Background, Thermal insulative coatings are an area of high interest in the diesel engine community; these coatings offer the potential to reduce heat losses through the piston to the engine oil and coolant. The energy can then serve to increase the engine power output and to increase exhaust temperatures, which is useful for aftertreatment thermal management and waste heat recovery. However, the design and…, Approach, An optical periscope was built to replace one of the exhaust valves on the engine. A yttrium aluminum garnet phosphor applied to the surface of the piston emits a temperature-dependent spectrum between 450-500 nm when illuminated with a 355 nm laser. Measurement of the spectral features from this phosphorescence allows for a direct measurement of the temperature of the piston surface. Optical…, Accomplishments, Spectral data have been acquired for a phosphor-coated steel piston. Correlation data to convert the spectral lines into a temperature measurement will be collected to complete the work and validate the experimental method and thermal models of the combustion-piston system.
Type: IRD Synopsis
Background, Simultaneous demands for improved efficiency, reduced emissions, and reduced weight have pushed many engine components (specifically cylinder heads) up against the limits of design, materials, and manufacturing capabilities. Additive manufacturing (AM) offers the potential of new design approaches to these issues. However, complex parts such as cylinder heads produced to date via AM have failed…, Approach, This project aimed to design an advanced cylinder head for ultra-high PCP capability by exploring two design paths: DOE and Topology Optimization. Each path first explored the structural requirements of the cylinder head, including combustion seal deflection and stress response to pressure loading via FEA. Cooling features were then evaluated though iterations of cooling flow CFD analysis. The…, Accomplishments, DOE simulations revealed different features were most influential in preventing cylinder head fire deck deflection when AM-based features are available compared using sand cast-only features in the design. A topology optimization path was introduced and refined that allowed input of several important cylinder head parameters such as component stress, fire deck deflection, and head bolt load. To…
Type: IRD Synopsis
Background, Regulated emissions output for medium-duty diesel engines are set to be significantly reduced over the coming decade. There are significant concerns that diesel engines will have difficulty meeting these future NOx and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission standards with reasonable aftertreatment costs. New technologies, such as cooled EGR, have recently been developed for stoichiometric SI engines which…, Approach, The SwRI high-efficiency medium-duty single-cylinder engine was operated on natural gas fuel with a first-generation (Gen 1) and second-generation (Gen 2) combustion system. The Gen 1 combustion system was had a compression ratio of 9:1, while the Gen 2 system had a compression ratio of 12:1. The cylinder head was also modified to adjust the tumble ratio and turbulent kinetic energy, as well as…, Accomplishments, The gross-efficiency of the second-generation combustion system increased almost 5% at some operating conditions. Gross efficiency achieved almost 45.5% as well. The increase of efficiency was mostly due to the increase compression ratio, but the changes to the cylinder head to optimize tumble ratio and flow performance also improved overall losses of the engine at some operating conditions as…
Type: IRD Synopsis
Background, Passive pre-chamber ignition systems have been identified throughout the industry as a promising technology for fuel efficiency improvement and emission reduction. Their performance is quite robust in a controlled laboratory environment, but they have been found to be extremely sensitive to residual exhaust concentrations and the ability to control the fresh air to fuel ratio within the chamber.…, Approach, The project work scope included a combination of simulation and experimental testing to explore the viability of a passive pre-chamber ignition system for improved engine efficiency and combustion performance. The primary engine hardware used for this project was a four-cylinder PSA 1.6 liter EP6CDTx engine. Initial CFD simulations were carried out for five cycles to verify whether the designed…, Accomplishments, The PCSP engine showed faster MFB 10-90 durations than the baseline engine at all operating points. At low loads, the MFB 10-90 durations were 8% faster on average while only 3% faster on average at higher loads. However, the PCSP engine showed 1% higher Indicated Specific Fuel Consumption (ISFC) on average compared to the baseline engine at most operating conditions. One exception was at 3000…
Type: IRD Synopsis
Background, Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) is a process commonly used to remediate pollutants from diesel engines. This process incorporates an externally supplied reductant, typically ammonia (NH3), to convert NOX (oxides of nitrogen) to N2 (nitrogen) and H2O (water). The NH3 is generated through the decomposition of a 32.5 wt.% Urea-Water Solution (UWS), known in industry as Diesel Exhaust Fluid (DEF…, Approach, In this work, both the surfactant and catalyst type and concentration were optimized such that low-temperature deposit generation would be reduced while balancing the cost and commercial producibility of the solution. Eighteen surfactants underwent a surface tension evaluation study to determine the type and concentration impact of surfactant on surface tension reduction of UWS. Six distinct…, Accomplishments, A surfactant and catalyst modified UWS was successfully optimized in this program, and sufficiently reduced deposits while simultaneously ensuring the fluid can be produced commercially at a viable price point of less than $0.10 per gallon. The surfactant concentration was reduced by 94% (from initial evaluations) while maintaining surface tension reduction of over 50%. When optimizing the…
Type: IRD Synopsis
Background, Electric vehicles have been increasing in popularity in recent years. The drive units (motor, gear reduction, differential, and power electronics) within these electric vehicles typically use a petroleum-based fluid to lubricate the gear train and cool the electric motor and/or power electronics. There is a high likelihood that the fluid may encounter high-voltage components; therefore, the fluid…, Approach, The objective of this project was to develop a method to accurately and repeatably measure an electric drive unit’s electrical power consumption and mechanical power output to calculate overall drive unit efficiency while on a test stand so that it can be used to evaluate different drive unit fluids. The 150 kW Chevrolet Bolt drive unit was used as the device under test. The original equipment…, Accomplishments, The results from the testing were analyzed to determine the within-set, set-to-set and total variation produced by the developed test procedure. The target was to be able to detect an efficiency difference of ≤ 0.5% with 95% confidence. There were a few points that had too much variation to achieve this target. These points were at relatively low power where the signal-to-noise ratio of the…
Type: IRD Synopsis
Background, As the automotive industry moves towards electrification, certain areas of the industry will turn to fuel cell technology. Since fuel cells are much more energy dense than current battery technology, they will be the ideal zero-emissions choice for HD/MD applications. The 2021 Toyota Mirai is a state-of-the-art fuel cell powered vehicle on the market. Benchmarking the 2021 Mirai will provide SwRI…, Approach, A 2021 Toyota Mirai will be instrumented to measure the power flow of the individual components and systems in the powertrain. On-road tests will be conducted at the SwRI test track to evaluate the fuel cell control strategies at different acceleration rates, cruise speeds and lithium-ion battery SOC levels. Dyno-tests will be conducted in compliance of SAE J2572 to evaluate the fuel economy of…, Accomplishments, A 2021 Toyota Mirai has been purchased and instrumented. The vehicle is powered by Toyota’s state-of-the-art 128-kW humidifier-less fuel cell system and has three hydrogen tanks (Figure 1 top). The key powertrain components were identified, and the structure of the powertrain is shown in Figure 1 bottom. (top) illustration of 2021 Toyota Mirai with key components lighted. (bottom) illustration of…
Type: IRD Synopsis
Background, Emissions regulations will soon become more stringent for mobile applications in most countries worldwide; consequently, the aftertreatment systems must become larger and increasingly complex. In particular, the state of the art in reducing nitrogen oxides (NOx) and particulate matter (PM) from diesel engine exhaust is to use two separate systems, the selective catalytic reduction (SCR) catalyst…, Approach, 21 catalysts were prepared and tested for NO conversion with NH 3 , NO oxidation and NH 3 oxidation. The catalysts were characterized to ensure the synthesis process produced a well-dispersed, well-mixed catalyst. The final formulations were washcoated and loaded with soot using SwRI’s Exhaust Gas Composition Transitory Operation Lab™ (ECTO-Lab™). The soot loaded sample showed soot removal via…, Accomplishments, This internal research project has shown that some mixed metal oxides provide for low temperature PM oxidation and high NH 3 selectivity to NOx reduction instead of NH 3 oxidation. In particular 0.5% Fe on Ce₀.₈Zr₀.₂O₂ and 0.5% Fe on Ce₀.₇₅Pr₀.₂₅O₂ were discovered to be excellent candidates for a novel approach developing a combined CSF/SCR. The right combination of mixed metal oxides and…, Patents/Publications, Technical Paper – SAE 2021-24-0071 Presentation – SAENA ICE 2021 Conference, Capri, IT Presentation – CLEERS 2020 Conference Patent Application – US Patent Application 17/163352
Type: IRD Synopsis
Background, Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) funded a project to deploy sensor platforms for mobile data collection on municipal vehicles with collaboration from a local municipality. The city relies on communication with the public to ensure that problems are addressed in a timely manner and that residents are adequately served. City departments primarily rely on 311 calls from residents to drive…, Approach, City garbage trucks traverse nearly all city streets three times per week for garbage, recycling, and compost collection. This frequent traversal makes these vehicles well-suited to real-time data collection and analysis. As potholes are a frustration for residents, pothole detection was identified as a capability that could be developed in the near term, with a long-term goal of supporting…, Accomplishments, This project was successful in establishing an extensible sensor platform for data collection and analysis initiatives. The platform is shown in Figure 1. Sensor Platform Mounted on SWMD Vehicle Figure 1: Sensor Platform Mounted on SWMD Vehicle The platform currently collects camera data from a downward facing angle, LIDAR data, and GPS data; it also has potential to collect camera data at other…
Type: IRD Synopsis
Background, This Presidential Discretion Internal Research (PDIR) program applied computer vision approaches to a broad range of transportation-focused incident detection challenges, relying only on inputs from a generic infrastructure-mounted traffic camera. Furthermore, the way these techniques were applied was done in such a way that the resulting detection algorithm can be used in a broad range of…, Approach, Our approach leveraged the existing traffic camera infrastructure owned by these agencies to detect actionable data. The suite of proposed detection capabilities target vehicle-related occurrences of note to transportation agencies, including wrong way drivers, stalled vehicles, vehicle speed, and more. For all proposed capabilities, there is a common functional need to first be able to extract…, Accomplishments, With our best object detection model and object tracking algorithm we have accomplished the following capabilities: Wrong Way Driver Detection – enable rapid emergency response. Vehicle Speed Detection – enable developing travel time messages. Vehicle Presence Detection – enable dynamically timing signalized intersections. Vehicle Counts Detection – enable quantifying road use to inform…
Type: IRD Synopsis
