Browse Topic: Vehicle dynamics
Ground vehicle autonomy increasingly depends on human-on-the-loop (HOTL) supervision, yet supervisors are often overloaded by visual interfaces that can obscure emerging risks. This paper presents an AI-driven predictive sonification architecture that converts short-horizon forecasts of platoon behavior into structured auditory cues for supervisory monitoring. A forecasting engine predicts future vehicle interaction states and evaluates predicted and active violations to generate a composite risk indicator. When risk exceeds defined thresholds, a sonification module conveys risk magnitude and trajectory through changes in pitch, loudness, modulation, and spatial panning. The paper describes the system architecture, sonification design, operational use cases, and a planned human-subject evaluation. The proposed framework is intended to improve early awareness of emerging instability and support more timely supervisory intervention.
A numerical study on the influence of annular gap variation in correctly expanded sonic coaxial jets, focusing on its effect on mixing characteristics and jet symmetry, is presented in this paper. The computational simulations were conducted using a three-dimensional steady-state compressible Reynolds-Averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) framework with the Spalart–Allmaras (SA) turbulence model. Both symmetric (uniform gap) and asymmetric (nonuniform gap) configurations were simulated. Eccentricity was introduced by offsetting the secondary nozzle by 2 mm downward from the center of the primary nozzle. In symmetric configurations with uniform annular gaps, the jet exhibited balanced shear-layer development, uniform entrainment, and symmetric Mach decay characteristics. However, the asymmetric annular gap configuration exhibited approximately 25–30% earlier potential core breakdown, 30–35% greater radial jet spreading, and nearly 6–10% faster centerline velocity decay compared with the symmetric configuration. The streamline analysis revealed enhanced entrainment, localized recirculation regions, asymmetric vortex generation, and accelerated momentum diffusion caused by unequal shear-layer interaction. These results demonstrate that annular gap asymmetry can serve as an effective passive flow control strategy for enhancing jet mixing and directional momentum redistribution. Such configurations may be useful in practical applications including exhaust gas dilution, fuel–air mixing enhancement in combustors, thrust vectoring, and jet-noise suppression systems.
Commercial vehicle fleets frequently operate with tractors that connect to different trailers and dollies, resulting in combinations with varying brake pad wear across wheel ends. Traditional brake-force distribution strategies do not consider these pad-life differences, which can lead to uneven brake utilization, irregular maintenance intervals, and increased total cost of ownership (TCO) in mixed-trailer operations [7, 9]. While modern electronically controlled braking systems (EBS) already incorporate pad wear based braking for the tractor itself [5], these capabilities do not extend across the entire vehicle combination because trailer-side communication is typically limited to standardized CAN protocols such as ISO 11992 and J1939 [1, 2, 3]. As braking systems become more software defined and rely heavily on distributed electronic communication, ensuring the authenticity and integrity of trailer originated brake information becomes essential for both functional safety and cybersecurity [6]. In the proposed architecture, trailers and dollies communicate brake related data to the tractor over the ISO 11992 Tractor-Trailer CAN (TT-CAN) network [1, 2], allowing the tractor Brake Control ECU to securely validate the source of the information and register each towed unit for health aware braking. Once authenticated pad life data is available, the tractor constructs a combination level brake health map covering every wheel end in the configuration. During normal braking, a supervisory allocator computes wheel end specific brake pressure targets that bias braking toward wheel ends with greater remaining pad life while ensuring full compliance with stopping distance regulations and stability requirements [4, 7]. By integrating authenticated pad wear information with tractor hosted supervisory control, the system improves braking consistency across mixed combinations, harmonizes pad utilization, enhances maintenance predictability, and reduces TCO while meeting the safety and cybersecurity expectations of modern commercial vehicle fleets.
The automotive industry's transition towards electrification, particularly in the passenger car (PC) and light commercial vehicle (LCV) segments, has intensified the focus on vehicle lightweighting to maximize battery range and efficiency. Conventional brake systems in electric vehicles (EVs) are subject to minimal mechanical wear due to regenerative braking, making corrosion the primary cause of component failure and replacement. This paper details the development and production of an innovative lightweight brake, which addresses these challenges. The "Cast-In" brake disc combines a traditional gray cast iron friction ring with a pre-finished, deep-drawn steel hat through a specialized composite casting process. This design achieves a significant reduction in unsprung mass—1.6 kg per disc in a 390mm x 36mm example—directly contributing to improved vehicle dynamics and energy efficiency. Key manufacturing challenges, including ensuring a robust material bond, preventing casting defects, and sealing the steel hat during casting, have been overcome through advanced process controls, simulation, and a patented sealing system. Furthermore, a novel, enhanced corrosion protection system has been developed and validated to meet the required service life of over 10 years, addressing the specific demands of e-mobility. With production scheduled to begin in April 2026, this technology is a milestone for modern braking solutions in the era of electrification.
The multi-articulated vehicle uses distributed drive mode. Due to its large degree of freedom of movement and the large number of driving shafts, different torque distribution methods affect the operational stability of the vehicle, how to coordinate and distribute the torque of each driving motor has become an urgent problem to be solved. To improve drive stability of the multi-articulated vehicles, propose a layered torque allocation control strategy. The upper-layer sliding mode controller determines the required additional yaw moments of each car body based on the linear reference model, the controller is characterized by swift response and a strong ability to resist interference. The lower-level allocation module comprehensively considers the torque output limitations of the electric hub motors, the prevailing road adhesion state, and the corrective yaw moment constraints given by the upper layer, and constructs an optimization objective function centered on the uniformity and stability of tire load. The optimal distribution of driving forces for each wheel is completed by solving this function dynamically. To validate the strategy's effectiveness, a vehicle dynamics model is built in the multi-body dynamics software ADAMS/View. Using a joint simulation framework integrating ADAMS/View and MATLAB®/Simulink, the effect of the layered control strategy is evaluated in comparative simulation with uncontrolled situation under U-turn and single lane change conditions. The simulation outcomes demonstrate that, compared to uncontrolled situation, the yaw rate deviation of each car body under the torque layered control are significantly reduced, and the adhesion utilization rate of tire is also effectively controlled, thereby the driving stability is improved.
Metallurgical cranes have a high risk of structural fatigue damage and failure under complex working conditions such as high temperature, heavy load, and strong electromagnetic interference. This article proposes a data-driven structural fatigue damage health monitoring system. This system integrates fiber Bragg grating sensing technology, rigid flexible coupling multi-body dynamics simulation, and big data analysis methods to construct a sensor optimization layout strategy based on rigid flexible coupling virtual prototype simulation, achieving real-time perception of stress states in key parts such as the mid span and end beam corners of the main beam. Develop a visualization system that integrates health monitoring, damage diagnosis, and life prediction. This system can dynamically evaluate the structural health status of metallurgical cranes and predict the remaining life of the structure based on a nonlinear cumulative damage model. On site engineering applications have shown that the monitoring and prediction visualization system can effectively improve the intelligent and safe operation and maintenance level of metallurgical cranes, providing a data foundation and possibility for their predictive maintenance.
To facilitate the development and application of bulb-flat titanium alloys in aerospace and automotive industries, this study selects TC4 as the research material and employs finite element simulation software to simulate the hot rolling process of TC4 bulb flat titanium. The temperature field, strain field, and metal flow velocity in each rolling pass are analyzed, and rolling experiments are conducted after optimizing the roll pass system. The results indicate that during the rolling process of TC4 bulb flat titanium, the head undergoes relatively smaller deformation, resulting in a slower temperature decrease, whereas the waist experiences greater deformation and a faster temperature drop. A significant temperature difference exists between the core and surface, which can be mitigated by appropriately increasing the roll temperature to reduce heat transfer. Prior to the K4 pass, the billet temperature drops to a level that may affect rolling performance, necessitating furnace reheating. Strain increases progressively with each rolling pass, with higher values observed at the waist compared to the head. A gradual strain transition occurs at the interface between the head and waist. Furthermore, the irregular design of the roll pass leads to a considerable difference in metal flow velocity between the upper and lower surfaces. During the K1 pass rolling, this imbalance can cause the guide guard to be displaced upward and result in roll wrapping. Without altering the roll diameter, shifting the entire roll pass system toward the side with higher metal flow velocity effectively reduces the linear velocity and prevents these issues, ensuring stable billet rolling. Rolling experiments successfully produced the final TC4 bulb flat titanium, thereby validating the feasibility of the optimized roll pass system and the rationality of the selected rolling parameters. It provides the possibility for its development and application in fields such as aircraft and automobiles.
Regarding the external sling load system of heavy-lift helicopters, the influence of the law of lifting point position on flight control stability characteristics has not been distinctly explained. To address this challenge, this paper constructs a sling load flight simulation model based on multi-body dynamics. Overall, the proposed model consists of four parts, including the rotor aeroelastic coupling model, the fuselage rigid body dynamics model, the flexible sling model, and the slung object rigid body model. Furthermore, through the hub six-degree-of-freedom rigid model and the flexible sling model, this paper realizes the dynamic coupling between the components. On this basis, taking the CH-53E heavy-lift helicopter as the research object, this paper utilizes real flight test data to validate the multi-body dynamic model. Subsequently, this paper systematically analyzes the influence of different lifting points’ lateral position, sling load mode, load-mass ratio, and forward flying speed on helicopter control stability characteristics. Simulation results indicate that the lifting point location exerts a significant impact on the helicopter’s trim attitude angles and dynamic stability. Of them, the lifting point location of the front center of gravity is the optimal in terms of trim characteristics and eigenvalue distribution. Furthermore, within a certain flight speed range, the lifting point of the front center of gravity demonstrates superior speed adaptability and system robustness. Apart from providing a solid theoretical basis for the lifting point layout design of the external sling load system of heavy-lift helicopters, the research results have important engineering application value for improving the safety of sling load flight of heavy-lift helicopters.
This paper proposes a nonlinear and robust State-Dependent Riccati Equation (SDRE) combined with H∞ control architecture for brake- by-wire systems, specifically designed to handle severe tire-road friction variations and μ-split scenarios. The primary objective is to maximize deceleration capabilities while rigorously maintaining yaw stability, trajectory tracking, and passenger comfort through jerk limitation. Situated within the domain of active safety, this research addresses robustness against real-world uncertainties by utilizing a high-fidelity 14-degree-of-freedom vehicle model that accounts for longitudinal, lateral, and yaw dynamics, suspension-induced pitch and roll effects, and nonlinear tire behavior with explicit load transfer. To ensure near-optimal slip tracking under variable surface conditions, the system employs online friction estimation via Extended and Unscented Kalman Filters (EKF/UKF) fusing wheel and IMU data to adaptively adjust slip targets. The control strategy is bifurcated: the SDRE component manages dominant nonlinearities through state-dependent gains to prevent wheel lock-up, while the H∞ component provides robust disturbance rejection against parametric uncertainties such as mass variations and sensor noise. Control efforts are distributed via a Quadratic Programming (QP) torque allocator featuring anti-windup mechanisms and explicit saturation handling to compensate for lateral drift during μ-split braking. Validation is conducted through a Model- in-the-Loop (MIL) to Software-in-the-Loop (SIL) pipeline using scenarios including wet surfaces and panic braking. Simulation results demonstrate enhanced yaw stability and controlled deceleration profiles compared to conventional baselines, ensuring computational feasibility for automotive Electronic Control Units (ECUs).
Aerodynamicists around the globe are developing mechanisms and structures inspired by nature that enable variable camber morphing (VCM) for aerodynamic surfaces. The implementation of the VCM mechanism in an airplane wing enhances the performance and stability during various flight segments. The present review article is focused mainly on the up-to-date VCM methods in a qualitative as well as quantitative approach that are specific to Aircraft/unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) wing configurations. Initial literature discussions are confined to the conventional mechanisms that enable VCM in different aircraft configurations and the added aerodynamic advantages such as lift enhancement, drag reduction, boundary layer separation, and flow control. However, those designs need either external shape optimization or internal structural refinements to ensure the factor of safety (FoS). The modern aviation industry is also focused on bioinspired technology because of the adaptive flying capabilities and stall-delay characteristics. Therefore, a review of bioinspired VCM methods that are assessed based on the aerodynamic potentials is sequentially organized in the article. Additionally, considerations are motivated by the application of various compliant structural patterns for VCM in the aircraft industry. The discussion indicates the prospective benefits of morphing toward the future of the Green Aviation industry.
Items per page:
50
1 – 50 of 10241