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Injector nozzle deposits can have a profound effect on particulate emissions from vehicles fitted with Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) engines. Several recent publications acknowledge the benefits of using Deposit Control Additives (DCA) to maintain or restore injector cleanliness and in turn minimise particulates, but others claim that high levels of DCA could have detrimental effects due to the direct contribution of DCA to particulates, that outweigh the benefits of injector cleanliness. Much of the aforementioned work was conducted in laboratory scenarios with model fuels. In this investigation a fleet of 7 used GDI vehicles were taken from the field to determine the net impact of DCAs on particulates in real-world scenarios. The vehicles tested comprised a range of vehicles from different manufacturers that were certified to Euro 5 and Euro 6 emissions standards.

It is useful for research purposes to define simple surrogate gasoline compositions that can replicate the chemical and physical properties of more complex mixtures. Ethanol is used in commercially available gasolines around the world as part of the pathway to the decarbonization of the transportation sector. In this study equations were developed to predict the Research Octane Number (RON), Motor Octane Number (MON) and Dry Vapour Pressure Equivalent (DVPE) of gasoline surrogates containing ethanol (10-25 vol%), isopentane, n-heptane, isooctane and toluene. The non-linear blending behaviour associated with ethanol is found to necessitate coefficients in the equations developed for MON that are a function of ethanol content, whereas surprisingly the equations for RON and DVPE do not need this added level of complexity.

Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) is employed in diesel engines to reduce engine-out NOx emissions. Despite the concerted design efforts of manufacturers, high-pressure Exhaust Gas Recirculation (HP-EGR) systems can be susceptible to fouling as the particulate matter, hydrocarbons and other entrained species deposit from the exhaust gas flow as it cools on its passage through the EGR system. Such deposits can lead to a number of problems including deterioration of emissions, fuel efficiency, performance and drivability, as well as breakdowns. The development of an engine test method to enable the study of the impact of fuel on deposits in the HP-EGR system was reported in 2020. In the test, a 4-cylinder light-duty diesel engine of 1.6L displacement runs at conditions conducive to EGR deposit formation over 24 hours and the impact of fuels on deposit formation is determined through weighing of the EGR system components before and after the test.

In the present study, Large Eddy Simulations (LES) have been performed with a 3D model of a step nozzle injector, using n-pentane as the injected fluid, a representative of the high-volatility components in gasoline. The influence of fuel temperature and injection pressure were investigated in conditions that shed light on engine cold-start, a phenomenon prevalent in a number of combustion applications, albeit not extensively studied. The test cases provide an impression of the in-nozzle phase change and the near-nozzle spray structure across different cavitation regimes. Results for the 20oC fuel temperature case (supercavitating regime) depict the formation of a continuous cavitation region that extends to the nozzle outlet. Collapse-induced pressure wave dynamics near the outlet cause a transient entrainment of air from the discharge chamber towards the nozzle.

Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) is employed in diesel engines to reduce engine-out NOx. Carbon-containing deposits form in the EGR systems of modern diesel engines as the particulate matter, hydrocarbons and other entrained species deposit from the exhaust gas flow as it cools. Much work has been done by Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) to reduce deposits and mitigate their effects by optimized dimensioning of EGR coolers and valves, introduction of EGR cooler bypass for use in the most sensitive cold conditions and experimenting with oxidation catalysts upstream of the EGR system. Nevertheless, deposits forming in the high-pressure Exhaust Gas Recirculation (HP-EGR) systems of modern diesel engines can sometimes lead to a number of problems including emissions and fuel consumption deterioration, poor performance and drivability, as well as breakdowns. An engine test method has been developed to enable the impact of fuel on deposits in the HP-EGR system to be studied.

Fuel with higher octane content is playing a key role in optimising engine performance by allowing a more optimal spark timing which leads to increased engine efficiency and lower CO2 emissions. In a previous study the impact of octane was investigated with a fleet of 20 vehicles using market representative fuels, varying from RON 91 to 100. The resulting data showed a clear performance and acceleration benefit when higher RON fuel was used. In this follow-up study 10 more vehicles were added to the database. The vehicle fleet was extended to be more representative of Asian markets, thus broadening the geographical relevance of the database, as well as adding vehicles with newer technologies such as boosted down-sized direct injection engines, or higher compression ratio engines. Eight different fuel combinations varying in RON were tested, representing standard gasoline and premium gasoline in different markets around the world.

Downsized turbocharged gasoline direct injection (TGDI) engines with high specific power and torque can enable reduced fuel consumption in passenger vehicles while maintaining or even improving on the performance of larger naturally aspirated engines. However, high specific torque levels, especially at low speeds, can lead to abnormal combustion phenomena such as knock or Low-Speed Pre-Ignition (LSPI). LSPI, in particular, can limit further downsizing due to resulting and potentially damaging mega-knock events. Herein, we characterize the impacts of lubricant and fuel composition on LSPI frequency in a TGDI engine while specifically exploring the correlation between fuel composition, particulate emissions, and LSPI events. Our research shows that: (1) oil composition has a strong impact on LSPI frequency and that LSPI frequency can be reduced through a carefully focused approach to lubricant formulation.

Worldwide, Fuel Economy (FE) legislation increasingly influences vehicle and engine design, and drives friction reduction. The link between lubricant formulation and mechanical friction is complex and depends on engine component design and test cycle. This Motored Friction Tear Down (MFTD) study characterizes the friction within a 3.6L V6 engine under operating conditions and lubricant choices relevant to the legislated FE cycles. The high-fidelity MFTD results presented indicate that the engine is a low-friction engine tolerant of low viscosity oils. Experiments spanned four groups of engine hardware (reciprocating, crankshaft, valvetrain, oil pump), five lubricants (four candidates referenced against an SAE 0W-20) and five temperature regimes. The candidate lubricants explored the impact of base oil viscosity, viscosity modifier (VM) and friction modifier (FM) content.

The accepted model of conventional diesel combustion [1] assumes a rich premixed flame slightly downstream of the maximum liquid penetration. The soot generated by this rich premixed flame is burnt out by a subsequent diffusion flame at the head of the jet. Even in situations in which the centre of combustion (CA50) is phased optimally to maximize efficiency, slow late stage combustion can still have a significant detrimental impact on thermal efficiency. Data is presented on potential late-stage combustion improvers in a EURO VI compliant HD engine at a range of speed and load points. The operating conditions (e.g. injection timings, EGR levels) were based on a EURO VI calibration which targets 3 g/kWh of engine-out NOx. Rates of heat release were determined from the pressure sensor data. To investigate late stage combustion, focus was made on the position in the cycle at which 90% of the fuel had combusted (CA90). An EN590 compliant fuel was tested.

It is anticipated that worldwide energy demand will approximately double by 2050, whilst at the same time, CO2 emissions need to be halved. Therefore, there is increasing pressure to improve the efficiency of all machines, with great focus on improving the fuel efficiency of passenger cars. The use of downsized, boosted, gasoline engines, can lead to exceptional fuel economy, and on a well-to-wheels basis, can give similar CO2 emissions to electric vehicles (depending, of course, on how the electricity is generated). In this paper, the development of a low weight concept car is reported. The car is equipped with a three-cylinder 0.66 litre gasoline engine, and has achieved over 100 miles per imperial gallon, in real world driving conditions.

Low Temperature Combustion using compression ignition may provide high efficiency combined with low emissions of oxides of nitrogen and soot. This process is facilitated by fuels with lower cetane number than standard diesel fuel. Mixtures of gasoline and diesel (“dieseline”) may be one way of achieving this, but a practical concern is the flammability of the headspace vapours in the vehicle fuel tank. Gasoline is much more volatile than diesel so, at most ambient temperatures, the headspace vapours in the tank are too rich to burn. A gasoline/diesel mixture in a fuel tank therefore can result in a flammable headspace, particularly at cold ambient temperatures. A mathematical model is presented that predicts the flammability of the headspace vapours in a tank containing mixtures of gasoline and diesel fuel. Fourteen hydrocarbons and ethanol represent the volatile components. Heavier components are treated as non-volatile diluents in the liquid phase.

The effects of lubricant oil and fuel properties on low speed pre-ignition (LSPI) occurrence in boosted S.I. engines were experimentally evaluated with multi-cylinder engine and de-correlated oil and fuel matrices. Further, the auto-ignitability of fuel spray droplets and evaporated homogeneous fuel/oil mixtures were evaluated in a combustion bomb and pressure differential scanning calorimetry (PDSC) tests to analyze the fundamental ignition process. The work investigated the effect of engine conditions, fuel volatility and various lubricant additives on LSPI occurrence. The results support the validity of aspects of the LSPI mechanism hypothesis based on the phenomenon of droplets of lubricant oil/fuel mixture (caused by adhesion of fuel spray on the liner wall) flying into the chamber and autoigniting before spark ignition.

Carbonaceous deposits can accumulate on various surfaces of the internal combustion engine and affect its performance. The porous nature of these deposits means that they act like a “sponge”, adsorbing fuel components and changing both the composition and the amount of fuel in the combustion chamber. Here we use a previously developed and validated model of engine deposits to predict adsorption of normal heptane, isooctane, toluene and their mixtures in deposits of different origin within a port fuel injected spark ignition engine (Combustion Chamber Deposits, or CCDs, and Intake Valve Deposits, or IVDs) and under different conditions. We explore the influence of molecular structure of adsorbing species, composition of the bulk mixture and temperature on the uptake and selectivity behaviour of the deposits. While deposits generally show high capacity toward all three components, we observe that selectivity behaviour is a more subtle and complex property.

The paper discusses the concept, design and final results from the ‘Ultra Boost for Economy’ collaborative project, which was part-funded by the Technology Strategy Board, the UK's innovation agency. The project comprised industry- and academia-wide expertise to demonstrate that it is possible to reduce engine capacity by 60% and still achieve the torque curve of a modern, large-capacity naturally-aspirated engine, while encompassing the attributes necessary to employ such a concept in premium vehicles. In addition to achieving the torque curve of the Jaguar Land Rover naturally-aspirated 5.0 litre V8 engine (which included generating 25 bar BMEP at 1000 rpm), the main project target was to show that such a downsized engine could, in itself, provide a major proportion of a route towards a 35% reduction in vehicle tailpipe CO2 on the New European Drive Cycle, together with some vehicle-based modifications and the assumption of stop-start technology being used instead of hybridization.

This study investigates the effects of octane quality on the performance, i.e., acceleration and power, and fuel economy (FE) of one late model US vehicle, which is powered by a small displacement, turbocharged, gasoline direct injection (GDI) engine. The relative importance of the gasoline parameters Research and Motor Octane Number (RON and MON) in meeting the octane requirement of this engine to run at an optimum spark timing for the given demand was considered by evaluating the octane index (OI), where OI = (1-K) RON + K MON and K is a constant depending on engine design and operating conditions. Over wide open throttle (WOT) accelerations, the average K of this Pontiac Solstice was determined as −0.75, whereby a lower MON would give a higher OI, a higher knock resistance and better performance.

Deposits forming in the injector nozzle holes of modern diesel cars can reduce and disrupt the fuel injected into the combustion chamber, causing reduced or less efficient combustion, resulting in power loss and increased fuel consumption. A study of the factors affecting injector nozzle tip temperature, a parameter critical to nozzle deposit formation, has been conducted in a Peugeot DW10 passenger car bench engine, as used in the industry standard CEC F-098 injector nozzle deposit test, [1]. The findings of the bench engine study were applied in the development of a Chassis Dynamometer (CD) based vehicle test method using Euro 5 compliant vehicles. The developed test method was refined to tune the conditions as far as practicable towards a realistic driving pattern whilst maintaining sufficient deposit forming tendency to enable test duration to be limited to a reasonable period.

The demonstration benefit from fuel-borne fuel-economy additives to a precision of 1%, or better, traditionally requires very careful experimental design and considerable resource intensity. In practice, the process usually requires the use of well-defined drive cycles (e.g. emission certification cycles HFET, NEDC) in conjunction with environmentally-controlled chassis dynamometer facilities. Against this background, a method has been developed to achieve high-precision fuel economy comparison of gasoline fuels with reduced resource intensity and under arbitrary real-world driving conditions. The method relies upon the inference of instantaneous fuel consumption via the collection of OBD data and the simultaneous estimation of instantaneous engine output from vehicle dynamical behaviour.

Laminar burning velocity is a fundamental combustion property of any fuel/air mixture. Formulating gasoline fuel blends having faster burning velocities can be an effective strategy for enhancing engine and vehicle performance. Formulation of faster burning fuels by changing the fuel composition has been explored in this work leading to a clear correlation between engine performance and fuel burning velocity. In principle a gasoline vehicle should be calibrated to give optimal ignition timing (also known as MBT - minimum spark advance for best torque) while at the same time avoiding any possible engine knock. However, modern downsized/boosted engines frequently tend to be limited by knock and the spark timing is retarded in respect of the optimum. In such scenarios, faster burning fuels can lead to a more optimum combustion phasing resulting in a more efficient energy transfer and hence a faster acceleration and better performance.

Due to the recent drive to reduce CO₂ emissions, the turbocharged direct injection spark ignition (turbo DISI) gasoline engine has become increasingly popular. In addition, future turbo DISI engines could incorporate a form of charge dilution (e.g., lean operation or external EGR) to further increase fuel efficiency. Thus, the conditions experienced by the fuel before and during combustion are and will continue to be different from those experienced in naturally aspirated SI engines. This work investigates the effects of fuel properties on a modern and prototype turbo DISI engine, with particular focus on the octane appetite: How relevant are RON and MON in predicting a fuel's anti-knock performance in these modern/future engines? It is found that fuels with high RON and low MON values perform the best, suggesting the current MON requirements in fuel specifications could actually be detrimental.

Building on two decades of expertise, a fourth generation fleet test protocol is presented for assessing the response of engine performance to gasoline additive treatment. In this case, the ability of additives to remove pre-existing deposit from the intake systems of port fuel injected vehicles has been examined. The protocol is capable of identifying real benefits under realistic market conditions, isolating fuel performance from other effects thereby allowing a direct comparison between different fuels. It is cost efficient and robust to unplanned incidents. The new protocol has been applied to the development of a candidate fuel additive package for the North American market. A vehicle fleet of 5 quadruplets (5 sets of 4 matched vehicles, each set of a different model) was tested twice, assessing the intake valve clean-up performance of 3 test fuels relative to a control fuel.