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The rising cost of new equipment has forced the user to consider methods of maintaining an updated fleet. The rebuilding of existing aerial device equipment has been performed with great success at substantial savings.

Contact and collision accidents of automobiles are spatial, and measurements of the path and its dispersion of the automobile and evaluation of operating performance from these measurements are important. There is residual path measuring equipment but there is a demand for more modern equipment. The author has developed equipment to automatically measure the position of an automobile by triangulation using laser beams and to process the data using a computer. This article will explain this equipment and give the results of some experiments in which this equipment was used to test automobile control as application examples.

Single cylinder SI engine tests were conducted with low octane primary reference fuel (PRF) blends and methanol. The investigated parameters were equivalence ratio, and PRF octane number ranging from 100 to 53 blended with weight percentages of methanol to 75 percent. In order to evaluate the performance of these different fuels, knock intensity, efficiency and emissions were considered. The results indicate that even a 53 octane number PRF blended with methanol displays some performance advantages over pure isooctane. This is best detected from the observed efficiency increase for all of the PRF blends except the 91 octane PRF blend. The improved efficiency is also higher than that of pure methanol.

The two year design-development program for the sonic carburetor is reviewed. Use of the sonic nozzle as an air flow meter, and the design criteria to achieve low unchoke points is discussed. The relation between sonic flow and improved fuel atomization and A/F ratio distribution to the engine is also discussed. Unchoke data and A/F distribution data are presented, and the tradeoffs between low unchoke points and good A/F distribution are explained. Conclusions are drawn relative to the overall benefits of the sonic carburetor.

Examples are given of apparatus and techniques developed or used by NASA-Lewis to make steady-state or dynamic measurements of gas temperature, pressure, and velocity and of the temperature, tip clearance, and vibration of the blades of high-speed fans or turbines.

Results of selected NASA research programs on rolling-element and fluid-film bearings, gears, and elastohydrodynamic lubrication are reported. Advances in rolling-element bearing material technology, which have resulted in a significant improvement in fatigue life, and which make possible new applications for rolling bearings, are discussed. Research on whirl-resistant, fluid-film bearings, suitable for very high-speed applications, is discussed. An improved method for predicting gear pitting life is reported. An improved formula for calculating the thickness of elastohydrodynamic films (the existence of which help to define the operating regime of concentrated contact mechanisms such as bearings, gears, and cams) is described.

This paper describes the development and content of the NASA-developed structural analysis computer program called NASTRAN. This program is in extensive use in the automotive industry as well as the aerospace and helicopter industries, and has become a standard of reference among finite element programs.

The NASA-Lewis Research Center (LeRC) has conducted, and has sponsored with industry and universities, extensive research into many of the technology areas related to gas turbine propulsion systems. This aerospace-related technology has been developed at both the component and systems level, and may have significant potential for application to the automotive gas turbine engine. This paper summarizes this technology and lists the associated references. The technology areas included are: system steady-state and transient performance prediction techniques, compressor and turbine design and performance prediction programs and effects of geometry, combustor technology and advanced concepts, and ceramic coatings and materials technology.

The paper introduces a session that reviews some NASA-derived technology that may be useful in the automotive industry. Several examples in the paper illustrate aerospace technology already at work in that industry. Services offered by NASA to facilitate access to its technology are described.

This paper describes a method for determining the effect of proposed geometric, material property, or manufacturing process changes on component fatigue life. The method integrates the application of field load data acquisition, analytical stress analyses, cyclic material properties, and strain based fatigue concepts. Fatigue life is then used as a major design change acceptability criterion. One of the key steps in this qualification process is the use of NASTRAN, a finite element stress analysis program developed by NASA.

This paper comprises a review of the scope and objectives of the Department of Energy's Electric and Hybrid Vehicle Program. Current status is outlined as of February 1978 for the demonstration and technology development efforts, including both vehicle and battery developments. Performance specifications are noted for the first 200-400 vehicle demonstration in 1978 and for the near-term Department of Energy integrated electric vehicle development. Although competitive success of electric and hybrid vehicles is questionable for the next decade, eventual commercial acceptance of such vehicles as a major petroleum conservation tool is predicted.

Two aspects of electric vehicle development in the UK are discussed; vehicle chassis, hardware and battery development and operational experience. Electric delivery vans of the one to two ton payload range in the Lucas and Chloride programmes are discussed. The improving prospects for molten sodium sulphur battery in large vans and buses is examined. The GLC ‘London Goes Electric’ scheme for placing up to 62 vehicles in service in Central London is covered in addition to the Electricity Council trial of 60 Enfield city cars.

The effect of soaking temperature on exhaust emissions has been studied using a variety of automobiles representing three different emission control levels and testing them at ambients of 20°C down to -30°C(60°F to -22°F). It was found that emissions of the three gaseous pollutants demonstrated a mild power relationship with ambient (soaking) temperatures. All regulated pollutants and fuel consumption were higher at -30°C than at 20°C: hydrocarbons (HC) - 3.5 to 9.2 times; carbon monoxide (CO) - 2.4 to 6.4 times; oxides of nitrogen (NOx) - only 1.1 to 1.4 times; and fuel consumption 1.2 to 1.8 times higher. Analysis of the data has indicated that HC and CO emissions from the cold start phase of the Federal test were the most sensitive to soaking temperature. With NOx emissions the soaking temperature sensitivity was fairly constant throughout the three phases of the Federal test.

As long as economic considerations keep electric transport vehicles in the limelight of interest, the arguments raised in favor of the electric vehicle in general will prove unconvincing. In the drive system the separately excited shunt-wound D.C. motor is becoming widely acknowledged as traction motor; current developments deal with the replacement of electric power control units by mechanical components. Hybrid drive units are mainly employed in buses; so far no uniform solution has evolved. List prices of electric transport vehicles reveal the financial burden caused by energy storage units and their maintenance.

The “Four-Octane-Number Method” is a practical determination of the knock-resistance of fuels based on the autoignition delay concept and obtained through simple processing of the standard “Research” and “Motor” indices combined with two other indices specially defined. The knocking behavior of any engine can be specified once by measuring its octane requirement with 2 fuels for which the four octane numbers are known. The behavior of any fuel can be predicted without experimenting on all the engines thus identified if its four octane numbers are known. Extensive controls of the method have been performed over about 1000 samples for which the road octane numbers were measured. The method's predictions are within an average accuracy of 0.5 octane point.

This paper presents a statistical analysis of emission test results from over 200 light duty production vehicles ('72 to '77 models) which were purchased, maintained (in a very good state of tune), driven (on Appendix “IV” routes), and tested by the Canadian government. The results are presented as fractions of the applicable emission standard by manufacturer and by model year. Some limited data on urban fuel economy is also presented. The results would be useful in analyzing engine design policy and to assist in policy making for emission control programs for in-use vehicles.

Five light-duty vehicles were used to investigate HC, CO, and NOx emissions and fuel economy sensitivity to changes in the length of soak period preceding the EPA Urban Dynamometer Driving Schedule (UDDS). Emission tests were conducted following soak periods 10 minutes to 36 hours in length. Each of the first 8 minutes of the driving cycle was studied separately to observe vehicle warm-up. Several engine and fuel system temperatures were monitored during soak and run periods and example trends are illustrated. The extent to which emission rates and fuel consumption are affected by soak period length is discussed.

Three problem-solving methods used by engineers (personal contacts, experimentation, and literature searching) are defined and evaluated. Literature searching techniques and library resources, including library staff aid, card catalog utilization, use of indexes and abstracts, online information retrieval, and alerting services, are discussed.

This paper describes the results of an automobile exhaust emission testing program conducted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. A total of 381 vehicles were subjected to a series of tests before and after various stages of tune-up. The vehicles were low-mileage 1975, 1976, and 1977 models of the three major domestic manufacturers and were obtained from private owners. Significant findings include the confirmation of the poor emission performance of newer vehicles when compared to their standards, the wide extent of maladjustments and disablements and the large emission reductions possible upon correction of these problems.

Scientists, engineers, information specialists, and other professionals are using on-line retrieval systems to locate information rapidly and precisely in large data bases of literature citations and abstracts. Many data bases are available for such searching, including one covering SAE publications. On-line searches can be carried out in minutes, with greater precision and lower cost than manual searches of equivalent quality. Most on-line searching is done by librarians and technical information specialists, but many chemists, engineers, and other professionals do their own searching. For some data bases, including SAE, users can order copies of the original documents, directly from the terminal.