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A new concept for diesel combustion has been investigated by means of engine experiments and combustion observations in order to realize a simultaneous reduction of NOx and particulate emissions. The concept is based on pre-mixed compression ignition combustion combined with multiple injection. In this method, some part of fuel is injected at an early stage of the process to form a homogeneous lean pre-mixture, then the remaining fuel is injected at around the TDC in the same manner as a conventional diesel injection. The emissions, ROHR (rate of heat release), and combustion pictures of conventional combustion, pilot injection combustion, and this new combustion concept were compared and analyzed. Engine tests were carried out using a single cylinder research engine equipped with a common rail injection system.

Since in-cylinder flame temperature has a direct effect on an engine's NOx characteristics, these phenomena have been studied in detail in a DI diesel engine using a newly developed method allowing the in-cylinder temperature distribution to be measured by the two color method. The flame light introduced from the visualized combustion chamber of the engine is divided into two colors by filters. The images of combustion phenomena using the two wavelengths are recorded with a framing streak camera which includes a CCD camera. The flame temperature is immediately calculated by a computer using two color images from the CCD camera. A parameter study was then carried out to determine the influence of intake valve number of the engine, and fuel injection rate (pilot injection) on the in-cylinder temperature distribution.

The objective of this study is to improve fuel economy and reduce carbon dioxide emissions in diesel-electric hybrid automotive powertrains by developing an exhaust gas turbine generator system which utilizes exhaust gas energy from the turbocharger waste gate. The design of the exhaust gas turbine generator was based on a conventional turbocharger for a direct-injection diesel engine. Data from steady-state bench tests using air indicates about 50% of the turbine input energy can be converted to electric energy. Turbine generator output averaged 3 kW, while a maximum of about 6 kW was observed. Based on this data, we estimate that energy consumption in a vehicle could be reduced between 5% and 10%. Engine tests were conducted under both steady-state and transient conditions. These tests revealed that optimal performance occurred under high-speed, high-load conditions, typical of highway or uphill driving, and that performance at low-speed, low-loads was relatively poor.

Historically the high speed diesel engine for commercial vehicles has been developed along with its combustion system in compliance with political and economical changes. After the 1970's, stricter exhaust emission regulations and fuel economy requirements induced combustion developments and application of turbocharged and inter cooled engines. From the late 1980's, high pressure fuel injection has been investigated and recognized as an essential tool for lowering emissions especially of particulate matter. Although turbulence effects on both in-cylinder air motion and during the combustion process are quite effective, they show different phenomena in conventional and advanced high pressure fuel injection systems. In the 1990's, multiple injection with high pressure has been attempted for further reduction of NOx and particulate matter.

A new concept for diesel combustion was investigated by means of numerical simulation, engine experiment, and combustion observation in order to realize a simultaneous reduction of NOx and particulate emission. This concept (HiMICS: Homogeneous charge intelligent Multiple Injection Combustion System) is based on pre-mixed compression ignition combustion combined with multiple injection. Combustion characteristics of HiMICS concept was investigated by comparing with both a standard single injection and a pilot injection. In HiMICS concept, the pre-mixture is formed by a preliminary injection performed during a period from the early stage of the induction stroke to the middle stage of the compression stroke. Modified KIVA-II code was used to predict engine performances and emissions of each injection method. The simulation results show a capability of considerable improvement in the trade-off relation between NOx emissions and fuel consumption of HiMICS.

Since in-cylinder flame temperature has a direct effect on an engine's NOx characteristics, this phenomena has been studied in detail in a multi-cylinder DI diesel engine using a new method allowing the in-cylider temperature distribution to be measured by the two color method. An endoscope is installed in the combustion chamber and flame light introduced from the endoscope is divided into two colors by filters. The images of combustion phenomena using the two wavelengths are recorded with a framing streak camera which includes a CCD camera. The flame temperature and KL factor are immediately calculated by a computer using the two color images from the CCD camera. In the case of EGR, the test was conducted under 75% load conditions. The flame temperature was reduced according to an increase of EGR rate.

Recently, as one of the effective measures for engine noise reduction, vibration damping steel sheets (VDSS) have been increasingly applied to engine oil sumps. This paper describes the formability of VDSS. Various factors closely related to drawability are considered. This study has been carried out in a production engineering process of manufacturing exceedingly deep, single blank sheet, oil sump for heavy-duty truck diesel engines. Some treatment of the surface of the VDSS was found to be a principal factor influencing deep drawability.

This paper describes the experimental studies of turbocharged and intercooled diesel engines with particular emphasis on combustion characteristics following increase of boost pressure. Through these studies, it has become possible to determine the optimum air quantity for minimizing fuel consumption at each engine speed range under the restrictive conditions of NOx emission, exhaust smoke and maximum cylinder pressure. Discussed also is the lack of air quantity in the low engine speed range of high-boost turbocharged diesel engines. Various turbocharging systems to improve air quantity in this speed range are introduced herein. Practically the engine performance of conventional turbocharging, waste gate control turbocharging and variable geometry turbocharging are discussed from the viewpoint of torque recovery in the low engine speed range.

Diesel particulate trap systems are one of the effective means for the control of particulate emission from diesel vehicles. Hino has been researching and developing various diesel particulate trap systems for city buses. This paper describes two of the systems. One uses a wall flow filter equipped with an electric heater and a sensing device for particulate loading for the purpose of filter regeneration. Another makes use of a special filter named “Cross Flow Filter” with an epoch-making regeneration method called “Reverse Jet Cleaning”, by which it becomes possible to separate the part for particulate burning from the filter. Both systems roughly have come to satisfy the functions of trap systems for city buses, but their durability and reliability for city buses are not yet sufficient.

Thai Hino Industries, one of Hino Motors Ltd.'s major overseas joint ventures, has been manufacturing trucks since it was founded over 20 years ago. During that time, Hino Motors, in cooperation with the Government of Thailand, has increasingly localized the production of vehicle component parts. Today, calculated by item, 45% of all such parts are produced by Thai Hino Industries and its local suppliers. As a result, Thai Hino Industries has grown into a company which makes significant contributions not only to the automotive industry but to Thailand's industrial sector as a whole. Localization of Thai Hino progressed from the transfer of vehicle assembly know-how, to the establishment of feasible guidelines for parts production localization, then on to the transfer of production engineering know-how for flexible manufacturing systems, and finally to the transfer of production engineering know-how for press dies.

The spark-assisted methanol engine has disadvantages like poor fuel economy especially at light load and low spark plug durability affected by combustion characteristics. Investigations of combustion characteristics of the spark ignition system and the autoignition system in the methanol engine and discharge characteristics of a spark plug are described in this paper. It is clear that effective autoignition was accomplished by increasing the compression ratio and adopting an EGR system in the spark-assisted methanol engine. This new improved methanol engine which is named HAMS achieved good fuel economy at light load, a low NOx emission and longer spark plug life. And a heat insulated piston with a stainless steel cap is being investigated for further improvement of autoignition combustion characteristics.

Gaseous emission measurements of a diesel engine including hydrocarbons (HC), carbon monoxide (CO), and oxide of nitrogen (NOx) are made in accordance with the procedures specified in the Federal Register. However, it is very difficult to maintain constantly the accuracy of these emission measurements due to failure of the emission analyzer. The authors have thus developed the Pre-Alarm Diagnostic System for a Diesel Emission Analyzer. Firstly, the authors have carried out analysis of all failure modes that are classified into initial failure, random failure and wearing-out failure, plus tolerance level for prediction of failures and method of predicting failures. Next, the authors have developed the Pre-Alarm Diagnostic System that is able to easily discover these failures before the exhaust emission test. In this system, 40 sensors, such as pressure, temperature, voltage etc, are laid in each pipe line of connection between exhaust emission sampling pump and analyzer.

For the 1990's diesel engines, particulate control has been an important problem. The purpose of this paper is to discuss emission control needs for heavy duty diesel truck engines for the 1990's. This paper will focus on the factors such as fuel injection pressure and fuel properties which most affect particulate emission. The characteristics of diesel spray in the atmosphere and also actual combustion of a turbocharged and charge-cooled H.D. D.I diesel engine were studied as a function of injection pressure ranging from 50 to 150 MPa. Experimental results show that high pressure injection improves the atomization and air entrainment. Though Bosch smoke level, fuel consumption and combustion period decreased with the rise of injection pressure, particulate emission in EPA transient test cycle did not decrease dut to an increase of SOF.

Characteristics of diesel combustion with high pressure fuel injection were investigated, using a supercharged and charge air cooled single cylinder engine. Observation and analysis of combustion was performed using high speed schlieren photography at a definite low level NOx emission, while varying the parameters of both injection pressure and swirl ratio. Engine performance at a high injection pressure was evaluated in combination with shallow dish type combustion chamber and 8 hole nozzle. Two different intake ports (higher and lower swirl ratio) were used for the evaluation. Conventional injection system in combination with toroidal cavity and 4 hole nozzle was compared as a base line. It is generally said that quiescent combustion system is suitable for higher injection pressure configuration. According to the observed result of combustion photographs, however, higher swirl ratio shows better mixing than a lower swirl ratio, which was also confirmed by the performance test.

In order to reduce particulate and NOx emission from the direct injection diesel engine, most researchers have been expecting the utilization of higher injection pressure and injection rate for improvement of diesel combustion. In the case of pump-line-nozzle system, the injection pipe line is very important with regard to the high injection pressure. Namely, the pipe line must be able to resist not only high pressure but also cavitation erosion. In this paper, the effect of high injection pressure, injection rate and sharp cutting at the end of fuel injection are discussed along with cavitation phenomena on the injection pipe line. And durability tests on the pipe line system under high injection pressure using a test rig are also described. Regarding durability tests, several measures have been taken for the injection pipe. As a result, the authors have found that the best solution for the injection pipe is a composite pipe made with SUS and steel.

Experiments on a large number of soluble fuel additives were systematically conducted for diesel soot reduction. It was found that Ca and Ba were the most effective soot suppressors. The main determinants of soot reduction were: the metal mol-content of the fuel, the excess air factor, and the gas turbulence in the combustion chamber. The soot reduction ratio was expressed by an exponential function of the metal mol-content in the fuel, depending on the metal but independent of the metal compound. A rise in excess air factor or gas turbulence increased the value of a coefficient in the function, resulting in larger reductions in soot with the fuel additives. High-speed soot sampling from the cylinder showed that with the metal additive, the soot concentration in the combustion chamber was substantially reduced during the whole period of combustion. It is thought that the additive acts as a catalyst not only to improve soot oxidation but also to suppress soot formation.

A current unmodified and modified engines with different amounts of thermal insulation have been used to generate data from which changes in bsfc, cooling loss, emissions, exhaust loss were determined. Since legislative requirement exists for allowable emission of NOx, fuel injection timing and other controllable factors were adjusted to maintain constant NOx emission except a test of influence on NOx emission according to the rate of heat insulation (adiabaticity). The effect of higher combustion temperature on the combustion phenomena is discussed.

The purpose of the investigation presented here was to develop a high quality SAE 10W-30 engine lubricating oil to meet the heavy duty operating conditions of trucks. The operation of their engines is predicted to become more severe in future because of the trend toward higher power output, nore severe regulation of exhaust emissions and noise as well as the increasing demand for better fuel economy. To meet these demands, an improvement of the wear resistance of engine lubricating oil was considered to be the most important aspect for the development of high performance diesel engines in the future. The engine test developed was able to evaluate various experimental oils by observing wear resistance of the valve train which is considered to be one of the most severe tri-bological conditions. The best oils were determined by optimum selection of the amount and type of detergent, ashless dispersant and zinc dithiophosphate.

Fuel injection timing retardation for reducing exhaust emission of direct injection diesel engines prolongs the period to complete cold starting. Engine speed at this period varies through some accelerating and faltering stages. The speed variation and relating combustion characteristics was investigated through the measurement of cylinder pressure for each cylinder as well as the dynamic fuel injection timing and instantaneous engine speed. An improvement of cold start was shown by application of afterheat of a sheathed type glow plug and an electronic fuel injection timing control device.