THERMAL SCIENCE

International Scientific Journal

Thermal Science Journal [homepage]

New issue (Issue No. 4, vol. 15, 2011) available...

Latest issue

New issue of Thermal Science (issue 4, vol. 15, 2011) is availbale online, with 25 new original and review papers. Please, feel free to browse the contents of this issue.

UPDATE: According to Thomson Scientific Citation Index list, current citation impact factor of Thermal Science journal is 0.80.

This is already a fourth issue of the journal Thermal Science (No. 4, 2011), dedicated to the recent research of processes in internal combustion engines. Once again I would like to point out great contribution of the Guest editor Prof. Stojan Petrović, who chose an interesting mix of papers covering a wide range of problems and processes from new thermodynamic cycles and thermodynamic optimization and CFD modeling up to new fuels, environmental impact, and especially many papers dealing with bio-fuels.

After four issues in last four years dealing with processes in internal combustion engines, it is possible to make some analyses and conclusions. It is evident that large number of researchers are involved in research of the use of bio-fuels (bio-diesel, bio-ethanol, and other fuels derived from waste oils, or exotic plants). Results of testing presented in the papers published in the journal Thermal Science (and other journals in the world) contributed to the formation of a large database about behavior and effects of the bio-fuels burned (alone, or in blend with different derivatives of mineral oils) in internal combustion engines.

Unfortunately, majority of the papers dealing with bio-fuels are only routine testing on standard experimental stand-up. Discussions of the results and deep insight in physical and chemical processes in volved are scarce and in most papers scientific approach is absent.

Considering this situation, and keeping in mind already existing large and exhaustive database of bio-fuel be havior, and significant increase in the rating of the journal Thermal Science in last several years (current Impact factor reached a level over 0.7) has prompted the Editorial Board to recommend that possible future authors pay more attention to the comparison of the behavior of different bio-fuels and physical and chemical processes involved, rather than to further gathering of testing data, some times of very rare and exotic bio-fuels without any practical interest. From now on, our reviewing process will address special attention on originality, novelty, and scientific level of manu scripts. Therefore, we are choosing only experts in this field for the reviewers of the papers, as it can be seen from added list of reviewers engaged to review papers for this issue.

Dear readers,

We apologize for having to introduce an unpopular practice. Due to financial circumstances, and as a consequence of the general financial and economic crisis in the world, and also due to a large increase of papers submitted for publication in our journal in the past several years, in the future WE WILL NOT BE ABLE TO SEND FREE REPRINTS OF THE PUBLUSHED PAPERS to authors. Authors who want to receive 10 reprints of their paper will be obliged to pay €50 to our bank account (as quoted out on our web site).

On the other hand, we also have some good news to share. Due to a large number of papers accepted for publication, and long waiting period for publishing, we decided to publish an additional issue of the journal Thermal Science, Suppl. 2, 2011, with 20 to 25 papers accepted for publication in 2010 and 2011, which have been waiting for publication for more than half a year.

Sincerely,

December 2011
Belgrade
Professor Simeon Oka, Ph. D.
Editor-in-Chief

A Message from the Guest-Editor

This issue of the journal Thermal Science is once again dedicated to the problems of internal combustion engines. A thermal process inside the engine dictates engine thermal efficiency and environmental level. The complexity of the process is caused by interlacing processes of thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, and chemical kinetics. Therefore theoretical and experimental research in this area is always current, causing that a large number of papers was in competition for the publication in this issue, and the most interesting are published, presenting the results of research in the area of engine exhaust emissions, engine simulation and modeling, and the use of alternative fuels.

Engine exhaust emissions problem is still very important, because stringent regulations require continual research and application of new solutions to reduce pollutants from the engine.

Research of NOx and particulate matter emissions is in the first place, especially having in mind new requirements for measurement of fine particles emission.

The study of optimal working process has always attracted researchers. The complexity of work ing process makes this problem very difficult. Consideration of theoretical thermodynamic cycle gives the basic assumptions of efficiency and possible optimization of the process. The use of finite time thermodynamics to analyze theoretical cycles is very useful. However, the real working process can be simulated with more complex mathematical apparatus using CFD techniques. Studies of the application of different approaches in multi dimensional modeling of engine process are presented in this issue, as well as different approaches of exhaust manifold modeling (problems of junction, heat transfer, and aftertreatment) and simulation of fuel injection process.

The problems of implementation of alternative fuels in order to replace fossil fuels, reduce emissions and im prove energy efficiency always attract the attention of researchers. The possibilities are to use hydrogen or its addition to conventional fuels, to use natural gas and to use ethanol or biodiesel (from different origins), as well as their blends. Also, one possibility to increase over all energy efficiency of transport is the renewal of existing vehicle fleet. All these problems are treated in this issue. We have chosen 25 papers, and unfortunately a number of papers on this subject will have to remain for the next specialis sue. Any way, we will like to take the opportunity to express our great gratitude to all authors, for their successful research work, as well to the reviewers, for their sharing time and knowledge to improve the quality of our journal. Also, many thanks to Prof. Dr. Simeon Oka, Editor-in-chief, who has enabled the publishing of this special issue.

Belgrade,
November 21st, 2011
Prof. Dr. Stojan Petrović
IC Engine Department
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering
University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia

Important point: the domain name of Thermal Science journal Website has changed. This is due to the fact that the old CCTLD Name for Serbia has changed (from .yu to .rs) and we had to move as well. Our new web address is now http://thermalscience.vinca.rs/ and we must kindly ask all of you to use our new web address (URL) if you are planning to link to us. Also, we would appreciate if you could change/edit existing links to our website, assuming you have the abilities to do that.

Note that: the journal and papers published in Thermal Science can be seen also on databases SCOPUS:

The European Library

and KoBSON (Serbian Consortium of Libraries)

The journal Thermal Science is, also, included in DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals).

All papers have DOI number and are available in CrossRef DOI Serbia.

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