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Gasoline Controlled Auto-Ignition (GCAI) combustion, which can be categorized under Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI), is a low-temperature combustion process with promising benefits such as ultra-low cylinder-out NOx emissions and reduced brake-specific fuel consumption, which are the critical parameters in any modern engine. Since this technology is based on uncontrolled auto-ignition of a premixed charge, it is very sensitive to any change in boundary conditions during engine operation. Adopting real time valve timing and fuel-injection strategies can enable improved control over GCAI combustion. This work discusses the outcome of collaborative experimental research by the partnering institutes in this direction. Experiments were performed in a single cylinder GCAI engine with variable valve timing and Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) at constant indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP). In the first phase intake and exhaust valve timing sweeps were investigated.

Increasingly stringent pollutant and CO2 emission standards require the car manufacturers to investigate innovative solutions to further improve the fuel economy of their fleets. Among these techniques, an extremely lean combustion has a large potential to simultaneously reduce the NOx raw emissions and the fuel consumption of spark-ignition engines. Application of pre-chamber ignition systems is a promising solution to realize a favorable air/fuel mixture ignitability and an adequate combustion speed, even with very lean mixtures. In this work, the combustion characteristics of an active pre-chamber system are experimentally investigated using a single-cylinder research engine. Conventional gasoline fuel is injected into the main chamber, while the pre-chamber is fed with compressed natural gas. In a first stage, an experimental campaign was carried out at various speeds, spark timings and air-fuel ratios.

The fuel consumption of combustion engines requires continuous reduction to meet future CO2 fleet targets. The progression of emission legislations shifted the focus on PN and NOX emissions in real world driving scenarios (RDE). Recently, the monitoring of CO emissions puts high load fuel enrichment for component protection into focus and a ban on enrichment is widely expected. Hence, gasoline engine technologies, which enable Lambda 1 operation in the entire engine map are specifically promoted. Variable Compression Ratio (VCR) attacks all these topics already at the combustion process. In addition to the well-known CO2 capability, VCR also enables enlargement of the lambda 1 operation in gasoline engines as well as reduced NOX emissions in diesel engines. The basic principle of developed VCR solution is to change the effective length of the connecting rod (and thereby the compression ratio) in two stages by several millimeters.

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.

The range of tasks in automotive electrical system development has clearly grown and now includes goals such as achieving efficiency requirements and complying with continuously reducing CO2 limits. Improvements in the vehicle electrical system, hereinafter referred to as the power net, are mandatory to face the challenges of increasing electrical energy consumption, new comfort and assistance functions, and further electrification. Novel power net topologies with dual batteries and dual voltages promise a significant increase in efficiency with moderate technological and financial effort. Depending on the vehicle segment, either an extension of established 12 V micro-hybrid technologies or 48 V mild hybridization is possible. Both technologies have the potential to reduce fuel consumption by implementing advanced stop/start and sailing functionalities.

Liquefied Petroleum Gas direct injection (LPG DI) is believed to be the key enabler for the adaption of modern downsized gasoline engines to the usage of LPG, since LPG DI avoids the significant low end torque drop, which goes along with the application of conventional LPG port fuel injection systems to downsized gasoline DI engines, and provides higher combustion efficiencies. However, especially the high vapor pressure of C3 hydrocarbons can result in hot fuel handling issues as evaporation or even in reaching the supercritical state of LPG upstream or inside the high pressure pump (HPP). This is particularly critical under hot soak conditions. As a result of a rapid fuel density drop close to the supercritical point, the HPP is not able to keep the rail pressure constant and the engine stalls.

The automotive industry continues to develop new powertrain technologies aimed at reducing overall vehicle level fuel consumption. The ongoing trends of “downsizing” and “down speeding” have led to the development of turbocharged engines with low displacement and high torque density. In order to meet the launch response requirements with these engines as well as fuel economy needs, transmissions with large ratio spreads will need to be developed. Due to the lack of torque amplification from the torque converter, the next generation of dual clutch transmissions (DCT) will need to have larger launch ratios and ratio spreads than currently available in production today. This paper discusses the development of a new family of DCT (called “xDCT”) for use in front wheel drive vehicles, aimed at meeting some of these challenges. The xDCT family features two innovative concepts, the idea of “gear generation” and “supported shifts”.

Downsizing of highly-boosted spark-ignition (SI) engines is limited by pre-ignition, which may lead to extremely strong knocking and severe engine damage. Unfortunately, the concerning mechanisms are generally not yet fully understood, although several possible reasons have been suggested in previous research. The primary objective of the present paper is to investigate the influence of molecular bio-fuel structure on the locations of pre-ignition in a realistic, highly-charged SI engine at low speed by state-of-the-art optical measurements. The latter are conducted by using a high-sensitivity UV endoscope and an intensified high-speed camera. Two recently tested bio-fuels, namely tetrahydro-2-methylfuran (2-MTHF) and 2-methylfuran (2-MF), are investigated. Compared to conventional fuels, they have potential advantages in the well-to-tank balance. In addition, both neat ethanol and conventional gasoline are used as fuels.

In meeting the stringent emission norms with internal engine measures, the design of the piston bowl and the nozzle configuration perform a defining role. Through 3D CFD simulations, this article shall parametrically investigate the influence of piston bowl geometry and nozzle characteristics on the performance of the combustion system. After validation of the 3D simulation model with experimental results, a Design of Experiment (DoE) method shall be applied to analyze a matrix of piston bowls with parametric variations in geometry. Further, the influence of the nozzle cone angle, hydraulic flow rate, number of holes and their combination shall be determined using systematic parameter variations with selected piston bowl designs. The performance of the various hardware configurations would be evaluated based on the exhaust emissions and fuel consumption values.

Both, the continuous strengthening of the exhaust emission legislation and the striving for a substantial reduction of the carbon dioxide output in the traffic sector depict substantial requirements for the global automotive industry and especially for the engine manufacturers. From the multiplicity of possible approaches and strategies for clear compliance with these demands, engine internal measures offer a large and, eventually more important, very economical potential. For example, the achievements in fuel injection technology are a measure which in the last years has contributed significantly to a notable reduction of the emissions of the modern DI Diesel engines at favorable fuel efficiency. Besides the application of modern fuel injection technology, the linked combustion control (Closed Loop Combustion Control) opens possibilities for a further optimization of the combustion process.

Piston rings are faced with a broad range of demands like optimal sealing properties, wear properties and reliability. Even more challenging boundary conditions must be met when latest developments in the fields of direct injection as well as the application of bio fuels. This complex variety of piston ring design requirements leads to the need of a comprehensive simulation model in order to support the development in the early design phase prior to testing. The simulation model must be able to provide classical objectives like friction analysis, wear rate and blow-by. Furthermore, it must include an adequate oil consumption model. The objective of this work is to provide such a simulation model that is embedded in the commercial MBS software ‘FEV Virtual Engine’. The MBS model consists of a cranktrain assembly with a rigid piston that contains flexible piston rings.

Turbocharged DISI engines with four cylinders have established in the market and provide a performance comparable to larger six-cylinder engines in the smaller compartment of a four-cylinder engine. In the Japanese market, also turbo gasoline engines with 500 - 660 cm₃ displacement have a long tradition in Kei-Cars. However, those engines show a lower specific performance as would be required for propelling typical small or compact vehicles in Europe. Recently, two-cylinder turbo engines have come to market, which are found attractive with respect to sound, package, and also enable low vehicle fuel consumption in NEDC test. The paper presents a turbocharger layout study on 2- and 3-cylinder engines. It discusses the influence of cylinder displacement volume on the sizing of turbines and compressors, and how specific flow phenomena in the turbine can be captured in the simulation model.

In this study the fuel influence of several bio-fuel candidates on homogeneous engine combustion systems with direct injection is investigated. The results reveal Ethanol and 2-Butanol as the two most knock-resistant fuels. Hence these two fuels enable the highest efficiency improvements versus RON95 fuel ranging from 3.6% - 12.7% for Ethanol as a result of a compression ratio increase of 5 units. Tetrahydro-2-methylfuran has a worse knock resistance and a decreased thermal efficiency due to the required reduction in compression ratio by 1.5 units. The enleanment capability is similar among all fuels thus they pose no improvements for homogeneous lean burn combustion systems despite a significant reduction in NOX emissions for the alcohol fuels as a consequence of lower combustion temperatures.

The application of technologies such as direct injection, turbo charging and variable valve timing has caused a significant evolution of the gasoline engine with positive effects on fuel consumption and emissions. The current developments are primarily focused on the realization of improved full load characteristics and fuel consumption reduction with stoichiometric operation, following the downsizing approach in combination with turbo charging and high specific power. The requirements of high specific power in a relatively small cylinder displacement and a wide range of DI injection specifications lead to competing development targets and to a high number of degrees of freedom during engine layout and optimization. One of the major targets is to assess the stability of the combustion system in the early development phase.

The requirement of reducing worldwide CO₂ emissions and engine pollutants are demanding an increased use of bio-fuels. Ethanol with its established production technology can contribute to this goal. However, due to its resistive auto-ignition behavior the use of ethanol-based fuels is limited to the spark-ignited gasoline combustion process. For application to the compression-ignited diesel combustion process advanced ignition systems are required. In general, ethanol offers a significant potential to improve the soot emission behavior of the diesel engine due to its oxygen content and its enhanced evaporation behavior. In this contribution the ignition behavior of ethanol and mixtures with high ethanol content is investigated in combination with advanced ignition systems with ceramic glow-plugs under diesel engine relevant thermodynamic conditions in a high pressure and temperature vessel.

Thermal management describes measures that result in the improved engine or vehicle operation in terms of energetics and thermo mechanics. In this context the involvement of the entire power train becomes more important as the interaction between engine, transmission and temperature sensitive battery package (of hybrid vehicles or electric vehicles with range extender) or the utilization of exhaust gas thermal energy play a major role for future power train concepts. The aim of thermal management strategies is to reduce fuel consumption while simultaneously increasing the comfort under consideration of all temperature limits. In this case it is essential to actively control the heat flow, in order to attain the optimal temperature distribution in the power train components.

GTL (Gas-To-Liquid) fuel is well known to improve tailpipe emissions when fuelling a conventional diesel vehicle, that is, one optimized to conventional fuel. This investigation assesses the additional potential for GTL fuel in a GTL-dedicated vehicle. This potential for GTL fuel was quantified in an EU 4 6-cylinder serial production engine. In the first stage, a comparison of engine performance was made of GTL fuel against conventional diesel, using identical engine calibrations. Next, adaptations enabled the full potential of GTL fuel within a dedicated calibration to be assessed. For this stage, two optimization goals were investigated: - Minimization of NOx emissions and - Minimization of fuel consumption. For each optimization the boundary condition was that emissions should be within the EU5 level. An additional constraint on the latter strategy required noise levels to remain within the baseline reference.

Partly competing objectives, as low fuel consumption, low friction, long oil maintenance rate, and at the same time lowest exhaust emissions have to be fulfilled. Diminishing resources, continuously reduced development periods, and shortened product cycles yield detailed knowledge about oil consumption mechanisms in combustion engines to be essential. There are different ways for the lubricating oil to enter the combustion chamber: for example as blow-by gas, leakage past valve stem seals, piston rings (reverse blow-by) and evaporation from the cylinder liner wall and the combustion chamber. For a further reduction of oil consumption the investigation of these mechanisms has become more and more important. In this paper the influence of the mixture formation and the resulting fuel content in the cylinder liner wall film on the lubricant oil emission was examined.

Six diesel, kerosene, gasoline-like, and naphtha fuels have been tested in a single cylinder diesel engine and a demonstrator vehicle, both equipped with similar engine technology and optimized for advanced combustion performance. This study was completed in order to investigate the potential to reduce engine-out emissions while maintaining engine efficiency and noise levels through changes in both engine hardware and fuel properties. The fuels investigated in this study were selected in order to better understand the effects of ignition quality, volatility, and molecular composition on engine-out emissions and performance. The optimized bench engine used in this study included engine hardware enhancements that are likely to be used to meet Euro 6 emissions limits and beyond, in part by operating under advanced combustion conditions, at least under some speed and load conditions.

Advanced technologies such as direct injection DI, turbocharging and variable valve timing, have lead to a significant evolution of the gasoline engine with positive effects on driving pleasure, fuel consumption and emissions. Today's developments are primarily focused on the implementation of improved full load characteristics for driving performance and fuel consumption reduction with stoichiometric operation, following the downsizing approach in combination with turbocharging and high specific power. The requirements of a relatively small cylinder displacement with high specific power and a wide flexibility of DI injection specifications lead to competing development targets and additionally to a high number of degrees of freedom during optimization. In order to successfully approach an optimum solution, FEV has evolved an advanced development methodology, which is based on the combination of simulation, optical diagnostics and engine thermodynamics testing.