WCX™ Digital Summit Program: Access the Latest Advancements in Mobility

Is the “K Value” of an Engine Truly Fuel Independent?

The octane appetite of an engine is frequently characterized by the so-called K value. It is usually assumed that K is dependent only on the thermodynamic conditions in the engine when knock occurs. In this work we test this hypothesis: further analysis was conducted on experimental results from SAE 2019-01-0035 in which a matrix of fuels was tested in a single cylinder engine. The fuels consisted of a relatively small number of components, thereby simplifying the analysis of the chemical kinetic proprieties.

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Holistic Thermal Energy Modelling for Full Hybrid Electric Vehicles

Full hybrid electric vehicles are usually defined by their capability to drive in a fully electric mode, offering the advantage that they do not produce any emissions at the point of use. However, high degrees of electrification also mean that waste heat from the internal combustion engine is often not available for heating the cabin and for maintaining the temperature of the powertrain and emissions control system. If not managed properly, this can result in increased fuel consumption, exhaust emissions, and reduced electric-only range at moderately high or low ambient temperatures negating many of the benefits of the electrification. This presentation discusses the development of a holistic, modular vehicle model designed for development of an integrated thermal energy management strategy.

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On Modeling the Total Cost of Ownership of Electric and Plug-in Hybrid Vehicles

Sales of plug-in vehicles (PEVs), which include battery-only electric vehicles (BEVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), have steadily grown in the past years amidst various incentive programs. While incentives are important, or perhaps essential during early phases of market introduction, they may not be feasibly sustainable when/if PEV sales ramp up to mass-market levels. As such, much interest and speculation exist on how soon could PEVs become cost-competitive without incentives. Research in this paper adopts a bottom-up approach for estimating sale price and total cost of ownership (TCO) for new vehicles. A critical review is also conducted for various publicly available sources of information pertaining to PEVs and conventional internal combustion-engine (CICE) vehicles. Due to the existence of some uncertainty about current costs, let alone future costs, a sensitivity analysis is conducted. In the various scenarios considered in the sensitivity analysis, a combination of cost predictions being better than the baseline case may allow some of the PEVs to have better TCO than a CICE within the 2030 timeframe. However, even the most optimistic scenarios considered did not show PEVs reaching purchase price parity by 2030 compared to a CICE.

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Presentation: Driving Innovation: The Importance of Design for Manufacturing in Automotive Lidar"

Biography: As an NPI engineer at AEye, Amy’s role is to transition product from the engineering sample phase to mass production - delivering a safe, reliable, and cost-efficient product at volume. Before AEye, she worked as a Manufacturing Design Engineer at Apple where she achieved a 40% cost savings for a part on the Macbook Pro enclosures. While at Apple, Amy drove process improvements to enhance yields and reliability while lowering cost, as well as planned and executed DOEs to optimize key process variables. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from MIT. 

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Review of Vehicle Engine Efficiency and Emissions

This review covers some of the major advances pertaining to reducing tailpipe emissions of greenhouse gases and criteria pollutants. Discussed are both new and upcoming regulations, and technologies being developed for improving engines and after-treatment systems.

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Real-world Evaluation of National Energy Efficiency Potential of Cold Storage Evaporator Technology in the Context of Engine Start-Stop Systems

National concerns over energy consumption and emissions from the transportation sector have prompted regulatory agencies to implement aggressive fuel economy targets for light-duty vehicles through the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration/Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) program. Automotive manufacturers have responded by bringing competitive technologies to market that maximize efficiency while meeting or exceeding consumer performance and comfort expectations. In a collaborative effort among Toyota Motor Corporation, Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the real-world savings of one such technology is evaluated.

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