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The fuel consumption and emissions of diesel engines is strongly influenced by the injection rate pattern, which influences the in-cylinder mixing and combustion process. Knowing the exact injection rate is mandatory for an optimal diesel combustion development. The short injection time of no more than some milliseconds prevents a direct flow rate measurement. However, the injection rate is deduced from the pressure change caused by injecting into a fuel reservoir or pipe. In an ideal case, the pressure increase in a fuel pipe correlates with the flow rate. Unfortunately, real measurement devices show measurement inaccuracies and errors, caused by non-ideal geometrical shapes as well as variable fuel temperature and fuel properties along the measurement pipe. To analyze the thermal effect onto the measurement results, an available rate measurement device is extended with a flexible heating system as well as multiple pressure and temperature sensors.

The performance of three way and NOx catalysts was evaluated on vehicles utilizing non-feedback fuel control and electronic feedback fuel control. The vehicles accumulated 80,450 km (50,000 miles) using fuels representing the extremes in hydrogen-carbon ratio available for commercial use. Feedback carburetion compared to non-feedback carburetion improved highway fuel economy by about 0.4 km/l (1 mpg) and reduced deterioration of NOx with mileage accumulation. NOx emissions were higher with the low H/C fuel in the three way catalyst system; feedback reduced the fuel effect on NOx in these cars by improving conversion efficiency with the low H/C fuel. Feedback had no measureable effect on HC and CO catalyst efficiency. Hydrocarbon emissions were lower with the low H/C fuel in all cars. Unleaded gasoline octane improver, MMT, at 0.015g Mn/l (0.06 g/gal) increased tailpipe hydrocarbon emissions by 0.05 g/km (0.08 g/mile).

A study was conducted using Ford's nine standard CFD calibration models as described in SAE paper 940323. The models are identical from the B-pillar forward but have different back end configurations. These models were created for the purpose of evaluating the effect of back end geometry variations on aerodynamic lift and drag. Detailed experimental data is available for each model in the form of surface pressure data, surface flow visualization, and wake flow field measurements in addition to aerodynamic lift and drag values. This data is extremely useful in analyzing the accuracy of the numerical simulations. The objective of this study was to determine the capability of a digital physics based commercial CFD code, PowerFLOW ® to accurately simulate the physics of the flow field around the car-like benchmark shapes.

Combustion in modern spark-ignition (SI) engines is increasingly knock-limited with the wide adoption of downsizing and turbocharging technologies. Fuel autoignition conditions are different in these engines compared to the standard Research Octane Number (RON) and Motor Octane Numbers (MON) tests. The Octane Index, OI = RON - K(RON-MON), has been proposed as a means to characterize the actual fuel anti-knock performance in modern engines. The K-factor, by definition equal to 0 and 1 for the RON and MON tests respectively, is intended to characterize the deviation of modern engine operation from these standard octane tests. Accurate knowledge of K is of central importance to the OI model; however, a single method for determining K has not been well accepted in the literature.

In a recent study, quantitative measurements were presented of in-cylinder spatial distributions of mixture equivalence ratio in a single-cylinder light-duty optical diesel engine, operated with a non-reactive mixture at conditions similar to an early injection low-temperature combustion mode. In the experiments a planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF) methodology was used to obtain local mixture equivalence ratio values based on a diesel fuel surrogate (75% n-heptane, 25% iso-octane), with a small fraction of toluene as fluorescing tracer (0.5% by mass). Significant changes in the mixture's structure and composition at the walls were observed due to increased charge motion at high swirl and injection pressure levels. This suggested a non-negligible impact on wall heat transfer and, ultimately, on efficiency and engine-out emissions.

A method of predicting brake specific fuel consumption characteristics from limited specifications of engine design has been investigated. For spark ignition engines operating on homogeneous mixtures, indicated specific fuel consumption based on gross indicated power is related to compression ratio and spark timing relative to optimum values. The influence of burn rate is approximately accounted for by the differences in spark timings required to correctly phase combustion. Data from engines of contemporary design shows that indicated specific fuel consumption can be defined as a generic function of relative spark timing, mixture air/fuel ratio and exhaust gas recirculation rate. The additional information required to generate brake specific performance maps is cylinder volumetric efficiency, rubbing friction, auxiliary loads, and exhaust back pressure characteristics.

The oil distribution system of an automotive light duty engine typically has an oil pump mechanically driven through the front-endancillaries-drive or directly off the crankshaft. Delivery pressure is regulated by a relief valve to provide an oil gallery pressure of typically 3 to 4 bar absolute at fully-warm engine running conditions. Electrification of the oil pump drive is one way to decouple pump delivery from engine speed, but this does not alter the flow distribution between parts of the engine requiring lubrication. Here, the behaviour and benefits of a system with an electrically driven, fixed displacement pump and a distributor providing control over flow to crankshaft main bearings and big end bearings is examined. The aim has been to demonstrate that by controlling flow to these bearings, without changing flow to other parts of the engine, significant reductions in engine friction can be achieved.

In order to improve fuel economy, engine manufacturers are investigating various technologies that reduce pumping work in spark ignition engines. Current cylinder pressure analysis methods do not allow valid comparison of pumping work reduction strategies. Existing methods neglect valve timing effects which occur during the expansion and compression strokes, but are actually part of the gas exchange process. These additional pumping work contributions become more significant when evaluating non-standard valve timing concepts. This paper outlines a new analysis method for calculating the pumping work and indicated work of a 4-stroke internal combustion engine. Corrections to PMEP and IMEP are introduced which allow the valid comparison of pumping work and indicated efficiency between engines with different pumping work reduction strategies.

There is keen interest in understanding the origins of engine-out unburned hydrocarbons emitted during SI engine cold start. This is especially true for the first few firing cycles, which can contribute disproportionately to the total emissions measured over standard drive cycles such as the US Federal Test Procedure (FTP). This study reports on the development of a novel methodology for capturing and quantifying unburned hydrocarbon emissions (HC), CO, and CO2 on a cycle-by-cycle basis during an engine cold start. The method was demonstrated by applying it to a 4 cylinder 2 liter GTDI (Gasoline Turbocharged Direct Injection) engine for cold start conditions at an ambient temperature of 22°C. For this technique, the entirety of the engine exhaust gas was captured for a predetermined number of firing cycles.

Transmission system models require a high level of fidelity and details in order to capture the transient behaviors in drivability and fuel economy simulations. Due to model fidelity, manufacturing tolerances, frictional losses and other noise sources, parametrization and tuning of a large number of parameters in the plant model is very challenging and time consuming. In this paper, we used particle swarm optimization as the key algorithm to fast correlate the open-loop performance of an automatic transmission system plant model to vehicle launch and coast down test data using vehicle control inputs. During normal operations, the model correlated well with test data. For error states, due to the lack of model fidelity, the model cannot reproduce the same error state quantitatively, but provided a valuable methodology for qualitatively identifying error states at the early stages.

The effect of coupling chassis dynamometer rolls (front to rear) on city and highway fuel economy and emissions was investigated. A representative fleet of ten Ford certification vehicles (five passenger cars and five trucks) was tested in coupled and uncoupled roll configurations. Testing was conducted on a Clayton CTE-50 dynamometer with a hydrokinetic power absorption unit (P.A.U.) which was calibrated at a single point (50 mph). It was found that emission levels increased significantly (95% confidence level) for all constituents except city-NOx, which demonstrated mixed results. Observed fuel economy was reduced for both city and highway (3.6% and 4.0%, respectively, for a combined Metro/Highway (M/H) reduction of 3.8%) when the rolls were coupled.

Plug in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) have gained interest over last decade due to their increased fuel economy and ability to displace some petroleum fuel with electricity from power grid. Given the complexity of this vehicle powertrain, the energy management plays a key role in providing higher fuel economy. The energy management algorithm on PHEVs performs the same task as a hybrid vehicle energy management but it has more freedom in utilizing the battery energy due to the larger battery capacity and ability to be recharged from the power grid. The state of charge (SOC) profile of the battery during the entire driving trip determines the electric energy usage, thus determining overall fuel consumption.

IC engines have been the dominant automotive powertrain in the 20th century because of their advantages in power density, thermal efficiency, simplicity, durability and mobility. Condensing 100 years of information on automotive engine system technology evolution shows five different development stages: “bone and muscle”, “instinct”, “nerve and brain”, “intelligence”, and “system optimization”. Currently, the last step is facing the pressure of the “clean revolution” plus the “e-commerce revolution”. To meet future emission requirements and reduce CO2 emissions, the conventional engine system will be pushed to new physical limits, leading to higher cost and reduced durability. Therefore, the automobile industry should consider re-engineering or system optimization of the engines, including configuring the system architecture to be as transparent as possible to suit the fast changing environment of e-commerce.

In light-duty direct-injection (DI) diesel engines, combustion chamber geometry influences the complex interactions between swirl and squish flows, spray-wall interactions, as well as late-cycle mixing. Because of these interactions, piston bowl geometry significantly affects fuel efficiency and emissions behavior. However, due to lack of reliable in-cylinder measurements, the mechanisms responsible for piston-induced changes in engine behavior are not well understood. Non-intrusive, in situ optical measurement techniques are necessary to provide a deeper understanding of the piston geometry effect on in-cylinder processes and to assist in the development of predictive engine simulation models. This study compares two substantially different piston bowls with geometries representative of existing technology: a conventional re-entrant bowl and a stepped-lip bowl. Both pistons are tested in a single-cylinder optical diesel engine under identical boundary conditions.

An integral part of combustion system development for previous NA gasoline engines was the optimization of charge motion towards the best compromise in terms of full load performance, part load stability, emissions and, last but not least, fuel economy. This optimum balance may potentially be different in GTDI engines. While it is generally accepted that an increased charge motion level improves the mixture preparation in direct injection gasoline engines, the tradeoff in terms of performance seems to become less dominant as the boosting systems of modern engines are typically capable enough to compensate the flow losses generated by the more restrictive ports. Nevertheless, the increased boost level does not come free; increased charge motion generates higher pumping- and wall heat losses. Hence it is questionable and engine dependent, whether more charge motion is always better.

Samples of Mars surface material will return to Earth in 2014. Prior to curation and distribution to the scientific community the returned samples will be isolated in a special facility until their biological safety has been assessed following protocols established by NASA’s Planetary Protection Office. The primary requirements for the pre-release handling of the Martian samples include protecting the samples from the Earth and protecting the Earth from the sample. A testbed will be established to support the design of such a facility and to test the planetary protection protocols. One design option that is being compared to the conventional Biological Safety Level 4 facility is a double walled differential pressure chamber with airlocks and automated equipment for analyzing samples and transferring them from one instrument to another.

The Variable Displacement Supercharger (VDS) is a twin helical screw style compressor that has a feature to change its displacement and its compression ratio actively during vehicle operation. This device can reduce the parasitic losses associated with supercharging and improve the relative fuel economy of a supercharged engine. Supercharging is a boosting choice with several advantages over turbocharging. There is fast pressure delivery to the engine intake manifold for fast engine torque response providing the fun to drive feel. The performance delivered by a supercharger can enable engine fuel economy actions to include engine downsizing and downspeeding. The cost and difficulty of engineering hot exhaust components is eliminated when using only an air side compressor. Faster catalyst warm up can be achieved when not warming the turbine housing of a turbocharger.

Dual fuel injection systems, like PFI+DI (port fuel injection + direct injection system) are being increasingly used in gasoline engine applications to increase the engine performance, fuel efficiency and reduce emissions. At a given engine operating condition, the air/fuel error is a function of the fraction of fuel injected by each of the fuel systems. If the fraction of fuel from each of the fuel system is changed at a given operating condition, the fuel system error will change as well making it challenging to learn the fuel system errors. This paper aims at describing the adaptive fueling control algorithm to estimate the fuel error contribution from each individual fuel system. Considering the fuel injection system slope errors to be the significant cause for air-fuel errors, a model structure was developed to calculate the fuel system adaptive correction factor as a function of changing fraction of fueling between the fuel systems.

The pre EGR valve pressure is an important measurement for the Diesel engine air handling system. It is commonly used for the EGR flow calculation during engine transient operation. Due to the erosive exhaust gas, an EGR pressure sensor will eventually have gold corrosion resulting in drive-ability issues. Therefore, a software replacement for the EGR pressure sensor is desirable. However, when the EGR valve is on the cold side of the EGR cooler, the accuracy of the EGR pressure estimation deteriorates because of the variability of the pressure drop across the EGR cooler due to EGR cooler fouling. In this paper, an adaptive scheme is developed to improve the accuracy of pre EGR valve pressure estimation in the presence of EGR cooler fouling for diesel engines. The pressure drop across the EGR cooler is shown to be proportional to the velocity pressure of the EGR flow through the cooler.

Conventional cruise control systems in automotive applications are usually designed to maintain the constant speed of the vehicle based on the desired set-point. It has been shown that fuel economy while in cruise control can be improved using advanced control methods namely adopting the Model Predictive Control (MPC) technology utilizing the road grade preview information and allowance of the vehicle speed variation. This paper is focused on the extension of the Adaptive Nonlinear Model Predictive Controller (ANLMPC) reported earlier by application to the trailer tow use-case. As the connected trailer changes the aerodynamic drag and the overall vehicle mass, it may lead to the undesired downshifts for the conventional cruise controller introducing the fuel economy losses. In this work, the ANLMPC concept is extended to avoid downshifts by translating the downshift conditions to the constraints of the underlying optimization problem to be solved.