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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.

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.

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.

Recently, global warming and energy security have received significant attention. Thus an improvement of the vehicle fuel economy is strongly required. For engines, one effective way is to improve the engine thermal efficiency. Raising compression ratio [1] or turbo charging technologies have potential to achieve high thermal efficiency. However knock does not allow the high thermal efficiency. Knock depends on the fuel composition and the pressure and temperature history of unburnt end-gas [2-3]. For fuels, RON is well known for describing the anti knock quality. High RON fuels have high anti knock quality and result in higher thermal efficiency. This paper investigates the impact of high RON fuels on the thermal efficiency by using high compression ratio engine, turbo charged engine, and lean boosted engine [4]. Finally, it is shown that the high thermal efficiency can be approached with high RON gasoline and ethanol.

Feasibility studies concerning ethanol utilization in direct injection gasoline engines were conducted in order to clarify the effects of ethanol on engine performance, exhaust emissions and injector deposit formation. The investigation results indicate that E100 (100% ethanol fuel) can improve full load engine performance around whole engine speed range in a high compression ratio engine (ε=13:1), compared to that of a base compression ratio engine (ε=11.5:1) operated on a premium gasoline. This was caused by the volumetric efficiency (ηv) improvement and engine knock suppression in the high compression ratio engine. On the other hand, HC emissions remarkably increased under lower engine speeds at a full load condition. This phenomenon suggests that poor combustion occurred due to insufficient mixing of air and E100 fuel under these conditions, in which the amount of ethanol injected was too large and fluidity in the cylinder was weak.

From the viewpoint of primary energy diversification and CO2 reduction, interests of using Biomass Fuel are rising. Some kinds of FAME (Fatty Acid Methyl Ester), which are obtained from oil fats like vegetable oil using transesterification reaction with methanol, are getting Palm Oilpular for bio-diesel recently. In this study, we have conducted many experiments of palm oil hydrogenations using our pilot plants, and checked the reactivity and the pattern of product yields. As a result, we figured out that the hydrocarbon oil equivalent to the conventional diesel fuel can be obtained from vegetable oils in good yield under mild hydrogenation conditions. Moreover, as a result of various evaluations for the hydrogenated palm oil (oxidation stability, lowtemperature flow property, LCA, etc.), we found that the hydrogenated palm oil by our technology has performances almost equivalent to conventional diesel fuel.

From the energy security and CO2 discharge reduction point of view, much attention has been paid to the usage of biofuel, ethanol, as an alternative source of energy in the transportation industry. Yet, the major drawback in applying highly concentrated ethanol in the spark ignited internal combustion engines is cold start instability. This is due to the characteristics of ethanol, large latent heat required to vaporize. This paper investigates necessary conditions for the engine cold start, using highly concentrated ethanol. Tests performed with varieties of ethanol fuel, a relationship between cold startability lower temperature limit and reid vapor pressure was observed. A method to boost the vaporization, intake valve timing control is introduced to obtain high compression peak temperature.

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.

In order to determine the main factors causing the mileage-related increase in formaldehyde emission from methanol-fueled vehicles, mileage was accumulated on three types of vehicle, each of which had a different air-fuel calibration system. From exhaust emission data obtained during and after the mileage accumulation, it was found that lean burn operation resulted in by far the highest formaldehyde emission increase. An investigation into the reason for the rise in engine-out formaldehyde emission revealed that deposits in the combustion chamber emanating from the lubricating oil promotes formaldehyde formation. Furthermore it was learnt that an increase in engine-out NOx emissions promotes partial oxidation of unburned methanol in the catalyst, leading to a significant increase in catalyst-out formaldehyde emission.

Biodiesel Fuel (BDF) Research Work Group works on identifying technological issues on the use of high biodiesel blends (over 5 mass%) in conventional diesel vehicles under the Japan Auto-Oil Program started in 2007. The Work Group conducts an analytical study on the issues to develop measures to be taken by fuel products and vehicle manufacturers, and to produce new technological findings that could contribute to the study of its introduction in Japan, including establishment of a national fuel quality standard covering high biodiesel blends. For evaluation of the impacts of high biodiesel blends on performance of diesel particulate filter system, a wide variety of biodiesel blendstocks were prepared, ranging from some kinds of fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) to another type of BDF such as hydrotreated biodiesel (HBD). Evaluation was mainly conducted on blend levels of 20% and 50%, but also conducted on 10% blends and neat FAME in some tests.

Considering the popularity of biodiesel fuels for diesel vehicles, the impacts of rapeseed oil methyl ester (RME), which is the most utilized biodiesel fuel in Europe, on tailpipe emissions from a diesel passenger car was investigated. In this study, 30% RME blended diesel fuel (RME30) was used and the comparison of tailpipe emissions between RME30 and a reference diesel fuel was conducted using a test vehicle with the latest engine and aftertreatment system. The results of the investigation reveal that RME30 generates about the same amount of NOx in tailpipe emissions as diesel fuel, and less HC, CO, and PM. These phenomena occurred in spite of attaching catalysts to the test vehicle, and therefore suggesting that the NOx conversion efficiency of the catalysts for RME30 is equal to that for diesel fuel. The injection rate for RME30 was the same as that for diesel fuel.

Previous studies have investigated the impacts of biofuel usage on the performance, drivability and durability of modern diesel engines and exhaust after-treatment systems including test work with different types, concentrations and mixtures of bio fuel components. During this earlier work vehicle fuel filter blocking issues were encountered during a field trial using various types of EN 14214 compliant Fatty Acid Methyl Ester (FAME) blended into EN 590 diesel. This paper summarises a subsequent literature review that was carried out looking into potential causes of this filter blocking and further work that was then carried out to expand on the findings. From this, a laboratory study was carried out to assess the increase in fuel filter blocking tendency (FBT) when various FAMEs from mixed sources were blended into EN 590 diesel at different concentrations, including levels above those currently allowed in the European market.

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.

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.

Despite the fact that methanol is toxic to human health and causes serious damage to automobile engines and fuel system components, methanol-containing gasoline is becoming popular in some areas. Methanol demonstrates similar chemical properties to ethanol (which is already established as an additive to gasoline), so that it is difficult to identify methanol-containing gasoline without performing proper chemical analysis. In this study, we report a low-cost, portable, and easy-to-operate sensor that selectively changes color in response to methanol contained in gasoline. The colorimetric sensor will be useful for automobile users to avoid methanol-containing gasoline upon refueling.