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Gasoline turbocharged direct injection (GTDI) engines, such as EcoBoost™ from Ford, are becoming established as a high value technology solution to improve passenger car and light truck fuel economy. Due to their high specific performance and excellent low-speed torque, improved fuel economy can be realized due to downsizing and downspeeding without sacrificing performance and driveability while meeting the most stringent future emissions standards with an inexpensive three-way catalyst. A logical and synergistic extension of the EcoBoost™ strategy is the use of E85 (approximately 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline) for knock mitigation. Direct injection of E85 is very effective in suppressing knock due to ethanol's high heat of vaporization - which increases the charge cooling benefit of direct injection - and inherently high octane rating. As a result, higher boost levels can be achieved while maintaining optimal combustion phasing giving high thermal efficiency.

In this study, thermal runaway of a 3-cell Li-ion battery module is analyzed using a 3D finite-element-analysis (FEA) method. The module is stacked with three 70Ah lithium-nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) pouch cells and indirectly cooled with a liquid-cooled cold plate. Thermal runaway of the module is assumed to be triggered by the instantaneous increase of the middle cell temperature due to an abusive condition. The self-heating rate for the runaway cell is modeled on the basis of Accelerating Rate Calorimetry (ARC) test data. Thermal runaway of the battery module is simulated with and without cooling from the cold plate; with the latter representing a failed cooling system. Simulation results reveal that a minimum of 165°C for the middle cell is needed to trigger thermal runaway of the 3-cell module for cases with and without cold plate cooling.

Engine dynamometer testing was performed comparing fuels having different octane ratings and ethanol content in a Ford 3.5L direct injection turbocharged (EcoBoost) engine at three compression ratios (CRs). The fuels included midlevel ethanol “splash blend” and “octane-matched blend” fuels, E10-98RON (U.S. premium), and E85-108RON. For the splash blends, denatured ethanol was added to E10-91RON, which resulted in E20-96RON and E30-101 RON. For the octane-matched blends, gasoline blendstocks were formulated to maintain constant RON and MON for E10, E20, and E30. The match blend E20-91RON and E30-91RON showed no knock benefit compared to the baseline E10-91RON fuel. However, the splash blend E20-96RON and E10-98RON enabled 11.9:1 CR with similar knock performance to E10-91RON at 10:1 CR. The splash blend E30-101RON enabled 13:1 CR with better knock performance than E10-91RON at 10:1 CR. As expected, E85-108RON exhibited dramatically better knock performance than E30-101RON.

Particulate emission reduction has long been a challenge for diesel engines as the diesel diffusion combustion process can generate high levels of soot which is one of the main constituents of particulate matter. Gasoline engines use a pre-mixed combustion process which produces negligible levels of soot, so particulate emissions have not been an issue for gasoline engines, particularly with modern port fuel injected (PFI) engines which provide excellent mixture quality. Future European and US emissions standards will include more stringent particulate limits for gasoline engines to protect against increases in airborne particulate levels due to the more widespread use of gasoline direct injection (GDI). While GDI engines are typically more efficient than PFI engines, they emit higher particulate levels, but still meet the current particulate standards.

Ethanol and other high heat of vaporization (HoV) fuels result in substantial cooling of the fresh charge, especially in direct injection (DI) engines. The effect of charge cooling combined with the inherent high chemical octane of ethanol make it a very knock resistant fuel. Currently, the knock resistance of a fuel is characterized by the Research Octane Number (RON) and the Motor Octane Number (MON). However, the RON and MON tests use carburetion for fuel metering and thus likely do not replicate the effect of charge cooling for DI engines. The operating conditions of the RON and MON tests also do not replicate the very retarded combustion phasing encountered with modern boosted DI engines operating at low-speed high-load. In this study, the knock resistance of a matrix of ethanol-gasoline blends was determined in a state-of-the-art single cylinder engine equipped with three separate fuel systems: upstream, pre-vaporized fuel injection (UFI); port fuel injection (PFI); and DI.

A new diesel engine, called the 6.7L Power Stroke® V-8 Turbocharged Diesel, and code named "Scorpion" has been designed and developed by Ford Motor Company for the full-size pickup truck and light commercial vehicle markets. It incorporates the latest design technology to meet 2010 model year emission regulations for both chassis and dynamometer-based certifications, and is compatible with up to B20 biodiesel fuel. The engine is an entirely new 90 degree V-8 design featuring inboard exhaust, piezo common rail fuel injection, a new dual compressor wheel turbocharger, and dual loop cooling systems. The 6.7L is Ford's first diesel engine designed for the North American pickup and light commercial truck market.

A new diesel engine, called the 6.7L Power Stroke® V-8 Turbo Diesel and code named "Scorpion" was designed and developed by Ford Motor Company for the full-size pickup truck and light commercial vehicle markets. A high pressure Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) layout in combination with a Variable Geometry Turbine (VGT) is used to deliver cooled EGR for in-cylinder NOx reduction. The cylinder-to-cylinder variation of EGR and swirl ratio is tightly controlled by the careful design of the EGR mixer and intake system flow path to reduce variability of cylinder-out PM and NOx emissions. 3D-CFD studies were used to quickly screen several EGR mixer designs based on mixing efficiency and pressure drop considerations. To optimize the intake system, 1D-3D co-simulation methodology with AVL-FIRE and AVL-BOOST has been used to assess the cylinder-to-cylinder EGR distribution and dynamic swirl.

Good understanding of fuel sprays in the engine cylinder is crucial to optimizing the operation of direct injection gasoline engines. In this paper, a detailed analysis is conducted on direct gasoline injection sprays from a multi-hole injector. Penetrations and angles of the sprays are characterized with a homogeneous model for the fuel spray. The drop size distributions in the sprays are analyzed using an empirical distribution model. Predicted spray penetrations, spray angles, and drop size distributions under three different injection pressures are compared with the measurements for injection pressures = 40, 100 and 150 bar and good agreements are observed. Transient evaporation rates are also studied for fuel drops in an environment simulating the cylinder condition during the intake stroke of a direct injection gasoline engine.

Ethanol has a high octane rating and can be added to gasoline to produce high octane fuel blends. Understanding the octane increase with ethanol blending is of great fundamental and practical importance. Potential issues with fuel flow rate and fuel vaporization have led to questions of the accuracy of octane measurements for ethanol-gasoline blends with moderate to high ethanol content (e.g., E20-E85) using the Cooperative Fuel Research (CFR™) engine. The nonlinearity of octane ratings with volumetric ethanol content makes it difficult to assess the accuracy of such measurements. In the present study, Research Octane Number (RON) and Motor Octane Number (MON) were measured for a matrix of ethanol-gasoline blends spanning a wide range of ethanol content (E0, E10, E20, E30, E50, E75) in a set of gasoline blendstocks spanning a range of RON values (82, 88, 92, and 95). Octane ratings for neat ethanol, denatured ethanol, and hydrous ethanol were also measured.

Recent turbocharged Gasoline engines based on MPFI offer excellent power output and high nominal torque, however, also some disadvantages. The most significant restrictions of TC-engines - like poor fuel economy, limited emission capability and delayed transient response (turbo lag) - can be improved dramatically by a refined GDI application. The synergy effects of GDI, which are also partly used at naturally aspirated engines, are even more significant with turbocharging. The low emission capability of GDI enables turbocharged SULEV concepts within moderate cost of the emission / aftertreatment system. The outstanding low-end-torque, the high specific power and torque output of refined GDI-Turbo concepts enable high fuel efficiency combined with excellent fun to drive. Thus such GDI-Turbo concepts will become the most attractive technology to fulfill highest fuel economy-, emission- and performance requirements simultaneously.

For lithium-ion battery systems assembled with high-capacity, high-power pouch cells, the cells are commonly cooled with thin aluminum cooling plates in contact with the cells. The cooling plates extract the cell heat and dissipate it to a cooling medium (air or liquid). During the pack utilizations with high-pulse currents, large temperature gradients along the cell surfaces can be encountered as a result of non-uniform distributions of the ohmic heat generated in the cells. The non-uniform cell temperature distributions can be significant for large-size cells. Maximum cell temperatures typically occur near the cell terminal tabs as a result of the ohmic heat of the terminal tabs and connecting busbars and the high local current densities. In this study, a new cooling plate is proposed for improving the uniformity in temperature distributions for the cells with large capacities.

The cost of fuel for commercial trucks is second only to labor in the total vehicle operating costs. Therefore, technologies that reduce fuel consumption can have a significant impact on the bottom line for both trucking fleets and owner/operators. Quantifying the fuel savings associated with different technologies, however, is complicated by many factors, and short-term testing often cannot adequately quantify small changes in fuel consumption that, over time, can add up to substantial cost savings on a vehicle. For example, fuel economy gains of less than one percent may not be reliably measurable using fuel tests, and variable environmental and use factors can cast some doubt on the appropriateness of short-term testing.

This paper provides an overview of the effects of blending ethanol with gasoline for use in spark ignition engines. The overview is written from the perspective of considering a future ethanol-gasoline blend for use in vehicles that have been designed to accommodate such a fuel. Therefore discussion of the effects of ethanol-gasoline blends on older legacy vehicles is not included. As background, highlights of future emissions regulations are discussed. The effects on fuel properties of blending ethanol and gasoline are described. The substantial increase in knock resistance and full load performance associated with the addition of ethanol to gasoline is illustrated with example data. Aspects of fuel efficiency enabled by increased ethanol content are reviewed, including downsizing and downspeeding opportunities, increased compression ratio, fundamental effects associated with ethanol combustion, and reduced enrichment requirement at high speed/high load conditions.

It has been previously reported that ethanol can be reformed at around 300°C to a mixture of hydrogen, carbon monoxide, and methane using copper-plated nickel catalyst. This low reforming temperature enables heat to be supplied from the engine exhaust. Single-cylinder engine testing demonstrated that this gaseous mixture of "ethanol reformate" enhances engine combustion and part load dilution capability, which decreases fuel consumption while also reducing feedgas NOx emissions. In addition, excellent cold start capability with significantly reduced hydrocarbon emissions was observed. Thus, ethanol reformate has the potential to address two major barriers to wider use of ethanol as an engine fuel: ethanol's low heating value per volume and higher hydrocarbon emissions at startup relative to gasoline. In this study, the dilute capability of a multi-cylinder engine was assessed using a mixture of 50% reformate and 50% E85 on a mass basis at several key part load operating points.

Modification of gasoline blendstock composition in preparing ethanol-gasoline blends has a significant impact on vehicle exhaust emissions. In “splash” blending the blendstock is fixed, ethanol-gasoline blend compositions are clearly defined, and effects on emissions are relatively straightforward to interpret. In “match” blending the blendstock composition is modified for each ethanol-gasoline blend to match one or more fuel properties. The effects on emissions depend on which fuel properties are matched and what modifications are made, making trends difficult to interpret. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate that exclusive use of a match blending approach has fundamental flaws. For typical gasolines without ethanol, the distillation profile is a smooth, roughly linear relationship of temperature vs. percent fuel distilled.

Thermal behavior of a Lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery module under a user-defined cycle corresponding to hybrid electrical vehicle (HEV) applications is analyzed. The module is stacked with 12 high-power 8Ah pouch Li-ion battery cells connected in series electrically. The cells are cooled indirectly with air through aluminum cooling plate sandwiched between each pair of cells. The cooling plate has extended cooling surfaces exposed in the cooling air flow channel. Thermal behavior of the battery system under a user specified electrical-load cycle for the target hybrid vehicle is characterized with the equivalent continuous load profile using a 3D finite element analysis (FEA) model for battery cooling. Analysis results are compared with measurements. Good agreement is observed between the simulated and measured cell temperatures. Improvement of the cooling system design is also studied with assistance of the battery cooling analyses.

A new diesel engine, called the 6.7L Power Stroke® V-8 Turbo Diesel, and code named "Scorpion," was designed and developed by Ford Motor Company for the full-size pickup truck and light commercial vehicle markets. The combustion system includes the piston bowl, swirl level, number of nozzle holes, fuel spray angle, nozzle tip protrusion, nozzle hydraulic flow, and nozzle-hole taper. While all of these parameters could be explored through extensive hardware testing, 3-D CFD studies were utilized to quickly screen two bowl concepts and assess their sensitivities to a few of the other parameters. The two most promising bowl concepts were built into single-cylinder engines for optimization of the rest of the combustion system parameters. 1-D CFD models were used to set boundary conditions at intake valve closure for 3-D CFD which was used for the closed-cycle portion of the simulation.