Engine Warm up Optimization Using 1D Virtual Tool

Automotive fuel and emission regulations are becoming stringent decade over decade. These regulations are expected to be even more strict in future to control global warming, associated health issues and conserve energy. Automobile industries find it difficult to meet these regulations during the homologation cycle i.e. NEDC (New European Drive Cycle). Experiments and research indicated that engine structural parts achieve steady-state near end of the homologation cycle; which lead to account cold start effects as well during testing. Also, studies have proved that thermal efficiency of an IC engine is severely affected in cold start condition due to higher friction losses, incomplete combustion and their allied effects. Oil and coolant temperature helps in diminishing mechanical losses and achieving complete combustion. Hence, an effective distribution of combustion and friction heat during a cold start period is of utmost importance. The objective of the present study is to assess the intended cooling system configuration (s) for better warm-up through 1D virtual tool FloMASTER®. One dimensional (1D) virtual tools have both time and cost benefits over physical testing and 3D virtual tools with judicious outputs. This work has been conducted in two-phase: (i) Develop baseline engine thermal 1D model and validate with cold ambient test data and (ii) Simulate and analyze different engine cooling system configuration (s) to optimize warm-up. Modifying cooling system configurations as per case2 and case3 predicts coolant warm-up improvement by 25.1% and 19.8% respectively. This improvement will have a direct gain during the homologation testing.