Disclaimer:
I started to post up my research log on the web today, and I though I should mention that I dont thouroghly check through this log before I post it. Actually I dont check it at all before I publish it, and as a result I'm sure its full of spelling mistakes, slang and what not. I just wanted to make a note that I might have also occationally referered to people by nicknames, or shortened names. I promise I never meant it out of disrespect, it's just cos I was lazy.
But!
if someone does find this blog in anyway offensive, please please dont hestitate in dropping me an email and I will be much more than happy to fix it up asap :) Okey Dokey, on to my blog...

10 Nov 2007

So much has happened since I first started this research. It continues to chop and change direction as I find out more and more. And in some cases, like last night, I realise something I have been searching for has been in my own notes, the entire time. So, where to start.
From the begining I suppose, I came to Japan because I'm considering coming over here for a Job. Eventually, I want to work for an Automotive company. Whether I continue into racing, or research and development, Im not so sure anymore. I love the thrill of racing. Of being on a team, of working along side enthusiastic people with interest similar to mine. I enjoy competing. i enjoy the race, the stress, the ambience, everything that comes with Racing and then, I like research. It would be so great to be on the cutting edge of Automotive Technology, and as I research more and more I find that i love this field. I love discovering, and I'm wondering if I'll get to do these things out on the track. I think, or I'm worried that the rules of the race will limit my development, and stop me from venturing in to new and exciting sectors that the automotive industry could take me. Oops, gotta go for a bit!

So anyways, I strayed way off the point. So where I was getting to, was that atm, Australia's not exactly on the leading edge of research and developemnt so I decided coming to Japan could give me a few more oppurtunities in that area. Really, I wanted to do Vac work at Honda, but I ended up applying for Toyota first, and they asked me not to apply anywhere else, so I didnt. But then I didnt get it. :( It's my stupid fault. All I did was talk about bike engines. so the result was that I dont have enough relevance to the field of study that they were offering. I could kick myself in the ass for that, because it was CVT, and I would have totally loved to get aquainted with that. But still, as a result, I got to go to Okinawa, begin my research here, and well, I did get through to the interviews and got to talk to some really cool Toyota ppl. They told me that in Toyota, if you can come up with a good concept, most of the time, they will give you the funds to get it off the ground. Thats so awesome. I wonder if Honda is like that? But actually I went to the Motor show the other week, and I wasnt so impressed with the new bikes that were out. Yamaha impressed me the most with their Tesseract. Totally cool! Actually, it works out well, cos I own a Yamaha. hehe. But they dont make many 250's, or smaller bikes, which is a bit of a downer... I wonder if I could infiltrate the system and start my own branch for smaller bikes. Ok, now I'm dreaming way too much. Back to the tesseract though. It's a hybrid, and until recently I didnt have sooo much interest in it. I was really into 4-Strokes. But I think Hybrid, or "Green" innovations are going to be the way of the future. Maybe learning and optimising (and possibly racing) them, could be even more rewarding? As long as it could beat a 4-Stroke anyway. I just want to be working with the best there is I think. Lol. In terms of performance anyway. I just read that they are looking at reducing emissions fo F1 atm anyway though. :)

So again, i'm getting off track. So, whist on my quest to find some Vac Work, I learned of a company called Mikuni, from Christian who develop carburettors and fuel injection systems for bikes. Sounds totally awesome, so I rang them, and they said they could organise it, except i might have trouble staying there cos the dorm is for males. as if I care. So i went to the only prof. i've really consulted with, Prof. Matuttis, and he said I need a research topic before I can go to Mikuni. Ok, so this is my first time doing all this kinda stuff, so I'm wet behind the ears, but he asked me if I had any ideas. Totally!! The first thing that popped into my head is 4-stroke exhaust power valve. I talked about it alot at Toyota.. Now that i think about it. Maybe I seemed dumb, Cos Toyota have VVT instead. *sigh. I'll get to that later. Anyways, so I wasnt real sure how this was going to get me Vacation work yet. But I really like talking to Matuttis about stuff, so I kept the idea of research in my mind. I went and spoke to some UEC Vac work ppl, who gave Mikuni another ring for me. Where I found out that they will only let boys in the dorm, so I would have to find alternative accomodations. Fuckin... So that was blown out of the water. But the conversations with matuttis continued, and he gave me more and more ideas about where i could take my interests. Which eventually led to learning about Poisuelle's Law (which later I found out was just Volumetric flow rate), Reynolds Number and what not. I've decided fluid mechanics is awesome. I had alot of crazy idea's at the start. I really didnt know how difficult it could be. Koizumi said it was "impossible" and well, the more I study the closer it seems to that, but, no way I'm ever gunna say impossible. Maybe I'll prove myself wrong there one day. Just like I used to think this research would go much more smoothly, but i hope not. My research isnt worse off because I found out that its hard anyway. It's just more of a challenge. And I'm up for those.

So (I think I like to start paragraphs with "so") where was I? Oh, I should probably speak a bit more about Koizumi-sensei, from what I gathered, he's the CFD professor of UEC, and thanks to Matuttis, who decided that simulations would be a direction I could take, I met up with him and his students, who told me that I could utilise the UEC CFD program 'CFD2000'. It came with some strings. I had to finish up my simulations before the end of the Summer Vacation. A bit of a bummer cos my Mum came over to Japan and I really couldn't spend so much time with her. But it was good, I think that month, for me, was all about learning how to research. It seems really weird now that I'm in to it, I can't imagine it being difficult at all. But I do remember it was hard to get into it. What do I read? Where do I start? What do I search for. Matuttis was there for all of that. And I really appreciate it. On that note. I owe a big thanks to Eugene as well. I guess he was the first person to help me figure something out. He helped me alot! Before then things that do something (in this case a circuit) just seemed close to impossible to make. In my head anyways. Once you start to figure out you can really do something, really make something work. You just need to look at it the right way. Then suddenly, nothing is so crazy. Hmmm, did that make sence? What I'm tryin to say, is that it might take a crazy amount of time. But with the right approach, it's possible to remake, or improve anything that already exists. Bugger. I'm having trouble expressing what I mean. Actually, I went to Aikido after the first sentance of this paragraph, and I think it threw me off. Lol.

Ok, after that dribble of a paragraph above. The next person I need to mention is Matsuda, because he's the person who ran all my simulations for me. Given the time I had, I think it was necessary. But eventually I came to realise that these simulations really were just to give me an idea on fluid dynamics. Ps. Matuttis and Koizumi got me to read up some theory on Fluid dynamics before I got into the simulations. Boring. But it was really important. And the best part was, I actually got to use some of the equations I found to work out the required exhaust pipe size. So a quick note on that, is that the volumetric flow rate isnt just dependant on the area it has to flow through, but how the area is arranged. Basically, the maximum flow rate past my valve would be less than the flowrate if there was no valve at all. even if the valve was fully open. So Matuttis, let me know at this point, after my first simulations that perhaps I may have to change the pipe diameter and design. There were other things to consider aswell. Such as what sort of surface the air would be flowing across. But then I'm getting into too much detail. Luckily thanks to a simple law (found on wiki), I was able to work out the maximum flow rate I would have, and then calculate the amount of area I would need (with a valve), to not hinder the flow, and as it turned out. My original size was big enough. A big help as I would have to take alot more things into account if I had to change the shape of the pipe. My pipe design is still pretty simple. It'll need more work, really. I have to deside how much length I need, the longer the pipes are, the less angle it'll take to put them together, which will make things simpler for me, because the exhaust pulses will act less on each other. However, things to consider, is the weight. Having a 30kg exhaust manifold is NOT the way to go. Especially on a tiny 600cc FSAE car. Also, if its too long, the effect of my valve will be much too slow. Did I mention that at this stage, I came to realise the simulations I did with CFD2000 aren't really that useful, because it doesnt take pulses into account. Which is all an engine releases. Also, i dont know if I should mention my first mistake, with my first simulation on CFD2000 was that I assumed a constant velocity. Which will never ever be true. There is so much more to take into account. Meanwhile, the constant velocity gives the CFD program something easy to work with and the calculations dont take so long. Unfortunately, I can't use it. So after talking to Prof. Matuttis, he thought it would be a good idea to work with an inlet pressure. So I should calculate the maximum pressure, and try 75% 50% and 25% of that value. Now we're starting to talk pulses. Unfortunately, its only in one pipe. And this time, the simulations weren't so quick. I'm not exactly sure what went wrong because Matsuda was running the actual simulation for me. But basically, the first run took a day, or something crazy like that. He lowered the quality of the result, and then we were able to get some nice pictures in around 30mins. hooray!

A quick note about back pressure. Until recently, I was battling with the notion that back pressure should be bad for an engine. Because it would be a force that the engine would have to push against, and so it would make the engine work harder. But I also believed in back pressure. Because I have a bike with a 4-Stroke Exhaust Power Valve. And I've read a Honda paper that said it worked. It was hard to grasp. I can't wait to write about my findings, well, more like, a realisation. Honestly, the first time it clicked. It just seemed dumb, that I didn't realise before. But well, I guess I should be happy. Cos now I have (well, I think I have), the answer that I was looking for. Sorry, I dont want to type it just yet. Because I have alot more to mention first.

Like Optimum 4-Stroke Simulation. I havent had enough of a play with it yet. But it's looking pretty awesome. Starting from the begining of this idea. I was talking to my boyfriend, Christian about CFD2000, and he mentioned first that he did his CFD programming with a different program. Then when I said that the CFD simulation results I had didnt emulate pressure pulses he told me that ricardo is awesome for that kind of thing. So I began browsing through forums, scouting around, checking out CFD programs available. Because the summer vacation was coming to an end and i wouldnt' be able to redo any simulations, and found one FSAE team who worked with Optimum. It sounded awesome. So googling, reading, and a few emails later, it turned out I could get optimum for US$100, thanks to my FSAE membership. Wow. I couldnt believe my luck. Through contracts, and thanks (again) to Matuttis, I now have Optimum. Which with a bit more time and practice I can get to know well enough to carry out my own simulations. I'm not sure if they have an option for putting a valve in the exhaust yet. But I can't yet imagine that they dont, considering the number of engine options it currently offers. Even if it doesnt though. i can still work with different pipe sizes to see the effect of back pressure relative to power. Thats not entirely true. It'll be rpm vs power. But I think I have a few idea's on how to utalise that.

Ps. I wanted to mention, for my sake really so I dont forget, that at one stage, Prof. Matuttis suggested I work on his CFD code for my research project. It does sound kinda cool. But I came to the decision, that it would be really time consuming, and really, at the end of this research, I want to be ready to make a valve. Oh, and thats when we started talking actuators. :)

In the meantime, I had a few hurdles to cross, first getting approval from Suzuki-sensei (the JUSST co-ordinator), then my home university. This meant I had to write up my plan and goals. Which originally was so hard, just because I didnt know enough. I didnt have the program yet either. Now I can't write enough of what I want to do. I feel like my head is overflowing with ideas, and things I want to study. but I think, to get anywhere, i really need to specify what i want to do, and concentrate on it. But because of this, I've had alot of fears too. Part of my research is going to be feasablity. Well, it'll be the start of my research. Whats the point in making something worthless, y'know. And I was worried. I think I am still worried. That my valve wont be worth it. It wont be useful enough. It'll weigh too much. I dont really know. But I do have to find out. I hope it's worth it. Thats all I can really do.

Anyways, its mostly good now. I'm just waiting to jump one final hurdle, and thats exemption from 2 regular classes. Basically, I feel like I can do this. And my only limit is time. I have less than 4 months left to do a hell of a lot more study. And well, taking extra classes would really mess around with that. Having only 4 months left is scary enough. Fingers crossed.

Now... Actuators. This thought entered the picture when I was thinking about what to include in my research. At first I didnt really want to do this. I'm terrible with control systems. I failed my Electrical course last year even, and just passed my Computer systems course. Its not really my strong point. But then again, i never did do so great. I think the motivation was lacking. FSAE was really my biggest saviour. Now I can actually relate my studies to something practical. I'm doing a Manufacturing Systems course at the moment. And its about what machines exist, how parts are made. I think I would have dreaded doing such a course a couple years ago cos I didnt see the point. But now I love it. I get to find out, how the bits on a car might be made, and where they come from. I'll learn about how I can manipulate materials to suit the requirements. Oh and Fluid dynamics. I can't wait to do it when i get back to UQ. seems kinda crazy. Even dreaded control. Because I'm gunna need it soon. and oops I did it again, and went off topic.

Actuators. Well, my valve needs one. I want to make this valve. Thats what it took to put it in my head. Although I did decide to put it off until I got a bit further along in my current study, I couldnt help but hop on Matuttis' enthusiasm, when he decided I should find one that I could possibly use. He even had a student working with actuators for me. Yamazaki, I haven't seen him for a while, which is a shame. He was into bikes aswell. yea! :) So the story goes like this. Prof. Matuttis took me to took the workshop, to show me a step motor (actuator) that they have, which Yamazaki is using for his Master's research. He's finding out what friction or energy or state or something an egg is in when it gets rolled and rotated enough that it stands on its end. Theoretical stuff. Pah! hehe - oops. Spoken like an arrogant engineer maybe? I shouldnt, from what I've seen, Physics lectures are the most interesting and helpful teachers ever. Now I feel like I'm sucking up to physics ppl. :S SO! anyways, then Matuttis introduces me to Yamazaki to find a step motor I could use in the catalogue. We didnt find any. So then we had to go down to the work shop and try and find a manual, and if we couldnt find one, we had to get one off the net. I had a mad night actually. And the craziest thing happened. well, not THE craziest, but we were stading on one side of the workshop and this massive box just fell from the top shelf from like, the other side of the room. Maybe that doesnt sound so crazy, but I mean, of all the times it could have fallen, it fell then. Right when we happened to be in the room. Maybe it was the wind from the door opening or something. I dunno, I'll leave that for the other engineers to figure out. This night I also met someone from the car club. I really want to keep my hands dirty while I'm away from UQ Racing so i dont feel arkward with hands on stuff when I get home. But I think you need your own car. I met up with a few of them. And they dont exactly work on cars together. Just fix up their own cars. I got invited to a cruise one night with them, but up the mountains till 3 or 4am with ppl I dont know. I was tempted, just for fun. But in a way... not in way, its stupid. I wouldnt want one of my friends to hop in some strangers car and go drifting for the night. :(

Oh man, I'm so bad at staying on track. So well, Prof Matuttis decided it would be a good idea if Yamazaki, he and I went to Oriental Motors (the actuator ppl that Matuttis deals with atm). To be honest, i was sceptical. I didnt really see the point. BUT! I was wrong. They're actuators were amazing. i got to see the set up. And also, found out that they have nothing in the area of what I want. But yea, those step motors had crazy acuraccy. I had a great time there. But, yea, they're motors are too worked. They're made for companies to buy and use them. Not to program them. Or develop a controller for them. On top of that, theyre all 100~240V, not so useful in a car. They were also pretty big. But I also got a few more ideas from going to Oriental Motors aswell. Before I though the motor would have alot of stress on it, and where would I put the control. But now i think I'll set it up, so that the only force on it will be from the momentum of the valve when it changes direction. I drew it up about 2 weeks back. I'll CAD it up when I figure out how to use Solid Works.

Phew. Lots of writing in one night. I wish I started this log earlier. Now its too long that i dont think anyone will ever read it. Well, its more for me I guess, cos to be honest, I feel like I cant write all of my thoughts in an official report. But I dont want to forget my though process for this reesearch.

11 Nov 2007

Where do I start from today? My head isnt in such a research mood. But I really want to get this down.
So, Actuators, I strayed off from it for a while until I went to the motor show the Thursday before last, where I went and talked to Denso about step motors. They pointed me to NIDEC motors (aka Nippon Densan) who specialise in that sort of thing. I went to they web site, and it looks good. But I really need to get some of these simulations and reports done first. While I'm on the topic of the Motor Show; it seemed that CVT was the topic of the year and it was thanks to Christians interest in putting a CVT on the engine next year, I ended up talking to a few ppl about it, it was great. I really wish I had gotten that internship. As it turns out though, almost everyone is having issues with Torque losses through the drive train. I say almost everyone because DSG (I think that was the name of their company) Made a dual CVT and one of the engineers guarantees me there is less than 1% loss over the drive train. It wasn't such a big mechanism either. Wish I had time to look in to it.

A note on CVT:
CVT or continuously variable transmission, opposed to a regular transmission or "gear box" which has a set of gears at a given ratio, has a smooth and variable ratio change, thanks to a belt, chain or other mechanism, which will manipulate its owns settings in order for the car to have the maximum torque transmitted to the wheels from the engine, given the situation.

The first person I talked to from the Scheaffler group insisted Dual clutch was the way to go. Minimal losses, quick gear changes. It's also been around for a while so it may even be possible to pick one up from a wreckers or buy a part from a car company or something.

A note on Dual Clutch:
The difference between the dual and regular clutch is that, with the slight niggle of accompanying weight, a second clutch is used to engage all the odd gears, while the first clutch is used to engage the even gears. Thanks to this, it wont be a case of finding the next gear while the clutch is disengaged, as the next gear up will be ready to go.

That was a poor discription of the Dual Clutch. Probably due to my lack of knowledge in the transmission. :P

14 Nov 2007

I also spoke to Jatco, who had quite a large selection of CVT's. I believe most of them were students under some kind of privacy act (is that the right word) , because they were mostly unwilling to talk about torque losses and design even though they had soooo much display about it. It seemed like I managed to climb up and up the chain of command until I believe I was talking to the manager of the booth, who still had no idea whether or not he could give me any information.
PS. This was all in Japanese btw
So anyways, I can't remember how it came up, oh, i was talking to him about cost, and who they usually supply to, and that i would only be interested in purchasing one, thats if i was interested at all. He asked if I was part of FSAE, and seemed to like that I was. :) It's such an awesome organization. He said he'd have to talk to his superiors, and no guarantees, but maybe they could consider some sort of sponsorship. Or at least supply us with a single CVT as opposed to the large supply they usually provide their customers with. Ok, so anyways, it all sounded good too me, except that I would have to write up some sort of proposal, in Japanese...
I thought about it a bit more when I got home that evening, and although it sounds like a fantastic oppurtunity, I really dont have the time. I'm starting to fall behind schedual.

On a side note, the Dual CVT I mentioned, it was from the NSK Booth, and they call it an "Independant L/R toroidal CVT". I just found the pamphlet for it and it sounds sooooo cool. I wish I had more time to study it. Really, I should study it, because it's something that is on the table at the moment, where as 4-Stroke Exhaust is a bit of an old concept. Still, I hate to leave things unfinished, and I'd hate even more to not be able to answer that I knew, for a fact, that 4-stroke Exhaust Power Valve is useful, useless, whatever it is, I want to know for sure, and be able to justify it.

So CVT aside. After the motor show I have 2 contacts. Emitec, on the PTC (Pre Turbo Catalyst) and Nippon Densan. I'm not going to contact Densan yet, but I recieved an english pamphlet from Emitec's Komatsu-san, and have been emailing him since then. I'm still a little skeptical on this "no change in flow rate" that I believe he first mentioned, but I still think its a relevant inclusion in my research.

Anyway, Thats all for today.

19 Nov 2007

So! before I get into what I have been doing this week, I want to continue to recap on previous weeks. So originally, my thoughts used to be " Why in the world would back pressure in the exhaust system work?? I mean, the engine wants to keep rotating, so really, when the time comes for the exhaust stroke, it should want minimal pressure so the engine does mimimal work to get the exhaust fumes out. Right? Perhaps a bit more background.
There are 4 official strokes in a 4-stroke engine. (state the obvious tommi...sorry for the ppl who are familiar with engines to waste my time on covering basics) Anyways, they are the intake stroke, compression stroke, power stroke and exhasut stroke. So what happens is there is a cylinder and with a piston that moves up and down in it. as the piston moves down an inlet valve is open, allowing air and fuel to enter in the cylinder (Intake stroke). Once the piston reaches the bottom (BDC - bottom dead centre) the valve closes (for all you experts, dont wave your hands around yet, i'm keeping it simple atm) and the contents of the cylinder are compressed as the piston begins to make its way up again (compression stroke). Then when the piston is at the top of the cylinder (TDC - top dead center) the spark ignites the compressed fuel and air, and the explosion (perhaps thats not the right word, but anyway) forces the piston back down (the power stroke). Finally, at BDC, the exhaust valve opens and the emissions from the explosion are pushed out of the cylinder as the piston moves up once again.
HOWEVER!!! This is not exactly the case. As it turns out, because the pistons are rotating so fast there are many other things to consider. The above would be fine, IF explosions in the cylinder happened at say 5 rpm( revs per minute or something), but that's impossible. So now that we're dealing with 1000rpm and above, we need to consider valve timing a little bit more. This is because, firstly, the time that a valve is open is now half the time of 1000rpm, and unfortunately, gases have flow, which means that the cylinder doesnt instantly fill up with air, it has to wait for the air to fill up the cylinder. There is also the issue of maximum flow rate, which is dependant on the area the air has to flow through. This means, that the fastest the air can go is dependant on the size of the valve, as a result, if the valve starts to open at TDC, it wont be fully open until a few degrees after such time, which could restrict the air entering the cyclinder at TDC, something you dont want, especially when you've only got fractions of a second to cram that air in the cylinder. As a result, performance cams (camshafts - the spinny thing that controls when the valves open and close) let the intake open early. The faster the engine, the earlier it should open... (this needs a bit more explaination, but I'll get back to it later on). Same case goes for opening the exhaust manifold. Then 2 more things to consider. 1. The air flowing in will carry some momentum, and with this momentum comes force, and it is this force that will allow the cylinder to have a pressure greater than that of atmospheric conditions. This means, that the valve should stay open slightly longer than BDC to allow the momentum to push a bit more air into the cylinder. And finally, the exhaust, 5. the maximum flow rate through the valve is less than is being moved by the cylinder, therefore at TDC there will be compressed exhaust fumes still in the chamber, to remove this, the exhaust valve needs to stay open long enough to do so. The faster the engine, the longer it will need to stay open as the excaping fumes cannot keep up with the speed of the piston. And here is where valve overlap comes into play...
But thats for another night!