Search Results

Data of battery electric vehicles (BEV) with and without a range extender internal combustion engines (ICE) are reviewed and integrated with weight and performance models. A BEV with an on-board, high efficiency, electricity generator based on positive ignition (PI) ICEs is proposed to improve the uptake of the BEV targeting city commuters while improving their economic and environmental impacts. The small ICE, that is working stationary, fixed load and speed, and the generator similarly optimized for a single point operation, permit an efficiency fuel chemical-to-electric of about 49%. This is much better than producing electricity centralized from combustion fuels (average efficiency with included distribution and recharging losses), and it does not require any electric recharging infrastructure. The range of cars can be extended to about the same values of today's car with traditional combustion engines.

Cold start driving cycles exhibit an increase in friction losses due to the low temperatures of metal and media compared to normal operating engine conditions. These friction losses are responsible for up to 10% penalty in fuel economy over the official drive cycles like the New European Drive Cycle (NEDC), where the temperature of the oil even at the end of the 1180 s of the drive cycle is below the fully warmed up values of between 100°C and 120°C. At engine oil temperatures below 100°C the water from the blowby condensates and dilutes the engine oil in the oil pan which negatively affects engine wear. Therefore engine oil temperatures above 100°C are desirable to minimize engine wear through blowby condensate. The paper presents a new technique to warm up the engine oil that significantly reduces the friction losses and therefore also reduces the fuel economy penalty during a 22°C cold start NEDC.

Improvements of vehicle fuel economy may be achieved by the introduction of advanced internal combustion engines (ICE) improving the fuel conversion efficiency of the engine and of advanced power trains (PWT) reducing the amount of fuel energy needed to power the vehicle. The paper presents a novel design of a variable compression ratio advanced spark ignition engine that also permits an expansion ratio that may differ from the compression ratio hence generating an Atkinson cycle effect. The stroke ratio and the ratio of maximum to minimum in-cylinder volumes may change with load and speed to provide the best fuel conversion efficiency. The variable ratio of maximum to minimum in-cylinder volumes also improves the full load torque output of the engine.

A combustion fuel tank, an internal combustion engine (ICE), and a generator provide the best opportunity to store extra energy onboard battery electric vehicles (BEV). This energy may be used for on-demand electricity production when needed, for example, rural or interstate driving. Specific to this work, the design of a high-efficiency ICE that works at a single speed and a single load, continuously, during the operation of this series hybrid vehicle is considered. The ICE and generator provide a fuel conversion efficiency chemical to electric η~50%. The series hybrid vehicle may deliver miles-per-gallon-of-gasoline (MPG) 13% better than current production plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV), and miles-per-gallon-of-gasoline-equivalent (MPGe) 12% better than the BEV of the same platform with a larger battery pack to permit capital cities commuting.

Improvements of fuel economy of passenger cars and light- and heavy-duty trucks are being considered using a flywheel energy storage system concept to reduce the amount of mechanical energy produced by the thermal engine recovering the vehicle kinetic energy during braking and then assisting torque requirements. The mechanical system has an overall efficiency over a full regenerative cycle of about 70%, about twice the efficiency of battery-based hybrids rated at about 36%. The technology may improve the vehicle fuel economy and hence reduced CO₂ emissions by more than 30% over driving cycles characterized by frequent engine start/stop, and vehicle acceleration, brief cruising, deceleration and stop.

Recovery of kinetic energy during driving cycles is the most effective option to improve fuel economy and reduce green house gas (GHG) emissions. Flywheel kinetic energy recovery systems (KERS) may boost this efficiency up to values of about 70%. An engine and vehicle model is developed to simulate the fuel economy of a compact car equipped with a TDI diesel engine and a KERS. Introduction of KERS reduces the fuel used by the 1.6L TDI engine to 3.16 liters per 100 km, corresponding to 82.4 g of CO₂ per km. Downsizing the engine to 1.2 liters as permitted by the torque assistance by KERS, further reduces the fuel consumption to 3.04 liters per 100 km, corresponding to 79.2 g of CO₂ per km. These CO₂ values are 11% better than those of today's most fuel efficient hybrid electric vehicle.

Downsizing and Turbo Charging (TC) and Direct Injection (DI) may be combined with Variable Valve Actuation (VVA) to better deal with the challenges of fuel economy enhancement. VVA may control the load without throttle; control the valve directly and quickly; optimize combustion, produce large volumetric efficiency. Benefits lower fuel consumption, lower emissions and better performance and fun to drive. The paper presents an engine model of a 1.6 litre TDI VVA engine specifically designed to run pure ethanol, with computed engine maps for brake specific fuel consumption and efficiency. The paper also presents driving cycle results obtained with a vehicle model for a passenger car powered by this engine and a traditional naturally aspirated gasoline engine. Preliminary results of the VVA system coupled with downsizing, turbo charging and Direct Injection permits significant driving cycle fuel economies.

Recovery of braking energy during driving cycles is the most effective option to improve fuel economy and reduce green house gas (GHG) emissions. Hybrid electric vehicles suffer the disadvantages of the four efficiency-reducing transformations in each regenerative braking cycle. Flywheel kinetic energy recovery systems (KERS) may boost this efficiency up to almost double values of about 70% avoiding all four of the efficiency-reducing transformations from one form of energy to another and keeping the vehicle's energy in the same form as when the vehicle starts braking when the vehicle is back up to speed. With reference to the baseline configuration with a 1.6 liters engine and no recovery of kinetic energy, introduction of KERS reduces the fuel usage to 3.16 liters per 100 km, corresponding to 82.4 g of CO₂ per km. The 1.6 liters Turbo Direct Injection (TDI) diesel engine without KERS uses 1.37 MJ per km of fuel energy, reducing with KERS to 1.13 MJ per km.

Improvements of truck fuel economy are being considered using a flywheel energy storage system concept. This system reduces the amount of mechanical energy needed by the thermal engine by recovering the vehicle kinetic energy during braking and then assisting torque requirements. The mechanical system has an overall efficiency over a full regenerative cycle of about 70%, about twice the efficiency of battery-based hybrids rated at about 36%. The technology may improve the vehicle fuel economy and hence reduced CO₂ emissions by more than 30% over driving cycles characterized by: frequent engine start/stop, vehicle acceleration, brief cruising, deceleration and stop. The paper uses engine and vehicle simulations to compute: first the fuel benefits of the technology applied to passenger cars, then the extension of the technology to deal with heavy-duty vehicles.

Prior papers have shown the potentials of gasoline-like internal combustion engines fitted with waste heat recovery systems (WHR) to deliver Diesel-like steady state fuel conversion efficiencies recovering the exhaust and the coolant waste heat with off-the-shelf components. In addition to the pros of the technology significantly increasing steady state efficiencies - up to 5 % in absolute values and much more in relative values - these papers also mentioned the cons of the technology, increased back pressures, increased weight, more complex packaging, more complex control, troublesome transient operation, and finally the cold start issues that prevent the uptake of the technology. This paper further explores the option to use Rankine cycle systems to improve the fuel economy of vehicles under normal driving conditions. A single Rankine cycle system is integrated here with the engine design.

Kinetic energy recovery systems (KERS) placed on one axle coupled to a traditional thermal engine on the other axle is possibly the best solution presently available to dramatically improve the fuel economy while providing better performances within strict budget constraints. Different KERS may be built purely electric, purely mechanic, or hybrid mechanic/electric differing for round trip efficiency, packaging, weights, costs and requirement of further research and development. The paper presents an experimental analysis of the energy flow to and from the battery of a latest Nissan Leaf covering the Urban Dynamometer Driving Schedule (UDDS). This analysis provides a state-of-the-art benchmark of the propulsion and regenerative braking efficiencies of electric vehicles with off-the-shelve technologies.

Real driving cycles are characterized by a sequence of accelerations, cruises, decelerations and engine idling. Recovering the braking energy is the most effective way to reduce the propulsive energy supply by the thermal engine. The fuel energy saving may be much larger than the propulsive energy saving because the ICE energy supply may be cut where the engine operates less efficiently and because the ICE can be made smaller. The present paper discusses the state of the art of hydro-pneumatic drivelines now becoming popular also for passenger cars and light duty vehicle applications permitting series and parallel hybrid operation. The papers presents the thermal engine operation when a passenger car fitted with the hydro-pneumatic hybrid driveline covers the hot new European driving cycle. From a reference fuel consumption of 4.71 liters/100 km with a traditional driveline, the fuel consumption reduces to 2.91 liters/100 km.

Direct injection and jet ignition is becoming popular in electrically assisted, turbocharged, F1 engines because of the pressure to reduce fuel consumption. Operation from homogeneous stoichiometric up to lean of stoichiometry stratified about λ = 1.5, occurs with fast combustion of reduced cyclic variability thanks to the enhanced ignition by multiple jets of hot, partially reacting products travelling through the combustion chamber. The fuel consumption has thus been drastically reduced in an engine that is, however, still mostly throttle controlled. The aim of the present paper is to show the advantages of direct injection and jet ignition based on model simulations of the operation of a high-performance throttle-controlled engine featuring rotary valves.