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The objective of this study is to introduce and assess a computational tool designed to facilitate product development via sensory scores, which serve as a quantifiable representation of human sensory experiences. In the context of designing ride comfort performance, the specialized terminology—either technical or sensory—often served as a barrier to comprehension among the diverse set of specialists constituting the multidisciplinary team. In a previous study by the authors introduced a tool that incorporated a model of sensory performance, utilizing sensory scores as universally comprehensible metrics. However, the tool had yet to be appraised by a genuine cross-functional team. In this study, the tool underwent evaluation through a user-testing process involving twenty-five cross-functional team members engaged in the conceptual design phase at an automotive manufacturing company.

Liquid fuel attached to the wall surface of the intake port, the piston and the combustion chamber is one of the main causes of the unburned hydrocarbon emissions from a port fueled SI engine, especially during transient operations. To investigate the liquid fuel film formation process and fuel film behavior during transient operation is essential to reduce exhaust emissions in real driving operations, including cold start operations. Optical techniques have been often applied to measure the fuel film in conventional reports, however, it is difficult to apply those previous techniques to actual engines during transient operations. In this study, using MEMS technique, a novel capacitance sensor has been developed to detect liquid fuel film formation and evaporation processes in actual engines. A resistance temperature detector (RTD) was also constructed on the MEMS sensor with the capacitance sensor to measure the sensor surface temperature.

The rapid compression expansion machine (RCEM) was used to investigate the temporal variations of the spray flame and wall heat flux in the diesel engine combustion process by using 120 MPa and 180 MPa common rail pressure. A stepped cavity was applied to investigate spray and flame behavior under the pilot, pre and main multiple injection strategy. Wall heat flux sensors were installed in the piston cavity and the cylinder side. The injector has 3 holes with the neighboring angle in the left direction and another 3 holes in the right direction to simulate the spray interaction in the 10-hole injector combustion system in the actual diesel engine. The spray and flame behavior were taken by a high-speed video camera with direct photograph. A two-color analysis was applied to investigate gas temperature and KL factor distribution. The effect of locations and common rail pressure on heat transfer was investigated.

As a new method to examine the extremely unsteady and spatially varying wall heat transfer phenomena on diesel engine combustion chamber wall, high-speed imaging of infrared thermal radiation from the chromium coated window surface impinged by a diesel spray flame has been conducted in a constant volume combustion chamber. The infrared radiation from a back surface of the chromium layer was successfully visualized at 10kHz frame rate and 128 × 128 pixel resolution through the window. The distributions of infrared radiation, temperature and heat flux exhibited coherent and streaky structure with radial stripes extending and waving from a stagnation point likely reflecting the near-wall turbulent structure in a wall impinging diesel flame. The experiments were conducted with various parameters such as fuel injection pressure, ambient gas oxygen concentration, wall impinging distance, wall surface roughness and wall materials.

A multi-functional membrane filter was developed through deposition of agglomerated Three-Way Catalyst particles with a size of 1 ~ 2 microns on the conventional bare particulate filter. The filtration efficiency reaches almost 100 % from the beginning of soot trapping with a low pressure drop and both reductions of NO and CO emission were achieved.

The combination of super-lean burn spark ignition engine (excess air ratio λ ≈ 2) and in-cylinder water injection (WI) makes it possible to achieve thermal efficiency higher than 50%. Toward future fuel diversification including carbon-neutral fuels, technologies to improve SI engine thermal efficiency applicable to various fuels are required. In this study, the effect of in-cylinder WI on SI engine performance with a compression ratio of 17 and λ = 1.85 is investigated using premium gasoline, 5 components surrogate fuels for premium gasoline (S5H), and for regular gasoline (S5R). In the case of premium gasoline and S5H, spark timing can be advanced to MBT (minimum advance for best torque) by WI and gross indicated thermal efficiency (gITE) increases to 51.2% (premium gasoline) at water/fuel weight ratio (W/F) = 57.7% and 50.8% (S5H) at W/F = 62.9%. In the case of S5R, on the other hand, a strong knock forces a large spark retard at no-water condition.

In recent years, particulate matter (PM) emitted from direct-injection gasoline vehicles is becoming an increasingly concerning problem. In addition, it is often reported that ammonia (NH3) is emitted from gasoline vehicles equipped with a three-way catalyst. These emissions might be largely emitted especially when driving in on-road driving conditions. In this study, we investigated the emissions, NOx, NH3, and PM/PN (particulate number) of a light-duty direct-injection gasoline vehicle when driving on actual roads. Using a small direct-injection gasoline vehicle equipped with a three-way catalyst, experiment was conducted 8 times on the same route, and these emissions were measured. In this study, vehicle specific power (VSP) was introduced, which can be calculated using vehicle parameters, vehicle speed, and road gradient. The effects of parameters acquired through on-board diagnostics (OBD) port and VSP on emissions were investigated.

The enhancement of vortex development, fuel-air mixing and heat release in diesel spray flame by inversed-delta injection rate shaping, having been predicted via LES simulation with detailed chemical kinetics, is experimentally confirmed for the first time. Newly developed 3-injector TAIZAC (TAndem Injector Zapping ACtivation) injector realizing aggressive inversed-delta injection rate shaping was used for single-shot combustion experiments in a constant volume combustion vessel. Simultaneous high-speed (120,000fps) and high-resolution (1,280 x 704 pixels) laser schlieren and UV OH* chemiluminescence imaging combined with subsequent Flame Imaging Velocimetry (FIV) analysis was employed to elucidate the correlation between vortex development and enhanced heat release.

The JASO GLV-1 standard was introduced in Japan for 0W-8 ultra-low viscosity gasoline engine oil to improve fuel economy. Fuel economy targets are specified for new oil but not for aged oil. In contrast, Sequence VI in the ILSAC GF-6 standard requires fuel economy improvement for both new and aged oils. This test simulates fuel economy improvement after 6400 km (FEI 1) and 16000 km (FEI 2) of driving based on US fuel economy certification testing. Currently, 0W-8 is not included in the ILSAC standard and the fuel-saving durability of 0W-8 has not been investigated. To include ultra-low viscosity oil like 0W-8 in future engine oil standards, it is necessary to know its fuel-saving durability and to examine the evaluation test method. This study focused on the fuel-saving durability of 0W-8 with or without the Mo friction modifier and considered the evaluation method.

In order to get better results in the Formula SAE of Japan, it is necessary to develop a small displacement engine with an ideal fuel consumption rate. Therefore, the authors started to improve an existing engine by combining with glow plug heated sub-chamber and lean burn. Lean burn conditions are usually adopted in gasoline engines, having the advantages of high specific heat ratio, low pump loss, and low cooling loss due to requiring a decreased combustion temperature. The combination of these elements can be expected to vastly improve thermal efficiency and fuel consumption. Unfortunately, however, when the mixture becomes lean, the ignition delay increases, and the flame propagation speed reduces. This leads to an increase in combustion fluctuation. The authors intend to solve this problem by installing a glow plug in a newly designed sub-chamber. This type of device would usually be used to heat the sub-chamber of a diesel engine to solve the cold start problem.

Compression ignition engines provide superior thermal efficiency over other internal combustion engines. Unfortunately the combustion process is diffusive combustion, meaning a lot of fuel is impinged the on the piston and cylinder wall. This creates cooling loss coupled with smoke, CO and THC. Minimization of the nozzle orifice diameter is a simple method widely used to shorten spray penetration. However, decreasing the nozzle orifice diameter also decreases fuel flow rate resulting in a prolonged injection and combustion process and reducing thermal efficiency. An offset orifice nozzle causes less fuel impingement by shorter fuel spray penetration without significant reduction of fuel flow rate. The offset orifice nozzle was made by shifting its alignment from the center of the sac to the edge of the sac following the swirl direction. A counterbore design was applied to maintain constant orifice length.

In a state-of-the-art lean-burn spark ignition engine, a strong in-cylinder flow field with enhanced turbulence intensity is formed, and understanding the wall heat transfer mechanism of such a complex flow is required. The flow velocity and temperature profiles inside the wall boundary layer are strongly related to the heat transfer mechanism. In this study, two-dimensional three-component (2D3C) velocity distribution near the piston top surface was measured during the compression stroke in a strong tumble flow using a rapid compression and expansion machine (RCEM) and a stereoscopic micro-PIV system. The bore, stroke, compression ratio, and compression time were 75 mm, 128 mm, 15, and 30 ms (equivalent to 1000 rpm), respectively.

Every year, exhaust gas regulations are getting stricter with the intention to solve the average air pollution problem, however, local roadside pollution is still a pressing issue. In order to solve this local roadside pollution problem, it is necessary to evaluate and/or predict “where” and “how much” pollutants such as NOx are emitted. To predict the local roadside pollution, it is necessary to collect emissions data from various kinds of vehicles driving on real-world and analyze them. In recent years, Real Driving Emission regulations using PEMS (Portable Emission Measurement System) have been introduced mainly in Europe. A typical PEMS configuration can weigh close to 100 kg however, and its weight affects the driving conditions of vehicles running on actual roads. In this study, we focused on the analysis of real-world emissions using SEMS (Sensor-based Emission Measurement System).

CI engines provide higher thermal efficiency compared to other internal combustion engines. On the other hand large amounts of smoke and NOx are produced during combustion. Smoke and NOx can be reduced by applying Premixed Charge Compression Ignition (PCCI) combustion. Unfortunately, the problems of PCCI combustion include unstable start of combustion and limited operating range. The multi-pulse ultrahigh pressure injection allows fuel to control PCCI combustion. The objective of offset orifice nozzle is to improve mixture formation and shorten spray penetration in order to increase thermal efficiency and control PCCI combustion. The offset orifice nozzle was designed by shift orifice aliment from into the sac center to edge of sac follow swirl direction. Counter bore design was applied to offset orifice nozzle in order to keep the constant orifice length as standard nozzle.

Diesel engines need to optimize the fuel injection timing and quantity of each cycle in the transient operation to increase the thermal efficiency and reduce the exhaust gas emissions through the precise combustion control. The heat transfer from the working gas in the combustion chamber to the chamber wall is a crucial factor to predict the gas temperature in the combustion chamber to optimize the timing and quantity of fuel injection. Therefore, the authors developed both the heat loss and the polytropic index prediction models with the low calculation load and high accuracy. In addition, for the calculation of the heat loss and the polytropic index, the wall heat transfer model was also developed, which was derived from the continuity equation and the energy equation. The present study used a single cylinder diesel engine under the condition of engine speed of 1200 and 1500 rpm, and measured the local wall temperature and the local heat flux of the combustion chamber.

For the improvement of the transient driving performance and the thermal efficiency for diesel engines, it is effective to control the fuel injection by model-based control (MBC) on ECU with cycle-by-cycle calculation, and MBC requires six models; gas flow, spray development, mixture formation, combustion, ignition delay, and heat loss. The authors previously developed on-board in-cylinder gas flow and wall heat transfer prediction models to estimate the heat loss. However, the developed gas flow model has an undetermined coefficient called the turbulence intensity coefficient (TIC), which significantly influences the prediction accuracy of the wall heat transfer prediction model. The present study improved the gas flow model and the wall heat transfer prediction model by applying TICs obtained using the PIV and CFD analysis.

Attribute to high heat transfer rate and less complexity, the Helical coil sub-cooled condenser (HCSCC) can provide the most innovative and unique application for the air conditioning system. In the case of automobiles, reduction in air-conditioning load may diminish the vehicular emission, and power consumption as the air-conditioning load is the most power-consuming components after the engine load. Moreover, to solve the problem, we focus on the helical type heat exchanger. It may play a vital role in reducing the weight and increase the performance of the small engine because of the compact structure and lighter weight. The compressor unit is the most vital component of the refrigeration cycle, but the condenser unit is also one of the most critical devices, and the author tried to reduce the power consumption by enhancing the performance of the condenser.

In order to explore the potential of thermal efficiency improvement of diesel engines with injection rate shaping, TAIZAC (TAndem Injectors Zapping ACtivation) injector consisting of commercially available two common-rail injectors was developed in-house. A simple architecture adopted for TAIZAC injector consists of an upper injector connected to a high pressure source, a lower injector injecting into the cylinder and sealing parts between the two injectors. A fast response piezo-actuated injector (G3P) was employed as the upper one with an additionally drilled large axial orifice for faster fuel supply. A solenoid-actuated injector (G4S) was employed as the lower one for its applicability to inner volume reduction by body cut.

Compression ignition (CI) engines provide higher thermal efficiency compared to other internal combustion engines although large amounts of NOx and soot are produced during combustion. NOx and soot emissions can be reduced by using Premixed Charge Compression Ignition (PCCI) combustion. However, the problems of PCCI combustion include limited operating range, unstable start of combustion and an increase in combustion noise. The multi-pulse ultrahigh pressure injection allows fuel to be injected near TDC, improving mixture formation and enhancing the possibility to extend the operating range of PCCI combustion. The objective of this paper is to control and extend the operating range of PCCI combustion using multi-pulse ultrahigh pressure injection. This has not been studied before. Combustion characteristics were investigated using apparent rate of heat release analysis, heat balance analysis, exhaust emission measurement and soot concentration measurement.

To adhere to stringent environmental regulations, SI (spark ignition) engines are required to achieve higher thermal efficiency. In recent years, EGR (exhaust gas recirculation) systems and lean-burn operation has been recognized as key technologies. Under such operating conditions, reducing CCV (cycle-to-cycle variation) in combustion is critical to the enhancement of overall engine performance. Flow-field CCV is one of the considerable factors affecting combustion in engines. Conventionally, in research on flow fields in SI engines, the ensemble average is used to separate the measured velocity field into a mean component and a fluctuation component, the latter of which contains a CCV component and a turbulent component. To extract the CCV of the flow field, previous studies employed spatial filter, temporal filter, and POD (proper orthogonal decomposition) methods.