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Flat wiring like FPC and FFC, already being used for decades in the automotive industry, is now also present inside the wiring harness systems. The advantages of flat wires, for instance weight reduction and easier assembly, can only be achieved, if care is taken to optimize the size of conductors and the interconnection technology. This paper gives an overview of different types of flat wiring technologies and corresponding interconnection technologies. A special focus is put on general flat wiring structure and the dimensioning of conductors.

We are the first to report about a micromachined flow sensor directly integrated in the Common Rail injection nozzle body between the double guidance and the tip of the nozzle. The thermal measurement principle is chosen, because it enables a very precise and fast detection of gaseous and liquid mass flows. Additionally, the velocity field in the nozzle is only slightly influenced by the integration of the sensor in the nozzle body due to the negligible height of the sensitive layer. For a hot film anemometer, a high pressure stable ceramic substrate can be used, fabricated in a low cost batch process. The technology, to fabricate the sensor, as well as the first flow measurements, carried out at a high pressure test set up, are presented.

The paper describes results from investigating Common Rail (CR) injection in a dedicated optical engine with optimum access to the whole cross section of the engine cylinder through piston. This engine maintains all production-type details of the combustion chamber geometry being crucial to the flow fields required for optimum engine performance. This optical engine is used along with 2D optical diagnostics for temperature, soot and OH as well as spray shadowgraphy to analyze all phases of injection and combustion under virtually real engine conditions. By using special prototype CR injectors, the effects of engine design and operation strategies on ignition, combustion and pollutant formation are studied and controlling parameters are isolated. Special emphasis is devoted to the effects of injector stability, spray symmetry, nozzle geometry, injection rate, pilot injection and swirl effects.

For studying the effects of injection system properties and combustion chamber conditions on the penetration lengths of both the liquid and the vapor phase of fuel injectors in Diesel engines, a holistic injection model was developed, combining hydraulic and spray modeling into one integrated simulation tool. The hydraulic system is modeled by using ISIS (Interactive Simulation of Interdisciplinary Systems), a one dimensional in–house code simulating the fuel flow through hydraulic systems. The computed outflow conditions at the nozzle exit, e.g. the dynamic flow rate and the corresponding fuel pressure, are used to link the hydraulic model to a quasi–dimensional spray model. The quasi–dimensional spray model uses semi–empirical 1D correlation functions to calculate spray angle, droplet history and droplet motion as well as penetration lengths of the liquid and the vapor phases. For incorporating droplet vaporization, a single droplet approach has been used.

The system described in this paper warns the driver, if there is a risk of leaving the lane caused by drowsiness or inattention. As a criterion for lane departure, the Time-to-Line-Crossing (TLC) is used based on measurements of vehicle speed and lateral position. By means of image processing, the lane markings are extracted from the video image and the position of the vehicle inside the lane is determined. The very effective warning signal - the „rumble strip noise“ - guarantees a fast and correct reaction of the driver. This was verified during several experiments at the driving simulator. To get an additional, more predictive criterion for drowsiness, data records during drowsy driver experiments at the simulator were studied. As a result, it seems to be possible to predict drowsiness by an algorithm only based on vehicle parameters.