Search Results

To avoid frequent regeneration intervals leading to expeditious ageing of the catalyst and substantial fuel penalty for the owner, it is always desired to estimate the soot coming from diesel exhaust emission, the soot accumulated and burnt in the Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF). Certain applications and vehicle duty cycles cannot make use of the differential pressure sensor for estimating the soot loading in the DPF because of the limitations of the sensor tolerance and measurement accuracy. The physical soot model is always active and hence a precise and more accurate model is preferred to calibrate & optimize the regeneration interval. This paper presents the approach to estimate the engine-out soot and the accumulated soot in the DPF using a graphical calculation tool (AVL Concerto CalcGraf™).

This paper presents the development of a novel direct coil cooling approach which can enable high performance for electric traction motor, and in further significantly reduce motor losses. The proposed approach focuses on bypassing critical thermal resistances in motor by cooling coils directly in stator slots with oil flow. Firstly, the basic configuration and features are shown: sealed stator slots to air gap, pressure reservoirs on both side of the slots and slot channels for oil flow. The key to enhance thermal performance of the motor here is based on introducing fluid guiding structure in the slot channels. Next, heat transfer in the channel with guiding structure is investigated by CFD and compared with bare slot channel without guiding structure. For studying the effectiveness of proposed cooling concept, numerical analysis is conducted to compare it with HEV favored oil impingement cooling.

Fuel injection is a key process influencing the performance of Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) Engines. Injecting fuel at elevated temperature can initiate flash boiling which can lead to faster breakup, reduced penetration, and increased spray-cone angle. Thus, it impacts engine efficiency in terms of combustion quality, CO2, NOx and soot emission levels. This research deals with modelling of flash boiling processes occurring in gasoline fuel injectors. The flashing mass transfer rate is modelled by the advanced Hertz-Knudsen model considering the deviation from the thermodynamic-equilibrium conditions. The effect of nucleation-site density and its variation with degree of superheat is studied. The model is validated against benchmark test cases and a substantiated comparison with experiment is achieved.

In relation to further tightening of the emissions legislation for on-road heavy duty Diesel engines, the future potential of cooled exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) as a result of developments in the cooling systems of such engines has been evaluated. Four basic engine concepts were investigated: an engine with SCR exhaust gas aftertreatment for control of the nitrogen oxides (NOx), an engine with cooled EGR and particulate (PM) filtration, an engine with low pressure EGR and PM filtration and an engine with two stage low temperature cooled EGR also with a particulate filter. A 10.5 litre engine was calibrated and tested under conditions representative for each concept, such that 1.7 g/kWh (1.3 g/bhp-hr) NOx could be achieved over the ESC and ETC. This corresponds to emissions 15% below the Euro 5 legislation level.

Due to the EU6 emission standard that will be mandatory starting in September 2014 the particulate emissions of GDI engines come into the focus of development. For this reason, soot and the mechanisms responsible for the soot formation are of particular importance. A very significant source of particulate emissions from engines with gasoline direct injection is the wall film formation. Therefore, the analysis of soot emission sources in the CFD calculation requires a detailed description of the entire underlying model chain, with special emphasis on the spray-wall interaction and the wall film dynamics. The validation of the mentioned spray-wall interaction and wall film models is performed using basic experimental investigations, like the infrared-thermography and fluorescence based measurements conducted at the University of Magdeburg.

The emissions legislation in the US and Europe introduces the need for the application of diesel particulate filters (DPF) in most diesel vehicles. In order to fulfill future OBD legislations, which include more stringent requirements on monitoring the functionality of those particulate filters, new sensors besides the differential pressure sensor are necessary. The new sensors need to directly detect the soot emission after DPF and withstand the harsh exhaust gas environment. Based on multi layer ceramic sensor technology, an exhaust gas sensor for particulate matter (EGS-PM) has been developed. The soot-particle-sensing element consists of two inter-digitated comb-like electrodes with an initially infinite electrical resistance. During the sensor operation, soot particles from the exhaust gas are collected onto the inter-digital electrodes and form conductive paths between the two electrode fingers leading to a drop of the electrical resistance.

Trends towards lower vehicle fuel consumption and smaller environmental impact will increase the share of Diesel hybrids and Diesel Range Extended Vehicles (REV). Because of the Diesel engine presence and the ever tightening soot particle emissions, these vehicles will still require soot particle emissions control systems. Ceramic wall-flow monoliths are currently the key players in the Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF) market, offering certain advantages compared to other DPF technologies such as the metal based DPFs. The latter had, in the past, issues with respect to filtration efficiency, available filtration area and, sometimes, their manufacturing cost, the latter factor making them less attractive for most of the conventional Diesel engine powered vehicles. Nevertheless, metal substrate DPFs may find a better position in vehicles like Diesel hybrids and REVs in which high instant power consumption is readily offered enabling electrical filter regeneration.

General Motors' 3.6L DOHC 4V V6 engine has been upgraded to provide substantial improvements in performance, fuel economy, and emissions for the 2008 model year Cadillac CTS and STS. The fundamental change was a switch from traditional manifold-port fuel injection (MPFI) to spark ignition direct injection (SIDI). Additional modifications include enhanced cylinder head and intake manifold air flow capacities, optimized camshaft profiles, and increased compression ratio. The SIDI fuel system presented the greatest opportunities for system development and optimization in order to maximize improvements in performance, fuel economy, and emissions. In particular, the injector flow rate, orifice geometry, and spray pattern were selected to provide the optimum balance of high power and torque, low fuel consumption, stable combustion, low smoke emissions, and robust tolerance to injector plugging.

The introduction of more stringent standards for engine emissions requires continuous improvement of exhaust gas aftertreatment systems. Modern systems require a combined design and application of different aftertreatment devices. Computer simulation helps to investigate the complexity of different system layouts. This study presents an overall aftertreatment modeling framework comprising dedicated models for pipes, oxidation catalysts, wall flow particulate filters and selective catalytic converters. The model equations of all components are discussed. The individual behavior of all components is compared to experimental data. With these well calibrated models a simulation study on a DOC-DPF-SCR exhaust system is performed. The impact of pipe wall insulation on the overall NOx conversion performance is investigated during four different engine operating conditions taken from a heavy-duty drive cycle.

The regulation of particle number (PN) has been introduced in the Euro 5/6 light-duty vehicle legislation, as a result of the light duty inter-laboratory exercise of the Particle Measurement Program (PMP). The heavy-duty inter-laboratory exercise investigates whether the same or a similar procedure can be applied to the heavy-duty regulation. In the heavy-duty exercise two "golden" PN systems sample simultaneously; the first from the full dilution tunnel and the second from the partial flow system. One of the targets of the exercise is to compare the PN results from the two systems. In this study we follow a different approach: We use a PMP compliant system at different positions (full flow, partial flow and tailpipe) and we compare its emissions with a "reference" system always sampling from the full flow dilution tunnel.

Future limits on emissions for both gasoline and Diesel engines require adequate and advanced systems for the after-treatment of the exhaust gas. Computer models as a complementary tool to experimental investigations are an indispensable part to design reliable after-treatment devices such as catalytic converters and Diesel particulate filters including their influence on the power-train. Therefore, the objective of this contribution is to present an integrated 1D to 3D simulation workflow of of catalytic converters and Diesel particulate filters. The novelty of this approach is that parameters or set of parameters, obtained by a fast and efficient 1D-gas exchange and cycle simulation code for power-trains (AVL (2002a)), are readily transferable onto a 3D general purpose simulation code (AVL (2002b)). Thus, detailed aspects such as spatial distribution of temperatures or heat losses are investigated with only a single effort to estimate parameters.

The present paper concentrates on the option of catalytic autothermal reforming of gasoline for fuel cell applications. Major parameters of this process are the “Steam to Carbon Ratio” S/C and the air to fuel ratio λ. Computations assuming thermodynamic equilibrium in the autothermal reactor outlet (ATR) were carried out to attain information about their proper choice, as failure in adjusting the parameters within narrow limits has severe consequences on the reforming process. In order to quantify velocity distribution just ahead the catalyst and to evaluate mixing uniformity we designed an ATR featuring an optical access: Thus flow visualization using PIV (Particle Image Velocimetry) and LIF (Laser Induced Fluorescence) technique is possible. Preliminary PIV-results are presented and compared with CFD computations (Computational Fluid D ynamics).

The present contribution gives an overview of the use of different simulation tools for the optimization of injection parameters of a diesel engine. With a one-dimensional tool, the behavior of the mechanics and fluid dynamics of the entire injection system is calculated. This simulation provides information on the dynamic needle lift, injection rates, pressures, etc. The flow within the injector is simulated using a three-dimensional CFD tool. By use of a two-phase model, it is possible to analyze the cavitating flow inside the injector and to calculate the effective nozzle hole area as well as the exit flow characteristics. Mixture formation, combustion and pollutant formation simulation is performed adopting three-dimensional CFD. In order to provide the initial and boundary conditions for the engine CFD simulation and to optimize the engine cycle performance a one-dimensional tool is adopted.

In the near future the effort on the development of exhaust gas treatment systems must be increased to meet the stringent emission requirements. If the relevant physical and chemical models are available, the numerical simulation is an important tool for the design of these systems. This work presents a CFD model that allows to cover the full range of applications in this area. After a detailed presentation of the theoretical background and the modeling strategies results for the simulation of a close-coupled catalyst are shown. The presented model is also applied to the oxidation of nitrogen oxides, to a diesel particle filter and a fuel-cell reformer catalyst.

The tightening of Heavy Duty Diesel (HDD) emissions legislation throughout the world is leading to the development of emission control devices to enable HDD engines to meet the new standards. NOx and Particulate Matter (PM) are the key pollutants which these emission control systems need to address. Diesel Particulate Filters (DPFs) are already in use in significant numbers to control PM emissions from HDD vehicles, and Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) is a very promising technology to control NOx emissions. This paper describes the development and performance of the Compact SCR-Trap system - a pollution control device comprising a DPF-based system (the Continuously Regenerating Trap system) upstream of an SCR system. The system has been designed to be as easy to package as possible, by minimising the total volume of the system and by incorporating the SCR catalysts on annular substrates placed around the outside of the DPF-based system.

Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) is a promising alternative fuel for internal combustion engines as its combustion is fuel-efficient and lean in carbon dioxide compared to gasoline. The high octane number of methane gives rise to significant increase of the thermodynamic efficiency due to higher possible compression ratios. In order to use this potential, new stratified mixture formation concepts for CNG are investigated by means of numerical fluid simulations. For decades RANS methods have been the industry standard to model three-dimensional flows. Indeed, there are well-known deficiencies of the widely used eddy viscosity turbulence models based on the applied Boussinesq hypothesis. Reynolds stress turbulence models as well as scale resolving simulation approaches can be appealing alternative choices since they offer higher accuracy. However, due to their large computing effort, they are still mostly impractical for the daily use in industrial product development processes.

Turbulent combustion modeling in a RANS or LES context imposes the challenge of closing the chemical reaction rate on the sub-grid level. Such turbulent models have as their two main ingredients sources from chemical reactions and turbulence-chemistry interaction. The various combustion models then differ mainly by how the chemistry is calculated (level of detail, canonical flame model) and on the other hand how turbulence is assumed to affect the reaction rate on the sub-grid level (TCI - turbulence-chemistry interaction). In this work, an advanced combustion model based on tabulated chemistry is applied for 3D CFD (computational fluid dynamics) modeling of Diesel engine cases. The combustion model is based on the FGM (Flamelet Generated Manifold) chemistry reduction technique. The underlying chemistry tabulation process uses auto-ignition trajectories of homogeneous fuel/air mixtures, which are computed with detailed chemical reaction mechanisms.

A TGDI (turbocharged gasoline direct injection) engine is developed to realize both excellent fuel economy and high dynamic performance to guarantee fun-to-drive. In order to achieve this target, it is of great importance to develop a superior combustion system for the target engine. In this study, CFD simulation analysis, steady flow test and transparent engine test investigation are extensively conducted to ensure efficient and effective design. One dimensional thermodynamic simulation is firstly conducted to optimize controlling parameters for each representative engine operating condition, and the results serve as the input and boundary condition for the subsequent Three-dimensional CFD simulation. 3D CFD simulation is carried out to guide intake port design, which is then measured and verified on steady flow test bench.

Different particulate mass (PM) portable emission measurement systems (PEMS) were evaluated in the lab with three heavy-duty diesel engines which cover a wide range of particle emission levels. For the two engines without Diesel Particulate Filters (DPF) the proportional partial flow dilution systems SPC-472, OBS-TRPM, and micro-PSS measured 15% lower PM than the full dilution tunnel (CVS). The micro soot sensor (MSS), which measures soot in real time, measured 35% lower. For the DPF-equipped engine, where the emissions were in the order of 2 mg/kWh, the systems had differences from the CVS higher than 50%. For on-board testing a real-time sensor is necessary to convert the gravimetric (filter)-based PM to second-by-second mass emissions. The detection limit of the sensor, the particle property it measures (e.g., number, surface area or mass, volatiles or non-volatiles) and its calibration affect the estimated real-time mass emissions.

Accurate simulation tools are needed for rapid and cost effective engine development in order to meet ever tighter pollutant regulations for future internal combustion engines. The formation of pollutants such as soot and NOx in Diesel engines is strongly influenced by local concentration of the reactants and local temperature in the combustion chamber. Therefore it is of great importance to model accurately the physics of the injection process, combustion and emission formation. It is common practice to approximate Diesel fuel as a single compound fuel for the simulation of the injection and combustion process. This is in many cases sufficient to predict the evolution of the in-cylinder pressure and heat release in the combustion chamber. The prediction of soot and NOx formation depends however on locally component resolved quantities related to the fuel liquid and gas phase as well as local temperature.