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The field of automotive engineering has devoted much research to reduce fuel consumption to attain sustainable energy usage. Friction reductions in powertrain components can improve engine fuel economy. Quantitative accounting of friction is complex because it is affected by many physical aspects such as oil viscosity, temperature, surface roughness and component rotation speed. The purpose of this paper is two-fold: first, to develop a useful tool for evaluating the friction in engine and accessories based on test data; second, to exercise the tool to evaluate the fuel economy gain in a drive cycle for several friction reduction technologies.

Due to the rapid development of road infrastructure and vehicle population in China, the fuel consumption and emission of on-road vehicles tested in China World Transient Vehicle Cycle (C-WTVC) cannot indicate the real driving results. But the test results in China Heavy-duty Commercial Vehicle Test Cycle-Coach (CHTC-C) based on the road driving conditions in China are closer to the actual driving data. In this paper, the model for predicting the performance of heavy-duty vehicles is established and validated. The fuel consumption and NOx emission of a Euro VI heavy-duty coach under C-WTVC and CHTC-C tests are calculated by employing the developed model. Furthermore, the fuel consumption of the test coach is optimized and its sensitivity to the driving factors is analyzed.

Transport vehicles consume a large amount of fuel with low efficiency, which is significantly affected by drivers' behaviors. An assessment system of eco-driving pattern for buses could identify the deficiencies of driver operation as well as assist transportation enterprises in driver management. This paper proposes an assessment method regarding drivers' economic efficiency, considering driving conditions. To this end, assessment indexes are extracted from driving economy theories and ranked according to their effect on fuel consumption, derived from a database of 135 buses using multiple regression. A layered structure of assessment indexes is developed with application of AHP, and the weight of each index is estimated. The driving pattern score could be calculated with these weights.

Plug-in electric vehicle (PHEV) has a promising prospect to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emission and optimize engine operating in high-efficiency region. According to the maximum electric power and all-electric range, PHEVs are divided into two categories, including “all-electric PHEV” and “blended PHEV” and the latter provides a potential for more rational energy distribution because engine participates in vehicle driving during aggressive acceleration not just by motor. However, the frequent use of engine may result in severe emissions especially in low state of charge (SOC) and ahead of catalyst light-off. This study quantitatively investigates the impact of oil viscosity and driving mode (hybrid/conventional) on oil dilution and emissions including particle number (PN).

The effects of cooled exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) on a boosted direct-injection (DI) spark ignition (SI) engine operating at stoichiometric equivalence ratio, gross indicated mean effective pressure of 14-18 bar, and speed of 1500-2500 rpm, are studied under constant fuel condition at each operating point. In the presence of EGR, burn durations are longer and combustion is more retard. At the same combustion phasing, the indicated specific fuel consumption improves because of a decrease in heat loss and an increase in the specific heat ratio. The knock limited spark advance increases substantially with EGR. This increase is due partly to a slower combustion which is equivalent to a spark retard, as manifested by a retarded value of the 50% burn point (CA50), and due partly to a slower ignition chemistry of the diluted charge, as manifested by the knock limited spark advance to beyond the value offered by the retarded CA50.

This article reports on the potential of negative valve overlap (NVO) for improving the net indicated thermal efficiency (η NIMEP) of gasoline engines during part load. Three fixed fuel flow rates, resulting in indicated mean effective pressures of up to 6 bar, were investigated. At low load, NVO significantly reduces the pumping loses during the gas exchange loop, achieving up to 7% improvement in indicated efficiency compared to the baseline. Similar efficiency improvements are achieved by positive valve overlap (PVO), with the disadvantage of worse combustion stability from a higher residual gas fraction (xr). As the load increases, achieving the wide-open throttle limit, the benefits of NVO for reducing the pumping losses diminish, while the blowdown losses from early exhaust valve opening (EVO) increase.

Super-knock has been a significant obstacle for the development of highly turbocharged (downsized) gasoline engines with spark ignition, due to the catastrophic damage super-knock can cause to the engine. According to previous research by the authors, one combustion process leading to super-knock may be described as hot-spot induced pre-ignition followed by deflagration which can induce detonation from another hot spot followed by high pressure oscillation. The sources of the hot spots which lead to pre-ignition (including oil films, deposits, gas-dynamics, etc.) may occur sporadically, which leads to super-knock occurring randomly at practical engine operating conditions. In this study, a spark plasma was used to induce preignition and the correlation between super-knock combustion and the thermodynamic state of the reactant mixture was investigated in a four-cylinder production gasoline engine.

Experiments were carried out to collect in-cylinder pressure data and microphone signals from a single-cylinder test engine using spark timingsbefore, at, and after knock onset for toluene reference fuels. The objective was to gain insight into the phenomena that determine knock onset, detected by an external microphone. In particular, the study examines how the end-gas autoignition process changes as the engine's spark timing is advanced through the borderline knock limit into the engine's knocking regime. Fast Fourier transforms (FFT) and bandpass filtering techniques were used to process the recorded cylinder pressure data to determine knock intensities for each cycle. Two characteristic pressure oscillation frequencies were detected: a peak just above 6 kHz and a range of peaks in the 15-22 kHz range. The microphone data shows that the audible knock signal has the same 6 kHz peak.

This paper assesses the potential improvement of automotive powertrain technologies 25 years into the future. The powertrain types assessed include naturally-aspirated gasoline engines, turbocharged gasoline engines, diesel engines, gasoline-electric hybrids, and various advanced transmissions. Advancements in aerodynamics, vehicle weight reduction and tire rolling friction are also taken into account. The objective of the comparison is the potential of anticipated improvements in these powertrain technologies for reducing petroleum consumption and greenhouse gas emissions at the same level of performance as current vehicles in the U.S.A. The fuel consumption and performance of future vehicles was estimated using a combination of scaling laws and detailed vehicle simulations. The results indicate that there is significant potential for reduction of fuel consumption for all the powertrains examined.

A conventional vehicle with gasoline engine was tested on a chassis dynamometer over the new European drive-cycle (NEDC). The distributions of the engine speed and power, the throttle positions during the drive cycle are analyzed. Engine idling, acceleration and deceleration take an important proportion in the drive cycle. If engine idling is instead by engine stop, the fuel consumption will be improved by 2.27%. In an Integrated Starter Generator (ISG) system, with the assist of the starter/generator, transient operation of the engine will decrease, which reduces fuel consumption by 6%. Fuel economy will be also improved by braking regeneration and restricting operating points to an optimized region, the details are not discussed in this paper. To reduce fuel consumption further, the region where engine usually runs in urban traffic, should be paid more attention to while engine calibration.

Advanced compression ignition combustion system which reduces simultaneously both nitride oxides (NOx) and particulate matter (PM) is a promising approach to meet future emission regulations. In order to achieve advanced compression ignition, flexible fuel injection is required for ultra-early and post-TDC injections, which conventional injector fails to accomplish due to wall-wetting effect. In this work, special injectors with the spray angle of 60 degree are applied on a 4 cylinder mass-production diesel engine without modification of the engine configuration. For application-oriented study, sweep experiments of injection timings and durations, fuel injection pressure and the boost pressure are carried out to investigate the relationships between the control parameters and the engine performance. Model based calibration and real application tests validate the maximum applicable operation range of maximum speed of 2200 RPM and IMEP of 8.0 bar.

Battery is a vital part of a fuel cell hybrid vehicle, and also the most difficult part to model due to its nonlinearity. Therefore, This paper presents an integrated software-hardware solution to simulate the fuel cell vehicle power train more accurately based on battery-in-the-loop, with the aid of RT-LAB™. Moreover, the average modeling technique is used together with RT-LAB's distributed cluster technology to realize real-time simulation of the Field-Oriented Controlled induction motor drive, and the Boost DC/DC converter. As a result, a virtual test bed, which is very similar to actual power train, is set up. Finally, on this test bed some tests are performed to verify the existing battery model and soc estimation method, and to give more accurate fuel consumption results.

The transportation sector in the United States is a major contributor to global energy consumption and carbon dioxide emission. To assess the future potentials of different technologies in addressing these two issues, we used a family of simulation programs to predict fuel consumption for passenger cars in 2020. The selected technology combinations that have good market potential and could be in mass production include: advanced gasoline and diesel internal combustion engine vehicles with automatically-shifting clutched transmissions, gasoline, diesel, and compressed natural gas hybrid electric vehicles with continuously variable transmissions, direct hydrogen, gasoline and methanol reformer fuel cell hybrid electric vehicles with direct ratio drive, and battery electric vehicle with direct ratio drive.

A method is presented for predicting the viable operating range of homogeneous-charge compression-ignition (HCCI) engines. A fundamental criterion for predicting HCCI knock is described and used to predict the minimum air/fuel ratio (and hence maximum torque) available from the engine. The lean (misfire) limit is computed using a modification of the multi-zone method of Aceves et al. [1]. Numerical improvements are described which allow even very complex fuel chemistry to be rapidly modeled on a standard PC. The viable operating range for an HCCI engine burning a primary reference fuel (PRF 95) is predicted and compared with literature experimental data. The new ability to accurately predict the operating range for any given HCCI engine/fuel combination should considerably simplify the tasks of designing a robust engine and identifying suitable fuels for HCCI.

A conceptual approach to help understand and simulate droplet induced pre-ignition is presented. The complex phenomenon of oil-fuel droplet induced pre-ignition has been decomposed to its elementary processes. This approach helps identify the key fluid properties and engine parameters that affect the pre-ignition phenomenon, and could be used to control LSPI. Based on the conceptual model, a 3D CFD engine simulation has been developed which is able to realistically model all of the elementary processes involved in droplet induced pre-ignition. The simulation was successfully able to predict droplet induced pre-ignition at conditions where the phenomenon has been experimentally observed. The simulation has been able to help explain the observation of pre-ignition advancement relative to injection timing as experimentally observed in a previous study [6].

Efficient aftertreatment management requires accurate sensing of both particulate filter soot and ash levels for optimized feedback control. Currently a combination of pressure drop measurements and predictive models are used to indirectly estimate the loading state of the filter. Accurate determination of filter soot loading levels is challenging under certain operating conditions, particularly following partial regeneration events and at low flow rate (idle) conditions. This work applied radio frequency (RF)-based sensors to provide a direct measure of the particulate filter soot levels in situ. Direct measurements of the filter loading state enable advanced feedback controls to optimize the combined engine and aftertreatment system for improved DPF management. This study instrumented several cordierite and aluminum titanate diesel particulate filters with RF sensors. The systems were tested on a range of light- and heavy-duty applications, which included on- and off-road engines.

Neutral-idle strategy has been applied for years to improve the fuel consumption of automatic transmission cars. The updated demand is the use of expanded slipping control strategy for further improvement of the transmission efficiency and response speed. However, one major drawback of the continuous slipping clutches is the high tendency to produce shudder or low frequency variation. In this research, a special neutral-idle shudder phenomenon is presented. This special shudder is not only related to slipping clutches but also related to the vibration and structure of the powertrain system. Simulations and experiments are conducted to give an insight view of this phenomenon. The analysis reveals that this special shudder is caused by both torsional vibration of the driveline and rigid-body vibration of the powertrain system. A positive feedback loop between those two kinds of vibrations leads to this special neutral-idle shudder.

Gasoline direct injection (GDI) engines have been developed rapidly in recent years, driven by stringent legislative requirements on vehicle fuel efficiency and emissions. However, one challenge facing GDI is the formation of particulate emissions, particularly with the presence of injector tip deposits. The Chinese market features some gasoline fuels that contain no detergent additives and are prone to deposit formation, which can affect engine performance and emissions. The use of detergent additives to mitigate the formation of injector deposits in a GDI engine was investigated in this study by testing a 1.5L turbocharged GDI engine available in the Chinese market. The engine was operated both on base gasoline and on gasoline dosed with detergent additives to evaluate the effect on injector deposit formation and engine performance and emissions.

Natural gas is one of the promising alternative fuels due to the low cost, worldwide availability, high knock resistance and low carbon content. Ignition quality is a key factor influencing the combustion performance in natural gas engines. In this study, the effect of pre-chamber geometry on the ignition process and flame propagation was studied under varied initial mixture temperatures and equivalence ratios. The pre-chambers with orifices in different shapes (circular and slit) were investigated. Schlieren method was adopted to acquire the flame propagation. The results show that under the same cross-section area, the slit pre-chamber can accelerate the flame propagation in the early stages. In the most of the cases, the penetration length of the flame jet and flame area development are higher in the early stages of combustion.

Energy saving is becoming one of the most important issues for the next generation of commercial vehicles. The fuel consumption limits for commercial vehicles in China have stepped into the third stage, which is a great challenge for heavy duty commercial vehicles. Hybrid technology provides a promising method to solve this problem, of which the dual motor coaxial series parallel configuration is one of the best options. Compared with parallel configuration, the powertrain can not only operate in pure electric or parallel mode, but also can operate in series mode, which shows better flexibility. In this paper, regulations on test cycle, fuel consumption limits and calculation method of the third stage will be introduced in detail. Then, the quasi-static models of the coaxial series parallel powertrain with/without gearbox under C-WTVC (China worldwide transient vehicle cycle) are built. The control strategies are designed based on engine and motor performance.