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Fuel intake, start and propagation of combustion were studied in a Z-liter in-line four-cylinder SI engine. Two-dimensional laser induced fluorescence was used to characterize the performance of the engine. A tunable excimer laser at 248 nm and a broadband excimer laser at 308 nm were used to measure simultaneously distributions of hydroxyl radicals and fuel. LIF measurements of fuel (iso-octane) were performed by adding diethyl-ketone as fluorescence tracer to the iso-octane. The complementary information obtained from fuel and hydroxyl radical distributions is shown and differences are pointed out. Cycle to cycle variations and averaged results are discussed as function of equivalence ratio.

The facial laceration test has been proposed as an addition to the dummy injury criteria of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 208. To better understand laceration conditions as they actually occur, three road crashes of increasing severity, all involving facial laceration by the broken (cracked) windshield and one involving partial ejection, have been simulated physically and analytically. The physical simulations used vehicle test bucks, the Hybrid III head with the chamois facial coverings of the facial laceration test, and a piston - constrained Head Impactor. Computer simulations of the three crashes were also carried out using the CALSPAN 3D “CVS” and the 2D “DRISIM” computer programs. The computer simulations provide insight into the effective mass of the head and body on windshield contact, and the forces, velocities, and accelerations involved.

Past studies have found that a pressure based injury risk function was the best predictor of liver injuries due to blunt impacts. In an effort to expand upon these findings, this study investigated the biomechanical responses of the abdomen of post mortem human surrogates (PMHS) to high-speed seatbelt loading and developed external response targets in conjunction with proposing an abdominal injury criterion. A total of seven unembalmed PMHS, with an average mass and stature of 71 kg and 174 cm respectively were subjected to belt loading using a seatbelt pull mechanism, with the PMHS seated upright in a free-back configuration. A pneumatic piston pulled a seatbelt into the abdomen at the level of the umbilicus with a nominal peak penetration speed of 4.0 m/s. Pressure transducers were placed in the re-pressurized abdominal vasculature, including the inferior vena cava (IVC) and abdominal aorta, to measure internal pressure variation during the event.

The ultimate goal in the numerical simulation of automotive catalytic converters is the prediction of exhaust gas emissions as function of time for varying inlet conditions, i.e. the simulation of a driving cycle. Such a simulation must include the calculation of the transient three-dimensional temperature-field of the monolithic solid structure of the converter, which results from a complex interaction between a variety of physical and chemical processes such as the gaseous flow field through the monolith channels, the catalytic reactions, gaseous and solid heat transport, and heat transfer to the ambience. This paper will discuss the application of the newly developed CFD-code DETCHEMMONOLITH for the numerical simulation of the transient behavior of three-way catalytic converters that have a monolithic structure.