POWERTRAIN
CFD including chemistry can be too great, even with advanced HPC resources, so with today’s systems, complex system level validation is still required.
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WHAT ABOUT THE USE OF VR & AR? Virtual and Augmented Reality will be part of this, but largely for different reasons. The main benefit of these tools is to enhance collaboration, allowing ideas to be explored in dispersed global teams with different areas of expertise. At IAAPS we are entering an agreement with one of the world leaders in powertrain test systems and VR will be an important part of the work we do together, not just as a tool for the engineers working at the facility, but also to help us understand how best to use, and hence evolve, these exciting new techniques. VR will – and indeed is already –
help to accelerate the design of manufacturing systems. In our field, we have seen it used to plan the manufacture of an electric derivative
of an existing model, developing supply lines through the factory to the cell, optimising assembly processes and ensuring seamless integration with the existing lines. We also see it as a useful tool in simplifying end-of-life recycling. Regulations will rightly become more demanding, requiring vehicles that can be more easily disassembled and separated into their constituent materials. VR has a role to play here as there will be substantially less capital and automation available to dismantlers, who have to work across a vast range of vehicle types and ages. VR will help ensure that vehicle designs enable cost- effective disassembly and materials recovery using appropriate, low-cost techniques.
WHERE IS TURBO DESIGN GOING? The University has developed a core competence in turbocharging and works with most of the UK vehicle manufacturers in this area. We focus not so much on
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IAAPS is scheduled to be fully operational in 2021
turbocharger technology but on the tools needed for the development and evaluation of turbochargers and downsized turbocharged engines. The behaviour of a turbocharger and its interaction with the engine’s combustion dynamics is highly complex, particularly when aggressive transients have to be considered as they do when optimising emissions for real-world driving. Our focus is therefore on understanding what’s going on in that interaction and building simulation tools that help specialists develop better products more quickly. This is another area of research
where the constraints change dramatically when we start looking at engines optimised for future hybrid propulsion systems as the transients can then be supported by the electrification. Although this simplifies the demands on the turbocharger, it also greatly expands the range of possible system options to be investigated. We see considerable potential for electrically assisted turbochargers
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