EGR cylinder deactivation strategy to accelerate the warm-up and restart processes in a Diesel engine operating at cold conditions

The aftertreatment systems used in internal combustion engines need high temperatures for reaching its maximum efficiency. By this reason, during the engine cold start period or engine restart operation, excessive pollutant emissions levels are emitted to the atmosphere. This paper evaluates the impact of using a new cylinder deactivation strategy on a Euro 6 turbocharged diesel engine running under cold conditions (−7°C) with the aim of improving the engine warm-up process. This strategy is evaluated in two parts. First, an experimental study is performed at 20°C to analyze the effect of the cylinder deactivation strategy at steady-state and during an engine cold start at 1500 rpm and constant load. In particular, the pumping losses, pollutant emissions levels and engine thermal efficiency are analyzed. In the second part, the engine behavior is analyzed at steady-state and transient conditions under very low ambient temperatures (−7°C). In these conditions, the results show an increase of the exhaust temperatures of around 100°C, which allows to reduce the diesel oxidation catalyst light-off by 250 s besides of reducing the engine warm-up process in approximately 120 s. This allows to reduce the CO and HC emissions by 70% and 50%, respectively, at the end of the test.

Simulation and Analysis of the Impact of Cylinder Deactivation on Fuel Saving and Emissions of a Medium-Speed High-Power Diesel Engine

The potential benefit of cylinder deactivation (CDA) on power and emission performances has been numerically investigated on a locomotive 16-cylinder diesel engine. A 1D model combined with a predictive friction model and a 3D combustion model based and validated on experimental data have been developed to simulate engine working processes by deactivating half of the cylinders by cutting off the fuel supply and maintaining/cutting off valve motions. The results demonstrate that CDA with the valves closed decreases the BSFC by 11% at 450 rpm and by 14% at 556 rpm with a load of 1000 N∙m, due to increased indicated efficiency and reduced mechanical losses. After deactivating cylinders, frictional losses of piston rings increase in the active cylinders because of the raised gas pressure and the lubricating oil temperature decrease. Friction losses of the main bearings and big-end connecting rod bearings decrease due to the overall load drop. In comparison with the normal operation, CDA with the valves closed decreases the BSCO emission by 75.26% and the BSsoot emission by 62.9%. As the EGR rate is 30%, CDA with the valves closed effectively reduces the BSNOx emission to 4.2 g/(kW·h) at the cost of a 0.8% increase in the BSFC and without the rise in the BSCO emission.

Improving frictional performance of ring-liner system under cylinder deactivation conditions by surface texturing

In this study, a method of surface texture is considered to improve the frictional performance of the ring-liner system (i.e. RLS) under the conditions of cylinder deactivation (i.e. CDA). To assess the effectiveness of the method, a lubrication model is developed with considerations of the liner deformation, the actual rheological properties of lubricant, and the lubricant transport. By solving the model numerically, the friction reduction effect of surface texture for the RLS under the CDA is investigated. The results show that the surface texture can improve the friction properties significantly. For a six-cylinder gasoline engine, 7.57% and 7.28% decreases in the total average friction loss and power loss are observed when the RLS under the CDA is surface textured.

Practical Aspects of Cylinder Deactivation and Reactivation

Cylinder deactivation is an effective measure to reduce the fuel consumption of internal combustion engines. This paper deals with several practical aspects of switching from conventional operation to operation with deactivated cylinders, i.e., gas spring operation with closed intake and exhaust valves. The focus of this paper lies on one particular quantity-controlled stoichiometrically-operated engine where the load is controlled using the valve timing. Nevertheless, the main results are transferable to other engines and engine types, including quality-controlled engines. The first aspect of this paper is an analysis of the transition from fired to gas spring operation, and vice versa, as well as the gas spring operation itself. This is essential for mode changes, such as cylinder deactivation or skip-firing operation. Simulation results show that optimizing the valve timing in the last cycle before deactivating/first cycle after reactivating a cylinder, respectively, is advantageous. We further show that steady-state gas spring operation is reached after approximately 6 s regardless of the initial conditions and the engine speed. The second aspect of this paper experimentally verifies the advantage of optimized valve timings. Furthermore, we show measurements that demonstrate the occurrence of an unavoidable torque ripple, especially when the transition to and from the deactivated cylinder operation is performed too quickly. We also confirm with our experiments that a more gradual mode transition reduces the torque drop.

Minimization of Torque Deviation of Cylinder Deactivation Engine through 48V Mild-Hybrid Starter-Generator Control

Cylinder deactivation (CDA) is an effective technique to improve fuel economy in spark ignition (SI) engines. This technique enhances volumetric efficiency and reduces throttling loss. However, practical implementation is restricted due to torque fluctuations between individual cylinders that cause noise, vibration, and harshness (NVH) issues. To ease torque deviation of the CDA, we propose an in-cylinder pressure based 48V mild-hybrid starter-generator (MHSG) control strategy. The target engine realizes CDA with a specialized engine configuration of separated intake manifolds to independently control the airflow into the cylinders. To handle the complexity of the combined CDA and mild-hybrid system, GT-POWER simulation environment was integrated with a SI turbulent combustion model and 48V MHSG model with actual part specifications. The combustion model is essential for in-cylinder pressure-based control; thus, it is calibrated with actual engine experimental data. The modeling results demonstrate the precise accuracy of the engine cylinder pressures and of quantities such as MAF, MAP, BMEP, and IMEP. The proposed control algorithm also showed remarkable control performance, achieved by instantaneous torque calculation and dynamic compensation, with a 99% maximum reduction rate of engine torque deviation under target CDA operations.

Overview on the Cylinder Deactivationtechniques

"Temporary downsizing" in the form of deactivation of the cylinders is used as an attractive compromise, as it allows to improvefuel consumptionandat the same time it allows sufficient power reserve to meet the requirements of the driver, maintaining driving pleasure as well as comfort regarding noise and vibration levels.The paper aims topresent an overview on the cylinder deactivation techniques focusing on the stakes and challenges related with their implementation.