This electronic brochure highlights our capabilities and activities in the area of Heavy-Duty Vehicle Development. Please sign our guestbook. For additional information, e-mail Michael A. Kluger, Southwest Research Institute.

Heavy-Duty Vehicle Development 

Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) has improved heavy-duty vehicle performance, fuel consumption, reliability and emissions for more than 35 years. Using the Institute's multidisciplinary technical capabilities, experienced vehicle-development teams provide comprehensive and integrated solutions to complex development problems.

SwRI's Engine, Emissions and Vehicle Research Division has achieved certification to ISO 9001, ensuring compliance with stringent quality control procedures in design, development, and research. The Institute conducts a wide range of heavy-duty vehicle development programs that support the following applications:

  • City and intra-city buses
  • Trucking
  • Construction
  • Off-Road
  • Emergency vehicles
  • Military

To reduce vehicle operating costs, improve vehicle performance, reduce fuel consumption, and extend operating life, SwRI provides comprehensive engineering development supported by rigorous testing for efficiency, endurance, noise, and shift feel.

Modeling and Simulation

SwRI has developed numerous vehicle system simulation programs that model a wide range of automotive elements, functions, and characteristics including:

  • Performance
  • Emissions
  • Fuel economy
  • Parasitic losses
  • Vehicle handling
  • Component cost and weight

Engineers configured this prototype Class 8 tractor with a solid oxide fuel cell to provide auxiliary power for heating and cooling, lights, and cab power.

Design

To optimize the performance and life of vehicle systems and components, SwRI engineers analyze a variety of vehicle requirements, including:

  • Kinematics
  • Stability
  • Structural integrity
  • Vibration
  • Noise
  • Modal analysis

In addition to utilizing customized software and hardware to design a vehicle and its components, engineers use a wide range of specialized techniques, including:

  • Linear and nonlinear finite element analyses
  • Computational fluid dynamics

Fabrication

Converting an engineering design to a working prototype is a keystone of SwRI's vehicle activity. SwRI has extensive machining and fabrication facilities, specialized rapid prototyping equipment, and trained staff with a broad range of vehicle integration skills. Institute staff members perform numerous services, including:

  • Structural member fabrication
    • Steel, aluminum, and magnesium
    • Welding, casting, and forging
  • Isolation mount fabrication
  • Electrical wiring harnesses
  • Electronic and controller system development
  • Hydraulic and pneumatic component development

SwRI developed an active large-vehicle suspension system that recovered 75 percent of the actuation energy through regeneration while reducing suspension stiffness and body pitch and roll by half.

Testing

SwRI uses a system of incrementally increasing risk associated with the checkout of all vehicles and vehicle systems prior to final vehicle verification testing. These tests include:

  • Laboratory
  • Dynamometer
  • Vehicle
  • Test track
  • Off-road and fleet testing
  • Noise, harshness, and vibration
  • Shift quality
  • Emissions
  • Electromagnetic intensity
  • Environmental
This brochure was published in October 2002. For more information about heavy-duty vehicle development, contact Michael A. Kluger, Phone: (210) 522-3095, Fax (210) 522-5720, Engine, Emissions and Vehicle Research, Southwest Research Institute, P.O. Drawer 28510, San Antonio, Texas 78228-0510.

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