Search Results

In literature, particular interest is directed toward procedures allowing for accurate predictions of thermal fields in Internal Combustion Engines (ICE) components facing gases. While the calculation of the steady part is straightforward, the evaluation of the unsteady temperatures is complex, time consuming and still calls for further refinement. The possibility of obtaining these predictions only in single portions of the components (without solving the whole thermal field, but keeping the same accuracy), reveals an even greater interest. In this paper a suggestion for reaching this goal is given. It is based on isolating a portion of the component on which a suitably defined steady calculation were firstly performed.

Cooling system design has a crucial role in defining engine performance and operational limits. Many further improvements can be obtained both in the precision in controlling temperatures of the various engine parts (especially during transient operation), and in the energy consumption of the system. Moreover, the warm-up transient can be relevantly reduced producing benefic effects on vehicle emissions and interior conditioning and comfort. Taking the lead by these considerations, the authors developed an integrated model of an engine cooling system, which is characterized by a complete modularity and permits the simulation of any possible design configuration. The model acts as a “virtual engine cooling system”: its coupling with simple ECU models permits an off-line evaluation of the efficiency of new control strategies, model-based too. In this work a novel model for the engine thermal behavior is proposed to be included in the described modeling architecture.

Internal combustion engines are actually one of the most important source of pollutants and greenhouse gases emissions. In particular, on-the-road transportation sector has taken the environmental challenge of reducing greenhouse gases emissions and worldwide governments set up regulations in order to limit them and fuel consumption from vehicles. Among the several technologies under development, an ORC unit bottomed exhaust gas seems to be very promising, but it still has several complications when it is applied on board of a vehicle (weight, encumbrances, backpressure effect on the engine, safety, reliability). In this paper, a comprehensive mathematical model of an ORC unit bottomed a heavy duty engine, used for commercial vehicle, has been developed.

Fuel consumption reduction and CO2 emissions saving are the present drivers of the technological innovation in Internal Combustion Engines for the transportation sector. Among the numerous technologies which ensure such benefits, the role of the cooling pump has been recognized, mainly referred to the possibility to improve engine performances during warm up. During engine homologation, an additional benefit on the fuel consumption can be also reached reducing the energy demand of the pump. In fact, during the cycle, propulsion power requested by the vehicle is low and the importance of the energy absorbed by the pump became significant, since the pump operates far from its maximum efficiency.

The prediction of the transient phenomena in reciprocating internal combustion engine (ICE) manifolds is of great importance in engine design (torque, power, etc…) as well as for the air fuel ratio (A/F) engine control. Those phenomena are dominated by the capacitive and inertial properties of a compressible flow, leading to the propagation of pressure waves traveling upstream and downstream the intake and exhaust manifolds. These can produce benefits or drawbacks in cylinder filling or emptying, so influencing the thermodynamical and environmental performances of the engine. A new method for calculating the transient phenomena in engine manifolds is here presented in a form which is an improvement of a previous formulation presented by one of the author [1]. Following an electric analogy between voltage-speed of sound and current-fluid velocity, the method presents a wider formulation for the solution of the non-homoentropic 1-D advected wave equation in the Laplace domain.

In reciprocating IC engines, very precise predictions of the mass of air inducted are required in order to improve both manifold design and fuel injection control. To achieve this goal, a deeper knowledge of the boundary conditions on intake and exhaust manifolds must be obtained, and a set of very accurate experimental data is needed to perform model validation. In this paper an experimental activity is reported, which has been performed on a pipe test-rig which guarantees high reproducibility of the fluid-dynamic transients. Based on the obtained data, the authors validated a modified non-isentropic version of the method of characteristics, specifically conceived for the simulation of varying area engine manifolds.

The design optimization of Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT) belts requires the characterization of actual operating conditions for a correct description of the boundary conditions to be applied in a belt structural analysis. The complex phenomena involved (friction and dynamical contact between belt and pulleys) determine uncertainties on the load distribution along the belt. With the aim of offering a contribution in this direction, this paper presents a theoretical and experimental procedure. It allows for the description of stress and strain state along the belt. This procedure has been applied on a prototype and gives results in good agreement with experimentally observed belt life time.

Many advantages are related to the use of LPG as fuel in SI injected ICE. Most of them regard the lower environmental impact with respect to gasoline. The liquid-phase injection is one of the most important aspects of these engines, being able to guarantee the maintenance (and even an increase) of the more traditional engine performances (power, acceleration, driveability, etc) and to match the 3-way catalytic converter A/F specifications. In this paper the transient phenomena occurring in an LPG injection system have been studied, focusing the attention on the problems related to A/F and liquid-phase control.

Fuel cells are widely accepted to be the alternative powertrain with the highest potential to compete with the internal combustion engine for a mean-long future sustainable prospective for passenger mobility: Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFC) seem to be the most promising technology. Anyway, the final goal is still far to be reached, since often the great potential advantages connected with fuel cells are not completely obtained, due to the difficulties encountered in component design and optimization. Moreover, H2 availability still appears to be one of the most important limitations. Taking the lead by these considerations the authors derived a physically consistent integrated mathematical model of a PEM propulsion system: the model is fully modular and is aimed both to gain a deeper insight of the complex chemical and thermo-fluid-dynamical processes involved, and to the development of control strategies for the propulsion system and all its auxiliaries.

The paper describes the derivation of a real-time controller for the energy management of a series hybrid city bus. The controller is based on Optimal Control theory and on a control-oriented model of the propulsion system. The model is of the quasi-stationary, backward type, and it is derived from tabulated data of the single components provided by the manufacturers and basic, first-principle equations. The fuel consumption obtained with the optimal controller is compared with that yielded by a conventional controller tracking the battery state-of-charge.

Hybrid propulsion systems can give an effective contribution to compensate the low on-board energy storage capability of pure electric vehicles. The prediction of the performance of a hybrid thermal-electric vehicle is complex, due to the interaction of several components exchanging different kind of energy among them. A detailed model is required for the components selection, sizing and optimization, as well as for a model based control. This paper describes the theoretical and experimental activities developed at DOE for setting up a Hybrid City Minibus. A preliminary model validation has been carried out with in field data, evidencing the possibility to obtain a fully model based vehicle control.

The growing interest on environmental issues related to vehicles is pushing up the research on reciprocating internal combustion engines which seems to be endless and able to insure to combustion engines a long future. Euro standards imposed a significant reduction of pollutant emissions and were the stimulus to favor the conception of technologies which represented real breakthroughs; the recent directives on greenhouse gases emissions further reinforced the concept of reducing fuel consumption and, consequently, carbon dioxide emissions. So, new technological efforts have to be made on internal combustion engines in order to achieve this additional target: several technological options are already available or under studying, but only a few of these are suitable, in particular, in terms of costs attendance per unit of CO2 saved. Among these technologies, a revision of engine cooling system seems to have good potentiality.

Waste Heat Recovery (WHR) is one of the most viable opportunities to reduce fuel consumption and CO2 emissions from internal combustion engines in the transportation sector. Hybrid thermal and electrical propulsion systems appear particularly interesting because of the presence of an electric battery that simplifies the management of the electrical energy produced by the recovery system. The different technologies proposed for WHR can be categorized into direct and indirect ones, if the working fluid operating inside the recovery system is the exhaust gas itself or a different one whose sequence of transformations follows a thermodynamic cycle. In this paper, a turbocharged diesel engine (F1C Iveco) equipped with a Variable Geometry Turbine (VGT) has been tested to assess the energy recoverable from the exhaust gases both for direct and indirect recovery.

A smart way to reduce CO2 emission in transportation sector is to recover energy usually wasted and re-use it for engine and vehicle needs. ORC plant on exhaust gas of ICE is really interesting, but it has a significant impact on the exhaust line and vehicle's weight. The backpressure realized in the exhaust and the weight gain, in fact, produce a specific fuel consumption increase as well as an increase in the propulsion power: both terms could vanish the energy recovered. The paper discusses the effects of the pressure losses produced by an ORC plant mounted on the exhaust line of an IVECO F1C test bench engine. The interactions produced on the turbocharged engine have been experimentally investigated: the presence of an IGV turbocharger makes the effect of the backpressure not straightforward to be predicted and needed a full experimental testing of the group in order to understand its reaction and the net effect in terms of specific fuel consumption.

In the perspective of fuel saving and emissions reduction, engine oil thermal management has not yet received the attention it deserves. Lubricating oil, in fact, should be the focus of a specific warmup action: the expected benefits is on friction reduction – mechanical efficiency improvement – but also on a positive interaction with the cooling fluid thermal dynamics. The lower thermal capacity of the circulating oil (with respect to the cooling fluid) and the instantaneous reduction of the viscosity due to temperature increase produces a faster engine overall efficiency benefit: this invites to focus specific actions on its thermal management in the direction of speeding up the temperature rise during a cold engine starting.

The use of reciprocating internal combustion engines (ICE) dominates the sector of the on-road transportation, both for passengers and freight. CO2 reduction is the present technological driver, considering the major worldwide greenhouse reduction targets committed by most governments in the western world. In the near future (2020) these targets will require a significant reduction with respect to today’s goals, reinforcing the importance of reducing fuel consumption. In ICEs more than one third of the fuel energy used is rejected into the environment as thermal waste through exhaust gases. Therefore, a greater fuel economy could be achieved if this energy is recovered and converted into useful mechanical or electrical power on board. For long haul vehicles, which run for hundreds of thousands of miles per year at relatively steady conditions, this recovery appears especially worthy of attention.

Energy recovery in reciprocating internal combustion engines (ICE) is one of the most investigated options for the reduction of fuel consumption and GHG emissions saving in the transportation sector. In fact, the energy wasted in ICE is greater than that converted in mechanical form. The contribution associated with the exhaust gases is almost one third of the fuel energy, calling for an urgent need to be recovered into mechanical form. An extensive literature is oriented toward this opportunity, strongly oriented to ORC (Organic Rankine Cycle)-based power units. From a thermodynamic point of view, one option, not extensively explored, is certainly represented by the Inverted Brayton Cycle (IBC) concept and by the corresponding components which make possible this recovery.

Within automotive sector, there are several high-performance applications, like, for instance, those referred to racing and motorsport, where cooling needs are usually fulfilled by simple circuits with conventional low-efficiency pumps. The cooling needs in these applications are represented by low flow rates delivered (in the range of 10 - 50 L/min). The operating conditions of these small pumps are usually characterized by very high revolution speeds, which intrinsically cause low efficiency and critical intake phenomena (cavitation) if the design is not specifically optimized to address these concerns. Hence, in this paper a small-size pump operating in the racing sector has been designed using a model-based approach, built and tested having reached both high efficiency (aimed to 50%) and absence of intake operational problems (cavitation).

One of the most promising near-future alternatives to traditional gasoline and Diesel Internal Combustion Engines is the utilization of alternative fuels. Among these, Liquefied Petroleum Gases (LPG) play a key role for its wide availability and high energetic density. The adoption of liquid phase injection systems would permit the highest achievable performances from both a traditional (power output, acceleration, …) and an environmental (pollutants and greenhouse emissions) point of view. Those systems, however, still present many unsolved problems, substantially limiting their use. The authors here report the results of an intense research activity aimed to the realization of a model-based A/F controller to be used on-board for liquid-phase LPG injected engines. All the main dynamical phenomena involved were modeled: it was so possible to analyze in detail the efficiency of the system in terms of A/F control (strictly related to pollutant emissions) and power output of the engine.

Fuel saving and, consequently, CO2 emissions reduction are the main driver of internal combustion engine development for the transportation sector. Among the several technological options presently available for this purpose, those related to thermal management and, in particular, engine cooling optimization, seem to have additional value thanks to their easiness to be applied on board, without invasive modification of the engine and the vehicle. Typically, centrifugal pumps are adopted, but their efficiency is highly dependent on their revolution speed, suffering of it during real operation. Volumetric pumps can overcome this issue, having an efficiency ideally independent on rotational speed. In this work, triple-screw pump has been considered as a technological replacement for the centrifugal one, since it is a consolidated technology in other sectors, but never considered in engine cooling.