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The U.S. National Highway Transportation and Safety Agency's (NHTSA) early estimates of Motor Traffic Fatalities in 2009 in the United States [1] show continuing progress on improving traffic safety on the U.S. roadways. The number of total fatalities and the fatality rate per 100 Million Vehicle Miles (MVM), both show continuing declines. In the 10 year period from 1999 through 2009, the total fatalities have dropped from 41,611 to 33,963 and the fatality rate has dropped from 1.5 fatalities per 100MVM to 1.16 fatalities per 100MVM, a compound annual drop of 2.01% and 2.54% respectively. The large number of traffic fatalities, and the slowing down of the fatality rate decline, compared to the decade before, continues to remain a cause of concern for regulators.

Ammonia is one of the most useful compounds that react with NOx selectively on a catalyst, such as V2O5-TiO2, under oxygen containing exhaust gas. However ammonia cannot be stored because of its toxicity for the small power generator in populated areas or for the diesel vehicles. A new concept for NOx reduction in diesel engine using ammonia is introduced. This system is constructed from the hydrogen generator by fuel reformer, the ammonia synthesizer, SCR catalyst for NOx reduction and the gas injection system of reformed gas into the cylinder. Experimental results show that, the SCR catalyst provides a very high rate of NOx reduction, reformed gas injection into cylinder is very effective for particulate reduction. WHEN CONSIDERING INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES of the 1990's the question of how to harmonize the engine with the natural environments is one of the greatest problems. The internal combustion engine changes a substance into energy via its explosive combustion.

The objective of the development of the aerodynamic drag predictive tool CDaero was for use as a module for the Automobile Design Support System (AutoDSS). CDaero is an empirically based drag coefficient predictive tool based initially on the MIRA (Motor Industry Research Association) algorithm. The development philosophy was to be able to predict the aerodynamic drag coefficient of an automobile with knowledge of the features of the surface geometry control curves. These are the curves that control the 3-dimensional geometry as seen in the profile, plan and front and rear views. CDaero has been developed in a computing environment using the equation solver TKSolver™. Fifty-one input feature values are first determined from the automobile geometry and then entered into the program. CDaero models the drag coefficient with thirteen different components covering the basic body, as well as additional components such as the wheels, mud flaps, etc.

Powertrain electrification is becoming increasingly common in the transportation sector to address the challenges of global warming and deteriorating air quality. This paper introduces a novel “Build Your Hybrid” approach to experience and test various hybrid powertrain concepts. This approach is applied to the light commercial vehicles (LCV) segment due to the attractive combination of a Diesel engine and a partly electrified powertrain. For this purpose, a demonstrator vehicle has been set up with a flexible P02 hybrid topology and a prototype Hybrid Control Unit (HCU). Based on user input, the HCU software modifies the control functions and simulation models to emulate different sub-topologies and levels of hybridization in the demonstrator vehicle. Three powertrain concepts are considered for LCVs: HV P2, 48V P2 and 48V P0 hybrid. Dedicated hybrid control strategies are developed to take full advantage of the synergies of the electrical system and reduce CO2 and NOx emissions.

This paper discusses the use of electromechanical devices as the kinematic portions of a microprocessor based gas turbine control system. Specific applications are: 1. An electric motor driven, positive displacement pump, which provides metered high pressure fuel to the distribution manifold. Fuel metering to be provided by varying the motor angular velocity. 2. An electric motor driven lube oil pump. 3. Electromechnical actuators for motion and control of compressor and power turbine variable geometry. 4. A starter/generator integral with the gas generator. Topics covered include: Comparison to conventional hydro-mechanical systems. Response characteristics of the fuel pump and actuator systems. Brushless D.C. motor characteristics. Power electronics requirements for brushless D.C. motors. Control electronics interface with brushless D.C. motor systems. Reliability and maintainability issues. Diagnostic/prognostic enhancements.

As a typical parameter of the road-vehicle interface, the road friction potential acts an important factor that governs the vehicle motion states under certain maneuvering input, which makes the prior knowledge of maximum road friction capacity crucial to the vehicle stability control systems. Since the direct measure of the road friction potential is expensive for vehicle active safety system, the evaluation of this variable by cost effective method is becoming a hot issue all these years. A ‘wheel slip based’ maximum road friction coefficient estimation method based on a modified Dugoff tire model for distributed drive electric vehicles is proposed in this paper. It aims to evaluate the road friction potential with vehicle and wheel dynamics analyzing by using standard sensors equipped on production vehicle, and fully take the advantage of distributed EV that the wheel drive torque and rolling speed can be obtained accurately.

Regulated emissions from four current production European vehicles were measured over the Common Artemis Driving Cycles (CADC). Particulate Mass and Particle Number measurements were made in accordance with the newly-developed draft Particulate Measurement Programme (PMP) developed for the UN-ECE's expert group on pollution and energy (GRPE). During the test programme measurements were also made of currently non-regulated emissions including PAHs and speciation of the particulate material and key hydrocarbons. CADC results are presented for each of the four vehicles tested (one conventional gasoline vehicle, two different types of diesel without Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF) and one diesel with DPF) with results measured on the regulated New European Driving Cycle (NEDC) test for comparison. The emissions results on the Artemis cycles showed some significant differences from those on the regulated (NEDC) test cycle.

During several ISS missions, there were false alarms at both US and Russian smoke detectors. High local airborne particulate concentrations and interior deposits are considered the causes for such anomalies. Alternatives are proposed to replace or complement these faulty smoke detectors. The entrained zeolite particles may play a role in causing problems with check valves and air save pumps in CDRA and Vozdukh. Another incidence has been the dispersion of particulates out of Metox regeneration oven. Particulate matters with aerodynamic diameter of 15 microns and above, which normally settle down on earth, stay airborne under micro-gravity and thereby cause the above-mentioned nuisances. The motion of such a particle along a gas stream with an initial velocity can be expressed by theoretical equations. Stokes' Law leads to the descriptions of inertial precipitation of aerosols that are important in solving the issues.

Consideration of the approaching ‘energy crisis’ reveals two requirements for future light duty automotive engines. 1) maximum economy and 2) the ability (perhaps with detail design re-optimisation) to accept a range of fuels of petroleum or other extract, of differing ignition characteristics. One combustion system which meets these requirements is the MAN ‘FM’, the potential of which has already been demonstrated in truck-size engines but on which little information has been published in light-duty engine bore sizes. The paper describes both design and experimental work carried out to evaluate the application of the FM combustion system to a light duty passenger car engine. Consideration is given to the critical design parameters associated with the application of the FM system to a multi-cylinder gasoline based engine and how the criteria can be met. Details of the design and construction of a single cylinder derivative of the multi-cylinder engine are given.

Abstract An investigation into the pre-ashing of new gasoline particulate filters (GPFs) has demonstrated that the filtration efficiency of such filters can be improved by up to 30% (absolute efficiency improvement) when preconditioned using ash derived from a fuel-borne catalyst (FBC) additive. The additive is typically used in diesel applications to enable diesel particulate filter (DPF) regeneration and can be added directly into the fuel tank of the vehicle. This novel result was compared with ash derived from lube oil componentry, which has previously been shown to improve filtration efficiency in GPFs. The lube oil-derived ash utilized in this work improved the filtration efficiency of the GPF by −30%, comparable to the ash derived from the FBC additive.

Dynamic skip fire (DSF) has shown significant fuel economy improvement potential via reduction of pumping losses that generally affect throttled spark-ignition (SI) engines. In DSF operation, individual cylinders are fired on-demand near peak efficiency to satisfy driver torque demand. For vehicles with a downsized-boosted 4-cylinder engine, DSF can reduce fuel consumption by 8% in the WLTC (Class 3) drive cycle. The relatively low cost of cylinder deactivation hardware further improves the production value of DSF. Lean burn strategies in gasoline engines have also demonstrated significant fuel efficiency gains resulting from reduced pumping losses and improved thermodynamic characteristics, such as higher specific heat ratio and lower heat losses. Fuel-air mixture stratification is generally required to achieve stable combustion at low loads.

This study proposes a novel biofuel for spark ignition (SI) engine, α-pinene (C10H16), which is non-oxygenated and thus has a gravimetric energy density comparable to that of hydrocarbon fuels. The ignition characteristics of α-pinene were evaluated in an ignition quality tester (IQT) under standard temperature and pressure conditions. The measured ignition delay time (IDT) of α-pinene is 10.5 ms, which is lower than that of iso-octane, 17.9 ms. The estimated research octane number (RON) for pinene from IQT is 85. A temperature sweep in IQT showed that that α-pinene is less reactive at low temperatures, but more reactive at high temperatures when compared to isooctane. These results suggest that α-pinene has high octane sensitivity (OS) and is suitable for operation in turbocharged SI engines. With these considerations, α-pinene was operated in a single cylinder SI engine.

Φ-sensitivity is a fuel characteristic that has important benefits for the operation and control of low-temperature gasoline combustion (LTGC) engines. A fuel is φ-sensitive if its autoignition reactivity varies with the fuel/air equivalence ratio (φ). Thus, multiple-injection strategies can be used to create a φ-distribution that leads to several benefits. First, the φ-distribution causes a sequential autoignition that reduces the maximum heat release rate. This allows higher loads without knock and/or advanced combustion timing for higher efficiencies. Second, combustion phasing can be controlled by adjusting the fuel-injection strategy. Finally, experiments show that intermediate-temperature heat release (ITHR) increases with φ-sensitivity, increasing the allowable combustion retard and improving stability. A detailed mechanism was applied using CHEMKIN to understand the chemistry responsible for φ-sensitivity.

Using renewable fuels is a reliable approach for decarbonization of combustion engines. iso-Butanol and n-butanol are known as longer chain alcohols and have the potential of being used as gasoline substitute or a renewable fraction of gasoline. The combustion behavior of renewable fuels in modern combustion engines and advanced combustion concepts is not well understood yet. Low-temperature combustion (LTC) is a concept that is a basis for some of the low emissions-high efficiency combustion technologies. Fuel ɸ-sensitivity is known as a key factor to be considered for tailoring fuels for these engines. The Lund ɸ-sensitivity method is an empirical test method for evaluation of the ɸ-sensitivity of liquid fuels and evaluate fuel behavior in thermal. iso-Butanol and n-butanol are two alcohols which like other alcohol exhibit nonlinear behavior when blended with (surrogate) gasoline in terms of RON and MON.

This specification covers the characteristics of glass beads used for peening, and provides for standard glass bead size numbers.

This specification covers the characteristics of glass beads used for peening, and provides for standard glass bead size numbers.

The Swedish Biomimetics 3000's μMist® platform technology has been used to develop a radically new injection system. This prototype system, developed and characterized with support from Lotus, as part of Swedish Biomimetics 3000®'s V₂IO innovation accelerating model, delivers improved combustion efficiency through achieving exceptionally small droplets, at fuel rail pressures far less than conventional GDI systems and as low as PFI systems. The system gives the opportunity to prepare and deliver all of the fuel load for the engine while the intake valves are open and after the exhaust valves have closed, thereby offering the potential to use advanced charge scavenging techniques in PFI engines which have hitherto been restricted to direct-injection engines, and at a lower system cost than a GDI injection system.

This recommended practice prescribes clear and consistent labeling methodology for communicating important xEV high voltage safety information. Examples of such information include identifying key high voltage system component locations and high voltage disabling points. These recommendations are based on current industry best practices identified by the responder community. Although this recommended practice is written for xEVs with high voltage systems, these recommendations can be applied to any vehicle type.