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Gasoline direct injection (GDI) engines have become very attractive in transportation due to several benefits over preceding engine technologies. However, GDI engines are associated with higher levels of particulate matter (PM) emissions, which is a major concern for human health. The aim of this work is to broaden the understanding of the effect of hydrogen combustion and the influence of the three way catalytic converter (TWC) on PM emission characteristics. The presence of hydrogen in GDI engines has been reported to reduce fuel consumption and improve the combustion process, making it possible to induce higher rates of EGR. A prototype exhaust fuel reformer build for on-board vehicle hydrogen-rich gas (reformate) production has been integrated within the engine operation and studied in this work.

In order to clarify the trend of PM emission characteristic caused by fuel change, we propose a fundamental flame research method using a small pool flame system. Characteristics such as size distribution and formation rate of PM from laminar diffusion flames of gasoline fuels (JIS No.1 and No.2) were investigated by an electric microbalance and a SMPS (Scanning Mobility Particle Sizer). PM exhaust from flame of surrogate gasoline fuels and hydrocarbon fuels of various chemical structures were also measured. As the result, it was found that both of exhaust-PM concentration and PM number peak size increased with increasing of alkene and aromatic compositions in fuel.

The major challenge of the post-processing of soot aggregates in transmission electron microscope (TEM) images is the detection of soot primary particles that have no clear boundaries, vary in size within the fractal aggregates, and often overlap with each other. In this study, we propose an automated detection code for primary particles implementing the Canny Edge Detection (CED) and Circular Hough Transform (CHT) on pre-processed TEM images for particle edge enhancement using unsharp filtering as well as image inversion and self-subtraction. The particle detection code is tested for soot TEM images obtained at various ambient and injection conditions, and from five different combustion facilities including three constant-volume combustion chambers and two diesel engines.

The diesel particulate membrane filter (DPMF) is a good solution to the problem of high pressure drop that exists across diesel particulate filters (DPFs) as a result of the soot trapping process. Moreover, DPMFs that have a membrane layer composed of SiC nanoparticles can reduce the oxidation temperature of soot and the apparent activation energy. The SiC nanoparticles have an oxide layer on their surface, with a thickness less than 10 nm. From the visualization of soot oxidation on the surface of SiC nanoparticles by an environmental transmission electron microscope (ETEM), soot oxidation is seen to occur at the interface between the soot and oxide layers. The soot oxidation temperature dependency of the contact area between soot and SiC nanoparticles was evaluated using a temperature programmed reactor (TPR). The contact area between soot and SiC nanoparticles was varied by changing the ratio of SiC nanoparticles and carbon black (CB), which was used as an alternative to soot.

The potential of drag reduction on a generic model of a heavy vehicle using base flaps operated in combination with flow control devices is investigated experimentally. Base flaps are well known as drag reduction devices for bluff bodies and heavy road vehicles. However, for optimal performance their deflection angle should typically not exceed 12°. In this paper the primary goal is to increase the usable range of the deflection angles by applying flow control. The secondary goal is to find the most suitable method for flow control. A comparison is made between triangular vortex generators and fluidic oscillators as passive and active flow control methods, respectively. Vortex generators have the advantage of being very simple devices but produce drag. Fluidic oscillators are also quite simple devices but require additional air supply. Their advantages are that they can be activated when needed and that they do not generate additional drag.

The impact of Reynolds number on the aerodynamics and operational performance of commercial vehicles is discussed. All supporting data has been obtained from published experimental and computational studies for complete vehicles and vehicle components. A review of Reynolds number effects on boundary layer state, unsteady and steady flow, time dependent wake structure, interacting shear layer and separated flows is presented. Reynolds number modeling and simulation criteria that impact aerodynamic characteristics and performance of a commercial vehicle are shown. The concepts of dimensional analysis and flow similarity are employed to show that aerodynamics of commercial ground vehicles is only dependent on Reynolds number. The terminology of Roshko is adopted for discussing the variation in drag with Reynolds number in which the subcritical, transitional and transcritical flow regimes are defined for commercial vehicles.

Using lift axles enables fleet to increase the load capacity of a vehicle, eliminating the need for multiple trips, thus reducing operational costs. In a project to assess the potential of reducing fuel consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by lifting axles on unloaded semi-trailers, lift axle regulations in various jurisdictions and the studies that led to these regulations were analyzed. The SAE Fuel Consumption Test Procedures Type II (J1321) was used for fuel consumption track test evaluations. The tests were conducted on unloaded two-axle van semi-trailers, four-axle van semitrailers, and B-trains, and resulted in fuel savings of 1.3% to 4.8%, depending on vehicle configuration and the number of axles lifted during the test.

Modern aerodynamic Class 8 freight tractors can improve vehicle freight efficiency and fuel economy versus older traditional style tractors when pulling Canadian style A- or B-Train double trailer long combination vehicles (LCV's) at highway speeds. This paper compares the aerodynamic performance of a current generation aerodynamic tractor with several freight hauling configurations through computational fluid dynamics evaluations using the Lattice-Boltzmann methodology. The configurations investigated include the tractor hauling a standard 53′ trailer, a platooning configuration with a 30′ separation distance, and an A-Train configuration including two 48′ trailers connected with a dolly converter. The study demonstrates CFD's capability of evaluating extremely long vehicle combinations that might be difficult to accomplish in traditional wind tunnels due to size limitations.

This paper conducts experimental study and numerical large eddy simulation for the drag reduction effect of jet boat-tail passive flow control on bluff body models. The jet boat-tail for bluff bodies operates by surrounding a converging duct around the end of a bluff body where the base surface is located. The duct captures free stream and forms a high speed jet angled toward the center of the bluff body base surface circumferentially to have the effect of a boat tail. A rectangular prism bluff body representative of various motor vehicle shapes such as trucks, vans, SUVs is used in this study. The numerical Large Eddy Simulation shows that the jet boat-tail sucks in the forebody boundary layer due to the low base pressure and significantly thins the boundary layer. The jet interacts with the shear layer and creates large vortex structures that entrain the freestream to base flow and energize it.

The performance of several aerodynamic technologies and approaches, such as trailer skirts, trailer boat tails, gap reduction, was evaluated using track testing, model wind tunnel testing, and CFD simulation, in order to assess the influence of the design, position and combination of various aerodynamic devices. The track test procedure followed the SAE J1321 SAE Fuel Consumption Test Procedure - Type II. Scale model wind tunnel tests were conducted to have direct performance comparisons among several possible configurations. The wind tunnel tests were conducted on a 1/8 scale model of a tractor in combination with a 53-foot semi-trailer. Among others, the wind tunnel tests and CFD simulations confirmed the influences of trailer skirts' length observed during the track tests and that the wider skirt closer to the ground offer better results. The differences in the shape, dimensions and position of rear deflectors and trailer skirts on the trailer are reflected in the test results.

Owing to a high power-to-weight ratio, mini internal combustion engine is used in propelling an unmanned air vehicle. In comparison to the performance characteristics, the investigations on the combustion aspects of mini engines are scanty. This investigation concerns study of the combustion process of a mini engine and its variability. For this purpose, the experimental cylinder pressure histories were obtained on a laboratory set-up of a 7.45 cm3 capacity mini engine. The analyses of experimental data at different throttle settings reveal that there existed a varied range of rich and lean misfiring limits around a reference equivalence ratio that corresponds to the respective maximum indicated mean effective pressure. At the limiting equivalence ratios, cylinder pressure measurements showed a high degree of cycle-to-cycle variations. In some cases, a slow combustion or misfiring event preceded a rapid combustion.

The flow-field around a “common” European heavy truck, equipped with several different trailer devices, is investigated using steady and unsteady simulations. This work demonstrates how with simple devices added on the trailer it is possible to strongly decrease the aerodynamic drag over 10%, with an increase of overall dimensions below 1% without any change to the load capacity of the trailer. Several devices, installed on the trailer, are tested on a target vehicle and the shape of the “airbag”, the “fin”, the “boat tail” and the “front-rear trailer device” has been optimized to achieve the maximum in drag reduction in front wind. The performance of the optimized devices are tested also in cross wind conditions with the yaw angle varying from 0° to 30°. The truck equipped with the front-rear trailer device is also investigated using time variant simulation with yaw angle of 0°, 5°, 10°.

For Integrated Vehicle Health Management (IVHM) technology to fully achieve its promise, there is a need for integration architecture to support interoperability between multiple vendors' IVHM components and insertion of new IVHM capabilities. To date there have been very limited studies on different approaches in integrating IVHM components. This paper presents design candidates for plug-and-play (PnP) IVHM architecture. The open standard based designs are derived from desired IVHM data flow characteristics and system configuration requirements. The designs and enabling middleware technologies are qualitatively and empirically evaluated for their adequacy and effectiveness. The qualitative assessment focuses on the implementation and system configuration based on different test scenarios. The empirical performance is measured in terms of latency (in both normal and intermittent network connections) and throughput.

Rivulet dynamics is involved in different scientific problems and industrial applications from production of microchips, to rain flow on structural systems such as wind turbine blades and aircraft wings. In the latter case for example, rivulet flow leads to accumulation of ice on airfoil surface that may affect the aircraft performance. Hence, understanding the dynamics of rivulets is important in solving various scientific problems. In this paper the results of a numerical simulation based on smoothed particle hydrodynamic (SPH) method will be reported on dynamics of rivulets under the effect of various air shear speeds and different surface morphologies. The simulation results will be compared and validated with experiments to shed more lights in understanding the mechanism of shear driven rivulet flow on solid substrates.

Dilution of a stoichiometric spark ignited (SI) charge with exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) has been shown to improve thermal efficiency and fuel consumption through improved combustion phasing and heat transfer losses at the knock limit in conjunction with a reduction of heat transfer losses and pumping losses at throttled conditions. However, combustion stability can be adversely affected by EGR dilution. The degradation in combustion stability can be mitigated by selecting an ignition system that can successfully propagate a self-sustaining flame kernel in the presence of a high concentration of diluent and increase the apparent burn rate. This investigation examines improvements to EGR dilution tolerance and brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC) for multiple alternative ignition systems at various engine operating points while maintaining a stoichiometric air-fuel ratio.

A real-time mean-value engine model for the simulation of the HRR (heat release rate), in-cylinder pressure, brake torque and pollutant emissions, including NOx and soot, has been developed, calibrated and assessed at both steady-state and transient conditions for a Euro 6 1.6L GM diesel engine. The chemical energy release has been simulated using an improved version of a previously developed model that is based on the accumulated fuel mass approach. The in-cylinder pressure has been evaluated on the basis of the inversion of a single-zone model, using the net energy release as input. The latter quantity was derived starting from the simulated chemical energy release, and evaluating the heat transfer of the charge with the walls. NOx and soot emissions were simulated on the basis of semi-empirical correlations that take into account the in-cylinder thermodynamic properties, the chemical energy release and the main engine parameters.

Studies have shown that the number of road accidents caused by rollover both in Europe and in Turkey is increasing [1]. Therefore, rollover related accidents became the new target of the studies in the field of vehicle dynamics research aiming for both active and passive safety systems. This paper presents a method for optimizing the rear suspension geometry using design of experiment and multibody simulation in order to reduce the risk of rollover. One of the major differences of this study from previous work is that it includes statistical Taguchi method in order to increase the safety margin. Other difference of this study from literature is that it includes all design tools such as model validation, optimization and full vehicle handling and ride comfort tests. Rollover angle of the vehicle was selected as the cost function in the optimization algorithm that also contains roll stiffness and height of the roll center.

Present motor vehicle particulate matter (PM) emission measurement regulations (Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 40 Part 1065, 1066) require gravimetric determination of PM mass collected onto filter media from dilute exhaust. To improve the current sampling and measurement procedures for TIER 3 PM emissions standard of 3 mg/mile, CFR part 1066 adopted five alternative PM sampling options. One option of great interest is sampling the entire test using a single flow-weighed filter rather than the conventional three-filter (one filter per test phase) approach. The single filter method could lessen the time needed for gravimetric determination by reducing the quantity of filters used for a test and possibly reduce the uncertainty in gravimetric measurements, particularly at sub 1 mg/mile PM levels. This study evaluates the single filter and, to a limited extent, the 2-filter alternatives adopted in 40 CFR Part 1066.

The three parameter Ramberg-Osgood (RO) method finds popular usage for extracting complete stress-strain curve from limited data which is usually available. The currently popular practice of assuming the plasticity to set in only at the Yield point provides computational advantage by separating the complete nonlinear curve, obtained from RO method, into elastic and plastic regions. It is shown, with an example problem, that serious errors are committed by using this method if one compares the obtained results with results of complete stress-strain curve. In the present work we propose a simple Taylor series based approach based on RO method to overcome the above deficiency. This method is found to be computationally efficient. The proposed method is applicable for stress-strain curves of materials for which RO method provides a good approximation.

This work reports on measurement and analysis of the galvanic interaction between steel self-piercing rivets (SPRs) having several different surface conditions and magnesium alloy substrates under consideration for use in automotive structural assemblies. Rivet surface conditions included uncoated steel, conventional Zn-Sn barrel plating and variations of commercial aluminizing processes, including supplemental layers and sealants. Coating characteristics were assessed using open circuit potential (OCP) measurement, potentiodynamic polarization scanning (PDS), and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The degree of galvanic coupling was determined using zero-resistance ammeter (ZRA) and the scanning vibrating electrode technique (SVET), which also permitted characterization of galvanic current flows in situ.