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Advanced Vehicle Technologies (AVT), a Ballarat Australia based company, has developed the World's first diesel to 100% LPG conversion for heavy haul trucks. There is no diesel required or utilized on the trucks. The engine is converted with minimal changes into a spark ignition engine with equivalent power and torque of the diesel. The patented technology is now deployed in 2 Mercedes Actros trucks. The power output in engine dynamometer testing exceeds that of the diesel (in excess of 370 kW power and 2700 Nm torque). In on-road application the power curve is matched to the diesel specifications to avoid potential downstream power-train stress. Testing at the Department of Transport Energy & Infrastructure, Regency Park, SA have shown the Euro 3 truck converted to LPG is between Euro 4 and Euro 5 NOx levels, CO2 levels 10% better than diesel on DT80 test and about even with diesel on CUEDC tests.

The potential contributions of acoustical technology to manufacturing companies pervade nearly all of its functions from marketing and product planning to design engineering and quality control. Despite this, however, companies generally feel uneasy when they embark on programs to use acoustics in their operations because the technology seems complicated and somehow harder to “get a handle on” than it is in other cases. But the issues of product sound, and the benefits of acoustics on a diagnostic tool are too important to ignore, so in this paper we discuss these issues in a “20 questions” format to help planners, engineers and managers as they proceed to implement acoustical technology in their organizations.

Thermal Management Systems Symposium industry discusses latest regulatory impacts, applications to reduce engine emissions, conserve energy, reduce noise, improve the cabin environment, increase overall vehicle performance passenger, commercial vehicle industry.

J I Case Company has produced four-wheel-drive agricultural tractors since 1964. In 1984 however, the flagship of the Case fleet changed hands. Rising labor costs and larger farming operations spearheaded the need for a more efficient larger tractor. January 1984 marked the introduction of the largest four-wheel-drive tractor in the history of Case, the 4994, a 400-gross engine horsepower tractor, Figure 1. Sheer horsepower alone however, would not meet the requirements of today's farming operations. Case Engineering realized that tomorrows tractors must have sufficient power to handle the wide variety of attachments available. They also realized that along with the unmatched power must come precise control of the attachment. These advancements in farming have required improvements to the tractor hydraulic system. This paper describes the hydraulic system of the 4994, Case's new flagship.

Over the past several years the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) Standards Association has developed standards for the 5.9 GHz Dedicated Short Range Communications protocols, also known as Wireless Access in Vehicular Environments. These standards consist of IEEE 1609 as well as an amendment to the IEEE 802.11 standard or 802.11p. The 1609 standards were published for Trial Use and these as well as the 802.11p draft have been implemented in a variety of test beds to provide lessons learned and feedback into the standards working groups. Based on ongoing testing, the protocols display a strong capability to address the requirements of crash avoidance and transportation mobility applications. The corresponding test results provide information necessary to update the standards after the first trial phase as industry moves toward commercial implementations.

The story of Power Farming is the great saga of our times. It is a story of free enterprise, perseverance and endurance of the individual, of vision, idealism and cooperation among men, of the lightening of human toil and the release of millions of workers from farms to feed the ever hungry industrial revolution. By no means least, it is the story of producing food necessary to win two global wars, keep our allies alive and millions of the defeated enemy from starvation. FOREWARD By 1915, the Steam Traction Engine had attained its highest development. It was the forerunner, rather than the predecessor, of the farm tractor. The former was the instrument of expansion; the latter, the instrument of progress. The invention of the tractor, following by only sixteen years Otto's practical embodiment application of the Beau de Rochas power cycle to a heat engine, marked the advent of a new order - - the age of Power Farming.

With the increase of heavy-duty transportation, more fuel efficient technologies and services have become of great importance due to their environmental and economical impacts for the fleet managers. In this paper, we first develop a new analytical model of the heavy-truck for its dynamics and its fuel consumption, and valid the model with experimental measurements. Then, we propose a bi-level optimization approach to reduce the fuel consumption, thus the CO2 emissions, while ensuring several safety constraints in real-time. Numerical results show that important reduction of the fuel consumption can be achieved, while satisfying imposed safety constraints.

A cartridge type pivotal pin and bushing joint has been patented and is being tested and refined both in the laboratory and on construction machinery. It features “dry lubricated” (Teflon) bearings which are assembled and sealed prior to installation. It is suitable for heavy unit loads and use under severe wear conditions, such as in crawler track chains and loader bucket pivotal pin joints. A brief history of U. S. manufactured track pin joints is included to show the progress in extending the service life of these devices.

This paper describes the application of statistical techniques related to the condensation of computational models so that gradient based optimization procedures can be used more effectively. The adoption of these techniques is encouraged by the possibility of an important reduction in time and cost associated to the vehicle development process. A sophisticated computational model of a Mini-baja vehicle is defined in the virtual environment by means of CAD/CAE software, intending to provide the major information related to the study of its dynamic behaviour and to define the statistical surrogates (approximate models). The creation of the computational model deals with the determination of physical and geometric properties, and is fed by stiffness and damping parameters obtained through experimental procedures.

Current trends in application technology indicate an increasing realization on the part of manufacturers and users of agricultural chemicals of the important role that application techniques and/or equipment play in the overall success of pesticide application. The trends that are most significantly influencing the way chemicals are currently applied include: increased emphasis on improving the accuracy of application increased use of low volume application (3-8 GPA) renewed interest in use of granular application increased use of conservation tillage increased emphasis on reduction in environmental contamination, both within and outside the target area increased use of highly active cam-pounds

Close-range photogrammetry (CRP) is traditionally based on a network captured with the camera lens at a fixed focal length. A zoom lens is not desirable without solving the intrinsic camera parameters for varying focal length and lens distortion. When using a zoom lens camera, multiple focal lengths can be used if the camera is calibrated for each varying focal length, but most consumer grade lenses are not designed to accurately return to (or stay at) mid-range focal lengths. Similarly, using close-range photogrammetric software systems to accurately recover three-dimensional (XYZ) data from Point and Shoot (PAS) digital cameras has been problematic when the images were not intended for CRP. PAS cameras are automatically refocused and easily zoomed so the focal length and lens distortion are typically unknown for CRP mensuration purposes. In such circumstances, traditional CRP analysis can be both laborious and difficult without the correct camera parameters.

In the truck industry there is a continuous demand to increase the efficiency and to decrease the emissions. To acknowledge both these issues a waste heat recovery system (WHR) is combined with a partially premixed combustion (PPC) engine to deliver an efficient engine system. Over the past decades numerous attempts to increase the thermal efficiency of the diesel engine has been made. One such attempt is the PPC concept that has demonstrated potential for substantially increased thermal efficiency combined with much reduced emission levels. So far most work on increasing engine efficiency has been focused on improving the thermal efficiency of the engine while WHR, which has an excellent potential for another 1-5 % fuel consumption reduction, has not been researched that much yet. In this paper a WHR system using a Rankine cycle has been developed in a modeling environment using IPSEpro.

This paper discusses controller development for an active, off-road vehicle suspension system. A brief review of electronic filters and their characteristics is used to provide insight on the difficulties of designing a control algorithm for negotiating hilly and rough terrain at higher speeds. Two controller designs are presented. One was designed by pole placement and causes the suspension response to approximate a Type 1 Chebychev filter. The other was designed using constrained optimization. A comparison and discussion of simulation results leads to the conclusion that the suspension should be adaptively or predictively controlled for arbitrary terrain and velocity conditions.

Frequency domain testing has had limited use in the past for durability evaluations of automotive components. Recent advances and new perspectives now make it a viable option. Using frequency domain testing for components, test times can be greatly reduced, resulting in considerable savings of time, money, and resources. Quality can be built into the component, thus making real-time subsystem and full vehicle testing and development more meaningful. Time domain testing historically started with block cycle histogram tests. Improved capabilities of computers, controllers, math procedures, and algorithms have led to real time simulation in the laboratory. Real time simulation is a time domain technique for duplicating real world environments using computer controlled multi-axial load inputs. It contains all phase information as in the recorded proving ground data. However, normal equipment limitations prevent the operation at higher frequencies.

Regulatory requirements in the European Union (EU) for off-road machines and road vehicles are different. Vehicles which transport passengers and goods, along with attached trailers, as well as road motorcycles must meet EEC type-approval requirements. All other types of self-propelled machines must meet the requirements of the Machinery Directive (Council Directive 98/37/EC), and the Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) Directive (Council Directive 89/336/EEC) and possibly other directives. This includes such categories as agriculture and forestry machines, construction machines, industrial trucks and similar products. The various directives outline the different processes for demonstrating compliance with the EU requirements. The intent of this paper is to summarize a few of the requirements that are of interest to off-highway equipment manufacturers and to identify some sources of information about the regulatory requirements.

The paper describes a detailed mathematical analysis of the problem of jet mixing in swirling or transverse flow fields under non-isothermal, non-isodense conditions. The model takes into account potential core effects, cross sectional distortion and differences in profiles between the distributed properties (velocity, concentration, temperature and density). Comparisons with a wide range of experimental results have produced excellent agreement.

A Computer Aided System (CAS) is developed in order to evaluate off-road wheeled vehicle mobility. The system takes into consideration both vehicle technical parameters and the main specifications of the soil on which the vehicle is expected to operate. Thirty seven vehicle technical parameters organized in nine groups are considered. These groups are: weights, engine parameters, dimensions, performance, transmission, steering, brakes, tires, and self recovery means. The main soil specifications of the soil considered are the soil type (clay, silt, or sand) and the shear and bearing resistance represented by the cone index or the gradient cone index. The evaluation process depends on considering a datum value for each vehicle technical parameter. These datum values or norms are obtained from a statistical analysis study of the technical parameters for a sample of 155 off-road wheeled vehicles representing different schools from all over the world [1].

A Decision Network is an explicit model of the Thinking Breakdown Structure of any complex scientific, engineering, or societal challenge. Each node in the Decision Network represents a fundamental question that must be answered, i.e. a choice that demands a solution. A Decision Network provides an integrated Decision Management framework for any Systems Engineering effort that links business, technology and design choices. Effective Decision Management is the key to Systems Engineering success. This paper will provide an overview of a decision-centric approach to Systems Engineering built around Decision Networks. Lessons learned through the use of Decision Networks in other industries will be extrapolated for use in vehicle Systems Engineering.

Emissions from heavy-duty diesel vehicles have come under increased scrutiny with passage of the U.S. Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990. Methanol (M100) is seen as an important option for operators of transit fleets given the fuel's liquid nature and relative availability. This paper presents the results of a 36-month demonstration of a fleet of six methanol-powered transit buses equipped with DDC 6V-92TA engines. The engines were delivered in 1991 and were the first batch of Detroit Diesel engines certified to meet 1991 clean air standards. A similarly equipped control fleet of six diesel buses was tracked simultaneously. This paper includes an evaluation of bus operating data and emissions. Data such as fuel and oil consumption were collected along with a complete list of maintenance actions on both fleets. Chassis dynamometer emissions testing was carried out by Environment Canada at their River Road (Ottawa) test facility.