The ME-EM Graduate Seminar speaker on Thursday, April 24 at 4:00 in 103 EERC will be Dr. Antonio Gauchia from MTU.
The title of his presentation will be ‘Finite Element Modeling of a Real Bus Structure: Effect of Electrified Powertrain’.
Environmental sustainability is driving powertrain design and development towards electrified vehicles. Bus powertrain has evolved from conventional internal combustion engine to hybrid powertrain. However, in terms of lateral vehicle dynamics, this type of vehicle is particularly sensitive to the height of the center of gravity. One of the most severe accidents that involve buses is rollover. Buses are especially prone to rollover due to their high ratio between centre of gravity height and wheel track. Therefore, bus safety must be re-assessed to verify that it still complies with current vehicle standards and regulations, in particular, those related to vehicle lateral dynamics. Bus manufacturers have to overcome these challenges to match standards and provide a reliable, safe and comfortable vehicle. This seminar will present the impact of powertrain design in bus rollover. It will deeply describe how to evaluate this effect from the initial finite element modeling stage of a real bus structure to the final one consisting in the evaluation of powertrain design influence in bus rollover. Two scenarios will be analyzed: a bus structure with conventional internal combustion engine components and a bus structure with hybrid powertrain components. The rollover threshold will be used to evaluate the lateral performance of each powertrain layout.
Dr. Antonio Gauchia finished his studies of General Engineering Degree in 2003 and obtained a PhD in Mechanical Engineering in 2006 at the University Carlos III of Madrid (UC3M). He teaches Vehicle Dynamics and Components, Transportation Engineering and Technical Drawing. During his 10 year experience at UC3M Mechanical Engineering Department, he has also collaborated in projects with industry and administration. His
research interests are vehicle experimental testing, vehicle dynamic simulation and bus safety rollover. He has been a Visiting Researcher at the University of Birmingham (U.K.) in collaboration with Ford. He is currently a Visiting Researcher at the ME-EM Department at Michigan Tech.