High Fuel Economy Enabled by the Split Engine

Author(s):  
Marc Ross ◽  
Alberto J. Lo´pez ◽  
Frank H. Walker

Half the engine displacement of popular cars and light trucks would be adequate for most driving. The split engine (SE) is introduced here as a concept to improve the fuel economy of light-duty vehicles with large spark-ignition internal combustion engines. It operates with a small-displacement portion of the engine for typical driving and activates the secondary portion of the engine to assist with high-power driving. SE is different from cylinder deactivation; the two portions of the engine have independent crankshafts which connect through a one-way clutch, a mechanical diode with indexing features to achieve the correct relative phase of the engine sections. For illustration, 6- and 8-cylinder SE are proposed and simple versions are modeled analytically. The 6-cylinder SE consists of two inline 3-cylinder engines of equal or near-equal displacement. The 8-cylinder SE consists of two opposed horizontal 4-cylinder engines of the same displacement. SE and cylinder deactivation are also compared. Moments of inertia and the time to connect both engine sections smoothly are estimated. Fuel economy improvements with SE are estimated for the EPA urban and highway cycles.

2015 ◽  
Vol 157 ◽  
pp. 762-776 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhiming Gao ◽  
Scott J. Curran ◽  
James E. Parks ◽  
David E. Smith ◽  
Robert M. Wagner ◽  
...  

2019 ◽  
Vol 294 ◽  
pp. 05001
Author(s):  
Patryk Urbański ◽  
Maciej Bajerlein ◽  
Jerzy Merkisz ◽  
Andrzej Ziółkowski ◽  
Dawid Gallas

3D models of Szymkowiak and conventional engines were created in the Solidworks program. During the motion analysis, the characteristics of the piston path were analyzed for the two considered engine units. The imported file with the generated piston routes was used in the AVL Fire program, which simulated combustion processes in the two engines with identical initial conditions. The configurations for two different compression ratios were taken into account. The basic thermodynamic parameters occurring during the combustion process in internal combustion engines were analyzed.


2019 ◽  
pp. 146808741988347
Author(s):  
Alexander H Taylor ◽  
Troy E Odstrcil ◽  
Aswin K Ramesh ◽  
Gregory M Shaver ◽  
Edward Koeberlein ◽  
...  

Cylinder deactivation is an efficient strategy for diesel engine exhaust aftertreatment thermal management. Temperatures in excess of 200 °C are necessary for peak NO x conversion efficiency of the aftertreatment system. However, during non-fired engine operation, known as motoring, conventional diesel engines pump low-temperature air through the aftertreatment system. One strategy to mitigate this is to deactivate valve motion during engine motoring. There is a specific condition where care must be taken to avoid compressor surge during the onset of valve deactivated motoring when following high load operation. This study proposes and validates an algorithm which (1) predicts the intake manifold pressure increase instigated while transitioning into cylinder deactivation during motoring, (2) estimates future mass air flow, and (3) avoids compressor surge by implementing staged cylinder deactivation during the onset of engine motoring operation.


Author(s):  
Sanjana Ahmad ◽  
David L. Greene

Since 1975, the fuel economy of passenger cars and light trucks has been regulated by the corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards, established during the energy crises of the 1970s. Calls to increase fuel economy are usually met by a fierce debate on the effectiveness of the CAFE standards and their impact on highway safety. A seminal study of the link between CAFE and traffic fatalities was published by R. W. Crandall and J. D. Graham in 1989. They linked higher fuel economy levels to decreases in vehicle weight and correlated the decline in new car weight with about a 20% increase in occupant fatalities. The time series available to them, 1947–1981, includes only the first 4 years of fuel economy regulation, but any statistical relationship estimated over such a short period is questionable. This paper reexamines the relationship between U.S. light-duty vehicle fuel economy and highway fatalities from 1966 to 2002. Cointegration analysis reveals that the stationary linear relationships between the average fuel economy of passenger cars and light trucks and highway fatalities are negative: higher miles per gallon is significantly correlated with fewer fatalities. Log–log models are not stable and tend to produce statistically insignificant (negative) relationships between fuel economy and traffic fatalities. These results do not definitively establish a negative relationship between light-duty vehicle fuel economy and highway fatalities; instead they demonstrate that national aggregate statistics cannot support the assertion that increased fuel economy has led to increased traffic fatalities.


Author(s):  
Michael McGhee ◽  
Ziman Wang ◽  
Alexander Bech ◽  
Paul J Shayler ◽  
Dennis Witt

The changes in thermal state, emissions and fuel economy of a 1.0-L, three-cylinder direct injection spark ignition engine when a cylinder is deactivated have been explored experimentally. Cylinder deactivation improved engine fuel economy by up to 15% at light engine loads by reducing pumping work, raising indicated thermal efficiency and raising combustion efficiency. Penalties included an increase in NOx emissions and small increases in rubbing friction and gas work losses of the deactivated cylinder. The cyclic pressure variation in the deactivated cylinder falls rapidly after deactivation through blow-by and heat transfer losses. After around seven cycles, the motoring loss is ~2 J/cycle. Engine structural temperatures settle within an 8- to 13-s interval after a switch between two- and three-cylinder operation. Engine heat rejection to coolant is reduced by ~13% by deactivating a cylinder, extending coolant warm-up time to thermostat-opening by 102 s.


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