Ford Motor Company

About: Ford Motor Company is a company organization based out in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Internal combustion engine & Clutch. The organization has 36123 authors who have published 51450 publications receiving 855200 citations. The organization is also known as: Ford Motor & Ford Motor Corporation.

Method for monitoring the performance of a nox trap

Abstract: A method and apparatus for on-board monitoring of NO x trap performance is proposed that uses two HEGO sensors, one positioned upstream of the NO x trap, and the other positioned downstream of the NO x trap. When the engine A/F is reduced from lean to stoichiometric or rich operation to regenerate or purge the NO x trap the difference in the time it takes for the upstream and downstream HEGO sensors to switch from a lean to a rich indication provides a quantitative measure of the amount of NO x that was stored on the NO x trap during the previous lean period of operation. This measure is related to an estimated amount of NO x produced by the engine to infer the operating performance or efficiency of the NO x trap. The difference in the output voltage of the two sensors is compared with a predetermined value to determined when to terminate the NO x purge. When the efficiency drops below a predetermined value the time that the engine is run in a lean cruise mode is reduced. If the time is reduced below a minimum time interval, a sulfur purge is performed. If sulfur purges are required more often than a predetermined repetition time, the lean cruise mode is terminated and an indicator lamp is energized.

The Dysphagia Handicap Index: Development and Validation

Abstract: Quality-of-life indicators for dysphagia provide invaluable information to the treating clinician regarding the success or failure of swallowing therapy. The purpose of this study was to develop a clinically efficient, statistically robust patient-reported outcomes tool that measures the handicapping effect of dysphagia on emotional, functional, and physical aspects of individual’s lives. 60 statements describing the handicapping effect of dysphagia were collected from patient reports and divided into subscales of physical, emotional, and functional problems. The statements were presented to 77 individuals with dysphagia. Respondents replied never, sometimes, or always to each statement and rated their self-perceived dysphagia severity on a 7-point equal-appearing interval scale. Cronbach’s α was performed to assess the internal consistency validation of the items within the questionnaire. The final questionnaire was reduced to 25 items and administered to 214 individuals with dysphagia and 74 controls. Test–retest was performed on 63 individuals with dysphagia. Cronbach’s α for the initial and final versions was strong at r = 0.96 and r = 0.94, respectively. Significant differences occurred between the dysphagia and control groups. Test–retest reliability was strong. We present a new, easy-to-complete, statistically robust, patient-reported outcomes measure for assessing the handicapping effect of dysphagia.

Catalyst system for the reduction of NOx and NH3 emissions

Abstract: This catalyst system simultaneously removes ammonia and enhances net NOx conversion by placing an NH 3 -SCR catalyst formulation downstream of a lean NOx trap. By doing so, the NH 3 -SCR catalyst adsorbs the ammonia from the upstream lean NOx trap generated during the rich pulses. The stored ammonia then reacts with the NOx emitted from the upstream lean NOx trap—enhancing the net NOx conversion rate significantly, while depleting the stored ammonia. By combining the lean NOx trap with the NH 3 -SCR catalyst, the system allows for the reduction or elimination of NH 3 and NOx slip, reduction in NOx spikes and thus an improved net NOx conversion during lean and rich operation.

Metamodeling development for vehicle frontal impact simulation

Abstract: Response surface methods or metamodels are commonly used to approximate large computationally expensive engineering systems. Five response surface methods are studied: Stepwise Regression, Moving Least Square, Kriging, Multiquadric, and Adaptive and Interactive Modeling System. A real-world frontal impact design problem is used as an example, which is a complex, highly nonlinear, transient, dynamic, large deformation finite element model. To study the accuracy of the metamodel, the optimal Latin Hypercube Sampling method is used to distribute the sampling points uniformly over the entire design space. The Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) is used as the error indicator. Convergence rate, widely used in the arena of the finite element method for evaluating new element’s performance, was exploited in this vehicle impact example.