Drive System Design (DSD), driveline engineering specialist, will present three technical papers at the SIA Powertrain Congress in Versailles (7-8th June). The papers cover different approaches to CO2 reduction through cutting edge transmission design, reflecting the overall theme of the conference: ‘The low CO2 gasoline engine of the future and its hybridization’.
In the first paper, entitled ‘The future of the connected powertrain’, Simon Shepherd, DSD’s Head of Control and Electronic Systems, presents a cost-effective monitoring system that provides a step change in the understanding of individual transmission usage profiles by interrogating the data available through increasing levels of vehicle connectivity.
The paper proposes a simple infrastructure in which a central analysis system can provide not only an accurate assessment of current transmission condition but a prediction of future failures at a component level. It also details how the analysis of actual usage data enables fleet cost and weight reductions through significant downsizing and optimisation of transmission and driveline subsystems, while still controlling the risk of failure in cases of extreme use.
The second paper, presented by Gavin Bartley, Senior Control Engineer, is entitled ‘Freewheeling Concept: Hybrid benefits for manual transmissions at low cost’. It describes a manual transmission with a freewheel that enables inherent decoupling of the vehicle from the engine during over-run phases and avoids slowing the vehicle down unnecessarily with engine and driveline drag.
The paper proposes a mild hybrid version of the freewheel system as a low-cost alternative to current e-clutch hybrid systems. CO2 savings are highlighted with a focus on the important high volume manual transmission market. DSD defines solutions for the mechanical integration and uses dynamic simulation studies to identify methods to overcome the key challenges of controlling the engagement of the one-way device and the implementation of a lock-out system.
In the final paper, ‘The Hybridised layshaft transmission’, Ben Chiswick, Senior Design Engineer, DSD, explains how the addition of an e-machine to a layshaft transmission can produce a lighter, more compact and efficient hybrid solution when the two elements are integrated and optimised together. The low inherent cost means the concept has the potential to bring hybridisation to many higher volume vehicles, significantly improving fleet average CO2 emissions.
