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In the next years, the upcoming emission legislations are expected to introduce further restrictions on the admittable level of pollutants from vehicles measured on homologation cycles and real drive tests. In this context, the strict control of pollutant emissions at the cold start will become a crucial point to comply with the new regulation standards. This will necessarily require the implementation of novel strategies to speed-up the light-off of the reactions occurring in the after-treatment system, since the cold start conditions are the most critical one for cumulative emissions. Among the different possible technological solutions, this paper focuses on the evaluation of the potential of a burner system, which is activated before the engine start. The hypothetical burner exploits the lean combustion of an air-gasoline mixture to generate a high temperature gas stream which is directed to the catalyst section promoting a fast heating of the substrate.

Metallic foams or sponges are materials with a cell structure suitable for many industrial applications, such as reformers, heat catalytic converters, etc. The success of these materials is due to the combination of various characteristics such as mechanical strength, low density, high specific surface, good thermal exchange properties, low flow resistance and sound absorption. Different materials and manufacturing processes produce different type of structure and properties for various applications. In this work a genetic algorithm has been developed and applied to support the design of catalytic devices. In particular, two substrates were considered, namely the traditional honeycomb and an alternative open-cell foam type. CFD simulations of pressure losses and literature based correlations for the heat and mass transfer were used to support the genetic algorithm in finding the best compromise between flow resistance and pollutant abatement.

Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) systems are nowadays widely applied for the reduction of NOx emitted from Diesel engines. The typical process is based on the injection of aqueous urea in the exhaust gases before the SCR catalyst, which determines the production of the ammonia needed for the catalytic reduction of NOx. However, this technology is affected by two main limitations: a) the evaporation of the urea water solution (UWS) requires a sufficiently high temperature of the exhaust gases and b) the formation of solid deposits during the UWS evaporation is a frequent phenomenon which compromise the correct operation of the system. In this context, to overcome these issues, a technology based on the injection of gaseous ammonia has been recently proposed: in this case, ammonia is stored at the solid state in a cartridge containing a Strontium Chloride salt and it is desorbed by means of electrical heating.

In this work an integration between a 1D code (Gasdyn) with a CFD code (OpenFOAM®) has been applied to improve the performance of a Moto3 engine. The four-stroke, single cylinder S.I. engine was modeled, in order to predict the wave motion in the intake and exhaust systems and to study how it affects the cylinder gas exchange process. The engine considered was characterized by having an air induction system with integrated filter cartridge, air-box and intake runner, including two fuel injectors, resulting in a complex air-path from the intake mouth to the intake valves, which presents critical aspects when a 1D modeling is addressed. The exhaust and intake systems have been optimized form the point of view of the wave action. However, due to the high revolution speed reached by this type of engine, the interaction between the gas stream and the fuel spray becomes a key aspect to be addressed in order to achieve the best performance at the desired operating condition.

A correct prediction of the initial stages of the combustion process in SI engines is of great importance to understand how local flow conditions, fuel properties, mixture stratification and ignition affect the in-cylinder pressure development and pollutant formation. However, flame kernel growth is governed by many interacting processes including energy transfer from the electrical circuit to the gas phase, interaction between the plasma channel and the flow field, transition between different combustion regimes and gas expansion at very high temperatures. In this work, the authors intend to present a comprehensive, multi-dimensional model that can be used to predict the initial combustion stages in SI engines. In particular, the spark channel is represented by a set of Lagrangian particles where each one of them acts as a single flame kernel.

Turbocharging is playing today a fundamental role not only to improve automotive engine performance, but also to reduce fuel consumption and exhaust emissions for both Spark Ignition and Diesel engines. Dedicated experimental investigations on turbochargers are therefore necessary to assess a better understanding of its performance. The availability of experimental information on turbocharger steady flow performance is an essential requirement to optimize the engine-turbocharger matching, which is usually achieved by means of simulation models. This aspect is even more important when referred to the turbine efficiency, since its swallowing capacity can be accurately evaluated through the measurement of mass flow rate, inlet temperature and pressure ratio across the machine.

The transient heat transfer behavior of an automotive catalytic converter has been simulated with OpenFOAM in 1D. The model takes into consideration the gas-solid convective heat transfer, axial wall conduction and heat capacity effects in the solid phase, but also the chemical reactions of CO oxidation, based on simplified Arrhenius and Langmuir-Hinshelwood approaches. The associated parameters are the results of data in literature tuned by experiments. Simplified cases of constant flow rates and gas temperatures in the catalyst inflow have been chosen for a comprehensive analysis of the heat and mass transfer phenomena. The impact of inlet flow temperatures and inlet flow rates on the heat up characteristics as well as in the CO emissions have been quantified. A dimensional analysis is proposed and dimensionless temperature difference and space-time coordinates are introduced.

In future decarbonized scenarios, hydrogen is widely considered as one of the best alternative fuels for internal combustion engines, allowing to achieve zero CO2 emissions at the tailpipe. However, NOx emissions represent the predominant pollutants and their production has to be controlled. In this work different strategies for the control and abatement of pollutant emissions on a H2-fueled high-performance V8 twin turbo 3.9L IC engine are tested. The characterization of pollutant production on a single-cylinder configuration is carried out by means of the 1D code Gasdyn, considering lean and homogeneous conditions. The NOx are extremely low in lean conditions with respect to the emissions legislation limits, while the maximum mass flow rate remains below the turbocharger technical constraint limit at λ=1 only.

Metallic open-cell foams have proven to be valuable for many engineering applications. Their success is mainly related to mechanical strength, low density, high specific surface, good thermal exchange, low flow resistance and sound absorption properties. The present work aims to investigate three principal aspects of real foams: the geometrical characterization, the flow regime characterization, the effects of the pore size and the porosity on the pressure drop. The first aspect is very important, since the geometrical properties depend on other parameters, such as porosity, cell/pore size and specific surface. A statistical evaluation of the cell size of a foam sample is necessary to define both its geometrical characteristics and the flow pattern at a given input velocity. To this purpose, a procedure which statistically computes the number of cells and pores with a given size has been implemented in order to obtain the diameter distribution.

The reduction of the catalyst light-off time at the engine cold start represents a key factor for the pollutant emissions control from vehicles tested on homologation cycles and real drive conditions. The adoption of heating strategies to increase the temperature of the catalytic substrate in the early phase of the engine start is regarded as a promising solution. The present study focuses on the application of electrical heated catalyst (EHC) in an after-treatment line for a spark-ignition gasoline engine. The analysis is carried out by means of an advanced CFD framework, which includes the modeling of catalytic reactions in the substrates and accounts for the thermal evolution of all the components included in the after-treatment system.

Air pollution is a significant environmental issue, and exhaust emissions from internal combustion engines are one of the primary sources of harmful pollutants. The transportation sector, which includes road vehicles, contributes to a large share of these emissions. In Europe, the latest emission legislation (Euro 7) proposes more stringent limits and testing conditions for vehicle emissions. To meet these limits, the automotive industry is actively developing innovative exhaust emission-control technologies. With the growing prevalence of electrification, internal combustion engines are subject to continuous variations in load and engine speed, including phases where the engine is switched off. The result is an operating condition characterized by successive cold starts. In this context, the challenge in coping with the emission limits is to minimize the light-off time and prevent fast light-out conditions during idling or city driving.