Development of an LIF image processing technique for measuring drop sizes in a pre-swirl spray

Depth of field effects in laser sheet imaging were considered for droplet sizing of a pre-swirl spray. A pre-swirl spray is formed before the hollow-cone type main-swirl spray from a D.I. gasoline injector, and shows transient characteristics with high axial velocity. A microscopic imaging technique was applied to obtain high spatial resolution LIF tomograms of the pre-swirl spray. A 1 mm thick Nd:YAG laser sheet was used as a light source to make the LIF tomograms that were imaged using a high-resolution CCD camera. The droplet sizing of the pre-swirl spray was carried out using an image processing technique. In the image processing procedure, the laser sheet-straddling large-sized droplets were carefully taken into account to remove the errors caused by the depth of field effects from the limited thickness and the energy distribution of the laser sheet. The mean intensity of the individual droplets and the line profile of the LIF signal around the droplet edge were inspected to screen the laser sheet-straddling large-sized droplets. In order to consider the effects of the size-dependent LIF signal intensity, the size-classified or ensemble-averaged mean intensity of the individual droplets was introduced. The mean droplet sizes such as AMD and SMD were calculated using only screened droplets, and they slightly increase before considering the depth of field effects.     

Comparison of HC species from diesel combustion modes and characterization of a heat-up doc formulation

This study summarizes engine speed and load effects on HC species emissions from premixed charge compression ignition (PCI) and conventional diesel combustion, and it evaluates diesel oxidation catalyst (DOC) formulations on a gas flow reactor for the purpose of diesel particulate filter regeneration or lean NO_x trap desulfation. HC emissions are sampled simultaneously by a Tedlar bag for light HC species and by a Tenax TA™ adsorption trap for semi-volatile HC species, and they are analyzed by gas chromatography with a flame ionization detector. The bulk temperature and residence time during combustion are key parameters that are important for understanding the effects of speed and load on engine-out HC emissions. The degree of post-flame oxidation is higher in PCI than in conventional combustion, and it is increased for PCI with a higher speed and load, as indicated by a lower fuel alkanes/THC ratio, a higher alkenes/fuel alkanes ratio, and a higher methane/THC ratio. Ethene and n-undecane are two representative HC species, and they are used as a surrogate mixture in the gas flow reactor to simulate PCI and conventional combustion with in-cylinder post fuel injection. Among the three DOC formulations tested, the catalyst with constituent precious metals of platinum and palladium (PtPd) showed the best light-off performance, followed by PtPd with an addition of cerium dioxide (PtPd+CeO₂), and platinum (Pt), regardless of exhaust compositions. Conventional combustion exhaust composition shows a lower light-off temperature than that of PCI, regardless of catalyst formulation.     

Simulation of city bus performance based on actual urban driving cycle in China

This paper establishes the simulation model of a city bus on the basis of the EQ6110 bus prototype and its experimental data. According to the actual urban driving cycle, the fuel economy and the traction performance of the EQ6110 city bus have been simulated, and factors such as the driving cycle, the loss of power to engine accessories, the gear-shifting strategy, the fuel shut-off strategy of the engine, etc., which influence on the bus’s fuel economy, are also quantitatively analyzed. Some conclusions are drawn as follows: (1) driving cycles have a great influence on the fuel economy of a city bus; (2) under the typical urban driving cycle of the public bus in China, the engine fuel shut-off strategy can save about 1 to 1.5 percent of the fuel consumption; and (3) the optimized gear-shifting rules can save 6.7 percent of the fuel consumption. Experimental results verify that the fuel economy for the EQ6110 public bus is improved by 7.2 pecent over the actual Wuhan urban driving cycle of the current public bus in China.     

Transient characteristics of emissions during engine start/stop operation employing a conventional gasoline engine for HEV application

In this paper, we investigate the transient characteristics of combustion and emissions during engine start/stop operations in hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) applications. Hydrocarbon (HC) emissions during the initial 2^nd∼9^th cycles are found to be significantly greater when the engine is quickly started under the original engine calibration mode. Lower intake manifold absolute pressure (MAP) was also found to cause larger residual gas dilution and poor combustion, resulting in a higher HC concentration when the cranking speed was increased. The post-catalyst HC concentration was found in the way of initially decrease and then to increase again as the cranking speed was increased. A lowest concentration value was achieved at a cranking speed of 1000 r/min. Engine shut-down by fuel cut-off was shown to produce lower emissions than shut-down by ignition cut-off as one can avoid misfire of the last fuel injection cycle. The fuel deposited during the stop process seems to impact engine restart enrichment mostly during the initial 0.7 s for this engine, whose performance is dominated by the MAP transition characteristic and the time coefficient for fuel vaporization in this time period     

Analysis process of a steering system using a concept model for idle vibration

This paper describes the development of an optimal design process for a steering column system and supporting system. A design guide is proposed at the initial concept stage of the development process to obtain sufficient stiffness of the steering system while reducing the idle vibration sensitivity of the system. Case studies on resonance isolation are summarized, where vibration modes among the systems are separated by applying a vibration mode map at the initial stage of the design process. This study also provides design guidelines for an optimal dynamic damper system using a CAE (computer aided engineering) analysis. The damper FE (finite element) model is added to the vehicle model to analyze the relation between the frequency and the sensitivity of the steering column system. This analysis methodology makes it possible to achieve target performance in the early design stage and reduction of damper tuning activity after the proto car test stage. Through the proposed steering column system development process, a lightweight vehicle with high stiffness is possible prior to the proto build stage. Furthermore, the improved process is expected to contribute to reducing the overall development period and the number of proto car tests necessary to achieve the desired steering system performance.     

油田地面注水系统节能降耗对策

针对国内现有油田地面注水系统的现状,分析在役地面注水系统的能量损失,提出油田地面注水系统节能降耗的对策。主要从提高效率、节约能源的两个角度,对地面注水系统能量损失进行阐述。从选择高效率的电动机和注水泵、提高注水水质、降低管网沿程磨损等方面降低整个地面注水系统能量损耗,达到节约能源的目的。     

Wind pressure distribution and wind-induced dynamic response for spatial groined latticed vaults

The wind pressure distribution and wind-induced vibration responses of long-span spatial groined latticed vaults (SGLVs) were numerically simulated, which always are ones of the most important problems in the structural wind resistance design. Incompressible visco-fluid model was introduced, and the standard k-εtwo equation model and semi-implicit method for pressure linked equation (SIMPLE) were used to describe the flow turbulence. Furthermore, the structural dynamic equation was set up, which is solved by Newmark-β method. And several sort of wind-induced vibration coefficients such as the wind-induced vibration coefficient corresponding to the nodal displacement responses and wind loads were suggested. In the numerical simulation where the SGLV consisting of the cylindrical sectors with different curved surface was chosen as the example,the influence on the relative wind pressure distribution and structural wind-induced vibration responses of the closed or open SGLV caused by such parameters as the number of cylindrical sectors, structural curvature and the ratio of rise to span was investigated. Finally, some useful conclusions on the local wind pressure distribution on the structural surface and the wind-induced vibration coefficients of SGLV were developed.     

Improvement of the second order approximation of the smoothed particle hydrodynamics

The smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH), as a fully Lagrangian particle method, has been successfully applied to astrophysical problems and extended to elastic dynamics and computational fluid dynamics.High order derivatives have to be approximated when elastic dynamics problems are modeled. However, the approximation errors in SPH could lead to computational failure in the case that the order of derivative is high.A novel method was proposed in order to improve the accuracy of SPH method, which shows the relationship between the selected functions and their SPH approximations. The entire involved system was represented by a finite number of particles that carry individual mass and occupy individual space, and the integral interpolation was approximated by a summation interpolation. In addition, error comparison was made between SPH method with and without the present improvement.     

Joint distortion model for progressive image transmission using error correcting arithmetic codes

A novel joint source channel distortion model was proposed, which can essentially estimate the average distortion in progressive image transmission. To improve the precision of the model, the redundancy generated by a forbidden symbol in the arithmetic codes is used to distinguish the quantization distortion and the channel distortion, all the coefficients from the first error one to the end of the sequence are set to be a value within the variance range of the coefficients instead of zero, then the error propagation coming from the entropy coding can be essentially estimated, which is disregarded in the most conventional joint source channel coding （JSCC） systems. The precision of the model in terms of average peak-signal-to-noise has been improved about 0.5 dB compared to classical works. An efficient unequal error protection system based on the model is developed, and can be used in the wireless communication systems.     

A multi-objective optimal approach to automated construction of sacrificial multi-piece molds

Sacrificial multi-piece molds can be used for producing complex parts. To obtain the optimal design of molds automatically, a multi-objective optimal approach is proposed. Mold pieces number, material utilization and partitioning area are taken as the objective functions, and the machinability of each mold piece is taken as constraint condition. Genetic algorithm (GA) is adopted to realize global optimization of partitioning process. Each mold piece in optimal scheme can be manufactured by milling and drilling operations, which reduce the tooling cost and shorten product cycle obviously. Using the proposed approach, mold design can be significantly automated for making complex parts.