/// CLIMATIC TESTING \\\
In his view, there won’t be a single technol- ogy that characterises future transport needs but a mixture that suits different applications, such as hydrogen fuel cells and plug-in vehi- cles, so it is important for Millbrook to remain both technology and application agnostic. He also sees testing regimes becoming
more integrated. Batteries, battery abuse, crash safety performance and powertrain technology are all linked in the chain of test- ing and so the proving ground has capabili- ties and expertise in all these areas and they are continuing to develop.
Diverse applications \\\ There are a number of key applications for the
VTEC 2 test facility and each has its unique challenges. Powertrain designers and development en-
gineers will use the chamber and dynamome- ter to understand the effects of drivetrain design on emissions and performance under different loads and climatic conditions. “Turnaround times for such tests are very quick so development engineering activities become the bottleneck,” says Proctor. “For this reason, Millbrook provides its drivetrain de- velopment clients with support on data ana- lytics and thereby extra capabilities in the market. Doing this helps satisfy the need for improving development cycle times.” Hydrogen fuelled vehicles are relatively new and these have hydrogen fuel cell and energy management systems which have integration challenges such as diagnostics and calibration. This is an important new use of the chamber and dynamometer for the design and devel- opment of complex powertrains. For the fuel cell there’s a need for looking into the robust- ness of such systems in different climatic con- ditions. The design specification of VTEC 2 included the provision for making it “hydro- gen safe” to detect and mitigate any leaks dur- ing the test processes. The petrochemical industry is also predicted
to be a heavy user of the facility as suppliers of lubricants and fuel additives research the effects of different climatic conditions on lu- bricant effectiveness and emissions reduction resulting from the use of additives. To achieve this, the industry needs high levels of very de- tailed data and high levels of repeatability in the results. Emissions testing for heavy duty eletric ve- hicle manufacturers must cover an enormous range of operating conditions resulting from various driving cycles in different climatic con- ditions. This must be supplied as fast as pos- sible to enable development teams to produce satisfactory results that will enable them to achieve certification.
4 /// Climatic & Vibration Testing \\\ 2021
Engineers can perform power train development work at VTEC 2 for future vehicle architectures including hydrogen fuel cell and battery electric vehicles
The dynamometer can accommodate 2WD, 4WD and Tri-Axle vehicles with axle loads of up to 20 tonnes for environmental testing of large commercial and off-highway vehicles
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