Internal combustion engines currently power an overwhelming majority of automotive vehicles, i.e., more than 95% passenger cars and virtually all commercial trucks worldwide. The proper performances of oxygen sensors are essential for precise control of air-fuel ratio to optimize engine combustion efficiency and emission performances. This project will characterize the impacts of physical and chemical exhaust gas conditions on the O2 sensor performance to improve the O2-sensor for guiding partner's application in the production engine including other NOx sensor and H2 sensing feasibilities.

To address the global concerns regarding climate changes and increase of earth temperature, carbon dioxide emission has to be removed/reduced. A major source of Co2 emission is transportation vehicles, which account for close to 30% of Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions. An active method to reduce this significant contribution to global warming is electrification of transportation vehicles. Battery operated vehicles are the cornerstone of automotive electrification. To improve the efficiency and safety of these batteries, structural durability of them must be maintained.

The hydraulic circuit, including pumps and bearings, has important application in automotive industry. The hydraulic circuits inside the engine block are often affected by the cavitation phenomenon. Cavitation can cause pressure fluctuation inside the fluid circuit and considerably affect the engine workability, durability, and efficiency. This proposal will address the cavitation by modeling the oil flow in vane pumps and bearings and analyze the cavitation using 3D CFD software PumpLinx? (by Simerics Inc.) and 1D GT Suite.

The post-doctoral fellow will first develop novel approaches for the unsteady flow design environment. The use of real-world automotive geometries will allow the post-doctoral fellow to gain valuable insights of the challenges in this field, a firmer grasp of the transient flow over automotive vehicles in real-world flow conditions and the use of commercial-industrial level numerical tools. In addition, the post-doctoral fellow will work closely with professional engineers from FCA and understand the intricacies and challenges associated with automotive vehicles.

As an additive manufacturing (AM) technique, the laser powder-bed fusion (L-PBF) process produces metal objects layer-by-layer using a laser source. This project aims at increasing and improving the implementation of additive manufacturing (AM) technology in the automotive industry for producing lightweight heat exchangers. The proposed research is focused on developing technologies for designing automotive components with the aid of integrating topology optimization into the design process while exploiting the capabilities of metal additive manufacturing.

Semi-active suspension systems (SASSs) are becoming more prevalent in passenger vehicles on the road. These systems have been demonstrated to improve ride and handling performance of passenger vehicles. This project will provide a means to subjectively evaluate the performance of SASSs using a dynamic driving simulator. A controller model of a SASS will be created to predict the ride and handling of an FCA vehicle. The controller model will be connected to a full vehicle model and simulated in a real-time environment.

Adaptive driving beam (ADB) is an advance vehicle forward lighting system that automatically adapts its beam patterns to create a non-glare zone around oncoming and preceding vehicles. The purpose of ADB system is to produce good long-range visibility for driver without causing discomfort glare to other road users. The non-glare zone of current ADB system is solely based of the width of oncoming or preceding vehicle that are detected by camera. However, the optimal width of ADB non-glare zone should be different for different driving scenario.