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A simulation framework for vehicle aerodynamics using up to 10 billion fully unstructured cells has been developed on a world-fastest class supercomputer, called the K computer, in Kobe, Japan. The simulation software FrontFlow/red-Aero was fully optimized on the K computer to utilize up to 10,000 processors with tens of thousands of cores. A hybrid parallelization method using MPI among processors and OpenMP among cores inside each processor was adopted. The code was specially tuned for unsteady aerodynamic simulation including large-eddy simulation, and low Mach number approximation was adopted to avoid excessive iterations usually required for the fully incompressible algorithm. The automated mesh refining system was developed to generate unstructured meshes of up to 10 billion cells. In the system, users only generate unstructured meshes in the order of tens of millions of cells directly using commercial preprocessing software.

To measure the stresses acting on the crankshaft of an engine, signals must be taken out from the rapidly spinning shaft. This paper discusses the measurement of stress signals from the crankshaft using a slip ring, which is the conventional method. By developing a special fixture that allowed us to measure rotations up to 14,000 rpm and using the four-gauge method, we succeeded in accurately measuring stress waves. We confirmed that, during the motoring operation, stresses due to the secondary component of the inertia forces of the reciprocating parts are dominant and that, during the firing operation, deformation occurs at various frequency bands. As the engine speed increased, the stress amplitude increased and reached a maximum around the highest engine speed. The results of a static analysis predicted values close to actual measurements.

Gear shift feeling is often an important factor which appeals to motorcycle riders. Therefore, it is important for designers to create a pleasant gear shift feeling when developing a motorcycle. Sensory evaluation tests are indispensable for quantifying the gear shift feeling, but are very difficult to conduct with an actual motorcycle. Therefore, we developed a simulator dedicated to sensory evaluation tests, used it to conduct sensory evaluation tests, and thus clarified the relationship between the physical amount of gear shift properties and gear shift feeling. This paper describes the development of the simulator, the sensory evaluation tests conducted on gear shift feeling using the simulator, and the results of analysis.

The Mechanical CVT is mainly used for small size motorcycle called “scooter”, which has a 250 cc or less engine capacity. The speed characteristics of the Mechanical CVT are decided by engine speed and load-torque on driven pulley. In few papers, these characteristics are studied under full-load or no-load condition [1]-[2]. However, the characteristics at part-load condition are not well known. To develop a motorcycle with low fuel consumption, it is important that the characteristics at part-load condition are considered in driving cycle. Driving cycle simulation is needed to estimate CVT ratio at design stage. This research proposes equations representing the speed characteristics of the Mechanical CVT at part-load condition. Driving cycle simulation is also developed for estimation of the fuel consumption at optional driving cycles and the dynamic behavior of the CVT system. It could be a CVT design tool to makes sure whether its performance is achieved for design targets.

The critical change in drag occurring on the Ahmed body when the slanted base has an angle of 30° is due to a transition in the wake structure. In a previous study on flow analysis across the Ahmed body, we investigated the unsteady wake experimentally using hot-wire and particle image velocimetry measurements. However, because the experimental analysis yielded limited data, the spatially unsteady wake behaviour, interaction between the trailing vortex and transverse vortices (up/downwash), and flow mechanism near the body were not discussed sufficiently. In this study, the unsteady wake structures were analysed computationally using computational fluid dynamics to understand these issues, and the hypothesis was tested. The slant angle was 27.5°, which is identical to that in the experiment and corresponds to a high drag condition indicated experimentally.

When the planing craft with outboard motor is running, cavitation occurs around the surface of propeller and lower unit of outboard motor. Cavitation has been classified under several categories by the feature and cause of occurrence. Among them, cloud cavitation and root cavitation lead to erosion damage on the surface of lower unit and propeller. To prevent from poor appearance or performance deterioration of outboard motor by erosion damage, it is important problem to predict the erosion occurrence. Currently we can predict the cavitation phenomena sufficiently, but the area of cavitation does not necessarily correspond with the area of erosion. In this study, we present the new method to predict the area of erosion due to cavitation using CFD (computer fluid dynamics) analysis. In order to evaluate the accuracy of erosion occurrence simulation, the simulation results are compared against the result of a full-scale cruising test.

The electrodeposition painting can make a coat adhere not only to the exterior surface but also on the inside of an object, and has excellent corrosion resistance. Therefore, it is widely used as paint for anti-corrosion to various vehicles. In electrodeposition painting, by the electricity from an electrode flowing into the surface of an object through paint solution, a paint deposits to the surface of an object and a paint film is formed. Therefore, if the object is simply in contact with paint solution, a paint film will not necessarily be formed. For example, even if paint solution has touched, since the electrical resistance of paint solution is not high, sufficient current flows through the outside of a motorcycle frame, nor the inner surface of the automobile body and a paint film may not be formed. In order to check the paint film thickness of electrodeposition painting conventionally, it was measuring by disassembling the actually painted object.

The critical change in drag occurs in the Ahmed Body at 30° of the slanted base due to the transition in the wake structure. The distinctive feature of this bi-stage phenomenon, which consists of three-dimensional and quasi-axisymmetric separation states, is that the state drastically changes. Because this feature indicates that each state is stable around a critical angle, the transition is believed to be triggered by some instantaneous disturbances. Therefore, in our previous papers, we have paid attention on the unsteady behavior of the wake to determine the trigger that induces the transition. However, the relationship between the spatial transient behavior of the wake structures and the specific frequencies has not been clarified. Then, we tried to control the degree of interaction of the trailing vortices on the downwash by changing the aspect ratio of the slanted base.

In open-grille vehicle aerodynamics simulation using computational fluid dynamics, in addition to basic flow characteristics, such as turbulent flow with a Reynolds number of several million on the bluff body, it is important to accurately estimate the cooling air flow introduced from the front opening. It is therefore necessary to reproduce the detailed geometry of the entire vehicle including the engine bay as precisely as possible. However, there is a problem of generating a good-quality calculation grid with a small workload. It usually takes several days to a week for the pretreatment process to make the geometry data ‘clean’ or ‘watertight’. The authors proposed a computational method for complex geometries with a hierarchical Cartesian grid and a topology-independent immersed boundary method with dummy cells that discretize the geometry on a cell-by-cell basis and can set an imaginary point arbitrarily.

An air-dam spoiler is commonly used to reduce aerodynamic drag in production vehicles. However, it inexplicably tends to show different performances between wind tunnel and coast-down tests. Neither the reason nor the mechanism has been clarified. We previously reported that an air-dam spoiler contributed to a change in the wake structure behind a vehicle. In this study, to clarify the mechanism, we investigated the coefficient of aerodynamic drag CD reduction effect, wake structure, and underflow under different boundary layer conditions by conducting wind tunnel tests with a rolling road system and constant speed on-road tests. We found that the air-dam spoiler changed the wake structure by deceleration of the underflow under stationary floor conditions. Accordingly, the base pressure was recovered by approximately 30% and, the CD value reduction effect was approximately 10%.

Lead-added free-cutting steel has been used by many parts which need high machinability because lead improves chip friability and drill life. However, the demand of lead reduction increases in recent years, because of environmental impact substance reduction. Therefore, we developed lead-free crankshaft for motorcycle. Until now, crankshaft for motorcycle has been manufactured with lead-added free-cutting steel by a following process; Hot-Forging - Quenching and Tempering (QT) - Prior Machining - Nitrocarburizing - Finishing process because of strength and machinability. When we tried to change steel to lead-free, we examined to change to sulfur-added free-cutting steel. However, chip friability of sulfur-added free-cutting steel is inferior to lead one. Thus, we concerned about increase in machining expense. Then, heat-treatment after forging was examined to change from QT to normalizing for reducing the heat-treatment expense.

The anodic oxide films are formed to improve the corrosion resistance on aluminum alloy that used as the parts of engines and car bodies. Because these films are porous structure, it is necessary to seal the pores to further improve the corrosion resistance. The pores are sealed with hydrated alumina by treating the films in boiling water or solution that added sealing additives. These hydration sealing has a problem that energy consumption is large because of long sealing time and high temperature of solution. In this study, the authors have developed a new sealing treatment (Lithium sealing) using a lithium hydroxide solution to solve above problem. Lithium sealing mainly sealed the pores with lithium aluminate double salt (LiH(AlO2)2·5H2O). This salt was rapidly formed in strong alkaline solution at room temperature, so that the sealing time was reduced to about 1/10 compared with the conventional sealing.

Anodizing is applied to improve the durability and the corrosion resistance of aluminum alloy parts of engines and car bodies. Generally, anodic oxide film is formed using direct current anodizing (DCA). However, in the case of anodizing high silicon aluminum alloy cast parts, it is difficult to derive uniform film thickness distribution. Furthermore, it takes a long treatment time which causes low productivity. In this study, the authors have developed an anodizing method by using high-frequency switching anodizing (HSA) to solve these problems. The growth process of anodic oxide film is susceptible to the metallographic structure. Thus, the typical DCA application to the high silicon aluminum alloy produces a non-uniform film thickness, while HSA has the potential to form uniform film without being affected by metallographic structure. Moreover, the current density of HSA is higher than that of DCA which reduces treatment time to 1/5 as the film formation enhances.

In this study, to improve the cruising performance of planing craft with outboard motor, we have examined a estimation method of the hull attitude angle at cruising and resistance in case of changing the tilt angle and mounting position of the outboard motor by the tank test using a scale model of a hull and an outboard motor in the ship testing tank. Planing craft with outboard motor have different characteristics from large vessels. The characteristics are shown below. The hull attitude angle at cruising is different in each forward speed. The thrust accounted for a large percentage of hull weight. And the flow field around the hull changes along with the operation of the propeller. The hull attitude angle at cruising is changed by the rigging state of the outboard motor.