Front End Auxiliary Drive (FEAD) Configurations Focusing on CO2 Benefits

An experimental investigation, using a Design of Experiments approach, has sought to quantify the potential CO₂ savings that could be made by the electrification of certain mechanical devices as part of the Front End Auxiliary Drive (FEAD) on a 2.4 litre DI diesel engine. The experiments considered the electrification of the cooling fan; power assisted steering system, and the vacuum pump. A number of different build configurations have been evaluated on a dynamic testbed over the New European Drive Cycle (NEDC). The overall conclusion is that the move towards electrification of the devices listed would result in a 6-7% saving in CO₂ over the NEDC. These benefits however, need to be considered alongside other issues such as increased on-cost, more control complexity and reliability implications of adopting electrically driven devices.