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Exhaust gas recirculation technology is one of the main methods to reduce engine emissions. The pressure of the intake pipe of turbocharged direct-injection diesel engine is high, and it is difficult to realize EGR technology. The application of Venturi tube can easily solve this problem. In this paper, the working principle of guide-injection Venturi tube is introduced, the EGR system and structure of a turbocharged diesel engine using the guide-injection Venturi tube are studied. According to the working principle of EGR system of turbocharged diesel engine, the model of guide-injection Venturi tube is established, the calculation grid is divided, and it is carried out by using Computational Fluid Dynamics method that the three-dimensional numerical simulation of the internal flow of Venturi tube under different EGR rates injection.

The design of engine intake system affects the intake uniformity of each cylinder of the engine, which in turn has an important impact on the engine performance, the uniform distribution of EGR exhaust gas and the combustion process of each cylinder. In this paper, the constant-pressure supercharged diesel engine intake pipe is used as the research model to study the intake air flow unevenness of the intake pipe of the supercharged diesel engine. The pressure boundary condition at the outlet of each intake manifold is set as the dynamic pressure change condition. The three-dimensional numerical simulation of the transient flow process in the intake manifold of diesel engine is simulated and analyzed by using numerical method, and the change of the Intake air flow field in the intake manifold under different working conditions during the intake overlapping period is discussed.

The combustion of dual-fuel engines usually uses a pilot flame to burn out a background fuel inside a cylinder under high compression. The background fuel can be either a gaseous fuel or a volatile liquid fuel, commonly with low reactivity to prevent premature combustion and engine knocking; whereas the pilot flame is normally set off with the direct injection of a liquid fuel with adequate reactivity that is suitable for deterministic auto-ignition with a high compression ratio. In this work, directly injected butanol is used to generate the pilot flame, while intake port injected ethanol or butanol is employed as the background fuel. Compared with the conventional diesel-only combustion, dual-fuel operations not only broaden the fuel applicability, but also enhance the potential for clean combustion, in high efficiency engines. The amount of background fuel and the scheduling of pilot flame are investigated through extensive laboratory experiments.

This empirical work investigates the impacts of thermodynamic parameters, such as pressure and temperature, and fuel properties, such as fuel Cetane number and aromatic contents on ignition delay in diesel engines. Systematic tests are conducted on a single-cylinder research engine to evaluate the ignition delay changes due to the fuel property differences at low, medium and high engine loads under different EGR dilution ratios. The test fuels offer a range of Cetane numbers from 28 to 54.2 and aromatic contents volume ratios from 19.4% to 46.6%. The experimental results of ignition delays are used to derive an ignition delay model modified from Arrhenius’ expression. Following the same format of Arrhenius’ equation, the model incorporates the pressure and temperature effects, and further includes the impacts of intake oxygen concentration, fuel Cetane number and aromatic contents volume ratio on the ignition delay.

The development of a collision severity model can serve as an important tool in understanding the requirements for devising countermeasures to improve occupant safety and traffic safety. Collision type, weather conditions, and driver intoxication are some of the factors that may influence motor vehicle collisions. The objective of this study is to use artificial neural networks (ANNs) to identify the major determinants or contributors to fatal collisions based on various driver, vehicle, and environment characteristics obtained from collision data from Transport Canada. The developed model will have the capability to predict similar collision outcomes based on the variables analyzed in this study. A multilayer perceptron (MLP) neural network model with feed-forward back-propagation architecture is used to develop a generalized model for predicting collision severity. The model output, collision severity, is divided into three categories - fatal, injury, and property damage only.

Battery models are often applied to describe the dynamic characteristics of batteries and can be used to predict the state of the battery. Due to the process of charging and discharging, the battery heat generation will cause the inhomogeneity between inner battery temperature and surface temperature. In this paper, a novel battery impedance model, which takes the impact of the battery internal temperature gradient on battery impedance into account, is proposed to improve the battery model performance. Several experiments are designed and conducted for pouch typed battery to investigate the electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) characteristics with the artificial temperature gradient (using a heating plate). Experimental results indicate that the battery internal temperature gradient will influence battery EIS regularly.

Positioning system is a key module of autonomous driving. As for LiDAR SLAM system, it faces great challenges in scenarios where there are repetitive and sparse features. Without loop closure or measurements from other sensors, odometry match errors or accumulated errors cannot be corrected. This paper proposes a construction method of LiDAR anchor constraints to improve the robustness of the SLAM system in the above challenging environment. We propose a robust anchor extraction method that adaptively extracts suitable cylindrical anchors in the environment, such as tree trunks, light poles, etc. Skewed tree trunks are detected by feature differences between laser lines. Boundary points on cylinders are removed to avoid misleading. After the appropriate anchors are detected, a factor graph-based anchor constraint construction method is designed. Where direct scans are made to anchor, direct constraints are constructed.

To overcome the unfavorable operation conditions caused by lean/diluted charges in modern Spark Ignited (SI) engines, various advanced ignition systems have been proposed in the past. Among them, the dual-coil and multi-coil Transistor Coil Ignition (TCI) systems with offset discharge strategy caused significant attention in literature because they can generate a continuous spark with high spark energy being delivered into the cylinder. Comparing with the dual-coil system, a multi-coil system is capable to apply more flexible control strategies and generate a higher discharge current. However, the spark energy and transfer efficiency of the multi-coil system are still worthy to investigate as they are important performance indicators for a TCI system. In this paper, the discharge characteristics of the dual-coil and triple-coil strategies under both quiescent and flow conditions were studied firstly by experimental methods.

Cold start capability is one of remaining major challenges in realizing PEMFC (Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell) technology for automotive applications. Gas purge is a common and integral shutdown procedure of a PEMFC automotive in subzero temperature. A dryer membrane electrode assembly (MEA) can store more water before it gets saturated and ice starts to penetrate in the open pores of porous media, thus enhancing cold start capability of a PEMFC. Therefore, gas purge is always performed prior to fuel cell shutdown to minimize residual water in a PEMFC. In the hope of improving effectiveness of purge in a PEMFC vehicle, two important purge parameters are evaluated including purge time and energy requirement. In practice, an optimized gas purge protocol should be developed with minimal parasitic energy, short purge duration and no degradation of components. To conclude, the cold start capability and performance can be consolidated by proper design of gas purge strategies.

With increasing pressure from environment problem for reduction in CO2 emissions and stricter fuel targets from road vehicles, new transmission technologies are gaining more attention in different main market. To get suitable road load data for transmission durability development is becoming increasingly important and can shorten the development time of new transmission. This paper presents the procedure and methods of road load data development for durability design of transmission product and optimization based on the real road data measurement, statistical characteristics evaluation and fatigue damage equivalency. Apply this road load data method procedure on 3 type of vehicle which represent conventional vehicle, BEV and HEV.

The ever-growing demand to meet the stringent exhaust emission regulations have driven the development of modern gasoline engines towards lean combustion strategies and downsizing to achieve the reduction of exhaust emission and fuel consumption. Currently, the inductive ignition system is still the dominant ignition system applied in Spark Ignited (SI) engines. It is popular due to its simple design, low cost and robust performance. The new development in spark ignition engines demands higher spark energy to be delivered by the inductive ignition system to overcome the unfavorable ignition conditions caused by the increased and diluted in-cylinder charge. To meet this challenge, better understanding of the inductive ignition system is required. The development of a first principle model for simulation can help in understanding the working mechanism of the system in a better way.

Advanced combustion engines, as power sources, dominate all aspects of the transportation sector. Stringent emission and fuel efficiency standards have promoted the research interest in advanced combustion strategies and alternative fuels. Owing to the comparable energy density to the existing fossil fuels and renewable production, alcohol and ether fuels may be a suitable replacement, or an additive to the gasoline/diesel fuels to meet the future emission standards with minimal modification to current engine geometry. Furthermore, lean and diluted combustion are well-researched pathways for efficiency improvement and reduction of engine-out emissions of modern engines. However, lean-burn or EGR dilution can introduce combustion inefficiencies in the form of excessive hydrocarbon, carbonyl species and carbon monoxide emissions.

The effectiveness of after-treatment systems depends on the exhaust gas temperature, which is low during cold-start. As a result, Euro III, Euro IV and FTP75 require that the emissions tests include exhaust from the beginning of cold start. It is proved that 50%∼80% of HC and CO emissions are emitted during the cold start and the amount of unburned fuel from the crevices during starting is much higher than that under warmed engine conditions. The piston crevices is the most part of combustion chamber crevices, and results of mathematical simulations show that the piston crevice contribution to HC emissions is expected to increase during cold engine operation. Based on the transient HC test data and the double zone combustion model, this paper presents the study of the crevice HC Mechanism of the first firing cycle at cold start on an LPG SI Engine. A fast-response flame ionization detector (FFID) was employed to measure transient HC emissions of the first firing cycle.

Diesel fueling and exhaust flow strategies are investigated to control the substrate temperatures of diesel aftertreatment systems. The fueling control includes the common-rail post injection and the external supplemental fuel injection. The post injection pulses are further specified at the early, mid, or late stages of the engine expansion stroke. In comparison, the external fueling rates are moderated under various engine loads to evaluate the thermal impact. Additionally, the active-flow control schemes are implemented to improve the overall energy efficiency of the system. In parallel with the empirical work, the dynamic temperature characteristics of the exhaust system are simulated one-dimensionally with in-house and external codes. The dynamic thermal control, measurement, and modeling of this research intend to improve the performance of diesel particulate filters and diesel NOx absorbers.

This study describes a zero-dimensional algorithm for tracking the intake dilution in real-time. The inputs to the model are the oxygen concentration from the exhaust oxygen sensor, the manifold air pressure and temperature (MAP/MAT), the mass air flow (MAF) and the estimated fuel injected per cycle from the engine control module. The intake manifold, the exhaust manifold and EGR system are discretized into 3 volumes and the detailed concentrations of the gas species comprising the exhaust, EGR and intake streams are tracked at each time step (on a cycle-by-cycle basis). The model does not need the EGR ratio to be known in advance and is also applicable to oxygenated fuels such as ethanol. The model response is tuned to a multi-cylinder engine and the model output is empirically validated against a wide range of engine operations including load and EGR transients.

A vehicle undergoing longitudinal or lateral accelerations experiences load transfer, dynamically changing the normal load carried by each tire. Conventional braking systems are designed only to work adequately over a large range of conditions, but often ignore the dynamic state of the tire's normal load. Fortunately, new developments in braking system hardware give designers more control over the application of braking pressures. By identifying the tires that carry increased normal load, and biasing the braking system toward those tires, total braking force can be increased. The purpose of this research is to investigate advantages of open-loop load transfer based active brake pressure distribution. By estimating the tractive ability of the tires as a function of measurable vehicle conditions, brake pressure can be applied in proportions appropriate for the current dynamic state of the vehicle, referred to as Active Brake Proportioning (ABP).

On the study of reducing the disturbance on driver’s attention induced by low frequency vehicle interior stationary noise, a subjective evaluation is firstly carried out by means of rank rating method which introduces Distraction Level (DL) as evaluation index. A visual-finger response test is developed to help evaluating members better recognize the Distraction Level during the evaluation. A non-linear back propagation artificial neural network (BPANN) is then modeled for the prediction of subjective Distraction Level, in which linear sound pressure RMS amplitudes of five Critical Band Rates (CBRs) from 20 to 500Hz are selected as inputs of the model. These inputs comprise an input vector of BPANN. Furthermore, active noise equalization (ANE) on DL is realized based on Filtered-x Least Mean Square (FxLMS) algorithm that controls the gain coefficients of inputs of trained BPANN.

Exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) is effective to reduce nitrogen oxides (NOx) from diesel engines. However, when excessive EGR is applied, the engine operation reaches zones with higher combustion instability, carbonaceous emissions, and power losses. In order to improve the engine combustion process with the use of heavy EGR, the influences of boost pressure, intake temperature, and fuel injection timing are evaluated. An adaptive fuel injection strategy is applied as the EGR level is progressively elevated towards the limiting conditions. Additionally, characterization tests are performed to improve the control of the homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) type of engine cycles, especially when heavy EGR levels are applied to increase the load level of HCCI operations. This paper constitutes the preparation work for a variety of algorithms currently being investigated at the authors' laboratory as a part of the model-based NOx control research.

The efficiency and durability of fuel cells are affected by internal water content. Therefore, the active control of humidity is of great significance for vehicle fuel cells, especially for self-humidifying fuel cell systems. To realize fuel cell internal humidity active control, it is necessary to collect the humidity information of stack in real time, so as to carry out feedback control. However, humidity sensor has the characteristics of high cost and low durability, so it is more practical to get the feedback value of humidity by using state estimation method for high-power commercial fuel cell system such as vehicle fuel cell. However, humidity estimation is often affected by other physical or chemical dynamic processes, such as oxygen transportation and response process of electrical appliances. In order to weaken the influence of other physical or chemical dynamic processes on humidity estimation, this paper proposes an adaptive sliding mode Kalman observer (ASMK) algorithm.

In this work, engine tests were performed to realize EGR-enabled LTC on a single-cylinder common-rail diesel engine with three different compression ratios (17.5, 15 and 13:1). The engine performance was first investigated at 17.5:1 compression ratio to provide baseline results, against which all further testing was referenced. The intake boost and injection pressure were progressively increased to ascertain the limiting load conditions for the compression ratio. To extend the engine load range, the compression ratio was then lowered and EGR sweep tests were again carried out. The strength and homogeneity of the cylinder charge were enhanced by using intake boost up to 3 bar absolute and injection pressure up to 180 MPa. The combustion phasing was locked in a narrow crank angle window (5~10° ATDC), during all the tests.