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The demand for improved fuel economy and the request for Zero Emission within cities require complex powertrains with an increasing level of electrification already in a short-termed timeframe until 2025. According to general expectations the demand for Mild-Hybrid powertrains will increase significantly within a broad range of implementation through all vehicle classes as well as on electric vehicles with integrated Range Extender (RE) mainly for use in urban areas. Whereas Mild Hybrid Vehicles basically use downsized combustion engines at current technology level, vehicles with a high level of powertrain electrification allow significantly different internal combustion engine (ICE) concepts. At AVL, various engine concepts have been investigated and evaluated with respect to the key criteria for a Range Extender application. A Wankel rotary engine concept as well as an inline 2 cylinder gasoline engine turned out to be most promising.

The regulation of particle number (PN) has been introduced in the Euro 5/6 light-duty vehicle legislation, as a result of the light duty inter-laboratory exercise of the Particle Measurement Program (PMP). The heavy-duty inter-laboratory exercise investigates whether the same or a similar procedure can be applied to the heavy-duty regulation. In the heavy-duty exercise two "golden" PN systems sample simultaneously; the first from the full dilution tunnel and the second from the partial flow system. One of the targets of the exercise is to compare the PN results from the two systems. In this study we follow a different approach: We use a PMP compliant system at different positions (full flow, partial flow and tailpipe) and we compare its emissions with a "reference" system always sampling from the full flow dilution tunnel.

The DEXA Cluster consisted of three closely interlinked projects. In 2003 the DEXA Cluster concluded by demonstrating the successful development of critical technologies for Diesel exhaust particulate after-treatment, without adverse effects on NOx emissions and maintaining the fuel economy advantages of the Diesel engine well beyond the EURO IV (2000) emission standards horizon. In the present paper the most important results of the DEXA Cluster projects in the demonstration of advanced particulate control technologies, the development of a simulation toolkit for the design of diesel exhaust after-treatment systems and the development of novel particulate characterization methodologies, are presented. The motivation for the DEXA Cluster research was to increase the market competitiveness of diesel engine powertrains for passenger cars worldwide, and to accelerate the adoption of particulate control technology.

Future limits on emissions for both gasoline and Diesel engines require adequate and advanced systems for the after-treatment of the exhaust gas. Computer models as a complementary tool to experimental investigations are an indispensable part to design reliable after-treatment devices such as catalytic converters and Diesel particulate filters including their influence on the power-train. Therefore, the objective of this contribution is to present an integrated 1D to 3D simulation workflow of of catalytic converters and Diesel particulate filters. The novelty of this approach is that parameters or set of parameters, obtained by a fast and efficient 1D-gas exchange and cycle simulation code for power-trains (AVL (2002a)), are readily transferable onto a 3D general purpose simulation code (AVL (2002b)). Thus, detailed aspects such as spatial distribution of temperatures or heat losses are investigated with only a single effort to estimate parameters.

Today combustion analysis has to be used in every step of the engine development process and is no longer a tool for some specialists but most test bed operators have to deal with combustion analysis (also called Indicating). AVL reacts on the widened area of application and the broad spread of the Indicating measurement technology by introduction of user friendly user interfaces, which make the work during preparation of measurements as well as during measurements itself easier.

As emission regulations become tighter and tighter, equipment must evolve to be able to achieve the new standards. Also additional test requirements demand a system that is flexible and can accommodate differences both in the tests and the test facility. By that test cell equipment for chassis dynamometer as well as engine dynamometer applications is getting increasingly complex. That also will require new concepts for the design of such systems. In the past emission system design was more likely a collection and packaging process, which has interfaced various independent components. Now, the development of modern analytical emission systems requires a true holistic design process. This paper will describe the demands and the realization of a modern emission system. It can be shown that an extended effort during the design process will result in a high performance system, which still remains simple and robust.

Emission standards as proposed in Europe and the United States for heavy duty diesel engines will require a NOx and particulate reduction of more than 90%. This cannot be achieved by internal engine measures alone. Aftertreatment systems, for either one or both emission components, plus sophisticated electronic control strategies will be required. Various strategies to comply with EU 4, 5 and US 2007 are discussed, also showing their impact on engine performance. For typical 1 and 2 liter per cylinder engines, emission reduction concepts are assessed to identify the most suitable technology for major worldwide markets. The assessment is based on thermodynamic studies, test-bed results and estimates on cost and infrastructure implications.

The paper outlines and discusses the possibilities of a new instrumentation tool for the analysis of engine and gearbox noise radiation and the prediction of pass-by noise from powertrain test cell measurements. Based on a 32 channel data acquisition board, the system is intended to be quick and easy to apply in order to support engineers during their daily work in the test cell. The pass-by prediction is a purely experimental approach with test cell recordings being weighted by measured transfer functions (from the powertrain compartment to the pass-by point).

DiMethyl Ether (DME) has been shown to be a very attractive fuel for low emission direct injection compression ignition (DICI) engines. It combines the advantages of the high efficiencies of diesel cycle engines with soot free combustion. However, its greatest drawback is the need to develop new fuel injection and handling systems. Previous approaches have been common rail type injection systems which have shown great potential in reducing harmful exhaust emissions and achieving good engine performance and efficiency due to good control of both the fuel injection characteristics and temperature. The concept also has proven benefits with respect to convenient and safe fuel handling. The logical evolution of this concept simplifies the fuel system and avoids special components for DME handling such as high pressure rail pumps while retaining all the benefits of the common rail principle.

Over the last few years there has been much interest in DiMethyl Ether (DME) as an alternative fuel for diesel cycle engines. It combines the advantages of a high cetane number with soot free combustion, which makes it eminently suitable for compression ignition engines. However, due to the fact that it is a gas under ambient conditions, it requires special fuel handling and a specially designed fuel injection system, which until recently, was not available. The use of the digital hydraulic operating system (DHOS), combined with a fuel handling system designed to cope with the properties of DME, enables the fuel to be safely and conveniently handled, In addition, the flexibility of the injection system enables injection pressures to be chosen according to the needs of the combustion.

The present contribution gives an overview of the use of different simulation tools for the optimization of injection parameters of a diesel engine. With a one-dimensional tool, the behavior of the mechanics and fluid dynamics of the entire injection system is calculated. This simulation provides information on the dynamic needle lift, injection rates, pressures, etc. The flow within the injector is simulated using a three-dimensional CFD tool. By use of a two-phase model, it is possible to analyze the cavitating flow inside the injector and to calculate the effective nozzle hole area as well as the exit flow characteristics. Mixture formation, combustion and pollutant formation simulation is performed adopting three-dimensional CFD. In order to provide the initial and boundary conditions for the engine CFD simulation and to optimize the engine cycle performance a one-dimensional tool is adopted.

The internal combustion engines, and the heavy duty truck diesel engines in particular, are facing a severe challenge to cope with the upcoming stringent emission legislation world-wide. To comply with these low limits, engine internal measures must be complemented with exhaust gas aftertreatment systems with sophisticated electronic control. A reduction of NOx and particulate emission of more than 90% is required. Various strategies to comply with Euro 4, 5 and US 2007 are discussed, also in view of engine performance, fuel economy and cooling system load. Recommendations are given for the most suitable approach to comply also in future with emission legislation in Europe and the United States.

Partial flow sampling methods in emissions testing are interesting and preferred because of their lower cost, smaller size and applicability to engines of all sizes. However the agreement of the results obtained with instruments based on this method to those obtained with the traditional, large tunnel full flow sampling systems needs to be achieved, and the factors of construction that influence this agreement must be understood. These issues have received more attention lately in connection with ISO and WHDC standardization efforts underway to achieve a world-wide harmony in the sampling methods for heavy duty diesel engines, and with the introduction of similar Bag-minidiluter techniques into light duty SULEV gaseous pollutant measurement. This paper presents the theory and practice of a partial flow probe and tunnel design that addresses and minimizes the undesirable effects of the necessary differences between the two sampling methods.

A broad variety of new technologies for improving fuel economy is currently under development or investigation. The general statement is that always a compromise between fuel economy benefit and engine oncost has to be found. This paper describes a new way for improving fuel economy based on existing technologies used in a refined way. It is shown that with very simple and robust measures on the intake and exhaust ports and on the valve train mechanism 2 valve and 4 valve engines can show a significant improvement in fuel consumption without having a great cost penalty for production. The basic system consists of a single cam phaser and a special port arrangement on a 2 valve engine with a single camshaft operated at stoichiometric air/fuel ratio utilizing internal EGR and a reverse “Miller-Cycle”. Variable charge motion is generated using a shared flow through the intake and the exhaust port by varying cam timing.

Exhaust emission legislation world-wide have a common trend towards very low limits, measured for compliance in transient cycles specific for the United States, Japan and Europe. The emission development strategy is focussing on lowest engine-out emissions to require a minimum of exhaust gas aftertreatment. The base engine concept is described and test results, complying with Euro 4, are shown. The emission reduction development for future regulations requires exhaust gas aftertreatment, test results are shown for US 2007, JNLTR and Euro 5. With exhaust gas aftertreatment, discussed in the appendix, the engine development is faced with a big challenge to ensure the minimum exhaust gas temperature required for their proper function.

Due to durability and lifetime requirements, the timing drive systems of modern passenger car engines are often equipped with chain drives. Chain driven systems are usually more critical in view of NVH compared to synchronous belt-drives. Mainly the polygonal effect and the related phenomena, like impacts caused by the meshing between the chain-links and impacts in the engagement/disengagement regions of guides and sprockets, lead to an increased excitation of the engine's structure. Since the polygonal effect occurs with the meshing frequency, the excited vibrations are basically narrow banded and can finally be recognized as an annoying whine-noise. This paper describes the modeling (MBS) of the entire timing-drive system containing a bushing-chain-drive, camshafts and all connected single valve trains. The investigations carried out are mainly focused on the primary dynamics of the chain drive and the forces which are transferred to the engine's structure.

In recent years several new gasoline engine technologies were introduced in order to reduce fuel consumption. Controlled autoignition seems to be an alternative to stratified part load operation, which is handicapped due to it's lean aftertreatment system for world wide application. The principal advantages of controlled auto ignition combustion under steady state operation - combining fuel economy benefits similar to stratified charge systems with nearly negligible NOx and soot emissions - are already well known. With the newly developed AVL- CSI system (Compression and Spark Ignition), a precise combustion control is achieved even under transient operation. For compensation of production and operation tolerances a cost optimized cylinder individual control was developed. Completely new functionalities of the engine management system are applied. This lean GDI concept complies with future emission standards without DeNOx catalyst and can be applied worldwide.

Due to stricter fuel consumption and emissions requirements new gasoline engine concepts using advanced combustion systems such as fully variable valve train and controlled auto-ignition (HCCI) become important. Classical generic methods developed for system optimization with an increased number of variabilities (e.g. DoE - Design of Experiments), need extensions, because closed loop control is required for critical system parameters like valve train actuation and combustion behavior. This paper describes a new approach called “controlled optimization”, which is an extension of DoE using real-time controllers for critical system parameters (e. g. combustion timing). This ensures stable engine operation and protection under all conditions. Less critical parameters are still used as simple DoE-set values. Combustion timing, directly related to spark advance in conventional gasoline engines, is also strongly influenced by valve timing parameters.

The combined requirement of achieving CAFE values between 32 to 38 mpg plus LEV/ULEV emission standards to comply with US legal requirements between 1995 and 2000 represents the most demanding challenge for engine engineering. Thus all possible methods of engine improvement towards fuel economy and emissions have to be considered. Besides using new ideas also the methods of engine development have to be modernized to cope with the challenge. The paper presents advanced combustion and exhaust gas aftertreatment systems which combine high power output, favourable torque characteristics and high fuel economy with the potential for obtaining LEV/ULEV emission values, as well as improved development techniques.