NEWADVANCESIN VEHICULARTECHNOLOGY ANDAUTOMOTIVE ENGINEERING  EditedbyJoaoPauloCarmo andJoaoEduardoRibeiro  New Advances in Vehicular Technology and Automotive Engineering http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/2617 Edited by Joao Paulo Carmo and Joao Eduardo Ribeiro Contributors Mohsen Mohseni, Bahram Ramezanzadeh, Hossein Yari, Mohsen Moazzami Gudarzi, Horst Hintze-Bruening, Fabrice Leroux, Evripidis Lois, Panagiotis Arkoudeas, Amaya Igartua, Xana Fdez-Pérez, Iñaki Illarramendi, Rolf Luther, Jürgen Rausch, Mathias Woydt, Vítor Monteiro, Henrique Gonçalves, João C. Ferreira, João L. Afonso, Ruben Ivankovic, Jérôme Cros, Mehdi Taghizadeh Kakhki, Carlos A. Martins, Philippe Viarouge, Niels Koch, Preeti Bajaj, Milind Khanapurkar, Amedeo Troiano, Eros Pasero, Luca Mesin, J. P. Carmo, J. E. Ribeiro, Hernani Lopes, João Ribeiro, Arjun Yogeswaran, Pierre Payeur, Darrell Robinette, Carl Anderson, Jason Blough, Takama Suzuki, Masaki Takahashi, Mário Sacomano Neto, Sílvio R. I. Pires Published by InTech Janeza Trdine 9, 51000 Rijeka, Croatia Copyright © 2012 InTech All chapters are Open Access distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license, which allows users to download, copy and build upon published articles even for commercial purposes, as long as the author and publisher are properly credited, which ensures maximum dissemination and a wider impact of our publications. After this work has been published by InTech, authors have the right to republish it, in whole or part, in any publication of which they are the author, and to make other personal use of the work. Any republication, referencing or personal use of the work must explicitly identify the original source. Notice Statements and opinions expressed in the chapters are these of the individual contributors and not necessarily those of the editors or publisher. No responsibility is accepted for the accuracy of information contained in the published chapters. The publisher assumes no responsibility for any damage or injury to persons or property arising out of the use of any materials, instructions, methods or ideas contained in the book. Publishing Process Manager Mirna Cvijic Typesetting InTech Prepress, Novi Sad Cover InTech Design Team First published July, 2012 Printed in Croatia A free online edition of this book is available at www.intechopen.com Additional hard copies can be obtained from orders@intechopen.com New Advances in Vehicular Technology and Automotive Engineering, Edited by Joao Paulo Carmo and Joao Eduardo Ribeiro p. cm. ISBN 978-953-51-0698-2 Contents Preface IX Section 1 Materials 1 Chapter 1 The Role of Nanotechnology in Automotive Industries 3 Mohsen Mohseni, Bahram Ramezanzadeh, Hossein Yari and Mohsen Moazzami Gudarzi Chapter 2 Nanocomposite Based Multifunctional Coatings 55 Horst Hintze-Bruening and Fabrice Leroux Chapter 3 Lubricating Aspects of Automotive Fuels 91 Evripidis Lois and Panagiotis Arkoudeas Chapter 4 Biolubricants and Triboreactive Materials for Automotive Applications 119 Amaya Igartua, Xana Fdez-Pérez, Iñaki Illarramendi, Rolf Luther, Jürgen Rausch and Mathias Woydt Section 2 Electronics 147 Chapter 5 Batteries Charging Systems for Electric and Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles 149 Vítor Monteiro, Henrique Gonçalves, João C. Ferreira and João L. Afonso Chapter 6 Power Electronic Solutions to Improve the Performance of Lundell Automotive Alternators 169 Ruben Ivankovic, Jérôme Cros, Mehdi Taghizadeh Kakhki, Carlos A. Martins and Philippe Viarouge Chapter 7 Antennas for Automobiles 191 Niels Koch VI Contents Chapter 8 Automotive Networks Based Intra-Vehicular Communication Applications 207 Preeti Bajaj and Milind Khanapurkar Chapter 9 A Road Ice Sensor 231 Amedeo Troiano, Eros Pasero and Luca Mesin Chapter 10 Optical Techniques for Defect Evaluation in Vehicles 255 J. P. Carmo and J. E. Ribeiro Section 3 Mechanics 283 Chapter 11 Structural Health Monitoring in Composite Automotive Elements 285 Hernani Lopes and João Ribeiro Chapter 12 3D Surface Analysis for Automated Detection of Deformations on Automotive Body Panels 303 Arjun Yogeswaran and Pierre Payeur Chapter 13 Development of a Dimensionless Model for Predicting the Onset of Cavitation in Torque Converters 333 Darrell Robinette, Carl Anderson and Jason Blough Chapter 14 Semi-Active Suspension Control Considering Lateral Vehicle Dynamics Due to Road Input 359 Takama Suzuki and Masaki Takahashi Section 4 Manufacturing 377 Chapter 15 Performance Measurement in Supply Chains: A Study in the Automotive Industry 379 Mário Sacomano Neto and Sílvio R. I. Pires Preface An automobile was seen as a simple accessory of luxury in the early years of the past century. Therefore, it was an expensive asset which none of the common citizen could afford. It was necessary to pass a long period and waiting for Henry Ford to establish the first plants with the series fabrication. This new industrial paradigm makes easy to the common American to acquire an automobile, either for running away or for working purposes. Since that date, the automotive research grown exponentially to the levels observed in the actuality. Now, the automobiles are indispensable goods; saying with other words, the automobile is a first necessity article in a wide number of aspects of living: for workers to allow them to move from their homes into their workplaces, for transportation of students, for allowing the domestic women in their home tasks, for ambulances to carry people with decease to the hospitals, for transportation of materials, and so on, the list don’t ends. The new goal pursued by the automotive industry is to provide electric vehicles at low cost and with high reliability. This commitment is justified by the oil’s peak extraction on 50s of this century and also by the necessity to reduce the emissions of CO 2 to the atmosphere, as well as to reduce the needs of this even more valuable natural resource. In order to achieve this task and to improve the regular cars based on oil, the automotive industry is even more concerned on doing applied research on technology and on fundamental research of new materials. The most important idea to retain from the previous introduction is to clarify the minds of the potential readers for the direct and indirect penetration of the vehicles and the vehicular industry in the today’s life. In this sequence of ideas, this book tries not only to fill a gap by presenting fresh subjects related to the vehicular technology and to the automotive engineering but to provide guidelines for future research. This book account with valuable contributions from worldwide experts of automotive’s field. The amount and type of contributions were judiciously selected to cover a broad range of research. The reader can found the most recent and cutting-edge sources of information divided in four major groups: electronics (power, communications, optics, batteries, alternators and sensors), mechanics (suspension control, torque converters, deformation analysis, structural monitoring), materials X Preface (nanotechnology, nanocomposites, lubrificants, biodegradable, composites, structural monitoring) and manufacturing (supply chains). We are sure that you will enjoy this book and will profit with the technical and scientific contents. To finish, we are thankful to all of those who contributed to this book and who made it possible. João Paulo Carmo University of Minho Portugal João Eduardo Ribeiro Polytechnic Institute of Bragança Portugal