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An overview is given on the state of the art of a new catalytic exhaust gas aftertreatment device for diesel engines. The function of a precious metal based, flow-through type diesel oxidation catalyst is explained. Much attention is paid to the durability of the diesel oxidation catalyst and especially to the influence of poisoning elements on the catalytic activity. Detailed data on the interaction of poisoning elements such as sulfur, zinc and phosphorus with the catalytic active sites are given. Finally it is demonstrated that it is possible to meet the stringent emission standards for diesel passenger cars in Europe with a new catalyst generation over 80.000 km AMA aging.

Increasingly stringent tailpipe emissions regulations have prompted renewed interest in catalyst heating technology – where an integrated device supplies supplemental heat to accelerate catalyst ‘light-off’. Bosch and Boysen, following a collaborative multi-year effort, have developed a Rapid Catalyst Heating System (RCH) for gasoline-fueled applications. The RCH system provides upwards of 25 kW of thermal power, greatly enhancing catalyst performance and robustness. Additional benefits include reduction of precious metal loading (versus a ‘PGM-only’ approach) and avoidance of near-engine catalyst placement (limiting the need for enrichment strategies). The following paper provides a technical overview of the Bosch/Boysen (BOB) Rapid Catalyst Heating system – including a detailed review of the system’s architecture, key performance characteristics, and the associated impact on vehicle-level emissions.

The California LEV1 II program will be introduced in the year 2003 and requires a further reduction of the exhaust emissions of passenger cars. The cold start emissions represent the main part of the total emissions of the FTP2-Cycle. Cold start emissions can be efficiently reduced by injecting secondary air (SA) in the exhaust port making compliance with the most stringent standards possible. The thermochemical conditions (mixing rate and temperature of secondary air and exhaust gas, exhaust gas composition, etc) prevailing in the exhaust system are described in this paper. This provides knowledge of the conditions for auto ignition of the mixture within the exhaust manifold. The thus established exothermal reaction (exhaust gas post-combustion) results in a shorter time to light-off temperature of the catalyst. The mechanisms of this combustion are studied at different engine idle conditions.

The present paper concentrates on the option of catalytic autothermal reforming of gasoline for fuel cell applications. Major parameters of this process are the “Steam to Carbon Ratio” S/C and the air to fuel ratio λ. Computations assuming thermodynamic equilibrium in the autothermal reactor outlet (ATR) were carried out to attain information about their proper choice, as failure in adjusting the parameters within narrow limits has severe consequences on the reforming process. In order to quantify velocity distribution just ahead the catalyst and to evaluate mixing uniformity we designed an ATR featuring an optical access: Thus flow visualization using PIV (Particle Image Velocimetry) and LIF (Laser Induced Fluorescence) technique is possible. Preliminary PIV-results are presented and compared with CFD computations (Computational Fluid D ynamics).

Due to the introduction of new safety and comfort systems in modern automobiles, stability of the vehicle electrical system is increasingly important. The increasing number of electrical components demands that additional electrical energy be provided from robust, reliable supply sources in vehicles. When designing such systems, simulation is the development tool that is used to quickly obtain information regarding electrical system stability, battery charge level, and the distribution of power to the consumer systems. This paper describes how the Saber simulation environment from Synopsys Corporation helps develop increasingly demanding and complex vehicle power systems. A Volkswagen vehicle power net serves as an illustration.

The worldwide stricter emission legislation and growing demands for lower fuel consumption require for significant efforts to improve combustion efficiency while satisfying the emission quality demands. Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) on gasoline engines provides a particularly promising and, at the same time, challenging approach, especially regarding the combustion mode switch between spark-ignited (SI) and gasoline HCCI mode and vice-versa. Naturally aspirated (n.a.) HCCI shows considerable potential, but the operation range is air breathing limited due to hot residuals required for auto-ignition and to slow down reaction kinetics. Therefore it is limited to part-load operation. Considering the future gasoline engine market with growing potentials identified on downsized gasoline engines, it is imperative to investigate the synergies and challenges of boosted HCCI.

The selective catalytic reduction (SCR) based on urea-water-solution is an effective technique to reduce nitrogen oxides (NOx) emitted from diesel engines. A 3D numerical computer model of the injection of urea-water-solution and their interaction with the exhaust gas flow and exhaust tubing is developed to evaluate different configurations during the development process of such a DeNOx-system. The model accounts for all relevant processes appearing from the injection point to the entrance of the SCR-catalyst: momentum interaction between gas phase and droplets evaporation and thermolysis of droplets hydrolysis of isocyanic acid in gas phase heat transfer between wall and droplets spray/wall-interaction two-component wall film including interaction with gas phase and exhaust tube The single modeling steps are verified with visualizations, patternator measurements, phase-doppler-anemometer results and temperature measurements.

The new aerial communication protocol “Controller Area Network” (CAN) efficiently supports distributed realtime control in automotive applications. In order to unload CPUs from high-speed message transfer, dedicated CAN hardware handles messages up to the communication object level. In multiplex wiring message rates are one to two orders of magnitude lower, allowing to implement the upper communication level more cost-effectively in software. This reduces CAN interface hardware to bitwise protocol handling only. It may be incorporated even into low-end microcontrollers without significantly increasing chip size. Thus the same CAN protocol supports the entire range of serial automotive communication, matching implementation costs to requirements at each performance level.

With its origin in the process industry, the IEC 61508 „Functional safety of electrical/electronic/programmable electronic safety-related systems” is not fully applicable in the automotive industry, forcing the automotive industry to work on an automotive specific adaptation (ISO 26262 “Functional Safety – Road Vehicles”). This ISO 26262 describes an ideal development process that starts from scratch. In reality development activities are often split locally and in time. This can only be handled with a world wide standard as a basis of a common approach, wide enough to give enough freedom to adapt to diverse boundary conditions, but tight enough to hinder local interpretations to be that far, that a complete safety case becomes impossible. Therefore a strict world-wide standard which allows compatible interpretations is mandatory.

Until now, the use of biometric systems has not been in the public eye. The high cost of sensors and processing has meant that biometrics was previously restricted to high security access, financial transaction and law enforcement applications. However, as a result of improvements in technology, biometric sensor price and reliability have achieved levels where biometrics is being seriously considered for automotive systems. This paper introduces the field of biometrics, the key terms and processes. Fingerprint Technology and Identification by Fingerprint are discussed, as are the use and applicability of biometrics in automotive applications, including Personal Profiling, Keyless Engine Start and vehicle access authorization. The key findings of investigations over the last years are discussed.

Bosch Automotive Semiconductor Unit investigated destroyed semiconductor devices (ASIC) from electronic control unit complaints, which failed due to electrical overstress. It turned out that failure fingerprints could only be reproduced by semiconductor operation far beyond spec limits. One main failure mechanism is caused by hot plugging and bad or late ground connection. In today’s cars some applications are still active for minutes after ignition switch off. So, currents of several amps are delivered and in a typical production or garage environment, hot plugging cannot be avoided completely. Bosch suggests introducing extended ground pins to get an enforced switch on/off sequence during plugging. This poka yoke protection principle is successfully used in other industries for a long time and should now come into cars.

The continuing increase in the performance of restraint systems has led to a drastic increase in the number of actuator devices. The individual wiring of the igniters becomes more and more problematic through the accompanied large number of plug connections and cables. Along with demands for weight and volume reduction, there are requirements for EMI and short circuit protection to eliminate erroneous deployment and misuse. As a solution, a new multi-protocol dual wire bus system is described that has the capability to supply energy and address multiple peripheral output stages to simultaneously fire any combination of actuators.

Several different possibilities will be described and discussed on the processes of reducing NOx in lean-burn gasoline and diesel engines. In-company studies were conducted on zeolitic catalysts. With lean-burn spark-ignition engines, hydrocarbons in the exhaust gas act as a reducing agent. In stationary conditions at λ = 1.2, NOx conversion rates of approx. 45 % were achieved. With diesel engines, the only promising variant is SCR technology using urea as a reducing agent. The remaining problems are still the low space velocity and the narrow temperature window of the catalyst. The production of reaction products and secondary reactions of urea with other components in the diesel exhaust gas are still unclarified.

The regulations for mobile applications will become stricter in Euro 6 and further emission levels and require the use of active aftertreatment methods for NOX and particulate matter. SCR and LNT have been both used commercially for mobile NOX removal. An alternative system is based on the combination of these two technologies. Developments of catalysts and whole systems as well as final vehicle demonstrations are discussed in this study. The small and full-size catalyst development experiments resulted in PtRh/LNT with optimized noble metal loadings and Cu-SCR catalyst having a high durability and ammonia adsorption capacity. For this study, an aftertreatment system consisting of LNT plus exhaust bypass, passive SCR and engine independent reductant supply by on-board exhaust fuel reforming was developed and investigated. The concept definition considers NOX conversion, CO2 drawback and system complexity.

The study presented in this paper focuses on measures to minimize exhaust gas emissions to meet SULEV targets on a V6 engine by using a cost efficient system configuration. The study consists of three parts. A) In the first stage, the influence of engine management both on raw emissions and catalyst light off performance was optimized. B) Afterwards, the predefined high cell density catalyst system was tested on an engine test bench. In this stage, thermal data and engine out emissions were used for modeling and prediction of light-off performance for further optimized catalyst concepts. C) In the final stage of the program, the emission performance of the test matrix, including high cell density as well as multifunctional single substrate systems, are studied during the FTP cycle. The presented results show the approach to achieve SULEV emission compliance with innovative engine control strategies in combination with a cost effective metallic catalyst design.

In order to master the increasing complexity of electrical/electronic (E/E) systems in vehicles, E/E architecture design has become an established discipline. The task of the E/E architecture design is to come up with solutions to challenging and often contradictory requirements such as reduced cost and increased flexibility / scalability. One way to optimize the E/E architecture in terms of cost (electronics & wiring harness) is to integrate functions. This can be done by either combining functions from multiple ECUs into a single ECU or by introducing Domain Control Units. Domain Control Units provide the main software functionality for a vehicle domain, while relegating the basic functions of actuator control to connected intelligent actuators. Depending on the different market segments (low price, volume and premium) and the different vehicle domains, the actual usage of Domain Control Units can be quite different and sometimes questionable.

Dynamic route guidance is a main feature when discussing traffic telematics systems. At the present time, several system concepts are in the development or implementation stage. The key elements of dynamic route guidance systems are illustrated in the following. Two approaches could be used when designing the system architecture: 1. Centralized routing in traffic information centers combined with on-board terminals. 2. Mobile routing by on-board navigation units which use information received from traffic information centers. The different approaches are presented in this paper. The influences on component design and the effects on communication needs are discussed. This leads to the “hybrid” system architecture which is presented including implementation examples.

Meeting current exhaust emission standards requires rapid catalyst light-off. Closed-coupled catalysts are commonly used to reduce light-off time by minimizing exhaust heat loss between the engine and catalyst. However, this exhaust gas system design leads to a coupling of catalyst heating and engine operation. An engine-independent exhaust gas aftertreatment can be realized by combining a burner heated catalyst system (BHC) with an underfloor catalyst located far away from the engine. This paper describes some basic characteristics of such a BHC system and the results of fitting this system into a Volkswagen Touareg where a single catalyst was located about 1.8 m downstream of the engine. Nevertheless, it was possible to reach about 50% of the current European emission standard EU 4 without additional fuel consumption caused by the BHC system.

For substantial reduction of fuel consumption of their vehicle fleet, Volkswagen AG has decided to develop spark-ignition engines with direct fuel injection. To launch this new engine concept with stratified lean operation mode while at the same time meeting the stringent EU IV emission standards, it was necessary to develop a suitable exhaust gas aftertreatment system. This was achieved as part of an intensive co-operation between Volkswagen AG and OMG, formerly dmc2 Degussa Metals Catalysts Cerdec AG. The paper describes the demands for exhaust gas aftertreatment due to lean burn operation. In addition the main development steps of the exhaust gas aftertreatment system for Volkswagen FSI engines and catalyst durability over vehicle lifetime are discussed. Focus is laid on the catalyst system design and coating variations. Volkswagen developed a new closed-loop emission control management system which uses NOx-sensor signals for the first time worldwide.

A uniform flow distribution at converter inlet is one of the fundamental requirements to meet high catalytic efficiency. Commonly used tools for optimization of the inlet flow distribution are flow measurements as well as CFD analysis. This paper puts emphasis on the experimental procedures and results. The interaction of flow measurements and CFD is outlined. The exhaust gas flow is transient, compressible and hot, making in-situ flow measurements very complex. On the other hand, to utilize the advantages of flow testing at steady-state and cold conditions the significance of these results has to be verified first. CFD analysis under different boundary conditions prove that - in a first approach - the flow situation can be regarded as a sequence of successive, steady-state situations. Using the Reynolds analogy a formula for the steady-state, cold test mass flow is derived, taking into account the cylinder displacement and the rated speed.