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Proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) system is expected to be the next generation vehicle powertrain. However, water management is still the main problem which directly affects the performance, reliability and durability in PEMFC system. To ensure the accurate water content estimation, High Frequency Resistance (HFR) is the most representative indicator in laboratory. The HFR is calculated by detecting the Alternating Current (AC) voltage response of fuel cell under the excitation of 1k Hz AC current. The voltage level of the AC excitation affects the measurement of HFR. Generally, 5mV AC excitation is used to measure HFR for the fuel cell with an output voltage between 0.6-1V. So, online HFR monitor is a big challenge for vehicle application, due to its low Signal/Noise Ratio (S/N), poor Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) environment, high common mode voltage and several hundred cells. In this work, an online fuel cell HFR monitor controller is developed.

By changing the top-land radial clearance, this paper presents the effect of the piston crevice on the transient HC emissions of the first firing cycle at cold start on an LPG SI Engine. A fast-response flame ionization detector (FFID) was employed to measure transient HC emissions of the first firing cycle. At the same time, the transient cylinder pressure and instantaneous crankshaft speed of the engine were measured and recorded. The results show that increasing 50% crevice volume leads to 25% increase of HC emissions in the lean region and 18% increase of HC emissions in the rich region, however, the 50% increase of crevice volume contributes to 32% decease of HC emissions in the stable combustion region. For LPG SI engine, the HC emissions of the first firing cycle during cold start are relatively low in a wide range of the excess air ratio.

The effectiveness of after-treatment systems depends on the exhaust gas temperature, which is low during cold-start. As a result, Euro III, Euro IV and FTP75 require that the emissions tests include exhaust from the beginning of cold start. It is proved that 50%∼80% of HC and CO emissions are emitted during the cold start and the amount of unburned fuel from the crevices during starting is much higher than that under warmed engine conditions. The piston crevices is the most part of combustion chamber crevices, and results of mathematical simulations show that the piston crevice contribution to HC emissions is expected to increase during cold engine operation. Based on the transient HC test data and the double zone combustion model, this paper presents the study of the crevice HC Mechanism of the first firing cycle at cold start on an LPG SI Engine. A fast-response flame ionization detector (FFID) was employed to measure transient HC emissions of the first firing cycle.

In this paper, a case study of Shanghai HEVs application and its effects on the social and environmental benefits are presented based on the multi views on the different aspects, such as, not only for the fuel consumption saving, but also emissions reduction and health effect, agriculture loss and cleaning cost. The results show that the potential benefits for the society from HEVs application are markedly with the increase of the ratio of HEV in the population of vehicle. Based on this, the policy to promote the HEV purchased by consumers is very important at the beginning of HEV into market.

According to the requirements of two-wheel vehicle's future market and the characteristic of urban road conditions in China, the advantages and disadvantages of three basic configurations for the Hybrid Electric Vehicle are compared, finally, the serial hybrid configuration is chosen to be applied to hybrid Electric Moped solution. The selection principle of main components of this hybrid powertrain system includes ICE, generator, battery and hub motor, and the optimal match for performance parameters of these components are introduced in this paper. Then, a hybrid system model is established based on AVL-CRUISE. The simulations of fuel efficiency and exhaust emissions for both serial hybrid moped and conventional motorcycle is offered.

The exhaust aftertreatment strategy is one of the most fundamental aspects of spark ignition engine technologies. For various types of engines (e.g., carburetor engine, PFI engine and GDI engine), measuring, purifying, modeling, and control strategies regarding the exhaust aftertreatment systems vary significantly. The primary goal of exhaust aftetreatment systems is to reduce the exhaust emission levels of NOx, HC and CO as well as to lower combustion soot. In general, there is a tradeoff among different engine performance aspects. The exhaust catalytic systems, such as the three way catalyst (TWC) and lean NOx trap (LNT) converters, can be applied together with the development of other engine technologies (e.g., variable valve timing, cold start). With respect to engine soot, some advanced diagnosing techniques are essential to obtain thorough investigation of exhaust emission mechanisms.

It is very important to investigate how road irregularity excitation will affect the durability, reliability, and performance degradation of fuel cell vehicle powertrain and its key components, including the electric motor, power control unit, power battery package and fuel cell engine system. There are very few published literatures in this research area. In this paper, an elementary but integrated experimental work is described, including the real road load sample on proving ground, road load reproduction on vibration test rig, total vehicle road simulation test and key components vibration tests. Remote parameter control technology is adopted to reproduce the real road load on road simulator and six-degree-of-freedom vibration table, which is used respectively for total vehicle and components vibration tests.

“Soichiro Honda Cup, Honda Econo-Power Competition”, is an annual international energy-saving competition which is hosted by Honda Motor Co., Ltd. Till now it has been held 27 sessions. The aims of the EP project are: promoting the development of environmental protection, making full use of limit earth resources, challenging the fuel consumption limitation of vehicle. Tongji University's students' team has participated in the competition for seven consecutive times. In order to minimize the fuel consumption of the EP energy-saving vehicle, this paper focuses on the technical methods of improving the fuel economy of the engine. Firstly, the optimization of the carburetor. Secondly, for the purpose of improving combustion efficiency, researches on dual spark plug and compression ratio are done.

The price of fossil fuels and the increasing inexorable energy crisis have become vital issues for everyone. Tongji University EconoPower Racing Team was established to participate in the “Honda EconoPower Cup” annually. Every contestant in the competition must finish a certain distance in the fixed time, with the gasoline supplied by the committee. After that the committee will measure the fuel consumption of every team and calculate the distance per liter fuel (the farther the better) to determine the champion. In order to enhance the EP vehicle's achievement we've made some improvements, such as framework, body, engine's optimization and so on. In this passage we mainly state some details of our research approaches in framework, steering, transmission, shape and driving strategy. The main technologies were: friction reduction, lightweight, enhancement of power train efficiency, tire selection and driving strategy.

Combustion and emission characteristics of diesel and biodiesel blends (soybean methyl ester) were studied in a single-cylinder Direct Injection (DI) engine at different loads and a constant speed. The results show that NOx emission and fuel consumption are increased with increasing biodiesel percentage. Reduction of smoke opacity is significant at higher loads with a higher biodiesel ratio. Compared with the baseline diesel fuel, B20 (20% biodiesel) has a slight increase of NOx emission and similar fuel consumption. Smoke emission of B20 is close to that of diesel fuel. Results of combustion analysis indicate that start of combustion (SOC) for biodiesel blends is earlier than that for diesel. Higher biodiesel percentage results in earlier SOC. Earlier SOC for biodiesel blends is due to advanced injection timing from higher density and bulk modulus and lower ignition delay from higher cetane number.

In this paper, the characteristics of performance and emissions of diesel and biodiesel blends are studied in a four-cylinder DI engine employing common rail injection system. The results show that engine output power is further reduced and brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC) increased with the increase of the blend concentration. B100 provides average reduction by 8.6% in power and increase by 11% in BSFC. With respect to the emissions, although NOx emissions were increased with increasing the blend concentration, the increase depends on the load. Filter smoke number is reduced with increasing the blend concentration. At the same time, NO, NO2 and other specific emissions are also investigated. In addition, difference of performance and emission between standard parameters of ECU and modified parameters of ECU is investigated for B10 and B20 based on same output power. The results show that NOx emission and FSN are still lower than baseline diesel.

In this paper, characteristics of gas emission and particle size distribution are investigated in a common rail diesel engine fueled with biodiesel blends. Gas emission and particle size distribution are measured by AVL FTIR - SESAM and SMPS respectively. The results show that although biodiesel blends would result in higher NOx emissions, characteristics of NOx emissions were also dependent on the engine load for waste cooking oil methyl ester. Higher blend concentration results in higher NO2 emission after two diesel oxidation catalyst s (DOC). A higher blend concentration leads to lower CO and SO2 emissions. No significant difference of Alkene emission is found among biodiesel blends. The particle size distributions of diesel exhaust aerosol consist of a nucleation mode (NM) with a peak below 50N• m and an accumulation mode with a peak above 50N • m. B100 will result in lower particulates with the absence of NM.

This paper describes a methodology to estimate longitudinal velocity of a 4-wheel-drive electric vehicle, in which wheel driven torque can be independently controlled by electric motor. Without non-driven wheels it would be difficult to estimate the vehicle longitudinal velocity precisely, especially when all of four wheels have large slip ratio. Therefore, an estimation methodology based on fuzzy logic is put forward, which uses four wheel speed and longitudinal acceleration as input signals. However, this method works not very well when two or more wheels have large slip ratio. In order to improve estimation effect, a state variable filter is designed to calculate wheel acceleration signals, which are used as additional signals to the fuzzy logic observer. Furthermore, the possibility of using four wheel driving torque signals to improve the estimation precision is also discussed.

The active components, such as OH and their concentrations in the coflow, have a strong effect on the combustion process of diesel fuel spray flames in the Controllable Active Thermo-Atmosphere (CATA), which then will affect the soot incandescence of the spray flames. CO2 and H2O2, the additives which have contrary effect on the concentration of the active components, were mixed separately into the thermo-atmosphere before the jet spray were issued into the coflow, which changed the boundary condition around the central jet and influenced the combustion characteristics and soot incandescence. The combustion characteristics such as ignition delay and flame liftoff height of the central spray flames are measured and the linkage between these two parameters is investigated at different coflow temperatures.

This paper describes a methodology to estimate yaw rate of a 4-wheel-drive electric vehicle, in which wheel driven torque can be independently controlled by electric motor. Without non-driven wheels it would be difficult to estimate the vehicle yaw rate precisely, especially when some of the four wheels have large slip ratio. Therefore, a model based estimation methodology is put forward, which uses four wheel speeds, steering wheel angle and vehicle lateral acceleration as input signals. Firstly the yaw rate is estimated through three different ways considering both vehicle kinematics and vehicle dynamics. Vehicle kinematics based method has good estimation accuracy even when the vehicle has large lateral acceleration. However, it can not provide satisfying results when the wheel has large slip ratio. In contrast, vehicle dynamics based method is not so sensitive to wheel slip ratio.

The effects of biodiesel on the swelling of the elastomers and plastics and the corrosion of metals are studied by the immersion tests. The results indicate that biodiesels make little corrosion effect on aluminum, steel and little swelling impact on plastics, but a significant corrosion may be taken place on cooper and brass for some sourced biodiesels. For nitrile-butadiene rubber, the variation of swelling properties in biodiesels is slightly higher than that in diesel. For the non-diesel-resistant elatomers, the variation of swelling properties is lower than those in diesel. The production process and biodiesel source have an influence on the result of elastomer swelling and corrosion. The relationship between the impact of biodiesel on materials and biodiesels properties are also discussed.

A biodiesel fuel, obtained from Jatropha seed in China, was tested in a direct injection, high pressure common-rail diesel engine for passenger cars. Effects of biodiesel on particle number and size distribution of the diesel engine are studied using an Engine Exhaust Particle Sizer (EEPS). Base petroleum diesel fuel, 10% and 20% v/v biodiesel blends with the base petroleum diesel fuel, the biodiesel fuel (B0, B10, B20 and B100 fuels) were tested without engine modification. For all test fuels, the particle number and size distribution show unimodal or bimodal log-normal distribution, with a nucleation mode peak value in 6.04nm to 10.8nm particle diameter, and with an accumulation mode peak value in 39.2nm to 60.4nm particle diameter.

Engine-off strategy are popular used in hybrid electric vehicles (HEV) for fuel saving. The engine of an HEV will start and stop frequently according to the road condition. In order to obtain excellent fuel economy and emissions performance, the fuel injection during engine quick start should be optimized. In this paper, the characteristic of mixture formation and the HC emissions at the first 5 cycles which contribute the most HCs were investigated. After the analysis of mixture preparation during start process, the HC emissions during engine quick start were optimized by means of cycle-by-cycle fuel injection control strategy. The fuel mixture concentration during start-up process fluctuates more dramatically under hot start condition. Typically, the mixture at 4th and 5th cycle is over-riched. Based on the original engine calibration, the fuel injection at the initial 5 cycles was optimized respectively.

In this paper a method of misfiring control in current cycle at engine start is presented. With this novel method, the high HC emissions of gasoline engine employed in traditional or hybrid electrical vehicles will be avoided. By the feedback of ion current signal, misfire phenomenon is identified within 30 degrees crank angle after spark plug ignited. Then, the ignition coil will be recharged and the plug sparked again to promote air fuel mixture oxidation and deplete the unburned hydrocarbon produces in exhaust gas. On the other hand, too late ignition will not always result in normal combustion, a kind of reaction similar with slow oxidation also occurs in such case.

The frame of a low-speed electric vehicle was treated as the research object in the paper. The fatigue load of the frame was analyzed with multi-body dynamics method and the fatigue life of frame was analyzed with the nominal stress method. Firstly, the multi-body dynamics model of the vehicle was established and the multi-body dynamics simulation was carried out to simulate the condition where the vehicle used to travel. The fatigue load history of the frame was obtained from the simulation. Secondly, the amplitude-frequency characteristic of the fatigue load was analyzed. The frequency of the fatigue load mainly focused on 0~20HZ from the analysis. Thirdly, the modal of frame was analyzed. As the frequency of the fatigue load was less than the natural frequency of the frame, the quasi-static method was selected to calculate the stress history of the frame. Next, the fatigue life of the frame was analyzed based on S-N curve.