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The variation of in-cylinder heat transfer with parameters such as engine speed, air-to-fuel ratio, coolant temperature and compression ratio were frequently studied in classical research. These experimentally-obtained relationships are important for improving in-cylinder heat transfer models, essential in developing CO2 reducing strategies. In this publication, a 2.0 liter compression ignition engine was tested in the pressurized motored configuration. This developed experimental setup allowed testing of the engine at speeds ranging between 1400 rpm and 3000 rpm, with peak in-cylinder gas pressures from 40 bar to 100 bar. The engine was motored using different gas compositions chosen specifically to have ratios of specific heats of 1.40, 1.50, 1.60 and 1.67 at room temperature. This enabled motored testing with peak in-cylinder bulk gas temperatures ranging from 700 K to 1500 K.

In the ever increasing challenge of developing more efficient and less polluting engines, friction reduction is of significant importance and its investigation needs an accurate and reliable measurement technique. The Pressurized Motoring method is one of the techniques used for both friction and heat transfer measurements in internal combustion engines. This method is able to simulate mechanical loading on the engine components similar to the fired conditions. It also allows measurement of friction mean effective pressure (FMEP) with a much smaller uncertainty as opposed to that achieved from a typical firing setup. Despite its advantages, the FMEP measurements obtained by this method are usually criticized over the fact that the thermal conditions imposed in pressurized motoring are far detached from those seen in fired conditions. In light of these considerations, the authors have put forward a modification to the method, employing Argon in place of Air as pressurization medium.

Mechanical friction is a significant power dissipater in the internal combustion engine. In the effort of designing more efficient and less pollutant engines, friction reduction is certainly on the agenda to be investigated. Such investigation cannot be possible without an accurate measurement of the same quantity. This publication regards a continued study on the mechanical friction determination in an internal combustion engine using the Pressurised Motoring Method. In this work, the friction mean effective pressure of a four-cylinder compression ignition engine was investigated with varying engine speed and manifold pressurisation, using a dedicated high precision sensor for the correct determination of the cylinder Top Dead Centre position.

Hybrid powertrains utilize an engine to benefit from the power density of the liquid fuel to extend the range of the vehicle. On the other hand, the electric machine is used for; transient operation, for very low loads and where legislation prohibits any gaseous and particulate emissions. Consequently, the operating points of an engine nowadays shifted from its conventional, broad range of speed and load to a narrower operating range of high thermal efficiency. This requires a departure from conventional engine architecture, meaning that analytical models used to predict the behavior of the engines early in the design cycle are no longer always applicable. Friction models are an example of sub-models which struggle with previously unexplored engine architectures. The “pressurized motored” method has proven to be a simple experimental setup which allows a robust FMEP determination against which engine friction simulation can be fine-tuned.