International Journal of Advanced Research in Engineering and Technology (IJARET)

Volume 9, Issue 1, Jan - Feb 2018, pp. 43–52, Article ID: IJARET_09_01_005
Available online at http://www.iaeme.com/IJARET/issues.asp?JType=IJARET&VType=9&IType=1
ISSN Print: 0976-6480 and ISSN Online: 0976-6499
© IAEME Publication

DESIGNING, OPTIMIZING AND FABRICATION

OF POWERTRAIN FOR THE SUPERMILEAGE
VEHICLE
Anirudh singh
Delhi Technological University, India

ABSTRACT
Energy is important to everyone for many reasons. It is a key economic driver as it
offers new market opportunities for business. The world is consuming energy at an
enormous rate leading to possibility of fuel crisis. Shortage of fuel is a major concern
for everyone and research has already started for exploiting new sources of energy as
well as improving the existing technology. The Shell Eco -marathon is an annual
competition sponsored by Shell, in which participants build special vehicles to achieve
the highest possible fuel efficiency. DTU Supermileage is a collegiate team whose sole
focus is towards sustainable development. As the name suggests, our mission is to
develop a "super mileage vehicle" that provides maximum mileage.
Keywords: DTU Supermileage, Fuel consumption, Gasoline, Shell Eco-Marathon,
Sustainable development and Super mileage vehicle
Cite this Article: Anirudh singh, Designing, Optimizing and Fabrication of
Powertrain for the Supermileage Vehicle. International Journal of Advanced Research
in Engineering and Technology, 9(1), 2018, pp. 43–52.
http://www.iaeme.com/IJARET/issues.asp?JType=IJARET&VType=9&IType=1

1. INTRODUCTION
Engines and Transmission are essentially the heart and soul of a vehicle. They either make or
break a vehicle; making it the centrepiece of the supermileage vehicle. A variety of factors
were considered while selecting the right engine such as their power output, compression
ratio, aftermarket support, starter type, clutch type, initial fuel consumption, and cost.
Power output and the compression ratio of an engine are decisive for augmenting the
performance of the vehicle. However, the aftermarket support and the cost also need to be
contemplated on to make a wise decision. It is imperative to strike the right balance for
maximum efficiency as well as feasibility, considering the vehicle to be built is an ‘Urban
Concept Vehicle’. The power drive mechanism also plays an integral role in the operation of
the vehicle. The three main concepts associated with drive mechanisms are those of the Gear
Drive, Belt Drive and Chain Drive.
Four options for drive train systems were examined namely Variable Gear System,
Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT), Continuously Variable Planetary (CVP) and
Sprocket and derailleur chain drive. In a gear drive, power is transmitted through the teeth of

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 Anirudh singh

meshing spur or helical gears; making it efficient and easy to maintain. The idea of a roller
chain drive is similar to a synchronized belt system in the way both the drive and driven
pulleys work, providing increased transmission efficiency. Derailleur is often found in bicycle
drivetrains. The derailleur and sprocket chain drive system was introduced in order to provide
ease with pedalling and enhance the biking experience. However owing to starting torque
requirements, this is not the best option for the supermileage vehicle. CVT can continuously
vary the gear ratio keeping the engine rpm almost constant unlike any other transmission
system to get the best desired results, however its weight is a major drawback and also with
time the components of CVT start failing for example the V-belt wears with time due to
creep. Pertaining to our requirements, it is important for the drivetrain system to obtain
variable gear ratio while the engine is operating at ideal rpm. The overall weight of the
drivetrain system and its ease of operation are also crucial points factored in the decision
making process.
A clutch is required to engage or disengage a vehicle, making it a necessary addition to
the supermileage vehicle. A wet multiplate clutch was chosen by the team for its well-rounded
contribution to the functioning of the car. The overall cohesiveness of the engine is also of
paramount relevance and hence critical in the selection of components. Compatibility of parts
is essential for amplifying the performance of the vehicle and is thought of before arriving at
the perfect combination.

2. ENGINE MODIFICATIONS
2.1. Replacing carburettor with EFI
In order to achieve a high mileage various changes were done in the engine as well as to the
fuel and air delivery system. The carburettor was replaced with a tuneable EFI that was
provided by ECOTRONS, that makes professional automotive electronics for new and niche
markets.
The EFI kit provided by ECOTRONS has following components:-

Figure 1 Ecotrons EFI kit components

2.1.1. Tuneable ECU

The core part of Ecotrons ECU is FreeScale’s 16 bit or 32 bit microprocessor that is
specifically designed for powertrain controls. ECU also includes some application Specific
integrated Circuits, or ASIC chips, from world famous automotive semiconductor
manufacturers like Infineon, and International rectifier etc. Most importantly, Ecotrons’ ECU

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 Designing, Optimizing and Fabrication of Powertrain for the Supermileage Vehicle

contains the state-of-art engine control software which combines both efficiency and
flexibility of the modern engine control technology.

2.1.2. Throttle body

The throttle body is a tube containing a pivoting flat valve (butterfly) that is used to control
the amount of air entering an engine. In an electronically fuel injected car, a throttle position
sensor and air flow sensor communicate with the computer, which supplies the corresponding
amount of fuel needed at the injectors. On older carburetted engines, the throttle body is built
into the carburetor and via mechanical means and engine vacuum assists in fuel delivery past
the valve.

2.1.3. Fuel Injector

Fuel injection is the introduction of fuel in an internal combustion engine, most commonly
automotive engines, by the means of an injector, Benefits of fuel injection include smoother
and more consistent transient throttle response, such as during quick throttle transitions, easier
cold starting, more accurate adjustment to account for extremes of ambient temperatures and
changes in air pressure, more stable idling, decreased maintenance needs, and better fuel
efficiency.

Figure 2 Fuel Injector

2.1.4. Fuel Pump

Fuel pump is one of the all basic components in fuel injection system. It takes fuel from the
tank, then boosts the fuel pressure and provides the fuel to flow into the fuel injector in fuel
injection system. The fuel pump can provide the stable 43psi fuel pressure together with fuel
pressure regulator.

Figure 3 Fuel Pump

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 Anirudh singh

2.1.5. Fuel filter

A fuel filter is a filter in the fuel line that screens out dirt and dust particles from the fuel,
normally made into cartridges containing a filter paper. Unfiltered fuel may contain several
kinds of contamination, for example paint chips and dirt that has been knocked into the tank
while filling, or rust caused by moisture in a steel tank. If these substances are not removed
before the fuel enters the system, they will cause rapid wear and failure of the fuel pump and
injectors, due to the abrasive action of the particles on the high-precision components used in
modern injection systems. Fuel filters also improve performance, as the fewer contaminants
present in the fuel, the more efficiently it can be burnt.

2.1.6. EFI cable

EFI cable consists of following sensors:-

2.1.6.1. Intake air temperature sensor

IAT sensor is the short name of Intake Air temperature sensor. It is a standard abbreviation of
SAE J1979. The IAT sensor is designed to be placed in Air-box, and measures the air
temperature directly. IAT sensor signal is used as an important input for an engine control
unit (ECU) to adjust the fuel metering and AFR controls and also finely tune the other control
parameters in variant operating conditions.

2.1.6.2. TPS (Throttle position sensor)

The throttle position sensor (TPS) is mechanically linked to the throttle plate and the sensing
element has an arm that rotates with the throttle plate. The arm has a contact point on the
potentiometer which acts like a voltage divider. The potentiometer has a +5V supply and
ground return. The middle point is the output voltage point. The voltage is proportional to the
rotational angle of the throttle plate.

Figure 4 Throttle position sensor

2.1.6.3. Engine Coolant Sensor (ECT)

ECT sensor is the short name of Engine Coolant temperature sensor. It is a standard
abbreviation of SAE J1979. The ECT sensor is actually a cylinder head temperature (CHT)
sensor. The ECT sensor is bolted on the engine cylinder head, and measures the temperature
directly, since most small engines are air cooled, and there is no coolant.

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 Designing, Optimizing and Fabrication of Powertrain for the Supermileage Vehicle

Figure 5 Engine Coolant temperature sensor

2.1.6.4. Manifold Absolute Pressure Sensor

The MAP sensor requires a +5v power supply, and a ground return and has an analog voltage
output. This MAP sensor uses MEMS technology and Application Specific Integrated Circuit
(ASIC) technology, and it is specifically designed for small engine electronic fuel injection
system to continuously monitor the manifold pressure or Barometric pressure, and send the
analog voltage signal for the absolute pressure measured to the Electronic Control Unit
(ECU).The sensor output is in 0-5v range. It is linear proportional to the pressure measured.

Figure 6 Manifold absolute pressure sensor

2.1.6.5. CKP (crankshaft position sensor)

A Hall effect sensor is a transducer that varies its output voltage in response to a magnetic
field. Hall effect sensors are used for proximity switching, positioning, speed detection, and
current sensing applications. In a Hall effect sensor a thin strip of metal has a current applied
along it, in the presence of a magnetic field the electrons are deflected towards one edge of
the metal strip, producing a voltage gradient across the short-side of the strip (perpendicular to
the feed current). Inductive sensors are just a coil of wire, in the presence of a changing
magnetic field a current will be induced in the coil, producing a voltage at its output. Hall
Effect sensors have the advantage that they can detect static (non-changing) magnetic fields.

2.1.6.6. NBO2 (Narrow band oxygen sensor)

Oxygen sensor is installed in the exhaust gas pile to measure the oxygen content and find out
whether the combustion of gasoline and air is stoichiometric A/F ratio. And in this status the
catalytic converter has maximum conversion efficiency on HC, CO and NOx in the exhaust
gas. When the inside and outside of the sensor element has different oxygen concentration,
the oxygen sensor can detect it and transform to voltage signal.

Figure 7 Narrow band oxygen sensor

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 Anirudh singh

2.1.6.7. ALM
ALM (Accurate Lambda Meter) is an air/fuel ratio (lambda) meter which uses Bosch LSU 4.9
wideband oxygen sensor and Bosch driver chip CJ125 to accurately measure the exhaust
air/fuel ratio (AFR) of variant combustion engines. ALM-Gauge has a 52mm digital LED
display header, used to display the AFR value. It has a primary 0-5v linear analog output
which can be used as the feedback control signal for an ECU. ALM uses the more advanced
LSU 4.9 wideband sensor. Bosch chip CJ125 is the integrated chip (IC) specifically designed
for LSU 4.9 Sensors. Bosch's own wideband controller, "LambdaTronic", uses CJ125 driver
chip. In fact, Bosch uses this chip wherever a LSU sensor is used. The CJ125 and LSU sensor
are mated-pair by Bosch. Presumably LSU sensors work the best with CJ125 chips.

Figure 8 ALM kit

3. ECOCAL
ECOCAL is tuning software that is provided by ECOTRONS through which various engine
operating parameters like Global fuel enrichment, warm up fuel factor, Minimum injection
pulse width etc. can be easily altered to utilize every milligram of the fuel effectively.

Figure 8 ECOCAL software (tuning software)

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 Designing, Optimizing and Fabrication of Powertrain for the Supermileage Vehicle

4. DRIVETRAIN DESIGNING
The drivetrain of a motor vehicle is the group of components that deliver power to the driving
wheels. This excludes the engine or motor that generates the power. The function of the
drivetrain is to couple the engine that produces the power to the driving wheels that use this
mechanical power to rotate the axle. This connection involves physically linking the two
components, which may be at opposite ends of the vehicle and so requiring a long propeller
shaft or drive shaft. The operating speed of the engine and wheels are also different and must
be matched by the correct gear ratio.
Our drive train consist of following:-

4.1. Drive shaft

A drive shaft, driveshaft, driving shaft, propeller shaft (prop shaft), or Cardan shaft is a
mechanical component for transmitting torque and rotation, usually used to connect other
components of a drive train that cannot be connected directly because of distance or the need
to allow for relative movement between them. As torque carriers, drive shafts are subject to
torsion and shear stress, equivalent to the difference between the input torque and the load.
They must therefore be strong enough to bear the stress, whilst avoiding too much additional
weight as that would in turn increase their inertia. The material chosen for manufacturing the
drive shaft was mild steel because of its high strength and torsional resistance.

Figure 10 CAD model of driveshaft

4.2. One way clutch

A sprag clutch is one-way freewheel clutch, It resembles a roller bearing but, instead of
cylindrical rollers, non-revolving asymmetric figure-eight shaped sprags are used. When the
unit rotates in one direction the rollers slip or free-wheel, but when a torque is applied in the
opposite direction, the rollers tilt slightly, producing a wedging action and binding because of
friction. The sprags are spring-loaded so that they lock with very little backlash. The sprag
clutch was used to deliver the drive from engine to the wheel hub and then after vehicle had
attained enough speed then the method of coasting was used to save fuel. During coasting the
main aim was to minimize the frictional losses in the powertrain so the one way clutch was
the best option available to minimize the transmission losses and increase fuel efficiency.

5. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

To achieve a supermileage main focus was given to weight reduction of each component of
the vehicle as lesser the weight of the vehicle more will be the fuel efficienncy. Also during
engine tuning, the main aim was to keep the AFR as lean as possible but at the same time
keeping in mind the harmful emissions caused by the same. Tuning of an engine is not an
easy task, it requires a load unit that will apply load on the engine to maintain it at a particulat
RPM so that the calibrator can focus on only one cell of the various tables for controlling the
fuel injection and spark timing.The dynamometer is a device that is used to measure the

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engine’s power and torque at various engine rpm. It is of two types one is inertia
dynamometer and the other one is load dynamometer. The eddy current load dynamometer
was chosen to apply external load on the engine to maintain it at a certain rpm so that the
engine can be tuned by analysing the results obtained from various sensors by the help of the
software provided by ECOTRONS.

Figure 11 Test run of the vehicle

The contribution of other departments like Chassis and Aerodynamics department,
Steering and Brakes Department lead to the completion of this project.

Figure 12 Fully integrated vehicle

Various test runs were conducted before the competitions to check the mileage of the
vehicle.
The competition took place on 15th march 2017 in Shell ECO-Marathon, Singapore and
DTU Supermileage achieved a mileage of 80.7km/L or 189.89 miles per gallon.

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 Designing, Optimizing and Fabrication of Powertrain for the Supermileage Vehicle

Figure 12 DTU Supermileage at Shell ECO-Marathon, Singapore

6. CONCLUSION
It is obvious that the world is consuming energy at an enormous rate and thus leading to
increase in greenhouse gas emissions, global warming threats and surging gas prices. In the
last three decades, the world has made great bounds in new, energy efficient technologies that
have played a major role in the conservation of these valuable resources. New technologies in
everything from simple household appliances to transportation methods have had a major
impact in reducing the rate of energy consumption, and more importantly reduced the
reliability on any one energy source. While fuel mileage in cars continues to improve, the fuel
efficiency of automobiles has actually declined since the mid-1990. That’s because many
drivers have switched from ordinary cars, to light trucks or so-called sport utility vehicles”.
One way scientists have countered this problem is the development of alternative fuels,
specifically the use of Hydrogen Fuel Cells. Advancements in the research and development
of this alternative fuel have proven to be a vital solution to this increasingly prevalent energy
crisis. The Shell Eco-marathon is an annual competition sponsored by Shell, in which
participants build special vehicles to achieve the highest possible fuel efficiency. DTU
Supermileage is a collegiate team whose sole focus is towards sustainable development. The
key factors that can increase the fuel efficiency of any vehicle is the reduction in the weight of
the vehicle, the aerodynamics of the car, the performance of the engine and the compatibility
of parts is essential for amplifying the performance of the vehicle that provides maximum
mileage for a litre of gasoline while trying to reduce the impact of gasoline powered vehicles
on the environment.

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