Study of the Variable Valve Timing Effects on Combustion Quality and Fuel Consumption of an Internal Combustion Engine

The need for a constant evolution of internal combustion engines has encouraged the emergence of new alternatives for the minimization of pollutant emissions, fuel consumption and an increase of the overall performance. The coming years will be marked by the launch of increasingly efficient engines, given the current importance of sustainability in the means of transport. Despite the growing electrification of global mobility, research indicates that the ICE will continue to be the main source of automotive energy in the coming years and, therefore, the study of strategies aimed at optimizing its performance is and will continue to be relevant. In this sense, the purpose of this work is to study the effects of variable valve timing on the experimental calibration of an internal combustion engine intended for research. Different moments of opening and closing of both the intake and exhaust valves were analyzed so that the possible reductions in the specific fuel consumption and the combustion quality improvements could be studied in tests always aimed at maximizing the fuel conversion efficiency. The purpose was to comply with the trend of the current automotive industry, which aims at the production of engines according to international environmental protocols, increasingly restricted in terms of reducing their impact on nature. To this end, two of the most representative fuels in the Brazilian market were tested, the E27 and E100, with particular reference to ethanol, a renewable biofuel with enormous potential to supply the country's future automotive fleet.