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Zirconium dioxide (ZrO2) doped with Yttria exhibits superplastic behaviour, corrosion resistance and excellent ion conducting properties [1] at moderate temperatures and thus it can be used as an electroceramic to measure the pH of high temperature water used in fuel cells. Several fabrication processes are available for preparation of zirconia ceramics. This research focused on the study of using Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS) process to prepare Yttria Stabilized Zirconia (YSZ) ceramic. 8 mol% YSZ was subjected to varying SPS sintering conditions. Samples were sintered by changing the heating cycle, dwell time, sintering pressure and cooling cycle. Subsequently, these parameters were related to the densification characteristics of the as-sintered YSZ. The results of specific gravity measurements and microstructure evaluation suggest that stepped heating followed by a slow cooling results in YSZ with highest relative density (99.9%).

An experimental investigation of the autoignition and emission characteristics of transient turbulent gaseous fuel jets in heated and compressed air was conducted in a shock tube facility. Experiments were performed at an initial pressure of 30 bar with initial oxidizer temperatures ranging from 1200 to 1400 K, injection pressures ranging from 60 to 150 bar, and injection durations ranging from 1.0 to 2.5 ms. Methane and 90.0% methane/10.0% ethane blend were used as fuel. Under the operating conditions studied, increasing temperature resulted in a significant decrease in autoignition delay time. Increasing the injection pressure decreased ignition delay as well. The downstream location of the ignition kernel relative to the jet penetration distance was found to be in the range, 0.4

Soot emissions from direct-injection engines are sensitive to the fuel-air mixing process, and may vary between combustion cycles due to turbulence and injector variability. Conventional exhaust emissions measurements cannot resolve inter- or intra-cycle variations in particle emissions, which can be important during transient engine operations where a few cycles can disproportionately affect the total exhaust soot. The Fast Exhaust Nephelometer (FEN) is introduced here to use light scattering to measure particulate matter concentration and size near the exhaust port of an engine with a time resolution of better than one millisecond. The FEN operates at atmospheric pressure, sampling near the engine exhaust port and uses a laser diode to illuminate a small measurement volume. The scattered light is focused on two amplified photodiodes.

An experimental investigation of the autoignition of transient gaseous fuel jets in heated and compressed air is conducted in a shock tube facility. Experiments are performed at an initial pressure of 30 bar with initial oxidizer temperatures ranging from 1150 K to 1400 K, injection pressures ranging from 60 bar to 150 bar, and with injector tip orifice diameters of 0.275 mm and 1.1 mm. Under the operating conditions studied, increasing temperature results in a significant decrease in autoignition delay time, td. The smaller orifice results in an increase in ignition delay time and variability, as compared with the larger orifice. For initial temperatures below about 1250K, ignition is rarely achieved with the smaller orifice, whereas ignition is always achieved with the larger orifice down to 1150 K. Under the conditions studied, increasing the injection pressure decreases ignition delay, a result dynamically consistent with larger orifice size decreasing ignition delay time.

Compression ignition engines, including those that use natural gas as the major fuel, produce emissions of NOx and particulate matter (PM). Westport Inc. has developed the pilot-ignited high-pressure direct-injection (HPDI) natural gas engine system. Although HPDI engines produce less soot than comparable conventional diesel engines, further reductions in engine-out soot emissions is desired. In diesel engines, multiple injections can help reduce both NOx and PM. The effect of post injections on HPDI engines was not studied previously. The present research shows that late injection of a second gas pulse can significantly reduce PM and CO from HPDI engines without significantly increasing NOx or fuel consumption. In-cylinder pressure measurements were used to characterize the heat release resulting from the multiple injections. Experiments showed that most close-coupled split injection strategies provided no significant emissions benefit and less stable operation.

High pressure injection of natural gas is being investigated as a mean of fueling diesel engines and meeting increasingly stringent EPA regulations on emissions of nitrogen oxides and particulates. In the work described in this paper, the penetration into air of a sonic jet of methane emerging from a suddenly opened poppet valve has been modelled analytically and measured using flow visualization. The injection pressure ratios were in the range 1.5 to 5 and the conical jet sheet Reynolds numbers were in the range 7000 to 56000. Schlieren photographs revealed that the conical sheet gas jet exhibits an unstable behaviour between the upper and lower plates which simulate the fire deck and the piston. The integral model developed indicates the principal parameters on which the gaseous jet penetration depends and establishes the requirements for scaling. The conical sheet jet penetration is found to be approximately 30% less than that of round holes, given the same flow area.

Flow rate monitoring plays a crucial role for precise motion control in many hydraulic systems and for detection of faults and fluid loss in hydraulic system components and circuits. In some situations, however, direct measurement of fluid flow is not possible. Besides, flowmeters are generally non-robust, expensive, and slow in response. In this paper, we have proposed an alternative approach to direct flow measurement for circuits that contain a combination of proportional valves and actuators. A nonlinear state-space representation is used to model the valve orifice area variation with respect to the valve spool position. Kalman Filtering is then utilized to estimate the valve's orifice area in real-time by fusing data from robust low-cost pressure transducers and position sensors. A close agreement is achieved between the estimated and the measured orifice areas for a valve with a complex wedge-shape orifice profile.

In direct-injection engines, combustion and emission formation is strongly affected by injection quality. Injection quality is related to mass-flow rate shape, momentum rate shape, stability of pulses as well as mechanical and hydraulic delays associated with fuel injection. Finding these injector characteristics aids the interpretation of engine experiments and design of new injection strategies. The goal of this study is to investigate the rate of momentum for the single and post injections for high-pressure direct-injection natural gas injectors. The momentum measurement method has been used before to study momentum rate of injection for single and split injections for diesel sprays. In this paper, a method of momentum measurement for gas injections is developed in order to present transient momentum rate shape during injection timing. In this method, a gas jet impinges perpendicularly on a pressure transducer surface.

There has been considerable experimental research of cars crashing into roadside curbs such as Transport and Road Research laboratory experiments of the 1950s and the Californian tests in 1957. This paper uses all the published information to establish a relationship to estimate the ability of a curb to safely redirect a vehicle. A curb's ability to redirect a vehicle depends upon the speed and angle of impact, the surface material, if it is wet or dry and the radius of the impacting tire. There are other factors such as the aggressiveness of the tire tread and the tire pressure that are thought to be important but have not been incorporated into the analytical procedure. The equations may be used in accident reconstruction to estimate a minimum vehicle's speed to mount a curb.