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We developed a technique to measure oil film pressure distribution in engine main bearings using thin-film pressure sensors. The sensor is 7μm in thickness, and is processed on the surface of an aluminum alloy bearing. In order to increase the durability of the sensor, a layer of MoS2 and polyamide-imide was coated on thin-film sensors. This technique was applied to a 1.4L common-rail diesel engine operated at a maximum speed of 4,500r/min with a 100Nm full load, and the oil film pressure was monitored while the engine was operating. The measured pressure was compared with calculations based on hydrodynamic lubrication (HL) theory.

To meet future stringent emission regulations such as Euro6, the design and control of diesel exhaust after-treatment systems will become more complex in order to ensure their optimum operation over time. Moreover, because of the strong pressure for CO₂ emissions reduction, the average exhaust temperature is expected to decrease, posing significant challenges on exhaust after-treatment. Diesel Oxidation Catalysts (DOCs) are already widely used to reduce CO and hydrocarbons (HC) from diesel engine emissions. In addition, DOC is also used to control the NO₂/NOx ratio and to generate the exothermic reactions necessary for the thermal regeneration of Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF) and NOx Storage and Reduction catalysts (NSR). The expected temperature decrease of diesel exhaust will adversely affect the CO and unburned hydrocarbons (UHC) conversion efficiency of the catalysts. Therefore, the development cost for the design and control of new DOCs is increasing.

Furuhama(1)* proposed the new two ring package consist of a pressure ring and a narrow single-rail oil ring (NSOR) in 1985. Number of studies(2) have been done for the purpose of reducing the oil consumption (OC) in this ring package. However, OC reduction problem has been still remaining to solve as only one serious problem of this ring package. The reasons of a larger OC in the new ring package than the conventional three ring has been hardly understood, considering the OC control ability on second ring in three ring package will not so large since the fact that the oil film thickness is thicker than that of the oil ring. In this study, the mechanism of OC increase in new ring package was found out at last, as a result, OC of new ring package piston was improved up to the same level of conventional three ring package piston.

This research investigates the influences of the injection timing, injection pressure, and compression ratio on the combustion and exhaust emissions in a single cylinder 1.0 L DI diesel engine operating with ultra-high EGR. Longer ignition delays due to either advancing or retarding the injection timing reduced the smoke emissions, but advancing the injection timing has the advantages of maintaining the thermal efficiency and preventing misfiring. Smokeless combustion is realized with an intake oxygen content of only 9-10% regardless of the injection pressure. Reduction in the compression ratio is effective to reduce the in-cylinder temperature and increase the ignition delay as well as to expand the smokeless combustion range in terms of EGR and IMEP. However, the thermal efficiency deteriorates with excessively low compression ratios.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the piston skirt friction reduction effect of a diamond-like carbon (DLC)-coated wrist pin. The floating liner method and elasto-hydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) simulation were used to analyze piston skirt friction. The experimental results showed that a DLC-coated wrist pin reduced cylinder liner friction, and that this reduction was particularly large at low engine speeds and large pin offset conditions. Friction was particularly reduced at around the top and bottom dead center positions (TDC and BDC). EHL simulation confirmed that a DLC-coated wrist pin affects the piston motion and reduces the contact pressure between the piston skirt and cylinder liner.

Using small thin-film pressure sensors deposited onto a piston skirt surface, oil-film pressure on the piston skirt surface is measured when piston slap noise is generated without affecting the surface geometry, stiffness and mass of the piston. Under a no-load firing engine condition and at low temperature, the measured oil-film pressure corresponded well to the measured acceleration of the cylinder liner, which is indicative of piston slap noise, confirming the validity of the present method. Moreover, the oil-film pressure distribution on the skirt surface was measured for different engine speeds and piston pin offsets, which enabled more insight to be provided into piston secondary motion than that by considering the effects of cylinder liner acceleration.

It is difficult to improve tire cavity noise since the pressure of cavity resonance acts as a compelling force, and its low damping and high gain characteristics dominate the vibration of both the suspension and body. For this reason, the analysis described in this article aimed to clarify the design factors involved and to improve this phenomenon at the source. This was accomplished by investigating the acoustic coupling vibration mode of the wheel, which is the component that transmits the pressure of cavity resonance at first. In addition, the vibration characteristic of suspension was investigated also. A speaker-equipped sound pressure generator inside the tire and wheel assembly was developed and used to infer that wheel vibration under cavity resonance is a forced vibration mode with respect to the cavity resonance pressure distribution, not an eigenvalue mode, and this phenomenon may therefore be improved by optimizing the out-of-plane torsional stiffness of the disk.

This paper describes methods to attain a low cost tire pneumatic pressure monitor. We already established two kinds of algorithms for indirect detection of under-inflated tires without requiring any air pressure sensors. One method is to use a disturbance observer and the least mean square method. The other method is to compare the loaded radii of the tires. We have developed an algorithm that reduces the number of calculations needed, while maintaining a relatively small program size, and realized a tire pneumatic pressure monitor that does not require any hardware cost, by incorporating it into the program for the antilock brake system (ABS).

The effects of blending ETBE to diesel fuel on the characteristics of low temperature diesel combustion and exhaust emissions were investigated in a naturally-aspirated DI diesel engine with large rates of cooled EGR. Low temperature smokeless diesel combustion in a wide EGR range was established with ETBE blended diesel fuel as mixture homogeneity is promoted with increased premixed duration due to decreases in ignitability as well as with improvement in fuel vaporization due to the lower boiling point of ETBE. Increasing the ETBE content in the fuel helps to suppress smoke emissions and maintain efficient smokeless operation when increasing EGR, however a too high ETBE content causes misfiring at larger rates of EGR. While the NOx emissions increase with increases in ETBE content at high intake oxygen concentrations, NOx almost completely disappears when reducing the intake oxygen content below 14 % with cooled EGR.

An investigation was conducted into pressure pulsation in the exhaust port, which greatly affects volumetric efficiency and engine performance. From experiments using a single blow-down generator, it was established that the amplitude of the pressure pulsation increases as the manifold branch is lengthened and that large negative pressure synchronized with the timing of valve overlap can be obtained if a proper branch length is used. The performance of a 2ℓ test engine was optimized by varying the length of both the manifold branches and front pipe forks. It was found that whereas front pipe fork length affects engine performance over only a narrow range of engine speed, optimizing manifold branch length results in a considerable improvement over a wide engine speed range. In the course of optimizing the exhaust pipe manifold length of this two-degree-of-freedom exhaust system, abnormal exhaust noises were emitted at specific engine speeds during deceleration.

We, at Toyota, have been working to develop a new DPNR (Diesel Particulate-NOx Reduction) system to decrease both PM and NOx emissions by combining the NOx storage-reduction catalyst for direct injection gasoline engines with the most advanced engine control technologies. The purpose of the DPNR catalyst is to decrease PM and NOx in order to purify automotive exhaust gas. To reduce PM emissions, the PM trapping rate and PM oxidizing performance must be improved. Since the deposition of PM increases the pressure drop across the catalytic converter, it should also be suppressed. To attain these objectives, we have developed a new DPNR catalyst by the adoption of a new porous substrate structure and the improvement of the catalyst coating technique. The new DPNR catalyst will be mounted on the Avensis for commercial use in the European market.

This study has been conducted aiming at an experimental verification of the ring collapse phenomena that occurs in a taper faced second ring of a direct fuel injection type truck diesel engine. The oil film thickness of the second ring, the ring axial motion and the inter-ring pressure have been measured under various operating conditions of engine. As a result, it is verified that the back pressure of the second ring becomes lower than the second land pressure, and that the second ring oil film becomes extremely thick temporarily where the second ring contacts with the ring groove upper surface. It is also verified that blow-by passes through the second ring where the oil film of the second ring becomes thick. Hence it is highly probable that the collapse of the second ring has occurred at that time.

Traffic accidents in the United States were analyzed using FARS and NASS data. When classified according to vehicle body type and collision type, fatalities were most common in the case of (1) passenger car to passenger car frontal impacts, (2) passenger car to passenger car side impacts, (3) passenger car to LTV side impacts, (4) passenger car to truck frontal impacts, and (5) passenger car to LTV frontal impacts. Among these collisions, it was clearly confirmed that the occupants of a passenger car have a strong tendency to suffer injury when “the passenger car has a frontal impact with a heavier passenger car,” “the passenger car has a frontal impact with an LTV/SUV, truck,” and “the passenger car is side impacted by an LTV/SUV,” or the like. These examples should be recognized as clear cases of incompatibility. This paper will describe an approach which aim at improving compatibility. However, around 60% of occupants who suffer fatal injuries are not wearing a seat belt.

A new diesel after-treatment system, Diesel Particulate and NOx Reduction System (DPNR), is being developed for reducing PM and NOx emissions. We examined the effects of sulfur content in lubricants on exhaust NOx emission from DPNR catalyst, and examined the PM reduction ability using sulfur-free and aromatics-free fuel. After vehicle durability testing of 40,000 km without forced regeneration of PM and sulfur poisoning on DPNR catalyst, deterioration of DPNR was lower than using higher sulfur contents in fuel and oil. In addition to decreasing fuel sulfur, decreasing oil sulfur was also effective to maintain high NOx conversion efficiency. Although the catalyst was poisoned by sulfur in the lubricants, the influence of oil sulfur poisoning on the catalyst was lower than fuel sulfur poisoning. On the other hand, engine out PM emissions decreased by 70 % because of aromatics-free fuel. The pressure drop of DPNR did not increase during the 40,000 km vehicle durability test.

The tendency for car engines to reduce the cylinder number and increase the specific torque at low rpm has led to significantly higher levels of low frequency pulsation from the exhaust tailpipe. This is a challenge for exhaust system design, and equally for body design and vehicle integration. The low frequency panel noise contributions were identified using pressure transmissibility and operational sound pressure on the exterior. For this the body was divided into patches. For all patches the pressure transmissibility across the body panels into the interior was measured as well as the sound field over the entire surface of the vehicle body. The panel contributions, the pressure distribution and transmissibility distribution information were combined with acoustic modal analysis in the cabin, providing a better understanding of the airborne transfer.

The ignition delay and combustion characteristics of hydrogen jets in an argon-oxygen atmosphere were investigated to provide fundamental data for operating an argon-circulated hydrogen internal combustion engine. Experiments were conducted in a constant-volume combustion vessel to study the effects of ambient temperature, ambient pressure, oxygen concentration and injection pressure on a pre-burning system. The hydrogen-jet penetration and flame were also investigated based on high-speed shadowgraph images. The experimental results indicated that the ignition delay (τ) increases as the ambient temperature (Ti) decreases, similar to the results obtained in an air atmosphere. The heat-release rate results also exhibited similar trends.

Due to new CO2 regulations and increasing demand for improved fuel economy, reducing aerodynamic drag has become more critical. Aerodynamic drag at the rear of the vehicle accounts for approximately 40% of overall aerodynamic drag due to low base pressure in the wake region. Many studies have focused on the wake region structure and shown that drag reduction modifications such as boattailing the rear end and sharpening the rear edges of the vehicle are effective. Despite optimization using such modifications, recent improvements in the aerodynamic drag coefficient (Cd) seem to have plateaued. One reason for this is the fact that vehicle design is oriented toward style and practicality. Hence, maintaining flexibility of design is crucial to the development of further drag reduction modifications. The purpose of this study was to devise a modification to reduce rear drag without imposing additional design restrictions on the upper body.

In fatal accidents due to heavy duty trucks, the fatalities of occupants in passenger cars in which rear-end collision occur account for the largest percent. Collisions to the vehicles in traffic jams and collision to other accidents scenes on express ways can result in serious repercussions. Therefore the system which reduces the damage of collisions has long been demanded and here the world-first Pre-crash Safety (PCS) System for heavy duty trucks was developed. This system gives warning to the driver in case there is a possibility of collision with preceding vehicles, and activates the brakes to mitigate damage in case there is a higher possibility of collision. In order to get the maximum effect on the express ways where the trucks are in high speed, it is necessary to give warning and activate the brakes with relatively early timing.

According to authors' previous research, high pressure hydrogen engines with direct injection right before TDC and spark ignition obtain high performance and eliminate almost. abnormal combustion. This study has clarified the mooted points in the flame propagation to adjacent jets and the control of the optimum spark timing and large NOx emissions even in leaner than excess air ratio of λ=2. Nitric oxides (NOx) is the only the pollutant in the exhaust gases emitted by hydrogen engines. It has been found that the NOx formation largely depends on the mixture formation method. In order to operate the engine in a small amount of NOx, an experimental study was carried out to investigate the reduction of NOx and the output power by using dual mixture formation method, external mixture formation and direct injection.

An unique measurement method was developed for measurement of the piston outer surface during the engine operation. The method was realized by embedding a gap sensor into a cylinder bore and by rotating the cylinder in the circumferential direction. By means of this method, interesting data of skirt deformation of a gasoline engine caused by temperature, pressure and the slap force were obtained.