The need for achieving a fast warm up of the exhaust system has raised in the recent years a growing interest in the adoption of Variable Valve Actuation (VVA) technology for automotive diesel engines. As a matter of fact, different measures can be adopted through VVA to accelerate the warm up of the exhaust system, such as using hot internal Exhaust Gas Recirculation (iEGR) to heat the intake charge, especially at part load, or adopting early Exhaust Valve Opening (eEVO) timing during the expansion stroke, so to increase the exhaust gas temperature during blowdown.In this paper a simulation study is presented evaluating the impact of VVA on the exhaust temperature of a modern light duty 4-cylinder diesel engine, 1.6 liters, equipped with a Variable Geometry Turbine (VGT). Numerical simulations were carried out by means of a commercially available 1D-CFD software (GT-SUITE) and a predictive combustion model (DIPulse) was adopted in order to properly evaluate the impact of different VVA strategies on the combustion process. The analysis was focused on the assessment of the potential of 3 different VVA strategies for managing the exhaust temperature: Early Exhaust Valve Opening (EEVO), obtained by means of valve lift modifications, Exhaust Phasing, by changing the valve timing, and Exhaust Valve ReOpening (EVrO) during the intake stroke for iEGR. Moreover, for the EVrO strategy, two different EGR combinations (iEGR-only and low pressure EGR with iEGR, respectively) were evaluated to identify the best trade-off between the exhaust temperature increase and the Brake Specific Fuel Consumption (BSFC) penalty.Thanks to the abovementioned VVA strategies, in steady state conditions increases in the exhaust temperature up to 70 K with BSFC penalties below 8% at low engine loads were achieved. Finally, the impact of VVA strategies was evaluated under transient conditions over the WLTC (Worldwide harmonized Light vehicles Test Cycle), highlighting a temperature increase of 30 K of the Diesel Oxidation Catalyst after the first 300 s with a total fuel consumption penalty lower than 1%.
Numerical Analysis on the Potential of Different Variable Valve Actuation Strategies on a Light Duty Diesel Engine for Improving Exhaust System Warm Up
Sae Technical Papers
13th International Conference on Engines & Vehicles ; 2017
2017-09-04
Conference paper
English
SAE Technical Papers | 2018
|Potential of variable valve actuation in diesel engines for light duty vehicles
Automotive engineering | 2000
|Development and implementation of variable valve actuation system to a heavy-duty diesel engine
Automotive engineering | 2008
|Full-Load HCCI Operation with Variable Valve Actuation System in a Heavy-Duty Diesel Engine
SAE Technical Papers | 2007
|Variable Valve Actuation and Diesel Engine Retarding Performance
SAE Technical Papers | 1997
|