Vehicle Simulation on the Test Bench

Author(s):  
Enrico Corti

International emission tests (EPA, SFTP, MVEG-B, J-10.15, etc.) are carried out with vehicles running on the rolls dynamometer. Results, in terms of total emissions, are influenced by vehicles parameters such as mass, gear ratios, front surface, drag coefficient, etc. It would be useful, in the automobiles design phase, to have information about the impact of these parameters on total emissions. The obvious solution would be to build up a complete vehicle model to simulate performance and emission levels. Engine pollutants production modeling is the weak point, since it is difficult to obtain reliable results. Anyway it is possible to avoid pollutants production simulation, testing the actual engine under the same operating condition it would face inside the car’s hood. This paper describes a methodology whose aim is to test the engine on a standard test bench, simulating on-board operating conditions. An equivalence condition has to be satisfied in order to guarantee the methodology effectiveness: engine speed and Manifold Absolute Pressure (MAP) must always match for the two types of test performed on the same driving cycle. Engine speed and torque can be controlled through the bench actuators, their values depending on the simulated vehicle motion: once the car dynamics are simulated by means of a model, engine speed and torque corresponding to the given driving cycle can in fact be evaluated. The model is solved in real time, its output being the brake load torque value satisfying the equivalence condition. The brake controller, used as a slave, regulates the engine operating conditions consequently. The global model incorporates tires, aerodynamic forces, clutch, gearbox and driveline behaviors simulation: its response has been first validated comparing its outputs with data measured on board, and then it has been used to control an eddy current brake, for vehicle test simulation on the test bench. Two different control philosophies can be used: either a human driver or an automatic controller can ride the simulated car. The influence of vehicle parameters and gearshift mode on fuel consumption and pollutant emissions can be investigated.

Author(s):  
Amin Akbari ◽  
Vincent McDonell ◽  
Scott Samuelsen

Co firing of natural gas with renewable fuels such as hydrogen can reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and meet other sustainability considerations. At the same time, adding hydrogen to natural gas alters combustion properties, such as burning speeds, heating values, flammability limits, and chemical characteristics. It is important to identify how combustion stability relates to fuel mixture composition in industrial gas turbines and burners and correlate such behavior to fuel properties or operating conditions. Ultimately, it is desired to predict and prevent operability issues when designing a fuel flexible gas turbine combustor. Fuel interchangeability is used to describe the ability of a substitute fuel composition to replace a baseline fuel without significantly altering performance and operation. Any substitute fuel, while maintaining the same heating load as the baseline fuel, must also provide stable combustion with low pollutant emissions. Interchangeability indices try to predict the impact of fuel composition on lean blowoff and flashback. Correlations for operability limits have been reported, though results are more consistent for blowoff compared to flashback. Yet, even for blowoff, some disagreement regarding fuel composition effects are evident. In the present work, promising correlations and parameters for lean blow off and flashback in a swirl stabilized lean premixed combustor are evaluated. Measurements are conducted for fuel compositions ranging from pure natural gas to pure hydrogen under different levels of preheat and air flow rates. The results are used to evaluate the ability of existing approaches to predict blowoff and flashback. The results show that, while a Damköhler number approach for blowoff is promising, important considerations are required in applying the method. For flashback, the quench constant parameter suggested for combustion induced vortex breakdown was applied and found to have limited success for predicting flashback in the present configuration.


1999 ◽  
Vol 121 (3) ◽  
pp. 225-230
Author(s):  
S. Gouli ◽  
A. Serdari ◽  
S. Stournas ◽  
E. Lois

The adoption of oxygenates in gasoline was originally spurred by the oil crises of the 1970s. In more recent years, public awareness of the environmental issues constituted the main reason for the spreading of oxygenated compounds in the transportation fuels sector. This paper describes the effects of novel nitrogen compounds in gasoline and diesel fuel on ignition quality and on pollutant emissions. Our intention is to investigate the antiknock quality, as gaged by octane and cetane determinations, of organic chemical structures mostly derivable from biomass, in combination with their effectiveness in reducing exhaust emissions under various operating conditions.


Author(s):  
Fabrizio Ponti

The diagnosis of a misfire event and the isolation of the cylinder in which the misfire took place is enforced by the On Board Diagnostics (OBD) requirements over the whole operating range for all the vehicles whatever the configuration of the engine they mount. This task is particularly challenging for engines with a high number of cylinders and for engine operating conditions that are characterized by high engine speed and low load. This is why much research has been devoted to this topic in recent years, developing different detection methodologies based on signals such as instantaneous engine speed, exhaust pressure, etc., both in time and frequency domains. This paper presents the development and the validation of a methodology for misfire detection based on the time-frequency analysis of the instantaneous engine speed signal. This signal contains information related to the misfire event, since a misfire occurrence is characterized by a sudden engine speed decrease and a subsequent damped torsional vibration. The identification of a specific pattern in the instantaneous engine speed frequency content, characteristic of the system under study, allows performing the desired misfire detection and cylinder isolation. Particular attention has been devoted in designing the methodology in order to avoid the possibility of false alarms caused by the excitation of this frequency pattern independently from a misfire occurrence. Although the time-frequency analysis is usually considered a time consuming operation and is not associated to on-board application, the methodology here proposed has been properly modified and simplified in order to obtain the quickness required for its use directly on-board a vehicle. Experimental tests have been performed on a 5.7 liter V12 spark ignited engine, with the engine mounted on-board a vehicle. The frequency pattern identified is not the same that could be observed when running the engine on a test bench, because of the different stiffness that the connection between the engine and the load presents in the two cases. This makes impossible to set-up the methodology here proposed only on a test bench, without running tests on the vehicle.


Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (20) ◽  
pp. 5428 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacek Jaworski ◽  
Adrian Dudek

Thermal gas meters represent a promising technology for billing customers for gaseous fuels, however, it is essential to ensure that measurement accuracy is maintained in the long term and in a broad range of operating conditions. The effect of hydrogen addition to natural gas will change the physicochemical properties of the mixture of natural gas and hydrogen. Such a mixture will be supplied through the gas system, to consumers, including households, where the amounts of received gas will be metered. The physicochemical properties of hydrogen, including the specific density or viscosity, differ significantly from those of the natural gas components, such as methane, ethane, propane, nitrogen, etc. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to establish the impact of the changes in the gas composition caused by the addition of hydrogen to natural gas on the metrological properties of household gas meters, including thermal gas meters. Furthermore, since household gas meters can be installed outdoors and, taking into account the fact that household gas meters are good heat exchangers, the influence of ambient and gas temperature on the metrological properties of those meters should be investigated. This article reviews a test bench and a testing method concerning errors of thermal gas meter indicators using air and natural gas, including the type containing hydrogen. The indication errors for thermal gas meters using air, natural gas and natural gas with an addition of 2%, 4%, 5%, 10% and 15% hydrogen were determined and then subjected to metrological analysis. Moreover, the test method and test bench are discussed and the results of tests on the impact of ambient and gas temperatures (‒25 °C and 55 °C, respectively) on the errors of indications of thermal gas meters are presented. Conclusions for distribution system operators in terms of gas meter selection were drawn based on the test results.


2018 ◽  
Vol 141 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Mazzei ◽  
S. Puggelli ◽  
D. Bertini ◽  
A. Andreini ◽  
B. Facchini ◽  
...  

Lean burn combustion is increasing its popularity in the aeronautical framework due to its potential in reducing drastically pollutant emissions (NOx and soot in particular). Its implementation, however, involves significant issues related to the increased amount of air dedicated to the combustion process, demanding the redesign of injection and cooling systems. Also, the conditions at the combustor exit are a concern, as high turbulence, residual swirl, and the impossibility to adjust the temperature profile with dilution holes determine a harsher environment for nozzle guide vanes. This work describes the final stages of the design of an aeronautical effusion-cooled lean burn combustor. Full annular tests were carried out to measure temperature profiles and emissions (CO and NOx) at the combustor exit. Different operating conditions of the ICAO cycle were tested, considering Idle, Cruise, Approach, and Take-off. Scale-adaptive simulations with the flamelet generated manifold (FGM) combustion model were performed to extend the validation of the employed computational fluid dynamics (CFD) methodology and to reproduce the experimental data in terms of radial temperature distribution factor (RTDF)/overall temperature distribution factor (OTDF) profiles as well as emission indexes (EIs). The satisfactory agreement paved the way to an exploitation of the methodology to provide a deeper understanding of the flow physics within the combustion chamber, highlighting the impact of the different operating conditions on flame, spray evolution, and pollutant formation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (13) ◽  
pp. 6035
Author(s):  
Luigi Teodosio ◽  
Luca Marchitto ◽  
Cinzia Tornatore ◽  
Fabio Bozza ◽  
Gerardo Valentino

Combustion stability, engine efficiency and emissions in a multi-cylinder spark-ignition internal combustion engines can be improved through the advanced control and optimization of individual cylinder operation. In this work, experimental and numerical analyses were carried out on a twin-cylinder turbocharged port fuel injection (PFI) spark-ignition engine to evaluate the influence of cylinder-by-cylinder variation on performance and pollutant emissions. In a first stage, experimental tests are performed on the engine at different speed/load points and exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) rates, covering operating conditions typical of Worldwide harmonized Light-duty vehicles Test Cycle (WLTC). Measurements highlighted relevant differences in combustion evolution between cylinders, mainly due to non-uniform effective in-cylinder air/fuel ratio. Experimental data are utilized to validate a one-dimensional (1D) engine model, enhanced with user-defined sub-models of turbulence, combustion, heat transfer and noxious emissions. The model shows a satisfactory accuracy in reproducing the combustion evolution in each cylinder and the temperature of exhaust gases at turbine inlet. The pollutant species (HC, CO and NOx) predicted by the model show a good agreement with the ones measured at engine exhaust. Furthermore, the impact of cylinder-by-cylinder variation on gaseous emissions is also satisfactorily reproduced. The novel contribution of present work mainly consists in the extended numerical/experimental analysis on the effects of cylinder-by-cylinder variation on performance and emissions of spark-ignition engines. The proposed numerical methodology represents a valuable tool to support the engine design and calibration, with the aim to improve both performance and emissions.


Author(s):  
Fabrizio Ponti

The diagnosis of a misfire event and the isolation of the cylinder in which the misfire took place is enforced by the onboard diagnostics (OBD) requirements over the whole operating range for all the vehicles, whatever the configuration of the engine they mount. This task is particularly challenging for engines with a high number of cylinders and for engine operating conditions that are characterized by high engine speed and low load. This is why much research has been devoted to this topic in recent years, developing different detection methodologies based on signals such as instantaneous engine speed, exhaust pressure, etc., both in time and frequency domains. This paper presents the development and the validation of a methodology for misfire detection based on the time-frequency analysis of the instantaneous engine speed signal. This signal contains information related to the misfire event, since a misfire occurrence is characterized by a sudden engine speed decrease and a subsequent damped torsional vibration. The identification of a specific pattern in the instantaneous engine speed frequency content, characteristic of the system under study, allows performing the desired misfire detection and cylinder isolation. Particular attention has been devoted to designing the methodology in order to avoid the possibility of false alarms caused by the excitation of this frequency pattern independently from a misfire occurrence. Although the time-frequency analysis is usually considered a time-consuming operation and not associated to onboard application, the methodology proposed here has been properly modified and simplified in order to obtain the quickness required for its use directly onboard a vehicle. Experimental tests have been performed on a 5.7l V12 spark-ignited engine run onboard a vehicle. The frequency characteristic of the engine-vehicle system is not the same that could be observed when running the engine on a test bench, because of the different inertia and stiffness that the connection between the engine and the load presents in the two cases. This makes it impossible to test and validate the methodology proposed here only on a test bench, without running tests on the vehicle. Nevertheless, the knowledge of the mechanical design of the engine and driveline gives the possibility of determining the resonance frequencies of the system (the lowest one is always the most important for this work) before running tests on the vehicle. This allows saving time and reducing costs in developing the proposed approach.


Author(s):  
Massimo Rundo ◽  
Raffaele Squarcini

The paper presents two displacement controls for IC Engine lubricating vane pumps. The main feature is the variable setting of the absolute pressure limiter that can switch from a high to a low level when a minimum threshold value of engine speed or oil temperature is exceeded. This is obtained by venting the displacement actuator of the pump by means of a two positions electrovalve or a temperature sensitive valve. Aim is the reduction of the circuit pressure in the less critical engine operating conditions in order to decrease the absorbed torque. These controls are contrasted with a traditional fixed setting device in terms of overall energy absorbed by the pump in the NEDC cycle. Comparisons are performed with a lumped parameters simulation model able to replicate the operating conditions encountered by the pump during the driving cycle, in terms of oil temperature and circuit permeability. Outcomes from simulation have been validated by experimental tests on pumps prototypes. Tests have been performed on a rig where the load on the pump is generated by a proportional throttle valve controlled in a closed loop in order to reproduce, for each temperature and velocity condition, the resistance of the lubricating circuit. The study brings to evidence that with both systems a significant reduction of the absorbed energy can be achieved in the NEDC without detrimental effects on engine lubrication.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (24) ◽  
pp. 13872
Author(s):  
Tomáš Settey ◽  
Jozef Gnap ◽  
František Synák ◽  
Tomáš Skrúcaný ◽  
Marek Dočkalik

The European Parliament has adopted Directive 2019/1161 on the promotion of environmentally friendly and energy-efficient road transport vehicles, which also defines the obligations and forms of support for the procurement of environmentally friendly vehicles in urban logistics. The increase in the number of shipments delivered within e-commerce, which is also the result of the COVID-19 pandemic, requires a transition to a sustainable logistics system. New research questions are being raised in the preparation of new projects for the introduction of small electric commercial vehicles in particular. One of the main research questions about deployment itself is whether light commercial electric vehicles are able to fully replace conventionally powered vehicles. What operating conditions are optimal for the operation of them? How does load weight affect the energy efficiency of operating a light commercial electric vehicle? The authors decided to carry out research into the impacts of weight and the nature of a driving cycle under laboratory conditions to eliminate all external factors that could distort individual measurements and their results. In order to simulate driving cycles, an urban driving cycle was designed on the basis of the course of speed, acceleration, deceleration and slope conditions of roads in the selected regional city of Žilina (Slovakia). In the case of the operation of an electrically powered light commercial vehicle, the impact of load weight on the range of the vehicle is low, and is below the level of the theoretical maximum range of the vehicle in urban logistics applications. The operation of electrically powered vehicles in hilly terrains with relatively longer gradients and steeper slopes increases electricity consumption and, thereby, reduces their range.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Riccardo Da Soghe ◽  
Cosimo Bianchini ◽  
Lorenzo Mazzei ◽  
Alessio Bonini ◽  
Luca Innocenti ◽  
...  

Abstract The main annulus hot gas ingress into turbine wheel-spaces is still one of the most challenging problem designers face. During the decades, several experimental test benches were developed worldwide to improve the knowledge associated to the rim seal flow physics. Even if in some cases quite complex and advanced rig configurations were proposed, limitations in the operating conditions and in the reproduction of the real engine geometries/characteristics into the rig are present. In this paper, validated CFD computations are used to explore the impact of some experimental rigs design choices/limitations on the sealing effectiveness prediction and their ability to mimic the real engine configuration behaviour. Attention is paid on several test rig related aspects such as operating conditions, flow path configuration (blade and vane count) and accuracy in the real engine rim seal geometry reconstruction applied to the rig. From the computations it emerges that a scaled geometry operated at lab conditions is able to mimic pretty well the real engine sealing performance when rig and engine experience the same flow path ΔCp. The ability of the rig to match the engine data is not affected by the differences in main annulus Mach number between test bench and engine. A further result that emerges from the computation regards the fact that the Φ0 - ΔCp0.5 curve is not linear, proving that the linear extrapolation of rim sealing performance from test bench to real engine when rig and engine are characterized by different ΔCp0.5 values is not of general application and an alternative approach is given. Finally, it is found that the impact of vane count on the rim sealing effectiveness is significant, making the extrapolation of data from rig to engine difficult.


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