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The Particle Number–Portable Emission Measurement System (PN-PEMS) came into force with Euro VI Phase E regulations starting January 1, 2022. However, positive ignition (PI) engines must comply from January 1, 2024. The delay was due to the unavailability of the PN-PEMS system that could withstand high concentrations of water typically present in the tailpipe (TP) of CNG vehicles, which was detrimental to the PN-PEMS systems. Thus, this study was designed to evaluate the condensation particle counter (CPC)-based PN-PEMS measurement capabilities that was upgraded to endure high concentration of water. The PN-PEMS measurement of solid particle number (SPN23) greater than 23 nm was compared against the laboratory-grade PN systems in four phases. Each phase differs based upon the PN-PEMS and PN system location and measurements were made from three different CNG engines. In the first phase, systems measured the diluted exhaust through constant volume sampler (CVS) tunnel.

Pouch cells are increasingly popular form factors for the construction of energy storage systems in electric vehicles of all classes. Knowledge of the stress generated by these higher capacity pouch cells is critical to properly design battery modules and packs for both normal and abnormal operation. Existing literature predominantly offers data on smaller pouch cells with capacities of less than 10 Ah, leaving a gap in our understanding of the behavior of these larger cells. This experimental study aimed to bridge this knowledge gap by measuring loads and stresses in constrained 65 Ah pouch cells under both cycling and abuse conditions. To capture the desired responses, a load cell was located within a robust fixture to measure cell stress in real time after the application of a preload of approximately 30 kilograms or 294 N, equivalent to a pressure of 0.063 bar, with a fixed displacement.

The proposed Euro-7 regulations are expected to build on the significant emissions reductions that have already been achieved using advanced Euro VI compliant after treatment systems (ATS). The introduction of in-service conformity (ISC) requirements during Euro VI paved the way for enabling compliance during real-world driving conditions. The diverse range of applications and resulting operating conditions greatly impact ATS design and the ability of the diesel particulate filter (DPF) to maintain performance under the most challenging boundary conditions including cold starts, partial/complete regenerations, and high passive soot burn operation. The current study attempts to map the particle number (PN) filtration performance of different DPF technologies under a variety of in-use cycles developed based on field-data from heavy duty Class-8 / N3 vehicles.

As GHG and fuel economy regulations of light-duty vehicles have become more stringent, advanced emissions reduction technology has extensively penetrated the US light-duty vehicle fleet. This new technology includes not only advanced conventional engines and transmissions, but also greater adoption of electrified powertrains. In 2022, electrified vehicles – including mild hybrids, strong hybrids, plug-ins, and battery electric vehicles – made up nearly 17% of the US fleet and are on track to further increase their proportion in subsequent years. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has previously used its Advanced Light-Duty Powertrain and Hybrid Analysis (ALPHA) full vehicle simulation tool to evaluate the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of light-duty vehicles. ALPHA contains a library of benchmarked powertrain components that can be matched to specific vehicles to explore GHG emissions performance.

Since the early 1990’s, commercial vehicles have suffered from repeated vulnerability exploitations that resulted in a need for improved automotive cybersecurity. This paper outlines the strategies and challenges of implementing an automotive Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA) to secure intra-vehicle networks. Zero Trust (ZT) originated as an Information Technology (IT) principle of “never trust, always verify”; it is the concept that a network must never assume assets can be trusted regardless of their ownership or network location. This research focused on drastically improving security of the cyber-physical vehicle network, with minimal performance impact measured as timing, bandwidth, and processing power. The automotive ZTA was tested using a software-in-the-loop vehicle simulation paired with resource constrained hardware that closely emulated a production vehicle network.

The ever-tightening regulation norms across the world emphasize the magnitude of the air pollution problem. The decision to leapfrog from BS4 to BS6 – with further reduction in emission limits -showed India’s commitment to clean up its atmosphere. The overall cycle emissions were reduced significantly to meet BS6 targets [1]. However, the introduction of RDE norms in BS6.2 [1] demanded further reduction in emissions under real time operating conditions – start-stop, hard acceleration, idling, cold start – which was possible only through strategies that demanded a cost effective yet robust solutions. The first few seconds of the engine operation after start contribute significantly to the cycle gaseous emissions. This is because the thermal inertia of the catalytic converter restricts the rate at which temperature of the catalyst increases and achieves the desired “light-off” temperature.

Upcoming regulations from CARB and EPA will require diesel engine manufacturers to validate aftertreatment durability with full useful life aged components. To this end, the Diesel Aftertreatment Accelerated Aging Cycle (DAAAC) protocol was developed to accelerate aftertreatment aging by accounting for hydrothermal aging, sulfur, and oil poisoning deterioration mechanisms. Two aftertreatment systems aged with the DAAAC protocol, one on an engine and the other on a burner system, were directly compared to a reference system that was aged to full useful life using conventional service accumulation. After on-engine emission testing of the fully aged components, DOC and SCR catalyst samples were extracted from the aftertreatment systems to compare the elemental distribution of contaminants between systems. In addition, benchtop reactor testing was conducted to measure differences in catalyst performance.

Low carbon emissions policies for the transportation sector have recently driven more interest in using low net-carbon fuels, including biodiesel. An internal combustion engine (ICE) can operate effectively using biodiesel while achieving lower engine-out emissions, such as soot, mostly thanks to oxygenate content in biodiesel. This study selected a heavy-duty (HD) single-cylinder engine (SCE) platform to test biodiesel fuel blends with 20% and 100% biodiesel content by volume, referred to as B20, and B100. Test conditions include a parametric study of exhaust gas recirculating (EGR), and the start of injection (SOI) performed at low and high engine load operating points. In-cylinder pressure and engine-out emissions (NOX and soot) measurements were collected to compare diesel and biodiesel fuels.

The capacity of a lithium-ion battery decreases during cycling. This capacity loss or fade occurs due to several different mechanisms associated with unwanted side reactions that occur in these batteries. The same reactions occur during overcharge and cause electrolyte decomposition, passive film formation, active material dissolution, and other phenomena. As the battery ages the accuracy of state of charge prediction decreases and vulnerability to persistent overcharge increases. Moreover, as the battery ages, its tolerance to such unintended overcharge changes. This tolerance depends on the nature of the history of cycle and calendar aging. A map of this tolerance in the BMS can provide awareness of the factor of safety due to overcharge as battery ages. Signatures of early warning signs of incipient thermal runaway due to overcharge can also be very useful features in a BMS.

Shafaat and Kenley in 2015 identified the opportunity to improve System Engineering Standards by incorporating the design principle of learning. The System Level Assessment (SLA) Methodology is an approach that fulfills this need by efficiently capturing the learnings of a team of subject matter experts in the early stages of product system design. By gathering expertise, design considerations are identified that when used with market and business requirements improve the overall quality of the product system. To evaluate the effectiveness of this approach, the methodology has been successfully applied over 400 times within each realm of the New Product Introduction process, including most recently to a Technology Development program (in the earliest stages of the design process) to assess the viability of various electrification technologies under consideration by an automotive Tier 1 supplier.

As an alternative fuel, renewable diesel (RD) could improve the performance of conventional internal combustion engines (ICE) because of its difference in fuel properties. With almost no aromatic content in the fuel, RD produces less soot emissions than diesel. The higher cetane number (CN) of RD also promotes ignition of the fuel, which is critical, especially under low load, and low reactivity conditions. This study tested RD fuel in a heavy-duty single-cylinder engine (SCE) under compression-ignition (CI) operation. Test condition includes low and high load points with change in exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) and start of injection (SOI). Measurements and analysis are provided to study combustion and emissions, including particulate matters (PM) mass and particle number (PN). It was found that while the combustion of RD and diesel are very similar, PM and PN emissions of RD were reduced substantially compared to diesel.

As the official proposal for emission regulation Euro 7 has been released by European Commission, PN above 10nm is taken into consideration for the ultrafine particulate emissions control. The challenges of GPF filtration efficiency emerge for the light-duty manufactures to meet the future emission standards. In the present study, a China 6 compliant vehicle was tested to reveal its performance over the China 6 standards and potential to meet the upcoming Euro 7. Three GPF product types (Gen 1, Gen 2, and concept Gen 3) were mounted to the tested vehicle. WLTC tests were conducted on chassis dynamometer in laboratory as well as a self-designed aggressive cycle (“Base Cycle”) tests. To explore the GPFs performance for PN emissions above 10nm against the proposed limit 6.0E11 #/km, PN emission above 10nm were measured in our laboratory tests for both engine out and tailpipe as well as the PN emission above 23nm.

Despite considerable progress towards clean air in previous decades, parts of the United States continue to struggle with the challenge of meeting the ambient air quality targets for smog-forming ozone mandated by the U.S. EPA, with some of the most significant challenges being seen in California. These continuing issues have highlighted the need for further reductions in emissions of NOX, which is a precursor for ozone formation, from a number of key sectors including the commercial vehicle sector. In response, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) embarked on a regulatory effort culminating in the adoption of the California Heavy-Duty Low NOX Omnibus regulation.[1] This regulatory effort was supported by a series of technical programs conducted at Southwest Research Institute (SwRI).

In 2020, CARB adopted the low NOX omnibus ruling, which provided revisions to on-road heavy duty engine compliance standards and certification practices. As part of the updates to the regulation, CARB has introduced a new in-use vehicle testing process that broadens the operation modes tested and considers the manufacturer’s intended vehicle application. Compared to the previous method, or the Not-to-Exceed approach, cold start and low ambient temperature provisions were included as part of the updates. The inclusion of low temperature operation requires the OEMs to design a robust engine and aftertreatment package that extends NOX conversion performance. The following work discusses the NOX emissions performance impact in a low temperature ambient environment. The engine and aftertreatment system evaluated was designed to comply with CARB’s low NOX regulations. The cycles tested included the CARB Southern NTE cycle and an FTP-LLC protocol.

There is an ongoing proliferation of electric and electrified vehicles as manufacturers seek to reduce their carbon footprint and meet the carbon reduction targets mandated by governments around the world. An ongoing challenge in electric vehicle design is the efficient and safe design of battery packs. There are significant safety challenges for lithium battery packs relating to thermal runaway, which can be initiated through overheating and internal short from defects or external damage. This work proposes a robust method to couple the mechanical damage in a battery module calculated from a dynamic model with a thermal model of the battery that includes heating from electro-chemical sources as well as Arrhenius reactions from the battery cells. The authors identify the main sources of thermal runaway initiation and propagation in an impact scenario simulating a vehicle collision. The modeling approach was developed and validated using test data.

Overcharging lithium-ion batteries is a failure mode that is observed if the battery management system (BMS) or battery charger fails to stop the charging process as intended. Overcharging can easily lead to thermal runaway in a battery. In this paper, nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) battery modules from the Chevrolet Bolt, lithium manganese oxide (LMO) battery modules from the Chevrolet Volt, and lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery modules from a hybrid transit bus were overcharged. The battery abuse and emissions tests were designed to intentionally drive the three different battery chemistries into thermal runaway while measuring battery temperatures, battery voltages, gaseous emissions, and feedback from volatile organic compound (VOC) sensors. Overcharging a battery can cause lithium plating and other exothermic reactions that will lead to thermal runaway.

Aftertreatment durability demonstration is a required validation exercise for on-road medium and heavy-duty diesel engine certification. The demonstration is meant to validate emissions compliance for the engine and aftertreatment system at full useful life or FUL. Current certification practices allow engine manufacturers to complete partial aging and then extrapolate emissions performance results to FUL. While this process reduces the amount of service accumulation time, it does not consider changes in the aftertreatment deterioration rate. Rather, deterioration is assumed to occur at a linear rate, which may lead to false conclusions relating to emissions compliance. With CARB and EPA’s commitment to the reduction of criteria emissions, emphasis has also been placed on revising the existing certification practices. The updated practices would require engine manufacturers to certify with an aftertreatment system aged to FUL.

Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) utilizes the burner-based Exhaust Composition Transient Operation LaboratoryTM (ECTO-Lab) to accurately simulate transient engines and replicate real exhaust that is produced by light and heavy-duty engines for aftertreatment aging and evaluations. This system can generate and dose NOX over transient cycles from a range of 20 ppm to 1200 ppm where the NOX is generated by the in-situ decomposition and combustion of a fuel-bound, nitrogen containing compound. During the combustion and decomposition of the nitrogen containing compound over 95 % of the NOX generated is in the form of NO. To authentically simulate exhaust gases, it is necessary to account for the distribution of the NO to the NO2. Since previous work has established that the decomposition of nitric acid can be utilized as a method to generate NO2, the objective of this project was to develop control of NO and NO2 within SwRI’s ECTO-Lab through the decomposition of nitric acid.

Internal short-circuit in cells/batteries is a phenomenon where there is direct electrical contact between the positive and negative electrodes leading to thermal runaway. The nail penetration tests were used to simulate an internal short circuit within the battery, where a conductive nail was used to pierce the battery cell separator membrane which provided direct electrical contact between the positive and negative electrodes. The batteries tested during this work were common batteries used in existing automotive applications, and they included a nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) battery from a Chevrolet Bolt, a lithium manganese oxide (LMO) battery from a Chevrolet Volt, and a lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery in a hybrid transit bus. The battery abuse and emissions tests were designed to intentionally drive the three different battery chemistries into thermal runaway while measuring battery temperatures, battery voltages and gaseous emissions.

This review covers advances in regulations and technologies in the past year in the field of vehicular emissions. We cover major developments towards reducing criteria pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions from both light- and heavy-duty vehicles and off-road machinery. To suggest that the transportation is transforming rapidly is an understatement, and many changes have happened already since our review last year [1]. Notably, the US and Europe revised the CO2 standards for light-duty vehicles and electrification mandates were introduced in various regions of the world. These have accelerated plans to introduce electrified powertrains, which include hybrids and pure electric vehicles. However, a full transformation to electric vehicles and the required grid decarbonization will take time, and policy makers are accordingly also tightening criteria pollutant standards for internal combustion engines.