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Engine operation with spark ignition retarded from MBT timing is used at cold start to reduce HC emissions and increase exhaust gas temperature; however it also results in increased cyclic variations. Steady-state cold fluids testing was performed to better understand the causes of the cycle-to-cycle variations. Detailed analysis of individual cycles was performed to help gain an understanding of the causes of cyclic variations. The important results were: The primary cause of cyclic variations in IMEP is variations in the combustion phasing (location of 50% mass fraction burned). The expansion ratio decreases rapidly during combustion for retarded spark timing and therefore the phasing determines individual cycle thermal efficiency and IMEP. Variations in the late burn have little impact on the IMEP as this combustion occurs close to EVO and does little expansion work.

Microradiographical and ultrasonic methods for the determination of pitting corrosion depth is discussed. Fatigue crack initiation and growth from artificial pits of different depths is studied experimentally. The experime-ntal results were analyzed using fracture mechanics models including those for small cracks. The model shows very good agreement with experiment in describ-ing the initiation and growth of a crack emanating from a pit and in predicting the dependence of the reduction of fatigue life on pit size. Using this analysis, a relation between the depth of the corrosion pit and the fatigue life is established, and thus the prediction of fatigue life of the sample with corrosion pit is related to the radio-graphic and ultrasonic measurements.

Accurate prediction of engine combustion characteristics, especially burn rates, can eliminate a number of hardware iterations, thus resulting in a significant reduction in design and developmental time and cost. An analytical methodology has been developed which allows the determination of part-load MBT spark timing to within 2 crank-angle degrees. The design methodology employs the in-house-developed steady-state quasi-dimensional engine simulation model (GESIM), coupled with full-field measurement of the in-cylinder fluid motion at bottom dead center (BDC) in the computer-controlled water analog system (AquaDyne). The in-cylinder flow-field measurements are obtained using 3-D Particle Tracking Velocimetry (3-D PTV), also developed in-house. In this methodology, the in-cylinder flow measurement data are used to calibrate both the tumble and swirl models in GESIM.