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Electric vehicles have become more widespread globally, with the aim of realizing a carbon-neutral society. In addition, the various policies for vehicle engines have become increasingly strict. It is desirable to evaluate fuel consumption and exhaust emissions using real vehicles on actual roads, with the goal of improving air quality. Hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) have a high frequency of engine stops during driving. In a real driving emission (RDE) test, a portable emission measurement system (PEMS) is used, which continues to measure emissions even when the engine stops; this can decrease the emission concentration inside the tailpipe and result in an inaccurate emission measurement. Furthermore, RDE tests are affected by the installation performance of the PEMS; the emission intake is often installed by extending the exhaust outlet.

To reduce carbon dioxide emissions, the use of vehicles operating on electrification technology, such as plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) and electric vehicles (EVs) is rapidly increasing. A similar trend also exists in the field of heavy-duty vehicles, such as trucks and buses. When evaluating—via the certification test method—the fuel efficiency, electricity efficiency, and exhaust gas emission of heavy-duty vehicles that have many batteries, the powertrain, including the batteries, is modeled and investigated. However, such modeling is difficult because batteries deteriorate, and the ambient temperature fluctuates during vehicle operation. To resolve this issue, we developed a new evaluation method that enables real-time cooperative control of actual batteries and hardware-in-the-loop simulation (HILS).

From the perspective of improving the atmospheric environment, evaluating the fuel efficiency and exhaust gas emissions when using actual vehicles on real roads is necessary. Passenger vehicles apply RDE (real driving emission) test. However, unlike passenger vehicles, there are many types and models of heavy-duty vehicles; thus, evaluating all of these types using real driving emission tests is difficult. Therefore, we investigated the possibility of an alternative evaluation of heavy-duty vehicle based on a simulation method that uses a vehicle model for part of the evaluation. This alternative evaluation method is a combination of the “engine HILS (hardware-in-the-loop simulation)” method, developed in previous studies and can perform tests based on vehicle speed and driving wind that is reproduced in the engine bench to appropriately cool the engine and various devices.

Fuel consumption and exhaust gas emission regulations are being tightened around the world year by year. Electric vehicles are needed to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Especially, Plug-in hybrid heavy-duty vehicles (PHEVs) are expected to become widespread. PHEVs enable all-electric modes, as well as hybrid modes, using both engines and electric motors, but the control system significantly affects the characteristics of fuel consumption and gas emission. In this study, we used new testing machine (we call extended HILS) to analyze the fuel consumption and gas emission for different plug-in hybrid control systems and investigated the optimal control method for PHEVs.

We have proposed the application of Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) gas dissolved fuel which might improve spray atomization through effervescent atomization instead of high injection pressure. Since EGR gas is included in the spray of EGR gas dissolved fuel, it directly contributes to combustion, and the further reduction of NOx emissions is expected rather than the conventional external EGR. In our research, since highly contained in the exhaust gas and highly soluble in the fuel, CO2 was selected as the dissolved gas to simulate EGR gas dissolved. In this paper, the purpose is to evaluate the influence of the application of CO2 gas dissolved fuel on the combustion characteristics and emission characteristics inside the single cylinder, direct injection diesel engine. As a result, by use of the fuel, smoke was reduced by about 50 to 70%, but NOx reduction does not have enough effect.

We have proposed the application of EGR gas dissolved fuel which might improve spray atomization through effervescent atomization instead of high injection pressure. In this paper, the purpose is to evaluate the influence of the application of CO2 gas dissolved fuel on the combustion characteristics and emissions inside the single cylinder, direct injection diesel engine. As a result, by use of the fuel, smoke was reduced by about 50 to 70%. The amount of NOx was reduced at IMEP=0.3 MPa, but it was increased at IMEP=0.9 MPa.

Around the world, fuel economy and emission regulations for vehicles have become increasingly stringent year by year. In Europe, the real driving emission (RDE) testing was introduced for evaluating the emission at driving the road-going vehicles after September 2017. In order to effiency produce the actual vehicles, Each automobile manufacturer introduce the “Hardware In the Loop Simulator” (HILS) and “Engine In the Loop Simulator” (which is called the EILS or the extended HILS [1, 2]), which is combined with HILS and an actual engine. However, if the driver model used in the vehicle simulation (HILS, extended HILS) does not correctly simulate actual human driving behaviors, the model vehicle performances will differ from the actual vehicle performance. The fuel economy and emission characteristics are affected by the differences of the driver model control logic during the execution of vehicle simulation.

The CO2 gas dissolved fuel for the diesel combustion is effective to reduce the NOx emissions to achieve the internal EGR (Exhaust Gas Recirculation) effect by fuel. This method has supplied EGR gas to the fuel side instead of supply EGR gas to the intake gas side. The fuel has followed specific characteristics for the diesel combustion. When the fuel is injected into the chamber in low pressure, this CO2 gas is separated from the fuel spray. The distribution characteristics of the spray are improved and the improvement of the thermal efficiency by reduction heat loss in the combustion chamber wall, and reduce soot emissions by the lean combustion is expected. Furthermore, this CO2 gas decreases the flame temperature. Further, it is anticipated to reduce NOx emissions by the spray internal EGR effect.

Next-generation vehicles which include the Electric Vehicles, the Hybrid Electric Vehicles and the Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles are researched and expected to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emission in the future. In order to reduce the emissions of the heavy-duty diesel plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV), it is necessary to provide the high exhaust-gas temperature and to keep the exhaust-gas aftertreatment system effective. The engine starting condition of the PHEV is cold, and the engine start and stop is repeated. And, the engine load of the PHEV is assisted by the electric motor. Therefore, the exhaust-gas aftertreatment system of the PHEV is not able to get the enough high exhaust-gas temperature. And, the warm-up of the exhaust-gas aftertreatment system for the PHEV is spent the long time. So, it is worried about a bad effect on the emission characteristics of the PHEV.

In order to improve the fuel economy of the heavy duty trucks at a highway driving condition, the heavy duty hybrid trucks with new type of hybrid electric assist engine system were proposed at the previous report. The new system consists of a downsizing diesel engine with a two-stage charging structure, which has an electric supercharger with bypass circuit and a conventional turbocharger, the hybrid electric motor and the small-capacity battery. The electric power consumption of an electric supercharger is equivalent to the amount of the regeneration power produced during high-speed driving where the opportunity of the regeneration is small. In this report, an electric supercharger for the heavy duty hybrid truck was produced experimentally. First, the engine performance and exhaust emissions were investigated using the 4 cylinder diesel engine equipped with an electric supercharger.

Next-generation vehicles which include Electric Vehicles and Hybrid Electric Vehicles are studied and expected to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. The number of small delivery hybrid trucks has increased in the commercial vehicle class. The engine load of a commercial hybrid truck is reduced by using an electric motor. Fuel economy of the hybrid truck is improved with the assist. On the other hand, exhaust-gas temperature is decreased, and it has a negative effect on the purification performance of aftertreatment system. In this report, the fuel performance and emission gas characteristics of marketed small hybrid trucks were surveyed using the chassis dynamometer test system.

Fuel design approach has been proposed as the control technique of spray and combustion processes in diesel engine to improve thermal efficiency and reduce exhaust emissions. In order to kwow if this approach is capable of controlling spray flame structure and interaction between the flame and a combustion chamber wall, the present study investigated ignition and flame characteristics of dual-component fuels, while varying mixing fraction, fuel temperature and ambient conditions. Those characteristics were evaluated through chemiluminescence photography and luminous flame photography. OH radical images and visible luminous flame images were analyzed to reveal flame shape aspect ratio and its fractal dimension.

In direct injection spark ignition (DISI), spray characteristics such as the penetration, spatial dispersion, droplet size distribution and the spray wall interaction process are extremely important to control the combustion process through the mixture formation process. Furthermore, the spray basic feature including the spatial and temporal changes is the key issue to reduce the Particulate Matter (PM) & HC emissions. In this study, we reveal both of the macroscopic and microscopic structures of the spray dynamics by Super High Spatial Resolution Photography (SHSRP). Furthermore, it is found that the simulated spray structure such as the penetration and droplet size distribution using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code is well consistent with the experimental results.

Next-generation vehicles which include Electric Vehicles (EV) and Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEV) are researched and expected to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the future. In the national new-car sales in 2012 of Japan, the total sales of hybrid vehicles kept 26.5% share. In the field of passenger cars, this share was 29.7%. And, this share rose about four times compared to that of 2008 [1]. Also, small delivery hybrid trucks are increased in the commercial vehicle class. Fuel economy of hybrid trucks in the catalog specifications is relatively better than that of the diesel tracks which have no hybrid systems. Nevertheless, hybrid trucks' users report that advantages of fuel economy of hybrid trucks at the real traffic driving conditions are small.

Next-generation vehicles which include Electric Vehicles (EV) and Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEV) are researched and expected to reduce CO2 emissions in the future. Generally, the main factor to support high efficiency of EV and HEV is the idle stop, motor assistance and regenerative braking. The vehicle mechanism of HEV is complex, compared with conventional internal combustion engine vehicle. Certification test method of gas emissions and fuel consumption is used driving mode, which is currently reflecting the typical driving conditions in the market. And driving mode of certification test is established focusing on the reproducibility of driving by conventional internal combustion engine vehicles. It is necessary to consider that the driving mode for the vehicle used regenerative energy is reflected correctly. And high accuracy certification test method for next generation HEVs is necessary in order to evaluate exhaust gas and fuel economy.

Ignition, combustion and emissions characteristics of dual-component fuel spray were examined for ranges of injection timing and intake-air oxygen concentration. Fuels used were binary mixtures of gasoline-like component i-octane (cetane number 12, boiling point 372 K) and diesel fuel-like component n-tridecane (cetane number 88, boiling point 510 K). Mass fraction of i-octane was also changed as the experimental variable. The experimental study was carried out in a single cylinder compression ignition engine equipped with a common-rail injection system and an exhaust gas recirculation system. The results demonstrated that the increase of the i-octane mass fraction with optimizations of injection timing and intake oxygen concentration reduced pressure rise rate and soot and NOx emissions without deterioration of indicated thermal efficiency.

Auto-ignition and combustion processes of dual-component fuel spray were numerically studied. A source code of SUPERTRAPP (developed by NIST), which is capable of predicting thermodynamic and transportation properties of pure fluids and fluid mixtures containing up to 20 components, was incorporated into KIVA3V to provide physical fuel properties and vapor-liquid equilibrium calculations. Low temperature oxidation reaction, which is of importance in ignition process of hydrocarbon fuels, as well as negative temperature coefficient behavior was taken into account using the multistep kinetics ignition prediction based on Shell model, while a global single-step mechanism was employed to account for high temperature oxidation reaction. Computational results with the present multi-component fuel model were validated by comparing with experimental data of spray combustion obtained in a constant volume vessel.

A dual fuel operation with different reactivity fuels has the possibility of optimizing performance and emissions in premixed charge compression ignition engines by controlling the spatial concentration and distribution of both fuels. In the present study, n-heptane and i-octane were independently injected through two different injectors. In-cylinder pressure analysis and emissions measurement were performed in a compression ignition engine. Injection timings, fuel quantity ratio between the injections were changed for the two cases, in which one fuel was injected using a port fuel injection system while the other was directly injected into the cylinder, in order to drastically vary mixture distributions and ignition timings. In addition, an optical diagnostic was performed in a rapid compression and expansion machine to develop an understanding of the ignition processes of the two mixtures.

Three-dimensional large eddy simulation (LES) has been conducted for a diesel spray flame using KIVALES which is LES version of KIVA code. Modified TAB model, velocity interpolation model and rigid sphere model are used to improve the prediction of the fuel-mixture process in the diesel spray. Combustion is simulated using the Eddy-Dissipation model. CIP method was incorporated into the KIVALES in order to suppress the numerical instability on the combustible flow. The formation of soot and NO was simulated using Hiroyasu model and KIVA original model. Three different grid resolutions were used to examine the grid dependency. The result shows that the LES approach with 0.5 mm grid size is able to resolve the instantaneous spray with the intermittency in the spray periphery, the axi-symmetric shape and meandering flow after the end of injection as shown in the experimental results.

A diesel engine operating in premixed charge compression ignition (PCCI) mode promises the reduction of engine-out emissions of NOx and particulate matter. A serious issue for PCCI operation with the early injection timing during the compression stroke is the difficulty of controlling the mixture formation process. In this study, a mixed fuel consisting of high volatility fuel and high ignitability one is applied in order to develop a control technique for the mixture preparation. In particular, we focuses on a flash boiling phenomenon of mixed fuel. For pure substance, the quality of flashing spray is dominated by the degree of superheat. In contrast, that of mixed fuel is affected much by low boiling point fuel.