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Within a public founded project test cell investigations were undertaken to identify parameters which predominantly influence the development of critical deposits in injection nozzles. A medium-duty diesel engine was operated in two different coking cycles with a zinc-free lubricant. One of the cycles is dominated by rated power, while the second includes a wide area of the operation range. During the experiments the temperatures at the nozzle tip, the geometries of the nozzle orifice and fuel properties were varied. For a detailed analysis of the deposits methods of electron microscopy were deployed. In the course of the project optical access to all areas in the nozzle was achieved. The experiments were evaluated by means of the monitoring of power output and fuel flow at rated power. The usage of a SEM (scanning electron microscope) and a TEM (transmission electron microscope) revealed images of the deposits with a magnification of up to 160 000.

With the rising pollutant emission level in Indian cities, the focus on pure BEVs is also increasing in India. Therefore, the Indian Government is currently preparing suitable policies to promote the acceptance of BEVs (e.g., FAME-2) [1]. The goal is to provide subsidies and develop the required infrastructure for battery charging. The environmental conditions in India differ significantly from those in other developed countries in Europe or China. The maximum temperatures can rise to 55 °C in the summertime [2]. In winter, temperatures in the northern Himalayan regions can fall below -25 °C [3]. Within this wide range of environmental conditions, all components, such as the electric motor and battery, must be conditioned by the thermal system of the vehicle. On the one hand, HV battery packs are one of the main cost drivers. On the other hand, currently, the battery size must be maximized to improve the driving range and ensure customer acceptance.

The range of tasks in automotive electrical system development has clearly grown and now includes goals such as achieving efficiency requirements and complying with continuously reducing CO2 limits. Improvements in the vehicle electrical system, hereinafter referred to as the power net, are mandatory to face the challenges of increasing electrical energy consumption, new comfort and assistance functions, and further electrification. Novel power net topologies with dual batteries and dual voltages promise a significant increase in efficiency with moderate technological and financial effort. Depending on the vehicle segment, either an extension of established 12 V micro-hybrid technologies or 48 V mild hybridization is possible. Both technologies have the potential to reduce fuel consumption by implementing advanced stop/start and sailing functionalities.

The future worldwide emission regulations will request a drastic decrease of Diesel engine tailpipe emissions. Depending on the planned application and the real official regulations, a further strong decrease of engine out emissions is necessary, even though the utilized exhaust after-treatment systems are very powerful. To reduce NOx emissions internally, the external exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) is known as the most effective way. Due to the continuously increasing requirements regarding specific power, dynamic behavior and low emissions, future air path systems have to fulfill higher requirements and, consequently, become more and more complex, e.g. arrangements with a 2-stage turbo charging or 2-stage EGR system with different stages of cooling performance.

The modern engine development process is characterized by shorter development cycles and a reduced number of prototypes. However, simultaneously exhaust after-treatment and emission testing is becoming increasingly more sophisticated. It is expected that predictive simulation tools that encompass the entire powertrain can potentially improve the efficiency of the calibration process. The testing of an ECU using a HiL system requires a real-time model. Additionally, if the initial parameters of the ECU are to be defined and tested, the model has to be more accurate than is typical for ECU functional testing. It is possible to enhance the generalization capability of the simulation, with neuronal network sub-models embedded into the architecture of a physical model, while still maintaining real-time execution. This paper emphasizes the experimental investigation and physical modeling of the port fuel injected SI engine.

Today, SULEV legislation represents the most stringent emission standard for vehicles with combustion engines, and it will be introduced starting by Model Year 2003. In order to meet such standards, even higher effort is required for the development of the exhaust gas emission concept of SI engines. Beyond a facelift of the combustion system, exhaust gas aftertreatment, and the engine management system, new approaches are striven for. The principle keys are well known: low HC feed gas, high thermal load for quick light-off, exhaust system with low heat capacity and highly effective exhaust gas aftertreatment.

The new Thermo-Elasto-Hydro-Dynamic (TEHD) code developed by FEV, is designed to improve the predictability of journal bearing designs and thereby increase the reliability of safety factors in the development of highly loaded internal combustion engines. Advanced analysis tools are evaluated by their performance as well as by their ease of use. High performance means on the one hand: taking into account all the important characteristics, like bearing elasticity or cavitation effects, to mention only some major parameters for modern journal bearing analysis. On the other hand: an economic run-time behavior must be a key feature concerning usability of the TEHD-demands for daily development praxis. Ease of use means also, that the TEHD model can easily be used as a plug-in routine of an already existing software package that is well known to the development departments.

Future HD Diesel engine technology is facing a combination of both extremely low exhaust emission standards (US 2002/2004, EURO IV and later US 2007, EURO V) and new engine test procedures such as the European Transient Cycle (ETC) in Europe and the Not-to-Exceed Area (NTE) in the US). Customers furthermore require increased engine performance, improved efficiency, and long-term durability. In order to achieve all targets simultaneously, future HD Diesel engines must have improved fuel injection and combustion systems and utilize suitable technologies such as exhaust gas recirculation (EGR), variable geometry turbine turbocharger systems (VGT) and exhaust gas after-treatment systems. Future systems require precision controlled EGR in combination with a VGT-turbocharger during transient operation. This will require new strategies and calibration for the Electronic Engine Control Unit (ECU).

This paper focuses on start-up technology for fuel processing systems with special emphasis on gasoline fueled burners. Initially two different fuel processing systems, an autothermal reformer with preferential oxidation and a steam reformer with membrane, are introduced and their possible starting strategies are discussed. Energy consumption for preheating up to light-off temperature and the start-up time is estimated. Subsequently electrical preheating is compared with start-up burners and the different types of heat generation are rated with respect to the requirements on start-up systems. Preheating power for fuel cell propulsion systems necessarily reaches up to the magnitude of the electrical fuel cell power output. A gasoline fueled burner with thermal combustion has been build-up, which covers the required preheating power.

One of the challenges faced when using Li-ion batteries in electric vehicles is to keep the cell temperatures below a given threshold. Mathematical modeling would indeed be an efficient tool to test virtually this requirement and accelerate the battery product lifecycle. Moreover, temperature predicting models could potentially be used on-board to decrease the limitations associated with sensor based temperature feedbacks. Accordingly, we present a complete modeling procedure which was used to calculate the cell temperatures during a given electric vehicle trip. The procedure includes a simple vehicle dynamics model, an equivalent circuit battery model, and a 3D finite element thermal model. Model parameters were identified from measurements taken during constant current and pulse current discharge tests. The cell temperatures corresponding to an actual electric vehicle trip were calculated and compared with measured values.

The interest in electric propulsion of vehicles has increased in recent years and is being discussed extensively by experts as well as the public. Up to now the driving range and the utilization of pure electric vehicles are still limited in comparison to conventional vehicles due to the limited capacity and the long charging times of today's batteries. This is a challenge to customer acceptance of a pure electric vehicle, even for a city car application. A Range Extender concept could achieve the desired customer acceptance, but should not impact the “electric driving” experience, and should not cause further significant increases in the manufacturing and purchasing cost. The V2 engine concept presented in this paper is particularly suited to a low cost, modular vehicle concept. Advantages regarding packaging can be realized with the use of two generators in combination with the V2 engine.

A main focus of development in modern SI engine technology is variable valve timing, which implies a high potential of improvement regarding fuel consumption and emissions. Variable opening, period and lift of inlet and outlet valves enable numerous possibilities to alter gas exchange and combustion. However, this additional variability generates special demands on the calibration process of specific engine control devices, particularly under cold start and warm-up conditions. This paper presents procedures, based on Hardware-in-the-Loop (HiL) simulation, to support the classical calibration task efficiently. An existing approach is extended, such that a virtual combustion engine is available including additional valve timing variability. Engine models based purely on physical first principles are often not capable of real time execution. However, the definition of initial parameters for the ECU requires a model with both real time capability and sufficient accuracy.

OBD is extended to electric powertrain components in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV) architectures to monitor all components which influence vehicle emissions and electrical energy consumption. Besides main electric components, like battery, inverter, electric machines including their thermal management, other electric powertrain components and systems need to be evaluated as part of comprehensive component monitoring. The multiple possible HEV topologies require a complex assessment regarding the OBD relevance decisions of the electric drivetrain components or systems. In addition, specificities to OBD perimeter design in the hybrid architecture need to be appropriately chosen. This paper analyzes in detail the OBD regulation requirements for electric propulsion components as in the US regulation, which is an envelope for major global markets like Europe, China, Japan and Korea.