Recently, CERC- TRUCK’s 2018 annual meeting took place at Owen Conference Center of Cummins Headquarters, Columbus, Indiana, USA. Supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China and the US Department of Energy, and aiming at improving the energy efficiency of medium- and heavy-duty trucks , CERC-TRUCK, an important intergovernmental international cooperation plan, is led by the State Key Laboratory of Engines of Tianjin University and the Argonne National Laboratory of the United States with over ten research institutes and enterprises from China and the United States participated in the program. The research goal is to explore the possibility of increasing truck energy efficiency by 50% on the basis of 2016 through five years. Five research directions are set up, including advanced internal combustion engine and powertrain system, energy management, hybrid electric powertrain, drag reduction, light weight and other key truck technologies, and applied research, test and evaluation. In order to strengthen the technological cooperation and sharing of achievements between China and the United States, the program takes turns to hold the annual meeting in China or the United States to promote technological advancement in the field of trucks.
The meeting began with a welcome speech by the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology and the US Department of Energy. Subsequently, the Chinese leader of CERC-TRUCK, the secretary of the Party Committee of University of Science and Technology of China, Professor Shu Gequn of the State Key Laboratory of Engines of Tianjin University, the head of CERC-TRUCK, and Dr. Thomas Wallner of Argonne National Laboratory reviewed the objectives of the project and summed up the results of the past year respectively. After the summary, the Sino-US heads of research directions reported the current research results and major challenges, and had a warm discussion about clean combustion engine, hybrid energy coupling, intelligent driving and big data. Scientists of various directions exchanged opinions on key technical issues, solutions and future developments, which effectively promoted the convergence and collision of Chinese and American scientists' academic thoughts and formed a series of constructive achievements.
After two days of in-depth discussions, the meeting was formally concluded. In the closing speech, Professor Shu Gequn was full of expectations for the future of the project, and expressed his satisfaction for the current results. Besides, he also encouraged the cooperation between China and the United States, and warmly invited representatives of the US to participate in the 2019 annual meeting to be held in Tianjin, China.
By: School of Mechanical Engineering
Editors: Qin Mian and Keith Harrington
