Lathe Machine (PPT)

The basic engine lathe, which is one of the most widely used machine tools, is very versatile when used by a skilled machinist. However, it is not particularly efficient when many identical parts must be machined as rapidly as possible.

The standard engine lathe is not a high production machine, but it can be readily tooled up for many one-piece or short-run jobs.

It is also possible to modify the basic machine for many higher production applications.

The modern engine lathe provides a wide range of speeds and feeds which allow optimum settings for almost any operation.

There have been advances in headstock design to provide greater strength and rigidity.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE PPT ON LATHE MACHINE

Read More

PPT ON ABS

ANTILOCK BRAKING SYSTEM, which is commonly known as ABS is used as an antiskid device in a vehicle. It used to prevent skidding of wheels while 

braking when we want to stop the vehicle or suddenly reduce its speed at any time.

ABS was first developed for aircraft use in 1929 by the French automobile and aircraft pioeer, Gabriel Voisin.
download ppt on ABS

Read More

PPT ON HOT WORKING PROCESS

Although basic concepts of many forming processes have remained largely unchanged throughout history, details and equipment have evolved considerably. 

Hot-working processes provide means of producing a desired shape.At elevated temperatures, metals weaken and become more ductile.With continual re-crystallization, massive deformation take place without exhausting material plasticity.

PPT ON HOT WORKING PROCESS

Read More

PPT ON ROLLING PROCESS

Rolling is usually first process used to convert material into a finished wrought product.

Stock can be rolled into blooms, billets, slabs, or these shapes can be obtained directly from continuous casting.

A bloom has a square or rectangular cross section, with a thickness greater than 6 inches and a width no greater than twice the thickness. 

Download ppt on ROLLING PROCESS

Read More

Advantages and Disadvantages of Chain Drive over Belt or Rope Drive .

Following are the advantages and disadvantages of chain drive over belt or rope drive:

Advantages:-

1.As no slip takes place during chain drive, hence perfect velocity ratio is obtained.

2.Since the chains are made of metal, therefore they occupy less space in width than a belt or

rope drive.

3.It may be used for both long as well as short distances.

4.It gives a high transmission efficiency (upto 98 percent).

5.It gives less load on the shafts.

6.It has the ability to transmit motion to several shafts by one chain only.

7.It transmits more power than belts.

8.It permits high speed ratio of 8 to 10 in one step.

9.It can be operated under adverse temperature and atmospheric conditions.

Disadvantages:-

1.The production cost of chains is relatively high.

2.The chain drive needs accurate mounting and careful maintenance, particularly lubrication

and slack adjustment.

3.The chain drive has velocity fluctuations especially when unduly stretched. 

Read More

components of automobile engine

1)Camshaft:
Camshaft is a type of rotating device or apparatus used in piston engines for propelling or operating poppet valves.

2.)Crankshaft:
Crankshaft is a device, which converts the up and down movement of the piston into rotatory motion.

3)Connecting Rod:
Connecting rods are made of metals, which are used, for joining a rotating wheel to a reciprocating shaft. More precisely, connecting rods also referred to as con rod are used for conjoining the piston to the crankshaft.

4.)Crank Case:
A crankcase is a metallic cover that holds together the crankshaft and its attachments. It is the largest cavity within an engine that protects the crankshaft, connecting rods and other components from foreign objects.

5.)Cylinder Heads:
Cylinder heads refers to a detachable plate, which is used for covering the closed end of a cylinder assembled in an automotive engine. It comprises of combustion chamber valve train and spark plugs.

6.)Engine Block:
An engine block is a metal casting that serves as a basic structure on which other engine parts are installed. A typical block contains bores for pistons, pumps or other devices to be attached to it. 

7.)Piston:
Piston is a cylindrical plug which is used for moving up and down the cylinder according to the position of the crankshaft in its rotation.

Read More

How Car starts ?

To make an engine start it must be turned at some speed, so that it sucks fuel and air into the cylinders, and compresses it.The powerful electric starter motor does the turning. Its shaft carries a small pinion (gear wheel) which engages with a large gear ring around the rim of the engine flywheel.

In a front-engine layout, the starter is mounted low down near the back of the engine.

The starter needs a heavy electric current, which it draws through thick wires from the battery. No ordinary hand-operated switch could switch it on: it needs a large switch to handle the high current.

The switch has to be turned on and off very quickly to avoid dangerous, damaging sparking. So a solenoid is used - an arrangement where a small switch turns on an electromagnet to complete the circuit.

The starter switch is usually worked by the ignition key. Turn the key beyond the 'ignition on' position to feed current to the solenoid.

The ignition switch has a return spring, so that as soon as you release the key it springs back and turns the starter switch off.

When the switch feeds current to the solenoid, the electromagnet attracts an iron rod.

The movement of the rod closes two heavy contacts, completing the circuit from the battery to the starter.

The rod also has a return spring -when the ignition switch stops feeding current to the solenoid, the contacts open and the starter motor stops.

The return springs are needed because the starter motor must not turn more than it has to in order to start the engine. The reason is partly that the starter uses a lot of electricity, which quickly runs down the battery.

Also, if the engine starts and the starter motor stays engaged, the engine will spin the starter so fast that it may be badly damaged.

The starter motor itself has a device, called a Bendix gear, which engages its pinion with the gear ring on the flywheel only while the starter is turning the engine. It disengages as soon as the engine picks up speed, and there are two ways by which it does so - the inertia system and the pre-engaged system.

The inertia starter relies on the inertia of the pinion - that is, its reluctance to begin to turn.

The pinion is not fixed rigidly to the motor shaft - it is threaded on to it, like a freely turning nut on a very coarse-thread bolt.

Imagine that you suddenly spin the bolt: the inertia of the nut keeps it from turning at once, so it shifts along the thread of the bolt.

When an inertia starter spins, the pinion moves along the thread of the motor shaft and engages with the flywheel gear ring.

It then reaches a stop at the end of the thread, begins to turn with the shaft and so turns the engine.

Once the engine starts, it spins the pinion faster than its own starter-motor shaft. The spinning action screws the pinion back down its thread and out of engagement.

The pinion returns so violently that there has to be a strong spring on the shaft to cushion its impact.

The violent engagement and disengagement of an inertia starter can cause heavy wear on the gear teeth. To overcome that problem the pre-engaged starter was introduced, which has a solenoid mounted on the motor.

There's more to a car starter system: As well as switching on the motor, the solenoid also slides the pinion along the shaft to engage it.

The shaft has straight splines rather than a Bendix thread, so that the pinion always turns with it.

The pinion is brought into contact with the toothed ring on the flywheel by a sliding fork. The fork is moved by a solenoid, which has two sets of contacts that close one after the other.

The first contact supplies a low current to the motor so that it turns slowly - just far enough to let the pinion teeth engage. Then the second contacts close, feeding the motor a high current to turn the engine.

The starter motor is saved from over-speeding when the engine starts by means of a freewheel clutch, like the freewheel of a bicycle. The return spring of the solenoid withdraws the pinion from engagement.

Read More

What is Detonation in Engine ?

Detonation is the spontaneous combustion of the end-gas (remaining fuel/air mixture) in the chamber. It always occurs after normal combustion is initiated by the spark plug. The initial combustion at the spark plug is followed by a normal combustion burn. For some reason, likely heat and pressure, the end gas in the chamber spontaneously combusts. The key point here is that detonation occurs after you have initiated the normal combustion with the spark plug. Under normal conditions, the combusting air and fuel mixture inside the combustion chamber ignites in a controlled manner. The mixture is ignited by the spark, normally in the centre of the cylinder, and a flame front moves from the spark towards the outside of the cylinder in a controlled burn.  Detonation, or engine knock, occurs simply when fuel pre-ignites before the piston reaches scheduled spark ignition. This means that a powerful explosion is trying to expand a cylinder chamber that is shrinking in size, attempting to reverse the direction of the piston and the engine.  Causing sudden pressure changes in the cylinder (Up to 10x that normally experienced), and extreme temperature spikes that can be very damaging on engine pistons, rings, rods, gaskets, bearings, and even the cylinder heads.

Even the best engine components cannot withstand severe detonation for more than a few seconds at a time. More severe detonation obviously leads to more severe forms of engine damage. If there is enough heat and pressure in the combustion chamber, detonation can begin to occur before the spark plug even fires, which would normally initiate the combustion. Under these circumstances, known as "pre-ignition", the piston may be travelling up towards a wave of compressed, exploding gas. These are the worst kinds of detonation conditions, and can bend con-rods and destroy pistons.

Detonation causes three types of failure:

      1. Mechanical damage (broken ring lands)

      2. Abrasion (pitting of the piston crown)

      3. Overheating (scuffed piston skirts due to excess heat input or high coolant

           temperatures)

So what causes detonation?

Any of the following items can be factors that cause detonation:

Ignition Timing

Improper ignition timing is usually down to incorrect setup, rather than any system failure.  This can be corrected by checking the static timing and maximum advance.  Most modern forced induction vehicles have an electronic device known as a "knock sensor" that will control the ignition timing by retarding it if it detects any "knock".

Lean Air/Fuel ratio

A lean air/fuel mixture will promote detonation, because a lesser quantity of fuel, when vaporised, will absorb less heat.  Thus a lean mixture increases heat, the root cause of detonation.  For this reason, you will usually find that supercharged vehicles will, if anything tend to run a slightly rich Air/fuel mixture.  In this way the extra fuel actually acts as a liquid intercooler.

Fuel Octane

A fuels Octane rating is a measure of its resistance to spontaneous combustion, or detonation.  The greater the Octane the greater the resistance.  In the UK, standard Unleaded fuel is rated at 95 Ron (Research Octane Number), Currently the highest Octane Rated Fuel available in the UK is Shell Optimax, this has an Octane rating of 98. (I am only using Optimax in the Lightweight.)

Exhaust gas back pressure

Any restriction or blockage in the Exhaust system will increase back pressure, this means that the hot exhaust gasses are kept in the combustion chamber for longer, thus increasing chamber temperature and increasing the likelihood of detonation.

Intercooler

If a supercharged system has been designed to operate with an intercooler, then anything that compromises the intercoolers efficiency will drastically lower the engines threshold to detonation.

Ambient heat

Very high boost, high performance supercharged systems tend to run close to the detonation threshold.  These tend to be more susceptible to Ambient heat.  On very hot days when the ambient temperature rises dramatically they can actually cross the threshold and the results can be disastrous.

So how do you get rid of detonation?

The two most common tricks (and easiest options) used by supercharger manufacturers and engine tuners looking to obtain maximum performance without detonation is 1. use higher octane fuel, and 2. retard the ignition timing.

Higher octane fuel burns more controllably and is not as likely to combust before the flame front. This is why racing engines use 100+ octane fuel. The ONLY benefit of racing fuel is that it moves you away from the detonation threshold, which allows you to be more aggressive with power producing factors - i.e. raise compression, advance timing, etc. So simply putting 100 octane fuel in a standard production car will not produce a racing car as it is just not tuned correctly to take advantage of the Octane rating.

Retarding the ignition timing will delay the timing of the spark, which also moves you away from your detonation threshold. Most popular "power programmers" or "chips" increase engine power by advancing the ignition timing, and requiring you to run a higher octane fuel to avoid detonation. These work great, except the advanced ignition timing is NOT compatible with most superchargers, unless you're happy to run 100 octane fuel. In fact, many supercharger systems include an "ignition boost retard" that retards the ignition timing when it senses boost from the supercharger.

Another way to avoid detonation is to cool the incoming air charge to lower the temperature inside the combustion chamber. On a supercharged application, this task can be handled by an intercooler/Charge cooler or by a water injection system (less common). The intercooler takes the incoming air charge and passes it over a series of air-cooled or water-cooled fins and ducts, thus cooling the air in the same way that a radiator cools your engine's coolant. Intercoolers are thus very popular in higher output supercharger systems, where detonation becomes more of a problem. A suitable  intercooler allows you to run more boost and also allows you to eliminate the ignition boost retard, meaning you'll notice increased performance, and still experience no detonation.

Another way to lower the temperature of the combusting air and fuel is to run cooler heat range spark plugs. Many supercharger manufacturers will recommend cooler plugs for your supercharged engine.

Because a lean condition (fuel starvation) also contributes to detonation, it is important to make sure that the fuel system (pump, injectors, etc.) is capable of delivering the increased fuel requirements of the supercharged engine. Often, an otherwise perfectly tuned engine will experience detonation just because the fuelling system can't deliver enough fuel to the engine. Upgrading certain fuel components is sometimes necessary when supercharging an engine. More commonly the ECU that controls the Fuelling MAP needs to be upgraded.  If you are installing a supercharger on an engine with other modifications, you need to make sure you consider the additional fuel requirements and compensate with larger injectors and / or a bigger fuel pump if required.

Conclusion

You should pay close attention to "knock" and pinging noises that come from your engine because they could indicate detonation inside the combustion chamber and should be dealt with immediately.  If ignored it could prove to be a costly decision.

Although detonation can be potentially damaging to an engine, it is easily controlled once you understand the causes.  With a little thought when implementing the chosen design there should be no reason for detonation to occur.

Read More

Black is a good conductor of heat, meanwhile tires are made black, Why ?

Originally rubber tires are white, which is the natural color of rubber. In the early 1900s, Binney & Smith began selling their carbon black chemicals to Goodrich Tire Company, 

as it was found that the use of carbon black in rubber manufacturing significantly increased certain desirable qualities for rubber meant to be turned into tires.

Carbon black works as a reinforcing filler in rubber, which increases the durability and strength of the rubber.  Specifically, adding about 50% by weight of carbon black increases the road-wear abrasion of the produced tire by as much as 100 fold and improves the tensile strength of the tire by as much as 1008%.  The tensile strength, for those who don’t know, is the amount of force needed to pull something to its breaking or bursting point.

Adding carbon black also helps conduct heat away from certain hot spots on the tire; specifically, in the tread and belt areas, which can get particularly hot at times while driving.  This reduces thermal damage on the tire, which further extends its lifespan.

Carbon black itself is simply nearly pure elemental carbon in colloidal particle form.  It is classically made by simply charring any organic material.  Examples of this are Ivory Black, made by charring ivory or bones, and Lamp Black, made from the soot of oil lamps. Carbon black for industrial use today is typically produced as Furnace Black and Thermal Black.  Furnace Black is produced using heavy aromatic oils.  Thermal Black is produced using natural gas, generally methane, injected into a very hot furnace where, in the absence of much air, carbon black and hydrogen are produced.

Read More

What is the difference between "Industry" and "Factory" ?

The terms factory and industry are used interchangeably, but the meaning of these words are not the same. In fact, industry refers to the production of economic goods. These goods can be materials, products or services. A factory, on the other hand, is the actual location where the materials or products are produced or created.

INDUSTRY :-

Industry is the production of an economic good or service within an economy.Manufacturing industry became a key sector of production and labour in European and North American countries during the Industrial Revolution, upsetting previous mercantile and feudal economies. This occurred through many successive rapid advances in technology, such as the production of steel and coal. Following the Industrial Revolution, perhaps a third of the world's economic output is derived from manufacturing industries. Many developed countries and many developing/semi-developed countries (People's Republic of China, India etc.) depend significantly on industry. Industries, the countries they reside in, and the economies of those countries are interlinked in a complex web of interdependence.

FACTORY :-

A factory (previously manufactory) or manufacturing plant is an industrial site, usually consisting of buildings and machinery, or more commonly a complex having several buildings, where workers manufacture goods or operate machines processing one product into another.Factories may either make discrete products or some type of material continuously produced such as chemicals, pulp and paper, or refined oil products.

 In short :-

 1. ‘Industry’ is the production of economic goods and services while ‘factory’ is a place where goods are produced or manufactured.

2. Both are involved in the economic process but an industry is broader in scope while a factory is not.

Read More

Why Mechanical Engineering ??

Mechanical Engineers are in demand in various well paid segments like automobiles, space centers, trucks, airplanes, and trains among others. They would also be dealing with many other useful activities like the economical combustion of fuels and the application of mechanical energy to do various tasks. Mechanical Engineering offers a strong base for professional engineering practice, and in many other related segments. Preparing project mechanical engineering is the key to success. No matter what type of project you choose, make sure you take the time to consider all relevant factors.

Why mechanical engineering ??

1.Easy to imagine and visualize whatever you learn

2.Develop a range of skills – you may learn the work of a machine operator (machinist), a smith, a foundryman, a mechanic, a plant manager, a researcher and a policy maker.

3.You get the opportunity to create something tangible and useful. your creations will be used by others. It gives u the greatest joy.

4.Its the broadest branch of engineering…so your career options are open even after u graduate:-

Defence,Civil Services, High end R&D, Manufacturing, Design, Energy sector, Management, Entrepreneurship, Masters(ME/MS)

5.Variety to be learnt- u learn how to design and make things ranging from a Safety Pin to a Spacecraft.

6.U work with massive machines (majestic in nature) to tiny precision instruments, micro and nano devices.

u’ll be savviest engineer.

7.Importance of your work form the human resource that is required for the survival of any industry and forms the backbone of modern human life. you are  the person who may generate power/energy from natural resources, make equipment's and processes to mine minerals, make cars, bikes ,buses, trucks, planes, ships(transportation can be compared to human blood that transports nutrients), make machines that manufacture products ranging from food to surgical instruments to weapons, mange factories and businesses.

8.Get paid handsomely(after gaining a few years experience even if not as a fresher).

9.Not much of girls hanging around(they usually don’t prefer to opt for this course, its thought to be a manly course).U don't have to worry about getting dressed perfectly for class or for girls giggling at you for some silly or not so silly but serious reason. You in a man’s world. But there are a few out of the ordinary and brainy girls who do take up this course and luv it.

10.It sounds and feels nice to be called a Mechanical Engineer.

Read More

First Hydrogen Fuel Cell Car

Hyundai Becomes First Company to Mass Produce Hydrogen Fuel Cell Car.

Hyundai says it will produce 1,000 ix35 Fuel Cell vehicles by 2015. Initial production will be for municipal fleets in Copenhagen, Denmark, and in Skane, Sweden. Early hydrogen vehicle deployments are limited to locations with a refueling infrastucture. With a Hyundai-reported driving range of 370 miles (594 km), there would be no need to refuel until the vehicle returns to the main garage at night.

 

Mass-produced, hydrogen-powered cars were once called the wave of the distant future. Hyundai just advanced the timetable as the first production Hyundai ix35 Fuel Cell crossovers rolled off the production line in Ulsan, Korea, earlier this year. It’s based on the small crossover called the Hyundai Tucson in the US. The ix35/Tucson Fuel Cell converts hydrogen to electricity to power electric motors, rather than burning hydrogen in place of gasoline as BMW has done with its internal combustion hydrogen cars. Either way, the only emission is water vapor.

How Hyundai’s fuel cell works (caution: blonde joke follows): 

Hyundai ix35 Fuel Cell engine compartmentA hydrogen fuel cell works by converting hydrogen to electricity inside the cell, where an anode and cathode are separated by a membrane. At the anode the hydrogen is split into electrons and protons (hydrogen ions). The polymer membrane only allows protons to pass, while the electrons flow through a battery to the electric motor. At the cathode, the hydrogen electrons and protons are reunited and combine with oxygen (outside air) to form water (H2O).

We hear Hyundai may also market a model that converts the components into H2O2, or hydrogen peroxide, for Swedish motorists who are not naturally blonde and wish to fit in. Stay tuned.

The hydrogen is stored in a pair of heavily armored tanks that combine for a capacity of 12.4 pounds (5.6kg) of heavily compressed hydrogen, which is a lot considering hydrogen in its natural, uncompressed state is lighter than air. Locomotion for the ix35 Fuel Cell comes from a 136hp (100kW) electric motor that tops out at 100 mph (160 kph). The energy is buffered by a 24kW lithium-ion polymer battery developed by LG Chemical and Hyundai.

Want one of your own? Today, they’d cost in “the upper $100,000s per car,” Frank Ahrens, a Hyundai spokesman, told US News & World Report. By the time Hyundai shifts from fleet sales to individual buyers, around 2015, the price might fall to $50,000.

The cost of being green

While the only emission from the vehicle is water vapor, there are concerns about how hydrogen gets to be hydrogen in the tank. Right now, a common conversion process takes natural gas, applies energy, and leaves behind a carbon footprint worse than any environmentalist would hope for. You could fare better in the short run just going with a natural gas vehicle such as the Honda Civic Natural Gas. Researchers are working on extracting hydrogen from other sources, whether sea water or the sludge in a waste treatment plant. (See: The fuel cell that turns poop into power.)

This is the third generation hydrogen vehicle from Hyundai/Kia since 1999. Another hydrogen backer is BMW, which showed a series of hydrogen-powered BMW 7 Series vehicles as limited production prototypes. BMW used liquified hydrogen, which requires different equipment at a hydrogen refueling station. While the effort to liquefy is greater, there’s more energy stored in a smaller package (that still takes up more than a third of the big sedan’s trunk). Liquid hydrogen also boils away over a couple weeks if it’s just garaged. But BMW burns the hydrogen in an engine that also burns gasoline, so just like a plug-in hybrid that doesn’t strand you when the battery charge runs down, this one is suitable as a long-distance tourer.

Safer than you think

The Hyundai production start-up preceded by just a couple weeks the (possibly) final word on what brought down the Hindenburg in 1937: a jolt of static electricity when the tethering lines grounded themselves to the earth in Lakehurst, NJ. Despite the jokes, a hydrogen-powered vehicle may be safer than a gas-engine car. The fuel is in incredibly well-armored tanks. If they overheat, the hydrogen is vented directly to the atmosphere and shoots up, while gasoline pools on the ground.

Read More

Latest Mechanical Engineering Updates

Two-legged robots learn to walk like a human:

Details -- Teaching two-legged robots a stable, robust "human" way of walking – this is the goal of the international research project "KoroiBot" with scientists from seven institutions from Germany, France, Israel, Italy and the Netherlands. The experts from the areas of robotics, mathematics and cognitive sciences want to study human locomotion as exactly as possible and transfer this onto technical equipment with the assistance of new mathematical processes and algorithms. The European Union is financing the three-year research project that started in October 2013 with approx. EUR 4.16 million. The scientific coordinator is Prof. Dr. Katja Mombaur from Heidelberg University.

Whether as rescuers in disaster areas, household helps or as "colleagues" in modern work environments: there are numerous possible areas of deployment for humanoid robots in the future. "One of the major challenges on the way is to enable robots to move on two legs in different situations, without an accident – in spite of unknown terrain and also with possible disturbances," explains Prof. Mombaur, who heads the working group "Optimisation in Robotics and Biomechanics" at Heidelberg University's Interdisciplinary Center for Scientific Computing (IWR). In the KoroiBot project the researchers will study the way humans walk e.g. on stairs and slopes, on soft and slippery ground or over beams and seesaws, and create mathematical models. Besides developing new optimisation and learning processes for walking on two legs, they aim to implement this in practice with existing robots. In addition, the research results are to flow into planning new design principles for the next generation of robots.

Besides Prof. Mombaur's group, the working group "Simulation and Optimisation" is also involved in the project at the IWR. The Heidelberg scientists will investigate the way movement of humans and robots can be turned into mathematical models. Furthermore, the teams want to create optimised walking movements for different demands and develop new model-based control algorithms. Just under EUR 900,000 of the European Union funding is being channelled to Heidelberg.

Source -- Phys Org.

Read More

Driverless Cars

INVENTIONS OF DRIVER-LESS CARS

Driving is how you get things done yet it also stops you from getting even more things done. If only the act of driving were a thing of the past and you could become a passenger, get out your work, and let the vehicle be a real-life Jeeves. Well, a few companies are getting us closer to that futuristic feeling, though there's still a long way to go.

Here are some news from big players in driverless cars industry.

1-- Toyota's Test:

John Hanson, national manager for environmental, safety, and quality communications for Toyota, says it's gone this far because of the current state of the art in sensors and processing. "There are three basic aspects to how it works," he says. "It's the vehicle's ability to perceive its environment—actually see what's going on. The second part is it can process what it's "looking at." It's one thing to see it, another to understand it. The third part is the response. After it perceives its surroundings, can it respond, and do it quicker and with more precision than the driver?"

But Hanson says the autonomous ability wasn't created to lose the driver but to gain safety. "It's not so much an end game but was specifically a research project to use to further explore an integrated or layered approach to safety. What we showed in Vegas (at the Consumer Electronics Show) was a pre crash collision system. Our current pre-crash automotive technologies have been around for 10 years and have been evolving." Hanson feels the greatest barrier may actually be acceptance, not technological challenge. "Look at how hard it was for people to accept the functionality of a car that parallel parks," he says. "Many people identify themselves with driving. To give that up? Not as easy as you would think."

2-- Google and Audi:

Of course, Google is also in the game. In the first 300,000 miles, the Internet search leader reported that it hadn't had a single accident. With cameras and computers, it's become the eyes of the driver—but it also got the attention of the eyes of Californians, becoming legalized within the Golden State. Google has driverless cars as earmarked to be available within five years.

Audi is a player in the market as well, utilizing radar and LIDAR (light, detection and ranging). It boasts of an app that has the car show up in front of your house…or you can get out at the mall and have it go park itself. It also isn't afraid of heights as it was able to find its way to the top of Pike's Peak. 

Not satisfied, Audi is presently working on a car that actually can make traffic a selling point. While the vehicle is crawling along in gridlock, you can do anything you choose. Of course, it's easy to see the positive—until you ask the driver of that yellow cab you're flagging down. With so many in the driving and delivery industries, there could be countless jobs potentially lost. Even the valet is in trouble. And, for every fare from out of town who enjoyed the conversation of someone who knew the area, the feeling of isolation may be amplified just a little bit more. But change appears to be coming, even if it feels like it's crawling through traffic at the moment.

Read More

Emerging Trends in Automotive Engineering

Not too many people know automotive trends the way the staff does at The Ohio State University's Center for Automotive Research (OSU CAR). This interdisciplinary research center at OSU's College of Engineering focuses on advanced electric propulsion and energy storage systems, engines and alternative fuels, intelligent transportation and vehicular communication systems, autonomous vehicles, vehicle chassis systems, and vehicle safety.

"One of the biggest trends right now in automotive engineering is improving engine efficiency and fuel economy," says Giorgio Rizzoni, director of OSU CAR . "This includes downsizing, down-speeding, direct fuel injection, and boosting."

Other engineering trends focus on improving transmissions (adding speeds), accessory load reduction through the intelligent energy management of other vehicle components, vehicle electrification, hybridization, improved battery management systems, new battery chemistries, and power electronics. "Weight reduction in vehicle subsystems is also being tested by using lightweight structures made from alternative materials such as aluminum, magnesium, composites, plastics, and multi-material construction," adds Rizzoni. 

1--Battery Systems:

Battery management systems are being designed to meet performance, life, and warranty goals for both batteries and their monitoring and management systems. "Automakers need to fully understand how varying operational limits affect the life of battery systems through extensive testing and modeling, followed by developing sophisticated algorithms to track and predict various parameters, such as state of charge and state of health through the life of the battery," comments Rizzoni. In order to expand battery operating range and reduce costs, some researchers are designing and testing new battery chemistries and subsystems. Advanced chemistries could allow batteries to operate through greater temperature extremes, last longer, and reduce weight and cost. Other efforts are being made to reduce the cost of the ancillary systems, such as cooling, to further reduce the total cost of the battery system.

2--Downsizing and Turbocharging:

The two main benefits in downsizing an internal combustion engine are thermodynamic and mechanical. "From a thermodynamic point of view, the engine operation will move towards higher loads, at which the engine efficiency is higher," says Rizzoni. "From the mechanical point of view, the positive aspect lies in the reduction of the friction in the piston units, together with the reduction of the number of cylinders."

Downsized engines are lighter than conventional engines, thereby reducing vehicle mass and the improving vehicle fuel consumption. Turbocharging recovers the energy of the exhaust gasses to increase the inducted charge, therefore increasing the power-to displacement ratio. "A downsized and turbocharged engine has the potential to have the same or better performance as a non-downsized, normally aspirated engine, with the advantage of a significant increase of fuel efficiency," says Rizzoni.

3--Advanced Combustion Modes:

Engineers are working to increase the efficiency of internal combustion engines by developing several advanced combustion modes. One of these modes is called (homogeneous charge compression ignition) HCCI. In the HCCI combustion, a highly homogenized mixture of air, fuel, and combustion products from the previous cycle is auto-ignited by compression. "This combustion mode aims at combining the advantages of modern diesel and gasoline combustion processes, namely low emissions and high efficiency," states Rizzoni. Another research trend targets ways to recover the energy that is normally dissipated through the coolant and the exhaust gas systems of automotive powertrains using innovative waste heat recovery devices. These systems can convert thermal energy into mechanical or electrical energy, thus increasing the overall efficiency of the vehicle. Organic Rankine cycle, thermoelectric systems, turbocompounding, and recuperative thermal management systems all have potential for significantly increase engine efficiencies. A smaller but still significant aspect of fuel-efficiency research is called "intelligent energy management." "This ability to more intelligently control the accessory loads in a vehicle—such as the alternator or power steering, etc.—will also contribute to better gas mileage," says Rizzoni.

"With smarter control of these loads and the addition of stop-start technology there can be significant increases in fuel economy, with small or no increase in total vehicle cost."

Read More