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A combined experimental and computational study of 3-D unsteady compressible flow in exhaust manifold and CCC system was performed to understand the flow characteristics and to improve the flow distribution of pulsating exhaust gases within monolith. An experimental study was carried out to measure the velocity distribution in production exhaust manifold and CCC under engine operating conditions using LDV (Laser Doppler Velocimetry) system. Velocity characteristics were measured at planes 25 mm away from the front surface of first monolith and between two monolithic bricks. To provide boundary conditions for the computational study, velocity fields according to crank angle were also measured at the entrance of exhaust manifold. The comparisons of exhaust gas flow patterns in the junction and mixing pipe between experimental and computational results were made.

As the current and future emission regulations become stringent, the research on exhaust manifold with CCC (Close Coupled Catalyst) has been the interesting and remarkable subject. To design of exhaust manifold with CCC is a difficult task due to the complexity of the flow distribution caused by the pulsating flows that are emitted at the exhaust ports. This study is concerned with the theoretical and experimental approach to improve catalyst flow uniformity through the basic understanding of exhaust flow characteristics. Computational and experimental approach to the flow for exhaust manifold of conventional cast type, stainless steel bending type with 900 cell CCC system in a 4-cylinder gasoline engine was performed to investigate the flow distribution of exhaust gases.

A study for improving the resistance to fretting corrosion of SCr 420 pinion gear was conducted. Fretting is the damage to contacting surfaces experiencing slight relative reciprocating sliding motion of low amplitude. Fretting corrosion is the fretting damage to unlubricated contacting surfaces accompanied by corrosion, mostly oxidation that occurs if the fretting occurs in air. Two kinds of conventional heat treatment and a newly designed one suggested for improving the resistance to the fretting corrosion of pinion gear were compared each other to find out what is the main factor for generating fretting corrosion phenomenon. Increased carbon potential at both the heating and diffusing zone and reduced time of tempering was found out to be a solution for improving the resistance to fretting corrosion of forged and heat treated gear steel. On the contrary, modified carbo-nitriding using ammonia gas has been getting worse the fretting corrosion problem.

Diesel engines are the most commonly used power train of the freight and public transportations in the world. From the viewpoint of global warming restraint, however, reduction of exhaust emissions from the diesel engine is urgent demand. Stringent emission regulations are being proposed with growing concern on NOx, PM and CO2 emissions. Future emission regulations require advanced emission control technologies, such as SCR(Selective Catalytic Reduction), LNT(Lean NOx Trap) and EGR(Exhaust Gas Recirculation). The EGR is a commonly used technique to reduce emission. In this study, a LP-EGR(Low Pressure Exhaust Gas Recirculation) system was investigated to evaluate its potential on emission reduction and fuel economy improvement, especially for a passenger diesel engine. A 3.0ℓ diesel engine equipped with the LP-EGR system was tested using an in-house control algorithm.

Recently, upon customer’s needs for noise-free brake, carmakers are increasingly widely installing damping kits in their braking systems. However, an installation of the damping kits may excessively increase softness in the brake system, by loosening stroke feeling of a brake pedal and increasing compressibility after durability. To find a solution to alleviate this problem, we first conducted experiments to measure compressibility of shims by varying parameters such as adhesive shims (e.g., bonding spec., steel and rubber thickness), piston’s shapes (e.g., different contact areas to the shims), and the numbers of durability. Next, we installed a brake feeling measurement system extended from a brake pedal to caliper. We then compared experimental parameters with brake feeling in a vehicle. Finally, we obtained an optimized level of brake feeling by utilizing the Design for Six Sigma (DFSS).

As environmental problems such as global warming are emerging, regulations on automobile exhaust gas are strengthened and various exhaust gas reduction technologies are being developed in various countries in order to satisfy exhaust emission regulations. Exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) technology is a very effective way to reduce nitrogen oxides (NOx) at high combustion temperatures by using EGR coolers to lower the combustion temperature. This EGR cooler has been mass-produced in stainless steel, but it is expensive and heavy. Recently, high efficiency and compactness are required for the EGR cooler to meet the new emission regulation. If aluminum material is applied to the EGR cooler, heat transfer efficiency and light weight can be improved due to high heat transfer coefficient of aluminum compared to conventional stainless steel, but durability is insufficient. Therefore, the aluminum EGR cooler has been developed to enhance performance and durability.

Non-Asbestos Organic (NAO) disc pads and Low Steel Lomet disc pads were subjected to high and low humidity conditions to discover how humidity affects these two classes of formulations for physical properties, friction, wear and noise characteristics. The 2 classes of formulations show similarities and differences in response to increasing humidity. The humidity effect on deformation of the surface microstructure of the gray cast iron disc is also investigated. Humidity implications for pad quality control and brake testing are discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to identify and reduce a knocking noise from a rear suspension. First, the characteristics of a knocking noise are analyzed experimentally in the frequency domain. It was found that the knocking noise of a passenger room and vibration at a lower arm, a subframe and a floor are strongly correlated. Second, the knocking noise sensitivity is strongly dependent on suspension dynamics characteristics. Moreover, the improvement of ride comfort and noise was achieved simultaneously based on simulation analysis, principle vehicle testing. A design parameter study shows that the trailing arm bush stiffness, shock absorber bump/rebound damping characteristics, floor stiffness and shock absorber insulator bushing are one of the most sensitive parameter to affect the suspension knocking noise. Finally, this paper shows how the suspension knocking noise and ride comfort can be improved considering handling performance.

An engineering strategy to develop a new 27-ton dump truck is introduced in the process of design and analysis. Main engineering concerns in development of the new dump truck are focused on reducing weight as much as 180kg without deteriorating structural strength and fatigue life of its upper body - deck and subframe. To achieve this goal, a stress analysis and a fatigue life prediction based on CAE technique are employed at the early stage of design process. A finite element model of the full vehicle was constructed for the strength analysis. Then the fatigue life was predicted through the strength analysis and an S-N curve of high strength steel. The S-N curve for welded structures made of high strength steel was used along with a prototype vehicle's endurance test in order to set strength targets. As a result, the upper body was successfully developed without any fatigue issues.

High specific power, additional hardware and mapping optimization was done to achieve reduction of fuel economy for current engine in this study. 2 stage turbocharger with serial configuration was best candidate not only for high specific power at high engine speed but also for increase of low end torque for current engine. This increase of low end torque is important for development of transient characteristic of vehicle. DoE and efficient EGR Cooler was applied for optimization of fuel economy. DoE was useful for optimization of fuel consumption affected by various fuel injection parameters. This DoE was also efficient for matching optimal fuel economy after change of engine hardware. Performance improvement of engine with 2 stage turbocharger VGT was evaluated and additional development of fuel economy was performed in this study.

We developed new single coated Pd/Rh three-way catalysts (TWC). Several Pd/Rh single layered catalysts were prepared by changing the precious metal (PM) fixation method and adding new base metal oxides (BMO). These samples were compared with double-coated catalyst by using model gas activity test, BET test, XRD test and vehicle emission test. It is found that the performance of the single coated catalyst is as good as that of commercialized double-coated catalyst. The oxygen storage capacity of the single coated catalyst is better than that of double-coated catalyst. Moreover, manufacturing the single coated catalyst enables us to eliminate the unnecessary coating process which is essential to the conventional one. Our test results demonstrate that the developed catalyst has sufficient activity and durability of OSC to meet emission and OBD-II regulations.

High speed natural light motion picture records synchronized with head gasket ionization probe and in-cylinder pressure data have been made in the transparent engine of different combustion chamber configurations. For knocking cycles, the head gasket ionization current method simultaneously taken with pressure data was able to find the location of knocking occurrence. To investigate the effects of combustion chamber configurations, the flame propagation experiments for pent-roof combustion chamber with center ignition ( Modified Type I engine ) and modified pent-roof ( Type II engine ) combustion chamber were performed with high speed natural light photography technique. The flame propagation of Modified Type I engine represents more uniform patterns than that of Type II engine. The investigation of knocking combustion was also made possible by observing flame propagation with the measuring techniques that use head gasket ionization probe and in-cylinder pressure data.

As the markets require a more environmentally friendly and high fuel consumption vehicle, we have to satisfy bilateral target. Though many new after-treatment techniques like LNT, SCR are investigated to meet both strong emission regulations and low fuel consumption, high cost of these techniques should be solved to adopt widely. This paper describes how to optimize the dual loop EGR as a tool to reduce CO₂ emission of a HSDI diesel engine in the passenger car application. Focus is not only on the optimization to obtain the maximum CO₂ reduction but also on how to assess and overcome various side effects. As a result of careful optimization, as much as 6% CO₂ reduction was achieved by introduction of low pressure EGR loop, maintaining the same boundary conditions as those with high pressure EGR loop only.

In the era of electric vehicles(EVs), the need for weight reduction of the vehicle body is increasing in order to maximize the driving distance of the EV. Accordingly, there is an increasing need for research to efficiently apply lightweight materials, such as aluminum and CFRP, to the EV body parts. In this study, design methodologies and optimization measures to increase lightweight efficiency when applying lightweight materials to EVs will be discussed. Based on theoretical basis and basic performance of each part of the EV, the “Material Substitution Method” of replacing existing parts of a steel body with aluminum materials will be defined, and the optimal design process on how to overcome performance trade-off caused by material characteristics will be addressed. In applying the “Material Substitution Method” to the actual EV body design process, it was possible to convert 93% of the components from steel to aluminum and reduce the overall weight of the body by 23%.

A study of unsteady compressible flow for two types of exhaust manifold and CCC (Close-Coupled Catalyst) systems attached to a 4-cylinder DOHC gasoline engine was carried out to investigate the flow distribution of exhaust gases and finally to make the conversion efficiency of catalyst better. An experimental study was conducted, using LDV technique, to measure the velocity distributions inside exhaust manifolds and CCC under practical engine conditions. In this study, through experiment and calculation, the effects of geometric configuration of exhaust manifold on flow maldistribution in monolith were mainly investigated to understand the exhaust flow structure in terms of flow uniformity and to improve the conversion efficiency. As a result of this fundamental study, the modified exhaust manifold (Type B) was designed and manufactured. Full load performance tests and vehicle emission tests were performed to see the effects of flow characteristics on engine performance and emission.

The controlled rolling process has been introduced to increase strength and toughness of alloy steels for the application of transmission gear. Cr-Mo alloy steel containing 0.02% Nb was controlled rolled in the temperature range of 870-970°C, showed fine austenite grain size, about ASTM No.11, resulted from the effects of recrystallization and Nb(C,N) precipitation. To investigate the effects of grain refinement on mechanical properties, several tests were conducted for the newly developed controlled rolled steel and conventional Ni-Cr-Mo alloy steel after carburizing. The new steel showed 2.1 times higher pitting resistance than the conventional steel. Fatigue limits of new and conventional steels were 950 and 930 MPa respectively. Charpy impact energy of new steel was improved about 35% compared with the conventional steel. Consequently, the pinion gear from the new steel instead of conventional one showed enhanced performance, especially pitting resistance, in dynamometer test.

Improved Lean NOx Trap (LNT) catalysts with enhanced NH3 generation feature were developed for the small diesel engine. The next generation LNT system needs to perform good NOx conversions over the wide temperature range including below 200°C for urban driving and above 400°C for motorway of real road driving. However, the extended use of BaO, a component of LNT known to be very effective for high temperature NOx storage, results in the decrease of low temperature NOx conversion due to the degradation of NO oxidation associating with sulfur over time. The improvement of the low-temperature LNT performance is a key requirement for the real driving emission control as the best operation temperature for urea-SCR is above ~250°C. In this study, our next generation LNT with new washcoat architecture has demonstrated improved NOx removal efficiencies under the wider operation temperature window than the current production technology.

Hyundai's new engine is developed which optimize the cooling efficiency for knocking improvement and friction reduction. The cooling concepts for this purpose are 1) equalizing the temperature among cylinders by flow optimization, 2) cooling the required area intensively, 3) adopting ‘active flow control’ and 4) enlarging fuel economy at high speed range. In order to realize the cooling concept, 1) cross-flow, 2) compact water jacket & exhaust cooling, 3) flow control valve and 4) cylinder head with integrated exhaust manifold are considered. Improvement of knocking and friction reduction by increased cooling water temperature makes fuel efficiency possible. On the other hand, in order to strengthen the cooling around the combustion chamber and to reduce the deviation among the combustion chamber of cylinders, it is required to design the head water jacket shape accordingly.

The focus of this paper is to develop an innovative vehicle layout and optimize vehicle body structure with the latest lightweight steel technologies, such as hydro-forming and hot stamping. Our BIW structure achieved a mass savings of 28 kg (−10%) compared to the mass of baseline BIW structure. (Base BIW : MD_Elantra)

Recently, the design of automotive headlamps has become diversified and complicated according to customer needs. Hence, structural complexity of the headlamps has also increased. Complex structure of the headlamps inevitably causes a disturbance in air circulation. For this reason, inadvertent micro-sized water droplets, called fogging, are condensed on the inner surface of headlamp lens due to temperature difference between the inner and outer lens surfaces. To circumvent fogging inside of the headlamp lens, an anti-fogging coating is indispensable. Conventionally, diverse surfactants have been adopted as substantial material for the anti-fogging coating. However, the usage of the surfactants causes undesirable side effect such as water mark arising from vapor condensation, which is an important issue that must be fully resolved. In this study, we developed an innovative anti-fogging coating material without using conventional surfactant.