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Quality assurance (QA) in motor vehicle emissions inspection/maintenance (I/M) programs is a continuing concern, especially in decentralized programs with hundreds or even thousands of licensed stations. The emissions analyzers used in such stations are an important focus of governmental QA efforts because of the central role of analyzers in determining which vehicles need to be repaired. Therefore, the In-use performance of I/M emission analyzers has a large impact on the quality of 1/M programs as a whole. This paper reports on the results of an investigation in California designed to determine in-use performance of emission analyzers in the field. The investigation was designed to evaluate both drift rates and the ability of analyzer systems with automatic gas calibration capability to correct analyzer responses outside of accepted tolerances.

Energy demand climbs as a consequence of the inherent relationship between the rate of consumption of energy and the growth of the economy. In light of the depletion of fossil fuels, it is necessary to implement energy efficiency techniques and policies that support sustainable development. Globally, researchers show more interest in discovering fossil fuel alternatives, as a result of fuel crisis. This research elaborates on the production and experimental investigation of briquettes made from ideal municipal solid waste (MSW), such as food waste and garden waste, as a feasible choice for alternate fossil fuels. From Municipal, agricultural, and food waste, we can get biomass waste. Municipal solid and agricultural waste is extensively dispersed, but their potential for converting biomass into energy generation still needs to be explored. This study was carried out based on the information gathered from various studies published in the scientific literature.

The current study has concentrated on discovering and developing clean alternative energy sources like biodiesel and employing novel methods to reduce harmful emissions and enhance engine performance behavior. The consumption of biodiesel in diesel engines reduces the emissions from the tailpipe, but some researchers claim that it actually produces more NOx pollution than engines that run on regular diesel, which limits the use of biodiesel. In this study, Ricinus communis biodiesel was generated through transesterification process, and its fuel properties were assessed. The employ of biodiesel in diesel engines minimize exhaust emissions; however, multiple investigators claim that the consumption of biodiesel generates greater amounts of nitrogen oxide pollutants than diesel-fueled engines, which limits the possibility of biodiesel usage.

Driver state monitoring is a crucial technology for enhancing road safety and preventing human error-caused accidents in the era of autonomous vehicles. This paper presents CogniSafe, a comprehensive driver monitoring system that uses deep learning and computer vision methods to detect various types of driver distractions and fatigue. CogniSafe consists of four modules: Driver anomaly detection and classification: A novel two-phase network that proposes and recognizes driver anomalies, such as texting, drinking, and adjusting radios, using multimodal and multiview input. Gaze estimation: A video-based neural network that jointly learns head pose and gaze dynamics, achieving robust and efficient gaze estimation across different head poses. Eye state analysis: A multi-tasking CNN that encodes features from both eye and mouth regions, predicting the percentage of eye closure (PERCLOS) and the frequency of mouth opening (FOM).

Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs) use electric energy from the grid rather than fuel energy for most short trips, therefore drastically reducing fuel consumption. Different configurations can be used for PHEVs. In this study, the parallel pre-transmission, series, and power-split configurations were compared by using global optimization. The latter allows a fair comparison among different powertrains. Each vehicle was operated optimally to ensure that the results would not be biased by non-optimally tuned or designed controllers. All vehicles were sized to have a similar all-electric range (AER), performance, and towing capacity. Several driving cycles and distances were used. The advantages of each powertrain are discussed.

Carbon and rephosphorized pre-strained sheet steels for cold drawing forming operations were studied and the tensile, high cycle fatigue and fatigue crack propagation properties were determined. The fatigue limit was found to be higher for 20% than for 1% pre-strained condition. Threshold stress intensity factors (▵Ků) of 5.29 MPa. m1/2 for rephosphorized steel and 7.07 MPa. m1/2 for carbon steel. Critical crack lenghts were calculated by ▵Ků and fatigue limit data using the Lukas-Klesnil short-crack criterion. Through fractographic analysis it was possible to determine the general behavior of tested materials near threshold.

The goal of this project was to investigate how to make driver distraction state classification more efficient by applying selected machine learning techniques to existing datasets. The data set used in this project included both overt driver behavior measures (e.g., lane keeping and headway measures) and indices of internal cognitive processes (e.g., driver situation awareness responses) collected under four distraction conditions, including no-distraction, visual-manual distraction only, cognitive distraction only, and dual distraction conditions. The baseline classification method that we employed was a support vector machine (SVM) to first identify driver states of visual-manual distraction and then to identify any cognitive-related distraction among the visual-manual distraction cases and other non-visual manual distraction cases.

Field tests for a variety of fuels on different tractor engines were carried out during the summers of 1981 through 1986. Fuels tested included alkali refined and winterized sunflower oil blended with diesel fuel, crude degummed sunflower oil blended with diesel fuel, high oleic safflower oil blended with diesel fuel, methylester of sunflower oil, or soybean oil. Blends of either 25% vegetable oil and 75% diesel fuel or 50% vegetable oil and 50% diesel fuel were used. Methylesters were not blended with diesel fuel. The manufacturers that participated in the project were John Deere, J.I. Case and Allis Chalmers. The project indicated that farm diesel tractors can be operated on any of the fuels that were tested. Care should be taken, however, since some signs of premature engine problems were observed. In general, continued use of these fuels cannot be recommended at this time.

Five different diesel fuels, having been made available by the mineral oil industry within the framework of a research program of the Coordinating European Council (CEC/PF-26), were examined in addition to this program by the Klöckner-Humboldt-Deutz AG by means of the 13-mode test in accordance with the former US legislation and the ECE regulation No. 49 and by US Transient Tests. The results have been compared with results based on commercial European diesel fuel. There has been observed the emission behaviour of an 8-cylinder NA engine with a “state of the art” direct fuel injection system by particularly taking into consideration the particulate emission and the particulate components. The gaseous emissions, particularly CO and HC, are unfavourably influenced by low cetane numbers being associated with increased aromaticity in the diesel fuel.

Geometric dimensioning and tolerancing is both a “language” and a “technique.” Its objective is to facilitate design, production, and inspection and, simultaneously, provide the most economic results. This paper describes the implementation and practice to accomplish these through illustrating methods to state design requirements specifically and clearly and to provide for maximum producibility, uniformity of interpretation, etc. The need to reflect a common objective for design, production, and inspection via the stated drawing requirement is emphasized. Application and interpretation of geometric characteristics (emphasizing symbology), fundamentals, rules, etc. are presented. Basis for the content of this paper is USASI Y14.5-1966 “Dimensioning and Tolerancing for Engineering Drawings.”

The paper focuses and develops issues raised by the SAE paper ‘THE FUTURE OF VEHICLE ELECTRICAL POWER SYSTEMS AND THEIR IMPACT ON SYSTEM DESIGN’ [1] and describes the realisation of a vehicle with a 12 V architecture of flexible configuration and a power management function. The paper describes the methodology, reasoning and mission behind the creation of the vehicle, developed after collaborative exercises in Europe and the USA, and resulting in a joint programme involving a major vehicle manufacturer and a European system supplier. The electrical system is becoming the focus of activity world-wide due to rapid changes in vehicle requirements, in the areas of safety, environmental and functional demands. There are opportunities for:- (a) Improved starting (b) Integrated management of power generation and demand. (c) Higher system integrity (d) Higher efficiency (e) Improvement of the vehicle electrical environment, giving benefits in component cost.

1 “GoldDrive” is an infinite variable, bi-directional drive consisting of hydraulic fixed displacement pumps and motors. As a matter of fact “GoldDrive” is the hydraulic equivalent of the mechanical differential. The idea behind the development of “GoldDrive” is to overcome the limitation of starting torque. According to the traditional equation, torque is equal to power over speed and as a result, we need an infinite amount of torque to start a load at zero output speed. The solution is Slippage, slippage of electrical, mechanical, hydraulic and pneumatic transmissions. “GoldDrive” enables us to achieve maximum efficiency and starting torque at zero output speed without slippage.