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1 An all fiber-optic sensor has been developed to measure H2O mole fraction and gas temperature in an HCCI engine. This absorption-spectroscopy-based sensor utilizes a broad wavelength (1320 to 1380 nm) source (supercontinua generated by a microchip laser) and a series of fiber Bragg gratings (19 gratings centered on unique water absorption peaks) to track the formation and temperature of combustion water vapor. The spectral coverage of the system promises improved measurement accuracy over two-line diode-laser based systems. Meanwhile, the simplicity of the fiber Bragg grating chromatic dispersion approach significantly reduces the data reduction time and cost relative to previous supercontinuum-based sensors. The data provided by the system is expected to enhance studies of the chemical kinetics which govern HCCI ignition as well as HCCI modeling efforts.

THE 1940 CFR Road Tests have developed new information that can be used for the development of fuels and engines. Application of the principles worked out in these tests is expected to result in a more efficient utilization of fuel antiknock properties and more effective engine design and adjustment to meet the requisites of current motor fuels. These tests indicate that the ASTM octane number alone, or even a road octane number as determined by methods heretofore widely used, does not give sufficient information for present needs relative to fuel behavior in service. Neither do test methods previously used provide sufficient information concerning the fuel requirements and knocking characteristics of engines. The new methods of approach which have been developed furnish needed information relative to the fuel and engine relationship that heretofore has been obscure, and indicate paths for future developments.

The cooperative road tests carried out during 1941 have added considerable information and experience to that already existing on the subject of road detonation testing. Extensive data were obtained on the fuel requirements of the 1940 and 1941 models of the three most popular cars. Corresponding data were obtained on the knocking characteristics of current gasolines representing the bulk of the sales volume in various parts of the United States. On account of large variations in octane-number requirement among different cars of the same make - due to differences in ignition timing, combustion-chamber deposit, and other causes - and on account of variations in commercial gasolines, it has been necessary to use statistical methods of analysis in the appraisal of fuel and engine relationships. These methods of analysis have been applied in a number of ways, and have proved very useful.

A review of the Pure Oil Performance Trials conducted at Daytona International Speedway are presented. Background information pertaining to conducting of tests, design of the equipment, and instrumentation required for the various events are discussed. The performance trials have evolved into three basic tests -- Economy, Acceleration, and Braking. The objective of the Performance Trials is to provide data that motorists can utilize in evaluating new cars and selecting new models.

The recent introduction of lower compression ratio engines and the concurrent marketing of unleaded and low-lead content gasolines of generally lower octane number made it appropriate to investigate the interrelationships of engine performance and gasoline octane quality using the “new” engines and fuels. Programs were carried out to compare fuel economy and acceleration performance of eight matched pairs of 1970 and 1971 automobiles. In addition, octane requirements were obtained on 43 1971 cars with 3,000-12,000 deposit miles. A total of 146 unleaded, low-lead, and leaded regular gasolines obtained at service stations throughout the country were analyzed, and the road octane performance of these gasolines was determined using 1970 and 1971 cars designed for regular gasoline.

Since 1978 Ford Motor Company has been surveying the fuel economy of employes who lease new light duty vehicles from the Company. Winter and summer survey data for the three years are analyzed and compared. Car results show a significant and steady increase in average on-road fuel economy over the three year period. The percent differential between EPA measured and actual on-road fuel economy has lessened substantially since 1978. Furthermore, the percent difference between EPA and on-road is essentially constant over the range of EPA values for each of the three years. Limited fuel economy results for 1980 trucks are also discussed.

A program of emission testing and carburetor adjustment to reduce the levels of hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide in the exhaust gases and to demonstrate fuel economy improvements was held in Charlottetown during the week of July 14 to 19, 1980. The program was a co-operative effort of the Centre of Energy Studies of the Technical University of Nova Scotia, the Mobile Sources Division of the Air Pollution Control Directorate, Environment Canada and the Prince Edward Island Energy Corporation. Five hundred and twenty vehicles were tested during the period. The program was well received by the public and indicated that only 32% of the vehicle fleet were within specification when initially tested. A large percentage of these vehicles were satisfactorily adjusted. Mailback record cards were used to obtain an indication of the improved fuel economy. The data suggests that a substantial saving in fuel can be attained through carburetor tuning for low exhaust emissions.

The demand for improved fuel economy in both cars and trucks has emphasized the need for lighter weight components. The application of high strength steel to wheels, both rim and disc, represents a significant opportunity for the automotive industry. This paper discusses the Ranger HSLA wheel program that achieved a 9.7 lbs. per vehicle weight savings relative to a plain carbon steel wheel of the same design. It describes the Ranger wheel specifications, the material selection, the metallurgical considerations of applying HSLA to wheels, and HSLA arc and flash butt welding. The Ranger wheel design and the development of the manufacturing process is discussed, including design modifications to accommodate the lighter gage. The results demonstrate that wheels can be successfully manufactured from low sulfur 60XK HSLA steel in a conventional high volume process (stamped disc and rolled rim) to meet all wheel performance requirements and achieve a significant weight reduction.

General Motors Powertrain Division has developed the next generation big block V8 engine for introduction in the 1996 model year. In addition to meeting tighter emission and on-board diagnostic legislation, this engine evolved to meet both customer requirements and competitive challenges. Starting with the proven dependability of the time tested big block V8, goals were set to substantially increase the power, torque, fuel economy and overall pleaseability of GM's large load capacity gasoline engine. The need for this new engine to meet packaging requirements in many vehicle platforms, both truck and OEM, as well as a requirement for minimal additional heat rejection over the engine being replaced, placed additional constraints on the design.

General Motors Powertrain Group (GMPTG) has developed an all new small block V8 engine, designated LS1, for introduction into the 1997 Corvette. This engine was designed to meet both customer requirements and competitive challenges while also meeting the ever increasing legislated requirements of emissions and fuel economy. This 5.7L V8 provides increased power and torque while delivering higher fuel economy. In addition, improvements in both QRD and NVH characteristics were made while meeting packaging constraints and achieving significant mass reductions.

A student team from Minnesota State University, Mankato's Automotive Engineering Technology program entered the Clean Snowmobile Challenge 2000. A 1998 Polaris Indy Trail was converted to indirect fuel injection running on a computer controlled closed loop fuel system. Also chassis, exhaust, and hood design modifications were made. The snowmobile was designed to compete in eight events. These events included acceleration, emissions, hill climb, cold start, noise, fuel economy/range, handling/driveability, and static display. The snowmobile modifications involved every aspect of the snowmobile with special emphasis on emissions and noise. Laboratory testing led to the final design. This paper details the modifications and test results.

Using a holistic 1D engine simulation approach for the modelling of full-transient engine operation, allows analyzing future engine concepts, including its exhaust gas aftertreatment technology, early in the development process. Thus, this approach enables the investigation of both important fields - the thermodynamic engine process and the aftertreatment system, together with their interaction in a single simulation environment. Regarding the aftertreatment system, the kinetic reaction behavior of state-of-the-art and advanced components, such as Diesel Oxidation Catalysts (DOC) or Selective Catalytic Reduction Soot Filters (SCRF), is being modelled. Furthermore, the authors present the use of the 1D engine and exhaust gas aftertreatment model on use cases of variable valve train (VVT) applications on passenger car (PC) diesel engines.

This paper deals with some recent advances in the field of 1D fluid dynamic modeling of unsteady reacting flows in complex s.i. engine pipe-systems, involving a catalytic converter. In particular, a numerical simulation code has been developed to allow the simulation of chemical reactions occurring in the catalyst, in order to predict the chemical specie concentration in the exhaust gas from the cylinder to the tailpipe outlet, passing through the catalytic converter. The composition of the exhaust gas, discharged by the cylinder and then flowing towards the converter, is calculated by means of a thermodynamic two-zone combustion model, including emission sub-models. The catalytic converter can be simulated by means of a 1D fluid dynamic and chemical approach, considering the laminar flow in each tiny channel of the substrate.

The fuel consumption and emissions of diesel engines is strongly influenced by the injection rate pattern, which influences the in-cylinder mixing and combustion process. Knowing the exact injection rate is mandatory for an optimal diesel combustion development. The short injection time of no more than some milliseconds prevents a direct flow rate measurement. However, the injection rate is deduced from the pressure change caused by injecting into a fuel reservoir or pipe. In an ideal case, the pressure increase in a fuel pipe correlates with the flow rate. Unfortunately, real measurement devices show measurement inaccuracies and errors, caused by non-ideal geometrical shapes as well as variable fuel temperature and fuel properties along the measurement pipe. To analyze the thermal effect onto the measurement results, an available rate measurement device is extended with a flexible heating system as well as multiple pressure and temperature sensors.

An expansion tank is an integral part of an automotive engine cooling system. The primary function of the expansion tank is to allow the thermal expansion of the coolant. The expansion tank will be referred as hot bottle in this paper. In the System level modeling of the engine internal flow, it is imperative to accurately model and characterize the components in the system. It is often challenging to define the hot bottle accurately with limited parameters in the 1D modeling. Currently it is very difficult to optimize the system by testing. Since testing consumes a lot of time and changes in development stage. If the hot bottle component is not defined properly in the system network, then the system flow balancing cannot be predicted accurately. In this paper, the approach of creating a 1D modeling tool for hot bottle flow prediction is discussed and the simulation results are compared with the physical test data.

Advanced control techniques are widely used in different automotive applications including climate control. Significant costs associated with the development and calibration of such controllers can be reduced if these tasks are conducted in a virtual environment. Such a virtual environment can be developed by integrating the controller with the system model. Different scenarios can be then simulated to make sure functional objectives of the system are met. 1D models provide the necessary level of accuracy without imposing extra computational cost in such virtual environments. As such, they are perfect candidates for model, hardware or software-in-the loop validation benches for controls. Performance of a heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) system can be controlled through the settings of the components like mode door, blend door, recirculation door, blower, and the compressor.

The introduction of more stringent standards for engine emissions requires a steady development of exhaust gas aftertreatment in addition to an optimized cylinder combustion. The reduction of the cold start phase can help significantly to lower cycle emissions. With the goal of optimizing the overall emission performance this study presents a comprehensive simulation approach. A well established 1D gas dynamics and engine simulation model is extended by three key features. These are models for combustion and pollutant production in the cylinder, models for the pollutant conversion in a catalyst, and a general species transport model. This allows to consider an arbitrary number of chemical species and reactions in the entire system.

Abstract In recent years, lean-burn gasoline Spark-Ignition (SI) engines have been a major subject of investigations. With this solution, in fact, it is possible to simultaneously reduce NOx raw emissions and fuel consumption due to decreased heat losses, higher thermodynamic efficiency, and enhanced knock resistance. However, the real applicability of this technique is strongly limited by the increase in cyclic variation and the occurrence of misfire, which are typical for the combustion of homogeneous lean air/fuel mixtures. The employment of a Pre-Chamber (PC), in which the combustion begins before proceeding in the main combustion chamber, has already shown the capability of significantly extending the lean-burn limit. In this work, the potential of an ultralean PC SI engine for a decisive improvement of the thermal efficiency is presented by means of numerical and experimental analyses.

In today’s competitive scenario, the automotive product life cycle has drastically reduced and all Auto OEM’s are coming up with their updated products with lesser development time. These frequent product upgrades are possible due to use of various digital tools during product design and development. Design and optimization of engine coolpack (powertrain cooling unit) to attain engine cooling performance is one of the important parameter during vehicle development or upgrade. Hence, to keep control over development cost and time of delivery, quick and accurate digital validation capability like one dimensional (1D) simulation is the need of the hour. To predict the powertrain cooling (PTC) performance at vehicle concept stage, when physical prototypes are not available, airflow data from similar developed platforms is considered as an input for 1D simulation.

Zero-dimensional, one-dimensional, and quasi-dimensional models for simulation of SI and CI engines with respect to: engine breathing and boosting; SI combustion and emissions; CI combustion and emissions; fundamentals of engine thermodynamics; thermal management; mechanical and lubrication systems; system level models for controls; system level models for vehicle fuel economy and emissions predictions. Presenter Fabio Bozza, Universita di Napoli