KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Recent Advances in Modeling and Simulations with Application to Automotive Systems

Prof. Nabil Chalhoub
Wayne State University, USA

Abstract

The dynamics of the crankshaft/connecting-rod/piston-assembly have a direct effect on the performance of internal combustion (IC) engines. They can significantly influence the fuel efficiency through frictional losses, thermal efficiency through blow-by, oil consumption through proper sealing, engine durability through wear, and noise through piston-slap. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop a reliable tool capable of providing insights into the complex and interactive dynamic behavior of the crank-slider mechanism under realistic engine operating conditions. Such a tool for a multi-body dynamic system has to have a variable-structure in order to accommodate the varying number of degrees of freedom of the system. It should also be able to capture the coupled rigid and flexible motions of the system. Impact formulation between rigid bodies has to be employed in order to capture the collision that may occur upon contact between the various interacting components. Different constraint equations are needed to account for the ring/liner, ring/piston, and piston/liner interactions. Moreover, the solid fluid interaction between the piston-assembly and the lubricating oil film is commonly formulated by applying the finite difference and finite volume methods. The cavitation zones are usually identified by using Sommerfeld Boundary conditions for the oil film rupture and the Jakobsson-Floberg-Olsson (JFO) conditions for film re-attachment.
The simulation results will illustrate the piston secondary motions (piston-slap and piston-tilting), structural deformations of the piston rings, the dynamic behavior of the piston ring within the piston groove, the hydrodynamic frictional losses of the piston skirt and the elasto-hydrodynamic frictional losses of the piston rings.

Biography of the Keynote Speaker

Dr. Nabil G. Chalhoub received his BSME and MSME from the Mechanical Engineering Department at Wayne State University and his Ph.D. from the Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He is currently a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Wayne State University (WSU). His research interest is in modeling and active control of flexible structures, robotics, solid-fluid interaction, internal combustion (IC) engines cycle simulations, IC engine dynamics and tribology, guidance and control of marine vessels, nonlinear robust controllers and observers, self-tuning fuzzy controllers. He is currently the co-chair for the International Conference on Advanced Research and Applications in Mechanical Engineering (ICARAME'11). He is serving as an Associate Editor for the ASME Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement, and Control (JDSMC) and the Journal of Vibration and Control (JVC). He was the Chair of the Model Identification and Intelligent Systems (MIIS) Technical Committee in the ASME Dynamic Systems and Control Division. He has also served on NSF Review Panels for the Dynamic Systems, and Control Division, on the Local Committee for the International Symposium on Vibro-Impact Dynamics of Ocean Systems and Related Problems, and on the International Program Committee for the 2009 IASTED International Conference on Robotics and Applications. He has 60 refereed publications and his research has been funded by NSF, ONR, ARO, U.S. Army TARDEC, Ford Motor Company and Chrysler.