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Gasoline engine downsizing is already established as a technology for reducing vehicle CO2 emissions. Further benefits are possible through more aggressive downsizing, however, the tradeoff between the CO2 reduction achieved and vehicle drivability limits the level of engine downsizing currently adopted by vehicle manufacturers. This paper will present the latest results achieved from a very heavily downsized engine, and resulting demonstrator vehicle, featuring eSupercharging in combination with a conventional turbocharger. The original 1.2 litre, 3-cylinder, MAHLE downsizing engine has been re-configured to enable a specific power output in excess of 160 kW/litre. Of key importance is a cost effective, efficient and flexible boosting system.

Development of reliable magnesium (Mg) to steel joining methods is one of the critical issues in broader applications of Mg in automotive body construction. Ultrasonic spot welding (USW) has been demonstrated successfully to join Mg to steel and to achieve strong joints. In this study, corrosion test of ultrasonic spot welds between 1.6 mm thick Mg AZ31B-H24 and 0.8 mm thick galvanized mild steel, without and with adhesive, was conducted. Adhesive used was a one-component, heat-cured epoxy material, and was applied between overlapped sheets before USW. Corrosion test was conducted with an automotive cyclic corrosion test, which includes cyclic exposures of dipping in the 0.5% sodium chloride (NaCl) bath, a constant humidity environment, and a drying period. Lap shear strength of the joints decreased with the cycles of corrosion exposure. Good joint strengths were retained at the end of 30-cycle test.

It is well known that the drilling industry is a diverse industry with huge power needs for drilling deep wells. This paper discusses the drilling industry in general and the future need for HT power electronics to enable such activities as tractor drive drilling of deep horizontal wells. The discussion is geared at applications for drilling within the earth at ambient temperatures of 150°C and above.

The results of an experimental study in a DI Diesel engine are presented which shows that partial premixing, using direct diesel fumigation of the inlet air, achieved a reduction in the ignition delay, the magnitude of high frequency rapid pressure fluctuations, the maximum rate of pressure rise and the amplitude of the rate of the high frequency pressure oscillations. Two methods of diesel fumigation were investigated. The difference between these two methods was the degree of premixing of diesel fuel with the inlet air. The first technique used a fine (5 micron) diesel spray onto a glow plug and the second technique used prevaporised diesel. A Perkins 4-236 engine was run both with and without fumigation at two different steady state speeds roughly covering both city and highway running conditions.

This paper shows the use of dedicated short range communications, DSRC, as a resource as implemented in a LAN environment. Customer wants and needs are reviewed in light of the requirements for trucking companies to reach 100% utilization of assets and to pursue the constant goal of lowering operating costs. The user perspective of applications are discussed with respect to lane based versus area based data collection. Multiple applications are satisfied from multiple departmental needs. Application design considerations are discussed for using this wireless communication.

The continued availability of leaded specialty aviation gasolines remains as an item of crucial importance in the near-term future of general aviation; however, the development of new piston engines capable of operation with other transportation fuels available in large pools is considered an indispensable element in the long-range survival of the industry. This paper offers a road map that while allowing the continued utilization of the current fleet of piston aircraft, sets the stage for a transition to new piston powerplants and associated aircraft, compatible with widely available transportation fuels such as motor gasoline based aviation fuels for the lower and some medium performance aircraft, and aviation turbine fuels for the balance of medium and high performance airplanes.

Adding oxygenates to diesel fuel has shown the potential for reducing particulate (PM) emissions in the exhaust. The objective of this study was to select the most promising oxygenate compounds as blending components in diesel fuel for advanced engine testing. A fuel matrix was designed to consider the effect of molecular structure and boiling point on the ability of oxygenates to reduce engine-out exhaust emissions from a modern diesel engine. Nine test fuels including a low-sulfur (∼1 ppm), low-aromatic hydrocracked base fuel and 8 oxygenate-base fuel blends were utilized. All oxygenated fuels were formulated to contain 7% wt. of oxygen. A DaimlerChrysler OM611 CIDI engine for light-duty vehicles was controlled with a SwRI Rapid Prototyping Electronic Control System. The base fuel was evaluated in four speed-load modes and oxygenated blends only in one mode. Each operating mode and fuel combination was run in triplicate.

A review of many years of published work has shown that hydrogen embrittlement can occur under rolling contact conditions. Breakdown of lubrication and contamination with water have been cited as the probable sources of atomic hydrogen. In this paper, a unique fracture morphology is identified and the mechanism of the fracture progression from initiation to final catastrophic failure is proposed. Development of beneficial residual compressive stress near the contacting surfaces is one approach used to avoid this type of failure. Several alternative methods capable of developing a more desirable stress distribution will be discussed.

Remote sensing nitric oxide (NO) measurements are difficult to analyze because load varies among on-road vehicles measured by remote sensing and NO emissions are dependent on load. Remote sensing NO measurements were made on passenger cars in 1997, 1998, and 1999 in Chicago, IL at a site where few vehicles had loads greater than those encountered in the FTP. Passenger car NO emissions could be modeled by an equation with an age term and a load term for measurements made under moderate load. Onset of decreasing NO emissions with increasing load was observed to occur at lower load for older technology vehicles. Light duty vehicles were measured by remote sensing at two sites on the same ramp in Phoenix, AZ. A large proportion of the vehicles at one of the sites was under loads far in excess of those experienced in the FTP. NO could not be characterized by a single valued function of age and load for both Phoenix sites even though the fleet at the two sites was very similar.

Both physical experiments and detailed chemical kinetics studies establish that Sonex micro-chambers imbedded in the walls of the piston bowl of an I.C. engine generate highly reactive intermediate chemical species and radicals- which, when allowed to mix with the fresh charge of the next cycle in the main chamber, substantially alter the chemical kinetics of main chamber combustion. A much more stable overall combustion process is observed, requiring substantially leaner air-fuel ratios than normal, and with much lower ignition temperatures. The net result, without any efficiency penalty, is an engine with an “ultra-clean” exhaust and with a greater tolerance to a wider range of fuels. Crucial to this process is the quenching of the flame in the passages connecting the micro-chambers to the piston bowl. It is flame quenching which enables the incomplete combustion of the charge trapped in the micro-chamber cavities.

This numerical study examines the chemical-kinetics mechanism responsible for EGR NOx reduction in standard engines. Also, it investigates the feasibility of using EGR alone in hydrogen-air and methanol-air combustion to help generate and retain the same radicals previously found to be responsible for the inducement of the autoignition (in such mixtures) in IC engines with the SONEX Combustion System (SCS) piston micro-chamber. The analysis is based on a detailed chemical kinetics mechanism (for each fuel) that includes NOx production. The mechanism for H-air-NOx combustion makes use of 19 species and 58 reactions while the methanol-air-NOx mechanism is based on the use of 49 species and 227 reactions. It was earlier postulated that the combination of thermal control and charge dilution provided by the EGR produces an alteration in the combustion mechanisms (for both the hydrogen and methanol cases) that lowers peak cycle temperatures-thus greatly reducing the production of NOx.

The Auto/Steel Partnership Corrosion Project Team has completed a perforation corrosion test program consisting of on-vehicle field exposures and various accelerated tests. Steel sheet products with eight combinations of metallic and organic coatings were tested, utilizing a simple crevice coupon design. On-vehicle exposures were conducted in St. John's and Detroit for up to seven years to establish a real-world performance standard. Identical test specimens were exposed to the various accelerated tests, and the results were compared to the real-world standard. This report documents the results of these tests, and compares the accelerated test results (including SAE J2334, GM9540P, Ford APGE, CCT-I, ASTM B117, South Florida Modified Volvo, and Kure Beach (25-meter) exposures) to the on-vehicle tests. The results are compared in terms of five criteria: extent of corrosion, rank order of material performance, degree of correlation, acceleration factor, and control of test environment.

Many new combustion concepts are currently being investigated to further improve engines in terms of both efficiency and emissions. Examples include homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI), lean stratified premixed combustion, stratified charge compression ignition (SCCI), and high levels of exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) in diesel engines, known as low temperature combustion (LTC). All of these combustion concepts have in common that the temperatures are lower than in traditional spark ignition or diesel engines. To further improve and develop combustion concepts for clean and highly efficient engines, it is necessary to develop new computational tools that can be used to describe and optimize processes in nonstandard conditions, such as low temperature combustion.

An outer loop guidance architecture was designed to control autonomous aerial refueling mission from the trail aircraft side. The design utilized bank, yaw rate, velocity and climb rate commands implemented using a previously developed adaptive trajectory concept. The concept was based on position error feedback that was used to control trail aircraft overshoot and tracking about the lead aircraft refueling point. To demonstrate this application, an open loop linear trail aircraft model at a given flight condition was selected. Inner loop control laws were designed using Linear Quadratic Regulator feedback controller and Balanced Deviation theory. The outer loop guidance architecture was then added to implement the application. The performance of the system was then evaluated for a selected position error, and disturbance.

The large fleet share and rapid growth of two and three wheeler vehicles in India means that careful attention must be paid to reducing emissions and fuel consumption from these vehicles. Emission standards and emission control technologies employed in passenger vehicles have not fully migrated to two and three wheelers. Fuel economy standards and advanced fuel efficient technologies, which offer great potential for reducing sector energy consumption, have also not been implemented for this important mode of transportation. This paper contains an overview of the engine technology changes and after-treatment systems being employed by Indian two and three-wheeler manufacturers to meet the Bharat Stage-III emission standards. An assessment of technical options to meet future emission standards is discussed. Adoption of evaporative emissions and on-board diagnostic systems technologies are discussed as well.

This study investigates occupant containment characteristics of tempered and laminated automotive moveable side glass in rollover collisions. FMVSS 216 test protocols were used to induce roof damage or sheet metal damage around the window opening in Lincoln Navigators equipped with tempered and laminated side glass. Dummy-drop tests were then performed to investigate relative containment. The results demonstrate that, for rollovers in which the window structure is compromised, tempered side glass and laminated side glass perform comparably relative to occupant containment. Also discussed are the general strength characteristics of different types of glass construction, the availability of laminated side glass in recent model U.S. vehicles, and anecdotal data supporting the conclusions of testing.

The ideal internal-combustion crankshaft engine would burn all the fuel near top center without detonation, then expand the whole charge until exhaust Both events are impossible with current piston engines. The Hydrocycle Rocket Piston Engine concept employs a free piston in the head of a two-stroke-cycle engine. Combustion between the crank piston and the free piston allows direct conversion of combustion fluid expansion to hydrostatic fluid flow and accumulator gas compression with perfect timing and minimum thermal and mechanical losses. An infinitely variable, radial hydrostatic motor gives the driver smooth, gas-cushioned acceleration and stepless performance. Maximum economy is attained since the driver is forced to run the engine at optimum minimum speed to match road load oadin all traffic conditions.

The timing of lubricating oil changes for passenger vehicles are based on set time or mileage intervals specified by their manufacturers. A few vehicle manufacturers use more sophisticated methods such as logging the engine speed and temperature and calculating the oil change intervals from this data. Neither technique tells the vehicle user anything about the true state of the oil. A novel form of viscosity sensor based on a vibrating piezoceramic element has been developed. Based on the output from such a device, a more accurate determination of the oil change interval can be made and abnormal conditions (such as the leakage of fuels into the lubricating oil) can be detected. This paper gives a brief description of the device itself and shows results from prototype samples.

Maximum fuel economy and Low exhaust emissions can exist together if a predominantly wide-open-throttle engine operating schedule is used to complement a continuously variable transmission. Moreover, the concurrently required engine re-calibration often entails less effort than the more usual fuel consumption and emission mapping procedure.

Rapidly industrializing developing countries are now starting to note similar air pollution problems to those of the industrialized world. This paper surveys the adverse environmental impacts resulting from motor vehicles, reviews technologies developed to address these problems, and summarizes the current status of pollution controls around the world. Special focus is on the design of strategies to address the emerging problems of developing countries.