Search Results

This paper describes the development of an integrated simulation model for evaluating the effects of electrically heating the three-way catalyst (TWC) in a series hybrid electric vehicle (s-HEV) on fuel economy and exhaust gas purification performance. Engine and TWC models were developed in GT-Power to predict exhaust emissions during transient operation. These models were validated against data from vehicle tests using a chassis dynamometer and integrated into an s-HEV model built in MATLAB/Simulink. The s-HEV model accurately reproduced the performance characteristics of the vehicle’s engine, motor, generator, and battery during WLTC mode operation. It can thus be used to predict the fuel consumption, emissions, and performance of individual powertrain components. The engine combustion characteristics were reproduced with reasonable accuracy for the first 50 combustion cycles, representing the cold-start condition of the driving mode.

Compared with petroleum fuel, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) demonstrates advantages in low CO₂ emission. This is because of propane (C₃H₈), n-butane (n-C₄H₁₀) and i-butane (i-C₄H₁₀), which are the main components of LPG, making H/C ratio higher. In addition, LPG is suitable for high efficient operation of a spark ignition (SI) engine due to its higher research octane number (RON). Because of these advantages, that is, diversity of energy source and reduction of CO₂, in the past several years, LPG vehicles have widely been used as the alternate gasoline vehicles all over the world. Consequently, it is absolutely essential for the performance increase in LPG vehicles to comprehend combustion characteristics of LPG. In this study, the differences of laminar burning velocity between C₃H₈, n-C4H10, i-C₄H₁₀ and regular gasoline were evaluated experimentally with the use of a constant volume combustion chamber (CVCC).

Compared with petroleum fuel, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) demonstrates advantages in low CO2 emission because of propane and butane, which are the main components of LPG, making H/C ratio higher. In addition, LPG is suitable for high efficient operation of a spark ignition (SI) engine due to its higher research octane number (RON). Because of these advantages, that is, diversity of energy source and reduction of CO2, in the past several years, LPG vehicles have widely used as the alternate to gasoline vehicles all over the world. Consequently, it is absolutely essential for the performance increase of LPG vehicles to comprehend the combustion characteristics of LPG and to obtain the guideline for engine design and calibration. In this study, an LPG-SI engine was built up by converting fuel supply system of an in-line 4-cylinder gasoline engine, which has 1997 cm3 displacement with MPI system, to LPG liquid fuel injection system [1].