Progress in Engineering Technology IV

It is well-known that automobile brakes generate several kinds of noises such as the squeal, groan, chatter, judder, moan, hum, and squeak. Squeal is the most prevalent, annoying, and can be reduced by variations in geometry, such as coefficient of friction and stiffness of a material. The brake squeal generally occurs in the range of 1–16 kHz. Furthermore, the development of methods to predict noise occurrence during the design of a brake system has been the target of many researchers in recent years. In order to withstand these vibrations and have a smooth ride, automotive engineers face the challenge of designing mechanisms. The design of the brake disc rotor is built in the CAD SolidWorks and was analyzed and simulated by using the finite element analyses.

In this research, the effect of electrical discharge machining (EDM) parameters such as pulse-on time (Ton), pulse-off time (Toff), voltage, (V), and current (I) on the material removal rate (MRR) in 304 stainless steel was studied. The experiments are carried out as per design of experiments approach using the L9 orthogonal array. From this study, it is found that different combinations of EDM process parameters are required to achieved higher MRR for 304. The contribution of each cutting parameters towards the MRR is also identified. The results from this study will be useful for manufacturing engineers to select appropriate EDM process parameters to machine stainless steel 304.

The key success of an electric vehicle (EV) traction converter/inverter lies in the efficiency of its controller. In some complex systems such as an electric vehicle inverter/converter, the controller requires more than a single controller working together. The overall efficiency of such a controller much depends on its architecture and control strategy. This includes controller data distribution and communication between controllers. This paper describes a proposed four quadrants DC chopper (FQDC) controller architecture and a control strategy for controlling several modes of operation for EV applications. MATLAB/Simulink is used to establish the system under study and the results indicate that the proposed technique can be used.

The heat generated during the welding process tends not to be evenly distributed between the weld metal, base metal, and heat affected zone and produces residual stresses. To obtain the desired result from the welding process it needs to be subjected to a heat treatment for removing residual stress through pre-weld and post-weld heat-treatment procedures. This research aims to determine the effect of the pre-weld heat-treatment process on the results of the FCAW welding of a 100-ton truck crack frame with temperature variations between 120 and 150 °C with a hold time of 15–30 min which is heated at the and cooled in free air. The combination of temperature and time that can optimize the welding quality in regard to crack failure of the truck frame is 100 °C temperature and 15 min. Temperature factor has an effect of 54.4% and the time. The time factor has an impact of 24.2%. The temperature interaction factor and time have an impact of 0.004% on pre-weld heating. The prediction of the meant time between stoppage (MTBS) of the truck from pre-weld heating on truck frame cracking failure if the optimal design is used, i.e., 100 °C preheat for 15 min is 603 days. The type of research conducted is an experimental investigation.

Real-world functional electrical stimulation (FES) encounters nonlinear effects of fatigue and time delay that cause the FES controller to under-perform or sometimes fail. Nonlinearities cause the system to change, but it is not possible to re-tune the controller once its parameters are set. System representation using an observer can allow the patient’s knee extension to be represented in a numerical computation algorithm and can exist, run, or be executed in an embedded system. This enables the closed-loop controller to be tuned to the system being imitated. The second-order black box model can be matched to the Veltink model to represent the knee extension in which the model is transformed into a linear differential equation, and then into a physical-based model. The numerical computation using Taylor series is then used to convert the physics-based model using a computational algorithm that represents the knee extension system in a discrete-time linear system. Prior to the conversion of the numerical model, certain parameters need to be extracted from the actual system response of the patient knee angle trajectory upon receiving an open-loop signal from FES. This paper focuses on the control algorithm technique for extracting the second-order black box model parameters matched the actual knee extension system response. MATLAB/Simulink is used to test the parameter extraction algorithms. The results indicate that the extraction algorithms succeeded in extracting the actual system parameters that are similar to the ones obtained by extracting the parameters representing the knee extension model.

A mechanic’s creeper is synonym in automotive industry especially during maintenance or repair of a vehicle. A topside creeper is the easiest way and more ergonomic to carry on with repair or service work without feeling tired or injuring the body. The application of mechanic’s creepers is also expected to increase the quality of service. Currently, the price of creepers is expensive, and the current structure has several problems due to its heavy weight material (heavy-duty steel frame). Furthermore, it is difficult to handle the creeper (assembly and dissemble after usage), and it is hard to store the creeper. Some of products have had many different sizes, heights, weight and are less ergonomic in terms of the design for Asian’s mechanics, especially in Malaysia. In this paper, the design and analysis of an ergonomic and adjustable height of topside mechanic’s creeper structure was carried out using the SOLIDWORKS 2016 software. The 70, 100, and 130 kg of load were used by referring to some typical weights of Asian’s mechanics. Two types of aluminum (Al) profiles were used (40 mm × 40 mm and 60 mm × 60 mm). The larger Al diameters of mechanic’s creeper structure indicates ~60% higher strength and a ~55% lower strain compared to the small Al profile diameters. Therefore, the design of the mechanic’s creeper structure is expected to be the less expensive and more convenient for automotive mechanics in maintenance and/or repair works.

The cogeneration concept can be applied to various heat producing generating systems, one of the popular choices is the burner. The popular way in which heat energy can be converted into electrical energy is by adopting thermoelectric (TE) cells. TE cells can perform better if a porous media burner can be involved instead of conventional burners. The present work took butane as source of fuel, and the equivalence ratio was varied to the best possible extend. The range to get a stable flame was found from 0.16 lpm to 0.25 lpm. The unit to measure the flow rate of both butane and air was kept at lpm (liter per minute). The burner was more of portable in nature, and the maximum amount of power it can produce was upto 0.5 W. In addition, coating of the porous media was on the factors which was used to enhance the conversion efficiency by 0.45%, while thermal efficiency was noted about 57%. With this data it was made acceptable that coating can be a good way to improve the burner performance.

Traffic-related trauma is the most common cause of fatality and severe injury to children in developed countries. Injury epidemiology has shown that special attention is needed for the 3-year-olds in boosters and the 12-year-olds in seat belts only. The aim of this paper is to study the frontal and side-impact models and to use them to investigate and define the beneficial characteristics of restraint systems and other crash-related car parameters. Qualitative approaches using two load cases were analyzed and validated via video. The validations from the frontal impact type and near-side impact showed that the child had high potential to mitigate injuries resulting from a frontal impact. The upper belt anchor point should be positioned so that the belt is routed near the mid-shoulder (slightly toward the neck) and encloses the shoulder (tight fit). These findings are significant contributions to the continuous work of mitigating traffic accident induced injuries and fatalities to children.

This paper discusses an analytical modelling for a slotless surface-mounted permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) at airgap region using the sub-domain method. The slotless PMSM has no cogging effect compared to a slotted PMSM. The radial magnetization of the magnetic flux is applied in the motor design with 6-slot/4-pole configuration. The analytical model of magnetic flux density distributions shows a good agreement with the numerical results from finite element analysis.

Conventional vehicles emit carbon monoxide and nitro oxide during the engine combustion. These two gases are two major contributors toward pollution to the environment. Electric vehicles (EVs) and hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) offer an alternative solution to the above mentioned scenarios. However the prices of AC drive EVs and HEVs vehicle are unaffordable to people in some developed countries and of course to people in developing and third world countries. DC drives which consists of DC motor and DC converter or chopper offer good controllability and cheaper in price. Nevertheless, AC drives claim AC drive claims for less maintenance and good motor performance. The research aim is to compare the performance of AC drives EVs powered by PMSM AC motors, DC Drive EVs with series motors and DC drive EVs with separately excited DC motors.

An educational experimental test rig was designed to evaluate the performance of an automotive radiator. The effect of liquid coolants and frontal air velocity on the radiator performance based on the overall heat transfer coefficient were investigated by using the test rig. The experimental setup consisted of a real engine and an educational test rig. A set of experiments was conducted with three different coolants while parameters including inlet and outlet temperatures were recorded at constant flow rate. In order to study the effect of frontal air velocity, the engine was taken to be in motion by giving an external air flow to the radiator. An air tunnel was designed to be mounted at the frontal area of the radiator. In this experiment, the temperature of the radiator was also measured at different engine speeds and frontal air velocities. Analysis of engine cooling parameters such as flow rate, inlet, and outlet temperature, surrounding and radiator temperature, surface area, and rate of heat dissipation was performed using the log mean temperature different (LMTD) method and finally the overall heat transfer coefficient (OHTC) was determined. The results showed that the radiator performance for both real engine and educational test rig increased when a coolant is used. In addition, increasing the speed of fan at the frontal area improved the heat dissipation of the radiator.

This paper presents the magnetic field distribution for a single coil pulsed linear accelerator. The design of the pulsed linear accelerator is implemented using a coil and capacitor bank. A Hall-effect sensor is applied to measure the magnetic field inside the coil. Basically, this project focuses on the magnetic field distribution for different Hall-effect positions inside the coil with different settings of capacitor banks. The capacitor bank is operated as a pulse current generator for the coil. The result obtained is compared for different magnetic field distributions with different Hall-effect positions inside the coil. The result is tabulated and analyzed using a graphical method. The purposes of the research are to analyze the magnetic field distribution for a single coil pulsed linear accelerator using a Hall-effect sensor and to obtain the highest magnetic field for a specific Hall-effect sensor position inside the coil. The result showing that the 200 V, 1120 uF capacitor bank with Hall-effect sensor position of 7 mm and magnetic field of 12.2 mT.

Real-world function electrical stimulation (FES) encounters nonlinear effects of fatigue and time delay that cause the FES controller to underperform and sometimes fail. Nonlinearities degrade the muscle performance and change the system, but the FES controller cannot be re-tuned once its parameters are set. System representation using an observer enables the patient’s knee extension to be represented in a numerical computation algorithm and can be run or executed in an embedded system. This allows tuning of the closed-loop controller to be made to the imitated system. The formation of an observer requires parameters to be collected through feature extraction process. The transformation of these collected parameters to suitable parameters for the observer formation can be eased with the establishment of a control law made of equations and rules and finally represented in a look-up table. This paper investigates the feasibility of using the second-order system response to formulate controller setting and observer formation. MATLAB/Simulink software is used to study, and the simulation results are used to establish the formulation of the system for an observer formation representing the knee extension model.

Electric discharge machining wire-cut is an accurate and cost-effective manufacturing route in numerous applications. Taguchi method was used for the analysis of the effect of EDM wire-cut process parameters on material removal rate, surface roughness and machining time of magnesium alloys. Different parameters like pulse off time, pulse on time, current and voltage are used to optimize the material removal rate, surface roughness and machining time by Minitab 19. Taguchi orthogonal array L9 is used for optimizing three different parameters so that maximum material removal rate and minimum surface roughness and machining time is obtained.

The turbocharged system is one of the essential components that works in the engine system. It uses exhaust gas to control a turbine. This spins an air compressor that pushes in the cylinders with extra air (and oxygen), allowing them to burn more fuel every second. The intake air system for a motorcycle turbocharger must be correctly configured to minimize the output losses caused by the runner manifold with the regulated air exhaust turbine rule regulation. The paper presents the analysis of the runner manifold configuration parameter design against the engine output and then enhances the traditional runner manifold performance. This research begins with the development of the runner manifold design and modelling, and the runner manifold will use air flow simulation software to be used for simulation purposes. The parametric analysis was carried out to study the effect of the runner manifold parameter design on the engine output after designing the reference engine model. The optimization process was then carried out to achieve the goal of progress that had already been set before the optimization was carried out. The findings show an improvement in speed and pressure of up to 65.20 and 88.09% at the optimal operating range of engine speed.

Parallel mode operation is one of the modes of operation offered by New series motor four quadrants DC chopper for Electric Vehicles (EV). This paper is to study about the parallel mode and the focus is to reduce ripple current and ripple torque. Matlab/Simulink software is used to establish the system under study and the simulation results indicate that the proposed technique can be used to reduce the ripple current and ripple torque during parallel mode.

The engine block is one of the important components in a motorcycle. It plays an important role in ensuring that the motorcycle works properly. The surface roughness of the engine cylinder affects the engine efficiency. Therefore, researchers underwent experiments to find out the goodness of the surface for the engine block. Through the surface roughness test machine and cutting using a CNC milling machine, it shows that the cutting speed and speed rate affect the surface roughness results. Response surface methodology (RSM) and Minitab methods are used to obtain statistical analysis data in completing this project.

This experiment to identify the contamination control with hydraulic oil used a 250 ton Hitachi hydraulic excavator, which is commonly used in coal mining operations. The aim is to analyze the effectiveness of an off-board filtering system to reduce the particles contaminant PC06 and PC14 in hydraulic oil. The experiment shows the additional flushing activity to clean the hydraulic oil using an off-board. The tool could reduce the particle contaminants in hydraulic oil compared to the normal operating condition. The hydraulic oil is generally filtered by a hydraulic system filter compartment attached to the system itself (on-board at the machine). The signal to noise ratio (SNR) value of the filter factor reaches an optimum when using the off-board with a 4 × 10 µm filter compared to the standard filtering by machine operation. At the time factor, it comes optimal at level 1 (Time 1000) so that the combination of filter and time can optimize the critical parameters PC06, PC14, and V100 in hydraulic oil.

This paper focuses on developing the hardware for a controller and of a zero crossing circuit for an electric car battery charger. A novel topology of a battery charger is studied and tested. A conventional rectifier has drawbacks in terms of harmonic currents. This paper describes a five-level single-phase rectifier associated with buck chopper with a control signal which draws a clean sinusoidal line current for the application in a plug-in battery charger. The MATLAB/Simulink results reveal that the proposed battery charger performance is better compared to the conventional method.

This project entitled topology optimization of an engine mounting bracket using the finite elements method focusing on an issue for engine mounting problem. The main objective for this project is to improve the performance of mounting bracket in term of vibration and design by using finite elements analysis (FEA) and topology method. The second objective is to develop 3D model of engine mounting backet. Finally, is to choose the best design of engine mounting with to have less of stress and magnitude. The purpose of an engine mounting bracket is to safely support the power-train system in all conditions. An engine mounting bracket is to properly balance the power pack (engine and transmission) on the vehicle chassis for good motion control as well as good isolation. A significant aspect of automotive research has always been to reduce the engine vibration and the dynamic forces transmitted from the engine to the body structure. In order to withstand these vibrations and have a smooth ride, automotive engineers face the challenge of designing mechanisms. The design of engine mounting bracket is built in SolidWorks and was analyzed and simulated by using FEA.

Nowadays, electric consumption especially in Malaysia has increased over the years caused by the usage of air conditioning (AC). Conventional AC remote devices are unable to monitor the actual comfort index of the building and the power consumption that has been used of the system by using Android mobile applications. Knowing the actual comfort index and power consumption is necessary for the user to come up with strategies to use the AC system economically. Besides, conventional AC remote devices do not have temperature and humidity sensors that can monitor the comfort index and power consumption. Users do not know the actual comfort level and power consumption, thus causing discomfort and maybe waste of energy. To overcome these problems, an air conditioning system comfort level and power consumption monitoring device with RF-based wireless sensor modules and Android mobile application were produced. Indoor air quality (IAQ) and predicted mean vote (PMV) are the types of comfort index that have been used to measure the comfort level. In this project, the methods used for completing the project of monitoring the air conditioning system by using the predicted mean vote (PMV) algorithm. PMV has six parameters, which are the air temperature, mean radiant temperature, clothing insulation, metabolism rate, relative air velocity and relative air humidity. This monitoring system can monitor various variables at the same time such as the indoor temperature, outdoor temperature, relative temperature, relative humidity, PMV and power consumption. With a monitoring system, the energy consumption can be minimized while retaining the comfort level. In this project, a monitor box, wireless humidity sensor box and wireless temperature sensor box were produced. This research elaborates on the entire process of hardware design. It also discusses the software developed for monitoring parameters such as the power consumption using a mobile phone. The AC system can be better monitored and controlled with the developed tool in this project.

Burners have a very vital role in both industrial as well as domestic sector, hence involvement of porous media within them makes there features very efficient and eco-friendly. Most of the conventional porous media burners (PMB) require auxiliary equipment to supply sufficient air in order to assure complete combustion. Though the PMB offer high efficiency, the equipment such as air compressor consumes extra energy that causes the impracticality for domestic use. The self-aspirating technique works by promoting air into the burner system by using the momentum of the fuel jet normally by the fuel nozzle in the burner. In this work, comparative assessment between a self-aspirating and an air-induced PMB has been done. The self-aspirated PMB is capable of producing a flame temperature up to 540 °C while the air-induced PMB maximum flame temperature is 634 °C for uncoated PM and 750 °C for SiC-coated PM. Surface temperatures of the PMB were visualized by a thermal imager which clearly distinguished the flame pattern and concentration between the self-aspirated and air-induced PMB.

In this paper, the existing lower control arm structural analysis and performance were investigated and analyzed by the implementation of reversed engineering method used in designing the three-dimensional model referring to the actual part. The initial design is modeled by using SolidWorks 2016 software and validated by using modal analysis method in Abaqus CAE. The natural frequencies can be compared with the load impact testing experiment to the actual part physically to determine the percentage deviation. After the model was validated, Abaqus CAE software used to analyze the structural strength-ability in a static condition. The result will be the main reference in creating the new design concept of the ASHIMORI lower control arm as the Abaqus CAE will be used for the finite element analysis process. The target safety factor of the all-new design must be lower than the actual concept which is defined between the different design and material. The main factor will be determined by using Analysis of Variances (ANOVA) method and the final design will be compared with the actual part focusing on the maximum stress value, performance and structural analysis in a static state.

Project management is the act of planning, organizing, motivating and controlling resources of time and cost to achieve specific goals known as the scope of the project. Earned value management (EVM) or earned value project/performance management (EVPM) is a project management technique that measures project progress and performance in an objective manner and provides an accurate forecast of any project performance problem. To practically demonstrate the effectiveness of EVM on manufacturing, a survey is created. The aim of this work is to show how effective EVM can be applied to the Malaysian manufacturing sector. The model is a more abstract way of schematizing a method, thus this approach may be extended to solve similar problems in other fields. The theory is a formalized model that is both generalizable and predictive and can thus be used prescriptively to other industries.