Pablo Olmeda

Analytical approach to wear rate determination for internal combustion engine condition monitoring based on oil analysis

Abstract Wear has important, negative effects on the functioning of engine parts. Additionally, this situation is very difficult to evaluate accurately in oil analysis for engine condition monitoring. Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM), lubricant suppliers and oil analysis laboratories provide specific guidelines for wear metal concentrations. These limits provide good general guidelines for interpreting oil analysis data, but do not take into account common factors that influence the concentration of wear debris and contaminants in an oil sample. These factors involve oil consumption, fresh oil additions, etc., and particular features such as engine age, type of service, environmental conditions, etc. In this paper, an analytical approach to enable a more accurate wear determination from engine oil samples is developed. The above factors are taken into account and an improved maintenance program for internal combustion engines based on oil analysis is developed.

A New Tool to Perform Global Energy Balances in DI Diesel Engines

The support of the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia (PAID06-09) and Generalitat Valenciana (GV/2010/045) is greatly acknowledged.

An experimental procedure to determine heat transfer properties of turbochargers

Heat transfer phenomena in turbochargers have been a subject of investigation due to their importance for the correct determination of compressor real work when modelling. The commonly stated condition of adiabaticity for turbochargers during normal operation of an engine has been revaluated because important deviations from adiabatic behaviour have been stated in many studies in this issue especially when the turbocharger is running at low rotational speeds/loads. The deviations mentioned do not permit us to assess properly the turbine and compressor efficiencies since the pure aerodynamic effects cannot be separated from the non-desired heat transfer due to the presence of both phenomena during turbocharger operation. The correction of the aforesaid facts is necessary to properly feed engine models with reliable information and in this way increase the quality of the results in any modelling process. The present work proposes a thermal characterization methodology successfully applied in a turbocharger for a passenger car which is based on the physics of the turbocharger. Its application helps to understand the thermal behaviour of the turbocharger, and the results obtained constitute vital information for future modelling efforts which involve the use of the information obtained from the proposed methodology. The conductance values obtained from the proposed methodology have been applied to correct a procedure for measuring the mechanical efficiency of the tested turbocharger.

Determination of heat flows inside turbochargers by means of a one dimensional lumped model

Abstract In the present paper, a methodology to calculate the heat fluxes inside a turbocharger from diesel passenger car is presented. The heat transfer phenomenon is solved by using a one dimensional lumped model that takes into account both the heat fluxes between the different turbocharger elements, as well as the heat fluxes between the working fluids and the turbocharger elements. This heat transfer study is supported by the high temperature differences between the working fluids passing through a typical diesel turbocharger. These flows are the hot exhaust gases coming from the diesel engine exhaust passing through the turbine, the fresh air taken by the compressor, and the lubrication oil passing through the housing. The model has been updated to be used with a new generation of passenger car turbochargers using an extra element in the heat transfer phenomenon that is the water cooling circuit. This procedure allows separating the aerodynamic from the heat transfer effects, permitting to study the behavior of compressor and turbine in a separated way.

A Tool for Predicting the Thermal Performance of a Diesel Engine

This paper presents a thermal network model for the simulation of the transient response of diesel engines. The model was adjusted by using experimental data from a completely instrumented engine run under steady-state and transient conditions. Comparisons between measured and predicted material temperatures over a wide range of engine running conditions show a mean error of 7°C. The model was then used to predict the thermal behavior of a different engine. Model results were checked against oil and coolant temperatures measured during engine warm-up at constant speed and load, and on a New European Driving Cycle. Results show that the model predicts these temperatures with a maximum error of 3°C.

Importance of Mechanical Losses Modeling in the Performance Prediction of Radial Turbochargers under Pulsating Flow Conditions

This work presents a study to characterize and quantify the mechanical losses in small automotive turbocharging systems. An experimental methodology to obtain the losses in the power transmission between the turbine and the compressor is presented. The experimental methodology is used during a measurement campaign of three different automotive turbochargers for petrol and diesel engines with displacements ranging from 1.2 l to 2.0 l and the results are presented. With this experimental data, a fast computational model is fitted and used to predict the behaviour of mechanical losses during stationary and pulsating flow conditions, showing good agreement with the experimental results. During pulsating flow conditions, the delay between compressor and turbine makes the mechanical efficiency to fluctuate. These fluctuations are shown to be critical in order to predict the turbocharger behaviour.

Importance of Heat Transfer Phenomena in Small Turbochargers for Passenger Car Applications

This paper is partially supported by the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia PAID-06-11 2034.

Experimental Methodology to Characterize Mechanical Losses in Small Turbochargers

Turbocharging and turbocharger phenomena have been studied by many authors covering a wide range of subjects. One of these subjects, and objective of this work, is mechanical losses due to friction. Current work presents a methodology to characterize mechanical losses in small size turbochargers. Such methodology is based on low and constant operating temperature values for the turbine, lubricating oil, and compressor. In this way, a quasi-adiabatic operation of the turbocharger is achieved which allows separating friction power from heat transfer. The experiments performed have covered variations in turbocharger speed, lubricating oil pressure and temperature. Heat flows between turbine and compressor has been maintained as reduced as possible by means of the experiment conditions. The results obtained show satisfactory correlation between mechanical efficiency of the studied turbocharger and non-dimensional magnitudes.Copyright

General Procedure for the Determination of Heat Transfer Properties in Small Automotive Turbochargers

The work has been partially supported by Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad, Secretaria de Estado de Investigacion. Subdireccion de proyectos de investigacion (TRA2013-40853-R).

A Combination of Swirl Ratio and Injection Strategy to Increase Engine Efficiency

The support of GM Global R&D and the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (TRA2014-58870-R,) is greatly acknowledged.