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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.

On a bluff body which has a slant surface on the rear upper part, it is well known that the drastic change of a wake structure behind the rear body occurs at 30°of the slant angle. Originally, this critical phenomenon was pointed out by L.J. Janssen, W.H. Hucho, and H.J. Emmelmann in the middle of the 1970s. In 1984, S.R. Ahmed conducted systematic measurements by changing the rear slant angle of the bluff body, called the “Ahmed Body”, to find the critical phenomenon. In the 2000s, D.B. Sims-Williams found that the Ahmed Body had vortex structures which had specific frequencies. However, the relationship between the critical phenomenon and the unsteady behaviour has not been clarified yet. Therefore, as the first step of this study, we measured the unsteady wake behaviour for various slant angles to find the relationship between the Strouhal number and the angle. The characteristics of the fluctuation were captured with two hot-wires.

Traditionally, a Boundary Element Method (BEM) is often used for a radiation noise analysis. In recent years, to define an infinite region, a Finite Element Method (FEM) that can use an infinite boundary condition has been developed. However, studies on the radiation noise analysis by the FEM are few. Recently a number of an electric scooter has been increased. One of development issues is a radiation noise by a vibration of a wall surface of a swing-arm. In this paper, the vibration of the wall surface of the swing-arm is calculated, and a sound pressure level (SPL) of the radiation noise is calculated using a result of the frequency response analysis. And compare results of an experimental and an analytical sound pressure, its results were matched to within 5% error. Furthermore we used the method of this paper, proposed the model to reduce the radiation noise 10dB. Then we compare with the FEM and the BEM to verify the computation time and the mesh size.

The purpose of this study was to find compatible specifications both of emission reduction and high power output with good throttle response for a sports utility motorcycle. In the emission reduction challenge, we examined equipping the exhaust system with a catalytic converter to achieve sufficient emission reduction. The catalytic converter, however, caused a temperature rise in the exhaust system, which caused a pressure propagation change. Additional muffler design optimization effectively maintained high performance and acceleration. The exhaust valve device was also optimized for emission reduction and high power output over a wide engine speed range. The optimized control of the exhaust valve was beneficial to preventing short-circuit of fresh mixture gas and early activation of the catalyst. Such comprehensive specifications could satisfy the performance and driveability characteristics required for sports utility motorcycles.

A wall-resolving Large Eddy Simulation (LES) has been performed by using up to 40 billion grids with a minimum grid resolution of 0.1 mm for predicting the exterior hydrodynamic pressure fluctuations in the turbulent boundary layers of a test car with simplified geometry. At several sampling points on the car surface, which included a point on the side window, the door panel, and the front fender panel, the computed hydrodynamic pressure fluctuations were compared with those measured by microphones installed on the surface of the car in a wind tunnel, and effects of the grid resolution on the accuracy of the predicted frequency spectra were discussed. The power spectra of the pressure fluctuations computed with 5 billion grid LES agreed reasonably well with those measured in the wind tunnel up to around 2 kHz although they had some discrepancy with the measured ones in the low and middle frequencies.

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 purpose of this study was to measure the distribution and volume of liquid film adhering to the walls after the injection of fuel by an injector of a port-injection engine using the laser induced fluorescence (LIF) method while changing the fuel pressure and the angle of injection, and to consider how adhesion can be reduced in order to decrease the exhaust emission of gasoline engine. Using a high-speed camera, we filmed the adhesion and evaporation of liquid film in time series. Perylene, used here as a fluorescence dye, was blended with a fuel comprising toluene and n-heptane, and the mixture was injected onto a solid surface using a port-injection injector. UVLED with a maximum output wavelength of 375 nm was used as the exciting light. To more accurately measure the volume of fuel adhesion, it was necessary to correct the unevenness of the light source.

Increased interest in global warming requires rapid improvements in CO2 reduction efforts. The automotive industry is placing high importance on CO2 reduction technologies. Using Lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery pack Stop & Start (S&S) system with combined energy regeneration is an effective technology to reduce CO2 emissions. Power supply storage is very important for the S&S system. High charging acceptance, low weight, and compact size are required. A Li-ion battery is the optimal power supply that meets these requirements. It has high charge acceptance per weight. Furthermore, we developed simple system structure which eliminates the need for the DC-DC converter. By utilizing a Li-ion battery that has voltage characteristics similar to the Pb battery there is no need for a converter to make adjustments between the two power supplies. The Li-ion battery's range of capacity must be managed appropriately as overcharge and overdischarge causes extensive damage to the battery.

The study of 10% ethanol blended gasoline (E10 gasoline) utilization has been conducted in the Japan Auto-Oil Program (JATOP). In order to clarify the impact of E10 gasoline on vehicle performances, exhaust emissions, evaporative emissions, driveability and material compatibility have been investigated by using domestic gasoline vehicles including mini motor vehicles which are particular to Japan. The test results reveal that E10 gasoline has no impact on exhaust emissions, engine startup time and acceleration period under the hot start condition, but a slight deterioration is observed in some test cases under the cold start condition using E10 gasolines with 50% distillation temperature (T50) level set to the upper limit of Japanese Industrial Standards (JIS) K 2202. Regarding evaporative emissions, the tested vehicles shows no remarkable increase in the hot soak loss (HSL), diurnal breathing loss (DBL) and running loss (RL) testing with E10 gasolines.

The purpose of this study is to experimentally investigate in-cylinder flows with cyclic variation in a practical part-loaded two-stroke engine. First, the in-cylinder LDV measurements are introduced, which were carried out above the port layout and the combustion chamber as well as the exhaust pipe or the transfer port together with the simultaneous pressure measurements. Second, the in-cylinder flow characteristics in different combustion groups were discussed. The in-cylinder flow and the combustion-chamber flow were not simply characterized by the pressure variation in the engine or the other passage flow in the exhaust pipe or the transfer port. Finally, the in-cylinder flow structure with three stages was shown using the vector variation analysis and the drawing of the velocity profiles in the engine parts.

The purpose of this study is to reveal the flame propagation characteristics. Planar OH* image and local radical emission were measured simultaneously. Planar OH* images were used to analyze the flame propagation characteristics by high-speed camera. These images were then used to evaluate the speed of distribution and the direction of flame propagation. By comparing local point radical emission and planar OH*, the flame propagation characteristics was measured and evaluate that. And the time history of the radical intensity and planar OH* distribution were compared. The relation ship between flame propagation speed and initial heat generation was discussed. The variation of flame propagation speed and the difference of propagation speed in both port sides were confirmed.

Primary work is to investigate premixed laminar flame propagation in a constant volume chamber of iso-octane/air combustion. Experimental and numerical results are investigated by comparing flame front displacements under lean to rich conditions. As the laminar flame depends on equivalence ratio, temperature, and pressure conditions, it is a main property for chemical reaction mechanism validation. Firstly, one-dimensional laminar flame burning velocities are predicted in order to validate a reduced chemical reaction mechanism. A set of laminar burning velocities with pressure, temperature, and mixture equivalence ratio dependences are combined into a 3D-CFD calculation to compare the predicted flame front displacements with that of experiments. It is found that the reaction mechanism is well validated under the coupled 1D-3D combustion calculations. Next, lean experiments are operated in a SI engine by boosting intake pressure to maintain high efficiency without output power penalty.

Unresolved issues of Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) combustion include an extremely rapid pressure rise on the high load side and resultant knocking. Studies conducted to date have examined ways of expanding the region of stable HCCI combustion on the high load side such as by applying supercharging or recirculating exhaust gas (EGR). However, the effect of applying EGR gas to supercharged HCCI combustion and the mechanisms involved are not fully understood. In this study, the effect of EGR gas components on HCCI combustion was investigated by conducting experiments in which external EGR gas was applied to supercharged HCCI combustion and also experiments in which nitrogen (N2) and carbon dioxide (CO2) were individually injected into the intake air pipe to simulate EGR gas components. In addition, HCCI combustion reactions were analyzed by conducting chemical kinetic simulations under the same conditions as those of the experiments.

The purpose of this study was to detect a misfiring cycle in terms of the transfer-passage and the exhaust-pipe flow rate by experimental measurements. Simultaneous measurements of flow rates and in-cylinder pressure were carried out. The flow rate data were grouped into the different combustion classes by the in-cylinder pressure. A large flow rate of exhaust blow-down and a large reverse flow rate were observed in the cycle before misfiring, compared with in the cycle before firing. It showed that high concentration of the residual burnt gas in the cylinder was the main source of misfiring, this feature was also demonstrated by the complementary measurement of CO and CO2 concentrations.

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.

A resin coating was applied to a piston skirt for use in an internal combustion engine to reduce the frictional resistance on its surface. The purpose of the authors' study was to observe the change in surface states with the addition of nylon and graphite to the coating as solid lubricant particles in order to investigate the tribological properties of the surface. The authors observed self-formed microdimples on the resin surface when nylon particles were added to the polyamide-imide (PAI) coating material. These microdimples functioned as oil reservoirs similar in size to the nylon particles. The authors used PAI as a binder, and graphite particles (5 μm) and two different grades (5 and 10 μm) of nylon-12 particles as additives. These materials were mixed in a solvent, and an aluminum test sample was coated. The test sample was then heated in an oven to cure the PAI. Next, the texture of the surface was observed.

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%.

The Emission Regulations for Motorcycles in Japan was put into effect in October 1998 with the goal of reducing the total hydrocarbon emissions from motorcycles in the country to around 50% of the present amount. These regulations initiated a need to develop emission-converting catalysts, having the three characteristics written below, for two-stroke engines that historically have produced more hydrocarbons than four-stroke engines: 1 High performance of hydrocarbon conversion 2 High light-off performance 3 High thermal stability under high temperature Among a number of catalytic adjustment methods, the loading method of precious metals and the washcoat preparing method were modified to realize mass production of high-performance, low-cost catalysts.