Search Results

Large pressure pulsations and a non-uniform distribution of charge air temperature along the intake manifold were detected on a large-bore marine Dual-Fuel engine. These two phenomena were found to impact negatively on the knock resistance of individual cylinders, when the engine is operated in gas-mode. As it happens with marine gas engines, the cylinder most prone to knocking drives the engine tuning for all the others, thus reducing the overall fuel conversion efficiency. In order to effectively tackle this issue, a comprehensive study was carried out, which included both experimental testing and fluid-dynamics simulation. A detailed GT-POWER 1D engine model was built, representing the laboratory 8L (i.e. inline eight-cylinder) engine configuration. The model was extensively correlated against measurements at different speeds and loads and it proved capable of closely reproducing both the pressure fluctuations and the temperature gradient along the intake manifold.

Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEVs) represent a powerful technology to save fuel and reduce CO₂ emissions, through the synergic use of a conventional internal combustion engine and one or more electric machines. However their performance strongly depends on the control strategy that shares the power demand among the engine and the electric motors at each time instant, with the objective of minimizing a pre-defined cost function over an entire driving cycle, and satisfying, at the same time, any additional constraints. The aim of this work is therefore the definition of a methodology to develop, through numerical simulation, a sub-optimal hybrid powertrain controller: starting from the problem definition, the ideal performance for a case study hybrid architecture was analyzed through a global optimization algorithm in order to point out information which can be used to define new control laws.

In this paper a novel approach to mimic through numerical simulation Cycle-to-Cycle Variations (CCV) of the combustion process of Spark Ignition (SI) engines is described. The proposed methodology allows to reproduce the variability in combustion which is responsible for knock occurrence and thus to replicate the stochastic behavior of this abnormal combustion phenomenon. On the basis of the analysis of a comprehensive database of experimental data collected on a typical European downsized and turbocharged SI engine, the proposed approach was demonstrated to be capable to replicate in the simulation process the same percentage of knocking cycles experimentally measured in light-knock conditions, after a proper calibration of the Kinetics-Fit (KF), a new phenomenological knock model which was recently developed by Gamma Technologies.