simulation is a very powerful tool to design, test and verify automotive control systems. However, well-validated and high degree of freedom vehicle models have to be utilized in these simulations in order to obtain realistic results. In this paper, a vehicle dynamics model developed in the Carsim Real Time program environment and its validation has been performed using experimental results. The developed Carsim real time model has been employed in the Tofas R&D hardware-in-the-loop simulator. Experimental and hardware-in-the-loop simulation results have been compared for the standard FMVSS No. 126 test and the results have been found to be in good agreement with each other. Two electronic stability control (ESC) algorithms, named the Basic ESC and the Integrated ESC, taken from the earlier work of the authors have been tested and evaluated in the hardware-in-the-loop simulator. Different evaluation methods have been formulated and used to compare these ESC algorithms. As a result, the Integrated ESC system has been shown superior performance as compared to the Basic ESC algorithm.

In this study an economical image stitching algorithm for use in automotive industry is developed for retrofittable panoramic image assistance applications. The aim of this project is to develop a driving assistance system known as Panoramic Parking Assistance (PPA) which is cheap, retrofittable and compatible for every type of automobiles. PPA generates bird's eye view image using cameras installed on the automobiles. Image stitching requires to get bird's eye view position of the vehicle. Panoramic images are wide area images that cannot be available by taking one shot, attained by stitching the overlapping areas. To achieve correct stitching many algorithms are used. This study includes some type of these algorithms and presents a simple one that is economical and practical. Firstly, the mathematical model of a wide view of angle camera is provided. Then distorted image correction is performed. Stitching is implemented by using the SIFT and SURF algorithms. It has been seen that using such algorithms requires complex image processing knowledge and implementation of high quality digital processors, which would be impracticle and costly for automobile use. Thus a simpler algorithm has been developed to decrase the complexity. The proposed algorithm uses one matching point for every couple of images and has ease of use and does not need high power processors. To show the efficiency, images coming from four distinct cameras are stitched by using the algorithm developed for the study and usability for automotive application is analyzed.