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Fundamental understanding of the sources of fuel-derived Unburned Hydrocarbon (UHC) emissions in heavy duty diesel engines is a key piece of knowledge that impacts engine combustion system development. Current emissions regulations for hydrocarbons can be difficult to meet in-cylinder and thus after treatment technologies such as oxidation catalysts are typically used, which can be costly. In this work, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations are combined with engine experiments in an effort to build an understanding of hydrocarbon sources. In the experiments, the combustion system design was varied through injector style, injector rate shape, combustion chamber geometry, and calibration, to study the impact on UHC emissions from mixing-controlled diesel combustion.

High-efficiency, clean-combustion strategies for heavy-duty diesel engines are critical for meeting stringent emissions regulations and reducing the costs of aftertreatment systems that are currently required to meet these regulations. Results from previous constant-volume combustion-vessel experiments using a single jet of fuel under quiescent conditions have shown that mixing-controlled soot-free combustion (i.e., combustion where soot is not produced) is possible with #2 diesel fuel. These experiments employed small injector-orifice diameters (≺ 150 μm) and high fuel-injection pressures (≻ 200 MPa) at top-dead-center (TDC) temperatures and densities that could be achievable in modern heavy-duty diesel engines.

Fuel is a significant portion of the operating cost for an on-highway diesel engine and fuel economy is important to the economics of shipping most goods in North America. Cat® ACERT™ engine technology is no exception. Ball bearings have been applied to the series turbochargers for the Caterpillar heavy-duty, on-highway diesel truck engines in order to reduce mechanical loss for improved efficiency and lower fuel consumption. Over many years of turbocharger development, much effort has been put into improving the aerodynamic efficiency of the compressor and turbine stages. Over the same span of time, the mechanical bearing losses of a turbocharger have not experienced a significant reduction in power consumption. Most turbochargers continue to use conventional hydrodynamic radial and thrust bearings to support the rotor. While these conventional bearings provide a low cost solution, they do create significant mechanical loss.

Technical groups worldwide have been actively developing specifications and requirements for biodegradable hydraulic fluids for mobile applications. These groups have recognized that an industry-wide specification is necessary due to the increase in environmental awareness in the agriculture, construction, forestry, and mining industries, and to the increasing number of local regulations primarily throughout Europe. Caterpillar has responded to this need by publishing a requirement, Caterpillar BF-1, that may be used by Caterpillar dealers, customers, and industry to help select high-performance biodegradable hydraulic fluids. This requirement was written with the input of several organizations that are known to be involved with the development of similar types of specifications and requirements.

Diesel engine downsizing aimed at reducing fuel consumption while meeting stringent exhaust emissions regulations is currently in high demand. The boost system architecture plays an essential role in providing adequate air flow rate for diesel fuel combustion while avoiding impaired transient response of the downsized engine. Electric Turbocharger Assist (ETA) technology integrates an electric motor/generator with the turbocharger to provide electrical power to assist compressor work or to electrically recover excess turbine power. Additionally, a variable geometry turbine (VGT) is able to bring an extra degree of freedom for the boost system optimization. The electrically-assisted turbocharger, coupled with VGT, provides an illuminating opportunity to increase the diesel engine power density and enhance the downsized engine transient response. This paper assesses the potential benefits of the electrically-assisted turbocharger with VGT to enable heavy-duty diesel engine downsizing.

Clutches are commonly utilised in passenger type and off-road heavy-duty vehicles to disconnect the engine from the driveline and other parasitic loads. In off-road heavy-duty vehicles, along with fuel efficiency start-up functionality at extended ambient conditions, such as low temperature and intake absolute pressure are crucial. Off-road vehicle manufacturers can overcome the parasitic loads in these conditions by oversizing the engine. Caterpillar Inc. as the pioneer in off-road technology has developed a novel clutch design to allow for engine downsizing while vehicle’s performance is not affected. The tribological behaviour of the clutch will be crucial to start engagement promptly and reach the maximum clutch capacity in the shortest possible time and smoothest way in terms of dynamics. A multi-body dynamics model of the clutch system is developed in MSC ADAMS. The flywheel is introducing the same speed and torque as the engine (represents the engine input to the clutch).

The performance of five positive k-factor injector tips has been assessed in this work by analyzing a comprehensive set of injected mass, momentum, and spray measurements. Using high speed shadowgraphs of the injected diesel plumes, the sensitivities of measured vapor penetration and dispersion to injection pressure (100-250MPa) and ambient density (20-52 kg/m3) have been compared with the Naber-Siebers empirical spray model to gain understanding of second order effects of orifice diameter. Varying in size from 137 to 353μm, the orifice diameters and corresponding injector tips are appropriate for a relatively wide range of engine cylinder sizes (from 0.5 to 5L). In this regime, decreasing the orifice exit diameter was found to reduce spray penetration sensitivity to differential injection pressure. The cone angle and k-factored orifice exit diameter were found to be uncorrelated.

Engine cooling fan systems for off-highway machinery require a significant amount of horsepower and contribute to the overall noise level of the machine. Reducing fan speed in times of low cooling demand provides a means to reduce vehicle noise levels and divert engine horsepower from the fan to do productive work. The fan must, however, continue to provide adequate airflow when demanded by the cooling system. Electronic fan controls that modulate fan speed to meet changing cooling system requirements provide the above advantages.

Field testing of an extended life coolant technology in Class 8 trucks, equipped with Caterpillar C-12 engines revealed excellent coolant life with negligible inhibitor depletion to 400,000 miles with no refortification and no coolant top-off. In separate evaluations in Caterpillar 3406E equipped trucks, extended corrosion protection and component durability were established out to 700,000 miles, without the need for refortification other than top-off.

The design of a pressure compensated hydraulic valve is optimized using CFD analysis. The valve is used in a hydraulic system to control implement movement. High flow rates through the valve resulted in unacceptably high pressure drops, leading to an effort to optimize the valve design. Redesign of the valve had to be achieved under the constraint of minimal manufacturing cost. The flow path of hydraulic oil through the valve, the spool design, and various components of the valve that caused the high pressure drops were targeted in this analysis. A commercially available CFD package was used for the 3D analysis. The hydraulic oil flow was assumed to be turbulent, isothermal and incompressible. The steady-state results were validated by comparison with experimental data.

A key ingredient in the development of the Caterpillar 416 backhoe loader was the development of the hydraulic system. A load sensing, pressure compensated system was selected on the basis of its best being able to meet design goals. The result is a backhoe loader in which the hydraulic system contributes greatly to the vehicle's overall acceptance by operating efficiently and utilizing low lever efforts for ease of control.

A full calibration exercise of a diesel engine air path can take months to complete (depending on the number of variables). Model-based calibration approach can speed up the calibration process significantly. This paper discusses the overall calibration process of the air-path of the Cat® C7.1 engine using statistical machine learning tool. The standard Cat® C7.1 engine's twin-stage turbocharger was replaced by a VTG (Variable Turbine Geometry) as part of an evaluation of a novel air system. The changes made to the air-path system required a recalculation of the air path's boost set point and desired EGR set point maps. Statistical learning processes provided a firm basis to model and optimize the air path set point maps and allowed a healthy balance to be struck between the resources required for the exercise and the resulting data quality.

This paper details results of a numerical and experimental investigation into the relative performance of vaned and vaneless mixed flow turbines for application to medium and heavy-duty diesel engines utilizing pulse exhaust systems. Previous investigations into the impact of nozzle vanes on turbine performance considered only open turbine housings, whereas a majority of medium and heavy-duty diesel engine applications are six-cylinder engines using pulse exhaust systems with divided turbines. The two turbine stages for this investigation were carefully designed to meet the constraints of engines with pulse exhaust systems and to control confounding factors that would undermine the vaned vs vaneless performance comparison. Detailed CFD analysis and turbine dynamometer test results confirm a significant efficiency advantage for the vaned turbine stage under both full and partial admission conditions.