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The Electro Gyro-Cator allows a driver to monitor his progress, plot and follow courses to a destination, select alternate routes, and drive more safely on unfamiliar roads or at night. Employing a sealed helium gas-rate gyro, the Electro Gyro-Cator offers visual display (CRT display) of a car's present location, direction and route, with overlay maps for fast, simple route selection and monitoring. The primary elements of the unit include trip and direction sensors, a 16-Bit central processing unit, a CRT display screen and a collection of transparent overlay maps fitted to the screen.

An essential feature of the Audi Quattro permanent four-wheel drive system is in the inter-axle differential located on the hollow output shaft in the gearbox: the drive is taken from this differential forward to the front differential through the inside of the hollow shaft, and rearward to a propellor shaft driving the rear differential. The major advantages in everyday driving include improved traction and a reduced tendency toward throttle induced changes of attitude. The greater traction allows not only better progress in difficult road conditions; it also gives better acceleration in difficult traffic situations, such as when joining a busy main road. The more easily predictable handling response to throttle changes means that Quattro vehicles have better tracking stability. Altogether, the active safety and "roadability" are considerably improved.

Hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) are worldwide recognized as one of the best and most immediate opportunities to solve the problems of fuel consumption, pollutant emissions and fossil fuels depletion, thanks to the high reliability of engines and the high efficiencies of motors. Moreover, as transport policy is becoming day by day stricter all over the world, moving people or goods efficiently and cheaply is the goal that all the main automobile manufacturers are trying to reach. In this context, the municipalities are performing their own action plans for public transport and the efforts in realizing high efficiency hybrid electric buses, could be supported by the local policies. For these reasons, the authors intend to propose an efficient control strategy for a hybrid electric bus, with a series architecture for the power-train.

A 10 KWe dual-mode space power system concept has been identified which is based on INEL's Small Externally-fueled Heat Pipe Thermionic Reactor (SEHPTR) concept. This power system will enhance user capabilities by providing reliable electric power and by providing two propulsion systems; electric power for an arc-jet electric propulsion system and direct thrust by heating hydrogen propellant inside the reactor. The low thrust electric thrusters allow efficient station keeping and long-term maneuvering. The direct thrust capability can provide tens of pounds of thrust at a specific impulse of around 730 seconds for maneuvers that must be performed more rapidly. The direct thrust allows the nuclear power system to move a payload from Low Earth Orbit (LEO) to Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO) in less than one month using approximately half the propellant of a cryogenic chemical stage.

Panic braking can cause an “in-position” unbelted occupant to become “out-of-position.” Although the braking event dynamics and initial positioning of the occupant affect the final position at time of impact (if any), general trends are assumed. FMVSS208 now includes “out-of-position” (OOP) performance for Anthropomorphic Test Devices (ATDs) sizes twelve month to six year-old. Airbag suppression technologies currently address that range of OOP occupants. The objective of this study is to develop an approach to defining OOP test positions for the recently released 10 year old ATD and to assist restraint engineers in developing strategies to help reduce the risk of inflation induced injury to the larger out-of-position child. A series of panic brake tests was conducted with the 10 year-old Hybrid III to study panic braking kinematics. Antilock braking (ABS) generated the desired constant deceleration from high initial speeds (40 to 60mph) in three types of vehicles.

A drivetrain model incorporating detailed crankshaft and drivetrain dynamics has been incorporated into an unsteady gas dynamic computer simulation of a single-cylinder two-stroke engine. This study examines the change in predicted engine performance caused by relaxing the conventional assumption of constant crankshaft velocity, and a comparison of results is presented. Relaxing the assumption changed the predicted brake mean effective pressures by over 10%. Experimental validation of the simulation involved mounting an engine to a test bed and driving an inertia wheel through a fully characterized drivetrain. A high-speed data acquisition system measured signals from a position encoder mounted on the crankshaft and from a non-contact torque transducer. The time and position data were used to calculate instantaneous crankshaft speed, and these results were compared to the predicted profiles. Simulation results and experimental measurements are presented and discussed.

THIS paper deals with the road-test portion of the extensive efforts made during 1937 by the Cooperative Fuel Research Committee to get as precise a correlation as possible between the laboratory knock ratings of automobile fuels and their corresponding ratings in cars on the road. It is anticipated that the comprehensive results of car tests reported here, taken together with the results of the laboratory rating program reported in the companion paper, will serve as the basis of the continuing studies aimed at developing the best possible correlation between road and laboratory knock ratings. Work similar to that reported here has been conducted concurrently in England by the Institution of Petroleum Technologists, using British cars and fuels. An exchange of information between the British and American groups working on this problem is being made.

An air cushion restraint system has been available to the public on certain model passenger cars since January 1974. In response to this opportunity to obtain field experience, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has established a nationwide reporting network and investigative capability for accidents involving air-bag equipped cars. The reporting criteria for accidents require that the car be towed as a result of the accident, or that a front-seat occupant was injured, or that bag deployment occurred. The principal objective is to obtain the injury-reducing effectiveness of this restraint system in the total accident environment. This environment encompasses “towaway” accidents resulting in bag deployment and non-deployment. Definitive results are expected at the conclusion of the study. This paper summarizes the experience during the first year of the program, during which time the rate of accident occurrence was far less than originally expected.

The size of the 1978 automotive service market is the total dollars spent on car and truck repair and maintenance in 1978. The 1978 personal-use automotive service market is the retail dollars spent in 1978 on repair and maintenance for cars and trucks used primarily for personal transportation. Service market estimates in this report do not include body repair parts and body repairs. Bureau of Economic Analysis data indicate a personal-use service market, excluding do-it-yourself (DIY) service, of $36 billion. A similar estimate made by General Motors Research Laboratories, based on a large national survey of actual consumer expenditures, is $ 37 billion. The personal-use automotive service market, excluding DIY, is roughly 3/4's the size of the total automotive service market, based on data from the Motor and Equipment Manufacturers Association and Frost & Sullivan, Inc.

A gasoline Road Octane study was conducted by the Coordinating Research Council (CRC) to evaluate the effects of heavy aromatics (C9 and heavier) and ethanol content on Road Octane performance independent of Research Octane Number (RON) and Motor Octane Number (MON). Maximum-throttle and part-throttle Road ON’s were found to be well predicted by equations containing only RON and MON terms. Heavier aromatics were found to have a small adverse effect on both maximum-throttle and part-throttle Road ON independent of its direct effects on RON and MON. The all-car data did not show a significant ethanol-content effect, but eight of the thirty-seven cars did show significant effects for ethanol content.

This paper presents a summary of body structural analysis applied to the 1989 Suzuki Sidekick/Geo Tracker at various stages of development and design. The structure analysis techniques were applied previously to rigidity, vibration, strength, crashworthiness and optimization. The studies confirm that the CAE technique for body structure analysis is more beneficial if it is utilized in the earlier structure development stages particularly for vibration and crashworthiness. Through the extensive use of the structural analysis technique in conjunction with the experiment, the design concept of the Sidekick/Tracker body has been optimized to a most extent.

The Cardinal is a Super Short Takeoff and Landing (SSTOL) aircraft, which is designed to fulfill the desire for center-city to center-city travel by utilizing river “barges” for short takeoffs and landings to avoid construction of new runways or heliports. In addition, the Cardinal will fulfill the needs of the U.S. Navy for a Carrier On-board Delivery (COD) aircraft to replace the C-2 Greyhound. Design requirements for the Cardinal included a takeoff ground roll of 300 ft, a landing ground roll of 400 ft, cruise at 350 knots with a range of up to 1500 nm with reserves, payload of 24 passengers and baggage for a commercial version or a military version with a 10,000 lb payload, capable of carrying two GE F110 engines for the F-14D, and a spot factor requirement of 60 feet by 29 feet.

Advanced control techniques are widely used in different automotive applications including climate control. Significant costs associated with the development and calibration of such controllers can be reduced if these tasks are conducted in a virtual environment. Such a virtual environment can be developed by integrating the controller with the system model. Different scenarios can be then simulated to make sure functional objectives of the system are met. 1D models provide the necessary level of accuracy without imposing extra computational cost in such virtual environments. As such, they are perfect candidates for model, hardware or software-in-the loop validation benches for controls. Performance of a heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) system can be controlled through the settings of the components like mode door, blend door, recirculation door, blower, and the compressor.

The in-cylinder direct injection of fuels can be a further step towards cleaner and more efficient internal combustion engines. However, the injector design and its characterization, both experimental and from numerical simulation require accurate diagnostics and efficient models. This work aims to simulate the complex behavior of the gaseous and liquid jets through an outwardly opening injector characterized by optical diagnostics using a one-dimensional model without using three dimensional models. The behavior of the jet from an outwardly opening injector changes according to the type of fuel. In the case of the gas, the experimental investigations put in evidence three main jet regions: 1) near-field region where the jet shows a complex gas-dynamic structure; 2) transition region characterized by intense mixing; 3) far-field region characterized by a fully developed subsonic turbulent jet.

The paper presents a combined experimental and numerical investigation of a small unit displacement two-stroke SI engine operated with gasoline and Natural Gas (CNG). A detailed multi-cycle 3D-CFD analysis of the scavenging process is at first performed in order to accurately characterize the engine behavior in terms of scavenging patterns and efficiency. Detailed CFD analyses are used to accurately model the complex set of physical and chemical processes and to properly estimate the fluid-dynamic behavior of the engine, where boundary conditions are provided by a in-house developed 1D model of the whole engine. It is in fact widely recognized that for two-stroke crankcase scavenged, carbureted engines the scavenging patterns (fuel short-circuiting, residual gas distribution, pointwise lambda field, etc.) plays a fundamental role on both of engine performance and tailpipe emissions.

Recently, society has demanded better performance from motorcycle regarding comfort, fuel economy, exhaust emission, and safety, in addition to traditional performance indicators. In the development of power trains, therefore, compact and lightweight hardware with improved transmission efficiency has been introduced, along with system technologies that optimize the engine revolution speed range and reduction ratio to suit driving conditions. This approach focuses on improving overall efficiency and addressing the issues of easier drivability and greater active safety. Electronic Controlled Continuously Variable Transmission (ECCVT) with high transmission efficiency is characterized by a Dry Hybrid Belt, in addition to an electronic controlled DC motor-driven shift mechanism, and an Electronic Controlled wet multi-plates Clutch (ECC).

Although in-cylinder optical diagnostics have provided significant understanding of conventional diesel combustion, most alternative combustion strategies have not yet been explored to the same extent. In an effort to build the knowledge base for alternative low-temperature combustion strategies, this paper presents a comparison of three alternative low-temperature combustion strategies to two high-temperature conventional diesel combustion conditions. The baseline conditions, representative of conventional high-temperature diesel combustion, have either a short or a long ignition delay. The other three conditions are representative of some alternative combustion strategies, employing significant charge-gas dilution along with either early or late fuel injection, or a combination of both (double-injection).

Cross-sectional distributions of the liquid phase temperatures in fuel sprays were measured using a laser-induced fluorescence technique. The liquid fuel (n-hexadecane or squalane) was doped with pyrene(C16H10). The fluorescence intensity ratios of the pyrene monomer and excimer emissions has temperature dependence, and were used to determine the liquid phase temperatures in the fuel sprays. The measurements were performed on two kinds of sprays. One was performed on pre-heated fuel sprays injected into surrounding gas at atmospheric conditions. The other was performed on fuel sprays exposed to hot gas flow. The spray was excited by laser radiation at 266nm, and the resulting fluorescence was imaged by an intensified CCD camera. The cross-sectional distribution of the liquid phase temperature was estimated from the fluorescence image by the temperature dependence of the intensity ratio.

Structure enhancement based on data monitored in a traditional side impact evaluation is primarily a trial and error exercise resulting in a large number of computer runs. This is because how the structure gets loaded and the degree of contribution of local structural components to resist the impact while absorbing energy during a side collision is not completely known. Developing real time complete load profiles on a body side during the time span of an impact is not an easy task and these loads cannot be calculated from that calculated at the barrier mounting plate. This paper highlights the load distribution, calculated by a procedure using computer aided engineering (CAE) tools, on a typical 2-door vehicle body side when struck by moving deformable barriers used in the insurance institute for highway safety (IIHS), EuroNCAP and LINCAP side impact evaluations.

A test program was conducted to characterize the impact response of an experimental 2-ply windshield construction with a polyurethane (PUR) plastic inner layer. Windshield impact tests were conducted using a linear impactor test facility. Principle among the findings was that the impact response of prototype PUR 2-ply windshields does not differ that significantly from that of baseline 3-ply HPR (High Penetration Resistance) windshields for the subcompact vehicle geometry tested. However, the impact responses of both PUR 2-ply and 3-ply HPR subcompact vehicle windshields were found to be highly variable. Average performance of either construction could thus be enhanced if ways could be found (and then implemented) to reduce this variability.