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Combustion phenomena inside the actual Gasoline-Direct-Injection (GDI) engines have been drawing high attention to its emission characteristics as well as its potential to deal with ultra lean mixture. Although the detailed observation is necessary for its improvement, combustion visualization seems to be strangely overlooked for some reason. This study focuses on the direct observation of GDI combustion to clarify the difficulties behind GDI concept by using a test engine of an actual “wall-guided” configuration and by comparing GDI spray quality with diesel spray in a high-pressure constant volume bomb. The results show that some of the problems about GDI combustion seem to be rather essential than easily conquered, which suggests the necessity for another combustion concept.

Abnormal valve gear vibration is a perennial problem confronting the designer of high-performance 4-stroke engines. It would shorten time and reduce costs if an analytical method could be applied to the prediction of engine valve behavior. This paper describes a method of valve motion simulation for both SOHC and DOHC valve gears through interactive calculation and using computer graphics. The authors tried to set up as simple a simulation model as possible by using modal analysis and modeling techniques. Through setting simulation model parameters and experimental damping factors, a close correlation between calculated and actually measured results was found.

Measurement using a three-dimensional anemometric-tester was made for the gas flow inside the cylinder of a two-stroke engine while the shape of the transfer port was modified. The relationship between port shape and engine performance was investigated for various factors that characterize the flow in cylinder. In this paper, we focused mainly on two engine running conditions: the maximum output at 11750 rpm and the output at 10000 rpm. As a result, we found that the maximum output is most related to the tangential inclination angles of the main transfer port, and the inner vent radius of the main transfer duct.

Mixture formation is one of the most important factors for the combustion in the spark ignition engine with port fuel injection. The relation between combustion and mixture quality, however, is not quantitatively well established. In this study, the connection of combustion and mixture formation was explored with various measurement techniques. Borescopes were used in order to investigate the flame propagation in the combustion chamber and behavior of spray and fuel film on the wall in the intake port. For the purpose of investigation on the effect of mixture formation, various port fuel injection systems and parameters were tested and compared: direction, timing, and size of droplet. An SI engine for small vehicle was used under condition of 4 000 rpm. The investigation by images obtained has shown that inhomogeneity of mixture causes low combustion stability, especially due to direct introduction of fuel droplets into the combustion chamber.

The demands on internal combustion engines for low emissions and fuel consumption are increasing year by year. On the other hand, engines to be used in motorcycles need to provide high output and quick response to meet user desire. In order to realize low fuel consumption while keeping high performance, it is necessary to properly understand cyclic variations during combustion as well as the influence of the injection system on fuel control during transient periods. The current paper reports on the results of a study in the influence of port fuel injection on combustion stability in a small displacement motorcycle engine, using both a series of experiments and CFD. The parameters of the injection systems under study are: (1) injection targeted area, (2) injection timing, and (3) fuel droplet size. The results of the current study show that injection aimed at the upstream wall yielded the best combustion stability.

We studied the mechanism of occurrence and evaluation of the surge that is produced in motorcycles equipped with 2-stroke cycle engines by simultaneously measuring chassis behavior and combustion. When modal analysis was performed by measuring the acceleration of each chassis component while placing the test vehicle on a chassis dynamo, it was found that pitching, in which the tires serve as springs, and resonance, generated from the rear suspension spring, occurred simultaneously during surge generation. The major component that is felt physically is pitching. Although a certain degree of correlation was observed between fluctuations in combustion and occurrence of pitching, since the drive line contains a large amount of back lash, the system has a high degree of non-linearity, thus making it difficult to obtain a well-defined correlation.

A monolithic type aluminum (Al) cylinder made of hypereutectic Aluminum-Silicon alloy has been widely used for motorcycle applications. It has a lightweight structure and a superior cooling ability owing to its material property and surface finishing. Usually the cylinder bore surface of the monolithic type Al cylinder is finished by an etching process or a honing process in order to expose silicon (Si) particles from aluminum (Al) matrix for the improvement of the tribological properties. The morphology of the cylinder bore surface including the exposure of Si particles is supposed to make an important effect on its tribological properties, especially on the anti-scuffing property. In this research, the anti-scuffing property of three kinds of cylinder bore finishing, an etched surface, a Si exposure honed surface and a conventional plateau honed surface is evaluated with using a reciprocated type wear tester. The experimental results are analyzed by using Weibull analysis.

All the primary inertia forces and/or moments generated by engines having three cylinders or less are not normally in balance by themselves and thus may be a great source of vibration for the frame supporting the engine. If the mass distribution of the crankwebs is selected in a proper manner, it is possible to determine arbitrarily the directions and the length ratio of principal axes of ellipses, which are obtained as Lissajous diagrams of inertia force and moment. This method can be effectively applied to reduce vibration in the frames. In this paper the appropriate inertia force and moment ellipse equations are developed and the analysis is outlined for optimizing the engine balance. Also the fundamental properties of the linear vibration systems excited by the elliptical forces as well as some experimental examples of elliptical excitation are detailed.

The Bonded Valve Seat System is the latest technology to realize drastic reduction in valve temperature in SI engines characterized by the good thermal conductivity of extremely thin valve seats bonded directly on the aluminum cylinder head. A unique and highly rationalized resistance bonding technique was developed to maintain adequate bonding strength and positioning precision in a short bonding period of around one second. Engineering data on optimization of bonding-section geometry, valve seat material and the surface treatment and bonding parameters were presented and discussed regarding the mechanism. The geometry of the bonding section of the cylinder head was optimized by FEM analysis so that the aluminum material should deform to embed the valve seat ring with the action of expelling the surface contamination and the oxide film. The bonding facility was modified so that the electrode axis should move flexibly according to distortion of the cylinder head during bonding.

We introduce a research on steering dampers using MR fluid (Magnetorheological Fluid). In recent years, steering dampers have been used in on-road and off-road motorcycles. Steering dampers stabilize the front end of motorcycles. The advantage of a steering damper is increased stability, but hydraulic steering dampers give rise to the problem of ‘Heavy Steering’. In order to resolve this heavy steering, we need to set the restrictions on the maximum damping force and avoid it from interfering when the rider is steering. However only reducing the damping force will lead to insufficient damping force when the handle, unresponsive because of kickback, shakes. We solved this problem with the development of an electric control damper which generates sufficient damping force at low steering angle rates and also allows for mechanically limiting the maximum damping force.

In this paper, we introduce a research of Steering Damper using MR fluid (Magnetorheological Fluid). In recent years, Steering Dampers have been used in motocross races on off road courses. Steering Dampers stabilize the front end of motocross bikes that are used in competitive races held on rough terrain. The advantage of a Steering Damper is increased stability, however hydraulic Steering Dampers give rise to the problem of ‘Heavy Steering’. In order to solve this problem, we used MR Fluid and developed an Electronic Control Steering Damper that does not use a valve like hydraulic damper. The damper design uses “Direct Shear Mode” and features a steering angle sensor built into the damper, which results in easier, smoother steering. To test the effectiveness of our new design, we installed our new Steering Damper on the YZ 450F (Yamaha's competition model). We then asked for feedback from riders both in Japan and overseas.

The two-stroke engines were in the main stream of the outboard motors, but they have been replaced with the four-stroke counterparts reflecting the environmental protection movement in recent years. However, the replacement with four-stroke engines involves increased number of components and additional displacement, and the outboard motors tend to be larger and heavier. This represents an issue, since the maneuverability of the boat is degraded due to the inappropriate weight distribution on the boat. Yamaha outboard motors F300B and VF250A, of which the production started in the year 2009, are equipped with four-stroke engines, and yet achieved the light weight equivalent to their two-stroke counterparts. The production volume of these models reached 20,000 units.

A periodic impulsive sound at idle is occasionally described as ‘disagreeable’ in two-stroke engines. The relation between combustion conditions, piston vibrations, and the disagreeable sound is analyzed to clarify the phenomena. Some means to alleviate disagreeable sound are then proposed through stabilized combustion, high rigidity sound transfer systems, and refined skirt profiles. Experimental results are shown for the effects on main three factors evaluating disagreeable sound-loudness, impulsiveness, and frequency characteristics. In addition, piston behavior is measured, and the relation between piston motion and disagreeable sound is discussed in this paper.

This paper reports a methodology to estimate combustion pattern and emission by predictive simple simulation with good accuracy on various conditions of PFI engine. 3D-CFD cord VECTIS has been applied for this simulation, its settings and methods are as follows. RANS equation with liner k-epsilon model has been used as the turbulence model. Turbulent burning velocity equation contains not only turbulent velocity term but also laminar burning velocity term. For ignition model, we use a predictive model called DPIK. We iterate cycle calculation until wallfilm behavior is stabilized to get the reasonable mixture formation. We have applied this methodology to 125cc engine of motorcycle. As a result, we have obtained heat release curve and pressure curve with good accuracy on various operating conditions such as engine speed, engine load, air fuel ratio, wall temperature, and spray direction. CO and NOx calculated simultaneously have also been acceptable.

THE MULTI-VALVE FOUR STROKE CYCLE engine design trend is Coward increased engine power and higher fuel efficiency. While a four-valve system is the most common direction, problems occur when the valve area is widened by increasing the cylinder bore for a higher engine output. The layout of four larger valves causes the combustion chamber shape to flatten and the combustion time period to increase. In pursuit of the optimum multi-valve engine we have studied four, five, six and seven-valve per cylinder design. Performance targets and design constraints led us toward the successful five-valve engine technology. This technology develops high engine torque and efficient combustion over a wide range of engine speeds.

In the past, the performance of motorcycle engines has improved quite rapidly through intensive competition in racing and in the marketplace. Motorcycle engines have contributed to the technological progress of internal combustion engines (hereafter abbreviated as ICE). Today's environmental concerns require motorcycle engines to improve fuel economy and exhaust emission pollutants. After examination of potential measures to improve the thermal efficiency of small engines, it was concluded that if engineers of motorcycle engines fail to take on new ideas such as those being developed in cold fusion, it is foreseen that motorcycle engines will be replaced with new power plants as was seen on locomotives in the past.

A high-quality die-casting technology has been developed for lightweight aluminum frame structures that produces high-strength aluminum parts that are also weldable. This new technology has been used in casting frames for motorcycles and snowmobiles and has enabled improved frame designs with far fewer component parts than was possible before. This die-casting technology also results in a significant reduction in energy consumption during the manufacturing process.

This paper describes an experimental method to predict the rolling contact fatigue life of a crankpin in a market vehicle engine. The fatigue life up to pitting was evaluated by two laboratory tests including a fatigue life measurement using a ball-on-disk test machine and a crankpin durability measurement by an engine bench test. The surface observation after the tests revealed that the surface dent triggers pitting in both tests. The Weibull plot of the percent failure vs. cycle to failure as a function of the contact stress was presented. In order to directly evaluate the effect of the contact stress on the lifetime, the lifetime values measured at L50 are plotted in the diagram showing the contact stress vs. cycle to failure. The obtained relation can predict the lifetime under the controlled condition in which the number of maximum torque points is countable.

With emergence of fuel cells which have much better thermal efficiency than internal combustion engines (later abbreviated as ICE), ICE has to improve its thermal efficiency to the level of 50%. One of the ways to improve the thermal efficiency of ICE is to utilize ultra-lean combustion and several technical papers have been published. But it seems the thermal efficiency has not been improved as the theory predicts. The test data of these technical papers were re-examined and it was concluded that the thermal dissociation of burned gas and NOx formation is the key factor of a discrepancy between the theory and the actual test data. In order to prevent an occurrence of thermal dissociation, emulsified fuels (mixture of carbonaceous fuels with water) was proposed.

This paper reports visualization of behavior of spray, wall film, and initial flame propagation in an SI engine with port fuel injection system for motorcycle in order to directly investigate their influences on combustion and relations among them. Borescopes were used to visualize the flame propagation in the combustion chamber and wall film in the intake port. Various injection systems and injection parameters were tested: injection direction, timing, and size of droplets to investigate the effect of mixture formation. It is concluded that combustion stability under low load condition is greatly influenced by mixture inhomogeneity in the combustion chamber whose evidence is the luminous emission. It is caused by direct induction of considerable amount of liquid fuel with large size of droplets into combustion chamber or too inhomogeneous mixture in the intake port.