Vacuum insulation and phase-change thermal storage have been used to enhance the heat retention of a prototype catalytic converter. Storing heat in the converter between trips allows exhaust gases to be converted more quickly, significantly reducing cold-start emissions. Using a small metal hydride, the thermal conductance of the vacuum insulation can be varied continuously between 0.49 and 27 W/m2K (R-12 to R 0.2 insulation) to prevent overheating of the catalyst.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has recently publicly released its second-generation advanced vehicle simulator called ADVISOR 2.0. This software program was initially developed four years ago, and after several years of in-house usage and evolution, this powerful tool is now available to the public through a new vehicle systems analysis World Wide Web page. ADVISOR has been applied to many different systems analysis problems, such as helping to develop the SAE J1711 test procedure for hybrid vehicles and helping to evaluate new technologies as part of the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles (PNGV) technology selection process. The model has been and will continue to be benchmarked and validated with other models and with real vehicle test data. After two months of being available on the Web, more than 100 users have downloaded ADVISOR. ADVISOR 2.0 has many new features, including an easy-to-use graphical user interface, a detailed exhaust aftertreatment thermal model, and complete browser-based documentation. Future work will include adding to the library of components available in ADVISOR, including optimization functionality, and linking with a more detailed fuel cell model.

Based on a recent U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) study, about 95% of all trips start after a cold-soak period of 16 hours or less. By preserving the heat in the catalyst between trips, exhaust gases could be processed without warm-up delay and without the usual cold-start emissions.Vacuum insulation and phase change thermal storage have been incorporated into a catalytic converter design to enhance its heat-retention time.Laboratory testing of a bench-scale prototype showed that a "light off' temperature (above 350°C) could be maintained during a 1 0-hour cold soak.Design improvements currently being tested should increase this heat-retention time··to more than 16 hours. The thermal conductance of the vacuum insulation will be made continuously variable to prevent overheating and excessive thermal cycling. This approach to thermal management may be more durable and less costly than quick-heat methods using electric or fuel-fired preheat catalysts. BACKGROUND

greatest possiblethermal resolution, in most systems, the sensorconsistsof a singleinfra-reddetector(suchas In this paper, several automotive climate control mercury/oadmlum/telluride). Electromechanicalservos applications for IR thermographyare described. Some of (galvanometers)oscillate mirrors to perform horizontal these applicationscan be performed usingconventional and verticalscanningof the image ontothe detector.The IR techniques. Others, such as visualizing the air detector respondsto the sum of the emitted, reflected, temperature distributionwithin the cabin, at duct exits, and transmitted energies (radiosity) coming from the and at heater and evaporator faces, require new target. experimental methods.In order to capture the 1"oobtainthe targettemperature,the emittedenergy temperaturedistribution withinan airstream, a O.25-mm-must be separatedfrom the total radiosity. The emitted thick (0.01 inch) fiberglass screen is used. This screen energy must be compensated(scaled up) by the target can be positionedperpendicularor parallelto the flow to emittanceto obtain an equivalentblackbodyemittance. obtainthree-dimensional spatialmeasurements. In many Finally, this blackbody emittance is converted to a cases, the air flow pattern can be inferred from the temperatureby referenceto Planckblackbodydistribution resultingtemperature distribution, allowingimprovedair information. In this way, an IR imaging system can distribution designs. In all cases,significantimprovement captureand process108temperature measurementsper in the speed, ease, and quantity of temperature second. These signalsare digitizedby a microprocessor distribution informationcan be realizedwiththermography and converted to grey-scale or color video images. A as compared to conventional thermocouple array high-resolutionvideo recorder can be used to store techniques. Comparisons are presented between IR transient images for later post-processing. Typical thermography images and both thermocouple personal computer or workstation post-processing measurementsand computational fluid dynamics(CFD) capabilitiesinclude identificationof isotherms,minimum predictions, and maximumtemperatures,and temperatures along a particularline,curve, or boundary. As a real-time interactive diagnostic tool, IR

A catalytic converter thermal management system (TMS) using variable-conductance vacuum insulation and phase-change thermal storage can maintain the converter temperature above its operating temperature for many hours, allowing most trips to begin with minimal "cold-start" emissions. The latest converter TMS prototype was tested on a Ford Taurus (3.0 liter flex-fuel engine) at Southwest Research Institute. Following a 24-hour soak, the FTP-75 emissions were 0.031, 0.13, and 0.066 g/mile for NMHC, CO, and NO X , respectively. Tests were also run using 85% ethanol (E85), resulting in values of 0.005, 0.124, and 0.044 g/mile, and 0.005 g/mile NMOG. Compared to the baseline FTP levels, these values represent reductions of 84% to 96% for NMHC, NMOG, and CO. BACKGROUND