About the late Prof. Yoram Zvirin, about engines, and everything in between

Imagine a world where a driver's license is not necessary. Our car will arrive at the door of the house by itself, after being ordered by an application on the smartphone we have, with the help of which we will also set the destination for our car and drive without driving. This was one of the projects that the late Dr. Zabirin worked on at the Technion

By: Alona Mashal, Technion magazine
About six months ago, at the age of 71, Prof. Yoram Zbirin from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at the Technion passed away, this after falling ill about four and a half years ago with a serious illness. One of the many positions he held during his years of research work was the management of the Internal Combustion Engines Laboratory. In an interview with Dr. Leonid Tartkovsky, who was his partner in many studies within this laboratory, a fascinating window was opened into a part of the rich research world of Prof. Yoram Zbirin.

Imagine a world where a driver's license is not necessary. Our car will arrive alone at the door of the house, after being ordered by an application on the smart phone we have, with the help of which we will also set the travel destination for our car. During the trip we will not be busy with driving and annoying drivers, because all the vehicles around will be similar to ours. In addition, the vehicle will be electric, or will consume alternative fuel, and pollute the environment less. Perhaps this kind of film was imagined by Prof. Yoram Zbirin when he was working on his research? Maybe.. today we can only speculate. But there is no doubt that some of his research contributed to the promotion of making such a film a reality. Environmentally friendly vehicles, driverless vehicles, electric vehicles, alternative fuel and reducing pollutant emissions from vehicles were some of the many topics that Prof. Yoram Zbirin researched as part of the Internal Combustion Engines Laboratory at the Technion, which he directed from 1991, and constituted only a small part of his diverse work.
In addition to managing this laboratory, Prof. Zbirin managed for 6 years "Medatek" - the National Museum of Science, Technology and Space in Haifa, served as the head of the Technion's Transportation Research Institute, was sent by the government to countries such as Guatemala, Haiti and Nepal as a consultant in the field of solar energy, and the list goes on .

Dr. Leonid Tartkovsky, together with Prof. Yoram Zbirin, for about 15 years, carried out joint research work within the Internal Combustion Engines Laboratory in the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at the Technion. Prof. Zbirin became the director of the laboratory in 1991, and in 1992 Dr. Tartkovsky joined as chief engineer of the laboratory, after immigrating to Israel from the Soviet Union a year earlier. Before immigrating to Israel, Dr. Tartkovsky worked at the Central Automotive Research Institute in Moscow as the head of the engine research laboratory. Today Dr. Tartkovsky heads the laboratory, and in an interview conducted with him following the death of the late Prof. Yoram Zbirin, he tells about Yoram and their joint work.

Internal combustion engine

The term "internal combustion engines" may sound completely incomprehensible, but it is a family of engines familiar to all of us - these are the engines found in our private vehicles, buses, trucks, trains and more. The reason for their name lies in the way they work: "In a normal internal combustion engine, fuel is used that is put into the engine, it burns inside the engine - not outside, and then as a result of the combustion of the fuel, heat is generated which causes pressure to build up. This pressure, if it is an engine with pistons, causes the formation of a force that moves them, and thus the chemical energy of the fuel essentially turns into mechanical work", explains Dr. Tartkovsky.

Fuel that saves fuel

Prof. Zbirin's laboratory is definitely a reason to be proud. Quite a few of the studies done in the Internal Combustion Engines Laboratory, headed by Professor Zbirin, have direct and significant implications not only for our private vehicle and its way to our daily lives, but also for the automobile industry - one of the largest industries in the market. A prominent example of this is a study conducted there in the 90s in the field of fuel additives. According to Dr. Tartkovsky, the State of Israel is "among the first in the world to collect fuel in a centralized manner on a national scale. This was done based on the studies that our laboratory carried out."
As part of the study, the effect of the additive on the engine assemblies and its performance was examined. "We developed methods and facilities that made it possible, for example, to run the engine automatically in the cycle we developed. With the help of a control system, the engine knew how to start on its own and change regime on its own, for example to change the rotation speed, to change the load", explains Dr. Tartkovsky, and illustrates with an example: "We developed a device that made it possible to see what happens with the fuel spraying process. If the additive is not good enough, deposits are formed that damage the quality of the fuel spray. We had to try and develop a method that would allow us to quantitatively check how good this spraying is." As part of the research, it was proven that there are additives that keep the engine systems clean "The advantage is huge because over time, because the combustion is internal, deposits are formed that harm the quality of the combustion, the quality of the processes that take place inside the engine, and as a result both the efficiency decreases and the pollutant emissions increase. If we keep a clean engine, it is possible to maintain optimal performance and also low emissions."
"We were of the opinion that because of the great importance this issue should be formalized. Make the improvement be equal for everyone: those who buy fuel - that this fuel will already protect their vehicle. Today the additive is an integral part of the fuel we buy. Our research is the one that led to this decision."

A laboratory on wheels

Dr. Tartkovsky is proud, and rightfully so, of another significant study that was carried out in Prof. Zbirin's laboratory: "We developed for the first time in the State of Israel a database of emission coefficients for various types of vehicles."
There is no disputing that the issue of evaluating pollutant emissions from vehicles is an important issue like no other - an issue that has clear implications for the quality of the environment and public health. In order to make a realistic assessment of pollutant emissions of a vehicle fleet, there is a real need for a database of emission coefficients. These are tables of numbers that quantitatively describe the level of emissions of various pollutants depending on a variety of factors: conditions of use, type of vehicle, engine volume, terrain route, climate conditions, and more. "Because each country has its own climate conditions, its own traffic conditions, its own roads - each country maintains its own database of emission coefficients - if it wants these estimates to be more accurate."
According to Dr. Tartkovsky, until the research was carried out in Prof. Zbirin's laboratory, the State of Israel did not have its own data base of emission coefficients. "What they did before us, they would take data that was developed for another country, and they would draw conclusions that were actually unfounded"
The road to developing the database was tortuous and required quite a bit of Sisyphean work. The measurements were carried out during countless test drives in the car, under different driving conditions. The measuring instruments were loaded onto the vehicle, which inevitably became a kind of laboratory on wheels. Dr. Tartkovsky explains the reason for this conduct, and does not hide his dissatisfaction: "As of today in the State of Israel there is no possibility to measure pollutant emissions from a vehicle. Many decision makers do not understand this. While enlightened countries have scientific measuring equipment that allows vehicles to be run under controlled laboratory conditions to obtain the emission coefficients, here we do not have this 'luxury' and road tests are required." When asked about the tests conducted at the licensing office as part of the annual test, he answered that these are tests conducted at idle - when the vehicle's gearbox is in 'neutral', and that they cannot reflect the vehicle's emissions under realistic conditions of use. "The purpose of this measurement is not to assess the emission level of the pollutants, but only to check whether the vehicle is in good condition or not," he emphasizes.

Bacteria that eat fuel

Another, and no less important, research topic, which was investigated in the laboratory under the direction of Prof. Zbirin, dealt with improving the stability of the diesel fuel kept in the military's strategic storage.
"It's not as trivial as it sounds, because over the years, all kinds of bacteria can develop in the diesel fuel, which can later cause filter clogging," says Dr. Tartkovsky. It turns out that there are bacteria that love fuel as much as we love good meat or orange juice. They live in water in a thin layer, and eat fuel. Then they reproduce and there is a big problem with that."
The goal of the research was to find effective additives to prevent the phenomenon and improve the stability of the fuel, this goal was achieved by examining how fuel infected with bacteria affects the performance of the engine and comparing them to the performance with additive fuel: The engine - which parts should be paid attention to, what should be checked, and so on." Thanks to the research, the problem was solved and the long-awaited improvement in the stability of the fuel over time was achieved.

Did you order a taxi? She will come alone

A field of research that greatly interested Prof. Zbirin and was studied with the support of the European Union, is advanced vehicles. "In Israel they like to call these vehicles 'autonomous vehicles', when the meaning is a vehicle without a driver, in which all control and navigation is carried out by computerized tools," says Dr. Tartkovsky, the advantage of such a vehicle is self-evident: "In principle, it frees the driver from a task Driving and then you can prevent human errors."

The ambitious image, in which all the vehicles on the road travel independently, without a driver, looks like something out of a movie, but it turns out that it has already become a reality, at least partially: "Yoram said that for years such a vehicle would travel at Schiphol Airport (Netherlands), if I No mistake, from the long-term parking to the passenger hall. The car knew how to travel a bit like an elevator: it had fixed stops. Inside you could press the button like in an elevator and it would bring you up. It was a kind of horizontal elevator."

"The vehicle has an interference detection system and it drives according to one algorithm or another," Dr. Tartkovsky describes the futuristic vehicle. He adds and paints an even more exciting picture known as "platooning": "If there are several autonomous vehicles on the road that are controlled by the same computer, then they can travel one after the other with very small distances, and then more vehicles can be placed on the section of the road. They travel as a train, as one unit." Although the necessary technologies are already here, such vehicles, which can integrate into traffic, are not yet available. "All the experiments today are a little more simplistic", he says.

Regarding the research, Dr. Tartkovsky says that "Our part was to evaluate the energetic and environmental aspects of operating such a transportation system. We developed a model and for many years we included it in all kinds of methods that made it possible to estimate the energy consumption by such vehicles and also to estimate pollutant emissions." The research obviously takes into account the characteristics of the autonomous vehicle that distinguish it from the vehicles prevalent today: "For the vast majority, such vehicles are electric vehicles. And since there is no driver, the driving style can be optimized - the vehicle will not be as nervous as the driver can be, it will be possible to use it more efficiently."

A great privilege

On a more personal note, Dr. Leonid Tartkovsky talks about Yoram's special personality: "It was a great privilege for me to work together with Professor Yoram Zabirin, a scientist of international stature and reputation, and a wonderful person with enormous personal charm. And this is how we will remember him"n.

Alona Mashal is studying in the course of Associate Professor Eilat Baram-Zabari - "Science Communication: Theory and Practice" - given in the Department of Enoch for Science and Technology. The course is open to all Technion students.

In the photo on the home page: the late Professor Yoram Zvirin