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An analysis of vehicle engine cooling airflow by means of a one-dimensional, transient, compressible flow model was carried out and revealed that similarity theory could be applied to investigate the variation of the airflow with ambient and operating conditions. It was recognized that for a given vehicle engine cooling system, the cooling airflow behavior could be explained using several dimensionless parameters that involve the vehicle speed, fan speed, heat transfer rate through the radiator, ambient temperature and pressure, and the system characteristic dimension. Using the flow resistance and fan characteristics measured from a prototype cooling system and the computer simulation for the one-dimensional compressible flow model, a quantitative correlation of non-dimensional mass flow rate to three dimensionless parameters for a prototype heavy-duty truck was established. The results are presented in charts, tables, and formulas.

A one-dimensional incompressible flow model covering the mechanisms involved in the airflow through an automotive radiator-shroud-fan system with no heat transfer was developed. An analytical expression to approximate the experimentally determined fan performance characteristics was used in conjunction with an analytical approach for this simplified cooling airflow model, and the solution is discussed with illustrations. A major result of this model is a closed form equation relating the transient velocity of the air to the vehicle speed, pressure rise characteristics and speed of the fan, as well as the dimensions and resistance of the radiator. This provides a basis for calculating cooling airflow rate under various conditions. The results of the incompressible flow analysis were further compared with the computational results obtained with a previously developed one-dimensional, transient, compressible flow model.

An accurate estimation of cycle-by-cycle in-cylinder mass and the composition of the cylinder charge is required for spark-ignition engine transient control strategies to obtain required torque, Air-Fuel-Ratio (AFR) and meet engine pollution regulations. Mass Air Flow (MAF) and Manifold Absolute Pressure (MAP) sensors have been utilized in different control strategies to achieve these targets; however, these sensors have response delay in transients. As an alternative to air flow metering, in-cylinder pressure sensors can be utilized to directly measure cylinder pressure, based on which, the amount of air charge can be estimated without the requirement to model the dynamics of the manifold.

Measurement of internal combustion engine air flow is challenging due to the required modification of the intake system and subsequent change in the air flow pattern. In this paper, various surge tank volumes were investigated to improve the accuracy of measuring air flow rate into a 674-cm3, four-stroke, liquid-cooled, internal combustion engine. According to the experimental results, when the venturi meter is used to measure the intake air flow rate, an air surge tank is required to be installed downstream of the venturi to smoothen the air flow. Moreover, test results revealed that increasing air surge tank volume beyond a limit could have a negative effect on the engine performance parameters especially in carbureted engines where controlling AFR is difficult. Although the air flow rate into the engine changed with increasing tank volume, the air-fuel ratio was leaner for smaller tank volumes.

It is beneficial but challenging to operate spark-ignition engines under highly lean and dilute conditions. The unstable ignition behavior can result in downgraded combustion performance in engine cylinders. Numerical approach is serving as a promising tool to identify the ignition requirements by providing insight into the complex physical/chemical phenomena. An effort to simulate the early stage of flame kernel initiation in lean and dilute fuel/air mixture has been made and discussed in this paper. The simulations are set to validate against laboratory results of spark ignition behavior in a constant volume combustion vessel. In order to present a practical as well as comprehensive ignition model, the simulations are performed by taking into consideration the discharge circuit analysis, the detailed reaction mechanism, and local heat transfer between the flame kernel and spark plug.

The characteristics of gasoline sprayed directly into combustion chambers are of critical importance to engine out emissions and combustion system development. The optimization of the spray characteristics to match the in-cylinder flow field, chamber geometry, and spark location is a vital tasks during the development of an engine combustion strategy. Furthermore, the presence of liquid fuel during combustion in Spark-Ignition (SI) engines causes increased hydro-carbon (HC) emissions. Euro 6, LEVIII, and US Tier 3 emissions regulations reduce the allowable particulate mass significantly from the previous standards. LEVIII standards reduce the acceptable particulate emission to 1 mg/mile. A good DISI strategy vaporizes the correct amount of fuel just in time for optimal power output with minimal emissions. The opening and closing phases of DISI injectors are crucial to this task as the spray produces larger droplets during both theses phases.

Fuel film formed in the spray-piston or cylinder wall impingement plays a critical role in engine performance and emissions. In this paper, the fuel film formation and the relevant film characteristics resulting from the liquid spray impinging on a flat plate were investigated in a constant volume combustion vessel by Refractive Index Matching (RIM) technique. The liquid film thickness was firstly calibrated with two different proportional mixtures (5% n-dodecane and 95% n-heptane; 10% n-dodecane and 90% n-heptane by volume) pumped out from a precise syringe to achieve an accurate calibration. After calibration, n-heptane fuel from a side-mounted single-hole diesel injector was then injected on a roughened glass with the same optical setup. The ambient temperature and the plate temperature are set to 423 K with the fuel temperature of 363 K.

For spark-ignition gasoline engines operating under the wide speed and load conditions required for light duty vehicles, ignition quality limits the ability to minimize fuel consumption and NOx emissions via dilution under light and part load conditions. In addition, during transients including tip-outs, high levels of dilution can occur for multiple combustion events before either the external exhaust gas can be adjusted and cleared from the intake or cam phasing can be adjusted for correct internal dilution. Further improvement and a thorough understanding of the impact of the ignition system on combustion near the dilution limit will enable reduced fuel consumption and robust transient operation. To determine and isolate the effects of multiple parameters, a variable output ignition system (VOIS) was developed and tested on a 3.5L turbocharged V6 homogeneous charge direct-injection gasoline engine with two spark plug gaps and three ignition settings.

The increasing complexity of vehicle engine cooling systems results in additional system interactions. Design and evaluation of such systems and related interactions requires a fully coupled detailed engine and cooling system model. The Vehicle Engine Cooling System Simulation (VECSS) developed at Michigan Technological University was enhanced by linking with GT-POWER for the engine/cycle analysis model. Enhanced VECSS (E-VECSS) predicts the effects of cooling system performance on engine performance including accessory power and fuel conversion efficiency. Along with the engine cycle, modeled components include the engine manifolds, turbocharger, radiator, charge-air-cooler, engine oil circuit, oil cooler, cab heater, coolant pump, thermostat, and fan. This tool was then applied to develop and simulate an actively controlled electric cooling system for a 12.7 liter diesel engine.

The increase in regulatory demand to reduce CO2 emissions resulted in a focus on the development of novel combustion modes such as gasoline compression ignition (GCI). It has been shown by others that GCI can improve the overall engine efficiency while achieving soot and NOx emissions targets. In comparison with diesel fuel, gasoline has a higher volatility and has more resistance to autoignition, therefore, it has a longer ignition delay time which facilitates better mixing of the air-fuel charge before ignition. In this study, a GCI combustion system has been tested using a 2.2L compression ignition engine as part of a US Department of Energy funded project. For this purpose, a multiple injection strategy was developed to improve the pressure rise rates and soot emission levels for the same engine out NOx emissions.

The piezoelectric cylinder pressure transducer is one of the most critical tools for internal combustion (IC) engine research and development. However, not all cylinder pressure transducers perform equally in every application, and the fidelity of transducers can vary across different models and manufacturers. Even slightly dissimilar models from the same manufacturer can have significantly different performance in areas such as sensitivity and resistance to intra-cycle thermal shock. These performance differences can lead to errors and inconsistencies in the calculation of combustion metrics like mean effective pressure (MEP), the polytropic compression and expansion exponents (PolyC and PolyE), and mass fraction burn (MFB) calculations. The variations can lead to suboptimal hardware and calibration choices during the engine development phase.

The necessity to study spray-wall interaction in internal combustion engines is driven by the evidence that fuel sprays impinge on chamber and piston surfaces resulting in the formation of wall films. This, in turn, may influence the air-fuel mixing and increase the hydrocarbon and particulate matter emissions. This work reports an experimental and numerical study on spray-wall impingement and liquid film formation in a constant volume combustion vessel. Diesel and n-heptane were selected as test fuels and injected from a side-mounted single-hole diesel injector at injection pressures of 120, 150, and 180 MPa on a flat transparent window. Ambient and plate temperatures were set at 423 K, the fuel temperature at 363 K, and the ambient densities at 14.8, 22.8, and 30 kg/m3. Simultaneous Mie scattering and schlieren imaging were carried out in the experiment to perform a visual tracking of the spray-wall interaction process from different perspectives.

In modern engine control applications, there is a distinct trend towards model-based control schemes. There are various reasons for this trend: Physical models allow deeper insights compared to heuristic functions, controllers can be designed faster and more accurately, and the possibility of obtaining an automated application scheme for the final engine to be controlled is a significant advantage. Another reason is that if physical effects can be separated, higher order models can be applied for different subsystems. This is in contrast to heuristic functions where the determination of the various maps poses large problems and is thus only feasible for low order models. One of the most important parts of an engine management system is the air-to-fuel control. The catalytic converter requires the mean air-to-fuel ratio to be very accurate in order to reach its optimal conversion rate. Disturbances from the active carbon filter and other additional devices have to be compensated.

The problem of adaptively controlling the mixture ratio can be reduced to the problem of identifying the respective non-linear system dynamics [ 19]. In the present paper, convenient models of the significant dynamic processes, i.e., intake manifold, wall-wetting and oxygen sensor dynamics, arc deduced. We will separate the analysis in terms of an air and a fuel path. Concerning the fuel path we restrict our attention exclusively to linear sensor models in order to keep the modelling overhead small. Nevertheless, considering the overall dynamics, we will have to deal with some inherent non-linearities. Suitable parametrizations of these models with respect to the demands imposed by the filtering techniques are then introduced. In the case of linear dynamics we aim to achieve a linear regression form whereas in the case of non-linear dynamics, we will augment the system state and apply extended Kalman filter theory.

The burned gas remaining in the cylinder after the exhaust stroke of an SI engine, i.e. the residual gas fraction, has a significant influence on both the torque production and the composition of the exhaust gas. This work investigates the behavior of the residual gas fraction over the entire operating range of the engine. A combined discrete-continuous linear model is identified, which describes the dynamic effects of the gas composition from when the gases enter the cylinder up to the measurement with a specific sensor. In this investigation, that sensor is a fast NO measurement device. The system is modelled by three elements in series: the in-cylinder mixing, the transport delay, and the exhaust mixing. The resulting model contains three elements in series connection: the in cylinder mixing, the transport delay, and the exhaust gas mixing. The model is able to calculate the fuel mass entering the cylinder during a fuel injection transient.

In this paper we introduce an improved model for the fuel supply dynamics in an SI engine. First, we briefly investigate all the thermodynamic phenomena which are assumed to have a significant impact on fuel flow into the cylinder (i.e., fuel atomization, droplet decay, wall-wetting, film evaporation, and mixture flow back). This theoretical analysis results in a basic set of dynamic equations. Unfortunately, these equations are not convenient to use for control purposes. Therefore, we proceed to a simplified formulation. Several unknown parameters remain, describing phenomena which are difficult to quantify, such as heat and material transfer characteristics. These parameters are subject to operating conditions and are not discussed further. In order to validate the model dynamics, we refer to frequency and step response measurements performed on a 4-cylinder, 1.8 liter BMW engine with sequential fuel injection.

This paper introduces a model-based adaptive controller designed to compensate mixture ratio dynamics in an SI engine. In the basic model the combined dynamics of wall-wetting and oxygen sensor have to be considered because the only information about process dynamics originates from measuring exhaust λ. The controller design is based on the principles of indirect Model Reference Adaptive Control (MRAC). The indirect approach connotes that explicit identification of the system parameters is required for the determination of the controller parameters. Due to nonlinearities and delays inherent in the process dynamics, an adaptive extended Kalman filter is used for identification purposes. The Kalman filter method has already been described in detail within an earlier paper [1]. It proves to be ideally suited to deal with nonlinear identification problems. The estimated parameters are further used to tune an adaptive observer for wall-wetting dynamics.

In this paper the fuel path of a sequentially injected gasoline engine is discussed. Since a fraction of the injected fuel suffers a delay due to the wall-wetting phenomenon, in transient phases a significant deviation of the air-to-fuel ratio from its setpoint can arise. The amount of fuel on the manifold wall and its rate of evaporation cannot be measured directly. Therefore, the effects of the wall-wetting on exhaust lambda and engine torque have to be considered for the identification of the dynamics. The dynamics of the exhaust-gas-oxygen (EGO) sensor is not negligible for the interpretation of the lambda measurement. Since both the dynamics and the statics of a ZrO2 Sensor are very nonlinear, a normal EGO-sensor is not suitable for these investigations. On the other hand, the engine torque is a good measure for the cylinder lambda when all other effects which lead to torque changes can be eliminated.

In order to achieve maximum fuel efficiency, the SI engine of the new CVT-equipped hybrid car developed at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) is operated in a high power regime (such as highway driving at speeds above 120 km/h) with its throttle in its 100-percent open position. Whenever an engine power which exceeds 11 kWs is demanded, there exists an equilibrium point between the engine torque and the torque induced by the drag. Any regulation of the vehicle speed has to be performed by altering the gear ratio of the CVT. If any acceleration is required, it is necessary to increase the engine speed. This requires that the vehicle has to be slowed down for a certain short period of time. If this characteristic behaviour of the car (which is typical for a non-minimum-phase system) is not accepted by a driver who demands and expects immediate acceleration, it might lead to critical situations.

Coincident 3-D velocity measurements have been made in a single-cylinder, motored research engine using a six-beam, three-wavelength LDV system. The engine had a pancake combustion chamber, a compression ratio of 8.0 and was operated with a fixed intake shroud valve position. Measurements have been performed at 600, 1000 and 1500 RPM and at three distinct locations within the combustion chamber. Software coincidence filtering and ensemble averaging have been thereby used for data processing.