Search Results

Classical approaches to pollution control have been to develop benign non-polluting processes or to abate emissions at the tailpipe or stack before emitting to the atmosphere. A new technology called PremAir™ Catalyst Systems takes a different approach and reduces the existing ground level ozone. For the automotive application, the new systems involve placing a catalytic coating on a car's radiator and air conditioner condenser. As air which contains ozone passes over the radiator and condenser, the catalyst converts the ozone into oxygen. Tests conducted on a 1991 full size passenger vehicle showed that the PremAir™ Catalyst System could convert up to 90% of the ozone passing over the radiator during a driving cycle lasting 5840 kilometers (3650 miles). The effect of ozone concentration and flow rate were determined as well as the ozone destruction rate over the coated radiator. During the 5840 kilometers of driving, the catalyst exhibited steady ozone conversion.

This paper describes an investigation of one operating point of the transient warmup curve of a gasoline engine. Coolant liquid and oil of this engine have been cooled down to a constant low level in order to perform detailed measurements and an analysis of this particular warmup point. The influence of low coolant temperature, different pressure drop in an air assisted fuel injection system and a variation of ignition angles on specific fuel consumption, exhaust emissions, energy conversion etc. will be shown. The results show that the suggested test procedure (keeping the coolant temperature at a constant low level) provides the possibility to simulate the behaviour of an engine with air assisted fuel injection during warmup. During this warmup period it is desired to run the engine with retarded ignition timing to realize a fast catalyst warmup.

A novel process for coating and assembling metal converters utilizing precoated foil as building blocks has been developed which yields a converter capable of withstanding typical industry specified hot vibration protocols. The precoating process used here results in uniform catalyst coating distributions with coating adhesion to the foil on a par with the coatings' adhesion to ceramic substrates. FTP and MVEG vehicle emission performance of this unique precoated metal converter design versus a more conventional dip-coated metal monolith (parts with the same volume, cell density, and tri-metal catalyst coating), exhibited improved catalyst emission breakthrough efficiencies with respect to HC, CO, and NOx after two different engine-aging protocols. These advantages were observed on three different test vehicles across most phases of these driving cycles.

Strategic Materials at Reaction Temperatures (SMART) is an approach used to design washcoat systems for passive 4-way emission control catalysts. Light duty diesel vehicles need to meet the European Motor Vehicle Emissions Group (MVEG) cycle or U. S. Federal test procedure (FTP 75). Emissions that are monitored include hydrocarbon (HC), nitrogen oxides (NOx), carbon monoxide (CO) and total particulate matter (TPM). Low engine-exhaust temperatures (< 200°C during city driving) and high temperatures (> 500-800°C under full load and wide-open throttle) make emission control a formidable task for the catalyst designer Gas phase HC, CO and NOx reactions must be balanced with the removal of the soluble organic fraction for the vehicle to be in compliance with regulations. The SMART approach uses model gases under typical operating conditions in the laboratory to better understand the function of individual washcoat components.

Catalytic reduction of NOx from heavy duty diesel engines via addition of reductant to the exhaust is accompanied by a substantial exotherm in the catalyst bed which does not occur, for example, in a diesel oxidation catalyst. Engine tests show that thermal management in the aftertreatment system is required for optimum reductant use and maximum NOx conversion by the low-temperature (200-300°C) catalyst NSP-5, but of less importance with the high temperature (> 350°C) Catalyst A. Understanding thermal effects is also important for reconciling test results in the near-adiabatic environment of a full-sized catalyst on an engine with the near-isothermal one of a test piece in a laboratory reactor. The effects of reductant type and concentration on NOx conversion on NSP-5 were shown to result in part from non-steady state behavior of the catalyst during steady state engine operation.

In a joint research project between industrial companies and a number of research institutes, nitrogen oxide conversion in oxygen containing exhaust gas has been investigated according to the following procedure Basic investigations of elementary steps of the chemical reaction Production and prescreening of different catalytic material on laboratory scale Application oriented screening of industrial catalyst material Catalyst testing on a lean bum gasoline engine, passenger car diesel engines (swirl chamber and DI) and on a DI truck engine Although a number of solid body structures show nitrogen oxide reduction by hydrocarbons, only noble metal containing catalysts and transition metal exchanged zeolites gave catalytic efficiencies of industrial relevance. A maximum of 25 % NOx reduction was found in the European driving cycle for passenger cars, about 40 % for truck engines in the respective European test.

Meeting the California Medium-Duty truck emissions standards presents a significant challenge to automotive engineers due to the combination of sustained high temperature exhaust conditions, high flow rates and relatively high engine out emissions. A successful catalyst for an exhaust treatment system must be resistant to high temperature deactivation, maintain cold start performance and display high three-way conversion efficiencies under most operating conditions. This paper describes a catalyst technology and precious metal loading study targeting a California Medium-Duty truck LEV (MDV2) application. At the same time a direction is presented for optimizing toward the Federal Tier 1 standard through reduction of precious metal use. The paper identifies catalytic formulations for a twin substrate, 1.23 L medium-coupled converter. Two are used per vehicle, mounted 45 cm downstream of each manifold on a 5.7 L V8 engine.

Because of their relatively low particulate make, lean burn natural gas vehicles (NGV's) are a viable approach to meeting the ULEV particulate standards in urban environments where NGV's are substituted for diesel powered buses and other fleet vehicles. Our experience with oxidation catalyst technology for natural gas vehicle emissions abatement has been consistent: that palladium based catalysts maintain excellent NMHC activity and particulate reduction, but methane activity, while initially very high, decreases within the first 50 hours of operation. This paper will show that sulfur oxides at sub-ppm concentrations diminish catalyst methane activity, and that inorganic ash components from the lubricating oil (P, Zn, Ca) do not significantly contribute to the initial catalyst deactivation. Using laboratory simulations, we explore systems approaches to increasing catalyst life.

Laser-induced exciplex fluorescence has been applied to the mixture formation process in the combustion chamber of an optically-accessible four-cylinder in-line spark-ignition engine in order to distinguish between liquid and vapor fuel distribution during the intake and compression stroke for different injection timings. The naphthalene/N,N,N′N′-tetramethyl p-phenylene diamine (TMPD) exciplex system excited at 308nm with a broadband XeCl excimer laser is used to obtain spectrally-separated, single-shot fluorescence images of the liquid or vapor phase of the fuel. For different timings of the fuel injector this technique is applied to obtain crank-angle-resolved images of the resulting mixture in the combustion chamber. The fluorescence light is detected with an intensified slow-scan CCD-camera equipped with appropriate filters.

For high-speed imaging a newly developed eight-fold CCD camera, which permits framing rates of up to one million pictures per second, was used to obtain pictures of the injected sprays during the operation of a diesel engine. For the particular case studied here the framing rate was set at 50,000 pictures per second. This rate was sufficient to resolve the temporal development of the sprays in the transparent version of the four-cylinder, in-line, 1.9 litre DI production diesel engine of Volkswagen. The advantage of the camera is that it needs no light pulses for illumination, but can operate with a continuous light source. Each of the CCD chips is arranged around a central eight face reflecting pyramid, which splits the light coming from the camera lens to each CCD chip. The chips can be shuttered freely (asynchronously) at programmable inter-frame spacings thus permitting operation with continuous illumination. In this particular case a 30 Watt halogen lamp was used.

Mixture formation analysis in the combustion chamber of a slightly modified mass-production SI engine with port-fuel injection using nonintrusive laser measurement techniques is presented. Laser Raman scattering and planar laser-induced tracer fluorescence are employed to measure air-fuel ratio and residual gas content of the charge with and without spatial resolution. Single-cycle measurements as well as cycle-averaged measurements are performed. Engine operation parameters like load, speed, injection timing, spark timing, coolant temperature, and mean air-fuel ratio are changed to study whether the effects on mixture formation and engine performance can be resolved by the applied laser spectroscopic techniques. Mixture formation is also analyzed by measurement of the charge composition as a function of crank angle. Clear correlations of the charge composition data and engine operating conditions are seen.

Quantitative 1-D spatially-resolved NO LIF measurements in the combustion chamber of a mass-production SI engine with port-fuel injection using a tunable KrF excimer laser are presented. One of the main advantages of this approach is that KrF laser radiation at 248 nm is only slightly absorbed by the in-cylinder gases during engine combustion and therefore it allows measurements at all crank angles. Multispecies detection turned out to be crucial for this approach since it is possible to calculate the in-cylinder temperature from the detected Rayleigh scattering and the simultaneously acquired pressure traces. Additionally, it allows the monitoring of interfering emissions and spectroscopic effects like fluorescence trapping which turned out to take place. Excitation with 248 nm yields LIF emissions at shorter wavelengths than the laser wavelength (at 237 and 226 nm).

The overall perception of a vehicle's quality is significantly influenced by its interior noise characteristics. Therefore, it is important to strike a balance between “pleasant” and “dynamic” sound that fits the customer requirements with respect to vehicle brand and class [1]. Typically, a significant share of the interior vehicle noise is transferred through structure-borne paths. Hence, the powertrain mounting system plays an important role in designing the interior noise. This paper describes an application of the method of vehicle interior noise simulation (VINS) to achieve a characteristic interior sound. This approach is based on separate measurements (or calculations) of excitations and transfer functions and subsequent calculation of the interior noise in the time domain.

In direct-injection gasoline (GDI) engines with charge stratification, minimizing engine-out nitrogen oxide (NOx) emission is crucial since exhaust-gas aftertreatment tolerates only limited amounts of NOx. Reduced NOx production directly lowers the frequency of energy-inefficient catalyst regeneration cycles. In this paper we investigate NO formation in a realistic GDI engine. Quantitative in-cylinder measurements of NO concentrations are carried out via laser-induced fluorescence imaging with excitation of NO (A-X(0,2) band at 248 nm), and subsequent fluorescence detection at 220-240 nm. Engine modifications were kept to a minimum in order to provide results that are representative of practical operating conditions. Optical access via a sapphire ring enabled identical engine geometry as a production line engine. The engine is operated with commercial gasoline (“Super-Plus”, RON 98).

The growing demand for the use of magnesium alloys in the production of automotive powertrain components led to the development of creep resistant diecasting alloys MRI153M and MRI230D. The present paper addresses the main high-pressure die casting parameters, which significantly affect the performance of components, produced of these new alloys. A systematic study was carried out in order to correlate die-casting parameters to the performance of new alloys. The results obtained clearly indicated that optimization of molten metal and die temperatures, injection profile parameters and lubrication mixtures allowed to improve the die castability and service properties of the new alloys and produce high performance components with intricate geometry. This was manifested by production of several practical demonstrators such as gearboxes, oil pans, oil pumps and crankcases.

Water vapor is, aside from carbon dioxide, the major fossil fuel combustion by-product. Depending on its concentration in the exhaust gas mixture as well as on the exhaust gas pressure, its condensation temperature can be derived. For typical gasoline engine stoichiometric operating conditions, the water vapor dew point lies at about 53 °C. The exhaust gas mixture does however contain some pollutants coming from the fuel, engine oil, and charge air, which can react with the water vapor and affect the condensation process. For instance, sulfur trioxide present in the exhaust, reacts with water vapor forming sulfuric acid. This acid builds a binary system with water vapor, which presents a dew point often above 100 °C. Exhaust composition after leaving the combustion chamber strongly depends on fuel type, engine concept and operation point. Furthermore, the exhaust undergoes several chemical after treatments.

A 3-dimensional numerical study has been conducted investigating the combustion process in a VW 1.9l TDI Diesel engine. Simulations were performed modeling the spray injection of a 5-hole Diesel injector in a pressure chamber. A graphical methodology was utilized to match the spray resulting from the widely used Discrete Droplet Spray model to pressure chamber spray images. Satisfactory agreement has been obtained regarding the simulated and experimental spray penetration and cone angles. Thereafter, the combustion process in the engine was simulated. Using engine measurements to initialize the combustion chamber conditions, the compression stroke, the spray injection and the combustion simulation was performed. The novel RTZF two-zone flamelet combustion model was used for the combustion simulation and was tested for partial load operating conditions. An objective analysis of the model is presented including the results of a numerical parameter study.

A new method for the analysis of the gas flow in an internal combustion engine has been developed. It is based on the interactive coupling between commercially available three (STAR-CD) and one dimensional (PROMO) fluid dynamics codes. With this method the detailed transient flow distribution for any engine component of interest can be calculated taking into account the overall gas dynamic interaction with other engine components. The underlying physics and numerics are outlined. A description of the coupling procedure ensuring proper communication between the two computer codes is given. Also addressed is the averaging procedure adopted at the 3D boundaries, including the influence of the 1D/3D interface placement. A first application of this new method is presented, in which the gas flow in a turbo-charged DI-diesel-engine is simulated.

A uniform flow distribution at converter inlet is one of the fundamental requirements to meet high catalytic efficiency. Commonly used tools for optimization of the inlet flow distribution are flow measurements as well as CFD analysis. This paper puts emphasis on the experimental procedures and results. The interaction of flow measurements and CFD is outlined. The exhaust gas flow is transient, compressible and hot, making in-situ flow measurements very complex. On the other hand, to utilize the advantages of flow testing at steady-state and cold conditions the significance of these results has to be verified first. CFD analysis under different boundary conditions prove that - in a first approach - the flow situation can be regarded as a sequence of successive, steady-state situations. Using the Reynolds analogy a formula for the steady-state, cold test mass flow is derived, taking into account the cylinder displacement and the rated speed.

Sulfur content in gasoline is known to reduce the efficiency of the catalytic converters that are used to reduce pollutants in the exhaust gas of cars. There is some concern that nitrous oxide emissions (N2O) increase when fuel with a high sulfur content is used. The engine out and tailpipe mass emissions of two cars conforming to the California LEV-standard were analyzed. The influence of the fuel sulfur content on the emissions of the regulated and some unregulated pollutants during FTP test cycles was determined. Four fuels covering the range from less than 1 to 330 ppm sulfur content were used. Over that range of fuel sulfur concentration the engine out emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO2 ) of both cars increased. Tailpipe emissions of SO2 were only found at fuel sulfur concentrations of 150 and 330 ppm. For both vehicles a correlation between the N2O emissions and the fuel sulfur content was found.