Some older vehicles, like the World War I-era Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5 and SPAD S.XIII single-engined fighters, have a series of shutters that can be adjusted from the driver's or pilot's seat to provide a degree of control. Before World War II, engine coolant was usually plain water. When the engine is cold, the thermostat is closed except for a small bypass flow so that the thermostat experiences changes to the coolant temperature as the engine warms up. Other factors influence the temperature of the engine, including radiator size and the type of radiator fan. Coolant is heated in the engine, becomes less dense, and so rises. Where an additional cooling fan is driven by the engine, this also tracks engine speed similarly. Engine-driven fans are often regulated by a fan clutch from the drivebelt, which slips and reduces the fan speed at low temperatures. Vehicles whose design required the installation of a large radiator to cope with heavy work at high temperatures, such as commercial vehicles and tractors would often run cool in cold weather under light loads, even with the presence of a thermostat, as the large radiator and fixed fan caused a rapid and significant drop in coolant temperature as soon as the thermostat opened.
Emergency stop signalling is a lighting function wherein the vehicle's stop (brake) lights and/or hazard/turn indicators flash in phase at 3 to 5 Hz under heavy or urgent braking. In this use, a car antilock braking system qualifies as an active-safety device, while both its seat belts and airbags qualify as passive-safety devices. Modern vehicles may contain up to ten airbag modules in various configurations, including driver, passenger, side-curtain, seat-mounted, door-mounted, B and C-pillar mounted side-impact, knee bolster, inflatable seat belt, and pedestrian airbag modules. Using this information, the airbag ECU's crash algorithm determines if the crash event meets the criteria for deployment and triggers various firing circuits to deploy one or more airbag modules within the vehicle. The size of the radiator (and thus its cooling capacity) is chosen such that it can keep the engine at the design temperature under the most extreme conditions a vehicle is likely to encounter (such as climbing a mountain whilst fully loaded on a hot day).
Once at optimum temperature, the thermostat controls the flow of engine coolant to the radiator so that the engine continues to operate at optimum temperature. On direct air-cooled engines, this is not a concern for the bellows thermostat that controls a flap valve in the air passages. Modern motor vehicles typically run at around 15 psi, which precludes the use of the bellows type thermostat. Some vintage cars use radiator cores made from coiled tube, a less efficient but simpler construction. This problem can be solved by fitting a radiator blind (or radiator shroud) to the radiator that can be adjusted to partially or fully block the airflow through the radiator. At its simplest the blind is a roll of material such as canvas or rubber that is unfurled along the length of the radiator to cover the desired portion. Modern cruise control (also known as a speedostat or tempomat) was invented in 1948 by the blind inventor and mechanical engineer Ralph Teetor. Some modern cars have a series of shutters that are automatically opened and closed by the engine control unit to provide a balance of cooling and aerodynamics as needed. Vienna Convention on Road Traffic, though they are often informally called brake lights.
Proponents of the single rear fog light say dual rear fog lights closely mimic the appearance of illuminated stop lights (which are mandatorily installed in pairs), reducing the conspicuity of the stop lights' message when the rear fogs are activated. School buses and semi-trailer trucks in North America are required to bear retroreflective strips outlining their side and rear perimeters for greater conspicuity at night. Some types of light can be mounted on to the outside of the vehicle (usually a permanent install) and these can be used to provide directional lighting in key areas, such as in front for clearing traffic, or to the rear for scene protection. On some models, cornering lights provide steady-intensity white light for lateral illumination in the direction of an intended turn or lane change. In the United States, a single emergency vehicle blocking a right-of-way could have as many as eight warning lights flashing 75 times per minute with different colors and levels of intensity, as well as different flash patterns and synchronization. Cars with an automatic transmission often have extra connections to the radiator, allowing the transmission fluid to transfer its heat to the coolant in the radiator. Because the thermal efficiency of internal combustion engines increases with internal temperature, the coolant is kept at higher-than-atmospheric pressure to increase its boiling point.
Comments
Post a Comment