Mizuho Inagaki, Atsushi Kawamoto,
Takayuki Aoyama, Ken-ichi Yamamoto*
*Toyota Motor Corp.

Calculational methods to predict the vibration of an internal combustion engine have become more important as demands for matching the lighter weight of automobiles with low vibration levels and for reducing the development period have been increasing. The former studies of engine vibration are categorized into two groups. One deals with structural vibration (elastic vibration) in relatively higher frequencies. The other deals with kinematic vibration (rigid body motion) in low frequencies. Recently, it is becoming more important to analyze structural and kinematic coupled vibration in middle range frequencies. In this study, we developed an engine vibration analysis system (EVAS) for a computer aided design software, which can comprehensively analyze structural and kinematic coupled vibration in a wide range. A new formulation using a local observer frame and eigenmodes was proposed to efficiently calculate the structural and kinematic coupled vibration of the moving elastic body. In addition, some types of force elements were developed to express the transmitting force from a body to another body or the boundary conditions. The developed program was applied to a real engine model and verified by experiment under running conditions.

To reproduce occupant’s injuries in a traffic accident, it is important to elucidate injury mechanism of occupants in a real traffic accident. In this report, using the human whole FE model "THUMS" (Total HUman Model for Safety), we tried to reconstruct rib fractures observed in a real traffic accident in which a passenger car was involved. There was a close correlation between the simulation results and the accident data about the rib fracture. In addition, we performed a parametric study in order to investigate the influence of crash conditions on the occupant’s injury. Consequently, we confirmed that the THUMS has a possibility to be an effective tool for reproducing occupant’s injury in a traffic accident.
(This paper is written in Japanese.)

Mitoshi Fujimoto, Junji Imai, Nobuo Itoh

Terrestrial digital broadcasting services in Japan will start in 2003, and conventional analog broadcasting will be terminated in 2011. However, it has been reported that the mobile reception quality for the terrestrial digital broadcasting is significantly reduced for high bit rate transmissions such as high definition television broadcasting. In this study, the reception quality of terrestrial digital broadcasting when the directional pattern of the mobile terminal is controlled has been experimentally investigated using an experimental radio wave. As a result, it is confirmed that the reception probabilities by controlling the directional pattern are significantly improved compared to an omni-directional antenna. Especially, it is found that the improvement in the reception probability is greatly increased as the electric field strength decreased. Thus, it is expected that the directional pattern control is an effective method for improving the reception quality and expanding the service area of the terrestrial digital broadcasting.

Iwao Tanahashi, Hironobu Kitaoka,
Miyako Baba, Hiroko Mori,
Shigeo Terada, Eiji Teramoto

We have developed a wide-area traffic simulator NETSTREAM (NETwork Simulator for TRaffic Efficiency And Mobility) for predicting the introductory effects of ITS for reducing traffic congestion, pollution reduction, and preliminary evaluation of traffic measures. In the early NETSTREAM I, in order to calculate a wide-area traffic flow at high speed, the block density method was used. In this model, the vehicleﾕs movement was calculated by a fluid approximation of the traffic flow. Using NETSTREAM I, prediction of traffic congestion reduction by the traffic information system was performed, and the change in traffic conditions to a guided vehicle rate was estimated. Moreover, prediction of traffic conditions at the time of the Nagano Olympic Games in 1998 was performed. This contributed to an examination of traffic measures such as traffic restriction and signal control by the National Police Agency and the Nagano Prefectural Police. Since then, NETSTREAM II has been developed. It uses a traffic flow model that is capable of calculating each vehicle's movement as is required for ITS introduction. Using NETSTREAM II, prediction of traffic conditions at the time of some public events in Toyota-city was performed, and it was utilized for an examination of a scheme for a shuttle bus service for the park-and-bus-ride system. From now on, NETSTREAM will be applied to the prediction of real-time traffic conditions as required for dynamic route guidance, and to the prediction of traffic flow as required for improvement of air quality.
(This paper is written in Japanese.)

Naoya Chujo

ECUs ( Electronic Control Units ) are embedded controllers in automobiles. The number of ECUs in each automobile is increasing and their functions are becoming more complex in order to meet environmental requirements and satisfy market needs. It is important to make these ECUs reliable for the sake of customer safety. Since space and cost reduction are high priorities for automobile applications, there is a demand for improved circuit reliability with the minimum amount of hardware addition.
This paper presents a fail-safe ECU system using dynamically reconfigurable FPGA ( Field Programmable Gate Array). The FPGA is configured to be fault detectors and functions as a monitor for the control circuits under normal operating conditions. If a fault in one ECU is detected, the FPGA is dynamically reconfigured to be a backup circuit for the faulty control circuit. Because of this dynamic reconfiguration it is possible for the proposed fail-safe ECU system to be small, compared with conventional hardware. Example fail-safe circuits using dynamically reconfigurable FPGA, such as the Xilinx 6200 series, have been designed and evaluated.

Haruo Takahashi, Chie Miyazaki

The manganese peroxidase (MnP) produced by Phanerochaete chrysosporium, which catalyzes the oxidation of Mn²⁺ to Mn³⁺, is easily inactivated by the H₂O₂ present in the reaction. We attempted to increase the H₂O₂ resistance by the conformational stabilization around the H₂O_2-binding pocket. Based on its structural model, the engineering of oxidizable Met residues located near the pocket to non-oxidizable Leu residues showed a significant improvement. The immobilized MnP mutant (IMnP; M67L/M237L/M273L) in mesoporous material (FSM-16) showed a high H₂O₂ stability, more than 100 fold greater than wild type MnP. However, the stability of the immobilized wild type MnP was not improved as much as that for the immobilized IMnP.
This new strategy involving protein engineering and immobilization in mesoporous materials would be applicable for other enzymes which have an unstable binding pocket.