Effects of mixture stratification on HCCI combustion of DME in a rapid compression and expansion machine

Compression ignition of homogeneous charges in internal combustion (IC) engines is expected to offer high efficiency of DI diesel engines without high levels of NOx and particulate emissions. This study is intended to find ways of extending the rich limit of HCCI operation, one of the problems yet to be overcome. Exhaust emissions characteristics are also explored through analyses of the combustion products. DME fuel, either mixed with air before induction or directly injected into the combustion chamber of a rapid compression and expansion machine, is compressed to ignite under various conditions of compression ratio, equivalence ratio, and injection timing. The characteristics of the resulting combustion and exhaust emissions are discussed in terms of the rate of heat release computed from the measured pressure, and the concentrations of THC, CO, and NOx are measured by FT-IR and CLD. The experimental data to date show that operation without knock is possible with mixtures of higher equivalence ratio when DME is directly injected rather than when it is inducted in the form of a perfectly homogeneous fuel-air mixture. Although fuel injected early in the compression stroke promotes homogeneity of the DME-air mixture in the cylinder, it causes the mixture to ignite too early to secure good thermal efficiency and knock-free operation at high loads. Low temperature reactions occur at about 660K regardless of the fueling methods, fuel injection timing and equivalence ratio. The main components of hydrocarbon emissions turned out to be unburned fuel (DME), formaldehyde and methane.     

Investigation of turbulent flows in a waterjet intake duct using stereoscopic PIV measurements

Stereoscopic particle image velocimetry measurements were made in a wind tunnel using a prototype waterjet model. The main wind tunnel provided the vehicle velocity and a secondary wind tunnel was set up as the waterjet propulsion model. Pressure distributions along the ramp and lip sides inside the duct were measured for three jet velocity to vehicle velocity ratios. Three-dimensional velocity fields were obtained at the intake entrance and the nozzle exit of the waterjet system. The flow into the duct was faster in the lip region than on the ramp side. Because of the variation in intake geometry from a rectangular to a circular section and because of the sudden curvature change on the lip side, a pair of counter-rotating vortices was observed in the mean velocity field at the nozzle exit. In addition, the turbulent kinetic energy correlated with the vortex pair was stronger on the lip side than in other areas. Dominant large-scale structures were extracted by using a snapshot proper orthogonal decomposition analysis. It was found that most of the turbulent kinetic energy was attributed to at least three vortices near the nozzle exit. This detailed three-dimensional velocity field will be useful for the verification of CFD simulations applied to the waterjet system.     

Dispatching control at transfer stations in multi‐hub transit networks

Among dispatching control approaches, the holding option has attracted the most attention in bus control. However, holding a vehicle at a transfer station may exacerbate the delays because more passengers might accumulate at downstream stations and may also affect other connecting routes at other transfer stations. Our problem is to minimize the total costs of dispatching ready vehicles at each transfer station along coordinated routes in a multi‐hub transit network. The total costs include the waiting cost for on‐board passengers, the missed connection costs for late arrival passengers at the subject transfer station and possible transfer costs at downstream transfer stations. We develop a heuristic algorithm to optimize the holding times based on real time information about late vehicles. The results show that ready vehicles should be held longer when the arrival variances of late vehicles are small or when many late connecting passengers are expected.     

Coupled thermo-mechanical analysis and shape optimization for reducing uneven wear of brake pads

In vehicle braking systems, the non-uniform contact pressure distribution on the brake pad is a major cause of uneven wear. The experimental approach of the wear phenomenon is the time consuming and costly. For this reason, a threedimensional finite element (FE) model of a brake system is presented for numerical simulation in this paper. A coupled thermo-mechanical analysis is carried out to confirm the non-uniform contact pressure distribution. A correlation between the non-uniform contact pressure and uneven wear is confirmed by measuring the amount of wear in the brake pad. The shape optimization of the brake pad is performed to reduce the uneven wear. In addition, the simulation results, such as natural frequency and temperature, are compared to experimental results.     

Parallel model based fault detection algorithm for electronic parking brake system

This paper describes a parallel model-based fault detection algorithm for an electronic parking brake (EPB) system, which consists of an electronic control unit with built-in current sensor and braking force sensor. For the EPB system to supply sufficient parking force to a vehicle, the parking force sensor is of utmost importance. If a fault occurs in this sensor, sufficient parking force may not be supplied, thereby seriously threatening the safety of the vehicle. Thus, a fault detection method is required for the parking force sensor of the EPB system to improve the safety of vehicles. For this purpose, a highly reliable fault detection method is needed to detect abnormal fault signals, which cannot be detected by the existing on-line sensor monitoring fault detection methods. This paper proposes a novel parallel model-based fault detection algorithm for the EPB system, which compares the physical sensor data with the mathematical model, the fuzzy model, and the neural network model at the same time. In order to reduce false alarms, the magnitude of thresholds and the operation counts are changed adaptively. When the proposed parallel model-based fault detection algorithm detects severe failures of the force sensor, it warns the driver in advance to prevent accidents due to the failures. The proposed algorithm is verified by hardware-in-theloop simulations in various situations.     

Effect of punch angle on energy absorbing characteristics of tube-type crash elements

As a crash energy absorber, a tube-type crash element (expansion tube) dissipates kinetic energy through the internal deformation energy of the tube and through frictional energy. In this paper, the effects of the variation of punch angles on the energy-absorbing characteristics of expansion tubes were studied by quasi-static tests using three punch angles (15°, 30°, and 45°). A finite element analysis of the tube expanding process (m = τ _max /K) was performed using a shear friction model to confirm the variation of the shear friction factor with respect to punch angles using the inverse method. Additional analyses were performed using angles of 20°, 25°, 35°, and 40° to study the effect of the punch angles on the internal deformation energy, frictional energy, and expansion ratio of the tubes. The results of the experiment and finite element analysis showed that the shear friction factor was inversely proportional to the punch angles, and a specific punch angle existed at which the absorbed energy and expansion ratio remained constant.     

Cold performance of various biodiesel fuel blends at low temperature

This study examines the cold performance of biodiesel blends in a passenger car and a light duty truck at −16 °C and −20 °C. Six different types of biodiesels derived from soybean oil, waste cooking oil, rapeseed oil, cottonseed oil, palm oil and jatropha oil were blended with different volume ratios (B5 (5 vol. % biodiesel — 95 vol. % diesel), B10 and B20). The cold filter plugging point (CFPP) and the cloud point had an effect on the startability and driveability of both the passenger car and the light duty truck. The startability and driveability of the passenger car with all biodiesel blends (B5) were generally good at −20 °C. In the light duty truck, biodiesel blends (B10 and B20) of soybean, waste cooking, rapeseed and jatropha tended to be good at −20 °C in the startability and driveability tests than the biodiesel blends (B10 and B20) of cottonseed and palm. In particular, the palm biodiesel blend (B10) failed at −20 °C, and the palm biodiesel blend (B20) also failed at −16 °C in the startability test. The cold flow properties of biodiesel dictate that the length of the hydrocarbon chains and the presence of unsaturated structures significantly affect the low temperature properties of biodiesel.     

Isrss: Integrated side/rear safety system

As driver assistant systems (DAS) and active safety vehicles (ASV) with various functions become popular, it is not uncommon for multiple systems to be installed on a vehicle. If each function uses its own sensors and processing unit, it will make installation difficult and raise the cost of the vehicle. As a countermeasure, research integrating multiple functions into a single system has been pursued and is expected to make installation easier, decrease power consumption, and reduce vehicle pricing. This paper proposes a novel side/rear safety system using only one scanning laser radar, which is installed in the rear corner of the driver’s side. Our proposed system, ISRSS (integrated side/rear safety system), integrates and implements four system functions: BSD (blind spot detection), RCWS (rear collision warning system), semi-automatic perpendicular parking, and semi-automatic parallel parking. BSD and RCWS, which operate while the vehicle is running, share a common signal processing result. The target position designation for perpendicular parking and parallel parking situations is based on the same signal processing. Furthermore, as system functions during running and those during automatic parking operate in exclusive situations, they can share common sensors and processing units efficiently. BSD and RCWS system functions were proved with 13025 and 2319 frames, respectively. The target position designation for perpendicular and parallel parking situations was evaluated with 112 and 52 situations and shows a success rate of 98.2% and 92.3%, respectively.     

Analytical study on the performance of a high power pretensioner

In this paper, a numerical procedure to estimate the performance of the high power pretensioner used in the seatbelt of a passenger vehicle is presented. The data on the gas explosion pressure in a 10-cc volume and the data on the displacement of the rack according to time were applied to the numerical procedure. The procedure was implemented using MATLAB. The testing device, which met the automobile industry standards, was created. Experiments were carried out seven times under the same conditions, and the mean values of the web retraction and belt load were used as the representative data. By comparing the simulation results to the test results, the numerical procedure presented in this paper was verified.