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The demand for quieter vehicle interiors increases year after year. The dynamic force transmission of rolling tires from the road surface to the spindles is a critical factor in vehicle interior noise. We investigated the dynamic force transmission of a rolling tire as it relates to reducing vehicle interior noise. A test with a tire rolling over a cleat was conducted in order to measure the road forces and the spindle forces. The transfer function of the rolling tire was identified from the experimental results by applying multi dimensional spectral analysis. In addition, Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) technology has advanced recently. This enables prediction of spindle forces early in the design stage. One of the most important issues in predicting spindle forces accurately is to clarify the distribution of road forces. This paper also describes the distribution of the dynamic road forces of the rolling tire.

This paper describes how use of multi-objective optimization of pulsating noise and backpressure improved an exhaust silencer for diesel drive equipment. Low frequency pulsating noise and backpressure were simultaneously predicted using one-dimensional fluid dynamics and acoustic analysis by BEM. In addition, an experiment was done to investigate the relation between high frequency noise including flow-induced noise and the dimensions of perforations in silencer pipes. Finally, a prototype of the exhaust silencer was built and examined in order to confirm the effects of these design methods mentioned. As predicted, exhaust noise was reduced without increasing backpressure.

A hydraulic excavator cab is mounted on a viscous mount. When the weight of the cab is heavy, the neutral position is depressed. Besides, at a large load, the cab receives compressive repulsion power of oil thereby restricting its damping ability. In addition, it is difficult to obtain an arbitrary damping performance separately. To overcome these problems, which combines the shear force due to viscous fluid with elastic force due to air-spring a mount, was invented. The neutral position of composite mount is adjustable by air-spring according to the weight. And viscous oil is not sealed up. So, viscous oil can flow at a large load. Therefore, it may not experience the repulsion force of oil in spite of a large load. Moreover, the generated elastic force is adjustable according to change of pressure in the air spring, and the generated damping force is adjustable according to change of viscous fluid's viscosity or volume.

Current simulation of Noise, Vibration and Harshness (NVH) using Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) often uses a large DOF and detailed finite element model along with improvement of CAE technology and computational performance. By using a detailed model, predictions of precise vibration characteristics become possible. However, the number of eigenmodes in the target frequency range increases and engineers require a lot of time to examine eigenmodes and establish countermeasures. In this paper, a practical method of efficient and effective analysis by classifying target eigenmodes into a small number of groups is proposed. The classification is executed based on the relation between the dynamic characteristics of the entire automotive body structure and substructures.

This study discussed the mechanism of the low speed judder for wave type brake disc developed newly for recent motorcycles. Wavy disc was examined to investigate the effect of wave configurations on the BTV (Brake Torque Variation) behavior. Torque amplitude in braking was compared with respect to the revolution order which represented the multiple number of the number of revolutions. To explain the mechanism at the mode showing largest BTV, the elastic deformation of the pad was analyzed by finite element method concerning geometrical nonlinearity with commercial code. This study found that most crucial BTV appeared on low speed judder was observed at the 3 rd peaks on the revolution order. Test data showed that this crucial BTV was related with the number of waves at the disc periphery, and caused by the indentation of the pad into notched part at disc periphery.

Three-dimensional large eddy simulation (LES) has been conducted for a diesel spray flame using KIVALES which is LES version of KIVA code. Modified TAB model, velocity interpolation model and rigid sphere model are used to improve the prediction of the fuel-mixture process in the diesel spray. Combustion is simulated using the Eddy-Dissipation model. CIP method was incorporated into the KIVALES in order to suppress the numerical instability on the combustible flow. The formation of soot and NO was simulated using Hiroyasu model and KIVA original model. Three different grid resolutions were used to examine the grid dependency. The result shows that the LES approach with 0.5 mm grid size is able to resolve the instantaneous spray with the intermittency in the spray periphery, the axi-symmetric shape and meandering flow after the end of injection as shown in the experimental results.

This paper describes a proposal of techniques on Transfer Path Analysis (TPA) to analyze transmission of vibration among the components in a complex structure. This proposal is evolved from the previous one [1] in the dimension which dominates the quality of the analysis in automotive body structure by TPA. The proper coordinate transformation was introduced to resolve the troublesome process on the application of the body structure in the previous proposal. The complications are caused by the treatment with a lot of transfer functions and transmitted forces at the conjunctions that are complexly assembled with many adjacent nodes. Dimension of the analytical region is expanded from two to three in this study. That is, from the cross section of interface of components to the structure itself where the vibration transmits between two components.

Improvement of vehicle interior noise is desired in recent years in the modern world of the demand of low weight, good fuel economy and offering technical advantages strongly. The dynamic force transmission of rolling tires from the road surface to the spindles is a critical factor in vehicle interior noise. We focus on structure-borne noise transferred through the spindle. It is necessary for effort of the effective tire/road noise reduction to predict spindle force excited by tire/road contact. The major issues in predicting spindle forces are to clarify the distribution of road forces and how to input on the simulation model. Therefore, it is important that road forces are measured accurately on the rolling tire. First, the dynamic road forces on the rolling tire are measured by using the tri-axial force sensor directly. In efforts to reduce interior noise due to structure-borne noise, it is necessary to predict spindle forces excited by the tire/road contact.

This paper describes the application of statistical energy analysis (SEA) to predicting sound power radiated from co-generation system enclosure. To predict vibration and noise accurately by using SEA, it is important to estimate parameter called loss factors. In this study, loss factors were estimated by power injection method. Next, the noise radiated from enclosure surface was predicted by the obtained vibration and radiation efficiency of enclosure panels. As a result, the calculated sound power was relatively corresponding to measured sound power. Finally, the sound power from modified enclosure was predicted. Coupling loss factors related to a modified subsystem were estimated by ratio of the number of structure modes. By using these steps, the noise from the system was reduced.

The maximum liquid-phase penetration and vaporization behavior was investigated by using simultaneous measurement for mie-scattered light images and shadowgraph ones. The objective of this study was to analyze effect of variant parameters (injection pressure, ambient gas condition and fuel temperature) and fuel properties on vaporization behavior, and to investigate liquid phase penetration for the single- and multi-component fuels. The experiments were conducted in a constant-volume vessel with optical access. Fuel was injected into the vessel with electronically controlled common rail injector.

Generally, it is well known that road noise generated by vibration from automobile tires and suspensions can be reduced by changing the stiffness of the rubber mounts installed in the suspension systems. Such stiffness, however, is rarely changed to avoid riding discomfort and so on. In this paper, a stiffness optimization method for suspension system rubber mounts that reduces road noise, and improves riding comfort as well, is presented. In the process, Road Noise Contribution Analysis (RNCA) is applied to the target vehicle to specify the major factors of road noise. Furthermore, the suspension system of the vehicle is investigated by Sensitivity Analysis using Measured FRF data (SAMF) to identify the optimal stiffness combination of rubber mounts. As a result, an effective stiffness combination of two mounts is specified to reduce road noise and to improve riding comfort.

Recently, the development stage of agricultural vehicles such as the tractor has focused on new demands to improve the cabin environment. Especially the ride comfort has become increasingly important. For this purpose, rubber bushes have been installed the tractor to reduce road vibration to the driver in the cabin. However, this device does not sufficiently suppress vibration. This paper presents a method of vibration reduction that installs a semi-active suspension in the lateral and vertical directions at the cabin mount position of the tractor. In numerical simulation, the tractor model installed with a semi-active suspension is superior in performance to the conventional tractor model.

Tiny (hair-like) cracks initiated around small holes in the flange of one-piece brake discs were observed at an overloading condition. Thermally induced cyclic stress strongly affects the crack initiation in the brake discs. In order to show the crack initiation mechanism, the temperature distribution at the flange was firstly measured. The temperature distribution under overloading was analyzed by using the finite element method. Based on the experimental and calculated results, the crack initiation mechanism for one-piece brake discs at the very severe braking condition was explained. In addition, the effective methods are suggested for reducing the initiation of tiny cracks around the holes.

This paper describes a steady vibration of an engine supported by rubber and hydraulic mounts at a relatively low frequency range, assuming an engine is a rigid body. We identify dynamic characteristics of a hydraulic mount with respect to frequency and amplitude. The equation of motion is solved numerically by the Newton-Raphson method, treating the mount characteristics as functions of frequency and amplitude. The excitation test to simulate an engine shake and an idling vibration was performed using a mass block instead of an actual engine. During the engine shake, we observed that the amplitude dependency of hydraulic mounts strongly influences the vibration, while idling, we investigated rolling vibration especially for the case where the torque axis does not pass through the engine's center of gravity. The theoretical predictions agree closely with the experimental results in both engine shake and idling vibration tests.

This paper provides new insights on the mechanism of the smokeless diesel combustion with oxygenated fuels, based on a combination of soot kinetic modeling and optical diagnostics. The chemical effects of fuel compositions, including aromatics - paraffins blend, neat oxygenated fuels and oxygenate additives, on sooting equivalence ratio ‘ϕ’ - temperature ‘T’ dependence were numerically examined using a detailed soot kinetic model. To better understand the physical factors affecting soot formation in oxygenated fuel sprays, the effects of injection pressure and ambient gas temperature on the flame lift-off length and relative soot concentration in oxygenated fuel jets were experimentally investigated. The computational results show that the leaner mixture side of soot formation peninsula on the ϕ - T map, rather than the lower temperature one, should be utilized to suppress the formation of PAHs and ultra-fine particles together with the large reduction in particulate mass.

In a typical mechanical product such as an automobile or construction machinery, it is important to identify deformation modes, for which experiments and analyses can result in significant improvements. It is also important to consider how to improve the structure with high rigidity by using a technique such as the strain energy method in conventional design and development. However, the abovementioned method often generates conflicting results with regard to weight saving and cost reduction of development requirements. Transfer path analysis (TPA) using the finite element method (FEM) is an effective way to reduce noise and vibration in the automobile with respect to these issues. TPA can reveal the transfer path from the input to the response of the output point and the contribution of the path, and to efficiently consider improved responses.

This paper describes new method for selecting optimal field points in Inverse-Numerical Acoustic analysis (INA), and its application to construction of a sound source model for diesel engines. INA identifies the surface vibration of a sound source by using acoustic transfer functions and actual sound pressures measured at field points located near the sound source. When measuring sound pressures with INA, it is necessary to determine the field point arrangement. Increased field points leads to longer test and analysis time. Therefore, guidelines for selecting the field point arrangement are needed to conduct INA efficiently. The authors focused on the standard deviations of distance between sound source elements and field points and proposed a new guideline for optimal field point selection in our past study. In that study, we verified the effectiveness of this guideline using a simple plate model.

The tire is one of the most important parts, which influence the noise, vibration, and harshness of the passenger cars. It is well known that effect of rotation influences tire vibration characteristics, and earlier studies presented formulas of tire vibration behavior. However, there are no studies of tire vibration including lateral vibration on effect of rotation. In this paper, we present new formulas of tire vibration on effect of rotation using a three-dimensional flexible ring model. The model consists of the cylindrical ring represents the tread and the springs represent the sidewall stiffness. The equation of motion of lateral, longitudinal, and radial vibration on the tread are derived based on the assumption of inextensional deformation. Many of the associated numerical parameters are identified from experimental tests.

Operator comfort is an important design criteria for hydraulic excavators during working and idling conditions. An engine, a cooling fan motor and a pump are installed on a hydraulic excavator. It is hard to identify the vibration contribution to a response because three sources are synchronizingly working. This paper describes the use of partial coherence measurement techniques for source identification. And it is examined to reduce the vibration of the source component identified by the partial coherence results. Finally, it is verified that the response acceleration is effectively decreased by reducing the vibration of the identified component.

An advanced numerical model is proposed to analyze the power transmitting mechanisms of a CVT using a metal V-belt. By using the present model, forces acting on the belt are well estimated not only at steady states but also during transitional states where the speed ratio is changing. The numerical results show that blocks are in compression in both strands when the speed ratio is rapidly shifted. A complementary model is also developed to analyze the load distribution among bands which form the ring. The load distribution in the ring is governed by the difference in coefficients of friction among elements.