Naturally Aspirated Gasoline Engines and Cylinder Deactivation
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WORKING PAPER 2016-12 Naturally aspirated gasoline engines and cylinder deactivation Authors: Aaron Isenstadt and John German (ICCT); Mihai Dorobantu (Eaton) Date: 21 June 2016 Keywords: Passenger vehicles, advanced technologies, fuel efficiency, technology innovation Introduction The technology assessments Background conducted by the agencies to inform In 2012, the U.S. Environmental The internal combustion engine (ICE) the 2017–2025 rule were conducted Protection Agency (EPA) and the is designed to convert chemical five years ago. The ICCT is now col- Department of Transportation’s energy (fuel) into kinetic energy laborating with automotive suppliers National Highway Traffic Safety (motion of the vehicle). Direct losses to publish a series of working papers Administration (NHTSA) finalized a in engine efficiency are due to the evaluating technology progress and joint rule establishing new greenhouse inherent thermal efficiency, intake new developments in engines, trans- gas and fuel economy standards for and exhaust pumping losses, friction missions, vehicle body design and vehicles.1 The new standards apply within the engine, and engine-driven lightweighting, and other measures. to new passenger cars, light-duty accessory losses. The biggest ineffi- Each paper in the series will evaluate: trucks, and medium-duty passenger ciencies arise from thermal efficiency vehicles, covering model years 2012 • How the current rate of progress limits and intake and exhaust through 2021, with a mid-term review (cost, benefits, market penetra- pumping losses. Reducing the impact in 2017. tion) compares to projections in of these sources of loss is the focus of the rule this briefing. Assuming the fleet mix remains unchanged, the standards require • Recent technology develop- ICEs are heat engines. Gas heated by these vehicles to meet an estimated ments that were not considered combustion in the cylinder is used to combined average fuel economy of in the rule and how they impact do work in turning a crankshaft that 34.1 miles per gallon (mpg) in model cost and benefits powers the vehicle. Heat losses are year 2016, and 49.1 mpg in model year • Customer acceptance issues, by far the largest losses in the engine, 2025, which equates to 54.5 mpg as such as real-world fuel economy, with roughly 60% of the energy from measured in terms of carbon dioxide performance, drivability, reliabil- the fuel lost to heat; about half of that emissions with various credits for ity, and safety. heat is lost to the cooling system and additional climate benefits factored the other half to the exhaust. A wide in. The standards require an average This paper provides an analysis of variety of technologies and engine improvement in fuel economy of developments and trends in naturally designs can increase thermal effi- about 4.1 percent per year. aspirated gasoline engine technology ciencies—i.e. decrease heat loss—by over approximately the past five modifying the gas pressure, tempera- years. A collaboration between ICCT, ture and volume. Two major examples BorgWarner, Eaton, and the ITB of this are increasing compression Group, the paper relies on data from ratio (or expansion ratio), and using 1 US. EPA & NHTSA. EPA/NHTSA Final Rulemaking to Establish 2017 and Later publicly available sources and data alternative thermodynamic cycles Model Years Light-Duty Vehicle Greenhouse and information from the participat- (such as Atkinson). Gas Emissions and Corporate Average Fuel ing automotive suppliers. Economy Standards. Oct. 2012. Web. Jun. Gasoline engines use a spark to 2016. https://www3.epa.gov/otaq/climate/ regs-light-duty.htm#2017-2025 ignite the hot, high-pressure gas for Acknowledgements: Thanks to David Lancaster and Erika Nielsen of BorgWarner for their technical inputs and reviews, as well as Sean Osborne and Joel Kopinsky from the ITB Group for their reviews. © INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL ON CLEAN TRANSPORTATION, 2016 WWW.THEICCT.ORG NATURALLY ASPIRATED GASOLINE ENGINES AND CYLINDER DEACTIVATION combustion. Controlling the air and the intake and exhaust valves open reduction in heat transfer losses,2 at fuel flow regulates load. When the and close. lower engine loads by reducing the engine is not driven at its designed number of running active cylinders maximum power, it requires less air, Variable valve timing (VVT) and and increasing the load on these and the engine’s throttle regulates variable valve lift (VVL) offer cylinders. This reduces active dis- air mass flow. The throttle is almost greater control over the air entering placement, thus increasing manifold always at least partially closed to the engine. VVT allows the timing pressure and reducing pumping ensure the proper amount of air is of valve opening and closing to be losses through a lower pressure dif- aspirated, and it takes work to force varied. More sophisticated systems ferential across the engine. It also air past the partially closed throttle also allow the length and/or height of increases the load on the cylinder, and into the cylinders. This work is the valve opening to be varied (VVL). or brake mean effective pressure referred to as pumping losses. There At low engine loads they permit the (BMEP), which reduces the heat are a multitude of ways to reduce throttle to open further, reducing transfer to the cylinder walls and head as a percent of the fuel energy.3 pumping losses, such as increasing pumping losses. At high loads they exhaust gas recirculation, variable increase airflow for more power, Since these and other technologies valve timing, cylinder deactivation, enabling engine downsizing and/or and design changes, such as tur- and downspeeding the engine. engine downspeeding for additional bocharging or adding transmission All moving parts inside the engine efficiency improvements. VVT can gears, can all reduce pumping and exhibit friction at their interfaces, also be used to control levels of friction losses, the specific engine which must be overcome. The main residual exhaust gases, providing configuration determines the effec- frictional losses in the engine are due additional combustion improvements tiveness of individual technologies. to the valvetrain, the crankshaft, and and pumping loss reductions. For example, implementing cylinder piston contact with cylinder walls. deactivation on an engine already VVL/VVT also facilitate the use of Better lubrication, surface coatings, equipped with VVT will not necessar- and part redesign reduce friction. more efficient combustion cycles, ily achieve the same efficiency gains Additionally, a number of control such as the Atkinson cycle. An as implementation on an engine strategies offer friction and pumping Atkinson-cycle engine trades off without VVT. loss reductions. decreased power for increased efficiency. Essentially, the intake valve TECHNOLOGY HISTORY Accessory losses are due to devices remains open for a longer duration on AND MARKET PENETRATION which are powered by the engine the intake stroke and closes during TRENDS but do not contribute to vehicle the normal compression stroke. This Naturally aspirated gasoline engines motion, such as the air-condition- results in an effective compression have been used for well over a ing compressor, fans, pumps, and ratio that is less than the expansion hundred years. The traditional alternator. Except for the air-con- ratio during the power stroke, and Otto-cycle gasoline engine gradually ditioning compressor, which is only allows the geometric compression used during hot weather, these losses improved over time, but the basic ratio to be increased. This allows typically are relatively low compared design remained remarkably similar more work to be extracted per to other losses in efficiency. There are from the 1890s to the 1970s. All volume of fuel as compared to a many ways to reduce these losses; parts were controlled mechanically. typical Otto-cycle engine. However, A fixed, single camshaft drove the another working paper planned for due to a smaller trapped air mass this series, on thermal management, (a consequence of air being forced 2 Increased load in the cylinder, or brake will discuss some of those methods. out of the cylinder through the mean effective pressure (BMEP), reduces the heat transfer to the cylinder walls An engine’s valves control the flow intake valve early in the compres- and head as a percent of the fuel energy. of air, fuel, and exhaust into and out sion stroke), the power density in the See, for example, Cheng, Wai. “Engine Heat Transfer.” Document posted in MIT of an engine’s combustion chambers. Atkinson cycle is lower than in the Internal Combustion Engines online course. During normal operation, these valves Otto cycle. Increasing the compres- MIT course number 2.61. Slide 19. Spring open and close from 10 to 100 times sion ratio can partially compensate 2008. Accessed June 2016. http://web.mit. edu/2.61/www/Lecture%20notes/Lec.%20 per second. Historically, controlling for this drawback. 18%20Heat%20transf.pdf such rapid valve movement required 3 Wilcutts, M., Switkes, J., Shost, M. and a rotating metal camshaft with fixed Cylinder deactivation allows Tripathi, A., “Design and Benefits of Dynamic Skip Fire Strategies for Cylinder lobes. The camshaft timing and lift the engine to significantly reduce Deactivated Engines,” SAE Int. J. Engines determines when and by how much pumping losses, as well as some 6(1):2013, doi:10.4271/2013-01-0359. 2 INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL ON CLEAN TRANSPORTATION WORKING PAPER 2016-12 NATURALLY ASPIRATED GASOLINE ENGINES AND CYLINDER DEACTIVATION Table 1. Penetration rates of select technologies in cars and light trucks. 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 GDI — — — 2.3% 4.2% 8.3% 15.4% 22.6% 30.7% 37.7% 45.6% VVT 38.5% 45.8% 55.4% 57.3% 58.2% 71.5% 83.8% 93.1% 96.7% 97.7% 97.9% 98.2% DEAC — 0.8% 3.6% 7.3% 6.7% 7.3% 6.4% 9.5% 8.1% 7.7% 10.7% 12.8% Multi-valve 62.3% 65.6% 71.7% 71.7% 76.4% 83.8% 85.5% 86.4% 91.9% 93.1% 89.4% 89.4% Stop-start — — — — — — — — 0.6% 2.3% 5.1% 6.6% Notes—GDI = gasoline direct injection.