Technology Development and Engineering Services for the Automotive Industry 

Since its inception in 1947, Southwest Research Institute (SwRI®) has dedicated extensive resources toward serving the automotive industry. Today, almost one-third of SwRI's 3,200 employees work on automotive projects that range from vehicle concept through production. This work may involve automotive vehicle systems, engines, fuels and lubricants, emissions, electronics, automation and robotics, and other related programs.

With NumberOfDivisions_InitialCaps technical divisions, SwRI provides the automotive industry with technology development and engineering services such as designing, modeling, simulating, analyzing, testing, and prototyping.

This brochure highlights some of the automotive-related capabilities available to the Institute's clients. SwRI staff will be pleased to discuss any specific area of interest and to provide more detailed information.

The Team, Expertise & Facilities
Design & Development
Systems & Component Testing
Emissions Reduction & Qualification
Instrumentation Development
Fluids Testing & Qualification
Materials Specification & Evaluation
Manufacturing Technology & Process Engineering
Safety Engineering
Training Systems & Simulators
Facilities & Experience

The Team, Expertise and Facilities

The automotive industry is undergoing dramatic changes. To meet worldwide competition, automakers have adopted challenging technical and performance goals that stretch the limits of today's technology.

Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) is uniquely qualified to support automotive manufacturers and their suppliers in making the significant improvements necessary to meet these goals. For more than 55 years, the Institute has consistently provided innovative solutions to complex problems confronted by the automotive industry, resulting in a thorough knowledge of industry requirements. SwRI, with its multidisciplinary background, has the necessary technologies and experience to meet the constantly changing demands placed on the automotive industry.

SwRI is aware of the industry's technical and service needs and is committed to supporting them. Distinctive Institute characteristics include:

• Historical emphasis on major automotive challenges
• Independent organization, without affiliation with any company, educational institution, or product line
• Technical breadth and diversity
• Interdisciplinary capability at a single site
• Multiclient cooperative research programs
• Comprehensive internal research and development program
• Two million square feet of laboratory and office facilities

Well-equipped laboratories and facilities offer state-of-the-art test and analytical capabilities. The Institute's 3,200 staff members respond promptly to client needs. SwRI's array of comprehensive services addresses industry needs in component and vehicle design and testing, as well as facility and training development.

As an independent technical and service organization, SwRI provides an
unbiased perspective. The staff members' broad expertise encourages innovative
solutions to automotive industry problems, reducing the cost and time-to-market
of new or improved products.

Design and Development

SwRI offers a wide range of design services to automotive manufacturers and their suppliers. Using state-of-the-art modeling capabilities and advanced computer-aided design techniques, Institute engineers design, develop, and trouble-shoot automotive components and structures. Institute design experience includes:

Engine Design and Modeling

• Concept design
• Solid modeling
• Soot formation modeling
• Kinematic and dynamic analyses
• Finite-element structural/thermal analysis
• Computational fluid dynamics
• Tribology and lubrication analyses
• Total engine performance simulation
• Failure and life analysis
• Drafting and tolerancing
• Valve train design and analysis
• Piston ring pack analysis
• Port design for tumble, swirl, and flow
• One-dimensional flow network analysis

The SwRI-developed Rapid Prototyping Electronic Control System (RPECS) provides an ideal platform to implement and assess signal processing and control algorithms for engine and vehicle development applications. RPECS, based on the industry standard PC/104 architecture running QNX, allows the engineer to easily add new hardware and software elements as needed.

Gasoline and Diesel Engine Development

• Engine and fuel injection system calibration
• Direct injection gasoline development
• Fuel spray modeling
• Real-time oil consumption measurement
• Combustion and emission systems development and optimization
• Engine mapping, including heat rejection
• Cold start development
• Emission reduction
• Engine and vehicle benchmarking

Alternative Fuel Engine Development

• Fuel cell design
• Gaseous fuels, including LPG,CNG, and H2
• Alcohol and biofuels
• Test fuel production and fuels technology consultation

Developed jointly with DaimlerChrysler, the Rapid Automotive Performance SimulaTOR for Vehicle System Modeling (RAPTOR-VSM) is available as commercial-off-the-shelf modular simulation platform software that provides engineers with the capabilities to design, configure, assess, and optimize vehicle powertrain systems performance. The RAPTOR-VSM is a high-precision, high-fidelity, open-architecture platform simulation tool that makes integrated computer-aided vehicle development a distinct possibility.

Fuel System Design and Development

• Fuel injectors and pumps
• Gasoline and diesel engines
• Injector dynamic modeling
• CFD analysis
• Orifice characterization

Hybrid Electric Design and Modeling

• Modeling and simulation
• Parallel and series systems
• Motors and power electronics
• Batteries and ultracapacitors

Fuel Cell Development

• PEM and SOFC
• Fuel cell construction
• Electrochemical process modeling
• Waste heat utilization
• life expectancy enhancement
• Load leveling and peak load management

Institute engineers routinely use a variety of advanced analysis techniques as design tools to evaluate potential problem areas. Here finite element stress analysis permits engineers to identify regions of high stress around the crank fillets, where cracking and failure are most likely to occur if the part is not properly designed.

Transmission Design and Modeling

• Automatic transmission and transaxle
• Manual transmission and transaxle
• Belt-type continuously variable transmission
• Toroidal transmission
• Hydrostatic and hydromechanical transmissions
• Variable geometry epicycle transmission

Vehicle Component Development

• Brakes qualification
• Steering and suspension systems
• Starter and alternator components

Vehicle Design and Development

• Stability analysis
• Powertrain component matching
• Structural analysis

Systems and Components Testing

SwRI evaluates all electrical and mechanical vehicle components, systems, and structures according to customer-specific and industry standards and specifications. The Institute's integrated testing programs include:

Durability, Reliability, and Performance Testing

• Vehicle component durability evaluation
• Comprehensive dynamometer testing, including eddy current, DC-DC, engine-driven, and mileage accumulation
• Structural reliability evaluation
• Advanced wear technology
• Structural, fatigue, and stress analyses
• Efficiency, performance, and cycle testing
• Valve train friction and wear testing
• Full-scale crash tests with instrumented dummies
• Transmission, transaxle, axle, and four-wheel drive testing
• Chassis dynamometer testing hardware in the loop
• Vehicle fleet testing
• Engine testing

In this contamination sensitivity evaluation, staff members introduce controlled amounts of contaminant into the fuel delivery subsystem assemblies as they undergo severe laboratory testing.

Specialized Mechanical Testing

• High strain rates under ambient and high pressures
• Dynamic fracture and impact
• Static and cyclic conditions
• High-temperature fatigue and creep
• Coatings and ceramics
• Friction, wear, and fretting fatigue

SwRI test facilities consist of transmission, transaxle, torque converter, and powertrain dyna-mometer test stands. SwRI engineers developed this Hardware-in-the-Loop test stand that uses advanced modeling and simulation software, along with real-time controls, to create an ideal laboratory-based development platform. The test facilities are used in conjunction with design and analysis expertise to meet and exceed project goals.

Structural Dynamics and Acoustics Testing

• Structure-borne noise
• Acoustic holography
• Noise source identification and noise control
• Modal analysis
• Dynamic load analysis and loading/response measurements
• Design and fragility testing

SwRI engineers characterize catalytic converter in-service vibration and temperature environments for component design, evaluation, and testing. Product durability can then be validated in a simulated environment, such as in this hot vibration test facility.

Contamination Research and Evaluation

• Sensitivity
• Durability
• Filtration
• Lubricity
• Wear
• Contaminant characterization

Electromagnetic Compatibility Testing and Analysis

• Whole-vehicle and automotive electronic component testing
• Conducted and radiated emissions and immunity testing
• Electrostatic discharge, transient, and surge testing

SwRI engineers perform validation testing of plastic fuel tanks under direct fire exposure. The fuel tanks are qualified according to international and OEM specifications.

Physical Testing and Evaluation

• Qualification testing to industry, military, or client specifications
• Component operability in adverse environments
• Synergistic testing of components
• Flammability hazards assessments
• Radioactive corrosion testing

The Institute has developed the capability to perform whole-vehicle radiated immunity tests using the stirred-mode/reverberation technique. This technique exposes vehicular microprocessor-based systems and electronic components to a time-averaged homogeneous electromagnetic field. Such fields are produced by broadcast stations, two-way radios, cellular phones, and other radio-frequency devices.

Nondestructive Evaluation

• Raw material acceptance testing
• Material quality/characterization
• Fabrication-induced flaws
• Damage assessment
• Stress measurement
• Fabrication process monitoring
• Real-time component wear evaluation using radioactive tracer technology

Emissions Reduction & Qualification

SwRI provides continuing emissions research and qualification support to place a product on the market and to keep it there. SwRI emission laboratories qualify automotive and other vehicle emissions according to international, national, and state regulations. The Institute provides emission reduction support and qualification in the following technology areas:

Gasoline and Diesel Engine Development

• Combustion system optimization
• In-cylinder air motion
• Exhaust aftertreatment
• Piston and piston ring design
• Controlled rate hydrocarbon dispersion
• Fuel injector development
• Hydrocarbon (HC) source determination
• Crank angle-resolved HC and NO_x

SwRI engineers developed an innovative burner-based catalyst bench test to age full-size catalytic converters, determining the effects of fuels, lubricating oils, or additives on the catalyst.

Engine Emission Control

• Particulate and gaseous emission characterization
• Steady-state and transient engine testing
• Clean-burning engine development
• Engine emission audits
• Catalyst light-off and poisoning
• Custom transient control strategies
• EGR system development and optimization
• Integrated engine and aftertreatment calibration

Emission Measurement

• High- and low-temperature emissions
• Speciation and toxics analyses
• Off-cycle test conditions and test measurements
• Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
  • Light- and heavy-duty transient procedures
  • Nonroad procedures
• Control algorithm development
• Evaporative emissions measurement
• California "equivalent low-emission" diesel fuels
• European, Japanese, and other test cycles
• Original equipment manufacturer-directed and EPA-required engine audits
• Fuel, evaporative, and exhaust hydrocarbon speciation
• Plastic fuel tank and fuel system permeability measurements

In a program funded by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, SwRI engineers develop a dedicated E85-fueled vehicle to demonstrate ultralow emission levels.

Fuels and Lubricants Evaluation

• Low-emission automotive fuels
• Fuel and fuel additive registration
• Gasoline property effects
• Natural gas fuels
• Alcohol and other oxygenated fuels
• Custom-blended crankcase lubricants
• Transmission hydraulic fluids

The Institute tests a variety of heavy-duty and nonroad engines for performance and emissions, using U.S., European, and Japanese test procedures. A final engine installation check is made prior to an Environmental Protection Agency transient emissions test.

Instrumentation Development

To obtain the necessary data for effective automotive development, SwRI designs and fabricates advanced measurement instrumentation, testing equipment, and electronic measurement facilities. These improved test instruments, capabilities, and facilities include:

Rapid Prototyping Electronic Control System (RPECS)

• Automated engine mapping
• Adaptive closed-loop air/fuel ratio control
• Integrated transmission control
• Exhaust gas recirculation mapping and control
• Boost control
• Drive-by-wire throttle actuation
• Knock detection and adaptive spark control

This automotive instrumentation system is used to develop and fine-tune control algorithms and operational software used in vehicle controllers. The instrument can transparently force up to eight vehicle controllers to simultaneously and independently execute the software code contained in its memory.

Engine Measurement Instrumentation

• Valve deposits
• Engine crankshaft strain
• Cylinder air motion
• Real-time valve recession
• Direct piston friction
• Liquid film thickness
• Dynamic exhaust gas temperature
• Smoke density
• Real-time oil consumption
• Flame propagation
• Fuel spray characteristics

SwRI develops unique test methods such as this direct-injection method to test automotive air bag initiators or other electro-explosive devices for radiofrequency immunity.

Control Module Instrumentation

• Transparent control and monitoring of vehicle control computers
• Field site algorithm editing and real-time parameter modification
• Computer tuning of selected vehicle sub-systems to improve emission control

Using SwRI-developed instrumentation to measure the volume of oil accumulated between piston rings, Institute engineers monitor oil consumption in diesel and gasoline engines. As illustrated in the inset, the novel technique responds well to oil volume changes and shows good agreement between static and average dynamic measurements.

Electromagnetic Compatibility Technology

• Stirred-mode radiated immunity and emissions, whole vehicle, and component
• Computer-controlled tri-plate-line test enclosure
• Dipole probe system and specialized sensors

Nondestructive Evaluation Technology

• Magnetostrictive sensors for knock and misfire detection
• Eddy current sensors for piston motion detection
• Ultrasonic cylinder liner wear measurements
• Electromagnetic noncontact torque measurement
• Shearography, pulsed infrared inspection, and fiber optics for bond quality determination
• Dry coupled ultrasonics for bonding/weld inspection
• Computer modeling for optimized ultrasonic and eddy current probes
• Analyzers for rapid, simultaneous measurement of multiple fuel properties

Fluids Testing and Qualification

SwRI offers a wide range of specialty and standardized test capabilities, both on- and off-site, to support the fuel, lubricant, and fluid requirements of the automotive industry. Extensive state-of-the-art laboratories and test cells permit evaluation, testing, and qualification of a diverse number of fuels, lubricants, and fluids. SwRI capabilities include:

Specialized Fuel and Fluids Production and Evaluation

• Alternative fuels refining and blending
• CARB-like test fuel preparation
• Fuel property modification
• Fuel cleanliness, deterioration, and property measurements
• Fuel kinetics studies
• Flammability hazards assessment of hydrocarbon and alternative fuels
• Fluid response to hot surfaces
• Real-time oil consumption measurement
• Collision-induced fuel-spill fire evaluation
• Fluid/material compatibility testing
• Fuel pump testing

SwRI maintains extensive facilities for creating and modifying diesel and gasoline test fuels. In addition to blending additives into test fuels, scientists control properties such as sulfur concentration, cetane number, and vapor pressure.

Standardized Testing and Qualifications

• ASTM, SAE, and CRC gasoline and diesel lubricant qualifications
• CARB, EPA, and other state and national regulations
• Fuel and fluid flammability and flamespread testing
• Commercial and industrial requirements
• JASO and CEC specifications

The Institute's radioactive tracer techniques provide cost-effective, accurate, real-time data, detecting minute changes without disassembly and physical inspection, to study component wear under transient and steady-state conditions. Here, a technician measures wear as a function of lubricant and engine operation parameters using bulk activated rings and connecting rod bearings in a test engine.

Fuel and Lubricant Wear Studies

• Diesel injection system lubricity studies
• High-output diesel engine lubrication
• Standard wear tests
• Specialized wear test development
• High- and low-temperature wear tests
• Wear mechanism and failure analysis
• Fuel lubricity

Highly mechanized laboratory facilities and equipment ensure consistent and repeatable test results. SwRI analyzes fuels, lubricants, and other fluids to ensure they meet all required specifications.

Vehicle Fleet Testing

• Lubricants, fuel formulations, and additives
• Transmission and rear axle oils
• Coolant and automatic transmission fluids

SwRI maintains twenty state-of-the-art dynamometers to evaluate fuels, lubricants, and other vehicle components. The Institute operates twenty mileage-accumulation dynamometers, each with its own computer-based control system that regulates vehicle speed and load and ensures test repeatability.

Fluid and Thermal Engineering

• Computational fluid and structural dynamics analysis and physical modeling/testing of automotive systems and components
• Analytical and physical modeling of catalytic converters
• Flow visualization studies of advanced exhaust systems
• High-accuracy flow measurements for CNG and LNG fuel systems
• Heat transfer studies for disc brake, engine, and transmission components
• Flow-induced vibration evaluations
• Component thermal-induced stress analysis
• Underhood heat transfer studies

Banks of 2.3-liter research engines evaluate the ability of various motor oils and fuels to inhibit wear and deposit formation.

Standard and Custom Filtration Testing

• SAE and ISO liquid and air testing
• Test method development
• Wear studies
• Fuel and water separation testing

Materials Specification & Evaluation

Today's automobiles and trucks encounter increasingly severe demands from national and state regulations, vehicle requirements, and customer expectations. To meet these needs, SwRI maintains integrated research and development programs in ferritic and nonferritic materials, including innovative composites. SwRI's material-related expertise includes:

Advanced Materials

• Ceramics and ceramic composites
• Self-lubricating materials
• Intermetallic compounds and composites

Automotive natural gas fuel storage tanks are constructed of a glass fiber/epoxy composite wrapped over an aluminum core. SwRI scientists are studying the long-term fracture behavior of composites exposed to roadway hazards and weathering and determining if these composites comply with federal motor vehicle safety standards for compressed natural gas fuel container integrity.

SwRI engineers have fabricated 800-square-centimeter active area membrane electrode assemblies, incorporating an ultralow catalyst load electrode technology.

Polymers and Polymer Composites

• Polymer synthesis and processing
• Preceramic polymer development
• Composite processing technologies
• Adhesives, sealants, and coatings development
• Polymer aging and mechanical testing
• Polymer rheology and analysis

SwRI has developed a variety of heat-resistant, high-strength thermoset polymers that can be molded or machined, without chipping, for use in automotive engines or other high-temperature environments. Application-specific reinforcing fibers or particulates can be added to the thermoset polymer during processing.

Coatings

• Ion implantation and coatings
• Surface preparation
• Coating systems evaluation and qualification
• Low-pollution coating development
• Wear- and oxidation-resistant coating development
• Test method development

SwRI emissions researchers use infrared video imaging to study the temperature history of diesel particulate filters during regeneration. This frame shows temperature distribution using a false-color scale.

SwRI performs comprehensive standard and specialized fatigue and fracture tests, such as this low-temperature fracture toughness evaluation of an airbag gas cylinder.

Structural Design Evaluation

• Composite mechanical behavior
• Fatigue analysis and lifetime prediction
• Fracture mechanics and high-temperature behavior
• Flammability evaluations
• Failure analysis
• Long-term reliability software tools
• Friction and wear testing
• Mechanical testing

Manufacturing Technology & Process Engineering

Today's industrial processes combine diverse technologies that often need to be customized for each application. SwRI integrates technologies to enable automotive manufacturers and their suppliers to reduce costs and increase throughput, while maintaining consistently high quality. Specific SwRI services include:

Manufacturing System and Instrumentation Development

• Modeling and simulation
• Producibility and tolerance analyses
• Computer-aided design/engineering design and analyses
• Complete procurement documentation
• Turnkey custom equipment and manufacturing line development

Process Engineering and Lean Manufacturing

• Facility layout
• Material-handling system development
• Real-time process monitoring and control
• In-process inspection and sampling
• Machine perception and image processing
• Predictive control

An assembly line robot fits individual turbine blades into an automotive transmission torque converter housing using a sense of "feel" provided through a special fuzzy-logic algorithm developed at the Institute.

Fabrication Technologies

• Adaptive machinery
• Automated assembly
• Robotics and machine vision
• Welding and fabrication technology
• Custom end-effector development

Test System Development

• In-process and end-of-line electrical testing
• Guided-probe diagnostics
• Custom test systems for sensor characterization
• Custom data recorders and application software

Plant Machinery Dynamics

• Rotating machinery analyses
• Field performance and machinery diagnostics
• Piping fluid dynamic and vibration analyses

Safety Engineering

SwRI provides a wide range of safety and environmental assessment support, including advanced laboratory and analysis facilities and computer-modeling capabilities. Institute expertise in subsurface transport modeling, environmental performance assessment, and industrial hazards analysis also includes:

Fire and Explosion Technology

• Structural and material response
• Fire and explosion investigations
• Fire prevention, detection, and suppression
• Smoke characterization and toxicity
• Product reliability

SwRI engineers locate potential workplace hazards, assist in the design of exposure strategies, and identify high-risk activities and the relative effects of engineering controls.

Industrial Hazards Analysis and Prevention

• Gas, vapor, dust, and solid material fire and explosion safety studies
• Ignition sensitivity and explosion severity
• Mathematical models for hazardous events
• Numerical/computational methods
• Hazard/safety and vulnerability analysis
• Operations analysis
• Failure modes and effects analysis

An SwRI remote test facility allows engineers to simulate and reproduce the effects of large (50 feet square) pool fuel fires and blast events.

Process Audit, Evaluation, and Testing

• Process evaluation
• Unsafe process condition assessment
• Process simulation and testing
• Automatic process equipment development

Training Systems & Simulators

SwRI provides innovative training and performance support solutions for the automotive industry. The Institute teams subject matter experts, instructional systems designers, systems engineers, and software engineers to produce integrated training systems and simulator programs. Institute training-development capabilities include:

Instructional Systems Design (ISD)

• Training needs assessment
• System requirements definition
• Multimedia systems design and development
• Validation and performance evaluation
• ISD methodologies, media, and delivery method research and evaluation

Advanced multimedia techniques using all-digital video, audio, and three-dimensional real-time graphics and animation are accessed worldwide through a standard Web browser.

Advanced Multimedia Applications

• Interactive maintenance and operator training
• Embedded interactive courseware design
• Interactive electronic technical manuals
• Distance learning products, including World Wide Web-delivered instruction

Effective training needs assessment, which is one of SwRI's strengths, determines training solutions for today's problems and provides a basis for planning and curriculum roadmapping.

Trainers and Simulators

• Virtual reality simulators
• Electronic performance support systems
• Turnkey systems for full-fidelity operator/ maintainer training devices
• Object-oriented design and real-time simulation software
• Simulator networking and systems engineering
• Trainer and simulator modifications and upgrades
• Optics and image projection systems
• Tracking systems and haptics

Facilities and Experience

Recent Achievements

Several divisions within SwRI have achieved ISO 9001, ISO 9002, and ISO 14001certification or ISO/IEC Guide 25 accreditation.

Ford Motor Company has designated the Institute as a Tier 1 product development engineering services supplier and has awarded SwRI its Q1-2000 award.

Specialized Facilities

Accessory drive test facility
Air filtration laboratory
Anechoic chamber noise test facility
All-temperature test enclosures
Combustion/flammability laboratories
Engine performance and efficiency test facility
Evaporative emissions and permeability facility
Fabrication and machine shops
Fuel-blending facility
Fuel pump contamination test facility
Fuel injector rate metering
Full-scale crash, fire/explosion, and calorimetry testing facilities
Hardware in the loop test cells
Hydraulic test facility
Laser Doppler anemometer
Machine perception laboratory
Materials and polymer chemistry laboratories
Metallurgical/failure analysis laboratories
Mileage accumulation facility
On- and off-site vehicle test tracks
Radioactive corrosion and tracer wear testing
Radiofrequency anechoic chamber
Robotics laboratory
Stirred-mode chamber
Structures laboratory
Test fuel production facility
Thermal, vibrations, and vibroacoustic laboratories
Tri-plate-line fixture
Transmission test facility
Transverse electromagnetic cells
Valve train tribology laboratory

Computer Software

Institute-Developed Software
Bearing simulation
Cam-roller tribology simulation
Clutchpack model
GeoChem
HYTTAP
Navier
NESSUS™ (Engine cycle simulation)
RAPTOR-VSM™
Southwest Crank/Bearing
Southwest Pro Bearing
Takeoff Bearing Simulation
Vehicle dynamics codes
VIPRE™ (Engine cycle simulation)

Design Software
ALGOR™
AutoCAD™
Cadkey™
MicroStation 95™
Pro/ENGINEER™
VSA™

Analysis Software
ABAQUS™
ADAMS™
ALEGRA
ALE3D
ANSYS™
CFAST/HAZARD I™
CFD-ACE™
CTH
EPIC-SPH
FieldView™
Flowmaster™
FLOW-3D™
FLUENT CFD
FPETool™
KIVA-3
LS-DYNA™
Mathematica™
MSC/NASTRAN™
NASGRO
Pro/MECHANICA™
SABER™
SILMA™
STAR-CD™
TecPlot™

Powertrain Capabilities

402 dynamometers, including

127 diesel stands
82 engine stands
53 transmission stands
20 mileage accumulation stations
16 axle test stands
8 chassis dynos
3 hydraulic test stands

This brochure was published in July 2003. For more information on technology development and engineering services for the automotive industry, please contact Lee Grant, Phone (210) 522-5004, Fax (210) 684-7530, Fuels and Lubricants Research Division, Southwest Research Institute, P.O. Drawer 28510, San Antonio, Texas 78228-0510, Phone (210) 522-3024, Fax (210) 522-2019.

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