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Archive for the ‘Auto Test’ Category

The Danville Register and Bee reports that,

Students and a professor at the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research in Danville developed a unique way to test tires.

Associate professor Saied Taheri and Virginia Tech students in the Intelligent Transportation Lab at the Institute developed a trailer that houses equipment to test tires on actual roads and road conditions.

After a year and a half of development, the team finished validating the test trailer in August. The researchers compared the results of tests on tires to manufacturers’ own laboratory tests. The data matched.

Most manufacturers and researchers test tires on a flat-track “indoor treadmill.” The rolling test trailer is only one of three such systems that tests outside in the real environment.

The trailer helps the Intelligent Transportation Lab test for stability of vehicles or measure what conditions would cause a vehicle with specific tires to roll over. With that information, researchers could develop controls to better stabilize a vehicle.

WardsAuto.Com reports that GM is ramping up testing of batteries for use in its electric vehicles (EVs). The report notes:

The lab includes about 170 test chambers cycling battery charges up and down 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. During the cycling, engineers introduce severe temperature and humidity levels, while an automotive OEM-exclusive “shaker table” adds vibration to the testing mix.

Roughly two-thirds of the chambers currently are testing lithium-ion battery cells and packs for the Chevy Volt, while the rest test cells and packs for GM’s plug-in HEV technology and next-generation mild-hybrid system.

GM opened the $25 million facility in June, which is located at the GM Tech Center in Warren, MI.

Autoliv Opens New Unique Test Facility

STOCKHOLM –(Business Wire)– Oct 26, 2009 Regulatory News:

Autoliv Inc. has opened a new unique test facility for pre-crash and active safety systems in Vargarda, Sweden.

Thanks to passive safety systems such as seatbelt pretensioners and airbags, vehicle safety has substantially improved over recent decades. The next step to further reduce road traffic accidents can be active safety and driver assistance systems based on various sensors. Autoliv’s new test track is built as a small city with real streets and fake house facades to conduct tests in a safe but realistic environment. In the “city”, Autoliv can perform and evaluate different systems based on radar, laser, vision or other sensors, which will be part of the pre-crash systems of tomorrow’s cars. These sensors provide input to the active safety system to brake or steer-away to mitigate or avoid an accident. The test facility is equipped with controllable balloon cars and pedestrian simulators to create a realistic driving situation.

For more information visit www.testcenter.autoliv.com.

Following a recent test at its South Bend, IN test track, Tire Rack has published a comprehensive report analyzing the effectiveness of eco-friendly, low rolling resistance (LRR) tires. In its published report, Tire Rack confirms that using LRR tires is an effective way for consumers to save money while reducing carbon emissions through increased fuel efficiency.

As manufacturers continue to release more and more eco-friendly tire models, Tire Rack conducted a Real World Road Ride Economy Run to determine whether lower rolling resistance tires are effective at increasing fuel efficiency. The test, which used a small fleet of Toyota Prius hybrids outfitted with the Goodyear Integrity all-season radial tires as a baseline, compared its fuel efficiency and traction to other eco-friendly and standard tire models. Each tire was driven over 550 miles of a 6.6-mile loop of expressways, highways and side roads. The Prius outfitted with the baseline tire achieved 51.4 miles per gallon.

*Calculated based on GPS distances and ScanGage II recorded consumption (offset 6% for Prius Summer E10 regular grade fuel).

In the case of the Prius, the difference between the lowest and highest recorded miles per gallon would result in an annual difference of about 21 gallons of regular gasoline consumed at a cost of about $52.50 (at $2.50/gallon) for drivers traveling 15,000 miles a year. The fuel economy recorded for each tire and its relative position compared to the Integrity tire’s average is available at www.tirerack.com/mpgtest.

While the low-tech ways of achieving lower tire rolling resistance has usually traded off wet traction and/or treadwear, further controlled testing at Tire Rack’s test track has also shown that the newest high-tech, fuel-efficient tires have achieved it without compromising traction thanks to the introduction of new tread compounds, tire designs and weight optimizing manufacturing processes.

According to newly passed governmental Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFÉ) standards, new vehicles will need to achieve 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016. As automakers reevaluate every aspect of their vehicles in order to increase fuel efficiency, fitting their vehicles with LRR tires is an easy first step.

Shanghai Dailly reports on China’s first wind-tunnel test facility that opened yesterday near Shanghai. According to the report,

[China’s] first automobile wind tunnel was launched in Shanghai yesterday in a bid to support the Chinese automotive industry in its transition from “made in China” to “designed in China.”

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With the technology localized, businesses will be able to reduce costs by 15 percent, researchers said.

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The simulated wind in the tunnel has been described as “the most expensive wind in the world” as it costs US$1.5 per second to operate, according to experts.

While mostly a PR piece designed to promote their gasolines, this Web article on fuel-economy testing is interesting. It starts, “Rigorously controlled test track trials are a massive improvement on open road measurements, but even they do not go far enough for BP. The company’s fuels and lubricants technologists demand even more controlled test conditions.”