Search Results

Powertrain electrification is becoming increasingly common in the transportation sector to address the challenges of global warming and deteriorating air quality. This paper introduces a novel “Build Your Hybrid” approach to experience and test various hybrid powertrain concepts. This approach is applied to the light commercial vehicles (LCV) segment due to the attractive combination of a Diesel engine and a partly electrified powertrain. For this purpose, a demonstrator vehicle has been set up with a flexible P02 hybrid topology and a prototype Hybrid Control Unit (HCU). Based on user input, the HCU software modifies the control functions and simulation models to emulate different sub-topologies and levels of hybridization in the demonstrator vehicle. Three powertrain concepts are considered for LCVs: HV P2, 48V P2 and 48V P0 hybrid. Dedicated hybrid control strategies are developed to take full advantage of the synergies of the electrical system and reduce CO2 and NOx emissions.

The method of flame ionization was used for measuring total hydrocarbons in both single-cylinder and multicylinder 4-cycle, direct injection diesel engine exhaust. Use of the emission parameters of hydrocarbon concentration, per cent unburned fuel, specific hydrocarbon rate, mass of hydrocarbons per million cycles, mass of hydrocarbons per mile, and mass of hydrocarbons per ton-mile are discussed. The basic approach used in the flame ionization detector is shown. The hydrocarbon sample was transferred from the exhaust system through a heated sample line and oven operating at 375 F. The sample line was aspirated to reduce the sample residence time to 2 sec. The effect various sampling locations have on hydrocarbon measurements from a single-cylinder engine is shown and discussed. The effects of load, speed, and injection timing on hydrocarbon emission data are shown for a single-cylinder engine.

Regulated emissions from four current production European vehicles were measured over the Common Artemis Driving Cycles (CADC). Particulate Mass and Particle Number measurements were made in accordance with the newly-developed draft Particulate Measurement Programme (PMP) developed for the UN-ECE's expert group on pollution and energy (GRPE). During the test programme measurements were also made of currently non-regulated emissions including PAHs and speciation of the particulate material and key hydrocarbons. CADC results are presented for each of the four vehicles tested (one conventional gasoline vehicle, two different types of diesel without Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF) and one diesel with DPF) with results measured on the regulated New European Driving Cycle (NEDC) test for comparison. The emissions results on the Artemis cycles showed some significant differences from those on the regulated (NEDC) test cycle.

This study proposes a novel biofuel for spark ignition (SI) engine, α-pinene (C10H16), which is non-oxygenated and thus has a gravimetric energy density comparable to that of hydrocarbon fuels. The ignition characteristics of α-pinene were evaluated in an ignition quality tester (IQT) under standard temperature and pressure conditions. The measured ignition delay time (IDT) of α-pinene is 10.5 ms, which is lower than that of iso-octane, 17.9 ms. The estimated research octane number (RON) for pinene from IQT is 85. A temperature sweep in IQT showed that that α-pinene is less reactive at low temperatures, but more reactive at high temperatures when compared to isooctane. These results suggest that α-pinene has high octane sensitivity (OS) and is suitable for operation in turbocharged SI engines. With these considerations, α-pinene was operated in a single cylinder SI engine.

The Swedish Biomimetics 3000's μMist® platform technology has been used to develop a radically new injection system. This prototype system, developed and characterized with support from Lotus, as part of Swedish Biomimetics 3000®'s V₂IO innovation accelerating model, delivers improved combustion efficiency through achieving exceptionally small droplets, at fuel rail pressures far less than conventional GDI systems and as low as PFI systems. The system gives the opportunity to prepare and deliver all of the fuel load for the engine while the intake valves are open and after the exhaust valves have closed, thereby offering the potential to use advanced charge scavenging techniques in PFI engines which have hitherto been restricted to direct-injection engines, and at a lower system cost than a GDI injection system.

RADIOTRACERS were used to study the wear effects of engine speed, load, jacket water temperature, fuel temperature, and chromium-plated rings in a medium-speed diesel engine. One distillate fuel and two residual fuels were tested. This paper describes the tests and their results. Some of the conclusions are: The brake thermal efficiency with high viscosity residual fuel was essentially equal to distillate diesel fuel over a wide range of loads, providing the residual fuel was heated to the proper temperature. Engine speed did not affect the wear rate of cast-iron rings when distillate fuel was used, while with residual fuel wear decreased with increased speed. With distillate fuel, engine load had essentially no effect on cast-iron ring wear. With residual fuel, decreasing engine load produced a marked increase in ring wear*

COMPARISON of work capacity per unit mass and volume of different energy carriers shows that liquid hydrocarbons are superior to other energy sources. Solar and nuclear powerplants as well as their use in conjunction with a steam engine are examined in this paper. Suitability of an electric drive is discussed. Using a production 2-stroke diesel engine and its development forecast, a comparison is made of spark ignition, diesel, and gas turbine engines. The status of the free-piston engine turbine combination is reviewed.

TODAY'S high-compression engines present new problems of engine noise to automotive engineers. This paper deals with some of the factors which contribute to rumble, knock, and surface ignition. The work was primarily concerned with the influence of fuel composition on the equilibrium octane number requirement and surface ignition tendency of high-compression engines. Both the effect of the combustion-chamber deposits formed by the fuel and the effect of the combustion characteristics of the fuel itself were considered. The results indicate that a reduction in gasoline tail-end volatility or the use of an effective ignition control additive can reduce knock, surface ignition, and rumble; while use of gasolines containing high concentrations of aromatic hydrocarbons can increase these combustion difficulties.

eROSITA (extended ROentgen Survey with an Imaging Telescope Array) is a powerful X-ray telescope under development by the Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik (MPE) in Garching, Germany. eROSITA is the core instrument on the Russian SRG1 mission which is planned for launch in 2011. It comprises seven nested Wolter-I grazing incidence telescopes, each equipped with its own CCD camera. The mirror modules have to be maintained at 20°C while the cameras are operated at -80°C. Both, mirrors and CCDs have to be kept within tight limits. The CCD cooling system consists of passive thermal control components only: two radiators, variable conductance heat pipes (VCHP) and two special thermal storage units. The orbit scenario imposes severe challenges on the thermal control system and also on the attitude control system.

THE NEW DIRECT-INJECTION diesel engines — the naturally aspirated 16000 and the turbocharged 21000 — were developed to power specific crawler and wheel vehicles built by Allis-Chalmers. Thus the original design and performance specifications were defined by the space available in these machines, and by the power and torque characteristics required by them. Also, the engines had to be suitable not only for commercial applications such as generator sets, shovels, and compressors, but also for oil field and marine service. Torque and speed requirements indicated that a 5¼-in. bore and 6½-in. stroke would give the desired performance. To meet the low heat rejection and good starting requirements, an open-chamber combustion system had to be used. The three-valve arrangement — two intake and one exhaust — was chosen because it offered low pumping losses and reasonable cost. This paper describes the design considerations and development work which produced the new diesel engines.*

The permanently increasing number of convenience and safety functions leads to higher complexity of in-car electronics and the rapidly growing amount of sensors, actuators and electronic control units places higher demands on high- speed data communication protocols. Safety-critical systems need deterministic protocols with fault-tolerant behavior. The need for on-board diagnosis calls for flexible use of bandwidth and an ever-increasing number of functions necessitates a flexible means of extending the system. None of the communication solutions available on the market until now (like CAN or TTP) have been able to fulfill all these demands. To solve these problems, BMW together with several semiconductor companies has developed a new protocol for safety-critical applications in automotive vehicles.

ALTHOUGH turbocharging of low-speed diesel engines has been used world-wide for a long time, it is only during recent years that it has been applied to high-speed diesels. This is the result of considerable engineering efforts from both the turbocharger and the diesel side that were put into the turbocharger, which appears to be a so utterly simple device. This paper de­scribes some of these engineering efforts. The basic design characteristics are developed with the point of view in mind that the turbo­charger has become much more than just an ad­ditional accessory. It is a vital component of the basic engine itself, contributing actively to the advancement of this prime mover. The basic de­sign characteristics center heavily around aero­dynamical and thermodynamical performance cri­teria which are so important in any advanced high-speed turbomachine.

Reduced emissions, improved fuel economy, and improved performance are a priority for manufacturers of internal combustion engines. However, these three goals are normally interrelated and difficult to optimize simultaneously. Studying the experimental heat release provides a useful tool for combustion optimization. Heavy-duty diesel engines are inherently transient, even during steady state operation engine controls can vary due to exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) or aftertreatment requirements. This paper examines the heat release and the derived combustion characteristics during steady state and transient operation for a 1992 DDC series 60 engine and a 2004 Cummins ISM 370 engine. In-cylinder pressure was collected during repeat steady state SET and the heavy-duty transient FTP test cycles.

AFTERCOOLING, coupled with higher pressure turbocharging can increase vehicle engine output. The author thinks that it is possible to anticipate diesel engines being run with compressors supplying air at pressure ratios higher than 2/1. Density ratio is the most important consideration in increasing pressure ratio, since the engine's output is dependent upon weight rather than volume of air supplied. Because the density of the compressed air is dependent upon its temperature at any pressure level, cooling the air after compression results in density increases. This paper describes various methods of after-cooling which increase engine output and fuel economy.

THE NEW CRC Diesel Engine Rating Manual is intended to furnish a universal language for identification of diesel-engine deposits and wear. Diesel-engine pistons are evaluated for lacquer deposits by utilizing an area demerit basis and color gradations of brown and gray from clean to black. In studying various means for evaluating thickness and texture of deposit in oil systems, it was decided that the scratch gage developed by the CRC Engine Deposit Rating Panel of the CRC-Motor Engine Varnish and Sludge Group was suitable for diesel engines. A procedure for establishing a volume factor which furnishes a weighted interpretation of the deposit was created.*

A “next generation” condensing heat exchanger for space systems has to satisfy demanding operational requirements under variable thermal and moisture loads and reduced gravity conditions. Mathematical models described here are used to investigate transient behavior of wetting and de-wetting dynamics in the binary porous system of porous tubes and porous cold plate. The model is based on the Richard's equation simplified for the zero-gravity conditions. The half-saturation distance or the zone of influence of the porous annular suction tubes on the cold-plate porous material will be in the range of 1 to 10 cm for the time scales ranging from 100 to 10,000 seconds and moisture diffusivity in the range of D = 10-4 to 10-6 m2/s.

“Zoning” a catalytic converter involves placing higher concentrations of platinum group metals (PGM) in the inlet portion of the substrate. This is done to optimize the cost-to-performance tradeoff by increasing the reaction rate at lower temperatures while minimizing PGM usage. A potentially useful application of catalyst zoning is to improve performance using a constant PGM mass. A study was performed to assess what the optimum ratio of front to rear palladium zone length is to achieve the highest performance in vehicle emission testing. Varying the zone ratio from 1:1 to 1:9 shows a clear hydrocarbon performance optimum at a 1:5.66 (15%/85%) split. This performance optimum shows as both a minimum in FTP75 non-methane organic gas (NMOG) emissions as well as a minimum in hydrocarbon, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen oxide light-off temperature. Overall, an improvement of 18%, or 11 mg/mi of combined NMOG+NOx emissions was obtained without using additional PGM.

Diesel engines are coming under stricter requirements to reduce emissions. particularly those of particulates and nitrogen oxides (NOx). Recently, the U. S. EPA put into place staged requirements for heavy duty diesel engines in urban bus applications which are aimed at ultimately bringing pre-1994 engines into particulate emissions compliance with 1994 heavy duty on-road truck standards (0. 1 g/bhp-hr TPM). This reflects the need to control emissions in crowded urban environments. Zirconia based ceramic combustion management coatings, although originally developed for adiabatic or low heat rejection engines to boost thermal efficiency, have also been shown to contribute to the reduction in diesel emissions. Heavy duty transient testing of rebuilt 2-stroke MUI diesel bus engines equipped with stabilized zirconia based coatings applied by thermal spray process have shown significant reduction in exhaust opacity relative to a baseline, uncoated engine.

Zero-offset in transducer output during airbag noise testing is often observed, but mostly ignored due to the lack of understanding of its causes and implications. In the field of high-g acceleration measurement, this phenomenon is well documented, and is referred to as zeroshift. Zero-offset occurs when a component in the measurement chain is exposed to some unexpected inputs which the component has not been designed to handle. These unexpected inputs can be mechanical, electrical, or optical. How the transducer reacts to such inputs and the amount of zero-offset produced depends on the sensing mechanism, material used, and the design of the component itself. This paper explores the causes of zero-offset from a general perspective, covering the entire measurement chain. Although much of the information and discussions are based on data obtained from acceleration measurement systems, the findings are applicable to other transducer types, such as pressure and acoustic measurements.