Scientific Conference on Automotive Vehicles and Combustion Engines (KONMOT 2016)

22-23 September 2016, Cracow, Poland

The contemporary world requires ecological solutions in the area of automotive vehicles, low energy consumption, safety and easy exploitation. The role of engineers and scientists is the realization and managing of the designing and exploitation processes within that area. The growing exploitation and ecological demands set successive challenges for designers and scientists in the area of automobiles, powertrains and exploitation. Particularly the essential problem is finding solutions decreasing fuel consumption and emission of the exhaust gases as well as application of the alternative powertrains such as hybrid and electric. The cyclical automotive conference KONMOT since 1976 is a place of meeting of outstanding scientists and engineers from country and abroad, raising contemporary problems of motorization with the possibility of publishing results on the international area.

In 2016 the organized automotive conference KONMOT celebrated the 40th anniversary. It was organized by the Institute of Automobiles and Internal Combustion Engines in Cracow University of Technology (CUT). The first conference was held in Kroscienko-Szczawnica on 20-23 September 1976. The motto, that guided the deliberations, was "Progress in Research of Motor Vehicle." The conference was a nationwide and attended by many representatives of technical universities, research and development centres and plants related to the automotive industry. In the years 2000, 2004 and 2008, a conference was called KONMOT-AUTOPROGRES, the main organizer was the Cracow University of Technology. In 2002 and 2006 the main organizer of the conference was Automotive Industry Institute in Warsaw and the conference was called AUTOPROGRES-KONMOT. Papers presented on every two years conference KONMOT were published in the journal issued by the Polish Academy of Sciences "Portfolio of Science and the Problem Committee on Motorization" or published by the Technical Journal issued by CUT, as well as in the form of monographs. Some of the conferences were dedicated to the jubilee of work of outstanding scientific specialists in the automotive and engines fields.

Apart from the official agenda for the conference the gala dinners were organized for all participants, often headline performances by famous artists were important point of such meetings. The penultimate conference KONMOT was held on 25-26 September 2014 in Cracow under the slogan "Development of vehicles - construction, operation, ecology and safety." The organized scientific conference KONMOT-2016 as in previous years provided an excellent opportunity to showcase of achievements of researchers and scientists and exchange of experience for a wide range of activity in research and development centres, industrial areas and universities.

With regards to the current conference we are delighted to come up with ninety two (92) contributed research papers selected from the proceedings, as an output of the Scientific Automotive Conference KONMOT 2016 on motor-cars and engines progress held in Cracow (Poland) from September 22-23, 2016. This event marks as previous meetings in a highly successful series of conference devoted to this important technical field. Conference KONMOT gathers industrial and scientific communities in the field of design, experimental research and modelling of all scientific and industrial sectors of automotive branch. Contributions cover a wide range of topics including design and modelling of the suspension, traction and new driving systems in automobiles, method of vehicles exploitation or tribology. The new driving systems require a new design of engines for better efficiency and lower exhaust gas emission. Thirty three papers describe the research, experimental investigations and modelling of combustion processes in combustion engines.

The papers shown during KONMOT 2016 from both the oral presentation and poster sessions are included in this conference volume. They are divided into the following three topic areas: Design and Research of Automobiles, Exploitation of Automobiles and Internal Combustion Engines and Emission. More than one third of the papers are directly concerned with mathematical modelling and numerical simulation in automobiles and internal combustion engines. However, most of papers include experimental and industrial activity. Some of the papers concern the applying of special new materials and were included in the Exploitation topic.

The conference co-chairmen are grateful to the scientific committee and all the reviewers of the papers for their efficient work done in a very short period of time. These proceedings would not have been possible without the tremendous help of Mr Dr Eng. Marcin Noga and Mrs MSc Magdalena Kalarus from the Cracow University of Technology. Thanks also to CUT Publishing House for preparing of special issue of conference abstracts. Finally, we would like to thank our sponsors for their financial support, without that the conference would not be so attractive for participants, such as Development and Research Institute BOSMAL in Bielsko Biala, AVL - Poland Branch, FEV Poland, EC Engineering, Horus-Energia and Polish Scientific Society of Combustion Engines (PTNSS) and others. The logos of our main sponsors are shown below.

We invite all participants from whole the world to the next conference KONMOT 2018.