A Study on the Effects of Coolant Strategy on the Instantaneous Energy Balance During the Warm-up Period in a Spark Ignition Engine

Year 2021, Volume: 5 Issue: 2, 1 - 8, 15.12.2021

Galip Kaltakkıran

Abstract

It is very important to examine the instantaneous effects of energy losses on each other in
order to ensure high efficiency during the warm-up period in internal combustion engines. In
this regard, the effects of energy losses can be examined and some improvements can be
achieved with different thermal energy management strategies involving various
electromechanical components. Two different thermal energy management strategies were
implemented in this study under different operating conditions of the engine. These strategies comprise applications with mechanical and electrical water pump integrated cooling system components. In the configuration with a mechanical pump, the coolant is circulated in the engine block in proportion to the engine speed. Under the same operating conditions, the coolant flow rate was reduced to 50%, in the configuration with the electric water pump. The warm-up time of the engine, instantaneous change in the coolant flow rate and temperature during the warm-up period of the engine, instantaneous input fuel energy balance, and specific fuel consumption were investigated under all operating conditions. As a result, thanks to the electric pump strategy, the engine efficiency was observed to have improved and the total unaccounted energy loss to have reduced. Furthermore, engine warm-up time improved by 2.6% to 8.3% and the specific fuel consumption by 17.9% to 2.1%, respectively, under low and high load conditions. Thus, the coolant control strategy has been shown to have a significant effect on engine efficiency.

Keywords

Energy balance, Coolant flow rate, Warm up, Thermal energy management, SI engine

References

• [1] AVL. Advanced Simulation Technologies: Tools and Methods for Next-Level Simulation Solutions.
• [2] Toda T, Sakai M. The new Toyota inline 4-cylinder 2.5 L gasoline engine. Report (2017). [3] Wang T, Wagner JR. A Smart Engine Cooling System -Experimental Study of Integrated Actuator Transient Behavior (2015) 1.
• [4] Banjac T, Wurzenberger JC, Katrašnik T. Assessment of engine thermal management through advanced system engineering modeling. Advances in Engineering Software (2014) 71:19–33.
• [5] Pulkrabek WW. Engineering fundamentals of the internal combustion engine: Pearson Prentice Hall (2004).
• [6] Mohamed ES. Development and analysis of a variable position thermostat for smart cooling system of a light duty diesel vehicles and engine emissions assessment during NEDC. Applied Thermal Engineering (2016) 99:358–372.
• [7] Praveen SM, Saravanan B, Siddharthan B, Kumaragurubaran SB. Thermal management in conventional diesel engines. Materials Today: Proceedings (2021) 45:1161–1165.
• [8] Tao X, Wagner JR. An engine thermal management system design for military ground vehicle-simultaneous fan, pump and valve control. SAE International Journal of Passenger Cars-Electronic and Electrical Systems (2016) 9(1):243–254.
• [9] Gardiner R, Zhao C, Addison J, Shayler PJ. The effects of thermal state changes on friction during the warm up of a spark ignition engine. In: Vehicle thermal management systems conference proceedings (VTMS11). Elsevier, Coventry Technocentre. p. 307–317.
• [10] Pizzonia F, Castiglione T, Bova S. A Robust Model Predictive Control for efficient thermal management of internal combustion engines. Applied Energy (2016) 169:555–566.
• [11] Kuboyama T, Moriyoshi Y, Iwasaki M, Hara J. A study of cooling system of a spark ignition engine to improve thermal efficiency. In: SICE Annual Conference 2011: IEEE. p. 467–471.
• [12] Castiglione T, Pizzonia F, Bova S. A Novel Cooling System Control Strategy for Internal Combustion Engines. SAE International Journal of Materials and Manufacturing (2016) 9(2).
• [13] Hölz P, Böhlke T, Krämer T. Determining water mass flow control strategies for a turbocharged SI engine using a two-stage calculation method. Applied Thermal Engineering (2019) 146:386–395.
• [14] Gao J, Chen H, Tian G, Ma C, Zhu F. An analysis of energy flow in a turbocharged diesel engine of a heavy truck and potentials of improving fuel economy and reducing exhaust emissions. Energy Conversion and Management (2019) 184:456–465.
• [15] Caresana F, Bilancia M, Bartolini CM. Numerical method for assessing the potential of smart engine thermal management: Application to a medium-upper segment passenger car. Applied Thermal Engineering (2011) 31(16):3559–3568.
• [16] Özcan H. Energy and exergy analyses of Al2O3-diesel-biodiesel blends in a diesel engine. International Journal of Exergy (2019) 28(1):29–45.
• [17] Tang Q, Jiang P, Peng C, Duan X, Zhao Z. Impact of acetone–butanol–ethanol (ABE) and gasoline blends on the energy balance of a high-speed spark-ignition engine. Applied Thermal Engineering (2021) 184:116267.
• [18] Sarıkoç S, Örs İ, Ünalan S. An experimental study on energy-exergy analysis and sustainability index in a diesel engine with direct injection diesel-biodiesel-butanol fuel blends. Fuel (2020) 268:117321.
• [19] Hoseinpour M, Sadrnia H, Tabasizadeh M, Ghobadian B. Energy and exergy analyses of a diesel engine fueled with diesel, biodieseldiesel blend and gasoline fumigation. Energy (2017) 141:2408–2420.
• [20] Romero CA, Torregrosa A, Olmeda P, Martin J. Energy balance during the warm-up of a diesel engine. Report (2014).
• [21] Ribeiro EG, Andrade Filho AP de, Carvalho Meira JL de. Electric water pump for engine cooling. Report (2007).
• [22] Kaltakkıran G, Ceviz MA. The performance improvement of direct injection engines in cold start conditions integrating with phase change material: Energy and exergy analysis. Journal of Energy Storage (2021) 42:102895.
• [23] Aghbashlo M, Tabatabaei M, Mohammadi P, Pourvosoughi N, Nikbakht AM, Goli SAH. Improving exergetic and sustainability parameters of a DI diesel engine using polymer waste dissolved in biodiesel as a novel diesel additive. Energy Conversion and Management (2015) 105:328–337