Search Results

The development of PM and NOx reduction system with the combination of DOC included DPF and SCR catalyst in addition to the AOC sub-assembly for NH3 slip protection is described. DPF regeneration strategy and manual regeneration functionality are introduced with using ITH, HCI device on the EUI based EGR, VGT 12.3L diesel engine at the CVS full dilution tunnel test bench. With this system, PM and NOx emission regulation for JPNL was satisfied and DPF regeneration process under steady state condition and transient condition (JE05 mode) were successfully fulfilled. Manual regeneration process was also confirmed and HCI control strategy was validated against the heat loss during transient regeneration mode. Presenter Seung-il Moon

Engine operating strategies typically geared towards higher fuel economy and lower NOx widely affect exhaust composition and temperature. These exhaust variables critically drive the performance of After Treatment (AT) components, and hence should guide their screening and selection. Towards this end, the effect of H2 level in diesel exhaust on the performance of a Diesel Oxidation Catalyst (DOC) was studied using flow reactor experiments, vehicle emission measurements and mathematical models. Vehicle chassis dynamometer data showed that exhaust from light-duty and heavy-duty diesel trucks contained very little to almost no H2 (FTP average CO/H2 ∼ 40 to 70) as compared to that of a gasoline car exhaust (FTP average CO/H2 ∼ 3). Two identical flow reactor experiments, one with H2 (at CO/H2 ∼ 3) and another with no H2 in the feed were designed to screen DOCs under simulated feed gas conditions that mimicked these two extremes in the exhaust H2 levels.

Noise concerns regarding snowmobiles have increased in the recent past. Current standards, such as SAE J192 are used as guidelines for government agencies and manufacturers to regulate noise emissions for all manufactured snowmobiles. Unfortunately, the test standards available today produce results with variability that is much higher than desired. The most significant contributor to the variation in noise measurements is the test surface. The test surfaces can either be snow or grass and affects the measurement in two very distinct ways: sound propagation from the source to the receiver and the operational behavior of the snowmobile. Data is presented for a known sound pressure speaker source and different snowmobiles on various test days and test surfaces. Relationships are shown between the behavior of the sound propagation and track interaction to the ground with the pass-by noise measurements.

Hydrogen is widely considered a promising fuel for future transportation applications for both, internal combustion engines and fuel cells. Due to their advanced stage of development and immediate availability hydrogen combustion engines could act as a bridging technology towards a wide-spread hydrogen infrastructure. Although fuel cell vehicles are expected to surpass hydrogen combustion engine vehicles in terms of efficiency, the difference in efficiency might not be as significant as widely anticipated [1]. Hydrogen combustion engines have been shown capable of achieving efficiencies of up to 45 % [2]. One of the remaining challenges is the reduction of nitric oxide emissions while achieving peak engine efficiencies. This paper summarizes research work performed on a single-cylinder hydrogen direct injection engine at Argonne National Laboratory.

Biodiesel-blended fuel is increasingly becoming available for diesel engines. Due to seasonal and economic factors, biodiesel available in filling stations can be sourced from varying feedstocks. Moreover, biodiesel may not contain the minimum oxidative stability required by the time it is used by the automotive consumer. With fuel dilution of engine oil accelerated by post-injection of fuel for regeneration of diesel particulate filters, it is necessary to investigate whether different biodiesel feedstocks or stabilities can affect engine oil properties. In this work, SAE 15W-40 CJ-4 is diluted with B20 fuel, where the B20 was prepared with soy methyl ester (SME) B100 with high Rancimat oxidative stability, SME B100 with low oxidative stability, and lard methyl ester (LME). The oils were then subjected to laboratory aging simulating severe drive cycles. At intermediate aging times, samples were obtained and additional B20 was added to simulate on-going fuel dilution.

A 2005 prototype diesel aftertreatment system consisting of diesel oxidation catalysts (DOC), Cu/zeolite Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) catalyst, and Catalyzed Diesel Particulate Filter (CDPF) was aged to an equivalent of 120k mi on an engine dynamometer using an aging cycle that incorporated both city and highway driving modes. The program demonstrated durable reduction in particulate matter (PM) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions to federal Tier 2 levels on a 6000 lbs light-duty truck application. Very low sulfur diesel fuel (∼15 ppm) enabled lower PM emissions, reduced the fuel penalty associated with the emission control system, and improved long-term system durability. A total of 643 filter regenerations occurred during the aging that raised the entire catalyst system to high temperatures on a regular basis. After testing the aged system on a 6000 lbs light-duty diesel truck, a post mortem analysis was completed on core samples taken from the DOC, SCR catalyst, and filter.

This paper presents a methodology for simulating Fluid Structure Interaction (FSI) for a typical vehicle bonnet (hood) under a range of onset flow conditions. The hood was chosen for this study, as it is one of the panels most prone to vibration; particularly given the trend to make vehicle panels lighter. Among the worst-case scenarios for inducing vibration is a panel being subjected to turbulent flow from vehicle wakes, and the sudden peak loads caused by emerging from a vehicle wake. This last case is typical of a passing manoeuvre, with the vehicle suddenly transitioning from being immersed in the wake of the leading vehicle, to being fully exposed to the free-stream flow. The transient flowfield was simulated for a range of onset flow conditions that could potentially be experienced on the open road, which may cause substantial vibration of susceptible vehicle panels.

The focus of evaluating yaw characteristics in automotive aerodynamics has been primarily with regards to the effects of crosswind on vehicle handling. However, changes to drag that the vehicle experiences due to prevalent on-road crosswind can also be significant, even at low yaw angles. Using wind tunnel testing, it is possible to quickly determine the static yaw performance of the vehicle by rotating the vehicle on a turntable to different yaw angles during a single wind tunnel run. However, this kind of testing does not account for dynamic crosswind effects or non-uniform crosswind such as with natural on-road turbulence. Alternatively, numerical simulations using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) can be used to evaluate yaw performance. In this paper, Exa's PowerFLOW is used to examine two alternative methods of simulating aerodynamic performance in the presence of realistic on-road crosswind for the Tesla Model S sedan.

Contamination of vehicle rear surfaces is a significant issue for customers. Along with being unsightly, it can degrade the performance of rear camera systems and lighting, prematurely wear rear screens and wipers, and transfer soil to customers moving goods through the rear tailgate. Countermeasures, such as rear camera wash or automated deployment add expense and complexity for OEMs. This paper presents a rear surface contamination model for a fully detailed SUV based on the use of a highly-resolved time-accurate aerodynamic simulation realised through the use of a commercial Lattice-Boltzmann solver, combined with Lagrangian Particle Tracking to simulate droplet advection and surface water dynamics via a thin film model. Droplet break-up due to aerodynamic shear is included, along with splash and stripping from the surface film. The effect of two-way momentum coupling is included in a sub-set of simulations.

High pressure diesel sprays were visualized under vaporizing and combusting conditions in a constant-volume combustion vessel. Near-simultaneous visualization of vapor and liquid phase fuel distribution were acquired using a hybrid shadowgraph/Mie-scattering imaging setup. This imaging technique used two pulsed LED's operating in an alternative manner to provide proper light sources for both shadowgraph and Mie scattering. In addition, combustion cases under the same ambient conditions were visualized through high-speed combustion luminosity measurement. Two single-hole diesel injectors with same nozzle diameters (100μm) but different k-factors (k0 and k1.5) were tested in this study. Detailed analysis based on spray penetration rate curves, rate of injection measurements, combustion indicators and 1D model comparison have been performed.

Integration of advanced battery systems into the next generation of hybrid and electric vehicles will require significant design, analysis, and test efforts. One major design issue is the thermal management of the battery pack. Analysis tools are being developed that can assist in the development of battery pack thermal design and system integration. However, the breadth of thermal design issues that must be addressed requires that there are a variety of analysis tools to address them efficiently and effectively. A set of battery modeling tools has been implemented in the thermal modeling software code PowerTHERM. These tools are coupled thermal-electric models of battery behavior during current charge and discharge. In this paper we describe the three models in terms of the physics they capture, and their input data requirements. We discuss where the capabilities and limitations of each model best align with the different issues needed to be addressed by analysis.

Flow generated acoustic sources are of significant import for automotive applications since perception of noise is a critical customer satisfaction issue. High temperature acoustic sources known as thermo-acoustics such as those occurring inside an exhaust system of a vehicle, an important subset of acoustic sources, is the subject of the investigation. In this article, we study a Rijke tube configuration that consists of a vertical and hollow cylindrical tube open at both ends where sound is generated by buoyancy driven flow as a result of a heated wire gauze placed in the bottom half of the tube. This configuration captures the essence of the thermo-acoustic phenomena and was investigated both numerically and experimentally and good agreement was observed between the two.

Since transient vehicle HVAC computational fluids (CFD) simulations take too long to solve in a production environment, the goal of this project is to automatically create a lumped-parameter flow network from a steady-state CFD that solves nearly instantaneously. The data mining algorithm k-means is implemented to automatically discover flow features and form the network (a reduced order model). The lumped-parameter network is implemented in the commercial thermal solver MuSES to then run as a fully transient simulation. Using this network a “localized heat transfer coefficient” is shown to be an improvement over existing techniques. Also, it was found that the use of the clustering created a new flow visualization technique. Finally, fixing clusters near equipment newly demonstrates a capability to track localized temperatures near specific objects (such as equipment in vehicles).

Historically vehicle aerodynamic development has focused on testing under idealised conditions; maintaining measurement repeatability and precision in the assessment of design changes. However, the on-road environment is far from ideal: natural wind is unsteady, roadside obstacles provide additional flow disturbance, as does the presence of other vehicles. On-road measurements indicate that turbulence with amplitudes up to 10% of vehicle speed and dominant length scales spanning typical vehicle sizes (1-10 m) occurs frequently. These non-uniform flow conditions may change vehicle aerodynamic behaviour by interfering with separated turbulent flow structures and increasing local turbulence levels. Incremental improvements made to drag and lift during vehicle development may also be affected by this non-ideal flow environment. On-road measurements show that the shape of the observed turbulence spectrum can be generalised, enabling the definition of representative wind conditions.

Battery temperature variations have a strong effect on both battery aging and battery performance. Significant temperature variations will lead to different battery behaviors. This influences the performance of the Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV) energy management strategies. This paper investigates how variations in battery temperature will affect Lithium-ion battery aging and fuel economy of a HEV. The investigated energy management strategy used in this paper is the Equivalent Consumption Minimization Strategy (ECMS) which is a well-known energy management strategy for HEVs. The studied vehicle is a Honda Civic Hybrid and the studied battery, a BLS LiFePO4 3.2Volts 100Ah Electric Vehicle battery cell. Vehicle simulations were done with a validated vehicle model using multiple combinations of highway and city drive cycles. The battery temperature variation is studied with regards to outside air temperature.

This paper presents a combined numerical and experimental investigation of the characteristics of spark discharge in a spark-ignition engine. The main objective of this work is to gain insights into the spark discharge process and early flame kernel development. Experiments were conducted in an inert medium within an optically accessible constant-volume combustion vessel. The cross-flow motion in the vessel was generated using a previously developed shrouded fan. Numerical modeling was based on an existing discharge model in the literature developed by Kim and Anderson. However, this model is applicable to a limited range of gas pressures and flow fields. Therefore, the original model was evaluated and improved to predict the behavior of spark discharge at pressurized conditions up to 45 bar and high-speed cross-flows up to 32 m/s. To accomplish this goal, a parametric study on the spark channel resistance was conducted.

The study of spray-wall interaction is of great importance to understand the dynamics that occur during fuel impingement onto the chamber wall or piston surfaces in internal combustion engines. It is found that the maximum spreading length of an impinged droplet can provide a quantitative estimation of heat transfer and energy transformation for spray-wall interaction. Furthermore, it influences the air-fuel mixing and hydrocarbon and particle emissions at combusting conditions. In this paper, an analytical model of a single diesel droplet impinging on the wall with different inclined angles (α) is developed in terms of βm (dimensionless maximum spreading length, the ratio of maximum spreading length to initial droplet diameter) to understand the detailed impinging dynamic process.

This paper considers optimal power management during the establishment of an expeditionary outpost using battery and vehicle assets for electrical generation. The first step in creating a new outpost is implementing the physical protection and barrier system. Afterwards, facilities that provide communications, fires, meals, and moral boosts are implemented that steadily increase the electrical load while dynamic events, such as patrols, can cause abrupt changes in the electrical load profile. Being able to create a fully functioning outpost within 72 hours is a typical objective where the electrical power generation starts with batteries, transitions to gasoline generators and is eventually replaced by diesel generators as the outpost matures. Vehicles with power export capability are an attractive supplement to this electrical power evolution since they are usually on site, would reduce the amount of material for outpost creation, and provide a modular approach to outpost build-up.

Computational fluid dynamics of gas-fueled large-bore spark ignition engines with pre-chamber ignition can speed up the design process of these engines provided that 1) the reliability of the results is not affected by poor meshing and 2) the time cost of the meshing process does not negatively compensate for the advantages of running a computer simulation. In this work a flame propagation model that runs with arbitrary hybrid meshes was developed and coupled with the KIVA4-MHI CFD solver, in order to address these aims. The solver follows the G-Equation level-set method for turbulent flame propagation by Tan and Reitz, and employs improved numerics to handle meshes featuring different cell types such as hexahedra, tetrahedra, square pyramids and triangular prisms. Detailed reaction kinetics from the SpeedCHEM solver are used to compute the non-equilibrium composition evolution downstream and upstream of the flame surface, where chemical equilibrium is instead assumed.

Fuel lean combustion and exhaust gas dilution are known to increase the thermal efficiency and reduce NOx emissions. In this study, experiments are performed to understand the effect of equivalence ratio on flame kernel formation and flame propagation around the spark plug for different low turbulent velocities. A series of experiments are carried out for propane-air mixtures to simulate engine-like conditions. For these experiments, equivalence ratios of 0.7 and 0.9 are tested with 20 percent mass-based exhaust gas recirculation (EGR). Turbulence is generated by a shrouded fan design in the vicinity of J-spark plug. A closed loop feedback control system is used for the fan to generate a consistent flow field. The flow profile is characterized by using Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) technique. High-speed Schlieren visualization is used for the spark formation and flame propagation.