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The present article is concerned with the investigation of the engine noise induced by the piston slap of an actual passenger car Diesel engine. The focus is put on the coherence of piston secondary movement, impact of the piston on the cylinder liner, generated structure-borne noise excitation of the engine structure and the occurring acceleration on the engine surface. Additionally, the influence of a varying piston-pin offset and piston clearance is evaluated. The analyses are conducted using an elastohydrodynamic multi-body simulation model, taking into account geometry, stiffness and mass information of the single components as well as considering elastic and hydrodynamic behavior of the piston-liner contact. A detailed description of the simulation model will be introduced in the article. The obtained results illustrate the piston secondary motion and the related structure-borne noise on the engine surface for several piston-pin offsets and piston clearances.

To get an overview of the emission situation in the field of small non-road mobile machinery powered by various types of SI engines, the Association for Emissions Control by Catalyst (AECC), together with the Institute for Internal Combustion Engines and Thermodynamics (IVT) of Graz University of Technology, conducted a customized test program. The main goal for this campaign was to derive information regarding the emissions of regulated gaseous components (following European Directive 97/68/EC) as well as particulate matter. With regard to the big variety of different engines that are available on the European and North-American market, the most representative ones had to be chosen. This resulted in a pool of test devices to cover different engine working principles (2-Stroke and 4-Stroke), technological standards (low-cost and professional tools) and different emissions control strategies (advanced combustion and exhaust gas aftertreatment).

The absence of combustion engine noise pushes increasingly attention to the sound generation from other, even much weaker, sources in the acoustic design of electric vehicles. The present work focusses on the numerical computation of flow induced noise, typically emerging in components of flow guiding devices in electro-mobile applications. The method of Large-Eddy Simulation (LES) represents a powerful technique for capturing most part of the turbulent fluctuating motion, which qualifies this approach as a highly reliable candidate for providing a sufficiently accurate level of description of the flow induced generation of sound. Considering the generic test configuration of turbulent pipe flow, the present study investigates in particular the scope and the limits of incompressible Large-Eddy Simulation in predicting the evolution of turbulent sound sources to be supplied as source terms into the acoustic analogy of Lighthill.

High-pressure direct injection (HPDI) of natural gas into the combustion chamber enables a non-premixed combustion regime known from diesel engines. Since knocking combustion cannot occur with this combustion process, an increase in the compression ratio and thus efficiency is possible. Due to the high injection pressures required, this concept is ideally suited to applications where liquefied natural gas (LNG) is available. In marine applications, the bunkering of and operation with LNG is state-of-the-art. Existing HPDI gas combustion concepts typically use a small amount of diesel fuel for ignition, which is injected late in the compression stroke. The diesel fuel ignites due to the high temperature of the cylinder charge. The subsequently injected gas ignites at the diesel flame. The HPDI gas combustion concept presented in this paper is of a monovalent type, meaning that no fuel other than natural gas is used.

Creep groan is an annoying brake noise at very low speeds of the vehicle. In general, stick-slip between brake disk and brake pads is believed to be the most dominating vibration mechanism of creep groan phenomena. This paper will show by sophisticated measurement techniques that stick-slip and speed-dependent friction is an important trigger. However, the overall vibration is much more complex than stick-slip reproduced by simple conveying belt minimal models. It turns out that in typical brake systems of passenger cars, creep groan appears from 15 to 25 Hz as well as 60 to 100 Hz. The mechanism from 15 to 25 Hz is highly impulsive and “hard”. Transitions between stick and slip phases trigger coupled nonlinear vibrations of the complete brake and suspension system. From 60 to 100 Hz, the vibrations show a more harmonic-like and “soft” signature, caused mainly by a speed-dependent friction behavior.

High performance engines are used in many different powersports applications. In several of these applications 2-stroke engines play an important role. The direct injection technology is a key technology for 2-stroke engines to fulfill both the customers’ request for high power and the environmental requirements concerning emissions and efficiency. As the load spectrum differs from one application to the other, it was interesting to find out if different injection technologies can answer the needs for different applications more efficiently regarding performance but also economic targets. Therefore, the results of the BRP Rotax 600 cm3 E-TEC (direct injection system) engine are compared to the same base engine but adopted with the LPDI (low pressure direct injection) technology developed by IVT at Graz University of Technology. The systems were compared on the engine testbench over 17 rpm / load points representing different product usage profiles.

In a variety of applications, two-stroke engines assert their usage as a propulsion unit, for examples in off-road vehicles, scooters, hand-held power tools and others. The outstanding power to weight ratio is the key advantage for two-stroke engines. Furthermore, two-stroke engines convince with high durability and low maintenance demand. However, an increasing environmental awareness, the protection of health and the shortage of fossil resources are the driving factors to further enhance the internal combustion process of two-stroke engines. The reduction of emissions and fuel consumption with a constant power level is focused on. Developments deal with the optimization of the combustion process itself or the enhancement of the exhaust gas aftertreatment. Especially in very small two-stroke engines an exhaust gas aftertreatment system is rarely applied, due to disadvantages regarding component temperatures and product costs.

The production of electric vehicles (EVs) has a significant environmental impact, with up to 50 % of their lifetime greenhouse gas potential attributed to manufacturing processes. The use of sustainable materials in EV design is therefore crucial for reducing their overall carbon footprint. Wood laminates have emerged as a promising alternative due to their renewable nature. Additionally, wood-based materials offer unique damping properties that can contribute to improved Noise, Vibration, and Harshness (NVH) characteristics. In comparison to conventional materials such as aluminum, ply wood structures exhibit beneficial damping properties. The loss factor of plywood structures with a thickness below 20 mm ranges from 0.013 to 0.032. Comparable aluminum structures however exhibit only a fraction of this loss factor with a range between 0.002 and 0.005.

Dual Fuel concepts are of interest from different perspectives: use of available fuel, independence of supplier, emission reduction and energy costs. This article presents the results of experimental work investigating the possible combination and functional effects of gasoline and diesel fuels. The test bed setup for a single cylinder research engine with a displacement of 2 liters allows gasoline to be added by external mixture formation and combustion to be started by diesel pilot injection. The goal is to reduce the engine out pollutant emissions, while keeping the efficiency at a level comparable to a modern diesel engine. The main focus is on reducing soot and nitric oxide emissions. The charge composition of gasoline is homogenous, so the combustion system can also be seen as a partial or fully homogenous combustion concept, depending on the ignition timing and the ignition delay of the diesel fuel.

Brake squeal is an elusive problem which has been the subject of investigation for many decades, but there is still a lack of knowledge regarding the excitation mechanisms. New vehicle solutions, for instance the electrical vehicle, will have a lower general noise level. Thus, silent brake systems will gain in importance. To obtain such systems, in-depth investigations of the brake disc/pad contact are required. For these investigations a new sensor has been developed. The guide pins of the caliper are replaced by modified ones which measure the friction force. Additionally, eddy current sensors are installed for contact-free measurement of the pad movement. Furthermore, triaxial acceleration sensors are mounted in the disc vents. Thus, it is possible to evaluate the operational deflection shapes of the disc. Next, an extensive sensibility analysis is performed. Parameters such as environmental conditions, friction coefficient and many others are thereby changed.

The continuously decreasing emission limits lead to a growing importance of exhaust aftertreatment in Diesel engines. Hence, methods for achieving a rapid catalyst light-off after engine cold start and for maintaining the catalyst temperature during low load operation will become more and more necessary. The present work evaluates several valve timing strategies concerning their ability for doing so. For this purpose, simulations as well as experimental investigations were conducted. A special focus of simulation was on pointing out the relevance of exhaust temperature, mass flow and enthalpy for these thermomanagement tasks. An increase of exhaust temperature is beneficial for both catalyst heat-up and maintaining catalyst temperature. In case of the exhaust mass flow, high values are advantageous only in case of a catalyst heat-up process, while maintaining catalyst temperature is supported by a low mass flow.

The objective of this experimental investigation was to analyze the effect of various exhaust gas aftertreatment technologies on particulate number emissions (PN) of an MPFI EU5 motorcycle. Specifically, three different aftertreatment strategies were compared, including a three-way-catalyst (TWC) with LS structure as the baseline, a hybrid catalyst with a wire mesh filter, and an optimized gasoline particulate filter (GPF) with three-way catalytic coating. Experimental investigations using the standard test cycle WMTC performed on a two-wheeler chassis dynamometer, while the inhouse particulate sampling system was utilized to gather information about size-dependent filtering efficiency, storage, and combustion of nanoparticles. The particulate sampling and measuring system consist of three condensation particle counters (CPCs) calibrated to three different size classes (SPN4, SPN10, SPN23).

Increasing demands on automotive comfort as well as diminishing vehicle noise levels draw new attention towards low-frequency vibration and noise issues of disk brake systems such as creep groan and moan. In view of this problem, the experimental investigation of relevant phenomena is within the scope of this article. The related experiments concerning two different setups have been performed at a drum driven suspension and brake test rig. Both assemblies consisted of a front axle corner including all parts of the integrated brake system. In order to gain understanding of characteristic triggering mechanisms and fundamental subsystem interactions, and moreover, to verify the suitability of modal methods for simulative evaluations of creep groan or moan, specifically elaborated Operating Deflection Shape (ODS) techniques have been applied. Via analyses of four different creep groan emergences, global stick-slip cycles between disk and pads are revealed.

In order to fulfill future regulations regarding emissions and CO2 reduction, the small engine market inclines to migrate from carburetor systems to cleaner, more efficient electronic ignition controls and electronic fuel injection systems. When implementing such mechatronic systems in small engine applications, one has to consider specific boundary conditions like the lack of relevant sensors, limited possibilities in terms of space and of course the necessity to keep the costs as low as possible. Especially in the non-road mobile machinery (NRMM) segment, the absence of sensors makes it difficult to apply standard electronic control systems, which are based on engine related input signals provided by sensors. One engine related signal, which is even provided by the simplest engine setup, is some form of the crankshaft speed since it is essential for the functionality of the engine.

Experimental researches on brake squeal have been performed since many years in order to get an insight into friction-excited vibrations and squeal triggering mechanisms. There are many different possibilities to analyse brake squeal. The different operating deflection shapes can be detected using e.g. laser vibrometer systems or acceleration sensors. Piezoelectric load cells can be used for the measurement of the normal contact force of the brake pad. The presented test setup measures not only the mean value of the friction force between brake pad and disc at a certain brake pressure, but also the superposed vibration of this force, which only occurs during a squeal event. Therefore the guide pins of the brake caliper are replaced by modified ones. The brake pads are held in position by these pins and the resulting force of the brake torque, hence the friction force, acts on these pins. The shape of the pins is optimized for measuring these forces.

Due to climatic movements and politics, there is no doubt that a stricter emission legislation will soon face the two-wheeler sector and their manufacturers with new challenges. Additional to the already limited pollutants, a limitation of particulate number will probably also be introduced, which means that there is an urgent need for action in exhaust gas after treatment and particulate reduction systems. For natural aspirated, port injected engines, as used in two-wheeler-technologies, conventional systems already established in passenger cars are not necessarily applicable. Moreover, the emission spectrum is fundamentally different from passenger car engines due to the better homogenization of they typically used MPFI engine types. Adapting conventional particulate filter technologies to the finer particles of MPFI engines would result in a disproportionately larger exhaust backpressure.

As alternative to electrification or carbon free fuels such as hydrogen, CO2-neutral fuels have been researched aiming to decrease the impact of fossil energy sources on the environment. Despite the potential benefit of capturing CO2 emission after combustion for own fuel production, the so-called eFuels also benefit by using a green source of energy during their fabrication. Among all the possibilities for eFuels, alcohols, ethers (such as MTBE and ETBE) and alternative hydrocarbons have shown positive impacts regarding emission reduction and performance when compared to standard gasoline. Previously in [1] and [2], synthetic fuels and methanol blends were tested at steady state conditions in order to verify advantages and drawbacks relative to gasoline, for power-sport motorcycles.

Charge dilution in gasoline engines reduces NOx emissions and wall heat losses by the lower combustion temperature. Furthermore, under part load conditions de-throttling allows the reduction of pumping losses and thus higher engine efficiency. In contrast to lean burn, charge dilution by exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) under stoichiometric combustion conditions enables the use of an effective three-way catalyst. A pre-chamber spark plug with hot surface-assisted spark ignition (HSASI) was developed at the UAS Karlsruhe to overcome the drawbacks of charge dilution, especially under part load or cold start conditions, such as inhibited ignition and slow flame speed, and to even enable a further increase of the dilution rate. The influence of the HSASI pre-chamber spark plug on the heat release under EGR dilution and stoichiometric conditions was investigated on a single-cylinder gasoline engine.

Small displacement two-stroke engines are cheap and low-maintenance propulsion systems and commonly used in scooters, recreation vehicles and handheld power-tools. The restriction by emission legislation and the increasing environmental awareness of end users as well as decreasing energy resources cause a rethinking in the development of propulsion systems and fuels in these fields. Despite recent improvements of electric powertrains, two stroke engines are the challenged propulsion system in high performance handheld power tools at the moment. The reasons are the extraordinary high power to weight ratio of two-stroke engines, the high energy density of liquid fuels and the reliability of the product with respect to extreme ambient conditions. Nevertheless, further improvements on emissions and fuel consumption of small displacement two-stroke engines can be realized.

In the course of the last few years a continuous increase of the injection pressure level of gasoline direct injection systems appeared. Today's systems use an injection pressure up to 200bar and the trend shows a further increase for the future. Although several benefits go along with the increased injection pressure, the disadvantages such as higher system costs and higher energy demand lead to the question of the lowest acceptable injection pressure level for low cost GDI combustion systems. Lowering injection pressure and costs could enable the technological upgrading from MPFI to GDI in smaller engine segments, which would lead to a reduction of CO2 emission. This publication covers the investigation of a low pressure GDI system (LPDI) with focus on small and low cost GDI engines. The influence of the injection pressure on the fuel consumption and emission behavior was investigated using a 1.4l series production engine.