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This paper proposes a technology to reduce vehicle surge during towing that utilizes motors and shifting to help ensure comfort in a parallel HEV pickup truck. Hybridization is one way to reduce fuel consumption and help realize carbon neutrality. Parallel HEVs have advantages in the towing, hauling, and high-load operations often carried out by pickup trucks, compared to other HEV systems. Since the engine, motor, torque converter, and transmission are connected in series in a parallel HEV, vehicle surge may occur when the lockup clutch is engaged to enhance fuel efficiency, similar to conventional powertrains. Vehicle surge is a low-frequency vibration phenomenon. In general, the source is torque fluctuation caused by the engine and tires, with amplification provided by first-order torsional driveline resonance, power plant resonance, suspension resonance, and cabin resonance. This vibration is amplified more during towing.

Toyota has developed a new 2.4L L4 turbo (2.4L-T) engine with 8AT and 1-motor hybrid electric powertrains for midsize pickup trucks. The aim of these powertrains is to fulfill both strict fuel economy and emission regulations toward “Carbon Neutrality”, while exceeding customer expectations. The new 2.4L L4 turbocharged gasoline engine complies with severe Tier3 Bin30/LEVIII SULEV30 emission regulations for body-on-frame midsize pickup trucks improving both thermal efficiency and maximum torque. This engine is matched with a newly developed 8-speed automatic transmission with wide range and close step gear ratios and extended lock-up range to fulfill three trade-off performances: powerful driving, NVH and fuel economy. In addition, a 1-motor hybrid electric version is developed with a motor generator and disconnect clutch between the engine and transmission.

One of countermeasures for exhaust emissions from a diesel engine, especially, DI diesel engine, is the use of a super high pressure injection system with a small hole diameter. However, the system needs greater driving force than that with normal injection pressure, and its demerit is increase in NOx, although soot is decreasing. Then, authors propose the new concept on the simultaneous reduction of NOx and soot. The concept is that the utilization of flash boiling phenomenon in a diesel engine. The phenomenon can be realized by use of the injection of fuel oil with CO2 gas dissolved. Flash boiling facilitates the distinguished atomization of fuel oil and CO2 gas contributes to realizes the internal EGR during combustion. Fundamental information on the characteristics of a flash boiling spray of n-tridecane with CO2 gas dissolved is described in this paper, as a first step.

When developing an off-road vehicle, it is essential to create excellent drivability that enables the vehicle to be driven on all surfaces while ensuring passenger comfort. Since durability is another indispensable performance aspect for these vehicles, the development method must be capable of considering a high-level combination of a wide range of performance targets. This paper proposes a method to identify the region in which each performance aspect is realized through a complex domain combination problem. The proposed method is helpful in the initial design stage when the detailed specifications of the target vehicle are not determined because it is capable of considering both the specifications and usage method of the target vehicle, such as the selection of road profiles and driving speeds as design variables. The proposed method has the advantage of enabling efficient concurrent studies to search for feasible regions.

This paper describes the identification of a sound source model for diesel engines installed on agricultural machines by using Inverse-Numerical Acoustic (INA) analysis, and noise predictions using the sound source model identified by INA. INA is a method of identifying surface vibrations from surrounding sound pressures. This method can be applied to sound sources with complicated shapes like those in engines. Although many studies on INA have been conducted, these past studies have focused on improvements to the identified accuracy and prediction of noise in free sound field or hemi-free sound field. The authors accurately predicted the sound pressure levels of engine enclosures using a sound source model identified by INA and a boundary element method (BEM). However, we had not yet verified the effectiveness of this sound source model against enclosures that had sound absorbing materials and openings.

A high performance digging algorithm for a hydraulic excavator has not been established because the relationship between digging parameters and digging performance is complex. An examination process for a high-performance digging algorithm is proposed. In this paper, the digging efficiency is defined as the soil volume derived by the applied energy to drive the bucket in order to evaluate digging performance. The digging algorithm, which we study for high digging efficiency, decreases the reaction force to the bucket from the soil by moving the bucket upward when the reaction force exceeds a threshold during digging. Digging tests are performed with a miniature test device and a simulation model by two-dimensional distinct element methods (2D-DEM). The device and the simulation assess the effectiveness of the digging algorithm. It is quantitatively shown that the digging performance obtained by the feedback digging system is improved to prevent growing of reaction force.

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.

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.

Researches for automated construction machinery have been conducted for labor-saving, improved work efficiency and worker's safety, where a tracking control function was proposed as one of the key control system strategies for highly automated productive hydraulic excavators. An optimized digging trajectory that assures as much soils scooped as possible and less energy consumption is critical for an automated hydraulic excavator to improve work efficiency. Simulation models that we used to seek an optimized digging trajectory in this study consist of soil models and front linkage models of a hydraulic excavator. We developed two types of soil models. One is called wedge models used to calculate reaction forces from soils acting on a bucket during digging operation, based on the earth pressure theory. The other is called Distinct Element Method (DEM) model used to analyze soil behaviors and estimate amounts of soils scooped and reaction forces quantitatively.

In recent years, awareness of environmental problems has increased on a global scale, and the development of low fuel consumption technologies has become more and more important in commercial vehicles, as it has been in passenger vehicles. A new 6-speed manual transmission was developed with direct-drive double-overdrive to contribute to the fuel economy performance and engine power of commercial vehicles through gear ratio optimization.

In fatal accidents due to heavy duty trucks, the fatalities of occupants in passenger cars in which rear-end collision occur account for the largest percent. Collisions to the vehicles in traffic jams and collision to other accidents scenes on express ways can result in serious repercussions. Therefore the system which reduces the damage of collisions has long been demanded and here the world-first Pre-crash Safety (PCS) System for heavy duty trucks was developed. This system gives warning to the driver in case there is a possibility of collision with preceding vehicles, and activates the brakes to mitigate damage in case there is a higher possibility of collision. In order to get the maximum effect on the express ways where the trucks are in high speed, it is necessary to give warning and activate the brakes with relatively early timing.

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.

Operator comfort is an important design criteria for hydraulic excavators during working and idling conditions. An engine, a cooling fan motor and a pump are installed on a hydraulic excavator. It is hard to identify the vibration contribution to a response because three sources are synchronizingly working. This paper describes the use of partial coherence measurement techniques for source identification. And it is examined to reduce the vibration of the source component identified by the partial coherence results. Finally, it is verified that the response acceleration is effectively decreased by reducing the vibration of the identified component.

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.

In a Diesel engine with a Diesel particulate filter (DPF) system, high-sulfur fuel causes white smoke containing odorous and harmful pollutants during DPF regeneration. This study investigates the conditions and mechanisms of sulfur-related white smoke generation. Engine and vehicle tests found that sulfur compounds emitted from the engine accumulated on the catalysts in the DPF system and were emitted as white smoke during DPF regeneration. The white smoke was observed when the catalyst temperature was more than 450°C, under conditions such as the early stage of DPF regeneration. Model gas tests were conducted to clarify the mechanism of the white smoke. It was found that SO2 emitted from the engine was oxidized to SO3 on the catalyst, which was then mainly absorbed on the oxidation catalyst support (Al2O3). Then, the absorbed SO3 was desorbed and converted into white smoke.