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Three-dimensional direct numerical simulations of methane-air turbulent premixed flame propagating in homogenous isotropic turbulence are conducted to investigate local and global flame structure in thin reaction zones. GRI-Mech 3.0 is used to represent methane-air reactions. The equivalence ratio of unburned mixture is 0.6 and 1.0. For a better understanding of the local flame structure in thin reaction zones, distributions of mass fractions of major species, heat release rate and temperature are investigated. To clarify effects of turbulence on the local and global flame structures, the statistical characteristics of flame elements are also revealed.

Wet multiple plate clutches consist of friction plates, on which a friction material is bonded, and mating plates that are plain metal plates. Since the frequency and the range of load in the field of forklift trucks vary widely and are more severe than those for passenger cars, the wet multiple plate clutches on forklift trucks are often damaged. Damaged clutches that were returned from the field typically had 3 types of symptoms: 1.Only the friction material was damaged, 2.Only the mating plates were deformed, 3.Both symptoms were observed. It was clear that the cause of these symptoms depended on the difference of the operating application and the strength criteria of each part. This showed that a design guide for wet multiple plate clutches considering the strength balance between the two parts according to the work application was required. The relevant flow chart of this design process was proposed.

The influence of the head shape on intracranial responses under impact was investigated by using Finite Element Method. Head shape models of 52 young adult male Japanese were analyzed by Multi Dimensional Scaling (MDS), and a 2 dimensional distribution map of head shapes was obtained. Five finite element models of the Japanese head were constructed by a transformed finite element model of an average European adult male (H-Head model) using Free Form Deformation (FFD) technique. The constructed models represent the 5th and 95th percentile of the first 2 scales obtained by MDS. The same acceleration pulse was applied to the H-Head model and the five finite element models. The cause of the difference was considered to be differences in pressure distribution in the brain caused by the differences in the head shape. Variation in the head shape should be taken into account in simulating the effects of impact using a finite element model.

The turbulent dispersion of particles in an unsteady two dimensional particle-laden jet was simulated by a discrete vortex method coupling with a model of gas/particles interaction. Numerical analysis of a spray yielded the distributions of vorticity, fuel mass concentration and local Sauter mean diameter (SMD) of droplets in a spray. The predicted distribution of local SMD of droplets in a spray demonstrated that the size of droplets in the spray periphery is larger than that of droplets in the center region of spray. This trend of distribution of drop size coincided with that of measured one. The predicted distributions of drop size and vorticity revealed that the larger droplets are easily centrifuged to the periphery of the spray. The effects of the pattern of injection rate on the mixing process in a transient spray were also investigated.

The cross-sectional distribution of fuel vapor concentration in an evaporating spray was measured quantitatively by a new scattering imaging technique, silicone particle scattering imaging method, which was proposed in a previous paper[1]. When fuel containing silicone oil injected into a nitrogen environment at high temperature, the volatile base fuel in the droplets vaporized rapidly, leaving behind small droplets of silicone oil suspended in the vapor-gas mixture. The silicone oil droplets were illuminated by a thin laser sheet, and the scattered light was imaged by a CCD camera. The cross-sectional distribution of vapor concentration was estimated from the scattering image of the silicone oil droplets by Mie scattering theory. The results demonstrated clearly the inhomogeneity of the fuel vapor concentration. The distribution of vapor concentration was discontinuous, and islands of rich mixture with a scale of several millimeters existed in the center region of the spray.

Two methods have been developed for real time identification and classification of the roughness pattern of road surfaces using the neural network. These methods are directly available both for semi-active and active vibration controls of cars. Accelerations of the rear wheel axis under the suspension are used as the input data for real time identification. The neural network which has acquired the informations of the seven typical roughness patterns is used for real time classification of actual road surfaces during driving. Validity and usefulness of these methods are verified by simulation.

The two-dimensional distribution of a soot cloud in an unsteady spray flame in a rapid compression machine(RCM) was visualized using the laser sheet scattering technique. A 40 mm x 50 mm cross section on the flame axis was illuminated by a thin laser sheet from a single pulsed Nd:YAG laser(wavelength 532 nm). Scattered light from soot particles was taken by a CCD camera via a high speed gated image intensifier. The temporal variation of the scattered light images were presented with the injection pressure as a parameter. The results showed that scattered light was intense near the periphery of the flame tip and that the scattered light becomes weaker significantly and disappears fast after the end of injection as injection pressure is increased. This technique was also applied to the visualization of the two-dimensional distribution of liquid droplets in the non-evaporating spray to correlate it with the soot concentration distribution.

In this paper, a new method which directly identifies characteristic matrices (the mass, damping and stiffness matrices) of the mechanical structure using measured forces input and responses data is proposed. This algorithm is based upon the Maximum Likelihood Estimation, so that the accuracy of identified matrices is stable to experimental errors (random errors). After a theoretical formulation is performed, two examples are provided to illustrate and validate this algorithm. One is analytical example which identifies analytically generated data with random noises, and the other experimentarly identified engine/mount system of automobiles.

This paper concerns the Direct System Identification Method (hereafter referred to as DSIM) which allows accurate and quick determination of two groups of properties which exercise dominant effects on low frequency vibration of a vehicle body. The first group is the rigid body properties of an engine. The second group is the properties of each engine mount. Under the assumption that the engine/mount system is a rigid body, this paper makes theoretical discussion for using the DSIM to induce the parameters of an engine/mount system, and makes improvements for better correlation with experiments. Also mentioned is a comparison of this study with the experimental results and verification of consistency on those parameters obtained from DSIM to predict the accurate vehicle characteristics, along with the role this method will play in upgrading the technology of prediction analysis.

A new technique was proposed for measuring instantaneous distributions of flame temperature and KL factor of luminous flames. Here the principle of the two-color method was used to calculate flame temperature and KL factor from the two-color densities of a film image taken on a nega-color film. We applied this technique to the high speed nega-color photographs of flames in a D. I. diesel engine operated with varying swirl ratios, and discussed the measured results of instantaneous distributions of flame temperature and KL factors.