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Measures for reducing engine friction within the powertrain are assessed in this paper. The included measures work in combination with several new technologies such as new combustion technologies, downsizing and alternative fuels. The friction reduction measures are discussed for a typical gasoline vehicle. If powertrain friction could be eliminated completely, a reduction of 15% in CO2 emissions could be achieved. In order to comply with more demanding CO2 legislations, new technologies have to be considered to meet these targets. The additional cost for friction reduction measures are often lower than those of other new technologies. Therefore, these measures are worth following up in detail.

Over the last few years, engine development has succeeded in reducing friction by up to 30 %. This corresponds to a reduction of fuel consumption in urban traffic of around 10 %, thus, making friction reduction - aside from the introduction of Otto DI engine and the transition from IDI to DI Diesel engines - an effective measure to reduce fuel consumption. Investigations of engines and engine components show that even today's “Best in Class” engines still harbor a reduction potential of least 20 %. Possible ways to realize this potential lie in: Adapted dimensioning of the friction relevant engine parameters Lightweight design of dynamic components Optimized layout of the timing drive (especially in valve train designs with roller followers and chain drives) Optimization of the piston group (up to 50 % of the parasitic losses can occur here) The investigations are based on detailed friction measurements of over 100 sample engines and their components.

Beside the traditional prediction of stresses and verification by mechanical testing the optimization of cylinder liner bore distortion is one of today's most important topics in crankcase structure development. Low bore distortion opens up potentials for optimizing the piston group. As the piston rings achieve better sealing characteristics in a low deformation cylinder liner, oil consumption and blow-by are reduced. For unchanged oil consumption and blow-by demands, engine friction and subsequently, fuel consumption could be reduced by decreasing the pre-tension of the piston rings. From the acoustical point of view an optimization of piston-slap noise is often based on an optimized bore distortion behavior. Apart from basics to the behavior of liner bore distortion the paper presents advanced analytical and empirical methods for detailed prediction, verification and optimization of bore distortion taking into account the effective engine operation conditions.

Like all technical fluids, lubricants are able to solve gases. While solved gas is a neutral part of the lubricant, dissolved gas has an influence especially on the compressibility behavior. The effects of oil aeration on engine drive causes malfunctions of several components. A successful optimization of the oil circulation concerning the oil aeration presupposes a safe and reproducible measuring procedure. The FEV has developed a measurement apparatus according to the principle of the volume measurement which allows a simple but efficient oil aeration measurement.

Downsizing is an effective way to further improve the efficiency of SI engines. To make most of this concept, the compression ratio has to be adjusted during engine operation. Thus, the efficiency disadvantages during part load can be eliminated. A fuel consumption reduction of up to 30% can be realized compared to naturally aspirated engines of the same power. After the assessment of several known concepts it turned out that the eccentric crankshaft positioning represents an appropriate solution which meets the requirements of good adjustability, unaltered inertia forces, low power demand of the positioning device and reasonable design effort. The basic challenges posed by the eccentric crankshaft positioning have been tackled, namely the crankshaft bearing and the integration of the newly developed power take-offs which have almost no influence on the base design.

The challenge to reduce fuel consumption in S.I. engines is leading to the application of new series production technologies: including direct injection and, recently, the variable valve train, both aiming at unthrottled engine operation. In addition to these technologies, turbo- or mechanical supercharging is of increasing interest because, in principle, it offers a significant potential for improved fuel economy. However, a fixed compression ratio normally leads to a compromise, in that the charged engine is more of a performance enhancement than an improver of fuel economy. Fuel efficient downsizing concepts can be realized through the application of variable compression ratio. In this paper, a variable compression ratio design solution featuring eccentric movement of the crankshaft is described. Special attention is given to the integration of this solution into the base engine.

Modern passenger car engines are designed to operate at increasingly higher rated engine speeds with higher thermal loads. To reduce engine weight and length, the engines are usually siamesed without a cooling path between the cylinder liners. This leads to high temperatures in the siamesed area and to an increase in liner deformation. The distortion of the cylinder liners of internal combustion engines has a significant affect on engine operation. It can affect the oil consumption, the blow-by, the wear behavior and, due to friction, the fuel consumption. In order to achieve future requirements regarding exhaust emissions and fuel consumption, the development of low distortion engine blocks will play a significant role.

Because of increasing stresses in combustion engines and critical comfort requirements of engine warm-up behavior, FEV has placed a special emphasis on solving cooling system problems. In addition to 3D-CFD calculations and special FEV measurement techniques - such as fiber optical cavitation detection, instationary heat balance measurements during warm-up, etc. - FEV has developed a 1D computer code, known as ‘COOL’, to optimize cooling systems already during the engine design phase or to analyse and eliminate weaknesses in the coolant circuit of existing engines. Beside the algorithm and structure of COOL the paper mainly presents the analysis capabilities of the code. In this connection the emphasis is placed on examples to the current OEMs problem: transient warm-up of DI-diesel engines. The COOL-code is so far a unique CAE tool which exclusively has been applied to projects conducted by FEV. Because of the increasing demand it is planned to commercialize the code in 1998.

The connecting rod big-end bearing is one of the most heavily loaded components of the lubrication system of high speed combustion engines. The bearing's oil supply has to be designed consciantious in order to ensure an immaculate reliability in operation. The supply oil flow has to pass the main bearing and the rotating crankshaft before entering the connecting rod bearing. It is common knowledge that the centrifugal forces due to the crankshaft rotation influence the oil flow through the also rotating supply bore. The centrifugal forces effect a parabolic pressure profile along the supply bore. The oil pump has to ensure a certain pressure level in the main oil gallery (depending on the engine speed and the spherical positioning of the rotating bore) to overcome these centrifugal forces. If the oil pressure is lower than this certain level the bearing's oil supply will be interrupted - bearing damage is the consequence.

The IDI diesel engine still offers a substantial development potential. One major advantage is its low fuel consumption and, hence, its low CO2 emission compared to gasoline engines. The disadvantage of its higher noise emission, however, requires particular attention in the development stage. By means of modern signal analysing and signal processing methods in combination with computer simulation methods new tools for the development of low noise Diesel engines are available. The noise emission of IDI diesel engines has on average been reduced by about 5 to 8 dBA within the last 15 years. This trend will continue further despite the introduction of more and more light weight design components. Today's IDI diesel engine is mainly dominated by high noise levels in the frequency range about 1600 to 2000 Hz. In-depth measurements show that this is generally caused by a high combustion excitation (Helmholtz-resonance) and, in addition, structure weaknesses of the crankcase.

Fuel consumption of a modern combustion engine is significantly influenced by the mechanical friction losses. Particularly in typical city driving, the reduction of the engine friction losses offers a remarkable potential in emission and fuel consumption reduction. The analysis of the engine friction distribution of modern engines shows that the piston group has a high share at total engine friction. This offers a high potential to optimize piston group friction. The paper presents results of recent research and development work in the field of the tribological system piston/piston ring/cylinder bore.

Due to the future application of combustion engines in small and hybrid vehicles, the demand for high efficiency with low mass and compact engine design is of prime importance. The diesel engine, with its outstanding thermal efficiency, is a well suited candidate for such applications. In order to realize these targets, future diesel engines will need to have increasingly higher specific output combined with increased power to weight ratios. This is therefore driving the need for new designs of 3 and/or 4 cylinder, small bore engines of low displacement, sub 1.5l. Recent work on combustion development, has shown that combustion systems, ports, valves and injector sizes are available for bore sizes down to 65 mm.

The fuel consumption and the emissions of modern passenger cars are highly affected by the fluid and material temperatures of the engine. Unfortunately, the high thermal efficiencies of Direct Injection (DI) Diesel and Spark Ignition (SI) engines cause in many driving situations low heat transfer to the engine components and especially to the oil and the coolant. In these conditions the normal operating temperatures are not achieved. Especially at low ambient temperatures and low engine loads the requirement of a comfortable cabin heating and a fast warm-up of engine oil and coolant cannot be satisfied simultaneously. To reach the required warm-up performance, an Exhaust Heat Recovery System (EHRS) will be demonstrated. Further design and optimization processes for modern cooling systems in fuel-efficient engines require numerical and experimental investigations of supplemental heater systems to meet all requirements under all circumstances.