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The impending emission regulations in both China (CN7) and the United States (Tier 4) are set to impose more stringent emission limits on hydrocarbons (HC), carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NOx), and particulate matter (PM). CN7 places particular emphasis on reducing particulate number (PN) thresholds, while the forthcoming United States Tier 4 legislation is primarily concerned with reducing the allowable particulate matter (PM) to an assumed limit of 0.5 mg/mile. Given the more stringent constraints on both PN and PM emissions, the development of enhanced aftertreatment solutions becomes imperative to comply with these new regulatory demands. Coated Gasoline Particulate Filters (cGPFs) play a pivotal role as essential components for effective PN and PM abatement.

Options for CNVII emission legislation are being widely investigated in a national program organized by China Vehicle Emission Control Center (VECC) since early 2020. It is foreseen that this possibly last legislation in China will have more stringent emission requirements compared to CNVI, including among other changes especially a further reduction of nitrogen oxide (NOx), inclusion of nitrous oxide (N2O) and sub-23 nm particle number (PN). This study investigates the technical feasibility to fulfill a CNVII emission legislation scenario, based on a modified CNVI 8 L engine operating under both cold and hot World Harmonized Transient Cycle (WHTC) and Low Load Cycle (LLC).

To meet future emission levels, the automotive industry is trying to reduce tailpipe emissions through both possible pathways, i.e. emission from engines as well as and the development of novel catalytic emission control concepts. The present study will focus on the close coupled SCR on Filter commonly known as SDPF which is a main pathway to reduce NOx along with particulate mass and number for light duty passenger cars and sport utility vehicles for BS 6 RDE/OBD 2 and future legislation like BS-7. The SDPF is a challenging technology as it is critical component in exhaust after treatment system involving in NOx and PM/PN reductions hence careful optimization of this technology is necessary in terms of space velocity requirements, temperature, feed NOx emission levels, particulate mass and ash holding capacities, NH3 storage on the SDPF, and back pressure.

Meeting strict current and future emissions legislation necessitates development of computational tools capable of predicting the behaviour of combustion and emissions with an accuracy sufficient to make correct design decisions while keeping computational cost of the simulations amenable for large-scale design space exploration. While detailed kinetics modelling is increasingly seen as a necessity for accurate simulations, the computational cost can be often prohibitive, prompting interest in simplified approaches allowing fast simulation of reduced mechanisms at coarse grid resolutions appropriate for internal combustion engine simulations in design context. In this study we present a simplified Well-stirred Reactor (WSR) implementation coupled with 3D CFD Ricardo VECTIS solver.

Due to benefits from the use of electric power, Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEVs) and Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs) are regarded to be superior over conventional Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) only vehicles in fuel economy and emissions. However, recent studies find out that this is not always true. On certain conditions, hybrid vehicles can be even more polluted. In order to identify these challenges and develop catalysts to meet more stringent emission requirement in the future, e.g. Euro 7, for hybrid application, as a part of our xHEV project, this study includes exclusively extensive investigation on a latest Euro 6d temp Parallel PHEV.

The reduction of both harmful emissions (CO, HC, NOx, etc.) and gases responsible for greenhouse effects (especially CO2) are mandatory aspects to be considered in the development process of any kind of propulsion concept. Focusing on ICEs, the main development topics are today not only the reduction of harmful emissions, increase of thermodynamic efficiency, etc. but also the decarbonization of fuels which offers the highest potential for the reduction of CO2 emissions. Accordingly, the development of future ICEs will be closely linked to the development of CO2 neutral fuels (e.g. biofuels and e-fuels) as they will be part of a common development process. This implies an increase in development complexity, which needs the support of engine simulations. In this work, the virtual modeling of real fuel behavior is addressed to improve current simulation capabilities in studying how a specific composition can affect the engine performance.

The current trend in automobiles is towards electrical vehicles, but for the most part these vehicles still require an internal combustion engine to provide additional range and flexibility. These engines are under stringent emissions regulations, in particular, for the reduction of CO2. Gas engines which run lean burn combustion systems provide a viable route to these emission reductions, however designing these engines to provide sustainable and controlled combustion under lean conditions at λ=2.0 is challenging. To address this challenge, it is possible to use a scavenged Pre-Chamber Ignition (PCI) system which can deliver favorable conditions for ignition close to the spark plug. The lean charge in the main combustion chamber is then ignited by flame jets emanating from the pre-chamber nozzles. Accurate prediction of flame kernel development and propagation is essential for the analysis of PCI systems.

Over the past years, the question as to what may be the powertrain of the future has become ever more apparent. Aiming to improve upon a given technology, the internal combustion engine still offers a number of development paths in order to maintain its position in public and private mobility. In this study, an innovative combustion process is investigated with the goal to further approximate the ideal Otto cycle. Thus far, similar approaches such as Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) shared the same objective yet were unable to be operated under high load conditions. Highly increased control efforts and excessive mechanical stress on the components are but a few examples of the drawbacks associated with HCCI. The approach employed in this work is the so-called Spark Assisted Compression Ignition (SACI) in combination with a pre-chamber spark plug, enabling short combustion durations even at high dilution levels.

Two optical techniques were developed and combined with a CFD simulation to obtain spatio-temporally resolved information on air/fuel mixing in the cylinder of a methane-fueled, fired, optically accessible engine. Laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) of anisole (methoxybenzene), vaporized in trace amounts into the gaseous fuel upstream of the injector, was captured by a two-camera system, providing one instantaneous image of the air/fuel ratio per cycle. Broadband infrared (IR) absorption by the methane fuel itself was measured in a small probe volume via a spark-plug integrated sensor, yielding time-resolved quasi-point information at kHz-rates. The simulation was based on the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) approach with the two-equation k-epsilon turbulence model in a finite volume discretization scheme and included the port-fuel injection event. Commercial CFD software was used to perform engine simulations close to the experimental conditions.

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.

Recently, the European Union has adopted a new regulation on Real-Driving-Emissions (RDE) and also China is considering RDE implementation into new China 6 legislation. The new RDE regulation is focused on measuring nitrogen oxides (NOx) and particulate number (PN) emissions of both light-duty gasoline and diesel vehicles under real world conditions. A supplemental RDE test procedure was developed for European type approval, which includes on-road testing with cars equipped with portable emission measurement systems (PEMS). This new regulation will significantly affect the engine calibrations and the exhaust gas aftertreatment. In this study the impact of the new RDE regulation on two recent EU 6b certified turbocharged direct injected gasoline vehicles has been investigated. A comparison of several chassis dyno drive cycles with two new defined on-road RDE cycles was performed.

Since the mechanisms leading to cyclic combustion variabilities in direct injection gasoline engines are still poorly understood, advanced computational studies are necessary to be able to predict, analyze and optimize the complete engine process from aerodynamics to mixing, ignition, combustion and heat transfer. In this work the Scale-Adaptive Simulation (SAS) turbulence model is used in combination with a parameterized lagrangian spray model for the purpose of predicting transient in-cylinder cold flow, injection and mixture formation in a gasoline engine. An existing CFD model based on FLUENT v15.0 [1] has been extended with a spray description using the FLUENT Discrete Phase Model (DPM). This article will first discuss the validation of the in-cylinder cold flow model using experimental data measured within an optically accessible engine by High Speed Particle Image Velocimetry (HS-PIV).

The introduction of vehicle emission and fuel economy standards (CO2) accelerates the introduction of new platform and powertrain combinations into the market place. All of these combinations will require unique exhaust gas aftertreatment systems that comply with the current emission legislation. The optimization of each unique aftertreatment solution requires the proper application of catalyst technologies at the lowest PGM concentrations. The optimization process needs to be fast, reliable, realistic and cost attractive. It is arguable that performing the aftertreatment optimization on a chassis dynamometer is variable, time consuming and expensive. This work demonstrates how a synthetic gas bench (SGB) can be used to simulate stoichiometric engine emissions and aftertreatment performance. The SGB procedure duplicates the vehicle NEDC engine-out emissions and catalyst heat-up profiles.

The new emission regulations in Europe, EU 6 will promulgate more realistic driving conditions with more stringent HC, CO, NOx and particulate emissions. This legislation will also include the WLTP (Worldwide harmonized Light vehicles Test Procedure) cycle for CO2 measurements and a new requirement called “Real-Driving-Emissions” (RDE) as well. The RDE requirement is to ensure modern vehicles comply with the legislation under all conditions of normal driving. More robust aftertreatment solutions are needed to meet these new requirements. This work introduces an improved three-way catalyst (TWC) for gasoline engines for these new regulations. It is tested under static and dynamic conditions and on several engines and vehicles with various drive cycles. It offers better thermal stability combined with lower backpressure than former TWC generations.

The regulations for mobile applications will become stricter in Euro 6 and further emission levels and require the use of active aftertreatment methods for NOX and particulate matter. SCR and LNT have been both used commercially for mobile NOX removal. An alternative system is based on the combination of these two technologies. Developments of catalysts and whole systems as well as final vehicle demonstrations are discussed in this study. The small and full-size catalyst development experiments resulted in PtRh/LNT with optimized noble metal loadings and Cu-SCR catalyst having a high durability and ammonia adsorption capacity. For this study, an aftertreatment system consisting of LNT plus exhaust bypass, passive SCR and engine independent reductant supply by on-board exhaust fuel reforming was developed and investigated. The concept definition considers NOX conversion, CO2 drawback and system complexity.

The diesel oxidation catalysts (DOC) having high purification performance to the exhaust gas at low temperatures were investigated. In this paper two main technological improvements from conventional DOC are shown. First is forming Pt/Pd composite particles in order to suppress sintering of precious metal under high thermal aging condition. This generating Pt/Pd composite and the effect were exemplified by TEM-EDS and XRD analysis. Second is adjusting electric charge of Pt/Pd surface to reduce interaction between Pt/Pd and carbon monoxide (CO) by modifying the support material components. Adjusting electric charge of Pt/Pd surface by applying new support material could cancel CO poisoning at Pt/Pd surface. Diffuse Reflectance Infrared Fourier Transform Spectroscopy (DRIFTS) studies suggested that improved support material is more suitable for CO oxidation at a low temperature based on the concept.

With the growing awareness about the presence of fine/ultra fine particulates in the ambient air and their negative impact on climate and health, some regions of the world have started to look closer at the contribution of road traffic. Since Gasoline engines, in particular when injecting fuel directly into the combustion chamber, proved to emit relevant numbers of particulates, even hardly visible, the growing share of Gasoline DI engines and their small size of particulate emissions is a concern. To address the same, the EU has already set limits for the particulate number with EU6 from 2015 onwards. The US considers setting challenging limits by particulate mass. Since mass of ultra fine particulates is very low and difficult to measure, experts investigate if a measurement by number might better address the particular concern. The implementation of a coated Particulate Filter enables meeting not only basic demands during traditional emission test cycles.

Besides the further reduction of the harmful gaseous emissions (HC, CO and NOx) to reach upcoming emission limits, the discussion on lowering the CO₂ emissions is omnipresent. From engine development point of view further optimization of the stoichiometric-operated gasoline engine as well as the introduction of lean-operated engines are the main development trend. The emission control system can support the engine development by dedicated catalyst technologies as presented in this paper. A new family of TWC technologies offers to tune the catalyst system to the engine performance and the back pressure requirement - which helps to reduce CO₂ emissions. In addition these technologies show improved performance in HC, CO, NOx light-off, and in CO and NOx conversions under dynamic conditions - this again can positively impact the CO₂ emissions as less harsh heating strategies for cold start is required.

Internal combustion engines with lean homogeneous charge and auto-ignition combustion of gasoline fuels have the capability to significantly reduce fuel consumption and realize ultra-low engine-out NOx emissions. Group research of Volkswagen AG has therefore defined the Gasoline Compression Ignition combustion (GCI®) concept. A detailed investigation of this novel combustion process has been carried out on test bench engines and test vehicles by group research of Volkswagen AG and IAV GmbH Gifhorn. Experimental results confirm the theoretically expected potential for improved efficiency and emissions behavior. Volkswagen AG and IAV GmbH will utilize a highly flexible externally supercharged variable valve train (VVT) engine for future investigations to extend the understanding of gas exchange and EGR strategy as well as the boost demands of gasoline auto-ignition combustion processes.

An investigation was conducted to elucidate, how the latest turbocharged, direct injection Volkswagen diesel engine generation with cylinder pressure based closed loop control, to be launched in the US in 2008, reacts to fuel variability. A de-correlated fuels matrix was designed to bracket the range of US market fuel properties, which allowed a clear correlation of individual fuel properties with engine response. The test program consisting of steady state operating points showed that cylinder pressure based closed loop control successfully levels out the influence of fuel ignition quality, showing the effectiveness of this new technology for markets with a wide range of fuel qualities. However, it also showed that within the cetane range tested (39 to 55), despite the constant combustion mid-point, cetane number still has an influence on particulate and gaseous emissions. Volatility and energy density also influence the engine's behavior, but less strongly.