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A 2-D computational model was developed to describe the flow and filtration processes, in a honeycomb structured ceramic diesel particulate trap. This model describes the steady state trap loading, as well as the transient behavior of the flow and filtration processes. The theoretical model includes the effect of a copper fuel additive on trap loading and transient operation. The convective terms were based on a 2-D analytical flow field solution derived from the conservation of mass and momentum equations. The filtration theory incorporated in the time dependent numerical code included the diffusion, inertia, and direct interception mechanisms. Based on a measured upstream particle size distribution, using the filtration theory, the downstream particle size distribution was calculated. The theoretical filtration efficiency, based on particle size distribution, agreed very well (within 1%) with experimental data for a number of different cases.

A 2-D CFD model was developed to describe the heat transfer, and reaction kinetics in a honeycomb structured ceramic diesel particulate trap. This model describes the steady state as well as the transient behavior of the flow and heat transfer during the trap regeneration processes. The trap temperature profile was determined by numerically solving the 2-D unsteady energy equation including the convective, heat conduction and viscous dissipation terms. The convective terms were based on a 2-D analytical flow field solution derived from the conservation of mass and momentum equations (Opris, 1997). The reaction kinetics were described using a discretized first order Arrhenius function. The 2-D term describing the reaction kinetics and particulate matter conservation of mass was added to the energy equation as a source term in order to represent the particulate matter oxidation. The filtration model describes the particulate matter accumulation in the trap.

The paper investigates the interaction between soil and tractor tires through a 2D numerical model. The tire is schematized as a rigid ring presenting a series of rigid tread bars on the external circumference. The outer profile of the tire is divided into a series of elements, each one able to exchange a normal and a tangential contact force with the ground. A 2D soil model was developed to compute the forces at the ground-tire interface: the normal force is determined on the basis of the compression of the soil generated by the sinking of the tire. The soil is modeled through a layer of springs characterized by two different stiffness for the loading (lower stiffness) and unloading (higher stiffness) condition. This scheme allows to introduce a memory effect on the soil which results stiffer and keeps a residual sinking after the passage of the tire. The normal contact force determines the maximum value of tangential force provided before the soil fails.

The reduction of automotive emissions is instrumental in the fight against air pollution and its impact on global warming. This realization has empowered governments around the world to mandate lower levels of vehicle emissions requiring the Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) to implement advanced aftertreatment technologies in their applications. Achieving emission levels as low as SULEV30 or SULEV20 would have been impossible only a couple of decades ago, however, these lower levels of emissions are now a possibility through advanced control strategies and aftertreatment systems. As a part of this mandate to lower emissions, OEMs are also continuously monitoring the health and performance of their aftertreatment and control components. The implementation of On Board Diagnostics (OBD) ensures that control systems are functioning robustly and the emission levels are achieved and maintained to high mileages for the life of the vehicle.

High fidelity engine simulation requires realistic fuel models. Although typical automotive fuels consist of more than few hundreds of hydrocarbon species, researches show that the physical and chemical properties of the real fuels could be represented by appropriate surrogate fuel models. It is desirable to represent the fuel using the same set of physical and chemical surrogate components. However, when the reaction mechanisms for a certain physical surrogate component is not available, the chemistry of the unmatched physical component is described using that of a similar chemical surrogate component at the expense of accuracy. In order to reduce the prediction error while maintaining the computational efficiency, a method of on-the-fly reactivity adjustment (ReAd) of chemical reaction mechanism along with fuel re-distribution based on reactivity is presented and tested in this study.

Modeling plume interaction and collapse for direct-injection gasoline sprays is important because of its impact on fuel-air mixing and engine performance. Nevertheless, the aerodynamic interaction between plumes and the complicated two-phase coupling of the evaporating spray has shown to be notoriously difficult to predict. With the availability of high-speed (100 kHz) Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) experimental data, we compare velocity field predictions between plumes to observe the full temporal evolution leading up to plume merging and complete spray collapse. The target “Spray G” operating conditions of the Engine Combustion Network (ECN) is the focus of the work, including parametric variations in ambient gas temperature. We apply both LES and RANS spray models in different CFD platforms, outlining features of the spray that are most critical to model in order to predict the correct aerodynamics and fuel-air mixing.

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.

Remote emission sensing (RES) is a non-intrusive measurement method based on absorption spectroscopy, which allows for the determination of pollutant concentrations in vehicle exhaust plumes. By measuring the absorption of the exhaust plume from the roadside using a light/laser barrier, concentration ratios of pollutants, such as nitrogen oxides to carbon dioxide, can be estimated. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has been employed to simulate vehicle exhaust plumes due to uncertainties in RES capabilities. In a previous study, Unsteady Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS) simulations were conducted to investigate the dispersion of vehicle exhaust plumes under various ambient/driving conditions and provide insights for RES applications. However, the accuracy of these simulations can be further improved. Therefore, this study focuses on enhancing the simulation accuracy by employing large eddy simulations (LES).

The paper illustrates and validates a novel predictive combustion model for the estimation of performances and pollutant production in CI engines. The numerical methodology was developed by the authors for near real-time applications, while aiming at an accurate description of the air mixing process by means of a multi-zone approach of the air-fuel mass. Charge stratification is estimated via a 2D representation of the fuel spray distribution that is numerically derived by an axial one-dimensional control-volume description of the direct injection. The radial coordinate of each control volume is reconstructed a posteriori by means of a local distribution function. Fuel mass clustered in each zone is further split in ‘liquid’, ‘unburnt’ and ‘burnt’ sub-zones, given the local properties of the fuel spray control volumes with respect to space-time location of modelled ignition delay, liquid length, and flame lift-off.

In order to comply with 2002 EPA emissions regulations, cooled exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) will be used by heavy duty (HD) diesel engine manufacturers as the primary means to reduce emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx). A feedforward controlled EGR cooling system with a secondary electric water pump and proportional-integral-derivative (PID) feedback has been designed to cool the recirculated exhaust gas in order to better realize the benefits of EGR without overcooling the exhaust gas since overcooling leads to the fouling of the EGR cooler with acidic residues. A system without a variable controlled coolant flow rate is not able to achieve these goals because the exhaust temperature and the EGR schedule vary significantly, especially under transient and warm-up operating conditions. Simulation results presented in this paper have been determined using the Vehicle Engine Cooling System Simulation (VECSS) software, which has been developed and validated using actual engine data.

Pursuing a sustainable energy scenario for transportation requires the blending of renewable oxygenated fuels such as alcohols into commercial hydrocarbon fuels. From a chemical kinetic perspective, this requires the accurate description of both hydrocarbon reference fuels (n-heptane, iso-octane, toluene, etc.) and oxygenated fuels chemistry. A recent systematic investigation of linear C2-C5 alcohols ignition in a rapid compression machine at p = 10-30 bar and T = 650- 900 K has extended the scarcity of fundamental data at such conditions, allowing for a revision of the low temperature chemistry for alcohol fuels in the POLIMI mechanism. Heavier alcohols such as n-butanol and n-pentanol present ignition characteristic of interest for application in HCCI engines, due to the presence of the hydroxyl moiety reducing their low temperature reactivity compared to the parent linear alkanes (i.e. higher octane number).

In this paper the low temperature reduction process of nitrates stored at high temperatures over model Pt-Ba/Al2O3 LNT catalysts using both H2 and C3H6 is analyzed. The results indicate that over the Pt-Ba/Al2O3 catalyst the reduction of stored NOx with both H2 and C3H6 occurs at temperature below those corresponding to their thermal stability. Accordingly, the reduction process occurs through a Pt-catalyzed surface reaction, which does not involve, as a preliminary step, the thermal decomposition of the adsorbed NOx species. The occurrence of such a pathway also requires the co-presence of the storage element and of the noble metal on the same support.

A methodology to estimate the mass of particulate retained in a catalyzed particulate filter as a function of measured total pressure drop, volumetric flow rate, exhaust temperature, exhaust gas viscosity and cake and wall permeability applicable to real-time computation is discussed. This methodology is discussed from the view point of using it to indicate when to initiate active regeneration and as an On-Board Diagnostic tool to detect filter failures. Steady-state loading characterization experiments were conducted on a catalyzed diesel particulate filter (CPF) in a Johnson Matthey CCRT® (catalyzed continuously regenerating trap) system. The experiments were performed using a 10.8 L 2002 Cummins ISM heavy-duty diesel engine. Experiments were conducted at 20, 60 and 75% of full engine load (1120 Nm) and rated speed (2100 rpm) to measure the pressure drop, transient filtration efficiency, particulate mass balance, and gaseous emissions.

Monitoring of the wear rate of a diesel engine will yield valuable information regarding the wear mechanism within a diesel engine and ultimately will improve the predictions of failing engines and/or their components to allow preventive maintenance which will prolong the life of the engine. A mathematical model was developed that describes the wear particle concentration as a function of time in a diesel engine. This model contains engine and lubrication system parameters that determine the concentration of wear particles in the engine sump. These variables are the oil system volume, oil flow rate, particle generation rate, filtering efficiency and the initial particle concentration. The model has been employed to study the wear particle concentrations in the sump and the mass of particles in the filter for the Cummins VT-903 diesel engine.

The development of thermally durable zeolite NH3/Urea-SCR formulations coupled with that of high porosity filters substrates has opened the way to integrate PM and NOx control into a single device, namely an SCR-coated Diesel Particulate Filter (SCRF). A few experimental works are already present in the literature regarding SCRF systems, mainly addressing the DeNOx performances of the system (in both presence and absence of soot) under both steady state and transient conditions. The purpose of the present work is to perform a simulation study focused on phenomena which are expected to play key roles in SCRF systems, such as coupling of reaction and diffusion phenomena, soot effect on DeNOx activity, SCR coating effect on soot regeneration and filtration efficiency and competition between soot oxidation and DeNOx processes involving NO2.

This research proposes a control system for Spark Ignition (SI) engines with external Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) based on model predictive control and a disturbance observer. The proposed Economic Nonlinear Model Predictive Controller (E-NMPC) tries to minimize fuel consumption for a number of engine cycles into the future given an Indicated Mean Effective Pressure (IMEP) tracking reference and abnormal combustion constraints like knock and combustion variability. A nonlinear optimization problem is formulated and solved in real time using Sequential Quadratic Programming (SQP) to obtain the desired control actuator set-points. An Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) based observer is applied to estimate engine states, combining both air path and cylinder dynamics. The EKF engine state(s) observer is augmented with disturbance estimation to account for modeling errors and/or sensor/actuator offset.

The accurate prediction of pollutant emissions generated by IC engines is a key aspect to guarantee the respect of the emission regulation legislation. This paper describes the approach followed by the authors to achieve a strict numerical coupling of two different 1D modeling tools in a co-simulation environment, aiming at a reliable calculation of engine-out and tailpipe emissions. The main idea is to allow an accurate 1D simulation of the unsteady flows and wave motion inside the intake and exhaust systems, without resorting to an over-simplified geometrical discretization, and to rely on advanced thermodynamic combustion models and kinetic sub-models for the calculation of cylinder-out emissions. A specific fluid dynamic approach is then used to track the chemical composition along the exhaust duct-system, in order to evaluate the conversion efficiency of after-treatment devices, such as TWC, GPF, DPF, DOC, SCR and so on.

Spray impingement is an important phenomenon that introduces turbulence into the spray that promotes fuel vaporization, air entrainment and flame propagation. However, liquid impingement on the surface leads to wall-wetting and film deposition. The film region is a fuel-rich zone and it has potentials to produce higher emission. Film deposition in a non-reacting spray was studied previously but not in a reacting spray. In the current study, the film deposition of a reacting diesel spray was studied through computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulations under a variety of ambient temperatures, gas compositions and impinging distances. Characteristics of film mass, distribution of thickness, soot formation and temperature distributions were investigated. Simulation results showed that under the same impinging distance, higher ambient temperature reduced film mass but showed the same liquid film pattern.

In this paper, computation fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations are employed to describe the effect of flow parameters on the formation of soot and NOx in a heavy duty engine under low load and high load. The complexity of diesel combustion, specially when soot, NOx and other emissions are of interest, requires using a detailed chemical mechanism to have a correct estimation of temperature and species distribution. In this work, Multiple Representative Interactive Flamelets (MRIF) method is employed to describe the chemical reactions, ignition, flame propagation and emissions in the engine. A phenomenological model for soot formation, including soot nucleation, coagulation and oxidation with O2 and OH is incorporated into the flamelet combustion model. Different strategies for modelling NOx are chosen to take into account the longer time scale for NOx formation. The numerical results are compared with experimental data to show the validity of the model for the cases under study.

A one-dimensional, two layer computational model was developed to predict the behavior of a clean and particulate-loaded catalyzed wall-flow diesel particulate filter (CPF). The model included the mechanisms of particle deposition inside the CPF porous wall and on the CPF wall surface, the exhaust flow field and temperature field inside the CPF, as well as the particulate catalytic oxidation mechanisms accounting for the catalyst-assisted particulate oxidation by the catalytic coating in addition to the conventional particulate thermal oxidation. The paper also develops the methodology for calibrating and validating the model with experimental data. Steady state loading experiments were performed to calibrate and validate the model.