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In any internal combustion engine, the amount of heat rejected from the engine, and associated systems, is a result of the engine inefficiency. Successfully recovering a small proportion of this energy would therefore substantially improve the fuel economy. The Rankine Cycle system has been raising interest for its aptitude to produce systems capable of capturing part of this waste heat and regenerate it as electrical or mechanical power. By integrating these systems into existing hybrid engine environments, it has been proved that Rankine Cycle system, which is more than 150 years old, can play a major role in reducing fuel consumption. The use of such a system for waste heat recovery on a hybrid engine represents a promising compromise in transforming the thermal energy into electricity and feeding this electricity back to the vehicle drivetrain by using the in situ electrical motor system or storing it into batteries.

The internal combustion (IC) engines exploits only about 30% of the chemical energy ejected through combustion, whereas the remaining part is rejected by means of cooling system and exhausted gas. Nowadays, a major global concern is finding sustainable solutions for better fuel economy which in turn results in a decrease of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. The Waste Heat Recovery (WHR) is one of the most promising techniques to increase the overall efficiency of a vehicle system, allowing the recovery of the heat rejected by the exhaust and cooling systems. In this context, Organic Rankine Cycles (ORCs) are widely recognized as a potential technology to exploit the heat rejected by engines to produce electricity. The aim of the present paper is to investigate a WHR system, designed to collect both coolant and exhausted gas heats, coupled with an ORC cycle for vehicle applications.

This paper describes the development and on-vehicle validation testing of next generation parallel hybrid electric powertrain technology for use in urban buses. A forward-facing MATLAB/Simulink powertrain model was used to develop a rule-based deterministic control system for a post-transmission parallel hybrid urban bus. The control strategy targeted areas where conventional powertrains are typically less efficient, focused on improving fuel economy and emissions without boosting vehicle performance. Stored electrical energy is deployed to assist the IC engine system leading to an overall reduction in fuel consumption while maintaining vehicle performance at a level comparable with baseline conventional IC engine operation.

With a transition towards electric vehicles for the transport sector, there will be greater reliance put upon battery packs; therefore, battery pack modelling becomes crucial during the design of the vehicle. Accurate battery pack modelling allows for: the simulation of the pack and vehicle, more informed decisions made during the design process, reduced testing costs, and implementation of superior control systems. To create the battery cell model using MATLAB/Simulink, an electrical equivalent circuit model was selected due to its balance between accuracy and complexity. The model can predict the state of charge and terminal voltage from a current input. A battery string model was then developed that considered the cell-to-cell variability due to manufacturing defects. Finally, a full battery pack model was created, capable of modelling the different currents that each string experiences due to the varied internal resistance.

In this paper a dynamic, modular, 1-D vehicle model architecture is presented which seeks to enhance modelling flexibility and can be rapidly adapted to new vehicle concepts, including hybrid configurations. Interdependencies between model sub-systems are minimized. Each subsystem of the vehicle model follows a standardized signal architecture allowing subsystems to be developed, tested and validated separately from the main model and easily reintegrated. Standard dynamic equations are used to calculate the rotational speed of the desired driveline component within each subsystem i.e. dynamic calculations are carried out with respect to the component of interest. Sample simulations are presented for isolated and integrated components to demonstrate flexibility. Two vehicle test cases are presented.

This paper describes an experimental comparison of loop and cross scavenged single-cylinder research engines. The cross scavenged engines have employed the QUB type deflector piston. The initial results show that the QUB cross scavenged engine exhibited inferior performance characteristics. Utilizing the QUB single cycle test rig, a study of the QUB cross scavenging system has shown that the bore-to-stroke ratio significantly influences the scavenging behaviour; reduction of the bore-to-stroke ratio from over-square values gave improved characteristics. On the basis of this finding, a new cross scavenged cylinder barrel was designed. In a subsequent series of dynamometer tests, improvements in power, fuel economy and emission characteristics were recorded for the new cylinder. These improved results approximate closely to those recorded for the loop scavenged engine and are considerably superior to those of the original cross scavenged cylinder.

The improvement in both performance and thermal efficiency of internal combustion engines at higher compression ratios is a well known phenomena. Indeed, a simple Otto Cycle analysis show a potential efficiency improvement of 13% by increasing the compression ratio from 9:1 to 15:1. However, the dilemma for engineers has always been in the realization of a practical operational mechanism. This paper describes the ECCLINK VCR mechanism which enables compression ratio to be altered within given limits on a running engine. A single cylinder 500 cm3 four-stroke research engine, incorporating the ECCLINK mechanism, has been built and tested. Results are presented at both full load and part load over a range of compression ratios, showing improvements in performance and fuel economy. Of particular interest is the fact that full load bsfc improvements equate to typical Otto cycle values.