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The drag coefficient at zero yaw angle is the single parameter usually used to define the aerodynamic drag characteristics of a passenger car. However, this is usually the minimum drag condition and will, for example, lead to an underestimate of the effect of aerodynamic drag on fuel consumption because the important influence of the natural wind has been excluded. An alternative measure of aerodynamic drag should take into account the effect of nonzero yaw angles and a variant of wind-averaged drag is suggested as the best option. A wind-averaged drag coefficient (CDW) is usually derived for a particular vehicle speed using a representative wind speed distribution. In the particular case where the road speed distribution is specified, as for a drive cycle to determine fuel economy, a relevant drag coefficient can be derived by using a weighted road speed.

The aerodynamic drag characteristics of a passenger car are typically defined by a single parameter, the drag coefficient at zero yaw angle. While this has been acceptable in the past, it may not allow a true comparison between vehicles with regard to the impact of drag on performance, especially fuel economy. An alternative measure of aerodynamic drag should take into account the effect of non-zero yaw angles and some proposals have been made in the past, including variations of wind-averaged drag coefficient. For almost all cars the drag increases with yaw, but the increase can vary significantly between vehicles. In this paper the effect of various parameters on the drag rise with yaw are considered for a range of different vehicle types. The increase of drag with yaw is shown to be an essentially induced drag, which is strongly dependent on both side force and lift. Shape factors which influence the sensitivity of drag with yaw are discussed.

Modern control strategies for internal combustion engines use increasingly complex networks of sensors and actuators to measure different physical parameters. Often indirect measurements and estimation of variables, based off sensor data, are used in the closed loop control of the engine and its subsystems. Thus, sensor fusion techniques and virtual instrumentation have become more significant to the control strategy. With the large volumes of data produced by the increasing number of sensors, the analysis of sensor networks has become more important. Understanding the value of the information they contain and how well it is extracted through uncertainty quantification will also become essential to the development of control architecture. This paper proposes a methodology to quantify how valuable a sensor is relative to the architecture. By modelling the sensor network as a Bayesian network, Bayesian analysis and control metrics were used to assess the value of the sensor.

Particulate number (PN) standards in the current ‘Euro 6’ European emissions standards pose a challenge for engine designers and calibrators during the warm-up phases of cold direct injection spark ignition (DISI) engines. To achieve catalyst light-off in the shortest time, engine strategies are often employed which inherently use more fuel to attain higher exhaust temperatures. This can lead to the generation of locally fuel-rich regions within the combustion chamber and the emission of particulates. This investigation analyses the combustion structures during the transient start-up phase of an optical DISI engine. High-speed, colour 9 kHz imaging was used to investigate five important operating points of an engine start-up strategy whilst simultaneously recording in-cylinder pressure.

Piston compression rings are thin, incomplete circular structures which are subject to complex motions during a typical 4-stroke internal combustion engine cycle. Ring dynamics comprises its inertial motion relative to the piston, within the confine of its seating groove. There are also elastodynamic modes, such as the ring in-plane motions. A number of modes can be excited, dependent on the net applied force. The latter includes the ring tension and cylinder pressure loading, both of which act outwards on the ring and conform it to the cylinder bore. There is also the radial inward force as the result of ring-bore conjunctional pressure (i.e. contact force). Under transient conditions, the inward and outward forces do not equilibrate, resulting in the small inertial radial motion of the ring.

This paper presents a novel approach to augment existing engine calibrations to deliver improved engine performance during a transient, through the application of multi-objective optimization techniques to the calibration of the Variable Valve Timing (VVT) system of a 1.0 litre gasoline engine. Current mature calibration approaches for the VVT system are predominantly based on steady state techniques which fail to consider the engine dynamic behaviour in real world driving, which is heavily transient. In this study the total integrated fuel consumption and engine-out NOx emissions over a 2-minute segment of the transient Worldwide Light-duty Test Cycle are minimised in a constrained multi-objective optimisation framework to achieve an updated calibration for the VVT control. The cycle segment was identified as an area with high NOx emissions.

Variable valve actuation in heavy duty diesel engines is not well documented, because of diesel engine feature, such as, unthrottled air handling, which gives little room to improve pumping loss; a very high compression ratio, which makes the clearance between the piston and valve small at the top dead center. In order to avoid strike the piston while maximizing the valve movement scope, different strategies are adopted in this paper: (1) While exhaust valve closing is fixed, exhaust valve opening is changed; (2) While exhaust valve closing is fixed, late exhaust valve opening: (3) While inlet valve opening is fixed, inlet valve closing is changed; (4) Delayed Inlet valve and exhaust valve openings and closings; (5) Changing exhaust valve timing; (6) changing inlet valve timing; (7) Changing both inlet and exhaust timing, will be used.

The injection timing of a Diesel internal combustion engine typically follows a prescribed sequence depending on the operating condition using open loop control. Due to advances in sensors and digital electronics it is now possible to implement closed loop control based on in cylinder pressure values. Typically this control action is slow, and it may take several cycles or at least one cycle (cycle-to-cycle control). Using high speed sensors, it becomes technically possible to measure pressure deviations and correct them within the same cycle (intra-cycle control). For example the in cylinder pressure after the pilot inject can be measured, and the timing of the main injection can be adjusted in timing and duration to compensate any deviations in pressure from the expected reference value. This level of control can significantly reduce the deviations between cycles and cylinders, and it can also improve the transient behavior of the engine.

For a spark-ignition engine, the parasitic loss suffered as a result of conventional throttling has long been recognised as a major reason for poor part-load fuel efficiency. While lean, stratified charge, operation addresses this issue, exhaust gas aftertreatment is more challenging compared with homogeneous operation and three-way catalyst after-treatment. This paper adopts a different approach: homogeneous charge direct injection (DI) operation with variable valve actuations which reduce throttling losses. In particular, low-lift and early inlet valve closing (EIVC) strategies are investigated. Results from a thermodynamic single cylinder engine are presented that quantify the effect of two low-lift camshafts and one standard high-lift camshaft operating EIVC strategies at four engine running conditions; both, two- and single-inlet valve operation were investigated. Tests were conducted for both port and DI fuelling, under stoichiometric conditions.

Engine electrification is a critical technology in the promotion of engine fuel efficiency, among which the electrified turbocharger is regarded as the promising solution in engine downsizing. By installing electrical devices on the turbocharger, the excess energy can be captured, stored, and re-used. The electrified turbocharger consists of a variable geometry turbocharger (VGT) and an electric motor (EM) within the turbocharger bearing housing, where the EM is capable in bi-directional power transfer. The VGT, EM, and exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) valve all impact the dynamics of air path. In this paper, the dynamics in an electrified turbocharged diesel engine (ETDE), especially the couplings between different loops in the air path is analyzed. Furthermore, an explicit principle in selecting control variables is proposed. Based on the analysis, a model-based multi-input multi-output (MIMO) decoupling controller is designed to regulate the air path dynamics.

Crankcase emissions are a complex mixture of combustion products and aerosol generated from lubrication oil. The crankcase emissions contribute substantially to the total particulate matter (PM) emitted from an engine. Environment legislation demands that either the combustion and crankcase emissions are combined to give a total measurement, or the crankcase gases are re-circulated back into the engine. There is a lack of understanding regarding the physical processes that generate crankcase aerosols, with a paucity of information on the size/mass concentrations of particles present in the crankcase. In this study the particulate matter crankcase emissions were measured from a fired and motored 4-cylinder compression ignition engine at a range of speeds and crankcase locations.

In-cylinder temperatures and their cyclic variations strongly influence many aspects of internal combustion engine operation, from chemical reaction rates determining the production of NOx and particulate matter to the tendency for auto-ignition leading to knock in spark ignition engines. Spatially resolved measurements of temperature can provide insights into such processes and enable validation of Computational Fluid Dynamics simulations used to model engine performance and guide engine design. This work uses a combination of Two-Colour Planar Laser Induced Fluorescence (TC-PLIF) and Laser Induced Grating Spectroscopy (LIGS) to measure the in-cylinder temperature distributions of a firing optically accessible spark ignition engine. TC-PLIF performs 2-D temperature measurements using fluorescence emission in two different wavelength bands but requires calibration under conditions of known temperature, pressure and composition.

A control strategy has been designed for a city bus equipped with a pneumatic hybrid propulsion system. The control system design is based on the precise management of energy flows during both energy storage and regeneration. Energy recovered from the braking process is stored in the form of compressed air that is redeployed for engine start and to supplement the engine air supply during vehicle acceleration. Operation modes are changed dynamically and the energy distribution is controlled to realize three principal functions: Stop-Start, Boost and Regenerative Braking. A forward facing simulation model facilitates an analysis of the vehicle dynamic performance, engine transient response, fuel economy and energy usage.

Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) is one of several technologies that are being investigated to deliver future legislative emissions targets for diesel engines. Its application requires a detailed understanding of the thermo-fluidic processes within the engine's air system. A validated Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) process is one way of providing this understanding. This paper describes a CFD process to analyse unsteady manifold flows and mixing fields in the presence of realistic levels of EGR. The validation methodology was drawn from the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and divides the problem into smaller elemental problems. Detailed knowledge about these elemental problems is easily attainable, reducing the requirement for a large number of complex validation runs. The final validated process was compared to flow visualization and particle image velocimetry (PIV) data collected from a motored engine.

Modern automotive industry is driven by improved fuel efficiency, whilst simultaneously increasing output power and reducing size/weight of vehicle components. This trend has the drawback of inducing various Noise, Vibration and Harshness (NVH) concerns in the drivetrain, since fairly low energy excitation often suffices to excite natural modes of thin walled structures, such as the transmission bell housing. Transmission rattle is one of the many undesired NVH issues, originating from irregularities in engine torque output. The crankshaft speed fluctuations are transferred through the transmission input shaft. Transmission compactness also allows repetitive interaction of conjugate loose gear pairs. The engine fluctuations disturb the otherwise unintended, but orderly meshing of these loose gears. This often leads to radiation of a characteristic air-borne noise from the impact sites.

The automotive industry is subject to increasing pressure to reduce the CO2 emissions and improve fuel efficiency in internal combustion engines. Improvements may be achieved in a number of ways. The parasitic losses throughout the engine cycle emanate from friction in all engine contact conjunctions in addition to pumping losses. In particular one main contributory conjunction is the piston ring pack assembly. At low engine speeds, the contribution of friction to the total losses within the engine is increased significantly compared with the thermodynamic losses. Additionally, the sealing capability of the ring is crucial in determining the power output of the engine with any loss of sealing contributing to power loss, as well as blowby. Most reported studies on compression ring-cylinder conjunction do not take into account complex ring in-plane and out-of-plane elastodynamics.

Diesel homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) engines with early injection can result in significant spray/wall impingement which seriously affects the fuel efficiency and emissions. In this paper, the spray/wall interaction models which are available in the literatures are reviewed, and the characteristics of modeling including spray impingement regime, splash threshold, mass fraction, size and velocity of the second droplets are summarized. Then three well developed spray/wall interaction models, O'Rourke and Amsden (OA) model, Bai and Gosman (BG) model and Han, Xu and Trigui (HXT) model, are implemented into KIVA-3V code, and validated by the experimental data from recent literatures under the conditions related to diesel HCCI engines. By comparing the spray pattern, droplet mass, size and velocity after the impingement, the thickness of the wall film and vapor distribution with the experimental data, the performance of these three models are evaluated.

With the increasing stringent emissions legislation on ICEs, alongside requirements for enhanced fuel efficiency as key driving factors for many OEMs, there are many research activities supported by the automotive industry that focus on the development of hybrid and pure EVs. This change in direction from engine downsizing to the use of electric motors presents many new challenges concerning NVH performance, durability and component life. This paper presents the development of experimental methodology into the measurement of NVH characteristics in these new powertrains, thus characterizing the structure borne noise transmissibility through the shaft and the bearing to the housing. A feasibility study and design of a new system level test rig have been conducted to allow for sinusoidal radial loading of the shaft, which is synchronized with the shaft’s rotary frequency under high-speed transient conditions in order to evaluate the phenomena in the system.

For diesel engines, fuel path control plays a key role in achieving optimal emissions and fuel economy performance. There are several fuel path parameters that strongly affect the engine performance by changing the combustion process, by modifying for example, start of injection and fuel rail pressure. This is a multi-input multi-output problem. Linear Model Predictive Control (MPC) is a good approach for such a system with optimal solution. However, fuel path has fast dynamics. On-line optimisation MPC is not the good choice to cope with such fast dynamics. Explicit MPC uses off-line optimisation, therefore, it can be used to control the system with fast dynamics.

This paper deals with experimental investigations of the in-cylinder flow structures under steady state conditions utilizing Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV). The experiments have been conducted on an engine head of a pent-roof type (Lotus) for a number of fixed valve lifts and different inlet valve configurations at two pressure drops, 250mm and 635mm of H2O that correlate with engine speeds of 2500 and 4000 RPM respectively. From the two-dimensional in-cylinder flow measurements, a tumble flow analysis is carried out for six planes parallel to the cylinder axis. In addition, a swirl flow analysis is carried out for one horizontal plane perpendicular to the cylinder axis at half bore downstream from the cylinder head (44mm). The results show the advantage of using the planar technique (PIV) for investigating the complete flow structures developed inside the cylinder.