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The effects of spray/wall interaction on diesel combustion and soot formation in a two-dimensional piston cavity were studied with a high speed color video camera in a constant volume combustion vessel. The two-dimensional piston cavity was applied to generate the impinging spray flame. In the cavity, the flat surface which plays a role as the cylinder head has a 13.5 degree angle with the injector axis and the impinging point was located 30 mm away from the nozzle tip. Three injection pressures of 100, 150, and 200 MPa and a single hole diesel injector (hole diameter: 0.133mm) were selected. The flame structure and combustion process were examined by using the color luminosity images. Two-color pyrometry was used to measure the line-of sight soot temperature and concentration by using the R and B channels of the color images. The soot mass generated by impinging spray flame is higher than that of the free spray flame.

The rotary engine provides high power density compared to piston engine, but one of its downside is higher oil consumption. A model of the oil seals is developed to calculate internal oil consumption (oil leakage from the crankcase through the oil seals) as a function of engine geometry and operating conditions. The deformation of the oil seals trying to conform to housing distortion is calculated to balance spring force, O-ring and groove friction, and asperity contact and hydrodynamic pressure at the interface. A control volume approach is used to track the oil over a cycle on the seals, the rotor and the housing as the seals are moving following the eccentric rotation of the rotor. The dominant cause of internal oil consumption is the non-conformability of the oil seals to the housing distortion generating net outward scraping, particularly next to the intake and exhaust port where the housing distortion valleys are deep and narrow.

The rotary engine provides high power density compared to piston engine, but one of its downside is higher oil consumption. In order to better understand oil transport, a laser induced fluorescence technique is used to visualize oil motion on the side of the rotor during engine operation. Oil transport from both metered oil and internal oil is observed. Starting from inside, oil accumulates in the rotor land during inward motion of the rotor created by its eccentric motion. Oil seals are then scraping the oil outward due to seal-housing clearance asymmetry between inward and outward motion. Cut-off seal does not provide an additional barrier to internal oil consumption. Internal oil then mixes with metered oil brought to the side of the rotor by gas leakage. Oil is finally pushed outward by centrifugal force, passes the side seals, and is thrown off in the combustion chamber.

Owing to the small size of engines and high injection pressures, it is difficult to avoid the fuel spray impingement on the combustion cylinder wall and piston head in Direct Injection Spark Ignition (DISI) engine, which is a possible source of hydrocarbons and soot emission. As a result, the droplets size and distribution are significantly important to evaluate the atomization and predict the impingement behaviors, such as stick, spread or splash. However, the microscopic behaviors of droplets are seldom reported due to the high density of small droplets, especially under high pressure conditions. In order to solve this problem, a “spray slicer” was designed to cut the spray before impingement as a sheet one to observe the droplets clearly. The experiment was performed in a constant volume chamber under non-evaporation condition, and a mini-sac injector with single hole was used.

It has been required recently that diesel engines for passenger cars meet various requirements, such as low noise, low fuel consumption, low emissions and high power. The key to improve the noise is to reduce a combustion noise known as “Diesel knock noise”. Conventional approaches to reduce the diesel knock are decreasing combustion excitation force due to pilot/pre fuel injection, adding ribs to engine blocks or improving noise transfer characteristics by using insulation covers. However, these approaches have negative effects, such as deterioration in fuel economy and increase in cost/weight. Therefore, modification of engine structures is required to reduce it. We analyzed noise transfer paths from a piston, a connecting rod, a crank shaft to an engine block and vibration behavior during engine operation experimentally, and identified that piston resonance was a noise source.

Internal combustion engines still play a vital role in realizing the low carbon society. For spark ignition engines, further improvement in thermal efficiency can be achieved by increasing both compression and specific heat ratios. In the current work, the authors developed practical technologies to prevent output power loss due to knocking at full load, which is a critical issue for increasing compression ratio. These new technologies allowed to increase the compression ratio significantly and provide an equivalent torque level as a conventional engine. As a result, thermal efficiency has been improved at partial load.

In this paper, emissions reduction technologies applied to high-speed direct injection (HSDI) diesel passenger car engines to meet the stricter exhaust emission legislation are described. To reduce smoke, the F.I.E. has been improved by using a radial-piston distributor pump which delivers fuel-injection-pressure up to 120MPa. Cooled exhaust gas re-circulation (EGR) system and increase in volume ratio of the combustion chamber has made it possible to increase EGR ratio and reduced nitrogen oxides (NOx) and smoke simultaneously. Furthermore, improvements in the oxidation catalyst activating temperature reduces PM at lower exhaust gas temperatures. As a result of applying these technologies, a clean and economical HSDI diesel engine for passenger cars, which complies with Japanese '98 exhaust emissions legislation and has better fuel economy than indirect injection (IDI) diesel engines (above 15%), has been developed.

A new state of the art DOC (Diesel Oxidation Catalyst) having superior light-off and exothermic activity for forced regeneration compared to conventional Pt base passive DOC, was investigated for LDD application. The DOC uses the latest Pt/Pd technology resulting cost effective DPF system. The newly developed DOC demonstrated improved catalytic activities from Pt only DOC in model gas or engine bench tests. In this study, DOC at early development stage showed excellent light-off activity in model gas and engine bench test compared to conventional Pt only DOC, however, it showed “extinction” phenomenon which is one of the deactivation mode while the post injection and it was observed when post injection operation was done at lower DOC inlet temperatures, e.g. below 250 C. Temperature profiles along diameter and length into DOC bed while active regeneration suggested extinction would be caused by fouling of supplied hydrocarbons derived from diesel fuel.

To apply a fuel economy performance to AT&CVT fluid for common use (hereinafter AT/CVT fluid) and manual transmission fluid, by optimizing fluid viscosity, a fundamental study was investigated. Generally, it is well known that the viscosity of polymer-added transmission fluids is gradually reduced, due to deterioration of the viscosity index improver caused by shear stress. An excessive viscosity reduction causes an operation failure or damage to the transmission. Considering above factor, the authors focused attention on the potential of a low viscosity formulation to improve fuel efficiency by reducing an internal stirring-resistance of the transmission. Also from the viewpoint of friction characteristics, the performance of a base oil was studied. Utilizing the EHL (Elast-Hydrodynamic Lubrication) tester [1] and vehicle tests, the performance of base oils was evaluated for the fluid development.

Spot friction welding (SFW) is a cost-effective spot joining technology for aluminum sheets compared with resistance spot welding (RSW) [1]. In this study, coated mild steel was spot friction welded to 6000 series aluminum using a tool with shoulder diameter of 10 mm and welding conditions of 1500-2000 rpm and time of 5 s. Testing showed that tensile shear strength increased as the solidus temperature of the coating on the steel decreased. Microstructure characterizations of steel/Al joint interfaces showed that zinc from the coatings was incorporated into the stir nuggets and that intermetallic phases may have formed but not in continuous layers. Some Al-Zn oxides that appeared to be amorphous were also found in the joint interfaces.

For fuel economy improvement by lean-burn gasoline engines, extension of their lean operation range to higher loads is desirable as more fuel is consumed during acceleration. Urgently needed therefore is development of emission control systems having as high NOx conversion efficiency as three-way catalysts (TWC) even with more frequent lean operation. The authors conducted a study using catalysts loaded with potassium (K) as the only NOx trapping agent in an emission control system of a lean-burn gasoline engine.

A technique to strengthen body frame with a polymeric structural foam has been developed with benefits of reducing vehicle weight and improving drivability and fuel economy. The idea of this new technology was evolved from the concept that body frame strength will increase drastically if the body frames are prevented from folding on collision. The energy of a collision impact would be effectively absorbed if weak portions of body frames are reinforced by a high strength structural foam. The new technology composed of the high strength structural foam and a light-weight frame structure with partial foam filling is reported here.

The purpose of this study is to explain the characteristics of homogeneous charge compression ignition. n-Heptane, which has the same cetane number as diesel fuel, was chosen for the fuel. A rapid compression machine was used to clarify the effects of air-fuel ratio, O2 concentration, and compression temperature on ignition delay and NOx emission. These investigations allowed the introduction of a formula for ignition delay.

With society demanding automobiles that provide higher fuel efficiency, safety of occupants in collisions and that at the end of their service life can be recycled with low environmental impact, the steel industry is tackling the needs of the automobile industry by developing ever-higher performance steel materials and simulation technologies that can demonstrate the performance of steel materials at the development stage without the need for costly prototype testing. In this paper, weight reduction of automobile body in Japan will be discussed. The main items will be as follows: (1) Development of Automobile Steel Sheets, (2) Materials for Automobile Bodies, (3) Materials and Technologies (Tailored Blanks, Hydroforming and Locally Quenching) for Reducing the Weight of Panels and Reinforcing members, (4) Future Prospects.

Aldehydes are the cause of sick house syndrome or chemical sensitivity and have harmful influences for human beings. In the cabin of vehicle, aldehydes which are included in the volatilization gas from the interior materials, DE emission gas in intake air, cigarette smoke and so on spoil the comfortableness. Active carbon, which has been used as an adsorbent, shows an excellent removal efficiency for most of the gas components by physical adsorption. But for aldehydes, it has difficulty because aldehydes are hard to be adsorbed physically. We have developed new aldehydes adsorbent undergoing addition reaction with gaseous aldehydes on its surface. Aldehydes capture material (ACM) make use of the chemical reaction using a resorcin as a reagent and an H-type zeolite as a water-containing support, and active hydrogen is used as a catalyst to promote the reaction. In addition, we have applied ACM to cabin air filter (CAF) of vehicle.

A resin cylinder head model was produced using a rapid prototype producing system. The resin model was used in the lost-wax casting process instead of a wax model. The casting molded by this method was as precise in both shape and dimensions as a casting produced using a metal mold. This paper describes the manufacturing process of cylinder head material using this method in detail.

A method of fatigue life prediction of spot welded joint under multi-axial loads has been developed by fatigue life estimation working groups in the committee on fatigue strength and structural reliability of JSAE. This method is based on the concept of nominal structural stress ( σ ns) proposed by Radaj and Rupp, and improved so that D value is not involved in stress calculation. The result of fatigue life estimation of actual vehicle with nominal structural stress which was calculated through newly developed method had very good correlation with the result of multi-axial loads fatigue test carried out with test piece including high strength steel.

New 440MPa class high-strength steel, which had high r-value(1.6) and elongation(38%), was applied to outer-panel for the first time in the world. In this development FEM simulation was carried out to clarify the necessary steel properties, and the production conditions in strip mill were established. 10-kg weight reduction was realized by using this steel.

In this paper the fatigue life of welded steel sheet structures is predicted by using FE-Fatigue, which is one of fatigue analysis software tools on the market, and these predicted results are evaluated by reference to corresponding experimental results. Also, we try to predict these structures by using two fatigue life prediction theories established by the JSAE fatigue and reliability committee to compare prediction results. It was confirmed that spot welds fatigue life predictions agree qualitatively with corresponding experimental results and arc welds fatigue life predictions are in good agreement with corresponding experimental results in cases where the SN curve database is modified appropriately.

In recent years, improving fuel efficiency and collision safety are important issue. We have worked on a new construction method to develop body structure which is light weight and strong/stiff. We adopt multi type Tailor-Welded Blanks (TWB) which is formed after welding several steel sheets for ATENZA (MAZDA 6), NEW DEMIO (MAZDA 2), and RX-8. This is a technology to consistently improve of such product properties and to reduce costs. Laser welding is a common TWB welding method, but for further equipment cost reductions and productivity improvements, we have developed a higher welding speed and robust plasma welding and introduced this to mass production. We introduce this activity and results in this report.