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Advanced technology of thermal management is an effective method to reduce fuel consumption. There are several different technologies for coolant control, for example, electric water pump, split cooling and coolant control module. Through 1D thermal management simulation, coolant control module was chose for the test due to the best benefit for fuel consumption under NEDC cycle. 1D thermal management simulation model includes vehicle, cooling system, lubrication system and detailed engine model with all friction components. Coolant control module is designed to fix on 2.0L turbocharger GDI gasoline and to control 5 coolant ways, including radiator, by-pass, engine oil cooler, cabin heater and transmission oil cooler. The prototype is designed and made. The function and strategy is verified on designed test-bed. The vehicle with coolant control module is running under NEDC cycle. The results show the coolant temperature rise time decrease and the benefit of fuel consumption reach 1.8%.

Reducing fuel consumption is a major challenge for vehicle, especially for SUV. Cooling loss is about 30% in total energy loss under NEDC (New European Driving Cycle) cycle. It is necessary to optimize vehicle thermal management system to improve fuel economy. Otherwise, rapid warm-up is beneficial for friction reduction and passenger comfort in cold-start. Vehicle thermal behavior is influenced by cooling system layout, new technology and control strategy. Thermal management simulation is effective to show the energy flow and fuel consumption under the influence of new technology under NEDC cycle. So 1D thermal management simulation model is created, including vehicle, cooling system, lubrication system and detailed engine model with all friction components. And the interrelations between all the components are considered in the model. For model calibration, large amount of data is obtained from vehicle tests such as transient fuel consumption and transient coolant temperature.

Downsizing is regarded as a promising strategy to reduce the fuel consumption of gasoline engines. But downsized turbocharged engines need to take knocking into account to avoid engine damage. Low Pressure (LP) cooled exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) is an effective suppressant of knocking at boosted high load and EGR could reduce pumping loss at low loads. Both of them are helpful to improve fuel economy. In the research, a LP cooled EGR system is added to a 1.5L turbocharged PFI production gasoline engine and the compression ratio is changed from 9.3 to 11.5. The results show that the fuel reduction is 4.5% at 2000rpm 5bar (20% EGR ratio) and 9.7 % at 3000rpm 10bar (20% EGR ratio) compared with no EGR case. But at boosted high loads the fuel consumption is almost same to the production engine due to high compression ratio which results in severe knocking. In order to further reduce fuel consumption, the engine is operated in lean burn conditions.