Optimizing non-road applications is an ongoing challenge with the increasingly stringent emissions legislations. TIER 4 final will be introduced in the US starting in 2013 and Stage IV in the EU one year later. India, China and Japan are moving towards implementing similar emissions levels. Rapid deployment of advanced technologies will be needed to achieve the emissions regulations with minimized fuel consumption as well as low system and development costs.
The enormous diversification of engines within the different power classes requires specific solutions to meet the legislation limits. New technologies will be introduced such as electronic fuel injection, cooled EGR and exhaust aftertreatment systems like a PM filter and/or SCR. Off-road operation has specific requirements regarding duty cycles, exhaust temperatures, robustness and durability, therefore on-road emissions solutions are only transferable to a limited extent. Additionally, the engine production volumes are often low but the diversification of machine-specific variants is huge.
Thus, the development effort for complex future off-road powertrain systems will rise substantially. Along with satisfying the emissions requirements, it is of utmost importance to maximize efficiency and minimize costs. A major part of the necessary integration work is the calibration of the various electronic control units and their communication with each other. There is a huge potential to increase system efficiency and robustness as well as to reduce development effort and cost in this area.
This paper will discuss a model-based calibration process that combines skills from areas such as fuel injection systems, combustion development, aftertreatment and control systems to provide optimum and robust calibration solutions for off-road machines and vehicles.
