This paper presents to report a summary of the recycling activities with FRP or composite materials in EU. NA(North America) and Pacific Rim Area, where, recently, great efforts have been made. In EU, "Green Label System" and "ECRC (European Composites Recycling Concept)" have been started. In NA, recycling material (recyclate) is much more applied. In Japan, "Cement Kiln process" is successfully being devised while chemical recycling technologies are being developed actively.

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PCI (Premixed Compression Ignition) combustion is a potential breakthrough technique to simultaneously reduce NOx and particulate matter in engine exhaust emissions. A noise survey was conducted to identify the following noise attributes: 1) engine noise level and 2) sound quality of an engine operated under PCI combustion. The results show that PCI combustion is capable of achieving the same or lower noise level than with conventional combustion operated with pilot injection. In addition, PCI combustion was quantitatively evaluated as having better sound quality than conventional combustion because it contains less high-frequency components in engine noise.

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A urea SCR system was combined with a DPF system to reduce NOx and PM in a four-liter turbocharged intercooler diesel engine. Significant reduction in NOx was observed at low exhaust gas temperatures by increasing the NH₃ adsorption quantity in the SCR catalyst. Control logic of the NH₃ adsorption quantity for transient operation was developed based on the NH₃ adsorption characteristics in the SCR catalyst. It has been shown that NOx can be reduced by 75% at an average SCR inlet gas temperature of 158 deg C by adopting an NH₃ adsorption quantity control in the JE05 mode.

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A multi-cylinder gasoline HCCI engine system is developed, which satisfies fuel economy and low emissions requirements. One of the main problems with the gasoline HCCI engine system is developing a method to switch between SI and HCCI combustion modes. In this study, the optimal in-cylinder gas behavior during combustion mode switching is investigated by using an engine cycle simulator. As a result, transient control of the amount of intake air is important to maintain combustion stability, and a method for controlling it optimally is developed. In addition, as judged from the experimental results, our method is demonstrated to be valid for switching from HCCI combustion to SI combustion without torque variations.

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We applied a multivariate analysis based on an experimental design of quality engineering, and picked out several engine parameters which influence gasoline HCCI combustion stability. We clarified the characteristics of engine parameters in a gasoline HCCI operation area and propose the control concept: air-fuel mixture control is applied to each-cylinder injection control while keeping the mixture homogeneous. Combustion conditions and A/F need to be detected and fed back individually for each cylinder. With the proposed concept, it is possible to keep the HCCI combustion stable in multi-cylinder gasoline HCCI engine.

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As computational fluid dynamics plays a crucial role in vehicle body design, the CFD committee, one of the technical committees comprising JSAE, embarked on a benchmark project in which a number of CFD codes would be tested on the same vehicle body. A wind tunnel test of the 1/5 scale model was conducted to provide reference data for the benchmark test. In this paper, details of the measurements are presented. On the body surface, smooth flow patterns were visualised by tufting. It was also found that total pressure loss in the wake of the model displayed a unique pattern similar to a mushroom cloud.

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4 wheel active steering system (4WAS), which controls all four steering angle, is developed first in the world. This system achieves dynamic performance with secure and invigoration feel on higher level, based on active steer technology of rear axle. This paper describes aim and necessity of all four steering control, and introduces outline and efforts of this system.

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Electric active suspension system is adopted for the research that the system controls roll, pitch, and bounce. The roll motion effect on drivers is investigated by using the active suspension system. The system deliberately gives large or small roll angles for a test vehicle and the drivers' motion and response differences are investigated with the experimental result. The survey was also executed about the influence of lateral acceleration and visual information by using the rolling simulator device.

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Use of models in occupant protection simulation is increasing within the vehicle development industry. FE models of the moving deformable barrier honeycomb, vehicle body, dummy, and restraint system were developed to predict dummy injury indices in side impact analysis. To more accurately predict dummy injury indices, it was necessary to further improve FE restraint system models such as for the torso airbag and polyurethane pads. Finally, full vehicle level FE analysis was conducted to confirm the prediction accuracy of dummy injury indices using the improved FE models. The results show that the dummy injury indices correlate well with actual crash testing.

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Currently, various studies on pedestrian protection are conducted aiming at the improvement, especially, of the reduction of head injury criteria (HIC). In order to make pedestrian dummy collision behavior more uniform, engineers adopt that the arms of dummies must be tied. In this study, the influence of the arms on pedestrian head injury at the time of vehicle collision was evaluated. It was examined that the position of the impact-side arm of the pedestrian dummy was particularly apt to influence HIC.

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In-process quality assurance system activities to maintain a high level of precision are progressing, and the technology for quantifying quality is a particularly critical part of these activities. Among many quality specifications, windshield glass and body bonding processes require tight primer application controls to assure suitable adhesive strength and water sealing ability. Thus, to assure quality within these processes, a system to instantly measure primer application conditions was developed. The system measures and records the application condition all around the edge of the windshield glass. This report describes the development of the system and the introduction of the system into an actual assembly line in a factory.

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