In this paper, a continuous-discrete time observer which simultaneously estimates the unmeasurable states and the uncertainties for the electro-hydraulic actuator (EHA) system is presented. The main feature of the proposed observer is the use of an intersample output predictor which allows the users to increase the frequency acquisition of the piston position sensor without affecting the convergence performance. The stability analysis of the proposed observer is proved using Lyapunov function adapted to hybrid systems. To show the efficiency of our proposed observer, numerical simulations and experimental validation involving a control application, which combines the designed observer and a proportional-integral (PI) controller for the purpose of piston position tracking problem, are presented.

This paper has outlined a FE model using beam elements to represent a standard road bicycle frame. The model simulates two standard loading conditions to understand the vertical compliance and lateral stiffness characteristics of 82 existing bicycle frames from the bicycle geometry project and compares these characteristics to an optimised solution in these conditions. Perhaps unsurprisingly smaller frames (490mm seat tube) behave the most favourably in terms of both vertical compliance and lateral stiffness, while the shorter top tube length (525mm) and larger head tube angle (74.5°) results in a laterally stiffer frame which corresponds with findings from literature. The optimised values show a considerable improvement over the best of the existing frames, with a 13% increase in vertical displacement and 15% decrease in lateral displacement when compared to the best of the analysed frames. The model has been developed to allow for further develop to include more detailed tube geometry, further analysis of more frame geometries, alternative materials, and analysis of other structural characteristics

A phenomenological study of vortex ring-like structures in gasoline fuel sprays is presented for two types of production fuel injectors: a low-pressure, port fuel injector (PFI) and a high-pressure atomizer that injects fuel directly into an engine combustion chamber (G-DI). High-speed photography and phase Doppler anemometry (PDA) were used to study the fuel sprays. In general, each spray was seen to comprise three distinct periods: an initial, unsteady phase; a quasi-steady injection phase; and an exponential trailing phase. For both injectors, vortex ring-like structures could be clearly traced in the tail of the sprays. The location of the region of maximal vorticity of the droplet and gas mixture was used to calculate the temporal evolution of the radial and axial components of the translational velocity of the vortex ring-like structures. The radial components of this velocity remained close to zero in both cases. The experimental results were used to evaluate the robustness of previously developed models of laminar and turbulent vortex rings. The normalized time, , and normalized axial velocity, , were introduced, where t_init is the time of initial observation of vortex ring-like structures. The time dependence of on was approximated as and for the PFI and G-DI sprays respectively. The G-DI spray compared favourably with the analytical vortex ring model, predicting , in the limit of long times, where α = 3/2 in the laminar case and α = 3/4 when the effects of turbulence are taken into account. The results for the PFI spray do not seem to be compatible with the predictions of the available theoretical models.

This article reports the application of optical tomography and chemical species tomography to the characterisation of the in-cylinder mixture preparation process in a gasoline, direct-injection, single-cylinder, motored research engine. An array of 32 near-infrared beams is transmitted in a horizontal plane across the cylinder bore near the top of the cylinder, through a circular quartz annulus. A novel approach to enable the optical alignment of the transmitting and receiving optics is utilised. The engine is operated at a stoichiometric condition at 1200 r/min, with negative valve overlap timing. Two tomographic measurement schemes (optical attenuation and chemically specific absorption) were used to acquire data on the spatial and temporal distribution of fuel throughout the engine cycle. Optimised data pre-processing methods are described for maximal beam count and data reliability. The presence of fuel during the intake stroke was detected by the optical beam attenuation due to scattering from the liquid gasoline droplets. Optical tomographic reconstruction of the spatial distribution of these droplets was achieved at an imaging rate of 7200 frames per second, revealing rapid intra-cycle spatial variations that were consistent between consecutive cycles. During the compression stroke, chemical species tomography images of fuel vapour were reconstructed from data acquired using chemically selective spectral absorption by the hydrocarbon molecules, at an imaging rate of 2400 frames per second. Later in the compression stroke, the temporal evolution of the fuel vapour distribution in the plane of observation is relatively slow and displays inhomogeneities that are consistent between consecutive cycles. This is the first report of the use of tomography to image, within individual engine cycles, the in-cylinder evolution of both fuel spray droplet distribution and fuel vapour distribution.