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A dimensionless relationship that estimates the maximum bearing load of a 4-cylinder 4-stroke in-line engine has been found. This relationship may assist the design engineer in choosing a desired counterweight mass. It has been demonstrated that: 1) the average bearing load increases with engine speed and 2) the maximum bearing load initially decreases with engine speed, reaches a minimum, then increases quickly with engine speed. This minimum refers to a transition speed at which the contribution of the inertia force overcomes the contribution of the maximum pressure force to the maximum bearing load. The transition speed increases with an increase of counterweight mass and is a function of maximum cylinder pressure and the operating parameters of the engine.

The use of virtual prototyping early in the design stage of a product has gained popularity due to reduced cost and time to market. The state of the art in vehicle simulation has reached a level where full vehicles are analyzed through simulation but major difficulties continue to be present in interfacing the vehicle model with accurate powertrain models and in developing adequate formulations for the contact between tire and terrain (specifically, scenarios such as tire sliding on ice and rolling on sand or other very deformable surfaces). The proposed work focuses on developing a ground vehicle simulation capability by combining several third party packages for vehicle simulation, tire simulation, and powertrain simulation. The long-term goal of this project consists in promoting the Digital Car idea through the development of a reliable and robust simulation capability that will enhance the understanding and control of off-road vehicle performance.

In order to reduce fuel consumption, companies have been looking at hybridizing vehicles. So far, two main hybridization options have been considered: electric and hydraulic hybrids. Because of light duty vehicle operating conditions and the high energy density of batteries, electric hybrids are being widely used for cars. However, companies are still evaluating both hybridization options for medium and heavy duty vehicles. Trucks generally demand very large regenerative power and frequent stop-and-go. In that situation, hydraulic systems could offer an advantage over electric drive systems because the hydraulic motor and accumulator can handle high power with small volume capacity. This study compares the fuel displacement of class 6 trucks using a hydraulic system compared to conventional and hybrid electric vehicles. The paper will describe the component technology and sizes of each powertrain as well as their overall vehicle level control strategies.

Modeling plume interaction and collapse for direct-injection gasoline sprays is important because of its impact on fuel-air mixing and engine performance. Nevertheless, the aerodynamic interaction between plumes and the complicated two-phase coupling of the evaporating spray has shown to be notoriously difficult to predict. With the availability of high-speed (100 kHz) Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) experimental data, we compare velocity field predictions between plumes to observe the full temporal evolution leading up to plume merging and complete spray collapse. The target “Spray G” operating conditions of the Engine Combustion Network (ECN) is the focus of the work, including parametric variations in ambient gas temperature. We apply both LES and RANS spray models in different CFD platforms, outlining features of the spray that are most critical to model in order to predict the correct aerodynamics and fuel-air mixing.

An experimental fuel surrogate validation approach is proposed for a compression ignition application, and applied to validate a Jet-A POSF 4658 fuel surrogate. The approach examines the agreement of both physical and chemical properties of surrogate and target fuels during validation within a real compression-ignition engine environment during four sequential but distinct combustion phases. In-cylinder Mie Scattering measurements are applied to evaporating sprays to compare the behavior of the surrogate, its target fuel, and for reference, n-heptane. Early mixture formation and low temperature reaction behavior were investigated using 2-D broadband chemiluminescence imaging, while high temperature ignition and combustion chemistry were studied using OH chemiluminescence imaging. The optical measurements were combined with cylinder pressure-based combustion analysis, including ignition delay and premixed burn duration, to validate the global behavior of the surrogate.

Striving for sustainable transportation solutions, hydrogen is often identified as a promising energy carrier and internal combustion engines are seen as a cost effective consumer of hydrogen to facilitate the development of a large-scale hydrogen infrastructure. Driven by efficiency and emissions targets defined by the U.S. Department of Energy, a research team at Argonne National Laboratory has worked on optimizing a spark-ignited direct injection engine for hydrogen. Using direct injection improves volumetric efficiency and provides the opportunity to properly stratify the fuel-air mixture in-cylinder. Collaborative 3D-CFD and experimental efforts have focused on optimizing the mixture stratification and have demonstrated the potential for high engine efficiency with low NOx emissions. Performance of the hydrogen engine is evaluated in this paper over a speed range from 1000 to 3000 RPM and a load range from 1.7 to 14.3 bar BMEP.

A Machine Learning-Genetic Algorithm (ML-GA) approach was developed to virtually discover optimum designs using training data generated from multi-dimensional simulations. Machine learning (ML) presents a pathway to transform complex physical processes that occur in a combustion engine into compact informational processes. In the present work, a total of over 2000 sector-mesh computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations of a heavy-duty engine were performed. These were run concurrently on a supercomputer to reduce overall turnaround time. The engine being optimized was run on a low-octane (RON70) gasoline fuel under partially premixed compression ignition (PPCI) mode. A total of nine input parameters were varied, and the CFD simulation cases were generated by randomly sampling points from this nine-dimensional input space. These input parameters included fuel injection strategy, injector design, and various in-cylinder flow and thermodynamic conditions at intake valve closure (IVC).

A new friction testing system has been designed and built to simulate the actual engine conditions in friction and wear test of piston-ring and cylinder liner assembly. Experimental data has been developed as Friction Coefficient / Crank Angle Degree diagrams including the effects of running speed (500 and 700 rpm) and ring normal load. Surface roughness profilocorder traces were obtained for tested samples. Mixed lubrication regime observed in the most part of the test range. New cylinder bore materials and lubricants can be screened easily and more reliable simulated engine friction data can be collected using this technique.

A new formulation is developed for the ignition delay (ID) in diesel engines to account for the effect of piston motion on the global autoignition reaction rates. A differentiation is made between the IDe measured in engines and IDv, measured in constant volume vessels. In addition, a method is presented to determine the coefficients of the IDe correlation from actual engine experimental data. The new formulation for IDe is applied to predict the misfiring cycles during the cold starting of diesel engines at different low ambient temperatures. The predictions are compared with experimental results obtained on a multi-cylinder heavy-duty diesel engine.

Traditional Lagrangian spray modeling approaches for internal combustion engines are highly grid-dependent due to insufficient resolution in the near nozzle region. This is primarily because of inherent restrictions of volume fraction with the Lagrangian assumption together with high computational costs associated with small grid sizes. A state-of-the-art grid-convergent spray modeling approach was recently developed and implemented by Senecal et al., (ASME-ICEF2012-92043) in the CONVERGE software. The key features of the methodology include Adaptive Mesh Refinement (AMR), advanced liquid-gas momentum coupling, and improved distribution of the liquid phase, which enables use of cell sizes smaller than the nozzle diameter. This modeling approach was rigorously validated against non-evaporating, evaporating, and reacting data from the literature.

Road vehicles can expend a significant amount of energy in undesirable vertical motions that are induced by road bumps, and much of that is dissipated in conventional shock absorbers as they dampen the vertical motions. Presented in this paper are some of the results of a study aimed at determining the effectiveness of efficiently transforming that energy into electrical power by using optimally designed regenerative electromagnetic shock absorbers. In turn, the electrical power can be used to recharge batteries or other efficient energy storage devices (e.g., flywheels) rather than be dissipated. The results of the study are encouraging - they suggest that a significant amount of the vertical motion energy can be recovered and stored.

The 4th Workshop of the Engine Combustion Network (ECN) was held September 5-6, 2015 in Kyoto, Japan. This manuscript presents a summary of the progress in experiments and modeling among ECN contributors leading to a better understanding of soot formation under the ECN “Spray A” configuration and some parametric variants. Relevant published and unpublished work from prior ECN workshops is reviewed. Experiments measuring soot particle size and morphology, soot volume fraction (fv), and transient soot mass have been conducted at various international institutions providing target data for improvements to computational models. Multiple modeling contributions using both the Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) Equations approach and the Large-Eddy Simulation (LES) approach have been submitted. Among these, various chemical mechanisms, soot models, and turbulence-chemistry interaction (TCI) methodologies have been considered.

The current extensive revisitation of the application of gasoline direct-injection to automotive, four-stroke, spark-ignition engines has been prompted by the availability of technological capabilities that did not exist in the late 1970s, and that can now be utilized in the engine development process. The availability of new engine hardware that permits an enhanced level of computer control and dynamic optimization has alleviated many of the system limitations that were encountered in the time period from 1976 to 1984, when the capabilities of direct-injection, stratified-charge, spark-ignition engines were thoroughly researched. This paper incorporates a critical review of the current worldwide research and development activities in the gasoline direct-injection field, and provides insight into new areas of technology that are being applied to the development of both production and prototype engines.

This work presents a simple fan model that is based on the actuator disk approximation, and the blade element and vortex theory of a propeller. A set of equations are derived that require as input the rotational speed of the fan, geometric fan data, and the lift and drag coefficients of the blades. These equations are solved iteratively to obtain the body forces generated by the fan in the axial and circumferential directions. These forces are used as momentum sources in a CFD code to simulate the effect of the fan in an underhood thermal management simulation. To validate this fan model, a fan experiment was simulated. The model was incorporated into the CFD code STAR-CD and predictions were generated for axial and circumferential air velocities at different radial positions and at different planes downstream of the fan. The agreement between experimental measurements and predictions is good.

Significant A/F ratio excursion may occur during some engine transient operations, especially for transient periods of throttle tip in or tip out. A/F ratio excursion results in excessive emissions, extra fuel consumption, driveability deterioration and three-way-catalyst (TWC) efficiency drop. Simple two-parameter (X, τ) wall wetting models have traditionally been used to describe this transient A/F ratio excursion phenomenon. The transient fuel control techniques are utilized for this model to be applicable across vehicles, engines, fuel types and ambient conditions, so as to compensate for the A/F ratio excursion with the extra compensation fuel. More complicated model structures must be further expanded and model dependence on various environment conditions must be established to achieve a precise model. In this paper, a simple linear approach is proposed for transient fuel control, using least squares estimation.

High-speed video of combustion processes and cylinder pressure traces were obtained from a single-cylinder optical-accessible engine with a production four-valve cylinder head to study the mixture formation and flame propagation characteristics at near-stoichiometric start condition. Laser-sheet Mie-scattering images were collected for liquid droplet distributions inside the cylinder to correlate the mixture formation process with the combustion results. A dual-stream (DS) injector and a quad-stream (QS) injector were used to study the spray dispersion effect on engine starting, under different injection timings, throttle valve positions, engine speeds, and intake temperatures. It was found that most of the fuel under open-valve injection (OVI) conditions entered the cylinder as droplet mist. A significant part of the fuel droplets hit the far end of the cylinder wall at the exhaust-valve side.

Accurate modeling of the internal flow and spray characteristics in fuel injectors is a critical aspect of direct injection engine design. However, such high-fidelity computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models are often computationally expensive due to the requirement of resolving fine temporal and spatial scales. This paper addresses the computational bottleneck issue by proposing a machine learning-based emulator framework, which learns efficient surrogate models for spatiotemporal flow distributions relevant for static coupling injection maps, namely total void fraction, velocity, and mass, within a design space of interest. Different design points involving variations of needle lift, fuel viscosity, and level of non-condensable gas in the fuel were explored in this study. An interpretable Bayesian learning strategy was employed to understand the effect of the design parameters on the void fraction fields at the exit of the injector orifice.

In an effort of providing better understanding of regeneration mechanisms of diesel particulate matter (PM), this experimental investigation focused on evaluating the amount of heat release generated during the thermal reaction of diesel PM and the concentrations of soluble organic compounds (SOCs) dissolved in PM emissions. Differences in oxidation behaviors were observed for two different diesel PM samples: a SOC-containing PM sample and a dry soot sample with no SOCs. Both samples were collected from a cordierite particulate filter membrane in a thermal reactor connected to the exhaust pipe of a light-duty diesel engine. A differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) and a thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA) were used to measure the amount of heat release during oxidation, along with subsequent oxidation rates and the concentrations of SOCs dissolved in particulate samples, respectively.

A supercritical organic Rankine cycle (ORC) system for recovery of waste heat from heavy-duty diesel engines is proposed. In this system, an organic, medium-boiling-point fluid is selected as the working fluid, which also serves as the coolant for the charge air cooler and the EGR coolers. Because the exhaust temperature can be as high as 650 °C during the DPF regeneration, an exhaust cooler is included in the system to recover some of the high level exhaust energy. In the present ORC system, the expansion work is conducted by a uniflow reciprocating expander, which simplifies the waste-heat-recovery (WHR) system significantly. This reciprocating Rankine engine is more appropriate for on-road-vehicle applications where the condition for waste heat is variable. The energy level of waste heat from a heavy-duty diesel engine is evaluated by the analyses of the first and second law of thermodynamics.

For several years there has been a great deal of effort made in researching ways to run a compression ignition engine with simultaneously high efficiency and low emissions. Recently much of this focus has been dedicated to using gasoline-like fuels that are more volatile and less reactive than conventional diesel fuel to allow the combustion to be more premixed. One of the key challenges to using fuels with such properties in a compression ignition engine is stable engine operation at low loads. This paper provides an analysis of how stable gasoline compression ignition (GCI) engine operation was achieved down to idle speed and load on a multi-cylinder compression ignition engine using only 87 anti-knock index (AKI) gasoline. The variables explored to extend stable engine operation to idle included: uncooled exhaust gas recirculation (EGR), injection timing, injection pressure, and injector nozzle geometry.