Evaluation of technological solutions for compliance of environmental legislation in light-duty passenger: A numerical and experimental approach

摘要

This work includes an original approach that combines on-road experimental fuel use and emission maps and a numerical analysis to assess the impacts of fuel efficiency and NOx emission reduction technologies on a light-duty passenger vehicle. The solutions analyzed include Stop/Start, vehicle mass reduction up to 100 kg, drag coefficient reduction, as well as SCR and Lean NOx Trap systems. For this purpose, a reference EURO 6 diesel vehicle was monitored under real world driving conditions with a PEMS and the experimental data obtained allowed building engine maps of fuel use and NOx emission to be used on AVL Cruise software. The results obtained with Cruise were firstly validated with the experimental data (with errors up to 10,6% on fuel and 17,5% on NOx) and then the solutions implemented were tested individually and simulated on 48 real-world driving cycles. The results pointed to Stop/Start, mass reduction of 100 kg and SCR as the most effective solutions in reducing fuel consumption and NOx emission up to 14,6% and 57,5%, respectively, depending on driving context. The combination of these technologies was tested and the results showed maximum fuel savings of 17% on urban context and a maximum reduction of 58% on NOx on combined driving cycles. Despite all the efforts, real-world driving presents NOx emissions not yet compliant with standards, indicating the need for new strategies in order to face the environmental challenges.