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In this paper, a control strategy for state of charge (SOC) allocation using navigation data for Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV) propulsion systems is proposed. This algorithm dynamically defines and adjusts a SOC target as a function of distance travelled on-line, thereby enabling proactive management of the energy store in the battery. The proposed approach incorporates variances in road resistance and adheres to geolocation constraints, including ultra-low emission zones (uLEZ). The anticipated advantages are particularly pronounced during scenarios involving extensive medium-to-long journeys characterized by abrupt topological changes or the necessity for exclusive electric vehicle (EV) mode operation. This novel solution stands to significantly enhance both drivability and fuel economy outcomes.

Plug-In Hybrid Vehicles (PHEV) have been of significant importance recently to comply with future CO2 and pollutant emissions limit. However, performance of these vehicles is closely related to the energy management strategy (EMS) used to ensure minimum fuel consumption and maximize electric driving range. While conventional EMS concepts are developed to operate in wide range of scenarios, this approach could potentially compromise the fuel consumption benefit due to the omission of route and traffic information. With the advancements in the availability of real-time traffic, navigation and driving route information, the EMS can be further optimized to extract the complete potential of a PHEV. In this context, this paper presents application of predictive energy management (PEM) functionalities combined with information such as live traffic data to reduce the fuel consumption for a P1/P3 configuration PHEV vehicle.

With the increasing focus on reducing CO2 emissions to combat global warming and climate change, the automotive industry is exploring near zero-emission alternative fuels to replace traditional fossil-based fuels like diesel, gasoline, and CNG. Methanol is a promising alternative fuel that is being evaluated in India due to its easy transportation and storage, as well as its production scalability and availability potential. This study focuses on the retro-fitment solution of M100 (pure methanol) SI port-fuel injection (PFI) mode of combustion. A heavy duty single-cylinder engine test setup was used to assess methanol SI combustion characteristic. Lean operation strategy has been investigated. At lean mixture conditions a significant drop in NOX and CO emissions was achieved. The fuel injection techniques and the impact of exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) on the conventional stoichiometric combustion process is highlighted.

Indian cities are among the most polluted in the world. The transportation sector is one of the major sources of gaseous pollutants. In recent years, also the effects of climate change and global warming have been felt across the globe. India has therefore committed at the CoP26 summit in 2021 to reduce its CO2 emissions by 45% till the year 2030. The Indian automotive sector is already addressing the problem with implementation of the Stage 2 BS VI norms, CAFÉ & Stage V standards and pursuing rapid electrification with application of zero emission vehicles. India also has the largest rail network of Asia, and a significant proportion of greenhouse gases is emitted by this sector. Deployment of zero emission fuel cell trains would be one of the solutions to meet India’s emission reduction targets.

Compliance with the future CO2 emission limits for the fleet of vehicles sold presents a major challenge for the automotive industry. To comply with these stringent limits, one solution is mobility using hydrogen as an energy carrier. In this context, the development of Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cells for commercial vehicle applications, both on- and off-road, is of significant interest due to the non-existent CO2 emissions. However, performance of these devices is closely related to the control concepts that are used to ensure high efficiency, good transient performance, high reliability & durability as well as safe operation. To address these challenges, this paper presents a modular Fuel Cell Control Software which offers the potential to be used for different P&ID (Piping & Instrumentation Diagram) configurations of fuel cell systems.

Most of the vehicles with internal combustion engines worldwide use fossil fuels. The widely used fuels available on the market are gasoline, diesel, and CNG. These fuels are getting costlier every year while at the same time generating pollutants through exhaust gases. Hence in the market, electric vehicles are effectively providing pollution-free solutions in the passenger car and lightweight carrier vehicle segments. However, the off-road, heavy-duty, and stationary applications with high load factors, are in general less favorable for battery electric scenarios since frequent charging will be mandatory and time-consuming. Hence, for these applications, the replacement of an internal combustion engine is quite difficult. There are various renewable fuels like ammonia, methanol, and biodiesel under research tests and study. As these are renewable fuels, the cost of these fuels can be lowered during mass production.

Pre-ignition in a boosted spark-ignition engine can be triggered by several mechanisms, including oil-fuel droplets, deposits, overheated engine components and gas-phase autoignition of the fuel-air mixture. A high pre-ignition resistance of the fuel used mitigates the risk of engine damage, since pre-ignition can evolve into super-knock. This paper presents the pre-ignition propensities of 11 RON 89-100+ gasoline fuel blends in a single-cylinder research engine. Albeit the addition of two high-octane components (methanol and reformate) to a toluene primary reference fuel improved the pre-ignition resistance, one high-RON fuel experienced runaway pre-ignition at relatively low boost pressure levels. A comparison of RON 96 blends showed that the fuel composition can affect pre-ignition resistance at constant RON.

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.

As the world strives toward the common goal of carbon neutrality by 2050, motorsport cannot be allowed to stand alone as an exception. A gradual energy transition is clearly underway in the automotive industry but has already begun in motorsport as well. Among other initiatives, the Dakar Rally and the FIA have created the T1 ultimate category for prototypes powered by low-carbon fuels, including hydrogen. The Dakar is the pinnacle of off-road endurance rally competitions. It offers a great opportunity to ORECA Magny-Cours and FEV to expose their jointly developed internal combustion engine (ICE), fuelled with hydrogen only, to extreme conditions. In addition, the racing environment imposes a unique pace of development which can serve as a catalyst for spurring the H2-ICE technology. Moreover, a hydrogen powered engine is an interesting fit for motorsports because it combines high power output, a relatively long driving range and driving pleasure with an excellent carbon footprint.

Stringent requirements for high fuel economy and energy efficiency mandate using increasingly complex vehicle thermal systems in most types of electrified vehicles (xEVs). Enabling the maximum benefits of such complex thermal systems under the full envelope of their operating modes demands designing complex thermal control systems. This is becoming one of the most challenging problems for electrified vehicles. Typically, the thermal systems of such vehicles have several modes of operation, constituting nonlinear multiple-input/multiple-output (MIMO) dynamic systems that cannot be efficiently controlled using classical or rule based strategies. This paper covers the different steps towards the design of a model-based control (MBC) strategy that can improve the overall performance of xEV thermal control systems. To achieve the above objective, the latter MBC strategy is applied to control cooling of the cabin and high voltage battery.

From April 2020 BS 6 phase 1 legislation has come into place in India. Further in the coming years from 2022 CAFÉ norms will be implemented targeting 122 g/km CO2 fleet emissions. Also, from year 2023 onwards BS 6 phase 2 emission legislation with RDE cycle will be in place. With the expensive exhaust after-treatment system needed for meeting BS 6 norms, the Diesel powertrain based vehicles cost has increased further creating even further price difference to it’s Gasoline fuel variants. Additionally, the price difference between Diesel and Gasoline fuel is always reducing. These reasons have changed the buying pattern of passenger cars in India, with vehicle powered by engine<1.5 L displacements have gradually shifted predominantly to Gasoline powertrain. The impact of this will further stress the fleet CO2 emissions for manufacturers.

The automotive industry continues to develop new powertrain and vehicle technologies aimed at reducing overall vehicle-level fuel consumption. Specifically, the use of innovative drivetrain technologies including conventional and electrified propulsion systems is expected to play an increasingly important role in helping OEMs meet fleet CO2 reduction targets for 2025 and beyond. NVH development for vehicles with electrified powertrains introduces new challenges, which need to be understood and solved. The electrified vehicle space spans variants from micro and mild hybrids all the way through plug-in hybrids and fully electric vehicles. In addition to conventional NVH development methodologies, active sound design (ASD) can play a crucial role to enhance the interior sound perception of such vehicles and hence, improve customer acceptance of new technologies. This paper will begin with an introduction to the NVH challenges posed by electrified vehicles.

This paper will focus on automotive development highlights of FCA US LLC magnesium intensive closures components. Deploying lightweight materials is one of many key strategies that has been implemented to reduce vehicle mass and improve overall fuel economy while maintaining rigorous functional objective performance. This paper will outline some basic design and manufacturing considerations for magnesium closures. The development of the 2017 Chrysler Pacifica liftgate and 2018 Jeep® Wrangler swing gate along with the two generations of magnesium spare tire brackets will be the focus.

One of the advantages of hybrid vehicles is the ability to operate the engine more optimally at a low brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC) as compared to conventional vehicles. This ability of hybrid vehicles is a major factor contributing to the fuel economy improvement over conventional vehicles. Unlike conventional gasoline powertrains, hybrid powertrains allow engine to be switched off and use battery power to propel vehicles. In order to maintain battery state of charge neutral operation between the start and end of a drive cycle, the net electrical energy consumption from the battery requires to be zero. An optimization algorithm can be developed and calibrated in different ways to achieve net zero battery energy over the cycle. For instance, the engine can be operated at powers higher than the power of the drive cycle to charge the battery. This accumulated energy can be used for all-electric propulsion by turning off the engine.

Knock control is one of the most vital functions for safe and fuel-efficient operation of gasoline engines. However, all knock control strategies rely on accurate knock detection to operate the engine close to the optimal set point. Knock detection is usually calibrated on the engine test bench, requiring the engine to run with knocking combustion in a time-consuming multi-stage campaign. Model-based calibration significantly reduces calibration loops on the test bench. However, this method requires a large effort in building and validating the model, which is often limited by the lack of function documentation, available measurements or hardware representation. As the software models are often not available, function structures vary between manufacturers and sub model functions are often documented as black boxes. Hence, using the model-based approach is not always possible.

In response to demands for higher fuel economy and stringent emission regulations, OEMs always strive hard to improve component/system efficiency and minimize losses. In the driveline system, improving the efficiency of an automotive rear-axle is critical because it is one of the major power-loss contributor. Optimum oil-fill inside an axle is one of the feasible solutions to minimize spin losses, while ensuring lubrication performance and heat-dissipation requirements. Thus, prior to conducting vehicle development tests, several dyno-level tests are conducted to study the thermal behavior of axle-oil (optimum level) under severe operating conditions. These test conditions represent the axle operation in hot weather conditions, steep grade, maximum tow capacity, etc. It is important to ensure that oil does not exceed its thermal limits (disintegration of oil leading to degradation).

Rapid Compression Machines (RCM) offer the ability to easily change the compression ratio and the pressure/mixture composition/temperature to gather ignition delay data at various engine relevant conditions. Therefore, RCMs with optical access to the combustion chamber can provide an effective way to analyze macroscopic spray characteristics needed to understand the spray injection process and for spray model development, validation and calibration at conditions that are suitable for engines. Fuel surrogates can help control fuel parameters, develop models for spray and combustion, and perform laser diagnostics with known fluorescence characteristics. This study quantifies and evaluates the macroscopic spray characteristics of multicomponent gasoline surrogates in comparison to their gasoline counterparts, under gasoline direct injection (GDI) engine conditions.

In this work autoignition delay times of two multi-component surrogates (high and low RON) were experimentally compared with their target full blend gasoline fuels. The study was conducted in a rapid compression machine (RCM) test facility and a direct test chamber (DTC) charge preparation approach was used for mixture preparation. Experiments were carried over the temperature range of 650K-900K and at 10 bar and 20 bar compressed pressure conditions for equivalence ratios of (Φ =) 0.6-1.3. Dilution in the reactant mixture was varied from 0% to 30% CO2 (by mass), with the O2:N2 mole ratio fixed at 1:3.76. This dilution strategy emulates exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) substitution in spark ignition (SI) engines. The multicomponent surrogate captured the reactivity trends of the gasoline-air mixtures reasonably well in comparison to the single component (iso-octane) surrogate.

The heat generated by an internal combustion engine must be dissipated to maintain acceptable component temperatures throughout the entire powertrain system under all operating conditions. However, under cold start conditions it is beneficial to retain this available heat to achieve faster warm-up in order to reduce fuel consumption. In modern engines there are several components in the coolant circuit that are used to accelerate the warm-up of sub-system fluids such as the engine oil, transmission oil and axle oil. The magnitude of the fuel consumption reduction will depend on how these rapid warm-up devices are arranged, combined and controlled. This paper describes a methodology that was developed to optimize the distribution of coolant heat in the powertrain system during warm-up. A comparative study can be performed to optimize the arrangement of each heat exchanger in any given powertrain system to minimize cost and time early in development.

In recent decades, there has been a growing focus on improving overall vehicle efficiency and fuel economy due to growing customer awareness and more stringent environmental regulations. Effort has been placed on improving the engine efficiency and reducing the losses of the transmission and driveline. One essential component of this process is to correctly size the transmission oil pump as it is one of the main energy consumers in the powertrain. Conversely, the oil pump has a critical mission of ensuring reliable and high quality gear shift as well as supplying lubrication and cooling oil to various components in the transmission. This paper outlines a strategy to systematically understand and quantify the main requirements for sizing the oil pump to ensure adequate performance while minimizing the energy consumption of the pump. The proposed framework is a three-legged approach.