Vehicle Powertrain Systems

Preface

In writing this book, we have aimed it at the needs of both students and practising engineers in the automotive industry. For engineering students, we hope we have provided a sound explanation of the principles behind the design of vehicle powertrain systems. For practising engineers, we have tried to provide a comprehensive introduction to the subject area, which will set the scene for more specialized texts on, for example, engines, transmissions or hybrid electric components.

The book has arisen from our combined teaching experiences at a range of institutions including the Iran University of Science and Technology (IUST), Tehran, and the Universities of Leeds, Sunderland and Cranfield. We have attempted to incorporate two important themes which distinguish our book from other texts:

1. The inclusion of numerous worked examples and the provision of a MATLAB® code for many of the problems.

2. A systems approach to powertrain design – focusing on the integration and interactions of all the components, e.g. engine, transmission final drive, wheels and tyres – in analyzing the overall vehicle performance.

Our experience of teaching engineering students suggests that one of the most useful ways of learning engineering principles is through actually doing problems oneself. Hence, we have tried to provide a wide range of examples together with worked solutions, often with an accompanying MATLAB code. We hope that readers will run these short programmes themselves and modify ...