Battery safety is a prominent concern for the deployment of electric vehicles (EVs). The battery powering an EV contains highly energetic active materials and flammable organic electrolytes. Usually, an EV battery catches fire due to its thermal runaway, either immediately at the time of the accident or can take a while to gain enough heat to ignite the battery chemicals. There are numerous battery abuse testing standards and regulations available globally. Therefore, battery manufacturers are always in dilemma to choose the safest one. Henceforth, to find the optimal outcome of these two major issues, six standards (SAE J2464:2009, GB/T 31485-2015:2015, FreedomCAR:2006, ISO 12405-3:2014, IEC 62660-2:2010, and SAND2017-6295:2017) and two regulations (UN/ECE-R100.02:2013 and GTR 20:2018), that are followed by more than fifty countries in the world, are investigated in terms of their abuse battery testing conditions (crush test). This research proves that there is a need for (a) augmenting these standards and regulations as they do not consider real-life vehicle crash scenarios, and (b) one harmonised framework should be developed, which can be adopted worldwide. These outcomes will solve the battery manufacturers dilemma and will also increase the safety of EV consumers.

Components of civil buildings are frequently made of low-alloyed steel, which can suffer from corrosion damage. This damage reduces their bearing capacity and/or redistributes the load to neighboring regions with the potential risk of their collapse. For this reason, this study deals with the non-destructive monitoring of bodies made of these steels based on Barkhausen noise emission. The superimposing contribution of corrosion extent and exerted tensile load is investigated on samples of variable yield strength in the range from 235 to 1100 MPa. It is found that the presence of a corroded layer attenuates Barkhausen noise and makes the body harder from a magnetic point of view. The reduced effective thickness of the samples as a result of corrosion damage increases the true stress. Barkhausen noise grows along with the tensile stress in the direction of exerted stress at the expense of decreasing Barkhausen noise in the perpendicular direction. The evolution of Barkhausen noise versus tensile stress is mostly shifted to the lower values of Barkhausen noise, along with the increasing degree of corrosion damage. The evolution of Barkhausen noise versus tensile stress is also affected by the initial microstructure and the corresponding yield strength of the low-alloyed steel. Corrosion attack results in the growth of FWHM, which is compensated by the decreasing evolution along with the tensile stresses. The effective values drop down with the higher extent of corrosion damage. However, the response with respect to the tensile stress is asymmetric in RD and TD due to the realignment of DWs into RD. Finally, PP tends to increase with the corrosion attack as well as the tensile stress and this parameter only exhibits the systematic behavior in RD as well as TD. On the other hand, MBN-extracted parameters as well as their combination provide no exclusive values on which the pure contribution of corrosion and tensile stress can be distinguished.

Cooperative intelligent transport systems (C-ITSs) are mass-produced and sold in Europe, promising enhanced safety and comfort. Direct vehicle communication, known as vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication, is crucial in this context. Drivers receive warnings about potential hazards by exchanging vehicle status and environmental data with other communication-enabled vehicles. However, the impact of these warnings on drivers and their inclusion in accident reconstruction remains uncertain. Unlike sensor-based warnings, V2X warnings may not provide a visible reason for the alert, potentially affecting reaction times and behavior. In this work, a simulator study on V2X warnings was conducted with 32 participants to generate findings on reaction times and behavior for accident reconstruction in connection with these systems. Two scenarios from the Car-2-Car Communication Consortium were implemented: “Stationary Vehicle Warning—Broken-Down Vehicle” and “Dangerous Situation—Electronic Emergency Brake Lights”. Volkswagen’s warning concept was utilized, as they are the sole provider of cooperative vehicles in Europe. Results show that V2X warnings without visible reasons did not negatively impact reaction times or behavior, with average reaction times between 0.58 s (steering) and 0.69 s (braking). No significant distraction or search for warning reasons was observed. However, additional information in the warnings caused confusion and was seldom noticed by subjects. In this study, participants responded correctly and appropriately to the shown false-positive warnings. A wrong reaction triggering an accident is possible but unlikely. Overall, V2X warnings showed no negative impacts compared with sensor-based systems. This means that there are no differences in accident reconstruction regarding the source of the warning (sensors or communication). However, it is important that it is known that there was a warning, which is why the occurrence of V2X warnings should also be saved in the EDR in the future.

This paper deals with the sustainable production of components in the automotive industry, with the focus on the nondestructive evaluation of components after plasma nitridation via the Barkhausen noise technique. This study investigates the influence of tool wear on surface state after turning, and the consecutive plasma nitriding process. Moreover, position in the nitriding chamber and the corresponding heterogeneity of components is investigated as well. The results of experiments indicate that an increasing mechanical and thermal load due to flank wear and the associated process dynamics negatively affects the heterogeneity of the surface state after turning, and consecutive nitriding in terms of Barkhausen noise emission. Moreover, it was found that the conditions in the chamber during the nitriding process vary and, especially near the venting system, the temperature is slightly lower, such that some components are found to be unacceptable as well. The study also unwraps the contribution of the diffusion and compound layers with respect to MBN and discusses the contribution of the MBN pulses of different frequencies. The pinning strength of nitrides is indicated with respect to their size and the related thickness of DWs. Finally, this study clearly demonstrates how the MBN technique can be employed for the monitoring nitrided components and the corresponding optimisation of manufacturing cycles.

The perception of the vehicle’s environment is crucial for automated vehicles. Therefore, environmental sensors’ reliability and correct functioning are becoming increasingly important. Current vehicle inspections and self-diagnostics must be adapted to ensure the correct functioning of environmental sensors throughout the vehicle’s lifetime. There are several promising approaches for developing new test methods for vehicle environmental sensors, one of which has already been developed in our previous work. A method for testing vehicle front cameras was developed. In this work, the method is improved and applied again. Various test vehicles, including the Tesla Model 3, Volkswagen ID.3, and Volkswagen T-Cross, are stimulated by simulating driving scenarios. The stimulation is carried out via a tablet positioned before the camera. The high beam assist is used to evaluate the vehicle’s reaction. It was observed whether the vehicle switched from high to low beam as expected in response to the stimulation. Although no general statement can be made, the principle of stimulation works. A vehicle reaction can be successfully induced using this method. In further test series, the influence of display brightness is examined for the first time in this work. The results show that the display brightness significantly influences the test procedure. In addition, the method is validated by stimulation with colored images. It is shown that no complex traffic simulation is necessary to trigger a vehicle reaction. In the following validation approach, the CAN data of the Tesla Model 3 is analyzed during the tests. Here, too, the assumption that the vehicle reaction is based solely on the detected brightness instead of identifying road users is confirmed. The final validation approach examines the method’s applicability to other vehicles and high beam assist technologies. Although the method could not be used on the Volkswagen T-Cross due to a fault detected by the vehicle’s self-diagnosis, it worked well on the Volkswagen ID.3. This vehicle has a dynamic light assist in which individual segments of the high beam are dimmed during stimulation. Although the method developed to stimulate vehicle front cameras is promising, the specific factors that trigger the vehicle responses remain to be seen. This uncertainty suggests that further research is needed better to understand the interaction of stimulation and sensor detection.