Automotive Science and Engineering

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In this study, a numerical simulation using the CFD software, FLUENT, has been conducted to examine the effect of various shapes of the venturi component sections in order to find the optimum venturi specifications to increase the EGR rate with minimum pressure loss at the part load operation range. The CFD results reveal that the venturi should be precisely optimized to introduce the required amount of EGR to the engine manifold. Then, the optimum venturi was manufactured, and it was installed on the engine intake system. By using the optimum Venturi EGR system instead of original system the 26% increase in EGR flow rate to the engine manifold is observed. In the second part of the paper, an experimental investigation was carried out on a “Lister 8-1” dual fuel (diesel – natural gas) engine to examine the simultaneous effect of inlet air pre-heating and EGR on performance and emission characteristics of a dual fuel engine. The use of EGR at high levels seems to be unable to improve the engine performance at part loads, however, it is shown that EGR combined with pre-heating of inlet air can slightly increase thermal efficiency, resulting in reduced levels of both UHC and NOx emissions. CO and HC emissions were reduced by 24% and 31%, respectively. The NOx emissions were decreased by 21% because of the lower combustion temperature due to the much inert gas brought by EGR and decreased oxygen concentration in the cylinder.

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A newly developed heavy duty diesel engine in dual fuel mode of operation has been studied in detail. The main fuel would be natural gas and diesel oil as pilot injection. The importance and effects of mixture preparation and formation through ports, valves and in cylinder flow field with different swirl ratio and tumble on diesel combustion phenomena is an accepted feature which has been studied using a developed CFD model together with a KIVA3-V2 code. This analysis is capable to investigate engine geometry, valves lift, and valves timing turbo charging, and its effects on dynamic flow field with variable dual fuel ratio on power and emission levels output. This complete open cycle study of a dual fuel engine has been carried out originally and for the first time and by considering complete grid consisted of four moving valves, two intake ports, two exhaust ports, and the port runners. It is found that important complex flow structures are developed during the intake stroke. While many of these structures decay during the compression stroke, swirl and tumble can survive. The effect of increased swirl ratio at the end of the compression stroke for the D87 engine with a piston bowl is clearly observed in this study. This is important for aiding in good fuel spray atomization. The formation, development, and break-up of tumble flow are seen, contributing to an increase in turbulent kinetic energy at the end of the compression stroke. The complete engine flow field, i.e. the inlet jet, and formation of swirl in the intake ports, is also clearly shown in the study. Results of these simulations assist in the improved understanding of the intake process and its influence on mixture formation and flow field in a dual fuel engine.

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This paper investigates the effect of temperature on a hybrid energy storage system with various energy management systems. The hybrid energy storage system consists of a fuel cell, ultracapacitor and battery with associated DC/DC and DC/AC converters. The energy management strategies employed are the state machine control strategy, fuzzy frequency/logic decoupling strategy, minimization strategy of equivalent consumption (ECMS) and external energy maximization strategy (EEMS). Initially, a module of 3.3v 2.3Ah LiPo4 batteries consisting of 15 cells in series and 15 rows in parallel are studied without considering the temperature effect. In the next step, the studies are repeated considering the temperature variation effects. The current and SOC associated with the battery, the hydrogen consumption, and battery life are studied for each strategy. The results suggest that the errors associated with the battery life estimation, as well as the battery current are significant with and without considering the temperature effects with the values of 30% and 20%, respectively.

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As an effective means of displacing fossil fuel consumption and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) have attracted more and more attentions. From the power grid perspective, PHEVs and PEVs equipped with batteries can also be used as energy storage facilities, due to the fact that, these vehicles are parked most of the time. Since, the temperature has a strong influence on the battery life-time and also the inherent characteristics of PHEV/PEV energy storage systems limit their use as appropriate resources for energy tuning, this paper, at first, presents a detailed model for energy storage systems of PEVs considering the cooling system and set temperature, and then, it proposes a reliable energy management method for scheduling of PEVs in the multi-microgrid (MMG) systems for both faulted and normal operations using parametric multi-objective function. The simulation results indicate that, considering proper energy management of energy storage systems of PEVs has significant influence on energy scheduling of MMG systems. For this investigation, all data analysis and simulations were done and implemented in MATLAB/Simulink environment.

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Nowadays, with increasing environmental pollution and damages that threaten the health of the community, a lot of research is being conducted on reducing the emission from transportation sector as one of the main sources of total worldwide emissions. It is confirmed that one of the ways to reduce emission is to switch from fossil-based fuels to more environmentally benign fuels. Among the options, electric vehicles (EVs) have proven themselves as one of the best options. In this research study, a solar-based EV which is developed and built at University of Tehran is studied.  The environmental impacts assessment along with the energy consumption of this solar-electric vehicle is investigated

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One of the most significant issues of recent decades is pollution and dangers that may threat the environment. Different approaches were presented to protect the environment and target various sources of pollution. Old vehicles are one of the major sources of pollution in megacities as they consume and emit a lot of emissions. Therefore governments in different countries try to levy tax on pollution to motivate people to drive environment friendly and more efficient vehicles.
Tehran is one of the cities suffering rigorously from poor air quality. As a result, approximately 44 days in each year the air quality reckons as unhealthy for all residents. One of the suggested solutions is replacing conventional taxis across the city with hybrid electric vehicles. In this article this solution for the city of Tehran, Iran will be discussed and its feasibility will be evaluated using life cycle assessment.  
In order to conduct this, first data associated with air quality, pollution and taxis distribution in the city were presented. Then different designated vehicles were evaluated based on their technical performance and the emission they generate in different stages. Using the proposed model a comprehensive cost is defined and different vehicles were compared and the most viable choices by various considerations is introduced.

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Use of natural gas has been proposed as one of the solutions to reduce fossil fuel consumption such as petrol and gasoline, which emit more pollutants. In this regard, more attention has been directed toward use of natural gas due to its high calorific value and low pollution. This paper studies the effect of different fluid rotation coefficients in parallel form with a surface of a piston bowl (Swirl). And, it attempts to explore the changing effects of this indicator on power and major pollutants of sparking ignition gas engines. Three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics are employed to simulate the procedure. Open-cycle engine, the moment between air-intake-valve opens and the exhaust-valve opens, is simulated through applying combustion equations of turbulence and emissions. First, the results are validated based on experimental data. Then, an analysis of different rotation coefficients is used to compare the temperature and pressure inside the cylinder, productivity, and the amount of generated pollution. The results demonstrate that changing the shape of entrance port, which leads to concomitant change in the fluid rotation rate in the chamber, causes a slight change in the output power. But, the change has a significant impact on the production of pollutants.

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The hydrogen fuel cell is one of the latest technologies used in fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs), which uses hydrogen gas to supply the electrical energy needed by the electric engines. The proposed topology has boost function and uses a novel diodes and switches network, which leads to the creation of an integrated system with high efficiency and high voltage gain. Other advantages of the proposed converter are small size, low voltage and current stresses on all the components, less component count, continuous input current and light weight; which makes it more efficient compared to existing structures. In this regard, theoretical calculations and steady state analysis for the proposed system have been presented. Also, in order to verify the performance of the proposed converter, it has been simulated in the MATLAB/Simulink software environment at the rated power of 1kW, with an output voltage of 220V and an output current of 4.55A, and the results have been presented in detail. The peak efficiency of the proposed converter reached 97.4% at half power, and the efficiency at rated power was reported 96%. Moreover, in the proposed structure, the voltage stress of capacitors, diodes and switches reaches the maximum value of 63%, 83% and 41% of the output voltage, respectively; which are promising values. Finally, to verify the performance of the proposed converter and the relationships obtained, a 1kW prototype is built in the laboratory to demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed converter.
 

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The global transition towards renewable energy necessitates efficient energy storage solutions to address the intermittency of renewable sources. Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), widely utilized in electric vehicles (EVs) for their high energy density and efficiency, yet their performance at low temperatures remains a challenge. This study investigates the influence of electrolyte solvent composition on LIB performance under low-temperature conditions. Three electrolytes were studied: a standard electrolyte (STDE) comprising 1 M LiPF₆ in ethylene carbonate (EC) and diethyl carbonate (DEC), a low-temperature electrolyte (LTE) consisting of 1 M LiPF₆ in EC, ethyl methyl carbonate (EMC), and ethyl acetate (EA), and a long-cycle-life electrolyte (LCLE) containing 1 M LiPF₆ in EC/EMC. The EIS results revealed significant differences in resistance values among the electrolytes at varying temperatures. Specifically, at 0 °C, the STDE exhibited a charge transfer resistance (R_ct) of 1055.3 Ω and a solid electrolyte interface resistance (R_SEI) of 803.4 Ω, whereas the LTE showed a substantially lower R_ct of 507.4 Ω and R_SEI of 64.2 Ω, indicating superior low-temperature performance. Similarly, at -20 °C, the R_ct values for STDE, LTE, and LCLE were 8878.6 Ω, 854.2 Ω, and 15622 Ω, respectively, with corresponding R_SEI values of 172.1 Ω, 92.4 Ω, and 2364 Ω. Notably, the addition of EA in the LTE formulation contributed to enhanced low-temperature performance, likely by lowering the overall viscosity of the electrolyte mixture and improving ionic mobility. This study demonstrates the critical role of solvent composition, particularly EA, in optimizing LIB performance for cold climate applications.
 

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High-entropy oxides (HEOs) are single-phase crystal structures composed of multiple metal elements that provide great potential for energy storage applications due to the synergistic effect of various metal species. They are considered effective anode materials for high-performance lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) because of their structural stability, high electronic conductivity, and ability to create anode materials with novel structures using several elemental compounds. Because the effects of different types of electrochemically active elements on the properties of anode materials are unknown, it is necessary to develop HEOs and investigate their properties. Herein, to explore the electrochemical properties of HEOs by changing the content of cations with various mechanisms for storing lithium, we prepared three samples of HEOs with spinel structure using the solid-state method, one of which is equimolar ((MgNiTiFeZn)_0.6O₄) and two numbers are near-equimolar ((Mg_0.6Ni_0.6Ti_0.3Fe_0.9Zn_0.6)O₄ and (Mg_0.6Ni_0.6Ti_0.3Zn_0.9Fe_0.6)O₄)). For structural properties determination, X-ray diffraction analysis was used. The results confirmed the formation of three single-phase high-entropy oxides.
Electrochemical tests indicated the structural stability of three compounds of high entropy oxides, and the composition of (MgNiTiFeZn)_0.6O₄, relative to the others, has better rate capability (163 mAhg⁻¹ at 1000 mAg^–1) and higher discharge capacity (220 mAhg⁻¹ at 200 mAg^–1) after 200 cycles.