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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.

In steer-by-wire (SbW) vehicles, understanding the steering rack force is essential to replicate a realistic steering feel, allowing conclusions to be drawn about road surface conditions by the decoupled manual actuator. Since internal friction varies with each steering system manufactured and installed, these models differ greatly in accuracy. This paper presents a concept for continuously calculating fluctuating friction based on the internal steering variables to avoid additional and complex individual measurements. An SbW system offers the right approach by adjusting the driver’s desired steering angle and the required motor control. The underlying steering clearance and the Kalman filter are used to calculate the steering rack force. The validity of the proposed concept is shown in drive tests according to ISO 13674 and ISO 7401 to gauge high and low friction values in different speed ranges.

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.

Electromechanical steering systems (EPS) provide assisting steering force through an electric motor, often paired with a screw drive. The combination of an electric motor and a screw drive lead to high inertia and thus to a reduced feedback of tire force behavior at the steering wheel. This force behavior contains information about driving conditions and road surface. However, the electric motor can be used to actively enhance and manipulate steering feedback. This article describes the driver perception of modified steering feedback. The presented data is collected carrying out a driving simulator study with average drivers as test subjects. In this study the driver experiences a modified steering feedback at a change of road friction coefficient. Based on the test subjects ratings the perception, acceptance and controllability of the presented steering feedback modifications are assessed.

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.

Electric power steering systems (EPS) are characterized by high inertia and therefore by a considerably damped transmission behaviour. While this is desirable for comfort-oriented designs, EPS do not provide enough feedback of the driving conditions, especially for drivers with a sporty driving style. The systematic actuation of the electric motor of an EPS makes it possible to specifically increment the intensity of the response. In this context, the road-sided induced forces of the tie rod and the steering rack force provide all the information for the steering system’s response. Former concepts differentiate between use and disturbance information by defining frequency ranges. Since these ranges overlap strongly, this differentiation does not segment distinctively. The presented article describes a method to identify useful information in the feedback path of the steering system depending on the driving situation.

New technologies such as multi-core and Ethernet provide vastly improved computing and communications capabilities. This sets the foundation for the implementation of new digital megatrends in almost all areas: driver assistance, vehicle dynamics, electrification, safety, connectivity, autonomous driving. The new challenge: We must share these computing and communication capacities among all vehicle functions and their software. For this step, we need a good resource planning to minimize the probability of late resource bottlenecks (e.g. overload, lack of real-time capability, quality loss). In this article, we summarize the status quo in the field of resource management and provide an outlook on the challenges ahead.

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.

The use of a newly developed approach results in a highly accurate three dimensional analysis of the occupant movement. The central point of the new method is the calculation of precise body-trajectories by fitting standard sensor-measurements to video analysis data. With the new method the accuracy of the calculated trajectories is better than 5 to 10 millimeters. These body trajectories then form the basis for a new multi-body based numerical method, which allows the three dimensional reconstruction of the dummy kinematics. In addition, forces and moments acting on every single body are determined. In principle, the body movement is reconstructed by prescribing external forces and moments to every single body requiring that it follows the measured trajectory. The newly developed approach provides additional accurate information for the development engineers. For example the motion of dummy body parts not tracked by video analysis can be determined.

Future NOx-emission standards for diesel engines imply an after treatment system, e.g. in the form of an NH3-SCR system. For the technical realization a sound understanding of the catalytic processes is mandatory. To gain this knowledge a model of the SCR of NO with NH3 on Fe zeolite catalysts has been developed on the basis of a transient test cycle. The model is able to map the performance of the catalyst both under steady state and transient conditions. As practical examples the model is used to parameterize lookup tables and to compare different formats of lookup tables in terms of suitability for a urea dosage system.

This paper compares 4 different EGR systems by means of simulation in GT-Power. The demands of optimum massive EGR and fresh air rates were based on experimental results. The experimental data were used to calibrate the model and ROHR, in particular. The main aim was to investigate the influence of pumping work on engine and vehicle fuel consumption (thus CO2 production) in different EGR layouts using optimum VG turbine control. These EGR systems differ in the source of pressure drop between the exhaust and intake pipes. Firstly, the engine settings were optimized under steady operation - BSFC was minimized while taking into account both the required EGR rate and fresh air mass flow. Secondly, transient simulations (NEDC cycle) were carried out - a full engine model was used to obtain detailed information on important parameters. The study shows the necessity to use natural pressure differences or renewable pressure losses if reasonable fuel consumption is to be achieved.