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The global push towards reducing green-house gas and criteria pollutant emissions is leading to tighter emission standards for heavy-duty engines. Among the most stringent of these standards are the California Air Resource Board (CARB) 2024+ HD Omnibus regulations adopted by the agency in August 2020. The CARB 2024+ HD Omnibus regulations require up to 90% reduction in NOx emissions along with updated compliance testing methods for on-road heavy-duty engines. Subsequently, the agency announced development of new Tier 5 standards for off-road engines in November 2021. The Tier 5 standards aim to reduce NOx/PM emissions by 90%/75% respectively from Tier 4 final levels, along with introduction of greenhouse gas emission standards for CO2/CH4/N2O/NH3. Furthermore, CARB is also considering similar updates on compliance testing as those implemented in 2024+ HD Omnibus regulations including, low-load cycle, idle emissions and 3-bin moving average in-use testing.

Vehicle OEM’s for MHD applications are facing significant challenges in meeting the stringent 2027 low-NOx and GHG emissions regulations. To meet such challenges, advanced engine and aftertreatment technologies along with powertrain electrification are being applied to achieve robust solutions. FEV has previously conducted model-based assessments to show the potential of 48V engine and aftertreatment technologies to simultaneously meet GHG and low NOx emission standards. This study focuses on evaluating the full potential of 48V electrification technology through addition of 48V P3 hybrid system to the previously developed 48V advanced engine and aftertreatment technology package. Previously, a model-based approach was utilized for selection and sizing of a 48V system-enabled engine and aftertreatment package for class 6-7 MHD application.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and California Air Resources Board (CARB) have recently announced rulemakings focused on tighter emission limits for oxides of nitrogen (NOx) from heavy-duty trucks. As part of the new rulemaking CARB has proposed a Low Load Cycle (LLC) to specifically evaluate NOx emission performance over real-world urban and vocational operation typically characterized by low engine loads, thereby demanding the implementation of continuous active thermal management of the engine and aftertreatment system. This significant drop in NOx levels along with continued reduction in the Green House Gas (GHG) limits poses a more significant challenge for the engine developer as the conventional emission reduction approaches for one species will likely result in an undesirable increase in the other species.

Electrification of heavy-duty trucks has received significant attention in the past year as a result of future regulations in some states. For example, California will require a certain percentage of tractor trailers, delivery trucks and vans sold to be zero emission by 2035. However, the relatively low energy density of batteries in comparison to diesel fuel, as well as the operating profiles of heavy-duty trucks, make the application of electrified powertrain in these applications more challenging. Heavy-duty vehicles can be broadly classified into two main categories; long-haul tractors and vocational vehicles. Long-haul tractors offer limited benefit from electrification due to the majority of operation occurring at constant cruise speeds, long range requirements and the high efficiency provided by the diesel engine.

Past experimental studies conducted by the current authors on a 13 liter 16.7:1 compression ratio heavy-duty diesel engine have shown that diesel-Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) Reactivity Controlled Compression Ignition (RCCI) combustion targeting low NOx emissions becomes progressively difficult to control as the engine load is increased. This is mainly due to difficulty in controlling reactivity levels at higher loads. For the current study, CFD investigations were conducted in CONVERGE using the SAGE combustion solver with the application of the Rahimi mechanism. Studies were conducted at a load of 5 bar BMEP to validate the simulation results against RCCI experimental data. In the low load study, it was found that the Rahimi mechanism was not able to predict the RCCI combustion behavior for diesel injection timings advanced beyond 30 degCA bTDC. This poor prediction was found at multiple engine speed and load points.

Due to increasing environmental awareness, standards for pollutant and CO2 emissions are getting stricter in most markets around the world. In important markets such as Europe, also the emissions during real road driving, so called “Real Driving Emissions” (RDE), are now part of the type approval process for passenger cars. In addition to the proceeding hybridization and electrification of vehicles, the complexity and degrees of freedom of conventional powertrains with internal combustion engines (ICE) are also continuing to increase in order to comply with stricter exhaust emission standards. Besides the different requirements placed on vehicle emissions, the drivability capabilities of passenger vehicles desired by customers, are essentially important and vary between markets.

Exhaust aftertreatment systems must function sufficiently over the full useful life of a vehicle. In Europe this is currently defined as 160.000 km. With the introduction of Euro 7 it is expected that the required mileage will be extended to 240.000 km. This will then be consistent with the US legislation. In order to quantify the emission impact of exhaust system degradation, an Euro 7 exhaust aftertreatment system is aged by different accelerated approaches: application of the Standard Bench Cycle, the ZDAKW cycle, a novel ash loading method and borderline aging. The results depict the impact of oil ash on the oxygen storage capacity. For tailpipe emissions, the maximum peak temperatures are the dominant aging factor. The cold start performance is effected by both, thermal degradation and ash accumulation. An evaluation of this emission increase requires appropriate benchmarks.

While significant progress has been made in recent years to develop hybrid and battery electric vehicles for passenger car and light-duty applications to meet future fuel economy targets, the application of hybrid powertrains to heavy-duty truck applications has been very limited. The relatively lower energy and power density of batteries in comparison to diesel fuel and the operating profiles of most heavy-duty trucks, combine to make the application of hybrid powertrain for these applications more challenging. The high torque and power requirements of heavy-duty trucks over a long operating range, the majority of which is at constant cruise point, along with a high payback period, complexity, cost, weight and range anxiety, make the hybrid and battery electric solution less attractive than a conventional powertrain.

Gasoline particulate filters (GPF) recently entered the market, and are already regarded a state-of-the-art solution for gasoline exhaust aftertreatment systems to enable EU6d-TEMP fulfilment and beyond. Especially for coated GPF applications, the prognosis of the emission conversion performance over lifetime poses an ambitious challenge, which significantly influences future catalyst diagnosis calibrations. The paper presents key-findings for the different GPF application variants. In the first part, experimental GPF ash loading results are presented. Ash accumulates as thin wall layers and short plugs, but does not penetrate into the wall. However, it suppresses deep bed filtration of soot, initially decreasing the soot-loaded backpressure. For the emission calibration, the non-linear backpressure development complicates the soot load monitoring, eventually leading to compromises between high safety against soot overloading and a low number of active regenerations.

To achieve global market and brand specific drivability characteristics as unique selling proposition for the increasing number of passenger car derivatives, an objectified evaluation approach for the drivability capabilities of the various cars is required. Thereto, it is necessary to evaluate the influence of different engine concepts in various complex and interlinked powertrain topologies during engine load change maneuvers based on physical criteria. Such an objectification approach enables frontloading of drivability related engineering tasks by the execution of drivability development and calibration work within vehicle subcomponent-specific closed-loop real-time co-simulation environments in early phases of a vehicle development program. So far, drivability functionalities could be developed and calibrated only towards the end of a vehicle development program, when test vehicles with a sufficient level of product maturity became available.

When considered along with Phase 2 Greenhouse Gas (GHG) requirements, the proposed Air Resource Board (ARB) nitrogen oxide (NOx) emission limit of 0.02 g/bhp-hr will be very challenging to achieve as the trade-off between fuel consumption and NOx emissions is not favorable. To meet any future ultra-low NOx emission regulation, the NOx conversion efficiency during the cold start of the emission test cycles needs to be improved. In such a scenario, apart from changes in aftertreatment layout and formulation, additional heating measures will be required. In this article, a physics-based model for an advanced aftertreatment system comprising of a diesel oxidation catalyst (DOC), an SCR-catalyzed diesel particulate filter (SDPF), a stand-alone selective catalytic reduction (SCR), and an ammonia slip catalyst (ASC) was calibrated against experimental data.

In-use compliance under LEV III emission standards, GHG, and fuel economy targets beyond 2025 poses a great opportunity for all ICE-based propulsion systems, especially for light-duty diesel powertrain and aftertreatment enhancement. Though diesel powertrains feature excellent fuel-efficiency, robust and complete emissions controls covering any possible operational profiles and duty cycles has always been a challenge. Significant dependency on aftertreatment calibration and configuration has become a norm. With the onset of hybridization and downsizing, small steps of improvement in system stability have shown a promising avenue for enhancing fuel economy while continuously improving emissions robustness. In this paper, a study of current key technologies and associated emissions robustness will be discussed followed by engine and aftertreatment performance target derivations for LEV III compliant powertrains.

Dynamic skip fire (DSF) has shown significant fuel economy improvement potential via reduction of pumping losses that generally affect throttled spark-ignition (SI) engines. In DSF operation, individual cylinders are fired on-demand near peak efficiency to satisfy driver torque demand. For vehicles with a downsized-boosted 4-cylinder engine, DSF can reduce fuel consumption by 8% in the WLTC (Class 3) drive cycle. The relatively low cost of cylinder deactivation hardware further improves the production value of DSF. Lean burn strategies in gasoline engines have also demonstrated significant fuel efficiency gains resulting from reduced pumping losses and improved thermodynamic characteristics, such as higher specific heat ratio and lower heat losses. Fuel-air mixture stratification is generally required to achieve stable combustion at low loads.

This paper describes an approach to reduce development costs and time by frontloading of engineering tasks and even starting calibration tasks already in the early component conception phases of a vehicle development program. To realize this, the application of a consistent and parallel virtual development and calibration methodology is required. The interaction between vehicle subcomponents physically available and those only virtually available at that time, is achieved with the introduction of highly accurate real-time models on closed-loop co-simulation platforms (HiL-simulators) which provide the appropriate response of the hardware components. This paper presents results of a heterogeneous testing scenario containing a real internal combustion engine on a test facility and a purely virtual vehicle using two different automatic transmission calibration and hardware setups.

Gasoline engine powertrain development for 2025 and beyond is focusing on finding cost optimal solutions by balancing electrification and combustion engine efficiency measures. Besides Miller cycle application, cooled exhaust gas recirculation and variable compression ratio, the injection of water has recently gained increased attention as a promising technology for significant CO2 reduction. This paper gives deep insight into the fuel consumption reduction potential of direct water injection. Single cylinder investigations were performed in order to investigate the influence of water injection in the entire engine map. In addition, different engine configurations were tested to evaluate the influence of the altering compression ratios and Miller timings on the fuel consumption reduction potential with water injection.

In view of changing climatic conditions all over the world, Green House Gas (GHG) saving related initiatives such as reducing the CO2 emissions from the mobility and transportation sectors have gained in importance. Therefore, with respect to the large U.S. market, the corresponding legal authorities have defined aggressive and challenging targets for the upcoming time frame. Due to several aspects and conditions, like hesitantly acting clients regarding electrically powered vehicles or low prices for fossil fuels, convincing and attractive products have to be developed to merge legal requirements with market constraints. This is especially valid for the market segment of Light-Duty vehicles, like SUV’S and Pick-Up trucks, which are in high demand.

Substitution of diesel fuel with natural gas in heavy-duty diesel engines offers significant advantages in terms of operating cost, as well as NOx, PM emissions and greenhouse gas emissions. However, the challenges of high THC and CO emissions, combustion stability, exhaust temperatures and pressure rise rates limit the substitution levels across the engine operating map and necessitate an optimized combustion strategy. Reactivity controlled compression ignition (RCCI) combustion has shown promise in regard to improving combustion efficiency at low and medium loads and simultaneously reducing NOx emissions at higher loads. RCCI combustion exploits the difference in reactivity between two fuels by introducing a less reactive fuel, such as natural gas, along with air during the intake stroke and igniting the air-CNG mixture by injecting a higher reactivity fuel, such as diesel, later in the compression stroke.

Upcoming motor vehicle emission regulations, such as California's LEVIII, continue to tighten emission limitations in diesel vehicles. These increasingly challenging emission requirements will be met by improving the combustion process (reducing engine-out emissions), as well as improving the exhaust gas aftertreatment efficiency. Furthermore, intricate On-Board Diagnostics (OBD) systems are required to properly diagnose and meet OBD regulation requirements for complex aftertreatment systems. Under these conditions, current monitoring strategies are unable to guarantee reliable detection of partially failed systems. Additionally, new OBD regulations require aftertreatment systems to be diagnosed as a whole. This paper covers potential OBD strategies for LEVIII aftertreatment concepts with regard to regulation compliance and robustness, while striving to use existing sensor concepts.

Downsizing in combination with turbocharging currently represents the main technology trend for meeting CO2 emissions with gasoline engines. Besides the well-known advantages of downsizing the compression ratio has to be reduced in order to mitigate knock at higher engine loads along with increased turbocharging demand to compensate for the reduction in power. Another disadvantage occurs at part load with increasing boost pressure levels causing the part load efficiencies to deteriorate. The application of a variable compression ratio (VCR) system can help to mitigate these disadvantages. The 2-stage VCR system with variable kinetic lengths entails variable powertrain components which can be used instead of the conventional components and thus only require minor modifications for existing engine architectures. The presented variable length connecting rod system has been continuously developed over the past years.

The interest in electric propulsion of vehicles has increased in recent years and is being discussed extensively by experts as well as the public. Up to now the driving range and the utilization of pure electric vehicles are still limited in comparison to conventional vehicles due to the limited capacity and the long charging times of today's batteries. This is a challenge to customer acceptance of a pure electric vehicle, even for a city car application. A Range Extender concept could achieve the desired customer acceptance, but should not impact the “electric driving” experience, and should not cause further significant increases in the manufacturing and purchasing cost. The V2 engine concept presented in this paper is particularly suited to a low cost, modular vehicle concept. Advantages regarding packaging can be realized with the use of two generators in combination with the V2 engine.