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The wear mechanisms of the methanol engine were studied using dynamometer tests. Formic acid from methanol combustion mixes with the lubricant oil and attacks the metal surfaces. The iso tacho prorissis method was successfully applied to analyze the formic acid content of the used oil. A large amount of condensed water is also formed by methanol combustion and accelerates the wear. Wear can be effectively reduced by shortening lubricant oil change intervals, by using a special oil and by durable surface treatment of engine parts.

Wet-running multi-plate clutches and brakes are important components of modern powershift gearboxes and industrial powertrains. In the open stage, drag losses occur due to fluid shear. The identification of drag losses is possible by experiment or CFD-simulation. For the calculation of the complex fluid flow of an open clutch, CFD-approaches such as the volume of fluid (vof) method or the Singhal cavitation model are applicable. Every method has its own specific characteristics. This contribution sets up CFD-calculation models for different clutches with diverse groove designs. We present results of calculations in various operating conditions obtained from the Singhal cavitation model and the vof method. The usage of modern commercial CFD-Tools (Simerics MP+) results in short calculation times.

Display devices are required to have some fundamental functions which are brightness & gradation, colorfullness, resolution & sharpness, response time, and suitable size of the picture. Since the CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) is superior to the other display devices in these requirements, it can offer much information efficiently and effectively. Their visibility should not be evaluated only on the basis of some standards for office automation systems. From the point of view of human factors, visibility investigations of the CRTs for automobiles are examined. In this paper the relationship between the chromaticity difference and the luminance contrast for drivers to read the picture easily, and the luminance of the background in the CRTs for drivers not to be dazzled in the nighttime driving are clarified.

Grip feeling is an important facet in vehicle dynamics evaluation from a driver satisfaction and enjoyment standpoint. To improve grip feeling, we analyzed the subjective comments from test driver's about grip feeling and an evaluated human sensitivity to lateral motion. As a result, we found that drivers evaluate transient grip feeling according to the magnitude of lateral jerk. Next, we analyzed what vehicle parameters affect lateral jerk by using theoretical equations. As a result, we found that cornering power is an important parameter, especially the cornering power of rear tires as they can be create larger lateral jerk than can front tires.

In order to develop the valve rocker arm material for the new type engine, we investigated various materials whose chemical compositions were selected using 30% chromium cast iron, which had shown good results in screening evaluation tests, as the basis. High chromium cast irons are well known for their abrasive wear resistance, but it has been very difficult to apply them for use as rocker arm material because their machinability is very poor, and because it is difficult for them to have a regular microstructure. In this paper, both the manufacturing method for the rocker arm which decreases the disadvantages that high chromium cast iron have and the rocker arm material best suited for this method are described.

Wireless Power Transfer (WPT) promises automated and highly efficient charging of electric and plug-in-hybrid vehicles. As commercial development proceeds forward, the technical challenges of efficiency, interoperability, interference and safety are a primary focus for this industry. The SAE Vehicle Wireless Power and Alignment Taskforce published the Recommended Practice J2954 to help harmonize the first phase of high-power WPT technology development. SAE J2954 uses a performance-based approach to standardizing WPT by specifying ground and vehicle assembly coils to be used in a test stand (per Z-class) to validate performance, interoperability and safety. The main goal of this SAE J2954 bench testing campaign was to prove interoperability between WPT systems utilizing different coil magnetic topologies. This type of testing had not been done before on such a scale with real automaker and supplier systems.

The SEA model of wind noise requires the quantification of both the acoustic as well as the turbulent flow contributions to the exterior pressure. The acoustic pressure is difficult to measure because it is usually much lower in amplitude than the turbulent pressure. However, the coupling of the acoustic pressure to the surface vibration is usually much stronger than the turbulent pressure, especially in the acoustic coincidence frequency range. The coupling is determined by the spatial matching between the pressure and the vibration which can be described by the wavenumber spectra. This paper uses measured vibration modes of a vehicle window to determine the coupling to both acoustic and turbulent pressure fields and compares these to the results from an SEA model. The interior acoustic intensity radiating from the window during road tests is also used to validate the results.

Flat panel displays for automobiles are facing a new era with the development of navigation systems. As navigation systems become more important as driver's assistance devices, development of birds-eye-view and 3D displays continues, as well as improvements for larger display screens and higher mounting positions. In response to the progress of mobile multimedia technologies, demands for larger display screens and larger aspect ratios have been increasing. Significance for improvements to anti-glare features or view angles has increased as they provide better visibility and the increase layout options. The use of human machine information interaction, which interfaces visual, audio and tactile senses, makes it possible to realize safer, more convenient and comfortable multimedia era vehicle

Pre-collision systems (PCS) use forward-looking sensors to detect the location and motion of vehicles ahead and provide a sequence of actions to help the driver either avoid striking the rear-end of another vehicle or mitigate the severity of the crash. The actions include driver alerts, amplification of driver braking as distance decreases (dynamic brake support, DBS), and automatic braking if the driver has not acted or has not acted sufficiently (crash imminent braking, CIB). Recent efforts by various organizations have sought to define PCS objective test procedures and test equipment in support of consumer information programs and potential certification. This paper presents results and insights from conducting DBS and CIB tests on two production vehicles sold in the US. Eleven scenarios are used to assess the systems' performance. The two systems' performance shows that commercial systems can be quite different.

This paper describes the newest CRT display system named “Toyota Electro Multivision”, released in the '88 model Toyota Crown. This system has grown to be a total information system, having multiple new functions, including control, operation and displays for the “hands free” phone. This new system uses a compact disc as its memory media. Here we introduce our design concept for the CRT display system, and outline the system and its key technologies.

The automobile industry currently faces many challenges which may greatly impact on its foundry operations. One of these challenges, consumers'' demand for greater fuel efficiency, can be met by reducing the weight of castings used in automobiles, and minimizing engineering tolerances. In answer to this particular demand, engine foundries have begun to either produce cylinder blocks or other castings with aluminum rather than cast iron. However, if a reduction in weight (thin wall and near-net shaping) can be realized with cast iron, there would be numerous merits from the perspective of cost and compactness and there would be much more flexibility in automotive parts design.

This paper describes a low-cost 48 × 48 element thermal imaging camera intended for use in measuring the temperature in a car interior for advanced air conditioning systems. The compact camera measures 46 × 46 × 60 mm. It operates under a program stored in the central processing unit and can measure the interior temperature distribution with an accuracy of ±0.7°C in range from 0 to 40°C. The camera includes a thermoelectric focal plane array (FPA) housed in a low-cost vacuum-sealed package. The FPA is fabricated with the conventional IC manufacturing process and micromachining technology. The chip is 6.5 × 6.5 mm in size and achieves high sensitivity of 4,300 V/W, which is higher than the performance reported for any other thermopile. This high performance has been achieved by optimizing the sensor's thermal isolation structure and a precisely patterned Au-black absorber that attains high infrared absorptivity of more than 90%.

This research developed a new measurement technology for thermal analysis of the heat radiation from a hybrid transaxle case surface to the air and improved the heat radiation performance. This heat flux measurement technology provides the method to measure heat flux without wiring of sensors. The method does not have effects of wiring on the temperature field and the flow field unlike the conventional methods. Therefore, multipoint measurement of heat flux on the case surface was enabled, and the distribution of heat flux was quantified. To measure heat flux, thermal resistances made of plastic plates were attached to the case surface and the infrared thermography was used for the temperature measurement. The preliminary examination was performed to confirm the accuracy of the thermal evaluation through heat flux measurement. The oil in the transaxle was heated and the amount of heat radiation from the case surface was measured.

A combined computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and finite element (FE) analysis approach has been developed to simulate in the early stages of design the temperature distribution and estimate the thermal fatigue life of an engine exhaust manifold. To simulate the temperature distribution under actual operating conditions, we considered the external and internal flow fields. Digital mock-ups of the vehicle and engine were used to define the geometry of the engine compartment. External-air-flow simulation using in-house CFD code was used to predict the flow fields in the engine compartment and the heat transfer coefficients between the air and the exhaust manifold wall at various vehicle speeds. Unsteady-gas-flow calculation using the STAR-CD thermal- fluids analysis code was to predict the heat transfer coefficients between the exhaust gas and the manifold wall under various operating conditions.

The need for small personal mobility vehicles is growing as urbanization, the aging of society, traffic congestion, and parking become major issues, particularly in inner-city areas. The aging of society also means that more short trips within communities will be made. The i-REAL personal mobility vehicle is a next-generation single-passenger electric vehicle that enables the driver to move around town using a smaller amount of energy. This compact EV has three wheels: two front wheels driven by in-wheel motors and one rear wheel. According to the driver's needs, the i-REAL switches driving modes by changing its wheelbase. It can go slowly, allowing the driver to meet the eyes of passers-by when driving in parks, on sidewalks, or inside shopping malls. When on the road, it can lower its height and drive quickly like a bicycle or motorcycle. The body of the i-REAL leans automatically based on the speed and the turn angle to maintain the balance of the vehicle for any driver.

We have developed the world's first 8-speed automatic transmission for transverse FWD/4WD vehicles. The aim of this new automatic transmission was to achieve world-class fuel economy while offering both smooth gear shift and sporty shift feeling suitable for luxury cars. This has been accomplished using wide spread gear ratio, outstanding low drag components and highly efficient hydraulic control system. In addition, we have achieved the compactness similar to current 6-speed automatic transmission by adopting new gear train and compact clutch layout. In this paper, the detail of this automatic transmission is introduced.

Cold forging has been applied to form a component of the constant velocity joint. This part, slide joint housing, is made of JIS S48C (SAE 1048) high carbon steel. As it has been very difficult to form this part by cold forging, it has been formed by hot forging up until now. Success was obtained in forming this part by cold forging through improving the chemical composition of S48C high carbon steel and tool design, determining the optimum condition for heat treating the slug, and using a TiC coated punch. Since this slide joint housing, which is nearly net shape, was able to be formed through this cold forging technique, material saving was improved about 40% and machining time was reduced much in comparison with hot forging. Manufacturing cost can be greatly reduced through this cold forging which has been developed.

The demands on valve seat insert materials, in terms of providing greater wear-resistance at higher temperatures, enhanced machinability and using non-environmentally hazardous materials at a reasonably low cost have intensified in recent years. Due therefore to these strong demands in the market, research was made into the possibility of producing a new valve seat insert material. As a result a high speed steel based new improved material was developed, which satisfies the necessary required demands and the evaluation trials, using actual gasoline engine endurance tests, were found to be very successful.

Generally, cobalt-contained sintered materials have mainly been applied for exhaust valve seat inserts (VSI). However, there is a trend to restrict the use of cobalt as well as lead environmental law, and cobalt is expensive. To solve these problems, a new exhaust VSI on the assumption of being cobalt and lead free, applicable for conventional engines, having good machinability, and with a reduced cost was developed. The new exhaust VSI is a material dispersed with two types of hard particles, Fe-Cr-C and Fe-Mo-Si, in the matrix of an Fe-3.5mass%Mo at the ratio of 15 mass % and 10 mass % respectively.

Nissan has developed a second generation ceramic turbocharger rotor which provides greater reliability and higher performance than a conventional ceramic rotor. The new rotor is made of silicon nitride, which has demonstrated sufficient strength in vehicle applications. The bonding technique for joining the ceramic rotor to the metal shaft has been confirmed through experimentation to have sufficient reliability. The second generation rotor is featured by the low stress design and higher dynamic strength, and two factors contribute to its higher reliability. The rotor shape was optimized on the basis of results obtained in two analyses of particle impact resistance and applied combined stress. Test results show that the reliability of the second generation rotor have been substantially improved over those of the conventional rotor now being used on production vehicles.