Search Results

In order to meet the challenges of future CAFE regulations & pollutant emission, vehicle fuel efficiency must be improved upon without compromising vehicle performance. Optimization of engine breathing & its impact on vehicle level fuel economy, performance needs balance between conflicting requirements of vehicle Fuel Economy, performance & drivability. In this study a Port Fuel Injection, naturally aspirated small passenger car gasoline engine was selected which was being used in a typical small passenger car. Simulation approach was used to investigate vehicle fuel economy and performance, where-in 1D CFD Engine model was used to investigate and optimize Valve train events (Intake and exhaust valve open and close timings) for best fuel economy. Engine Simulation software is physics based and uses a phenomenological approach 0-D turbulent combustion model to calculate engine performance parameters. Engine simulation model was calibrated within 95% accuracy of test data.

In today’s Indian automotive industry, vehicles are becoming more complex and require more efforts to develop. Also, new and upcoming regulations demand more trials under varied driving conditions to ensuring robustness of emission control. Combined with expectations of customer to get new products more frequently, requires solutions and methods that can allow more trials with required accuracy to ensure compliance to stricter regulation and delivery a quality product. This translates into more trials in less time during the development life cycle. Recently, to overcome above challenge, there has been focus on simulating the vehicles trials in engine bench environment. ‘Road to Lab to Math’ (RLM) is a methodology to reduce the effort of On-road testing and replace it with laboratory testing and mathematical models. Also, on-road testing of prototype vehicles is expensive as it requires physical parts.