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Powertrain electrification is becoming increasingly common in the transportation sector to address the challenges of global warming and deteriorating air quality. This paper introduces a novel “Build Your Hybrid” approach to experience and test various hybrid powertrain concepts. This approach is applied to the light commercial vehicles (LCV) segment due to the attractive combination of a Diesel engine and a partly electrified powertrain. For this purpose, a demonstrator vehicle has been set up with a flexible P02 hybrid topology and a prototype Hybrid Control Unit (HCU). Based on user input, the HCU software modifies the control functions and simulation models to emulate different sub-topologies and levels of hybridization in the demonstrator vehicle. Three powertrain concepts are considered for LCVs: HV P2, 48V P2 and 48V P0 hybrid. Dedicated hybrid control strategies are developed to take full advantage of the synergies of the electrical system and reduce CO2 and NOx emissions.

The real cycle simulation is an important tool to predict the engine efficiency. To evaluate Extended Expansion SI-engines with a multi-link cranktrain, the challenge is to consider all concept specific effects as best as possible by using appropriate submodels. Due to the multi-link cranktrain, the choice of a suitable heat transfer model is of great importance since the cranktrain kinematics is changed. Therefore, the usage of the mean piston speed to calculate a heat-transfer-related velocity for heat transfer equations is not sufficient. The heat transfer equation according to Bargende combines for its calculation the actual piston speed with a simplified k-ε model. In this paper it is assessed, whether the Bargende model is valid for Extended Expansion engines. Therefore a single-cylinder engine is equipped with fast-response surface-thermocouples in the cylinder head. The surface heat flux is calculated by solving the unsteady heat conduction equation.

This paper describes an approach to reduce development costs and time by frontloading of engineering tasks and even starting calibration tasks already in the early component conception phases of a vehicle development program. To realize this, the application of a consistent and parallel virtual development and calibration methodology is required. The interaction between vehicle subcomponents physically available and those only virtually available at that time, is achieved with the introduction of highly accurate real-time models on closed-loop co-simulation platforms (HiL-simulators) which provide the appropriate response of the hardware components. This paper presents results of a heterogeneous testing scenario containing a real internal combustion engine on a test facility and a purely virtual vehicle using two different automatic transmission calibration and hardware setups.

Further improvements of internal combustion engines to reduce fuel consumption and to face future legislation constraints are strictly related to the study of mixture formation. The reason for that is the desire to supply the engine with homogeneous charge, towards the direction of a global stoichiometric blend in the combustion chamber. Fuel evaporation and thus mixture quality mostly depend on injector atomization features and charge motion within the cylinder. 3D-CFD simulations offer great potential to study not only injector atomization quality but also the evaporation behavior. Nevertheless coupling optical measurements and simulations for injector analysis is an open discussion because of the large number of influencing parameters and interactions affecting the fuel injection’s reproducibility. For this purpose, detailed numerical investigations are used to describe the injection phenomena.

New 12 V/48 V power net architectures are potential solutions to close the gap between customer needs and legislative requirements. In order to exploit their potential, an increased effort is needed for functional implementation and hardware integration. Shifting of development tasks to earlier phases (frontloading) is a promising solution to streamline the development process and to increase the maturity level at early stages. This study shows the potential of the frontloading of development tasks by implementing a virtual 48 V mild hybridization in an engine-in-the-loop (EiL) setup. Advanced simulation technics like functional mock-up interface- (FMI) based co-simulation are utilized for the seamless integration of the real-time (RT) simulation models and allow a modular simulation framework as well as a decrease in development time.

Engine valve flow coefficients are not only used to characterize the performance of valve/port designs, but also for modelling gas exchange in 0D/1D engine simulation. Flow coefficients are usually estimated with small pressure ratios and at ambient air conditions. In contrast, the ranges for pressure ratio, pressure and temperature level during engine operation are much more extensive. In this work the influences of these three parameters on SI engine poppet valve flow coefficients are investigated using 3D CFD and measurements for validation. While former investigations already showed some pressure ratio dependencies by measurement, here the use of 3D CFD allows a more comprehensive analysis and a deeper understanding of the relevant effects. At first, typical ranges for the three mentioned parameters during engine operation are presented.

Engine valve flow coefficients are used to describe the flow throughput performance of engine valve/port designs, and to model gas exchange in 0D/1D engine simulation. Valve flow coefficients are normally determined at a stationary flow test bench, separately for intake and exhaust side, in the absence of the piston. However, engine operation differs from this setup; i. a. the piston might interact with valve flow around scavenging top dead center, and instead of steady boundary conditions, valve flow is nearly always subjected to pressure pulsations, due to pressure wave reflections within the gas exchange ports. In this work the influences of piston position and flow pulsation on valve flow coefficients are investigated for different SI engine geometries by means of 3D CFD and measurements at an enhanced flow test bench.

A simulation approach to predict the amount of snow which is penetrating into the air filter of the vehicle’s engine is important for the automotive industry. The objective of our work was to predict the snow ingress based on an Eulerian/Lagrangian approach within a commercial CFD-software and to compare the simulation results to measurements in order to confirm our simulation approach. An additional objective was to use the simulation approach to improve the air intake system of an automobile. The measurements were performed on two test sites. On the one hand we made measurements on a natural test area in Sweden to reproduce real driving scenarios and thereby confirm our simulation approach. On the other hand the simulation results of the improved air intake system were compared to measurements, which were carried out in a climatic wind tunnel in Stuttgart.

Lean burn gasoline spark-ignition engines can support the reduction of CO2 emissions for future hybrid passenger cars. Very high efficiencies and very low NOx raw emissions can be achieved, if relative air/fuel ratios λ of 2 and above can be reached. The biggest challenge here is to assure a reliable ignition process and to enhance the fuel oxidation in order to achieve a short burn duration and a good combustion stability. This article aims at introducing an innovative combustion system fully optimized for ultra-lean operation and very high efficiency. Thereto, a new cylinder head concept has been realized with high peak firing pressure capability and with a low surface-to-volume ratio at high compression ratios. 1D and 3D simulations have been performed to optimize the compression ratio, charge motion and intake valve lift. Numerical calculations also supported the development of the ignition system.

Physics-based models in a closed-loop feedback control of a premixed charge compression ignition (PCCI) engine can improve the combustion efficiency and potentially reduce harmful NOx and soot emissions. A stand-alone multi-zone combustion model has been proposed in the literature using a physics-based mixing approach. The scalar dissipation rate emerged as the determining parameter in the model for mixing among different zones in the mixture fraction space. However, the calculation of the scalar dissipation rate depends on three approaches: three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (3-D CFD) combustion simulations based on representative interactive flamelet (RIF) model, tabulation, or an empirical algebraic model of the scalar dissipation rate fitted for the given operating conditions of the engine. While the 3-D CFD approach provides accurate results, it is computationally too expensive to use the multi-zone model in closed-loop control.

Depleting fossil resources, a constantly rising energy demand and worries about greenhouse gas emissions force society to explore novel concepts for future mobile propulsion. In the context of biofuels, the identification of novel, sustainably producible, tailored molecules meeting the property specifications derived from advanced engine combustion concepts therefore constitutes a major objective. Due to the tremendous amount of possible molecular structures, solely experimental search strategies are infeasible and highlight the need for a computer-aided biofuel identification framework. To this end, a holistic approach for deriving truly predictive Quantitative-Structure-Property-Relationships (QSPRs) for engine-relevant fuel properties is presented. Such QSPRs are combined with a rigorous generation of molecular structures aiming at identification of single-compound fuel candidates for use in compression ignition (CI) engines.

New combustion processes require an understanding of the highly three-dimensional flow field to effectively decrease fuel consumption and pollutant emission. Due to the complex spatial character of the flow the knowledge of the development of the flow in an extended volume is necessary. Previous investigations were able to visualize the discrete three-dimensional flow field through multi-plane stereoscopic PIV. In this study, cycle resolved tomographic particle-image velocimetry measurement have been performed to obtain a fully resolved representation of the three-dimensional flow structures at each instant. The analysis is based on the measurements at 80°, 160°, and 240° after top dead center(atdc) such that the velocity distributions at the intake, the end of the intake, and the compression stroke at an engine speed of 1,500 rpm are discussed in detail.

For basic research on the piston group a new simulation technique is developed using the contact algorithm of a commercial FE-code (MARC). Several improvements were made in order to adapt the MARC solver to the problem of sliding and dynamic contact. The first computations, a real transient analysis simulating the piston group, of both a two-stroke engine and a modern direct injected four-stroke Diesel engine for passenger cars, show that the new method is able to calculate the movements, velocities and accelerations of the piston. The quality of the results is mainly influenced by the hydrodynamic effects.

Thixoforming is another word for Semi-Solid-Metalforming (SSM) which means that metal will be formed between solid and liquid temperature. In this state the material behavior is thixotropic. Aluminum alloys can be formed in this thixotropic state when 30 to 40% of the material is liquid. In this case it is possible to form the aluminum in a process that is located between the die-casting and the forging technology. The thixoforming process allows it to produce Near Net Shape aluminum-parts with high quality for the automotive industry. This paper is intended to give the reader some examples about and some insights into the possible applications of the thixoforming process.

Quantitative Laser-Induced Incandescence (LII) has been applied to investigate the soot formation in a combusting Diesel jet for various conditions. For the quantification of the LII signal the local soot volume fraction of a diffusion flame burner was measured using laser beam extinction. These data were used for the calibration of the LII signal. The investigation of the soot formation in a combusting Diesel jet was performed in a high pressure, high temperature combustion chamber with optical access. A wide range of pressure (up to 10 MPa) and temperature (up to 1,500 K) conditions could be covered using a hydrogen precombustion, which is initiated inside the chamber before fuel injection. The influence of different gas atmospheres have been investigated by varying the gas composition (H2, O2 and N2) inside the chamber.

Modern automotive development evolves beyond artificial intelligence for highly automated driving, and toward an interconnected manifold of data-driven development processes. Widely used analytical system modelling struggles with rising system complexity, invoking approaches through data-driven system models. We consider these as key enablers for further improvements in accuracy and development efficiency. However, literature and industry have yet to thoroughly discuss the relevance and methods along the vehicle development cycle. We emphasize the importance of data-driven system models in their distinct types and applications along the developing process, from pre-development to fleet operation. Data-driven models have proven in other works to be fast approximators, of high accuracy and adaptive, in contrast to physics-based analytical approaches across domains.

For the gasoline engine, the isochoric process is the ideal limit of the ideal processes. During the project, a combustion engine with real isochoric boundary conditions is built. A “resting time” of the piston for several degrees crank angle in the top dead center (TDC) can be realized with a special crank drive. This crank drive consists of two crankshafts with different strokes, which are combined. The two crankshafts rotate with a ratio of two to one in opposite directions. The total stroke corresponds to the amount of the first crankshaft, so it is possible to investigate different strokes of the second crankshaft in the same crankcase. Different “resting times” can be achieved by different strokes of the second crankshaft. A specific combination of both crankshafts make a stroke possible which corresponds to that of a conventional combustion engine.

The noise emission of cruising vehicles essentially consists of tire/road noise, drivetrain noise (engine with intake and exhaust system, transmission and driving axle) and aerodynamic noise due to the flow around bodywork, chassis, wheels and cooling air flow (fan). Engines and drivetrains have become quieter due to many man-years of engineering attention and tire noise has also been reduced - at least the noise reaching the passenger compartment. Consequently, the aerodynamic noise of ground vehicles has become dominant at driving speeds above 100 kph both in interior and exterior noise. In order to determine the contribution of aerodynamic noise to the overall noise, measurements are carried out more and more in specially equipped automotive wind tunnels.

Fuels derived from biomass will most likely contain oxygen due to the high amount of hydrogen needed to remove oxygen in the production process. Today, alcohol fuels (e. g. ethanol) are well understood for spark ignition engines. The Institute for Combustion Engines at RWTH Aachen University carried out a fuel investigation program to explore the potential of alcohol fuels as candidates for future compression ignition engines to reduce engine-out emissions while maintaining engine efficiency and an acceptable noise level. The soot formation and oxidation process when using alcohol fuels in diesel engines is not yet sufficiently understood. Depending on the chain length, alcohol fuels vary in cetane number and boiling temperature. Decanol possesses a diesel-like cetane number and a boiling point in the range of the diesel boiling curve. Thus, decanol was selected as an alcohol representative to investigate the influence of the oxygen content of an alcohol on the combustion performance.

Targeted fuel blending is a known method to improve the performance of an automotive engine. Two candidates for a biofuel blend are the linear C8H18O isomers 1-octanol and di-n-butyl ether (DNBE). Both fuels feature an increased amount of oxygen that reduces soot emissions. However, physical properties of both fuels differ significantly and thus, a different type of spray mixing and combustion is expected: The low reactivity of 1-octanol causes a long ignition delay enabling a better mixture homogenization, but also causes HC and CO emissions. DNBE in contrary is highly volatile, has a short ignition time and thus can act as an ignition booster for 1-octanol without losing positive effects concerning emissions. In this work a spray study is performed for blends of 1-octanol and DNBE. Measurements are conducted under diesel-like engine conditions with an 8-hole piezo injector. High-speed Schlieren and Mie scattering techniques are used for spray visualizations.