A compound charging system that pairs a turbocharger with a supercharger seems to be a potential trend for future passenger car gasoline engines, as the strength of both could be enhanced and the deficiencies of each could be offset. The use of a fixed-ratio positive-displacement supercharger system on a downsized turbocharged gasoline engine has already appeared on the market. Although such systems can achieve enhanced low-end torque and improved transient response, several challenges still exist. An alternative solution to the fixed-ratio positive-displacement supercharger is the V-Charge variable ratio centrifugal supercharger. This technology utilizes a Torotrak continuously variable transmission (CVT) coupled to a centrifugal compressor for near silent boosting. With a wide ratio spread of 10:1 and rapid rate of ratio change, the compressor speed can be set independently of the engine speed to provide an exact boost pressure for the required operating points, without the need to recirculate the air through a bypass valve. A clutch and an active bypass valve can also be eliminated, due to the CVT capability to down-speed, thus improving the noise vibration and harshness performance. This paper will, for the first time, present and discuss the V-Charge technology optimization and experimental validation on a 1.0 L GTDI engine to achieve a better brake specific fuel consumption and transient response over the turbo-only and the fixed-ratio positive-displacement supercharger solution. The potential for the V-Charge system to increase the low-end torque and enable a down-speeding strategy is also discussed.
To secure the highly challenging 2°C climate change limit, the automotive sector is expected to further improve the efficiency of the internal combustion engines. Over the past decade, internal combustion engine downsizing through turbocharging has become one of the major solutions that the industry has offered to fulfil its carbon commitment. Although the various new turbocharging technologies has changed the sluggish image of conventional turbocharged engines, the turbocharger system is far from perfect. From the perspective of engine energy flow, the copious amount of waste energy is habitually harvested by the turbine with low efficiency, subsequently the turbine power transmitted to the compressor is used solely to charge the engine. When this power for charging is excessive for the set engine operating condition, it either is consumed by throttling or is directly discharged through the wastegate, both as a pure enthalpy loss. To more efficiently harness the waste energy without deteriorating other engine performance parameters, a full electric turbocharging technology is proposed by Aeristech Ltd. The system is composed of an electric turbo generator and an electric compressor connected only through electrical system. Without the constraint of a mechanical turboshaft, the compressor and the turbine can be operated at different speeds. The electrically driven compressor can be free floating when boost is not required and the motor can provide the boost promptly only when higher load is requested. Meanwhile, the electric turbine can be controlled by the generator to operate at any set speed, allowing maximum efficiency for energy harvesting. This paper presents a simulation study of the capability of the decoupled eTurbocharging system to charge a highly boosted 2 litre gasoline engine. The single stage eTurbocharger configuration and the eTurbocharger plus a mechanical turbocharger configuration were evaluated and compared. The simulation results have revealed that the two stage eTurbocharging system has the potential to reduce CO2 emission in the proximity of 1 percent in different drive cycles compared to conventional wastegate turbocharger and the benefit would be much higher for future real world driving cycle. The single stage configuration was shown to be impractical in that the power level of the turbine generator will not only limit the engine power output, but also have negative impact on the system design, cooling and cost implied. Meanwhile, the two stage configuration where the eCompressor acts as a supplementary boost device at low end and transient device came out as a better solution with overall advantage in manageable power level, system efficiency, transient response and implied cost.
In our previous paper, a new gas exchange concept termed Divided Exhaust Period Regulated 2-stage (DEP R2S) system has been proposed. In this system, two exhaust valves in each cylinder are separately functioned with one valve feeding the exhaust mass flow into the high pressure (HP) manifold whilst the other valve evacuating the remaining mass flow directly into the low pressure (LP) manifold. By adjusting the timing of the exhaust valves, the target boost can be controllable whilst improving the engine’s pumping work and scavenging is attainable which results in better fuel efficiency from the gas exchange perspective. This paper will continue this study by adding an appropriate knock model to examine the benefits this concept could bring to the combustion phasing. The results at full load showed that under knock limited spark advance (KLSA) and fully optimized exhaust valve timing condition, the DEP R2S system benefited from lower pumping loss and better scavenging due to the reduced backpressure and improved pulsation interference despite suffering from reduced expansion ratio and expansion work. The combustion phasing was advanced across the engine speed which is mainly attributed to the reduced residual and the reduced requirement of gross IMEP. The net BSFC was observed to improve by up to 3% depending on the engine operating points. At part load, the DEP R2S system could be used as a mechanism to extend the ‘duration’ of the exhaust valve. This will reduce the recompression effect of the exhaust residuals during the beginning and the end of the exhaust stroke compared to the original R2S model with late exhaust valve opening and early exhaust valve opening. In addition, increased internal EGR due to the increased overlap between the LP and the intake valve is also beneficial for the improved PMEP as the throttle can be further opened to reduce the corresponding throttling loss. The average net BSFC improvement is expected to be approximately 6–7%.
For an internal combustion engine, a large quantity of fuel energy (accounting for approximately 30% of the total combustion energy) is expelled through the exhaust without being converted into useful work. Various technologies including turbocompounding and the pressurized Brayton bottoming cycle have been developed to recover the exhaust heat and thus reduce the fuel consumption and CO2 emission. However, the application of these approaches in small automotive power plants has been relatively less explored because of the inherent difficulties, such as the detrimental backpressure and higher complexity imposed by the additional devices. Therefore, research has been conducted, in which modifications were made to the traditional arrangement aiming to minimize the weaknesses. The turbocharger of the baseline series turbocompounding was eliminated from the system so that the power turbine became the only heat recovery device on the exhaust side of the engine, and operated at a higher expansion ratio. The compressor was separated from the turbine shaft and mechanically connected to the engine via continuous variable transmission (CVT). According to the results, the backpressure of the novel system is significantly reduced comparing with the series turbocompounding model. The power output at lower engine speed was also promoted. For the pressurized Brayton bottoming cycle, rather than transferring the thermal energy from the exhaust to the working fluid, the exhaust gas was directly utilized as the working medium and was simply cooled by ambient coolant before the compressor. This arrangement, which is known as the inverted Brayton cycle (IBC) was simpler to implement. Besides, it allowed the exhaust gasses to be expanded below the ambient pressure. Thereby, the primary cycle was less compromised by the bottoming cycle. The potential of recovering energy from the exhaust was increased as well. This paper analyzed and optimized the parameters (including CVT ratio, turbine and compressor speed and the inlet pressure to the bottoming cycle) that are sensitive to the performance of the small vehicle engine equipped with inverted Brayton cycle and novel turbocompounding system, respectively. The performance evaluation was given in terms of brake power output and specific fuel consumption. Two working conditions, full and partial load (10 and 2 bar brake mean effective pressure (BMEP)) were investigated. Evaluation of the transient performance was also carried out. Simulated results of these two designs were compared with each other as well as the performance from the corresponding baseline models. The system models in this paper were built in GT-Power which is a one dimension (1D) engine simulation code. All the waste heat recovery systems were combined with a 2.0 L gasoline engine.
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