Acura reveals host of innovative technologies for 2016 NSX

Ahead of the market launch of the next-generation NSX, the engineers leading the supercar’s development have revealed new technical details and design strategies at the SAE 2015 World Congress and Exhibition.

Ted Klaus, chief engineer and global development leader of the new NSX, said: “In order to provide NSX-level value, we needed to push ourselves to experiment with, refine and then realise many new technologies.”

Significant technical revelations concerning the NSX include:  

Multi-Material Body: The aluminium-intensive, multi-material space frame represents a next-generation leap in body design with class-leading technology. Honda says the all-new NSX multi-material body is by far the most rigid in its competitive set and current aluminium and ultra-high strength steel intensive body architecture has been taken to the limit for supercar design.

A key advancement in casting technology allowed the NSX development team to realise a quantum leap in body design, for the first time being able to engineer a vehicle with castings in key locations for rigidity, that also support the ductility necessary for placement within crush zones.

World’s First Application of Ablation Casting: The NSX heralds the world’s first application of ablation casting technology in the automotive industry. Ablation casting combines traditional casting methods with rapid cooling techniques to offer the design flexibility and rigidity of casting with the ductility and energy absorption characteristics of extruded material.

Traditional castings provide the ultimate rigidity in space frame and other body designs, but have traditionally suffered a major drawback: traditional castings are brittle. The ablation process allows the ultra-rigid castings to be located within the crush zones and to function as large aluminium nodes, or junction points. Aluminium extrusions are then inserted into sockets in the ablation cast nodes, which act as fixtures that hold the space frame in place during welding.

During the welding process, shorter stitch welds can be applied, enhancing the exceptional, repeatable precision of the NSX space frame construction by reducing heat deformation during the production process.

Ablation castings also enable traditional aluminium castings to be used at strategic locations in the space frame and as the primary mounting points for suspension and power unit components, in addition to being the reference and temporary attachment points during the highly accurate space frame construction process.

New A-Pillar Construction Technique: The NSX applies an all-new three-dimensionally formed ultra-high strength steel A-pillar that provides next-generation rigidity and precise shape specification tolerances.

Airflow Management: A new total airflow management strategy supports component cooling, aerodynamic performance (drag and downforce) at a very high level without the use of active aero technology, while also contributing to even more dynamic styling.

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was used extensively during development to allow the US-based development team to maximise the performance of a power unit being developed in Japan. CFD models were run on computers totalling many years’ worth of computational uptime.

Thermal CFD was effectively used in two ways during development, first for the proof-of-concept in establishing heat management strategy at the earliest development stage and second, for continuous thermal performance improvement as the vehicle matured through development.

Along with the use of advanced CFD, wind tunnel and real world testing, the development team also employed computerised lap-time simulation models of some of the world’s most legendary proving grounds that could then be run on chassis-dynamometers allowing testing and validation of computer models for thermal management.

The all-new NSX employs 10 air-cooled heat exchangers responsible for cooling the front twin-motor unit (TMU), twin-turbo V6 engine, rear direct-drive electric motor and 9-speed dual clutch transmission (DCT).

The all new, twin-turbocharged 3.5- litre V6 engine at the heart of the Sport Hybrid SH-AWD power unit requires the greatest cooling and receives it through three radiators: one centre and two side units to get maximum airflow volume and efficiency. The centre radiator is tilted forward 25-degress, allowing the largest, optimised configuration that best utilises the inherent pressure gradient while maintaining the strict low centre of gravity targets of the NSX’s Advance Sports Package.

Condenser and power drive unit (PDU) coolers are efficiently packaged in front of the centre engine radiator.

The TMU is cooled passively through strategic use of air in the front motor room and by a heat exchanger mounted in front of the right engine sub-radiator.

The 9-speed DCT is cooled by two heat exchangers, one mounted in front of the left engine sub-radiator and the other in the engine compartment. Twin-intercoolers located in the signature side intakes are used to cool the intake air charge.

Sport Hybrid Super Handling All-Wheel Drive: The groundbreaking Sport Hybrid SH-AWD dynamic torque vectoring technology applied to the all-new NSX represents research and development that has been ongoing for well over two decades.