Predictive Emission Management Based on Pre-Heating for Heavy-Duty Powertrains

Abstract

Hybrid electric vehicles are promising solutions to the need for cleaner transport. Their ability to drive fully electric also opens the possibility of zero local emission operation by turning off the internal combustion engine. However, prolonged periods with the engine turned off result in a cooldown of the aftertreatment system resulting in increased emissions when the engine is restarted. To remedy this problem, an emission management strategy that, based on pre-heating of the aftertreatment system, aims to reduce the impact of a prolonged engine-off event on NOx emissions is developed. The method works by locating each engine-off event and then handling each event separately using an optimization scheme that combines pre-heating and a causal heuristic emission management strategy. The individual events are linked using an equivalence factor that describes the decided trade-off between fuel and NOx. The equivalence factor can be chosen heuristically or iteratively to give the desired result in terms of NOx reduction and fuel consumption. The strategy is evaluated using simulations of a drayage drive cycle with multiple engine-off events. The results from the simulations show that for engine-off times below 0.5 h the strategy can reduce NOx compared to the baseline strategy while using the same amount of fuel. If the strategy is allowed more fuel, significant reductions in NOx can be seen for engine-off times up to 1.5 h, after which an exponential decay in the effectivity of the strategy is observed. It is also shown that the reduction in NOx is fairly linear in the equivalence factor, which gives the procedure of choosing it a predictable behavior.

Keywords

• model-based control
• optimal control
• hybrid vehicles
• thermal management
• engine aftertreatment
• fuel-efficient vehicles