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Regeneration capability of a wall-flow monolith type diesel paticulates filter with an electric heater was studied. To prevent filter crack generation and unburned particulates accumulation, a precision controller was added to the test equipment to reduce thermal load. In order to control the supply of oxygen to potentially prevent cracking, a second air feeder was also added. Furthermore, to ignite the accumulated particulates uniformly and propagate extensively to burn accumulated particulates completely a newly improved heater unit was employed. Repeated regeneration tests were conducted with cars on a chassis dynamometer. Though crack generation and unburned particulates accumulation were reduced considerably, satisfactory prevention could not be achieved. Therefore a parameter study using regenerative burning and thermal stress analysis model was carried out.

The third generation four valve lean combustion engine controlled by newly designed combustion pressure sensor has been developed. This combustion sensor composed of a metal diaphragm and a thin silicone layer formed on devitron piece detects the combustion pressure in the No.1 cylinder. Comparing with the lean mixture sensor equipped in the first and second generation lean combustion engine, the lean misfire limit was detected directly with this sensor, and the lean operation range was expanded, which realized lower fuel consumption and NOx emission. The output torque fluctuation was minimized by precisely compensating the fuel supplied to individual cylinder based on the crank angle sensor signal. Separated dual intake ports, one with the swirl control valve and the other with helical port shape was designed and a twin spray injection nozzle was equipped between those ports. The swirl ratio was lowered from 2.2 to 1.7.

Electronic Control Units (ECUs) for automobiles are usually composed of a main single-chip microcomputer and peripheral circuits with some standard and/or custom ICs. The peripheral circuits vary with the kinds of control or models of automobiles. When the peripheral circuits are replaced with a single-chip microcomputer, the ECU becomes compact and low in cost. This is because the ECU is constructed with only two LSIs and can be used for various kinds of control and various models of automobiles only by changing the program of the microcomputer. The microcomputer, however, requires many I/O functions and high reliability. We have developed a new 4-bit microcomputer suitable for these requirements. The new microcomputer has two remarkable features. One is powerful I/O functions such as high speed I/O, serial I/O, parallel I/O, analog I/O, and default output that is generated in place of the calculated output by the main CPU when it fails.

A methanol fueled, lean burn system has been developed to improve both specific fuel consumption and NOx emissions. A 1.6L four-cylinder engine with increased compression ratio has been used to develop this system. Three major components of the Toyota Lean Combustion System (T-LCS) have been applied: (1) A helical port with a swirl control valve (2) A lean mixture sensor (3) Timed, multi-point fuel injection. A 2250 lb. Inertia Weight test vehicle has been fitted with this engine, and fuel system materials have been modified. This methanol, lean burn system has improved the fuel economy by about 12% still satisfying the 1986 emission standards of the U.S.A. and Japan. Aldehyde emissions have also been evaluated.

The characteristic of In-Cylinder gas motion of a multivalve engine is compared with a single intake valve engine, which have been predicted by a three-dimensional numerical simulation and flow visualization. The measured intake valve outlet velocity from helical and straight port was adopted as the boundary conditions. The computer graphics technique has been utilized to express the predicted numerical results as moving picture like visualized flow. This flow pattern was compared with the actual flow pattern visualized with metaldehyde as the tracer using the bottom viewed engine, which showed good agreement. The prediction for the multivalve engine showed that the swirl velocity is rapidly reduced by interaction between the flows from the two port, but the turbulence kinetic energy is similar to that in the engines with a single intake valve with helical port.

Lean mixture operation and high transient response has been accomplished by the introduction of newly designed Central Injection (Ci) system. This paper describes the effects of Ci design variables on its performance. Lean mixture operation has been attained by optimizing the injection interval, injection timing and fuel spray angle in order to improve the cylinder to cylinder air-fuel ratio distribution. Both air-fuel distribution and transient engine response are affected by the fuel spray angle. Widening the fuel spray angle improves the air-fuel distribution but worsen the transient engine response. This inconsistency has been solved by off-setting the injector away from the center axis of the throttle body and optimizing the fuel spray angle.

A helical port with a swirl control valve (SCV) has been developed to satisfy two inconsistent requirements of achieving sufficient swirl generation to improve the combustion and still maintaining high volumetric efficiency. Their effects on combustion were confirmed in a single cylinder engine using high speed flame photography and cylinder pressure diagram analysis which has demonstrated faster combustion. As a result of a hot wire anemometer study, the differences in gas motion were clarified between two helical ports, one with and one without a SCV. A more active movement of the center of swirl was measured in the case of helical port with SCV which suggests the generation of higher turbulence in the cylinder.

Periodic regeneration of the diesel particulate trap is essential to maintain the collection efficiency and exhaust gas hack pressure at acceptable levels. The objectives of this study are to describe the phenomenology of ceramic foam filter regeneration process and to present its mathematical model. Further simulation study is carried out to estimate the effects of various factors including fuel additive on the ignition and the filter bed temperature and to investigate conditions of excessive temperature which could result in filter destruction. The model is based on the assumption that the regeneration process is composed of two steps. The first step is the additional heat supply from the external energy source, and the second step is the spontaneous combustion propagation. The results from the analytical model agreed very well with the experimental results.