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The basics of propane gas used as an automotive fuel. Topics include what propane is, how it is priced, how fleet obtain it and the basics on propane fueling infrastructure and employee training. Presenter Nathan Ediger, Ferrellgas

A significant step is achieved on the flight control actuation system toward the more electrical aircraft through the Airbus A380, A400M and the A350 development phase ongoing. The A380/A400M/A350 features a mixed flight control actuation power source distribution, associating electrically powered actuators with conventional FlyByWire hydraulic servocontrols. In the scope of the preparation of the future Airbus Aircraft, this paper presents the perspectives of the use of the EMA technologies for the flight control systems in the more electrical aircraft highlighting the main technical challenges need to treat: jamming susceptibility, ?on board? maintenance reduction, Operational reliability increase, power electronics and power management optimization, and regarding the environmental constraints, the predicted performances; the benefits associated to the optimized utilization of on-board power sources.

Abstract A key problem of the construction of fully electric aircraft is the limited energy density of battery packs. It is generally accepted that this can only be overcome via new, denser battery chemistry together with a further increase in the efficiency of power utilization. One appealing approach for achieving the latter is using laser-assisted filler-based joining technologies, which offers unprecedented flexibility for achieving battery cell connections with the least possible electrical loss. This contribution presents our results on the effect of various experimental and process parameters on the electrical and mechanical properties of the laser-formed bond.

1. On page 111, the authors have described a method to assess driver distraction. In this method, participants maintained a white square size on a forward display by using a game gas pedal of like in car-following situation. The size of the white square is determined by calculating the distance to a virtual lead vehicle. The formulas to correct are used to explain variation of acceleration of the virtual lead vehicle. The authors inadvertently incorporated old formulas they had used previously. In the experiments discussed in the article, the corrected formulas were used. Therefore, there is no change in the results. The following from the article:

This specification covers an aluminum alloy in the form of bars and rods 0.500 inch (12.7 mm) to 8.000 inches (203.2 mm) in nominal diameter or least difference between parallel sides and up to 50 square inches (322.6 square centimeters) in cross-sectional area (see 8.7).

In this work a detailed model to simulate the transient behavior of catalytic converters is presented. The model is able to predict the unsteady and reacting flows in the exhaust ducts, by solving the system of conservation equations of mass, momentum, energy and transport of reacting chemical species. The en-gine and the intake system have not been included in the simulation, imposing the measured values of mass flow, gas temperature and chemical composition as a boundary condition at the inlet of the exhaust system. A detailed analysis of the diffusion stage triggering is proposed along with simplifications of the physics, finalized to the reduction of the calculation time. Submodels for water condensation and its following evaporation on the monolith surface have been taken into account as well as oxygen storage promoted by ceria oxides.

A thorough understanding of vehicle exhaust aftertreatment system performance requires time-resolved emissions measurements that accurately follow driving transients, and that are correctly time-aligned with exhaust temperature and flow measurements. The transient response of conventional gas analyzers is characterized by both a time delay and an attenuation of high-frequency signal components. The distortion that this imposes on transient emissions measurements causes significant errors in instantaneous calculations of aftertreatment system efficiency, and thus in modal mass analysis. This creates difficulties in mathematical modeling of emissions system performance and in optimization of powertrain control strategies, leading to suboptimal aftertreatment system designs. A mathematical method is presented which improves the response time of emissions measurements. This begins with development of a model of gas transport and mixing within the sampling and measurement system.

Quantitative planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF) of gaseous acetone as a fuel-tracer has been used in an optically accessible engine, fueled by direct hydrogen injection. The purpose of this article is to assess the accuracy and precision of the measurement and the associated data reduction procedures. A detailed description of the acetone seeding system is given as well. The key features of the experiment are a high-pressure bubbler saturating the hydrogen fuel with acetone vapor, direct injection into an optical engine, excitation of acetone fluorescence with an Nd:YAG laser at 266 nm, and detection of the resulting fluorescence by an unintensified camera. Key steps in the quantification of the single-shot imaging data are an in-situ calibration and a correction for the effect of local temperature on the fluorescence measurement.

This specification covers connector and cable accessory heat shrinkable, electrical insulating, molded components fabricated from various polymer based compositions. These components are intended for use as connector and cable accessory components to provide strain relief, electrical insulation, and environmental sealing.

The investigation of the flow through the metering section of hydraulic components plays a fundamental role in the design and optimization processes. In this paper the flow through a closed center directional control valve for load -sensing application is studied by means of a multidimensional CFD approach. In the analysis, an open source fluid-dynamics code is used and both cavitation and turbulence are accounted for in the modeling. A cavitation model based on a barotropic equation of state and homogeneous equilibrium assumption, including gas absorption and dissolution in the liquid medium, is adopted and coupled to a two equation turbulence approach. Both direct and inverse flows through the metering section of the control valve are investigated, and the differences in terms of fluid - dynamics behavior are addressed In particular, the discharge coefficient, the recirculating regions, the flow acceleration angle and the pressure and velocity fields are investigated and compared.

Researchers at the Powertrain Control Research Laboratory (PCRL) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have developed a transient test system for single-cylinder engines that accurately replicates the dynamics of a multi-cylinder engine. The overall system can perform very rapid transients in excess of 10,000 rpm/second, and also replicates the rotational dynamics, intake gas dynamics, and heat transfer dynamics of a multi-cylinder engine. Testing results using this system accurately represent what would be found in the multi-cylinder engine counterpart. Therefore, engine developments can be refined to a much greater degree at lower cost, and these changes directly incorporated in the multi-cylinder engine with minimal modification. More importantly, various standardized emission tests such as the cold-start, FTP or ETC, can be run on this single-cylinder engine.

ANITA (Analysing Interferometer for Ambient Air) is a flight experiment precursor for a permanent continuous air quality monitoring system on the ISS (International Space Station). For the safety of the crew, ANITA can detect and quantify quasi-online and simultaneously 33 gas compounds in the air with ppm or sub-ppm detection limits. The autonomous measurement system is based on FTIR (Fourier Transform Infra-Red spectroscopy). The system represents a versatile air quality monitor, allowing for the first time the detection and monitoring of trace gas dynamics, with high time resolution, in a spacecraft atmosphere. ANITA operated on the ISS from September 2007 to August 2008. This paper summarises the results of ANITA's air analyses and compares results to other measurements acquired on ISS during the operational period.

The photocatalytic oxidation of VOCs was investigated using a novel countercurrent flow reactor designed to enable the treatment of toluene present in the gas and the aqueous phases simultaneously. The reactor was packed with silica-titania composites commingled with plastic pall rings. Using this mixed packing style was advantageous as it resulted in a higher UV penetration throughout the reactor. The average UV intensity in the reactor was determined to be 220 μW/g irradiated TiO2. It was found that under dry conditions, the STCs had a high adsorption capacity for toluene; however, this adsorption was completely hindered by the wetting of the STCs when the two phases were flowing simultaneously. The destruction of toluene in the aqueous phase was determined to follow a linear trend as a function of the contaminant concentration.

The soot distribution as function of ambient O₂ mole fraction in a heavy-duty diesel engine was investigated at low load (6 bar IMEP) with laser-induced incandescence (LII) and natural luminosity. A Multi-YAG laser system was utilized to create time-resolved LII using 8 laser pulses with a spacing of one CAD with detection on an 8-chip framing camera. It is well known that the engine-out smoke level increases with decreasing oxygen fraction up to a certain level where it starts to decrease again. For the studied case the peak occurred at an O₂ fraction of 11.4%. When the oxygen fraction was decreased successively from 21% to 9%, the initial soot formation moved downstream in the jet. At the lower oxygen fractions, below 12%, no soot was formed until after the wall interaction. At oxygen fractions below 11% the first evidence of soot is in the recirculation zone between two adjacent jets.

An experimental study was performed to develop a more fundamental understanding of the effects of secondary air injection (SAI) on exhaust gas emissions and catalyst light-off characteristics during cold start of a modern SI engine. The effects of engine operating parameters and various secondary air injection strategies such as spark retardation, fuel enrichment, secondary air injection location and air flow rate were investigated to understand the mixing, heat loss, and thermal and catalytic oxidation processes associated with SAI. Time-resolved HC, CO and CO₂ concentrations were tracked from the cylinder exit to the catalytic converter outlet and converted to time-resolved mass emissions by applying an instantaneous exhaust mass flow rate model. A phenomenological model of exhaust heat transfer combined with the gas composition analysis was also developed to define the thermal and chemical energy state of the exhaust gas with SAI.

An infrared laser absorption technique has been developed to measure in-cylinder concentrations of CO in an optical, automotive HCCI engine. The diagnostic employs a distributed-feedback, tunable diode laser selected to emit light at the R15 line of the first overtone of CO near 2.3 μm. The collimated laser beam makes multiple passes through the cylinder to increase its path length and its sampling volume. High-frequency modulation of the laser output (wavelength modulation spectroscopy) further enhances the signal-to-noise ratio and detection limits of CO. The diagnostic has been tested in the motored and fired engine, exhibiting better than 200-ppm sensitivity for 50-cycle ensemble-average values of CO concentration with 1-ms time resolution. Fired results demonstrate the ability of the diagnostic to quantify CO production during negative valve overlap (NVO) for a range of fueling conditions.

Existing gasoline DI injection equipment has been modified to generate single hole pulsed gas jets. Injection experiments have been performed at combinations of 3 different pressure ratios (2 of which supercritical) respectively 3 different hole geometries (i.e. length to diameter ratios). Injection was into a pressure chamber with optical access. Injection pressures and injector hole geometry were selected to be representative of current and near-future DI natural gas engines. Each injector hole design has been characterized by measuring its discharge coefficient for different Re-levels. Transient jets produced by these injectors have been visualized using planar laser sheet Mie scattering (PLMS). For this the injected gas was seeded with small oil droplets. The corresponding flow field was measured using particle image velocimetry (PIV) laser diagnostics.

Simultaneous crank-angle-resolved measurements of gasoline concentration and gas temperature were made with two-color mid-infrared (mid-IR) laser absorption in a production spark-ignition engine (Nissan MR20DE, 2.0L, 4 cyl, MPI with premium gasoline). The mid-IR light was coupled into and out of the cylinder using fiber optics incorporated into a modified spark plug. The absorption line-of-sight was a 5.3 mm optical path located closely adjacent to the ignition spark providing spatially resolved absorption. Two sensor wavelengths were selected in the strong bands associated with the carbon-hydrogen (C-H) stretching vibration near 3.4 μm, which have an absorption ratio that is strongly temperature dependent. Fuel concentration and temperature were determined simultaneously from the absorption at these two wavelengths.

This paper demonstrates that the implementation of Flash Gas Bypass method can improve the performance of conventional direct expansion R134a mobile air-conditioning system with a microchannel evaporator. This method uses flash gas tank after expansion valve to separate and bypass flash refrigerant vapor around the evaporator, and feed the evaporator with only liquid refrigerant. Pressure drop is reduced and refrigerant distribution is significantly improved, resulting in higher evaporator effectiveness and evaporation pressure. Both lower pressure drop and lifted evaporation pressure allows the compressor to work with lower pressure ratio, saving required compressor work. An experimental comparison of the direct expansion system shows that Flash Gas Bypass method increases the cooling capacity and COP at the same time by up to 16% and 11%, respectively.

Gasoline Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) combustion has been studied widely in the past decade. However, in HCCI engines using negative valve overlap (NVO), there is still uncertainty as to whether the effect of pilot injection during NVO on the start of combustion is primarily due to heat release of the pilot fuel during NVO or whether it is due to pilot fuel reformation. This paper presents data taken on a 4-cylinder gasoline direct injection, spark ignition/HCCI engine with a dual cam system, capable of recompressing residual gas. Engine in-cylinder samples are extracted at various points during the engine cycle through a high-speed sampling system and directly analysed with a gas chromatograph and flame ionisation detector. Engine parameter sweeps are performed for different pilot injection timings and quantities at a medium load point.