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The majority of powertrain types considered important contributors to achieving the CO2 targets in the transportation sector employ a battery as an energy storage device. The need for batteries is hence expected to grow drastically with increasing market share of CO2-optimized powertrain concepts. The resulting huge pressure on the development of future electrochemical energy storage systems necessitates the application of advanced methodologies enabling a fast and cost-efficient concept definition and optimization process. This paper presents a model-based methodology for the optimization of BEV thermal management concept layouts and operation strategies targeting minimized energy consumption. Starting at the vehicle level, the proposed methodology combines appropriate representations of all primary powertrain components with 1D cooling and refrigerant circuit models and focuses on their interaction with the battery chemistry.

The challenge of industrial carbon footprint reduction is led by the engine manufacturers that are developing new technologies and fuels to lower CO2 emissions. Although the deployment of relevant investments for the development of battery electric vehicles, diesel, and gasoline cars are still widely used, especially for their longer operating range, faster refueling, and lower cost. For this reason, more efficient traditional internal combustion engines can guide the transition towards new propulsion systems. In this document, the innovative piston damage and exhaust gas temperature models previously developed by the authors are reversed and coupled to manage the combustion process, increasing the overall energy conversion efficiency. The instantaneous piston erosion and the exhaust gas temperature at the turbine inlet are evaluated according to the models’ estimation which manages both the spark advance, and the target lambda.

The increasing environmental concern is leading to the need for innovation in the field of internal combustion engines, in order to reduce the carbon footprint. In this context, hydrogen is a possible mid-term solution to be used both in conventional-like internal combustion engines and in fuel cells (for hybridization purposes), thus, hydrogen combustion characteristics must be considered. In particular, the flame of a hydrogen combustion is less subjected to the quenching effect caused by the engine walls in the combustion chamber. Thus, the significant heating up of the thin lubricant layer upon the cylinder liner may lead to its evaporation, possibly and negatively affecting the combustion process, soot production. The authors propose an analysis which aims to address the behavior of different typical engine oils, (SAE0W30, SAE5W30, SAE5W40) under engine thermo-physical conditions considering a large hydrogen-fuelled engine.

Nowadays, in the perspective of a full electric automotive scenario, internal combustion engines can still play a central role in the fulfilment of different needs if the efficiency will be improved, and the tailpipe emission will be further limited. Gasoline Compression Ignition engines can offer a favourable balance between NOx, particulate, operating range. Stable operations are ensured by ultra-high gasoline injection pressure and tailored injection patterns in order to design the most proper local fuel distribution. In this context, engine simulations by means of CFD codes can provide insights on the design of the injection parameters, and emphasis must be placed on the capture of spray-wall impingement behaviour under those non-conventional conditions. This paper aims to analyse the spray-wall impingement behaviour of ultra-high gasoline spray using a combined experimental-CFD approach.

The need to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from motor vehicles pushes the European Union towards drastic choices on future mobility. Despite this, the engines of the “future” have not yet been defined: the choice of engine type will undoubtedly depend on the type of application (journey length, availability of recharging/refueling facilities), practical availability of alternative fuels, and electricity to recharge the batteries. The electrification of vehicles (passenger and transportation cars) may be unsuitable for several aspects: the gravimetric energy density could be too low if the vehicle has to be lightweight, must achieve a high degree of autonomy, or needs a very short refueling time.

Future heavy-duty (HD) concepts should fulfill very tight tail-pipe NOx emissions and simultaneously fulfill the fuel efficiency targets. In current HD Euro VII discussions, real working cycles become key to ensure emission conformity. For instance, cold start and cold ambient conditions during testing with low load profiles starting from 0% payload, require external heating measures. Knowing the trade-off between fuel consumption and tail-pipe NOx emissions a holistic engine and EAT system optimization with innovative thermal management is required. Towards a carbon neutral mobility, Hydrogen combustion engines are one of the key solutions. Advanced combustion system development enables maximal usage of lean burning as the major advantage of the Hydrogen fuel for efficiency improvement and NOx reduction.

In the past years, stringent emission regulations for Internal Combustion (IC) engines produced a large amount of research aimed at the development of innovative combustion methodologies suitable to simultaneously reduce fuel consumption and engine-out emissions. Previous research demonstrates that the goal can be obtained through the so-called Low Temperature Combustions (LTC), which combine the benefits of compression-ignited engines, such as high compression ratio and unthrottled lean operation, with a properly premixed air-fuel mixture, usually obtained injecting gasoline-like fuels with high volatility and longer ignition delay. Gasoline Partially Premixed Combustion (PPC) is a promising LTC technique, mainly characterized by the high-pressure direct-injection of gasoline and the spontaneous ignition of the premixed air-fuel mixture through compression, which showed a good potential for the simultaneous reduction of fuel consumption and emissions in CI engines.

For the NOx removal from diesel exhaust, the selective catalytic reduction (SCR) and lean NOx traps are established technologies. However, these procedures lack efficiency below 200 °C, which is of importance for city driving and cold start phases. Thus, the present paper deals with the development of a novel low-temperature deNOx strategy implying the catalytic NOx reduction by hydrogen. For the investigations, a highly active H2-deNOx catalyst, originally engineered for lean H2 combustion engines, was employed. This Pt-based catalyst reached peak NOx conversion of 95 % in synthetic diesel exhaust with N2 selectivities up to 80 %. Additionally, driving cycle tests on a diesel engine test bench were also performed to evaluate the H2-deNOx performance under practical conditions. For this purpose, a diesel oxidation catalyst, a diesel particulate filter and a H2 injection nozzle with mixing unit were placed upstream to the full size H2-deNOx catalyst.

Hydrogen engines offer the possibility of a carbon neutral transportation - a focal point of current propulsion development activities especially for EU and US future concepts. From today's point of view, hydrogen can play an important role in this regard as it is a carbon-free fuel, no CO2 emissions are produced during its combustion process. Besides, it can be well used for lean burn combustion leading to very low NOx emissions, a key benefit in combination with an optimized after-treatment system for future ultra-low NOx legislations of heavy-duty (HD) engines. Comprehensive investigations using experimental tests and model-based development approach are performed using a six cylinder HD hydrogen engine featuring PFI (port fuel injection) aiming the definition of a high efficiency hydrogen engine concept.

The newest legislative trends enforce a significant decrease in CO2 emissions for commercial vehicles. For instance, in Europe a drop in fleet consumption of 15% and 30% is set as target by the regulation by 2025 and 2030. The use of carbon-neutral fuels offers possibilities regarding net-zero CO2 emissions - although not yet considered by the rules. Another challenging aspect is the drastic tightening of NOx emissions limits for future legislations, which is approved or being discussed both for the United States and for the EU. The current work describes the potentials of an innovative fuel, marketed as Gane fuel regarding performance, efficiency and emission behavior. First, the properties of the developed fuel are described: Gane is made from methanol blended with water and is tailored for diffusive combustion. The fuel blending is so defined to fulfill the combustion requirements.

One challenge for the development of commercial vehicles is the reduction of CO2 greenhouse, where hydrogen can help to reduce the fleet CO2. For instance, in Europe a drop in fleet consumption of 15% and 30% is set as target by the regulation until 2025 and 2030. Another challenge is EURO VII in EU or even already approved CARB HD Low NOx Regulation in USA, not only for Diesel but also for hydrogen combustion engines. In this study, first the requirements for the combustion and after-treatment system of a hydrogen engine are defined based on future emission regulations. The major advantages regarded to hydrogen combustion are due to the wide range of flammability and very high flame speed numbers compared to other fossil based fuels. Thus, it can be well used for lean burn combustion with much better fuel efficiency and very low NOx emissions with an ultra lean combustion. A comprehensive experimental investigation is performed on a HD 2 L single-cylinder engine.

Internal combustion engines are the primary transportation mover for today society and they will likely continue to be for decades to come. Hybridization is the most common solution to reduce the petrol-fuels consumption and to respect the new raw emission limits. The gasoline engines designed for running together with an electric motor need to have a very high thermal efficiency because they must work at high loads, where engine thermal efficiency is close to the maximum one. Therefore, the technical solutions bringing to thermal efficiency enhancement were adopted on HVs (Hybrid Vehicles) prior to conventional vehicles. In these days, these solutions are going to be adopted on conventional vehicles too. The purpose of this work was to trace development guidelines useful for engine designers, based on the target power and focused on the maximization of the engine thermal efficiency, following the engine rightsizing concept.

The paper deals with the reduction of pollutant emissions in urban areas by considering a Zero-Emission Zone (ZEZ) in which hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) are allowed to be driven without using the internal combustion engine, as several cities have planned to realize in the next decades. Moreover, since vehicle connectivity has spread more and more in the last years, a vehicle-to-network (V2N) communication system has been taken into account to retrieve real-time navigation data from a map service provider and thus reconstructing the so-called electronic horizon, which is a reconstruction of the future conditions of the vehicle on the road ahead. The speed profile and the road slope are used as input for an on-board predictive control strategy of a plug-in HEV (PHEV). In particular, a dedicated algorithm predicts the amount of necessary energy to complete the city event in full-electric mode, giving a state of charge (SoC) target value.

As the late combustion phase in SI engines is of high importance for a further reduction of fuel consumption and especially emissions, the impacts of unburnt mass, located in a small volume with a relatively large surface near the wall and in the top land volume, is of high relevance throughout the range of operation. To investigate and quantify the respective interactions, a state of the art Mercedes-Benz single cylinder research SI-engine was equipped with extensive measurement technology. To detect the axial and radial temperature distribution, several surface thermocouples were applied in two layers around the top land volume. As an additional reference, multiple surface thermocouples in the cylinder head complement the highly dynamic temperature measurements in the boundary zones of the combustion chamber.

Compression-ignited engines are still considered the most efficient and reliable technology for automotive applications. However, current and future emission regulations, which severely limit the production of NOx, particulate matter and CO2, hinder the use of diesel-like fuels. As a matter of fact, the spontaneous ignition of directly-injected Diesel leads to a combustion process that is heterogeneous by nature, therefore characterized by the simultaneous production of particulate matter and NOx. In this scenario, several innovative combustion techniques have been investigated over the past years, the goal being to benefit from the high thermal efficiency of compression-ignited engines, which results primarily from high Compression Ratio and lean and unthrottled operation, while simultaneously mitigating the amount of pollutant emissions.

Modern turbo-charged downsized engines reach high values of specific power, causing a significant increase of the exhaust gas temperature. Such parameter plays a key role in the overall powertrain environmental impact because it strongly affects both the catalyst efficiency and the turbine durability. In fact, common techniques to properly manage the turbine inlet gas temperature are based on mixture enrichment, which causes both a steep increase in specific fuel consumption and a decrease of catalyst efficiency. At the test bench, exhaust gas temperature is typically measured using thermocouples that are not available for on-board application, and such information is processed to calibrate open-loop look-up-tables. A real-time, reliable, and accurate exhaust temperature model would then represent a strategic tool for improving the performance of the engine control system.

The latest legislative tendencies for on-highway heavy duty vehicles in the United States such as the feasibility assessment of low NOX standards of CARB or EPA’s memorandum forecast further tightening of the NOX emissions limits. In addition, the GHG Phase 2 legislation and also phased-in regulations in the EU enforce a continuous reduction in CO2 emissions resp. fuel consumption. In order to meet such low NOX emission limits, a rapid heat-up of the exhaust after-treatment system (EATS) is inevitable. However, the required thermal management results in increased fuel consumption, i.e. CO2 emissions as shown in numerous previous works also by the authors. A NOX-CO2 trade-off for cumulative cycle emissions can be observed, which can be optimized by using more advance technologies on the engine and/or on the EATS side.

A practical Gasoline Compression Ignition (GCI) concept is presented that works on standard European 95 RON E10 gasoline over the whole speed/load range. A spark is employed to assist the gasoline autoignition at low loads; this avoids the requirement of a complex cam profile to control the local mixture temperature for reliable autoignition. The combustion phasing is controlled by the injection pattern and timing, and a sufficient degree of stratification is needed to control the maximum rate of pressure rise and prevent knock. With active control of the swirl level, the combustion system is found to be relatively robust against variability in charge motion, and subtle differences in fuel reactivity. Results show that the new concept can achieve very low fuel consumption over a significant portion of the speed/load map, equivalent to diesel efficiency. The efficiency is worse than an equivalent diesel engine only at low load where the combustion assistance operates.

As a consequence of reduced fuel consumption, direct injection gasoline engines have already prevailed against port fuel injection. However, in-cylinder fuel homogenization strongly depends on charge motion and injection strategies and can be challenging due to the reduced available time for mixture formation. An insufficient homogenization has generally a negative impact on the combustion and therefore also on efficiency and emissions. In order to reach the targets of the intensified CO2 emission reduction, further increase in efficiency of SI engines is essential. In this connection, 0D/1D simulation is a fundamental tool due to its application area in an early stage of development and its relatively low computational costs. Certainly, inhomogeneities are still not considered in quasi dimensional combustion models because the prediction of mixture formation is not included in the state of the art 0D/1D simulation.

Today, the contribution of the transportation sector on greenhouse gases is evident. The fast consumption of fossil fuels and its impact on the environment have given a strong impetus to the development of vehicles with better fuel economy. Hybrid electric vehicles fit into this context with different targets, starting from the reduction of emissions and fuel consumption, but also for performance and comfort enhancement. Lamborghini has recently invested in the development of a hybrid super sport car, due to performance and comfort reasons. Aventador series gearbox is an Independent Shift Rod gearbox with a single clutch and during gear shifts, as all the single clutch gearbox do, it generates a torque gap. To avoid the additional weight of a Dual Clutch Transmission, a 48V Electric Motor has been connected to the wheels, in a P3 configuration, to fill the torque gap, and to habilitate regenerative braking and electric boost functions.