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Research has been conducted on Controlled Auto-Ignition (CAI) engine with natural gas. CAI engine has the potential to be highly efficient and to produce low emissions. CAI engine is potentially applicable to automobile engine. However due to narrow operating range, CAI engine for automobile engine which require various speed and load in real world operation is still remaining at research level. In comparison some natural gas engines for electricity generation only require continuous operation at constant load. There is possibility of efficiency enhancement by CAI combustion which is running same speed at constant load. Since natural gas is primary consisting of methane (CH4), high auto-ignition temperature is required to occur stable auto-ignition. Usually additional intake heat required to keep stable auto-ignition. To keep high compression temperature, single cylinder natural gas engine with high compression ratio (CR=26) was constructed.

A new nitriding technology and material technology have been developed to increase the strength of microalloyed gears. The developed nitriding technology makes it possible to freely select the phase composition of the nitride compound layer by controlling the treatment atmosphere. The treatment environment is controlled to exclude sources of supply of [C], and H2 is applied as the carrier gas. This has made it possible to control the forward reaction that decomposes NH3, helping to enable the stable precipitation of γ′-phase, which offers excellent peeling resistance. A material optimized for the new nitriding technology was also developed. The new material is a low-carbon alloy steel that makes it possible to minimize the difference in hardness between the compound layer and the substrate directly below it, and is resistant to decline in internal hardness due to aging precipitation in the temperature range used in the nitriding treatment.

Recent trends to downsize engines have resulted in lighter weight and greater compactness. At the same time, however, power density has increased due to the addition of turbocharger and other such means to supplement engine power and torque, and this has increased the thermal and mechanical load. In this kind of environment, corrosion of the copper alloy bushing (piston pin bushing) that is press-fitted in the small end of the connecting rod becomes an issue. The material used in automobile bearings, of which the bushing is a typical example, is known to undergo sulfidation corrosion through reaction with an extreme-pressure additive Zinc Dialkyldithiophosphate (ZnDTP) in the lubricating oil. However, that reaction path has not been clarified. The purpose of the present research, therefore, is to clarify the reaction path of ZnDTP and copper in an actual engine environment.

The chief goal of engineers studying internal combustion engines is to improve energy efficiency in the face of the increasingly severe global warming and energy issues. Hence, there have been numerous studies focusing on the combustion reactions in order to develop clean and reliable combustion that is capable of operating using less fuel. And to improve the comprehension of engine performance and its combustion reactions, development of comprehensive measurement technique for engine performance, in-cylinder visualization technique, and numerical simulations, is essential and strongly demanded. There have hitherto been numerous studies about combustion diagnostics and analysis, including high-efficiency measurement techniques using response surface method the air-fuel mixture distribution and flame propagation measurement with optical visualization techniques, and numerical calculations of combustion reaction with elementary reactions.

Metal additive manufacturing has high potential to produce automobile parts, due to its shape flexibility and unique material properties. On the other hand, residual stress which is generated by rapid solidification causes deformation, cracks and failure under building process. To avoid these problems, understanding of internal residual stress distribution is necessary. However, from the view point of measureable area, conventional residual stress measurement methods such as strain gages and X-ray diffractometers, is limited to only the surface layer of the parts. Therefore, neutron which has a high penetration capability was chosen as a probe to measure internal residual stress in this research. By using time of flight neutron diffraction facility VULCAN at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, residual stress for mono-cylinder head, which were made of aluminum alloy, was measured non-distractively. From the result of precise measurement, interior stress distribution was visualized.

The field of diesel combustion research is producing numerous reports on studies of premixed combustion, which promises simultaneous reduction of both NOx and soot, in order to meet increasingly stringent regulations on harmful emissions from automobiles. However, although premixed combustion can simultaneously reduce both NOx and soot, certain issues have been pointed out, including the fact that it emits greater quantities of unburned HC and CO gases and the fact that it limits the operating range. Furthermore, this combustion method sets the ignition delay longer with the aim of promoting the mixing of fuel and air. This raises issues with the product due to the combustion instability and sensitivity to the uneven fuel properties that are found on the market, the capability of the engine response under transient conditions, the deterioration in combustion noise, and so on.

Intake manifold is a part of an engine that supplies fuel/air mixture to the cylinder heads. Recently, silicone FIPG has been used for the two part design of the intake manifold. It is known that a small, but significant, amount of gasoline fuel can penetrate through silicone FIPG layer due to the flexible nature of the siloxane backbone. Since gasoline permeation is becoming more important because of more severe regulations, it is found that a new polyacrylate based FIPG dramatically reduces the gasoline fuel permeation. This study compares this new technology, polyacrylate FIPG sealant with silicone FIPG sealant used today for vehicle powertrain gasketing applications. Adhesion investigation on both aluminum and magnesium alloys, and oil resistance are also discussed in this study.

It is important in the application of bio-ethanol in homogeneous-charge compression ignition (HCCI) engines to investigate the HCCI combustion characteristics of ethanol. As the inhibitory mechanism of ethanol on HCCI combustion is a key factor, simulated chemical reactions are necessary. In this study, chemical reaction simulations in the combustion chamber of a rapid compression machine (RCM) were performed in order to investigate the inhibitory mechanism of ethanol on the HCCI combustion of heptane. The sensitivity analysis results suggested that the OH radical consumption reaction by ethanol that occurs would inhibit the cool flame reaction of heptane. Furthermore, visualization of HCCI combustion with the RCM was conducted using a quartz glass combustion chamber head and ICCD camera. As a result, the cool flame luminescence intensity of heptane was reduced by the addition of ethanol.

Power generation systems employed in small gas engine cogeneration were examined to compare losses in the converter, which converts three-phase alternator power to direct current (DC) voltage, and losses in the inverter, which converts power to high-quality alternating current (AC) voltage that can be connected into electric utility power lines. It is a characteristic of alternators that their efficiency and output voltage decline in the heavy load range. It was found, therefore, that step-down methods using thyristors operate in a low-efficiency range in order to provide a satisfactory supply of the targeted DC output voltage. Use of switching regulator methods, on the other hand, can generate the target voltage by regulating a switching device after first storing the alternator output in a choke coil. It was found, therefore, that these use the high-efficiency range of the alternator. The converter was found to have a resulting loss decrease of 19.4 W.

This study examined a high-speed, high-powered diesel engine featuring a pent-roof combustion chamber and straight ports, with the objective of improving the specific power of the engine while minimizing any increase in the maximum cylinder pressure (Pmax). The market and contemporary society expect improvements in the driving performance of diesel-powered automobiles, and increased specific power so that engine displacement can be reduced, which will lessen CO2 emissions. When specific power is increased through conventional methods accompanied with a considerable increase in Pmax, the engine weight is increased and friction worsens. Therefore, the authors examined new technologies that would allow to minimize any increase in Pmax by raising the rated speed from the 4000 rpm of the baseline engine to 5000 rpm, while maintaining the BMEP of the baseline engine.

Improvement of engine cycle thermal efficiency is an effective way to increase engine torque and to reduce fuel consumption simultaneously. However, the extent of the improvement is limited by engine knock, which is more evident at low engine speeds when combustion flame propagation is relatively slow. To prevent engine damage due to knock, the spark ignition timing of a gasoline engine is usually controlled by a knock sensor. Therefore, an engine's ignition timing cannot be set freely to achieve best engine performance and fuel economy. Whether ignition timings for a multi-cylinder engine are the same or can be set differently for each cylinder, it is not desirable for each cylinder has big deviation from the median with respect to knock tendency. It is apparent that effective measures to improve engine knock toughness should address both uniformity of all cylinders of a multi-cylinder engine and improvement of median knock toughness.

In this study, a spark plug sensor for in-situ fuel concentration measurement was applied to a port injected lean-burn engine. Laser infrared absorption method was employed and a 3.392 μm He-Ne laser that coincides with the absorption line of hydrocarbons was used as a light source. In this engine, the secondary valve lift height of intake system was controlled to obtain appropriate swirl and tumble flow in order to achieve lean-burn with the characteristics of intake flow. For such in-cylinder stratified mixture distribution, the fuel concentration near the spark plug is very important factor that affects the combustion characteristics. Therefore, the mixture formation process near the spark plug was investigated with changing fuel injection timing. Under the intake stroke, the timing that fuel passed through near the spark plug depended largely on the fuel injection timing.

This paper introduces a new type of aluminum radiator that has been developed with the objective of high performance and light weight. Aluminum radiators have recently been replacing copper radiators because of their light weight, but the heat rejection of such conventional alminum radiators does not exceed that of copper radiators. Authors established the aluminum radiator not only being light weight but also having high performance through the following approaches. (1) Optimization of radiator core module. (2) Thickness reduction of tube and fin. (3) Development of aluminum alloys with improved corrosion resistance for tubes and fins. As a result, a new type single-row aluminum radiator has achieved 7% higher rejection at 50% lighter weight than those of copper double-row radiator.

For reduction of NOx and soot emission with conventional diesel diffusion combustion, the authors focused on enhancement of the rate of injection (hereafter referred to as RoI) to improve air availability, thus enhancing the fuel distribution and atomization. In order to increase opening ramp of the RoI (hereafter referred to as fast injection rate), a hydraulic circuit was improved and nozzle geometries were optimized to make the greatest use of the advantages of the hydraulic circuit. Two different common rail injectors were prepared for this research. One is a mass production-type injector with piezo actuator that achieved the EURO-V exhaust gas emission standards, and the other is a prototype injector equipped with the new hydraulic circuit. The nozzle needle of the prototype injector is directly actuated by high-pressure fuel from common rail to improve the RoI.

Piston ring wear in gasoline engine induces deterioration of emissions performance due to leakage of blow-by gas, instability of idling caused by reduced compression in combustion chamber, and to generate early degeneration of engine oil. We examined anti-wear performance of DLC coating on piston ring, which had been recently reported as an effective method for improving the abrasion resistance. As a result, wear rate remained low under the condition of DLC existence on sliding surface, but once DLC was worn out completely, wear of the piston ring was accelerated and its life became shorter than piston ring without DLC. In this research, we designed reciprocating test apparatus that operates at much higher velocity range, and characterized the frictional materials of the piston ring and sleeve and the DLC as a protective film, a vapor phase epitaxy (VPE) was actively used as a means to form certain level of convex and concave shape on its surface.

The aim of this study is to clarify the mixture formation in the combustion chamber of our developed natural gas engine incorporating the sub-chamber injection system, in which natural gas is directly injected into a combustion sub-chamber in order to completely separate rich mixture in the sub-chamber, suitable for ignition, from ultra-lean mixture in the main chamber. Mixture distributions in chambers with and without sub-chamber were numerically simulated at a variety of operating conditions. The commercial software of Fluent 16.0 was used to conduct simulations based on Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes equations in an axial 2 dimensional numerical domain considering movements of piston. Non-reactive flow in the combustion chamber was simulated before the ignition timing at an engine speed of 2000 rpm. The turbulence model employed here is standard k-ε model. Air-fuel ratio is set with a lean condition of 30.

To comply with the environmental demands for CO2 reduction without compromising driving performance, a new 1.0 liter I3 turbocharged gasoline direct injection engine has been developed. This engine is the smallest product in the new Honda VTEC TURBO engine series (1), and it is intended to be used in small to medium-sized passenger car category vehicles, enhancing both fuel economy through downsizing, state-of-the-art friction reduction technologies such as electrically controlled variable displacement oil pump and timing belt in oil system, and also driving performance through turbocharging with an electrically controlled waste gate. This developed engine has many features in common with other VTEC TURBO engines such as the 1.5 liter I4 turbocharged engine (2) (3), which has been introduced already into the market.

Gasoline includes various kinds of chemical species. Thus, the reaction model of gasoline components that includes the low-temperature oxidation and ignition reaction is necessary to investigate the method to control the combustion process of the gasoline engine. In this study, a gasoline combustion reaction model including n-paraffin, iso-paraffin, olefin, naphthene, alcohol, ether, and aromatic compound was developed. KUCRS (Knowledge-basing Utilities for Complex Reaction Systems) [1] was modified to produce paraffin, olefin, naphthene, alcohol automatically. Also, the toluene reactions of gasoline surrogate model developed by Sakai et al. [2] including toluene, PRF (Primary Reference Fuel), ethanol, and ETBE (Ethyl-tert-butyl-ether) were modified. The universal rule of the reaction mechanisms and rate constants were clarified by using quantum chemical calculation.

To enable non-throttling operation of gasoline S.I. engine, we have manufactured engines equipped with a newly developed Hydraulic Variable-valve Train (HVT), which can vary its intake-valve closing-timing freely. The air-intake control ability of HVT engine is equivalent to conventional throttling engines. Combustion becomes unstable, however, under non-throttling operation at idling. For the countermeasure, newly designed combustion chamber has been developed. The reduction of pumping loss by the HVT depends on engine speed rather than load, and amounts to about 80 % maximum. A conventional engine-management system is not applicable for non-throttling operation. Therefore, new management system has been developed for load control.

The use of low-density materials in body panels is increasing as a measure to reduce the weight of the vehicle body. Honda has developed an aluminum/steel sheet hybrid door that is more effective in reducing weight than an all-aluminum door. Because aluminum was used in the door skin, bimetallic corrosion at the connection between the aluminum and the steel sheets represented an issue. It was possible that the difference in the electrical potential of the two metals might promote corrosion at the connection between the aluminum door skin and the steel sheet door panel, in particular at the lower edge of the door, where rainwater and other moisture tend to accumulate, with the result that the appeal of the exterior of the door might decline.