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The present work discusses the effects of Electrolytically deposited chromium coating on the Tribological behaviour of piston ring material. The frictional behaviours were evaluated using the linear reciprocating Tribometer under varying conditions of load and temperature. Test temperatures of 25, 50, and 100 degrees Celsius and loads of 20, 30, and 40N were applied during the tests to obtain the wear response of the coating under conditions similar to real piston cylinder/ring friction conditions. Tests were carried out with a constant sliding speed of 0.1 m/s. Optical micrographs and scanning electron microscope were used to analyze the nature of wear. It has been found that for lubricated or non-lubricated and coated or uncoated specimens, on increasing load, wear and surface roughness both increased for pins and plates.

Today automotive sector has become very dynamic. There is renewed emphasis on safety through adoption of new regulations, electric vehicles are on the verge of replacing ever evolving engine technology, emission norms are getting stringent year by year & several companies are trying to make vehicles more efficient by adoption of new light weight or high strength materials and altering manufacturing methods. In one of the new vehicle programs, there was focus on vehicle styling. In order to improve the styling, back door spoiler was to be considered from design stage itself. Back door spoiler is added in high speed vehicles for creating a downward force to improve the vehicle hold on road. However, nowadays in passenger vehicles that purpose has been subsided and spoiler is given in automotive vehicles for aesthetics or giving vehicle a sporty appearance. For instance in our case it was given to augment aesthetics. This would have resulted in additional cost and weight.

Fuel atomization and air-fuel mixing processes play a dominant role on engine performance and emission characteristics in a direct injection compression ignition engine. Understanding of microscopic spray characteristics is essential to predict combustion phenomena. The present work investigated near nozzle flow and atomization characteristics of biodiesel fuels in a constant volume chamber. Waste cooking oil, Jatropha, and Karanja biodiesels were applied and the results were compared with those of conventional diesel fuel. The tested fuels were injected by a solenoid injector with a common-rail injection system. A high-speed camera with a long distance microscopic lens was utilized to capture the near nozzle flow. Meanwhile, Sauter mean diameter (SMD) was measured by a phase Doppler particle analyzer to compare atomization characteristics.

In this study, macroscopic spray characteristics of Waste cooking oil (WCO), Jatropha oil, Karanja oil based biodiesels and baseline diesel were compared under simulated engine operating condition in a constant volume spray chamber (CVSC). The high pressure and high temperature ambient conditions of a typical diesel engine were simulated in the CVSC by performing pre-ignition before the fuel injection. The spray imaging was conducted under absence of oxygen in order to prevent the fuels from igniting. The ambient pressure and temperature for non-evaporating condition were 3 MPa and 300 K. Meanwhile, the spray tests were performed under the ambient pressure and temperature of 4.17 MPa and 804 K under evaporating condition. The fuels were injected by a common-rail injection system with injection pressure of 80 MPa. High speed Mie-scattering technique was employed to visualize the evaporating sprays.

Diesel particulates are mainly composed of elemental carbon (EC) and organic carbon (OC) with traces of metals, sulfates and ash content. Organic fraction of the particulate are considered responsible for its carcinogenic effects. Diesel oxidation catalyst (DOC) is an important after-treatment device for reduction of organic fraction of particulates. In this study, two non-noble metal based DOCs (with different configurations) were prepared and evaluated for their performance. Lanthanum based perovskite (LaMnO3) catalyst was used for the preparation of DOCs. One of the DOC was coated with support material ceria (5%, w/w), while the other was coated without any support material. Prepared DOCs were retrofitted in a four cylinder water cooled diesel engine. Various emission parameters such as particulate mass, particle number-size distribution, regulated and unregulated emissions, EC/OC etc., were measured and compared with the raw exhaust gas emissions from the prepared DOCs.

Automobile manufacturers in the developing nations tend to make more and more fuel efficient cars compared to the luxurious type, given to the popularity. Fuel efficiency has a direct relation with the weight of the vehicle. In order to increase the fuel efficiency, body weight has to be decreased. The weight of all door panels comprises about 15% of body weight of the vehicle. Hence, by reducing the weight of the door panels, fuel efficiency of a vehicle can be increased. But, reduction of the weight of the door panels may lead to decrease in the strength of the panels. Therefore, we need to find a method to increase the fuel efficiency by decreasing the weight and maintaining the strength of the door panels. The aim of our study is to increase the performance while decreasing the weight of the door panel assembly. We have used CAE (Computer aided Engineering) as a tool to study and evaluate the performance of doors, with varying thickness and different shapes like beads.

Adverse health effects of particulate matter (PM) originating from diesel engine exhaust are largely attributed to the complex chemical composition of the exhaust species. This study was set out to characterize particulate emissions from a Euro-III-compliant modern automotive common rail direct injection (CRDI) sports utility vehicle (SUV) diesel engine operated at different loads at rated engine speed (1800 rpm), employing diesel and 20% biodiesel blends (B20) produced from Karanja oil. This study is mainly divided into two main sections, first one includes the gravimetric analysis in order to assess the amount of Benzene Soluble Organic Fraction (BSOF) and trace metals using Inductively Coupled Plasma-Optical Emission Spectrometer (ICPOES). The second section includes real-time measurements for Organic Carbon (OC), Elemental Carbon (EC) and total particle-bound Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs).

Condensed soot coming out of vehicular exhaust is commonly classified as organic carbon (OC) and elemental carbon (EC). OC can be directly emitted to the atmosphere in the particulate form (primary carbon) from the tailpipe or can be produced by gas-to-particle conversion process (secondary organic carbon, SOC). Under typical atmospheric dilution conditions, most of the semi-volatile material is present in the form of soot. SOC holds wider implications in terms of their adverse health and climate impact. Diesel exhaust is environmentally reactive and it has long been understood that the ambient interaction of exhaust hydrocarbons and NOx results in the formation of ozone and other potentially toxic secondary organic carbon species. The current emission norms look at the primary emissions from the engine exhaust. Also, research efforts are geared towards controlling the emissions of primary carbon.

Mono alkyl esters of long-chain fatty acids derived from renewable lipid feedstock, such as vegetable oils or animal fats, also known as biodiesel are well positioned to replace mineral diesel. The outstanding technical problem with biodiesel is that it is more susceptible to oxidation owing to its exposure to oxygen present in the air and high temperature. This happens mainly due to the presence of varying numbers of double bonds in the free fatty acid molecules. The chemical reactivity of esters can therefore be divided into oxidative and thermal instability, which can be determined by the amount and configuration of the olefinic unsaturation in the fatty acid chains. Many of the plant-derived fatty oils contain polyunsaturated fatty acids that are more prone to oxidation. Increasing production of biodiesel from vegetable oils (edible) places strain on food production, availability and price and leads to food versus fuel conflict.

Environmental concerns have increased significantly world over in the past decade. Regulatory agencies are becoming increasingly concerned with particulate emissions as the health and environmental effects are getting understood better due to rapid development in instrumentation. Biodiesel is one of the most promising alternative diesel fuels, which is getting global acceptability among the automotive/ engine manufactures as well as users due to numerous benefits it offers over the conventional diesel. While much of literature is available on particulate emitted by diesel fuelled engine, little is known by particulate emissions from biodiesel fuelled compression ignition (CI) engine. This study concentrates on the characterization of particulate emissions from mineral diesel vis-à-vis biodiesel (B100) and its optimum blend (20%, B20) with mineral diesel.