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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.

Fuel design approach has been proposed as the control technique of spray and combustion processes in diesel engine to improve thermal efficiency and reduce exhaust emissions. In order to kwow if this approach is capable of controlling spray flame structure and interaction between the flame and a combustion chamber wall, the present study investigated ignition and flame characteristics of dual-component fuels, while varying mixing fraction, fuel temperature and ambient conditions. Those characteristics were evaluated through chemiluminescence photography and luminous flame photography. OH radical images and visible luminous flame images were analyzed to reveal flame shape aspect ratio and its fractal dimension.

The objective of this study was to investigate the change of relative local velocity in each pulley groove at sliding between the belt and pulleys for a metal-pushing V-belt type CVT where micro elastic slips were inevitably accompanied to transmit power, while the transmissions were widely adopted to provide comfortable driving by continuously automatically adjusting the speed ratio. Local changes of wrapping radial position and velocity of the belt in each pulley groove of the CVT were simultaneously measured by a potentiometer with a spinning roller in the experiments. The mechanical power generated by the AC motor was transmitted through the CVT unit from the driving axis to the driven axis as usual under practical conditions while the speed ratio was set to 1.0. Pulley clamping force was applied by oil pressure.

It is very significant to take the intermediate products in diesel combustion for understanding the generation of exhaust emissions like SOF, dry soot and so on. The products generated in a constant volume combustion chamber were sampled by pricking a sheet of polyester film installed in the chamber to freeze the chemical reaction. The gas was analyzed by a gas chromatography. The fuel used was n-heptane. It is able to explain the generation of exhaust emissions by the experimental results. The other objective is to simulate the intermediate products. It is capable of explaining the relation between the simulated and experimental results.

For current passenger vehicles, multi-point injection (MPI) systems are extensively employed for gasoline engines due to ease of control and rapid response. In these systems, the pressure within the intake manifold to which the injectors are installed can fall below the saturated vapor pressure of some hydrocarbon components present in the fuel. Such a condition leads to an atomization process in which flash boiling occurs. In the present work, the atomization process under flash boiling conditions has been characterized both experimentally and theoretically. The experimental investigation has been carried out with a spray test facility consisting of a variable pressure chamber equipped with a pintle type fuel nozzle. Infrared Extinction/Scattering (IRES) is utilized to provide temporal and spatially resolved distribution of the fuel vapor concentration within the spray.

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.

It’ll be expected that tandem riders increase in the future. So, there is a need to improve the motorcycle stability of tandem riding from the perspectives of safety and comfort. In this research, we focus on tandem riding at low speed because the motorcycle especially becomes unstable. In order to improve the stability of a motorcycle after disturbance is input by the passenger’s posture change, we design a front wheel steer control system that assists the rider’s driving operation. And we simulate it. It is necessary to consider cooperation with the rider’s driving operation. In this study, as a means to consider the cooperative control of the man-machine system, the fuzzy logic was applied to this system.

Researches for automation of hydraulic excavators have been conducted for laborsaving, improved efficiency of operations and increased worker's safety improvement. Authors' final goal is to develop automatic digging system which can realize the high efficiency. Therefore, it is thought that appropriate digging control algorithm is important for the automation. For this goal, this paper shows a dynamics model of the backhoe excavator and simulations using such models. Detailed dynamic models are needed from the point of view of the control engineering. Authors evaluate effectiveness of automatic digging algorithm by simulation models. In this research, the linkage mechanism which contains the closed loops is modeled based on the Newton-Euler formulation, where motion equation is derived. Moreover, we apply a soil model for simulation, based on the two dimensional distinct element method (DEM), in order to reproduce reaction force from grounds.

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.

Some papers on the combustion in a diesel engine have been already presented to discuss the effect of the additive called ADOIL TAC. A bottom view DI diesel engine driven at 980rpm with no load was used in the experiment presented here, in order to make clear this effect. JIS second class light diesel fuel oil was injected through a hole nozzle at the normal test run. The additive was intermixed 0.01 vol. % in this fuel oil, in the experiments to compare with the normal combustion. The flame was taken by direct high-speed photography. Profiles of flame temperature and KL were detected on the film by image processing, applying the two-color method. Soot was visualized by high-speed laser shadowgraphy, and the heat release rate was calculated using the cylinder pressure diagram. Discussion on the effect of the additive on the combustion phenomena was made by using all the data.

In recent years, internal combustion engine using hydrogen gas, has attracted attention as one solution to the problem of global warming. Hydrogen gas has excellent combustion characteristics such as wide limits of inflammability and fast burning velocity because of high diffusion rate. Therefore, it has been made to obtain stable ignition and combustion by adding hydrogen with lean mixture in spark ignition engines using hydrocarbon fuels and to be attempted efficient operation by engine researchers. The purpose of this study is to reduce cooling loss in a gas engine using hydrogen gas and hydrogen Mixer system (Mixer) engine was remodeled to hydrogen Port Injection (PI) system engine. In this report, the heterogeneity of hydrogen mixture is clarified by comparing the combustion characteristics of the Mixer and the PI, and the effect of the difference in hydrogen supply systems on cooling loss is system. Ignition delay of the PI system is shorter than that of the Mixer.

Considering the bell-shaped temperature dependence of soot particle formation, the control of flame temperature has a possibility to drastically suppress of soot formation. Furthermore, oxygenated fuels are very effective on soot reduction, and the use of these kinds of fuels has a potentiality for smokeless diesel combustion. In this paper, the effects of flame lift-off and flame temperature on soot formation in oxygenated fuel sprays were experimentally investigated using a constant volume combustion vessel which simulated diesel engine conditions. The diffusion flame lift-off length was measured in order to estimate the amount of the oxygen entrained upstream of the flame lift-off length in the fuel jet. This was determined from time-averaged OH chemiluminescence imaging technique. Also, the flame temperature and soot concentration were simultaneously evaluated by means of two-color method.

In this study, the air suspension is newly applied to the engine mounting layout for getting the significant vibration isolation effect. In this case, the genetic algorithm so called GA is also applied for the optimization of many parameters, calculations of stiffness matrix and inverse stiffness matrix to prevent the coupled vibration of lateral and rolling modes and to obtain the displacement of each mounting point. As a result, inexperienced engineers can easily obtain the optimum engine mounting layout in a minute. By the confirmation test of FEM, the engine lateral vibration level at 25Hz dropped below 1/10 and its effect was significant.

In a high-speed DI diesel engine, fuel sprays impinge surely on a wall of a piston cavity. Then the phenomenon of the heat transfer between the impinged spray and the wall appears and it has the strong effect on the combustion processes of the engine. The purpose of this study are to clarify basically the heat transfer characteristics. In the experiments, the fuel was injected into the quiescent inert atmosphere with a high temperature under high pressure field, and an evaporative single diesel spray was impinging upon a flat wall. And, the temperature distribution on the wall surface in a radial direction was detected by the Loex-Constantan thin film thermo-couples. Thus, the heat flux between the impinged spray and the wall surface was calculated from the temperature profile within the wall by Fourier's equation using the finite difference method, under the assumption of the one-dimensional heat conduction.

We have proposed the application of EGR gas dissolved fuel which might improve spray atomization through effervescent atomization instead of high injection pressure. In this paper, the purpose is to evaluate the influence of the application of CO2 gas dissolved fuel on the combustion characteristics and emissions inside the single cylinder, direct injection diesel engine. As a result, by use of the fuel, smoke was reduced by about 50 to 70%. The amount of NOx was reduced at IMEP=0.3 MPa, but it was increased at IMEP=0.9 MPa.

The CO2 gas dissolved fuel for the diesel combustion is effective to reduce the NOx emissions to achieve the internal EGR (Exhaust Gas Recirculation) effect by fuel. This method has supplied EGR gas to the fuel side instead of supply EGR gas to the intake gas side. The fuel has followed specific characteristics for the diesel combustion. When the fuel is injected into the chamber in low pressure, this CO2 gas is separated from the fuel spray. The distribution characteristics of the spray are improved and the improvement of the thermal efficiency by reduction heat loss in the combustion chamber wall, and reduce soot emissions by the lean combustion is expected. Furthermore, this CO2 gas decreases the flame temperature. Further, it is anticipated to reduce NOx emissions by the spray internal EGR effect.

Dual mass flywheel (DMF) is a well-known isolation system for vehicle drivetrain. DMF has two typical elastic energy storage systems: long travel arc springs and in-series spring units (including two or more springs) and sliding shoes connected in series. DMF has such complex nonlinear characteristics as torque-dependent torsional stiffness and rotational speed-dependent hysteresis friction due to its dependency of centrifugal force that is applied to components and radial force of springs. Because of this complexity, sub-harmonic vibration (SHV) may occur under certain circumstances, such as under light-load and high-rotational conditions. In general, since SHV’s frequency is 1/2 or 1/3 of the engine’s combustion frequency and may cause human discomfort, DMF must be designed robust against such nonlinear vibration. In this paper to reduce the SHV occurrence and to show a more robust design indicator, the SHV causing the mechanism is researched by testing and 1D CAE modeling.

We propose a new concept on simultaneous reduction of NO and soot emissions in Diesel engine exhaust by use of the diesel fuel oil (n-Tridecane) with liquefied CO2 dissolved. The CO2 dissolved component is expected to undergo flash boiling or gas separation when being injected into the combustion chamber, and improve spray atomization and mixing process both of which are primary factors to govern soot formation. Further, the internal EGR effect caused by CO2 component injected with the fuel is expected for NO formation. In order to assess this concept, spray dynamics measurement was conducted in the constant volume vessel with a variation of ambient pressure and temperature. Further, combustion experiments were carried out by using a rapid compression and expansion machine. Here, characteristics of the evaporative mixed fuel spray were examined by shadowgraph photography.

In SI engines with port injection system, the injected fuel spray adheres surely on the port wall and the inlet valve, consequently, the spray-wall interaction process leads to the generation of unburned hydrocarbons and uncontrollable mixture formation. This paper deals with the fuel mixture preparation process including basic research on characteristics of the wall-wetted fuel film on a flat wall inside a constant volume vessel. In the experiments, iso-octane mixed with biacetyl as a tracer dopant was injected through a pintle type injector against a flat glass wall under the ambient conditions of atmospheric pressure and room temperature. The thickness of the adhered fuel film on the wall was quantitatively measured by using laser induced fluorescence (LIF) technique, which provides 2-D distribution information with high special resolution as a function of the injection duration, the impingement distance from the injector to the wall, and the impingement angle against the wall.

In an SI engine with direct injection of gasoline (DGI), many small droplets disperse in premixed gas in the cylinder. In a CI engine, diesel spray is injected a cylinder, thus, the situation at the spray periphery is almost the same as that of DGI SI engine. From the standpoint it is useful for understanding the combustion phenomena in both engines to experiment the combined combustion of premixed gas where many small droplets exist. This paper describes this kind of combustion and it seems to be able to apply the results to the simulation of combustion in these engines.