Low Emission Engines: Advantages on the Use of Radiotracer Techniques for the Development of Modern Engines and Lubricants

New environmental regulations require significant reduction of fuel consumption and engine emissions. This implies improvement of the internal combustion (I.C.) process, reduction of friction, development of complex after-treatment systems, and a reduction of oil consumption. New technical challenges are related to fuel dilution problems in diesel and super-ethanol engines; new wear problems are due to fuel dilution and soot loading in the lubricant; clogging and poisoning problems of after-treatment systems are related to oil consumption, etc. Therefore, researchers and engineers need appropriate tools to better understand and solve these new problems. The paper focuses on the combination of modern engine test beds equipped with innovative radionuclide techniques for real-time oil consumption, oil aeration, fuel dilution, and for on-line wear measurement. Improved methods for engine and lubricant testing are presented, which allow reducing significantly test durations while reaching high sensitivities of milligrams in term of oil consumption, of nanometres in terms of wear measurement, and of less than 0.1% in terms of oil dilution and oil aeration.