Search Results

In the pursuit of a sustainable transportation systems, Toyota is considering a comprehensive approach pursuing multiple advanced technologies to address three primary issues: GHG, Petroleum Use, and Air Quality. Vehicles must be ready for and affordable to the mass market to provide the customer choices to meet their transportation needs whether it is EV's, Hybrids, Plug-In Hybrids or Fuel Cell Hydrogen Hybrids. Our studies have shown that EVs have the potential to provide significant improvements in energy utilization especially combined with other advanced technologies. Toyota believes that a combination of these technolgies will provide complementary solution that enables a sustainable transportation system. Presenter Takehito Yokoo, Toyota Motor Corporation

The development of PM and NOx reduction system with the combination of DOC included DPF and SCR catalyst in addition to the AOC sub-assembly for NH3 slip protection is described. DPF regeneration strategy and manual regeneration functionality are introduced with using ITH, HCI device on the EUI based EGR, VGT 12.3L diesel engine at the CVS full dilution tunnel test bench. With this system, PM and NOx emission regulation for JPNL was satisfied and DPF regeneration process under steady state condition and transient condition (JE05 mode) were successfully fulfilled. Manual regeneration process was also confirmed and HCI control strategy was validated against the heat loss during transient regeneration mode. Presenter Seung-il Moon

Toyota Motor Corporation has developed the new compact-class hybrid vehicle (HV). This vehicle incorporates Toyota Hybrid System II (THS-II) to improve fuel efficiency. For this system we have developed a new power control unit (PCU) that features size reduction, light weight, and high efficiency. We have also improved the ability to mass produce these units with the expectation of rapid popularization of HV. The PCU, which plays an important role in THS-II, is our main focus in this paper. Its development is described.

Noise concerns regarding snowmobiles have increased in the recent past. Current standards, such as SAE J192 are used as guidelines for government agencies and manufacturers to regulate noise emissions for all manufactured snowmobiles. Unfortunately, the test standards available today produce results with variability that is much higher than desired. The most significant contributor to the variation in noise measurements is the test surface. The test surfaces can either be snow or grass and affects the measurement in two very distinct ways: sound propagation from the source to the receiver and the operational behavior of the snowmobile. Data is presented for a known sound pressure speaker source and different snowmobiles on various test days and test surfaces. Relationships are shown between the behavior of the sound propagation and track interaction to the ground with the pass-by noise measurements.

The heavy duty Particle Measurement Programme (PMP) inter-laboratory exercise consists of three parts: 1) the exploratory work to refine the measurement protocol, 2) the validation exercise where each lab will measure the emissions of a “golden” engine with two “golden” particle number systems simultaneously sampling from full and partial flow dilution systems, and 3) the round-robin where the emissions of a “reference” engine will be determined with a lab’s own particle number instrumentation. This paper presents the results of the exploratory work and describes the final protocol for testing in the validation exercise (and round robin) along with the necessary facility modifications required for compliance with the protocol. Key aspects of the protocol (e.g. filter material, flow rates at the full and partial flow systems, the pre-conditioning etc.) are explained and justified.

Hydrogen is widely considered a promising fuel for future transportation applications for both, internal combustion engines and fuel cells. Due to their advanced stage of development and immediate availability hydrogen combustion engines could act as a bridging technology towards a wide-spread hydrogen infrastructure. Although fuel cell vehicles are expected to surpass hydrogen combustion engine vehicles in terms of efficiency, the difference in efficiency might not be as significant as widely anticipated [1]. Hydrogen combustion engines have been shown capable of achieving efficiencies of up to 45 % [2]. One of the remaining challenges is the reduction of nitric oxide emissions while achieving peak engine efficiencies. This paper summarizes research work performed on a single-cylinder hydrogen direct injection engine at Argonne National Laboratory.

The use of a diesel oxidation catalyst (DOC) in conjunction with a diesel particulate filter (DPF) is now a well-established aftertreatment system design for on-road heavy duty diesel. For non-road applications, the DOC must respond to the need for performance under more diverse and less favorable conditions, such as operation at low loads in cold weather. To choose a DOC technology for such applications, one must have practical and meaningful tests that address the specific catalytic functions of interest such as hydrocarbon oxidation to produce heat for regenerating DPF. This paper describes the development of an engine test protocol that focuses on resistance to the phenomenon known as quenching, the cessation of hydrocarbon (HC) oxidation that occurs when the exhaust temperature decreases below the light-off temperature of the catalyst. During development, the sensitivity and repeatability of the test were carefully scrutinized.

Engine efficiency is one of the key aspects to reduce CO₂ emissions. Lamborghini S.p.A. has focused attention on the engine friction modeling, analysis and measurement to understand and control the phenomena. To reduce friction it is necessary to improve understanding of the behavior of the engine components and to pay attention to detail at every tribological contact. The valve train can make a significant contribution to whole engine friction especially at low engine speed and this is particularly true for a high speed sports car engine. Direct acting valve trains are often used for this type of engine to minimize the moved mass and so enable high speed operation. However the sliding contact between the cam and tappet results in higher friction loss than the roller finger follower valve train used on many modern passenger car engines. In addition, the high maximum engine speed demands a large valve spring force to maintain contact between cam and tappet.

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.

Since transient vehicle HVAC computational fluids (CFD) simulations take too long to solve in a production environment, the goal of this project is to automatically create a lumped-parameter flow network from a steady-state CFD that solves nearly instantaneously. The data mining algorithm k-means is implemented to automatically discover flow features and form the network (a reduced order model). The lumped-parameter network is implemented in the commercial thermal solver MuSES to then run as a fully transient simulation. Using this network a “localized heat transfer coefficient” is shown to be an improvement over existing techniques. Also, it was found that the use of the clustering created a new flow visualization technique. Finally, fixing clusters near equipment newly demonstrates a capability to track localized temperatures near specific objects (such as equipment in vehicles).

HiSiMo cast irons are frequently used as material for high temperature components in engines as e.g. exhaust manifolds and turbo chargers. These components must withstand severe cyclic mechanical and thermal loads throughout their life cycle. The combination of thermal transients with mechanical load cycles results in a complex evolution of damage, leading to thermomechanical fatigue (TMF) of the material and, after a certain number of loading cycles, to failure of the component. In Part I of the paper, a fracture mechanics model for TMF life prediction was developed based on results of uniaxial tests. In this paper (Part II), the model is formulated for three-dimensional stress states, so that it can be applied in a post-processing step of a finite-element analysis. To obtain reliable stresses and (time dependent plastic) strains in the finite-element calculation, a time and temperature dependent plasticity model is applied which takes non-linear kinematic hardening into account.

HiSiMo cast irons are frequently used as material for high temperature components in engines as e.g. exhaust manifolds and turbo chargers. These components must withstand severe cyclic mechanical and thermal loads throughout their service life. The combination of thermal transients with mechanical load cycles results in a complex evolution of damage, leading to thermomechanical fatigue (TMF) of the material and, after a certain number of loading cycles, to failure of the component. In this paper (Part I), the low-cycle fatigue (LCF) and TMF properties of HiSiMo are investigated in uniaxial tests and the damage mechanisms are addressed. On the basis of the experimental results a fatigue life model is developed which is based on elastic, plastic and creep fracture mechanics results of short cracks, so that time and temperature dependent effects on damage are taken into account.

Battery temperature variations have a strong effect on both battery aging and battery performance. Significant temperature variations will lead to different battery behaviors. This influences the performance of the Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV) energy management strategies. This paper investigates how variations in battery temperature will affect Lithium-ion battery aging and fuel economy of a HEV. The investigated energy management strategy used in this paper is the Equivalent Consumption Minimization Strategy (ECMS) which is a well-known energy management strategy for HEVs. The studied vehicle is a Honda Civic Hybrid and the studied battery, a BLS LiFePO4 3.2Volts 100Ah Electric Vehicle battery cell. Vehicle simulations were done with a validated vehicle model using multiple combinations of highway and city drive cycles. The battery temperature variation is studied with regards to outside air temperature.

This paper presents a combined numerical and experimental investigation of the characteristics of spark discharge in a spark-ignition engine. The main objective of this work is to gain insights into the spark discharge process and early flame kernel development. Experiments were conducted in an inert medium within an optically accessible constant-volume combustion vessel. The cross-flow motion in the vessel was generated using a previously developed shrouded fan. Numerical modeling was based on an existing discharge model in the literature developed by Kim and Anderson. However, this model is applicable to a limited range of gas pressures and flow fields. Therefore, the original model was evaluated and improved to predict the behavior of spark discharge at pressurized conditions up to 45 bar and high-speed cross-flows up to 32 m/s. To accomplish this goal, a parametric study on the spark channel resistance was conducted.

The study of spray-wall interaction is of great importance to understand the dynamics that occur during fuel impingement onto the chamber wall or piston surfaces in internal combustion engines. It is found that the maximum spreading length of an impinged droplet can provide a quantitative estimation of heat transfer and energy transformation for spray-wall interaction. Furthermore, it influences the air-fuel mixing and hydrocarbon and particle emissions at combusting conditions. In this paper, an analytical model of a single diesel droplet impinging on the wall with different inclined angles (α) is developed in terms of βm (dimensionless maximum spreading length, the ratio of maximum spreading length to initial droplet diameter) to understand the detailed impinging dynamic process.

Further fuel economy improvement of the internal combustion engine is indispensable for CO2 reduction in order to cope with serious global environmental problems. Although lowering the viscosity of engine oil is an effective way to improve fuel economy, it may reduce the wear resistance. Therefore, it is important to achieve both improved fuel economy and reliability. We have developed new 0W- 8 engine oil of ultra-low viscosity and achieved an improvement in fuel economy by 0.8% compared to the commercial 0W-16 engine oil. For this new oil, we reduced the friction coefficient under boundary lubrication regime by applying an oil film former and calcium borate detergent. The film former increased the oil film thickness without increasing the oil viscosity. The calcium borate detergent enhanced the friction reduction effect of molybdenum dithiocarbamate (MoDTC).

New engine controls have been developed for the turbocharged Lexus NX200t to improve driving power by reducing engine torque output lag. Drive power management functions have been centralized in an integrated drive power control system. The newly developed controls minimize the potential reduction in drivability associated with the adoption of a turbocharged engine while improving fuel efficiency. General driveability issues commonly associated with a turbocharged engine include sudden increases in drive power due to the response lag of the turbocharger, and higher shifting frequencies if this response lag triggers a disturbed accelerator operation pattern by the driver. The developed technologies detect and control sudden increases in drive power to create the optimum drive power map, and reduce unnecessary shifts even if the driver's accelerator operation is disturbed.

The winter of 2013-2014 provided an opportunity to operate off-road vehicles in cold weather for extended time as part of a vehicle/tier 4 diesel engine validation program. An unexpected area of study was the performance of high efficiency, on engine, fuel filters during continuous vehicle operation in cold weather. During the program we observed unexpected premature fuel filter plugging as indicated by an increase in pressure drop across the filter while in service. Field and laboratory testing was completed at John Deere and Donaldson to understand the cause of filter plugging. Although conditions were found where winter fuel additives could cause plugging of high efficiency filters, premature filter plugging occurred even when testing with #1 diesel fuel. This fuel contained no additives and was used at temperatures well above its cloud point.

An aqueous urea solution is used as the source of ammonia for selective catalytic reduction (SCR) of NOx to reduce the emissions of NOx in the exhaust of diesel vehicles. However, the decomposition of urea into ammonia is not always complete, resulting in solid urea deposit formation in the decomposition tube or on the SCR catalyst. These solid deposits can impede the flow of the exhaust gases (and uniformity of NH3 supply) and reduce SCR catalyst performance over time. To minimize the formation of urea deposit and to meet EPA NOx emission regulations, it is important to understand the chemistry of formation or removal of the deposit in the decomposition tube and SCR catalyst. In this report, IR spectroscopy, UV-visible spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis and elemental analysis have been used to determine the chemical composition of the solid urea deposits formed by the thermal decomposition of urea.

This study focuses on fluctuations in the aerodynamic load acting on a hatchback car model under steady-state conditions, which can lead to degeneration of vehicle motion performance due to excitation of vehicle vibrations. Large eddy simulations were first conducted on a vehicle model based on a production hatchback car with and without additional aerodynamic devices that had received good subjective assessments by drivers. The numerical results showed that the magnitudes of the lateral load fluctuations were larger without the devices at Strouhal numbers less than approximately 0.1, where surface pressure fluctuations indicated a negative correlation between the two sides of the rear end, which could give rise to yawing and rolling vibrations. Based on the numerical results, wind-tunnel tests were performed with a 28%-scale hatchback car model.