Technologies for Automotive Testing

Author: Karl-Hermann Breyer – HORIBA has several decades of experience in providing solutions for automotive test systems. We have focused on testing components of the vehicle powertrain including the engine, transmission, clutch, torque converter, axles or brakes up to the complete vehicle. In all cases the missing parts of the vehicle and its environment is replaced by a system able to reproduce the load the specimen would see in the real car. These systems consist of actuators, sensors, controller and simulation and automation software.

Author: Shigeru Tominaga – Engine testing involves measurement of rotating speed and torque of the engine by applying load controlled by a dynamometer connected to its output shaft. HORIBA has developed various types of dynamometer for the purpose of engine testing. They are mainly classifi ed into two types; one is absorbing only dynamometer such as hydraulic dynamometers and eddy-current dynamometers, the other is absorbing and driving machines such as AC, and DC dynamometers and oil hydraulic dynamometers. HORIBA's DYNAS3 dynamometers, based on AC synchronous and asynchronous motor technology, is the latest model range and has grown into one of the world's leading engine test dynamometer series. HORIBA's solutions for engine testing cover a wide range of applications such as the standard TITAN engine test bench systems, containerized test system, tilt & turn rigs, turbine engine test bench as well as their component parts such as dynamometers, the STARS test automation system and the SPARC real-time digital controller.

Author: George Gillespie – The rapid increase in development activities on hybrid powertrains is creating unique challenges for the management of powertrain development facilities and the test equipment suppliers to these facilities. In this article, the integration of the powertrain engineering design phase, the control and electric power management activities and the test facility, and vehicle based powertrain development phases including the use of hardwarein- the-loop (HIL) is reviewed. The specifi c powertrain features of both current and future hybrid powertrains are reviewed and the subsequent test equipment and test process requirements are translated down to specific equipment and operational solutions.

Author: Dieter Weiss – For quality assurance and technical refinement of brakes, which are of course highly important for vehicle safety, the brake R&D engineering community makes extensive use of a variety of dedicated brake test systems. For example, a friction tester can evaluate wear-behaviour and friction coefficient of materials and is utilized for managing the production quality of such materials. An inertia type brake dynamometer is the defacto test machine used for doing fundamental R&D work on friction material and brake assemblies. A brake NVH dynamometer is a helpful tool for testing the noise, vibration and harshness (NVH) generated by brakes. For the inertia type brake NVH dynamometer, complete brake assemblies along with relevant suspension system and complete axle structure are subject to NVH measurements. On the chassis type brake NVH dynamometer, the complete vehicle in its original condition is used as the test specimen.

Author: Martin Hermann – The 48" center mounted chassis dynamometers are the most common type and are typically used for emission testing and mileage accumulation. They are equipped with rollers and a motor, which is positioned between the rollers. Inline versions with the motor located inline with the rollers are mainly used for NVH testing. The basic chassis dynamometer facility includes roller set, power and control cabinets, an operating PC, a handheld remote unit, a blower, and safety covers and grids. In addition, the mileage accumulation extension consists of an automation system, an autopilot and interface unit for connections between automation system to the autopilot as well as to some required vehicle signals, like engine speed, temperature signals or ignition. The HORIBA 48" chassis dynamometer is capable of achieving averaged accumulated distances of up to 500,000 km per year.

Author: Hans Vogt – In vehicle development steps, optimization of aerodynamic properties is often carried out in wind tunnel facilities. The vehicle is placed upon the measuring platform of the balance. The wind tunnel balance now allows the precise measurement of six forces and moments induced by the air fl ow. The HORIBA wind tunnel balance system can be equipped with a moving ground system which makes the air flow at the underside and around the wheels much more realistic. This moving ground system is built up of a central moving belt unit which is running at wind speed between the wheels and of four wheel spinning units which are rotating the wheels with wind speed. In this case the four wheel spinning units are also part of the force measuring system of the balance. Maximum speeds of up to 250 km/h are possible.

Author: Jürgen Pitz – To be able to offer to our customers superior and intelligent control of rotational or linear motion machinery especially for dynamometer systems, HORIBA has developed the SPARC controller platform. This platform includes dedicated and optimized hardware and software which incorporates more than 20 years of experience in control technologies. Based on this platform HORIBA is offering a variety of control and simulation packages for engine, driveline, vehicle and brake testing. The extension of the SPARC controller platform with the STARS automation platform technology creates modern, intelligent and user friendly controller products.

Author: James Fowler – The STARS test automation platform has been developed by SRH Systems Ltd, the joint venture by HORIBA and Ricardo, to provide the base upon which a harmonized family of global automation systems and tools may be built. A service based architecture which is highly scalable was adopted in STARS. Whilst the underlying services and database structure are common to all applications and tools, each can superimpose its own user interface and application functionality. All STARS workstation systems can be connected to a STARS cluster server for on-line sharing of confi guration and results data. A STARS application suite, where the added value of STARS is expected to be delivered, provides an integrated package of test functionality. By means of the application suites, customers can acquire and immediately apply advanced applications know-how.

Author: Bruno Thelen – The diversity and incompatibility of heterogeneous data archives within automotive product development was one of the driving forces that led to the foundation of the Association for Standardization of Automation and Measuring systems (ASAM). For the last 18 years ASAM has developed standards for the domain of automotive powertrain product testing. The standard for archiving test result data is based on a metadata model with assigned semantics to its structure elements. Generic clients are able to browse through customer specific data structures and retrieve the data for post-processing.

Author: Hiroshi Kawamura – The progress in HORIBA's emissions measurement systems has been closely connected to trends in vehicle development. Innovations in automotive technology, stemming from emission regulations and implementation of computer control systems, have especially had great influence on analytical technologies. With the advent of emission regulations, HORIBA developed its first automotive emission analyzer, MEXA-1 and constant volume sampler (CVS), in 1964. Ever since, HORIBA has constantly enhanced its devices to accommodate the most recent requirements, such as increased precision to match stricter emission regulations and advanced automation for improved effi ciency of increasingly complex testing. The current model, MEXA-7000 Version 3, built on over forty years of emission analyzer development enables emission analysis of the latest Super Ultra Low Emission Vehicles (SULEV).

Author: Takeshi Kusaka; Ichiro Asano; Montajir Rahman – The MEXA-1000SPCS measures number concentration of solid particles in engine exhaust gas within a specified particle size range in real-time. The system conforms to the UN/ECE particle concentration measurement standard (Regulation No.83, Rev.3, Amend.2), and consists of a pre-classifier, a volatile particle remover [primary diluter (PND1), a secondary diluter (PND2) and an evaporation tube] and a detector [condensation particle counter (CPC)]. The MEXA-1000SPCS uses two wide range continuous diluters that ensure conditioning of exhaust gas to produce stable solid soot particles by removing the volatile fraction from exhaust. The system takes sample from dilution tunnel however, it is possible to collect sample from engine exhaust manifold with an additional pre-dilution unit.

Author: Masayoshi Shinohara; Tomoshi Yoshimura – Particulate matter (PM) emitted from engines is currently measured by the filter weight method. The filter weight method passes diluted emission gases through a fi lter collecting the PM, and post test weighs the mass of the collected PM on a precision balance. However, this method is time consuming, and with decreasing PM emission volumes, improvements in accuracy were needed. So the MEXA-1370PM was developed, to measure soluble organic fraction (SOF), soot, sulfate and total PM by vaporizing, thermally decomposing and gasifying (through redox reaction) the PM collected on a filter. The MEXA-1370PM allows easy measurement of collected PM mass, and shows good correlation with the PM weighing results of the precision balance. On the other hand, regarding the separation performance of SOF and soot, dispersion of the detection ratio increased for PM volume of 0.5 mg and under. To prevent the main cause, the mixing of O2 during SOF measurement, the device composition and criteria were improved; SOF and soot were accurately separated up to 0.2 mg.

Author: Shinichi Murakami – The MEXA-1170SX is a continuous gas analyzer for sulfur compounds existing in engine emissions. It can measure SO2 concentration and the amount of total reduced sulfur compounds (TRS), such as H2S, separately. It can also measure the total sulfur compounds (TS) that contains both gaseous compounds and liquid compounds in PM, such as SO3. By utilizing ultra-violet fluorescence (UVF) method and various original analysis techniques such as ozone injection, the MEXA-1170SX achieves reliable measurements with low interference from other co-existing compounds.

Author: Ray Kaminsky; Stephen M. Cohen – HORIBA Jobin Yvon manufactures a large range of fluorescence spectrofluorometers, including benchtop models that make steady-state measurement to advance modular systems that can also measure fluorescence anisotropies and lifetimes of your samples.

Author: Adam Gilmore; Stephen M. Cohen – Increased interest in research and applications of nanoparticles requires rapid qualitative and quantitative analysis of nanoparticle samples. The development of the NanoLog™ spectrofluorometer and associated Nanosizer™ software takes advantage of nanoparticles’ fluorescence in the near-IR, and allows researchers to rapidly and accurately assess the composition and properties of samples of single-wall carbon nanotubes and quantum dots.

Author: Lin Chandler; Stephen M. Cohen – The FluoroMax™-4, alone or when equipped with optional automated polarizers, phosphorimeter, and timecorrelated single-photon counting accessory, can illuminate biochemical research into gene-expression using molecular beacons, Förster resonance energy-transfer between biomolecules, and anisotropy studies within biochemical environments.