Ricardo wins major defence vehicle contract

The US division of Ricardo has been awarded a contract to optimise the fuel economy and performance of future ground vehicles.

Ricardo will apply its TVFE™ (Total Vehicle Fuel Economy) systems engineering expertise to evaluate combinations of current and emerging technologies to define vehicle configurations that will reduce fuel consumption while maintaining vehicle performance. The project is part of the Fuel Efficient ground vehicle Demonstrator (FED) programme launched by TARDEC, the U.S. Army’s Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center in Warren, Michigan. The goal of the FED programme is to develop and define military vehicle technologies that will reduce fuel consumption on the battlefield and reduce the military’s dependence on oil. The programme ultimately will result in a Humvee-size demonstration vehicle that achieves significantly greater fuel economy while maintaining tactical capability and performance.

“When viewed collectively with our existing fuel economy and emissions work with the EPA, NHSTA and the National Academy of Sciences, as well as existing customers across the automotive, commercial vehicle and off-highway sectors, this project solidifies Ricardo’s position as a primary fuel economy thought leader in the U.S.,” said Dean Harlow, President of Ricardo, Inc. “We look forward to working with TARDEC to help reduce our dependence on imported oil and ultimately improve our national security.”

For the first phase of the project, Ricardo will apply its TVFE modeling and simulation capabilities to predict the performance of various combinations of current and emerging technologies for the entire vehicle, including conventional and hybrid drive systems, transmissions, suspension systems, body configurations and other vehicle systems. TVFE focuses on integrating all vehicle systems to optimize fuel economy and performance. Ricardo expects to deliver the first set of proposed vehicle configurations within nine months.

“The FED project recognizes Ricardo’s depth of expertise in integrating and optimizing vehicle systems for maximum fuel efficiency and performance,” said Lou Infante, Ricardo, Inc. product group director for vehicle engineering. “It builds on Navistar Defense’s Future Tactical Truck System (FTTS) demonstrator, a diesel-electric hybrid vehicle that was designed and built for the Army using commercially available technology. For the FTTS project, we used TVFE to select, integrate and optimize all the vehicle systems. When we built and tested the prototype, the fuel economy improvement was within three percent of what TVFE predicted.”

The FED project will draw on Ricardo’s full range of systems-engineering expertise, encompassing compression-ignition and hybrid propulsion, transmission and driveline systems, controls and electronics, thermal management, suspension and structures. ”The FED programme emphasizes emerging technologies that may be high-risk but can offer a high payoff,” said Sandy Stojkovski, Ricardo’s TVFE director. “TVFE allows us to uncover the full potential of emerging and future technologies and determine how to best integrate them with other vehicle systems for maximum efficiency. We’re seeking all possible technologies, not just existing ones, so we’re inviting all technology developers to let us know what they’re working on so we can incorporate their ideas into this project.”