Search Results

The friction pattern on the chamfers of sleeves and dog gears is a combination of peeling and adhesive wear caused by the formation and propagation of fine cracks. The effect of additional elements on wear were checked by making a test apparatus capable of performing evaluations on test pieces equivalent to those using actual parts. The results showed that the addition of B, Ti-Nb helped improve wear resistance. This is attributed to enhanced toughness and reduced peeling due to the formation of a texture. A 45% reduction in wear was achieved in actual parts tests on steel with added B, Ti-Nb.

Wear resistance is the important characteristics of cast iron materials for automobile components. Because the phenomenon of wear is a highly complicated mechanism involving many factors such as surface conditions, chemical reactions with lubricants, metals, and physics, it has not been fully explained. Therefore, it will be necessary to confirm and explain the wear mechanism to develop effective improvements. The purpose of this study was to investigate the structural change behavior and effects of alloying elements when the material top surface becomes worn, in order to improve the wear resistance of cylinder liners and other cast iron materials. For this purpose, several types of prototype materials were produced, and the relationship between components and wear resistance was investigated by using a laser microscope for quantitative observation of the degree of pearlite microstructure fineness.

Reducing friction between the piston ring and cylinder is an effective way of meeting the demand for lower fuel consumption in vehicle engines. To that effect, the authors have proposed a new and efficient friction reduction treatment for the cylinder. At first glance, this treatment seems similar to typical microtexture treatments, but it is built on a different approach. Through a rig tester, it was confirmed that optimizing the shape of the dimples and the treatment area for the cylinder improves FMEP between the piston ring and the cylinder liner by 17%. This report presents an analysis of the test results to explain the mechanism by which this effect is achieved. Fuel consumption was measured in an actual engine, and a maximum fuel consumption improvement of 3.2% was confirmed after conversion to the Japanese heavy duty vehicle fuel economy standards (Category T2). Lubricating oil consumption, blow-by and durability were also examined.

In heavy duty (HD) trucks cruising on expressway, about 60% of input fuel energy is wasted as losses. So it is important to recover them to improve fuel economy of them. As a waste heat recovery system, a Rankine cycle generating system was selected. And this paper mainly reports it. In this study, engine coolant was determined as main heat source, which collected energies of an engine cooling, an EGR gas and an exhaust gas, for collecting stable energy as much as possible. And the exergy of heat source was raised by increase coolant temperature to 105 deg C. As for improving the system efficiency, saturation temperature difference was expanded by improving performance of heat exchanger and by using high pressure turbine. And a recuperator which exchanges heat in working fluid between expander outlet and evaporator inlet was installed to recover the heat of working fluid at turbine generator. Then a working fluid pump was improved to reduce power consumption of the system.

An on board burner that enables DPF regeneration even when an engine is at standstill has been researched. By employing pre evaporative combustion with a wick burner, miniaturization of the burner system was successfully accomplished as well as stable ignition and combustion. Total heat necessary for DPF regeneration was reduced in comparison to the active DPF regeneration by means of engine control and an oxidation catalyst. Uneven temperature distribution in DPF and excessive temperature rise, which had been recognized as issues in the regeneration of a DPF while engine is at standstill, were solved by increase of combustion air amount and multi-step control of regeneration temperature and reliable regeneration was accomplished.

A fuel reforming technology using a low temperature oxidation was developed to improve a NOx reduction performance of HC-SCR (Hydrocarbons Selective Catalytic Reduction) system, which does not require urea. The low-temperature oxidization of a diesel fuel in gas phase produces NOx reduction agents with high NOx reduction ability such as aldehydes and ketones. A pre-evaporation-premixing-type reformer was adopted in order to generate a uniform temperature field and a uniform fuel/air premixed gas, and to promote the low temperature oxidation efficiently. As a fundamental study, elementary reaction analysis for n-hexadecane/air premixtures was carried out to investigate the suitable reformer temperature and fuel/air equivalence ratio for generation of oxygenated hydrocarbons. It was found that the reforming efficiency was highest at the reforming temperature around 623 to 673K, and aldehydes and ketones were produced.

When the engine oil evaporates in the crankcase, it is necessary to discharge to the outside of the engine or returns to the intake air as part of blow-by gas. The amount of oil content in the blow-by gas is preferable to be as small as possible. This paper researched the evaporation characteristics of diesel engine oil for heavy duty into blow-by gas using 5W-30 and 10W-30 engine oils with the equivalent to Noack. As a result, it is found that evaporate phenomenon cannot be explained well enough by just Noack and clarified of the oil evaporation mechanism in blow-by gas.

The change in the smoke emissions from a diesel engine with the shapes of the combustion chamber and the in-cylinder density was investigated with focuses on the mixing and the soot formation in a spray flame. First, the mixing of the fuel and air between the nozzle exit and the set-off length was used as an indicator for the formation of soot. Although this indicator can explain the influence of the density, it cannot explain the changes in the smoke emissions with a change in the shape of the combustion chamber. Next, by focusing on the soot distribution in a quasi-steady-state spray flame, the soot formed in the high-density condition of an optically accessible engine was investigated by applying two-color method. These results showed that the positional relationship between the maximum soot amount position and the flame impinging position can be a major influence on the smoke emissions.

The coupling behavior of the torsional, bending, and longitudinal vibrations in the crankshaft is described. The incidental excitation forces under crankshaft torsional vibration due to reciprocating and rotating masses are derived theoretically. Experiments on the coupling behavior of the crankshaft vibrations and the excitation behavior in the engine structure were performed in a four-cylinder automotive engine; their results are discussed.

Austenitic stainless JIS SUS316L (16Cr–12Ni–2Mo) steel equivalent material that offers excellent hydrogen embrittlement resistance is used for the high pressure hydrogen pathways in FCEVs. However, there is a need to switch to less expensive material. This paper proposes a technique to evaluate hydrogen embrittlement simulated in high-pressure hydrogen environments based on the use of cathode charging and slow strain rate testing (SSRT) at atmospheric pressure, while also providing an analysis of the hydrogen embrittlement mechanism. At the same time, it presents an evaluation of hydrogen embrittlement resistance of ferrite material, a candidate low-cost material.