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This presentation will cover an overview of challenges and key discussion points for advanced electric motor and drive testing . Voiko will visit some examples of how D&V approaches these issues and also some suggestions for how the industry can view these intriguing problems as opportunities. The presentation will also delve into current testing developments that involve resolver, load bank and power measurement devices by highlighting solutions in the market today. There will also be a cursory look into the future of electric motor testing and what we can expect in the near term. Presenter Voiko Loukanov, D&V Electronics Limited

High pressure diesel sprays were visualized under vaporizing and combusting conditions in a constant-volume combustion vessel. Near-simultaneous visualization of vapor and liquid phase fuel distribution were acquired using a hybrid shadowgraph/Mie-scattering imaging setup. This imaging technique used two pulsed LED's operating in an alternative manner to provide proper light sources for both shadowgraph and Mie scattering. In addition, combustion cases under the same ambient conditions were visualized through high-speed combustion luminosity measurement. Two single-hole diesel injectors with same nozzle diameters (100μm) but different k-factors (k0 and k1.5) were tested in this study. Detailed analysis based on spray penetration rate curves, rate of injection measurements, combustion indicators and 1D model comparison have been performed.

A two-phase study was performed to establish a standard diesel exhaust composition which could be used in the future development of light-duty diesel exhaust aftertreatment. In the first phase, a literature review created a database of diesel engine-out emissions. The database consisted chiefly of data from heavy-duty diesel engines; therefore, the need for an emission testing program for light- and medium-duty engines was identified. A second phase was conducted to provide additional light-duty vehicle emissions data from current technology vehicles. Engine-out diesel exhaust from four 2004 model light-duty vehicles with a variety of engine displacements was collected and analyzed. Each vehicle was evaluated using five steady-state engine operating conditions and two transient test cycles (the Federal Test Procedure and the US06). Regulated emissions were measured along with speciation of both volatile and semi-volatile components of the hydrocarbons.

Software systems on electronically controlled diesel truck engines typically provide diagnostic features to enable the engine mechanic to identify and debug system problems. As future systems become more sophisticated, so will the diagnostic requirements. The advantages of serviceability and accuracy found in todays electronic systems must not be allowed to degrade due to this increased sophistication. One method of maintaining a high level of serviceability and accuracy is to place an even greater priority on diagnostics and servicing in the initial design phase of the product than is done today. In particular, three major goals of future diagnostic systems should be separation of component failures from system failures, prognostication of failures and analysis of engine performance. This paper will discuss a system to realize these goals by dividing the diagnostic task into the Electronic System Diagnostics, Engine System Diagnostics and the Diagnostic Interface.

The Scuderi engine is a split cycle design that divides the four strokes of a conventional combustion cycle over two paired cylinders, one intake/compression cylinder and one power/exhaust cylinder, connected by a crossover port. This configuration provides potential benefits to the combustion process, as well as presenting some challenges. It also creates the possibility for pneumatic hybridization of the engine. This paper reviews the first Scuderi split cycle research engine, giving an overview of its architecture and operation. It describes how the splitting of gas compression and combustion into two separate cylinders has been simulated and how the results were used to drive the engine architecture together with the design of the main engine systems for air handling, fuel injection, mixing and ignition. A prototype engine was designed, manufactured, and installed in a test cell. The engine was heavily instrumented and initial performance results are presented.

Technical groups worldwide have been actively developing specifications and requirements for biodegradable hydraulic fluids for mobile applications. These groups have recognized that an industry-wide specification is necessary due to the increase in environmental awareness in the agriculture, construction, forestry, and mining industries, and to the increasing number of local regulations primarily throughout Europe. Caterpillar has responded to this need by publishing a requirement, Caterpillar BF-1, that may be used by Caterpillar dealers, customers, and industry to help select high-performance biodegradable hydraulic fluids. This requirement was written with the input of several organizations that are known to be involved with the development of similar types of specifications and requirements.

Engineering new technology and products challenges managers to balance design innovation and program risk. To do this, managers need methods to judge future results to avoid program and product disasters. Besides the traditional prediction tools of schedule, simulations and “iron tests”, process control standards (with measurements) can also be applied to the development programs to mitigate risks. This paper briefly discusses the theory and case history behind some new process control methods and standards currently in place at Caterpillar's Electrical & Electronics department. Process standards reviewed in this paper include process mapping, ISO9001, process controls, and process improvement models (e.g. SEI's CMMs.)

Despite the recent increase in fuel prices, the multi-billion dollar recreational boating market in North America continues to experience solid momentum and growth. In the U.S. economy alone, sales of recreational boats continue to increase with over 17 million boats sold in 2004 [1]. Of that share, outboard boats and the engines that power them, accounted for nearly half of all boat sales. Though there has been a shift in outboard technology to four-stroke cycle engines, a significant number of new engine sales represent two-stroke cycle engines employing direct fuel injection as a means to meet emissions regulations. With the life span of modern outboards estimated to be 8 to 10 years, a significant base of two-stroke cycle engines exist in the market place, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

The continuing trend toward “cleaner” distillate fuels has prompted concerns about the lubricity characteristics of current and future distillates. Since many U.S. Navy ships utilize seawater-compensated fuel tanks to maintain the ship's trim, the Navy performed a detailed study in order to better understand the relationship between fuel water content and lubricity characteristics. The lubricity test methods, modified for this study, were ASTM D 6078 (SLBOCLE), D 6079 (HFRR), and D 5001 (BOCLE). The results indicated that, with few exceptions, there was generally no evidence of a correlation between the water content of the fuels and the corresponding lubricity measurements as determined by the laboratory tests.

Lower explosion limits (LEL) and the chemical compositions of JP-8, Jet A and JP-5 fuel vapors were determined in a sealed combustion vessel equipped with a spark igniter, a gas-sampling probe, and sensors to measure pressure rise and fuel temperature. Ignition was detected by pressure rise in the vessel. Pressure rises up to 60 psig were observed near the flash points of the test fuels. The fuel vapors in the vessel ignited from as much as 11°F below flash-point measurements. Detailed hydrocarbon speciation of the fuel vapors was performed using high-resolution gas chromatography. Over 300 hydrocarbons were detected in the vapors phase. The average molecular weight, hydrogen to carbon ratio, and LEL of the fuel vapors were determined from the concentration measurements. The jet fuel vapors had molecular weights ranging from 114 to 132, hydrogen to carbon ratios of approximately 1.93, and LELs comparable to pure hydrocarbons of similar molecular weight.

The Port Fuel Injector (PFI) Deposit Test is a performance-based test procedure developed by the Coordinating Research Council and adopted by state and federal regulatory agencies for fuel qualification in the United States. To date, Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) has performed over 375 PFI tests between 1991 and 1998 for various clients. This paper details the analyses of these tests. Of the 375 tests, 199 were performed as keep-clean tests and 176 were performed as clean-up tests. The following areas of interest are discussed in this paper: Keep-clean versus clean-up test procedures Linearity of deposit formation Injector position effects as related to fouling Dirtyup / cleanup phenomena Seasonal effects This paper draws the conclusion that it is easier to keep new injectors from forming deposits than it is to clean up previously formed deposits. It was found that injector deposit formation is generally non-linear.

During the past couple of years, a committee under the auspices of the ASME Codes and Standards division has been formed and are meeting regularly. The purpose of the committee is to develop and publish a set of documents that describe a common process for verification and validation of computational solid mechanics models. There are many issues under discussion and many concepts under debate. In this paper we will present some the major concepts and the differing viewpoints focusing on the concept of validation and relate this to the automotive industry in particular.

This paper presents the damping effectiveness of free-layer damping materials through standard Oberst bar testing, solid plate excitation (RTC3) testing, and prediction through numerical schemes. The main objective is to compare damping results from various industry test methods to performance in an automotive body structure. Existing literature on laboratory and vehicle testing of free-layer viscoelastic damping materials has received significant attention in recent history. This has created considerable confusion regarding the appropriateness of different test methods to measure material properties for damping materials/treatments used in vehicles. The ability to use the material properties calculated in these tests in vehicle CAE models has not been extensively examined. Existing literature regarding theory and testing for different industry standard damping measurement techniques is discussed.

The induction hardening process involves a complex interaction of electromagnetic heating, rapid cooling, metallurgical phase transformations, and mechanical behavior. Many factors including induction coil design, power, frequency, scanning velocity, workpiece geometry, material chemistry, and quench severity determine a process outcome. This paper demonstrates an effective application of a numerical analysis tool for understanding of induction hardening. First, an overview of the Caterpillar induction simulation tool is briefly discussed. Then, several important features of the model development are examined. Finally, two examples illustrating the use of the computer simulation tool for solving induction-hardening problems related to cracking and distortion are presented. These examples demonstrate the tool's ability to simulate changes in process parameters and latitude of modeling steel or cast iron.

This paper reports on the fourth part of a continued study on further research and development with the automated Ignition Quality Tester (IQT™). Research over the past six years (reported in SAE papers #961182, 971636 and 1999-01-3591) has demonstrated the capabilities of this automated apparatus to measure the ignition quality and accurately determine a derived cetane number (DCN) for a wide range of middle distillate and non-conventional diesel fuels. The present paper reports on a number of separate investigations supporting these continued studies.

Most of the history of systems engineering has been focused on processes for engineering a single complex system. However, most large enterprises design, manufacture, operate, sell, or support not one product but multiple product lines of related but varying systems. They seek to optimize time to market, costs of development and production, leverage of intellectual assets, best use of talented human resources, overall competitiveness, overall profitability and productivity. Optimizing globally across multiple product lines does not follow from treating each system family member as an independently engineered system or product. Traditional systems engineering principles can be generalized to apply to families. This article includes a multi-year case study of the actual use of a generic model-based systems engineering methodology for families, Systematica™, across the embedded electronic systems products of one of the world's largest manufacturers of heavy equipment.

The traditional method of dynamic characterization of elastomers used in industry has largely been based on sinusoidal input excitation. Discrete frequency sine wave signals at specified amplitudes are used to excite the elastomer in a step-sine sweep fashion. This paper will examine new methods of characterization using various broadband input excitations. These different inputs include continuous sine sweep (chirp), shaped random, and acquired road profile data. Use of these broadband data types is expected to provide a more accurate representation of conditions seen in the field, while helping to eliminate much of the interpolation that is inherent with the classic discrete step-sine technique. Results of the various input types are compared in this paper with those found using the classic discrete step-sine input.

An on-line oil consumption measurement system using the SO2 tracer method has characterized automotive gasoline engine oil consumption under various engine operating conditions, including a 200-hour durability test. An oil consumption map of total engine, individual cylinder, and valve train was produced for various speed and load ranges under both steady-state and step-transient operating conditions. The effect of spark timing as an additional engine parameter on the oil consumption was also investigated. Oil consumption maps have enlightened the conventional understanding of oil consumption characteristics and broadened the areas of concern for control technologies. This paper reports the benefit of the on-line oil consumption measurement system, the result of oil consumption history over the durability test, discrete measurement of oil consumption contribution within the engine, and various oil consumption characteristics affected by engine operating conditions.

Objective of this work is the incorporation of the flame stretch effects in an Eulerian-Lagrangian model for premixed SI combustion in order to describe ignition and flame propagation under highly inhomogeneous flow conditions. To this end, effects of energy transfer from electrical circuit and turbulent flame propagation were fully decoupled. The first ones are taken into account by Lagrangian particles whose main purpose is to generate an initial burned field in the computational domain. Turbulent flame development is instead considered only in the Eulerian gas phase for a better description of the local flow effects. To improve the model predictive capabilities, flame stretch effects were introduced in the turbulent combustion model by using formulations coming from the asymptotic theory and recently verified by means of DNS studies. Experiments carried out at Michigan Tech University in a pressurized, constant-volume vessel were used to validate the proposed approach.

Today’s business climate and economy demand new, innovative strategies from the initial kickoff of research and development - to the mining of ore from the earth - to the final inspection of a finished product in a mid-western factory. From startup companies with two employees to the largest companies, the world faces new and challenging requirements every day. The demands from companies, customers, executives, and shareholders continue to drive for higher outputs with more efficient use of personnel and investments. Fortunately, the rate of technology continues to exponentially accelerate, which allows those at the cutting edge of technology to capitalize. Caterpillar has been a pioneer in advanced technology since its inception and has been developing the foundation for autonomy over the past four decades.