Divided Exhaust Period on Heavy-Duty Diesel Engines

Sammanfattning: Due to growing concerns regarding global energy security and environmental sustainability it is becoming increasingly important to increase the energy efficiency of the transport sector. The internal combustion engine will probably continue to be the main propulsion system for road transportation for many years to come. Hence, much effort must be put in reducing the fuel consumption of the internal combustion engine to prolong a future decline in fossil fuel production and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.Turbocharging and variable valve actuation applied to any engine has shown great benefits to engine efficiency and performance. However, using a turbocharger on an engine gives some drawbacks. In an attempt to solve some of these issues and increase engine efficiency further this thesis deals with the investigation of a novel gas exchange concept called divided exhaust period (DEP). The core idea of the DEP concept is to utilize variable valve timing technology on the exhaust side in combination with turbocharging. The principle of the concept is to let the initial high energy blow-down pulse feed the turbocharger, but bypass the turbine during the latter part of the exhaust stroke when back pressure dominates the pumping work. The exhaust flow from the cylinder is divided between two exhaust manifolds of which one is connected to the turbine, and one bypasses the turbine. The flow split between the manifolds is controlled with a variable valve train system.The DEP concept has been studied through simulations on three heavy-duty diesel engines; one without exhaust gas recirculation (EGR), one with short route EGR and one with long route EGR. Simulations show a potential improvement to pumping work, due to reduced backpressure, with increased overall engine efficiency as a result. Although, the efficiency improvement is highly dependent on exhaust valve size and configuration due to issues with choked flow in the exhaust valves. The EGR system of choice also proves to have a high impact on the working principle of the DEP application. Furthermore, the DEP concept allows better control of the boost pressure and allows the turbine to operate at higher efficiency across the whole load and speed range. The option of discarding both wastegate and variable geometry turbine is apparent, and there is little need for a twin-entry type turbine since pulse interference between cylinders is less of an issue.