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Increased in-cylinder hydrogen levels have been shown to improve burn durations, combustion stability, HC emissions and knock resistance which can directly translate into enhanced engine efficiency. External fuel reformation can also be used to increase the hydrogen yield. During the High-Efficiency, Dilute Gasoline Engine (HEDGE) consortium at Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), the potential of increased hydrogen production in a dedicated-exhaust gas recirculation (D-EGR) engine was evaluated exploiting the water gas shift (WGS) and steam reformation (SR) reactions. It was found that neither approach could produce sustained hydrogen enrichment in a real exhaust environment, even while utilizing a lean-rich switching regeneration strategy. Platinum group metal (PGM) and Ni WGS catalysts were tested with a focus on hydrogen production and catalyst durability.

The confluence of fuel economy improvement requirements and increased use of ethanol as a gasoline blend component has led to various studies into the efficiency and performance benefits to be had when using high octane number, high ethanol content fuels in modern engines. As part of a comprehensive study of the autoignition of fuels in both the CFR octane rating engine and a modern, direct injection, turbocharged spark ignited engine, a series of fuel blends were prepared with market relevant ranges of octane numbers and ethanol blends levels. The paper reports on the first part of this study where fuel flow measurements were done on a single cylinder research engine, utilizing a GM LHU combustion system, and then used to predict drive cycle fuel economy. For a range of engine speeds and manifold air pressures, spark timing was adjusted to achieve either the maximum brake torque (MBT) or a matched 50 % mass fraction burnt location.

Engine start-up (cranking) can be an important source of particle emissions from vehicles. With the penetration of GDI vehicles in the global vehicle fleet, it is important to analyze and understand the contribution of start-up particle emissions from GDI vehicles, and the potential effects of fuel properties on that process. In this work, chassis dynamometer based investigation on the effect of several gasoline fuels (commercial and blended) on both, naturally aspirated and turbocharged GDI vehicles were conducted to understand the importance of engine start up, in particular, cranking. 10 commercially available gasoline fuels were tested on a naturally aspirated 2010 model year GDI vehicle, 3 among these commercially available fuels were tested on another 2009 model year turbocharged GDI vehicle, and 8 blended gasoline fuels were tested on 12 other GDI vehicles (7 turbocharged and 5 naturally aspirated) ranging in model years 2011-2015.

High dilution engines have been shown to have a significant fuel economy improvement over their non-dilute counterparts. Much of this improvement comes through an increase in compression ratio enabled by the high knock resistance from high dilution. Unfortunately, the same reduction in reactivity that leads to the knock reduction also reduces flame speed, leading to the engine becoming unstable at high dilution rates. Advanced ignition systems have been shown to improve engine stability, but their impact is limited to the area at, or very near, the spark plug. To further improve the dilute combustion, a system in which a microwave field is established in the combustion chamber is proposed. This standing electric field has been shown, in other applications, to improve dilution tolerance and increase the burning velocity.

Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) converted a Cummins ISX 12 G in-line six-cylinder engine to a Dedicated EGRTM (D-EGRTM) configuration. D-EGR is an efficient way to produce reformate and increase the EGR rate. Two of the six cylinders were utilized as the dedicated cylinders. This supplied a nominal EGR rate of 33% compared to the baseline engine utilizing 15-20% EGR. PFI injectors were added to dedicated cylinders to supply the extra fuel required for reformation. The engine was tested with a high energy dual coil offset (DCO®) ignition system. The stock engine was tested at over 70 points to map the performance, 13 of these points were at RMC SET points. The D-EGR converted engine was tested at the RMC SET points for comparison to the baseline. The initial results from the D-EGR conversion show a 4% relative BTE improvement compared to the baseline due to the increased EGR rate at 1270 rpm, 16 bar BMEP.

The abnormal autoignition of the unburned gas, namely knock, at high loads is a major challenge for modern spark ignited engines. Knock prevents the application of high compression ratios due to the increased unburned gas temperature, and it becomes increasingly severe for downsized engines with high specific powers. The current paper reports on the potential of utilizing continuously variable valve actuation (VVA) and low-pressure exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) to reduce knock tendency at high loads. Five speed / load points were investigated on a 1.6 L turbocharged gasoline direct injection engine. The brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC) response to the valve phasing and the intake valve lift was investigated with the design of experiment (DoE) approach. The DoE was conducted using a Box-Behnken surface response model. The results exhibited insensitive response of BSFC to intake valve lift and overlap.

As part of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) continuing assessment of advanced light-duty automotive technologies in support of regulatory and compliance programs, a 2018 Toyota Camry A25A-FKS 4-cylinder, 2.5-liter, naturally aspirated, Atkinson Cycle engine with cooled exhaust gas recirculation (cEGR) was benchmarked. The engine was tested on an engine dynamometer with and without its 8-speed automatic transmission, and with the engine wiring harness tethered to a complete vehicle parked outside of the test cell. Engine and transmission torque, fuel flow, key engine temperatures and pressures, onboard diagnostics (OBD) data, and Controller Area Network (CAN) bus data were recorded. This paper documents the test results under idle, low, medium, and high load engine operation. Motoring torque, wide open throttle (WOT) torque and fuel consumption are measured during transient operation using both EPA Tier 2 and Tier 3 test fuels.

Diesel engines are facing increased competition from gasoline engines in the light-duty and small non-road segments, primarily due to the high relative cost of emissions control systems for lean-burn diesel engines. Advancements in gasoline engine technology have decreased the operating cost advantage of diesels and the relatively high initial-cost disadvantage is now too large to sustain a strong business position. SwRI has focused several years of research efforts toward enabling diesel engine combustion systems to operate at stoichiometric conditions, which allows the application of a low-cost three-way catalyst emission control system which has been well developed for gasoline spark-ignited engines. One of the main barriers of this combustion concept is the result of high smoke emissions from poor fuel/air mixing.

Combustion losses are one of the largest areas on inefficiency in natural gas/diesel dual-fuel engines, especially when compared to the traditional diesel engines on which they are based. These losses can vary from 1-2% at high load, to more than 6% of the total fuel energy at part load conditions. For diesel/natural gas dual-fuel engines, the three main sources of combustion losses are: bulk losses (increasing air-fuel ratio, AFR, to the premixed fuel’s lean flammability limit), crevice losses (premixed fuel trapped near valve pockets and top ring lands unable to oxidize), and blow-through losses (fumigated fuel/air intake charge passes through the cylinder and out the exhaust valve during valve overlap). In order to improve overall engine efficiency and decrease greenhouse gas emissions, these losses must be minimized.

Since the conception of the internal combustion engine, smoky and ill-smelling exhaust was prevalent. Over the last century, significant improvements have been made in improving combustion and in treating the exhaust to reduce these effects. One group of compounds typically found in exhaust, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), usually occurs at very low concentrations in diesel engine exhaust. Some of these compounds are considered carcinogenic, and most are considered hazardous air pollutants (HAP). Many methods have been developed for sampling, handling, and analyzing PAH. For this study, an improved method for dilute exhaust sampling was selected for sampling the PAH in diesel engine exhaust. This sampling method was used during transient engine operation both with and without aftertreatment to show the effect of aftertreatment.

Many studies on low speed pre-ignition have been published to investigate the impact of fuel properties and of lubricant properties. Fuels with high aromatic content or higher distillation temperatures have been shown to increase LSPI activity. The results have also shown that oil additives such as calcium sulfonate tend to increase the occurrence of LSPI while others such as magnesium sulfonate tend to decrease the occurrence. Very few studies have varied the fuel and oil properties at the same time. This approach is useful in isolating only the impact of the oil or the fuel, but both fluids impact the LSPI behavior of the engine simultaneously. To understand how the lubricant and fuel impacts on LSPI interact, a series of LSPI tests were performed with a matrix which combined fuels and lubricants with a range of LSPI activity. This study was intended to determine if a low activity lubricant could suppress the increased LSPI from a high activity fuel, and vice versa.

Recent legislation enacted for the European Union (EU) and the United States calls for a substantial reduction in particulate mass (and number in the EU) emissions from gasoline spark-ignited vehicles. The most prominent technology being evaluated to reduce particulate emissions from a gasoline vehicle is a wall flow filter known as a gasoline particulate filter (GPF). Similar in nature to a diesel particulate filter (DPF), the GPF will trap and store particulate emissions from the engine, and oxidize said particulate with frequent regeneration events. The GPF will also collect ash particles in the wall flow substrate, which are metallic components that cannot be oxidized into gaseous components. Due to high temperature operation and frequent regeneration of the GPF, the impact of ash on the GPF has the potential to be substantially different from the impact of ash on the DPF.

To meet increasingly stringent emissions and fuel economy regulations, many Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) have recently developed and deployed small, high power density engines. Turbocharging, coupled with gasoline direct injection (GDI) has enabled a rapid engine downsizing trend. While these turbocharged GDI (TGDI) engines have indeed allowed for better fuel economy in many light duty vehicles, TGDI technology has also led to some unintended consequences. The most notable of these is an abnormal combustion phenomenon known as low speed pre-ignition (LSPI). LSPI is an uncontrolled combustion event that takes place prior to spark ignition, often resulting in knock, and has been known to cause catastrophic engine damage. LSPI propensity depends on a number of factors including engine design, calibration, fuel properties and engine oil formulation. Several engine tests have been developed within the industry to better understand the phenomenon of LSPI.

Gasoline direction injection (GDI) engines have been widely used by light-duty vehicle manufacturers in recent years to meet stringent fuel economy and emissions standards. Particulate Matter (PM) mass emissions from current GDI engines are primarily composed of soot particles or black carbon with a small fraction (15% to 20%) of semi-volatile hydrocarbons generated from unburned/partially burned fuel and lubricating oil. Between 2017 and 2025, PM mass emissions regulations in the USA are expected to become progressively more stringent going down from current level of 6 mg/mile to 1 mg/mile in 2025. As PM emissions are reduced through soot reduction, lubricating oil derived semi-volatile PM is expected to become a bigger fraction of total PM mass emissions.

The study described in this paper covers the development of the Sequence IX Low Speed Pre-Ignition (LSPI) test for the new engine oil category, ILSAC GF-6. The purpose of the Sequence IX test is to evaluate a lubricant’s ability to protect against LSPI events which are prevalent when operating a highly boosted/downsized gasoline direct-injected engine. LSPI is characterized as a combustion event that starts before ignition spark, typically followed by excessive in-cylinder pressures and heavy knock, which can cause severe engine damage and failure. Industry research has shown that oil formulation can contribute to the frequency of LSPI activity. The Sequence IX test was developed using a turbocharged gasoline direct-injected 2.0 liter Ford Ecoboost engine with dual independent variable cam timing. The engine was modified with in-cylinder pressure sensors and a high-resolution crank angle encoder to characterize individual engine combustion cycles and identify potential LSPI events.

The objectives of this project were to investigate the corrosivity of condensate in a stoichiometric spark-ignited (SI) engine when running exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) and to determine the effects of sulfur-in-fuel on corrosion. A 2.0 L turbocharged direct-injected SI engine was operated with low-pressure EGR for this study. The engine was instrumented for visual, thermodynamic, and electrochemical analyses to determine the potential for corrosion at locations where condensation was deemed likely in a low-pressure loop EGR (LPL-EGR) engine. The electrochemical analysis was performed using multi-electrode array (MEA) corrosion probes. Condensate was also collected and analyzed. These analyses were performed downstream of both the charge air cooler (CAC) and the EGR cooler. It was found that while conditions existed for sulfuric acid to form with high-sulfur fuel, no sulfuric acid was detected by any of the measurement methods.

Solid and metallic ash particle number (PN) and particulate matter (PM) mass emission measurements were performed on a heavy-duty (HD) on-highway diesel engine and a compressed natural gas (CNG) engine. Measurements were conducted under transient engine operation that included the FTP, WHTC and RMC. Both engines were calibrated to meet CARB ultra low NOX emission target of 0.02 g/hp-hr, a 90% reduction from current emissions limit. The HD diesel engine final exhaust configuration included a number of aftertreatement sub-systems in addition to a selective catalytic reduction filter (SCRF). The stoichiometric CNG engine final configuration included a closed coupled Three Way Catalyst (ccTWC) and an under floor TWC (ufTWC). The aftertreatment systems for both engines were aged for a full useful life (FUL) of 435,000 miles, prior to emissions testing. PM mass emissions from both engines were comparable and well below the US EPA emissions standard.

Cooled Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) technology provides significant benefits such as better cycle efficiency, knock tolerance and lower NOx/PM emissions. However, EGR dilution also poses challenges in terms of combustion stability, power density and control. Conventional control schemes for EGR engines rely on a differential pressure sensor combined with an orifice flow model to estimate EGR flow rate. While EGR rate is an important quantity, intake O2 mass fraction may be a better indication of EGR, capturing quantity as well as “quality” of EGR. SwRI has successfully used intake O2 mass fraction as a controlled state to manage several types of EGR engines - dual loop EGR diesel engines, low pressure loop /dedicated EGR (D-EGR) gasoline engines as well as dual fuel engines. Several suppliers are currently developing intake O2 sensors but they typically suffer from limited accuracy, response time and reliability. Also, addition of a new sensor implies increased production costs.

The thermal efficiency benefits of low-pressure (LP) exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) in spark-ignition engine combustion are well known. One of the greatest barriers facing adoption of LP-EGR for high power-density applications is the challenge of boosting. Variable nozzle turbines (VNTs) have recently been developed for gasoline applications operating at high exhaust gas temperatures (EGTs). The use of a single VNT as a boost device may provide a lower-cost option compared to two-stage boosting systems or 48 V electronic boost devices for some LP-EGR applications. A predictive model was created based on engine testing results from a 1.6 L turbocharged gasoline direct injection (GDI) engine [1]. The model was tuned so that it predicted burn-rates and end-gas knock over an engine operating map with varying speeds, loads, EGR rates and fuel types.

As fuel economy becomes increasingly important in all markets, complete engine system optimization is required to meet future standards. In many applications, it is difficult to realize the optimum coolant or lubricant pump without first evaluating different sets of engine hardware and iterating on the flow and pressure requirements. For this study, a Heavy Duty Diesel (HDD) engine was run in a dynamometer test cell with full variability of the production coolant and lubricant pumps. Two test stands were developed to allow the engine coolant and lubricant pumps to be fully mapped during engine operation. The pumps were removed from the engine and powered by electric motors with inline torque meters. Each fluid circuit was instrumented with volume flow meters and pressure measurements at multiple locations. After development of the pump stands, research efforts were focused on hardware changes to reduce coolant and lubricant flow requirements of the HDD engine.