AUTOMOBILE ENGINES

The working of an automobile engine follows the same principle as an internal combustion engine. Air, from outside, enters the engine through the air cleaner and reaches the throttle plate.
The pedal in your car is the control for the amount of air that you would want to be taken in, and you control it by pressing on this gas pedal.
The air is then distributed through the intake manifold of the cylinders.

At some point fuel is injected into the air stream, and the mixture vaporizes and is drawn into the cylinders as they start their intake stroke.

This way, when the cylinder has reached its bottom, it has drawn in sufficient mixture. As it moves up, compressing the mixture, the spark plug ignites the mixture, and as the powerful gas formed expands, it pushes the cylinder to the bottom with the cylinder once again drawing in the mixture.

In designing automobile engines, you need to be a specialist in automobile engineering.
The consideration that is taken while designing such an engine is whether it should be a carburetor or a diesel one. carburetor engines are most commonly found in passenger cars and low capacity trucks, while trucks with a capacity over two tons are fitted with diesel engines, including dump trucks, trailer tractors and bus.

Increasingly the medium and low-capacity vehicles are being fitted with diesel engines, since the fuel consumption of these engines are 30% to 50% lower than the carburetor engines.
Diesel engines not only cost more, but maintenance is much more expensive than the other type of engine. Diesels require more metal parts per kilowatt.
The critical parts of diesel engines are made of alloy steel, and the fuel injection system is much more expensive than carburetor engines.

However, the cost of manufacturing carburetor engines has increased with the use of higher mechanical grade components, considering the thermal loads of the material used. At the same time the use of high alloys and increase in production costs have contributed to the higher price of such engines.

There is a sharp rise in using aluminum alloys in design of carburetor engines in passenger cars, and with the use of high octane petrol, the cost of operation of these cars have come down extensively. Using alloy steel in constructing the engine body and other parts of the engine, makes the car lighter and hence fuel consumption goes down substantially.

The main parts that are made of high steel alloy are the main casting of the engine, the cylinder head, water and oil pumps, oil filter housing, end covers of the generator and starter, and the intake pipes. It has been observed that by using high steel alloys, the weight of the car is reduced by 35%.

The power per liter, per unit of piston area, and the brake effective pressure are 6% to 8% lower in air-cooled engines, compared to engines having liquid cooling mechanism. This is due to the fact that in engines with liquid cooling there are great losses in cylinder charging caused by the high temperature in pipes, ducts in the head, cylinder walls and head, etc.

The size of air cooled engines are much bigger than the engines with liquid cooling having the same capacity, and this is because the cylinder axes difference is larger in air-cooled engines. Taking account of the radiator dimensions, if both engines are compared, the air-cooled engine will vary slightly with its height a little longer than or approximately the same length as the water-cooled engine. As far as the width and the height is concerned both engines are about the same.

The auxiliary units of the feed and ignition, and generator and starter systems are a bit difficult to fit on the body of the air-cooled engines, because of the presence of hoods and having a danger of over-heating.

QTC

QTC is a composite made from micron-sized metallic filler particles (Silicone Rubber) mixed into an elastomeric matrix. Quantum tunnelling composite is a flexible polymer that exhibits extraordinary electrical properties. In its normal state it is a perfect insulator, but when compressed it becomes a more or less perfect conductor and able to pass very high currents.

History:

First produced in 1996, QTC is a composite material made from conductive filler particles combined with an elastomeric binder, typically silicone rubber. The unique method of combining these raw materials results in a composite which exhibits significantly different electrical properties when compared with any other electrically conductive material.

Types of QTC:

1. Elastomeric (Material: Silicone Rubber) (The particle move close together)

2. Ink / Coating Solvent or Aqueous Polymer

3. Granular Sensors

Working of Quantum tunnelling composite:

QTC usually comes in the form of pills or sheet. QTC pills are just tiny little pieces of the material. The sheets are composed of one layer of QTC, one layer of a conductive material, and a third layer of a plastic insulator. While QTC sheets switch quickly between high and low resistances, QTC pills are pressure sensitive variable resistors.

Application:

– Touch switches (sheet)
– Force/pressure sensors (pills)
– Motor speed control using force (pills)

Benefits:

• QTC is a pressure/force sensing material. It can be easily integrated into existing products to enable force sensing opportunities and solutions.
• Product surfaces can be incorporated, coated or impregnated with QTC to impart the properties of force sensing into or onto the host surface.
• QTC material can be formed or moulded into virtually any size, thickness or shape, permitting redesign of product interfaces and providing improved ergonomics, aesthetics and user comfort.
• QTC is an enabling technology which is simple and reliable to use.
• QTC material is durable – it has no moving parts to wear out.
• QTC material is mechanically strong.
• QTC material can be made to withstand extreme temperatures limits.
• QTC material is versatile, both electrically and physically e.g. Its range and sensitivity can be altered. QTC material is also intrinsically safe – the material is a contactless switch, ideal for sparkless operation.
• QTC material can be directly interfaced to standard electronic and electrical devices.
• QTC material and/or technology can be customized for customer requirements, applications and products.

MAGNETIC BEARING TECHNOLOGY

Magnetic bearings have been utilized by a variety of industries for over a decade with benefits that include non-contact rotor support, no lubrication and no friction.

Conventional mechanical bearings, the kind that physically interface with the shaft and require some form of lubrication, can be replaced by a technology that suspends a rotor in a magnetic field, which eliminates friction losses.

There are two types of magnetic bearing technologies in use today – passive and active.  Passive bearings are similar to mechanical bearings in that no active control is necessary for operation. In active systems, non-contact position sensors continually monitor shaft position and feed this information to a control system.  This in turn, based on the response commanded by the system, flows to the actuator via current amplifiers.  These currents are converted to magnetic forces by the actuator and act on the rotor to adjust position and provide damping.

Additional benefits of magnetic bearings include:

• No friction
• No lubrication
• No oil contamination
• Low energy consumption
• Capacity to operate within a wide temperature range
• No need for pumps, seals, filters, piping, coolers or tanks
• Environmentally friendly workplace
• Impressive cost savings

In practice, these attractions are balanced in order to maintain a gap between the shaft (rotor) and static parts (stator). The function of the magnetic bearing is to locate the shaft’s rotation axis in the center, reacting to any load variation (external disturbance forces),

Floating rotors could boost compressor efficiencies

Traditional centrifugal compressors are based on low-speed drives, mechanical gears and oil-film bearings, resulting in high running costs because of their high losses, wear, and need for maintenance.

This new compressor drive (above) uses a permanent magnet motor, operating at an efficiency of around 97%, to drive a rotor “floating” on magnetic bearings, which spins the compressor impeller at speeds of around 60,000 rpm. These drives experience almost no friction or wear, and need little maintenance. They also minimize the risk of oil contamination, and result in compressors that are about half the size of traditional designs.

How they work

 

Magnetic bearings are basically a system of bearings which provide non-contact operation, virtually eliminating friction from rotating mechanical systems. Magnetic bearing systems have several components. The mechanical components consist of the electromagnets, position sensors and the rotor. The electronics consist of a set of power amplifiers that supply current to electromagnets. A controller works with the position sensors which provide feedback to control the position of the rotor within the gap.

The position sensor registers a change in position of the shaft (rotor). This change in position is communicated back to the processor where the signal is processed and the controller decides what the necessary response should be, then initiates a response to the amplifier. This response should then increase the magnetic force in the corresponding electromagnet in order to bring the shaft back to center. In a typical system, the radial clearance can range from 0.5 to 1 mm.

This process repeats itself over and over again. For most applications, the sample rate is 10,000 times per second, or 10 kHz. The sample rate is high because the loop is inherently unstable. As the rotor gets closer to the magnet, the force increases. The system needs to continuously adjust the magnetic strength coming from the electromagnets in order to hold the rotor in the desired position.

PASSIVE LIGHT SENSOR

Rain sensor systems:

Opto electronic sensors are used in a reflective mode in rain sensor systems to detect the presence of water on the windshield so that the windshield wipers can be controlled automatically.

An LED emits light in such a way that when the windshield is dry almost the entire amount of light is reflected onto a light sensor. When the windshield is wet, the reflective behavior changes: the more water there is on the surface, the less light is reflected. In the new rain sensor, infrared light is used instead of conventional visible light. This means that the sensor can be mounted in the black area at the edge of the windshield and cannot be seen from outside.

Working Operation:

An infrared beam is reflected off the outer windshield surface back to the infrared sensor array. When moisture strikes the windshield, the system detects a reflection to its infrared beam. Advanced analogue and digital signal processing determines the intensity of rain. The sensor communicates to the wiper control module, which switches on the wiper motor and controls the wipers automatically, according to the moisture intensity detected.

Depending on the quantity of rain detected, the sensor controls the speed of the wiper system. In conjunction with electronically controlled wiper drive units, the wiping speed can be continuously adjusted in intermittent operation. In the event of splash water – as when overtaking a truck – the system switches immediately to the highest speed.

The new rain sensor offers further options. For example, it can be used to close windows and sunroofs automatically if the vehicle is parked and it starts to rain. It can even be fitted with an additional light sensor to control the headlights – at night or at the entrance to a tunnel, the lights can be switched on without any intervention by the driver.

For Windshield wipers working operation Click this Link.

Light Sensors:

Automatic lighting of the headlights is controlled by a passive light sensor. It measures available light using a set of photo-electric cells.

The light sensor comprises three lenses that focus the light onto three photo-electric cells. This allowed “the luminous space” surrounding the vehicle into several zones through the directivity of each basic lens cell pair.

• Lens 1: Measure total ambient light
• Lens 2: Intersect Front source of light
• Lens 3: Distinguish Road Condition (Like brighter sunny weather condition or Dark tunnel)

By comparing the information gathered by these three devices, the system computer determines the situation with which the vehicle is confronted and commands the headlights in consequence.