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Direct injection (DI) and jet ignition (JI), plus assisted turbocharging, have been demonstrated to deliver high efficiency, high power density positive ignition (PI) internal combustion engines (ICEs) with gasoline. Peak efficiency above 50% and power density of 340 kW/liter at the 15,000 rpm revolution limiter working overall λ=1.45 have been report-ed. Here we explore the further improvement in power density that may be obtained by replacing gasoline with ethanol or methanol, thanks to the higher octane number and the larger latent heat of vaporization, which translates in an increased resistance to knock, and permits to have larger compression ratios. Results of simulations are proposed for a numerical engine that uses rotary valves rather than poppet valves, while also using mechanical, rather than electric, assisted turbocharging. While with gasoline, the power density is 410-420 kW/liter, the use of oxygenates permits to achieve up to 475 kW/liter working with methanol.

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.

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.

Jet ignition and direct fuel injection are potential enablers of higher efficiency, cleaner Internal Combustion Engines (ICE). Very lean mixtures of gaseous fuels could be burned with pollutants formation below Euro 6 levels (in the ultra-lean mode), efficiencies approaching 50% full load and small efficiency penalties when operating part load. The lean burn Direct Injection Jet Ignition (DI-JI) ICE uses a fuel injection and mixture ignition system comprising one main chamber direct fuel injector and one small-size jet ignition pre-chamber per engine cylinder. The jet ignition pre-chamber is connected to the main chamber through calibrated orifices and accommodates a second direct fuel injector. In the spark plug version, the jet ignition pre-chamber includes a spark plug that ignites the slightly rich pre-chamber mixture that then bulk ignites the ultra lean, stratified main chamber mixture through multiple jets of hot reacting gases entering the in-cylinder.

Cylinder deactivation has been proposed so far for improved part load operation of large gasoline engines. In all this application, the cylinder deactivation has been achieved keeping the intake and exhaust valves closed for a particular cylinder, with pistons still following their strokes. The paper presents a new mechanism between the piston and the crankshaft to enable selective deactivation of pistons, therefore decoupling the motion of the piston from the rotation of the crankshaft. The reduced friction mean effective pressure of the new technology enables the use of piston deactivation in large engines not necessarily throttle controlled but also controlled by quantity of fuel injected. Results of performance simulations are proposed for a HSDI V8 engine, producing significant savings during light operation.

Variable compression ratio is the technology to adjust internal combustion engine cylinder compression ratio to increase fuel efficiency while under varying loads. The paper presents a new design of a variable compression ratio engine that allows for the volume above the piston at Top Dead Centre (TDC) to be changed. A modeling study is then performed using the WAVE engine performance simulation code for a naturally aspirated gasoline V8 engine. The modeling study shows significant improvements of fuel economy over the full range of loads and especially during light loads operation as well as an improvement of top power and torque outputs.

The Atkinson cycle engine is basically an engine permitting the strokes to be different lengths for improved light loads fuel economies. Variable compression ratio is the technology to adjust internal combustion engine cylinder compression ratio to increase fuel efficiency while under varying loads. The paper presents a new design of a variable compression ratio engine that also permits an expansion ratio that may differ from the compression ratio therefore 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 power output of the engine.

The turbocharged direct injection stoichiometric spark ignition gasoline engine has less than Diesel full load brake engine thermal efficiencies and much larger than Diesel penalties in brake engine thermal efficiencies reducing the load by throttling. This engine has however a much better power density, and therefore may operate at much higher BMEP values over driving cycles reducing the fuel economy penalty of the vehicle. This engine also has the advantage of the very well developed three way catalytic converter after treatment to meet future emission regulations. In these engines the efficiency may be improved recovering the waste heat, but this recovery may have ultimately impacts on both the in cylinder fuel conversion efficiency and the efficiency of the after treatment.

The paper considers different options to design a multi fuel engine retaining the power densities and efficiencies of the latest Diesel heavy duty truck engines while operating with various other fuels. In a first option, an igniting Diesel fuel is coupled to a main fuel that may have any Cetane or octane number in a design where every engine cylinder accommodates a direct Diesel injector, a glow plug and the multi fuel direct injector in a bowl-in-piston combustion chamber configuration. Alternatively, an igniting gasoline fuel replaces the Diesel fuel in a design where every engine cylinder accommodates a gasoline direct injector, the multi fuel direct injector and a jet ignition pre chamber also with a bowl-in-piston combustion chamber configuration. Both these designs permit load control by changing the amount of fuel injected and Diesel-like, gasoline-like and mixed Diesel/gasoline-like modes of operation modulating the amount of the multi fuel that burn premixed or diffusion.

The paper presents a novel design for a two stroke thermal engine that delivers excellent fuel economy and low emissions within the constraints of today's cost, weight and size. The engine features asymmetrical port timing through a novel translating and rotating piston mechanism. The engine is externally scavenged and supercharged, has wet sump and oil pressure lubrication, direct injection, it is lightweight, easy to build, with minimal number of parts, low production cost, ability to be balanced and compact design. The two stroke mechanism produces a linear motion of the pistons as well as an elliptical path on the surface of the cylinder. This allows the piston to sweep as well as travel past the ports. Suitable slots around the raised lip of the piston generate the asymmetry that makes the exhaust port to open first and to close first. The inlet port remains open to complete the cylinder charging and allow supercharging. Direct fuel injection is adopted for best results.

The paper considers a novel waste heat recovery (WHR) system integrated with the engine architecture in a hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) platform. The novel WHR system uses water as the working media and recovers both the internal combustion engine coolant and exhaust energy in a single loop. Results of preliminary simulations show a 6% better fuel economy over the cold start UDDS cycle only considering the better fuel usage with the WHR after the quicker warm-up but neglecting the reduced friction losses for the warmer temperatures over the full cycle.

Turbocharging dramatically improves the power density of internal combustion engines both in the compression ignition and the spark ignition cases. However, a standalone turbocharger suffers from transient and steady state downfalls where the energy to turbine is either smaller or larger than what would be needed to optimize the engine operation in a specific steady state or transient point. Hence a concept was proposed of a super-turbocharger where the turbocharger shaft is connected to the crankshaft through a continuously variable transmission and a gear. Energy is drawn from the crankshaft or delivered to the crankshaft to improve the work in every operating point of the steady map. In this paper, the concept of super-turbocharger is applied to a six-cylinder, dual fuel diesel injection ignition engine. The system is modelled using state-of-the-art automotive software and simulations of the steady-state operation are presented.

In this paper, the concept of super-turbocharging is applied, in simulation, to a four-cylinder direct injection jet ignition gasoline engine. Turbocharging improves the power density of internal combustion engines, both the compression ignition and the spark ignition. However, a standalone turbocharger suffers from transient and steady state performance and efficiency degradation where the energy to turbine is either smaller or larger than what would be needed to optimize the engine operation in a specific point. Hence a concept is proposed to use a super-turbocharger, where the turbocharger shaft is connected to the crankshaft through a continuously variable transmission (CVT) and a gears pair. Energy is drawn from the crankshaft or delivered to the crankshaft to better work in every operating point. The concept was originally proposed for a diesel engine. Here it is applied to a gasoline engine.

The Wankel engine for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) applications delivers advantages vs. piston engines of simplicity, smoothness, compactness and high power-to-weight ratio. The use of computational fluid dynamic (CFD) and computer aided engineering (CAE) tools may permit to address the major downfalls of these engines, namely the slow and incomplete combustion due to the low temperatures and the rotating combustion chambers. The paper proposes the results of CAD/CFD/CAE modelling of a Wankel engine featuring tangential jet ignition to produce faster and more complete combustion.

The present paper is an introduction to a novel rotary valve engine design addressing the major downfalls of past rotary valves applications while permitting the typical advantages of the rotary valves. Advantages of the solution are the nearly optimal gas exchange, mixture formation, ignition and combustion evolution thanks to the large gas exchange areas from the two horizontal valves per engine cylinder, the good shape of the combustion chamber, the opportunity to place a direct fuel injector and a spark or jet ignition device at the centre of the chamber. The novel engine design also permits higher speed of rotation not having reciprocating poppet valves and the reduced friction losses of the rotating only distribution. This translates in better volumetric efficiencies, combustion rates and brake mean effective pressures for improved power density and fuel efficiency. Additional advantages are the reduced weight and the better packaging.

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.

The paper discusses the benefits of a four stroke engine having one intake and one exhaust rotary valve. The rotary valve has a speed of rotation half the crankshaft and defines an open passage that may permit up to extremely sharp opening or closing and very large gas exchange areas. The dual rotary valve design is applied to a racing engine naturally aspirated V-four engine of 1000cc displacement, gasoline fuelled with central direct injection and spark ignition. The engine is then modeled by using a 1D engine & gas dynamics simulation software package to assess the potentials of the solution. The improved design produces much larger power densities than the version of the engines with traditional poppet valves revving at higher speeds, with reduced frictional losses, and with larger gas exchange areas while also improving the fuel conversion efficiency thanks to the sharpness of opening or closing events.