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The use of virtual prototyping early in the design stage of a product has gained popularity due to reduced cost and time to market. The state of the art in vehicle simulation has reached a level where full vehicles are analyzed through simulation but major difficulties continue to be present in interfacing the vehicle model with accurate powertrain models and in developing adequate formulations for the contact between tire and terrain (specifically, scenarios such as tire sliding on ice and rolling on sand or other very deformable surfaces). The proposed work focuses on developing a ground vehicle simulation capability by combining several third party packages for vehicle simulation, tire simulation, and powertrain simulation. The long-term goal of this project consists in promoting the Digital Car idea through the development of a reliable and robust simulation capability that will enhance the understanding and control of off-road vehicle performance.

Farm workers experience a very high incidence of injuries leading to physical and cognitive (strokes, TBI) disabilities. Since 1991, the AgrAbility Project 2 and its staff have provided direct assistance and education to many U.S. farmers and farm workers. If farmers, ranchers or farm workers who become disabled continue to be employed in agriculture, often their agricultural operation must be modified and/or agricultural machinery must be modified or adaptive equipment purchased to meet their new needs. Some common tractor modifications include operator lifts, hand controls, added/modified steps and handrails, automated hitches, and custom seating. Some modifications are commercially available but others are done on an individual need basis. AgrAbility staff would welcome the opportunity to work closer with farm equipment manufacturers to create modifications that would make farming and ranching easier and safer for all.

The University of Wisconsin - Madison FutureTruck Team has designed and built a four-wheel drive, charge sustaining, parallel hybrid-electric sport utility vehicle for entry into the FutureTruck 2001 competition. The base vehicle is a 2000 Chevrolet Suburban. Our FutureTruck is nicknamed the “Moollennium” and weighs approximately 2427 kg. The vehicle uses a high efficiency, 2.5 liter, turbo-charged, compression ignition common rail, direct-injection engine supplying approximately 104 kW of peak power and a three phase AC induction motor that provides an additional 68.5 kW of peak power. This hybrid drivetrain is an attractive alternative to the large displacement V8 drivetrain, as it provides comparable performance with lower emissions and fuel consumption. The PNGV Systems Analysis Toolkit (PSAT) model predicts a Federal Testing Procedure (FTP) urban driving cycle fuel economy of 11.24 km/L (26.43 mpg) with California Ultra Low Emission Vehicle (ULEV) emissions levels.

A laboratory-based fuel mixture system capable of delivering a range of fuel/air mixtures has been used to observe the effects of differing mixture characteristics on engine combustion through measurement and analysis of incylinder pressure and exhaust emissions. Fuel air mixtures studied can be classified into four different types: 1) Completely homogeneous fuel/air mixtures, where the fuel has been vaporized and mixed with the air prior to entrance into the normal engine induction system, 2) liquid fuel that is atomized and introduced with the air to the normal engine induction system, 3) liquid fuel that is atomized, and partially prevaporized but the air/fuel charge remains stratified up to introduction to the induction system, and 4) the standard fuel metering system. All tests reported here were conducted under wide open throttle conditions. A four-stroke, spark-ignited, single-cylinder, overhead valve-type engine was used for all tests.

A study of the combined use of split injections, EGR, and flexible boosting was conducted. Statistical optimization of the engine operating parameters was accomplished using a new response surface method. The objective of the study was to demonstrate the emissions and fuel consumption capabilities of a state-of-the-art heavy -duty diesel engine when using split injections, EGR, and flexible boosting over a wide range of engine operating conditions. Previous studies have indicated that multiple injections with EGR can provide substantial simultaneous reductions in emissions of particulate and NOx from heavy-duty diesel engines, but careful optimization of the operating parameters is necessary in order to receive the full benefit of these combustion control techniques. Similarly, boost has been shown to be an important parameter to optimize. During the experiments, an instrumented single-cylinder heavy -duty diesel engine was used.

Automatic manufacturability analysis of injection moldings, sheet metal castings, stampings, forgings, etc., using knowledge-based heuristics depends on shape features, which are abstractions of the three dimensional (3D) geometric model of the parts. Conventional CAD systems do not explicitly contain shape feature information, therefore such information needs to be extracted from them. So far, extraction of shape features has been restricted to models with simple geometric shapes such as planar, cylindrical or conical shapes. Extending shape feature extraction to non-linear geometric models will allow Design For Manufacturability (DFM) analysis of non-linear models. This paper presents an approach to extract features from non-linear geometric models. The approach is based on abstract geometric entities called C-loops. The formation of a C-loop depends on a geometric entity called a silhouette. The C-loops are derived from the silhouette boundaries of an object.

Forage harvesting, processing and handling equipment research is currently underway which will improve commodity quality, produce “value -added” products from forages, reduce energy and labor requirements of the equipment and improve forage marketability. Technologies are described which could increase forage quality and value by removing it from the field sooner after it is mowed to minimize the risk of weather damage. Mechanisms and management strategies for reducing the labor and energy required for field processing and for improving the marketability of forages are also described.

Many recent studies have shown that the Reactivity Controlled Compression Ignition (RCCI) combustion strategy can achieve high efficiency with low emissions. However, it has also been revealed that RCCI combustion is difficult at high loads due to its premixed nature. To operate at moderate to high loads with gasoline/diesel dual fuel, high amounts of EGR or an ultra low compression ratio have shown to be required. Considering that both of these approaches inherently lower thermodynamic efficiency, in this study natural gas was utilized as a replacement for gasoline as the low-reactivity fuel. Due to the lower reactivity (i.e., higher octane number) of natural gas compared to gasoline, it was hypothesized to be a better fuel for RCCI combustion, in which a large reactivity gradient between the two fuels is beneficial in controlling the maximum pressure rise rate.

Time resolved measurements of non-evaporating, non-burning fuel sprays injected into a quiescent atmosphere were performed. The experimental parameters included ambient gas density, mass of fuel injected per stroke, pump speed, and nozzle diameter. High speed films of fuel sprays were obtained using a rapidly pulsed Cu-vapor laser in synchronization with a high frame rate film camera. The laser light intensity transmitted through the spray was recorded directly by the film camera. The information encoded on the film was subsequently digitized using a projector/CCD camera system. Finally, instantaneous ensemble averaged properties of droplets constituting the spray were estimated by quantitative analysis of the digitized transmission images. These measured properties included the Sauter mean diameter (SMD) averaged over the entire spray or over a given cross-section. In addition, the images yielded other spray parameters such as tip penetration, cone angle, and injection duration.

A three-dimensional computer code (KIVA) is being modified to include state-of-the-art submodels for diesel engine flow and combustion: spray atomization, drop breakup/coalescence, multi-component fuel vaporization, spray/wall interaction, ignition and combustion, wall heat transfer, unburned HC and NOx formation, soot and radiation and the intake flow process. Improved and/or new submodels which have been completed are: wall heat transfer with unsteadiness and compressibility, laminar-turbulent characteristic time combustion with unburned HC and Zeldo'vich NOx, and spray/wall impingement with rebounding and sliding drops.

In previous work the KIVA-II code has been modified to model modem DI diesel engines and their emissions of particulate soot and oxides of nitrogen (NOx). This work presents results from a program to further validate the NOx emissions models against engine experiments with a well characterized modern engine. To facilitate a simplified comparison with experiments, a single cylinder research version of the Caterpillar 3406 heavy duty DI diesel engine was retrofitted to run as a naturally-aspirated, propane-fueled, spark-ignited engine. The retrofit includes installing a low compression ratio piston with bowl, adding a gas mixer, replacing the fuel injector assembly with a spark plug assembly and adding spark and fuel stoichiometry control hardware. Cylinder pressure and engine-out NOx emissions were measured for a range of speeds, exhaust gas residual (EGR) fractions, and spark timing settings.

A study of statistical optimization of engine operating parameters was conducted. The objective of the study was to develop a strategy to efficiently optimize operating parameters of diesel engines with multiple injection and EGR capabilities. Previous studies have indicated that multiple injections with EGR can provide substantial simultaneous reductions in emissions of particulate and NOx from heavy-duty diesel engines, but careful optimization of the operating parameters is necessary in order to receive the full benefit of these combustion control techniques. The goal of the present study was to optimize the control parameters to reduce emissions and brake specific fuel consumption. An instrumented single-cylinder heavy-duty diesel engine was used with a prototype mechanically actuated (cam driven) fuel injection system.

The three-dimensional computer code, KIVA, is being modified to include state-of-the-art submodels for diesel engine flow and combustion. Improved and/or new submodels which have already been implemented are: wall heat transfer with unsteadiness and compressibility, laminar-turbulent characteristic time combustion with unburned HC and Zeldo'vich NOx, and spray/wall impingement with rebounding and sliding drops. Progress on the implementation of improved spray drop drag and drop breakup models, the formulation and testing of a multistep kinetics ignition model and preliminary soot modeling results are described. In addition, the use of a block structured version of KIVA to model the intake flow process is described. A grid generation scheme has been developed for modeling realistic (complex) engine geometries, and initial computations have been made of intake flow in the manifold and combustion chamber of a two-intake-valve engine.

Due to concerns regarding pollutant and CO2 emissions, advanced combustion modes that can simultaneously reduce exhaust emissions and improve thermal efficiency have been widely investigated. The main characteristic of the new combustion strategies, such as HCCI and LTC, is that the formation of a homogenous mixture or a controllable stratified mixture is required prior to ignition. The major issue with these approaches is the lack of a direct method for the control of ignition timing and combustion rate, which can be only indirectly controlled using high EGR rates and/or lean mixtures. Homogeneous Charge Progressive Combustion (HCPC) is based on the split-cycle principle. Intake and compression phases are performed in a reciprocating external compressor, which drives the air into the combustor cylinder during the combustion process, through a transfer duct. A transfer valve is positioned between the compressor cylinder and the transfer duct.

An experimental study of luminous combustion in a modern diesel engine was performed to investigate the effect of injection parameters on NOX and soot formation via flame temperature and soot KL factor measurements. The two-color technique was applied to 2-D soot luminosity images and area-averaged soot radiation signals to obtain spatially and temporally resolved flame temperature and soot KL factor. The imaging system used for this study was based on a wide-angle endoscope that was mounted in the cylinder head and allowed different views of the combustion chamber. The experiments were carried out on a single-cylinder 2.4 liter D.I. diesel engine equipped with an electronically controlled common-rail injection system. Operating conditions were 1600 rpm and 75% load. The two-color results confirm that retarding the injection timing causes lower flame temperatures and NOX emissions but increased soot formation, independent of injection strategy.

The paper presents the development of a novel approach to the solution of detailed chemistry in internal combustion engine simulations, which relies on the analytical computation of the ordinary differential equations (ODE) system Jacobian matrix in sparse form. Arbitrary reaction behaviors in either Arrhenius, third-body or fall-off formulations can be considered, and thermodynamic gas-phase mixture properties are evaluated according to the well-established 7-coefficient JANAF polynomial form. The current work presents a full validation of the new chemistry solver when coupled to the KIVA-4 code, through modeling of a single cylinder Caterpillar 3401 heavy-duty engine, running in two-stage combustion mode.