An analysis of energy flow in a turbocharged diesel engine of a heavy truck and potentials of improving fuel economy and reducing exhaust emissions

The impetus of the internal combustion engine developments is the reductions of the fuel consumptions and exhaust emissions. Thermal management is an efficient method to decrease the exhaust emissions and enhance fuel economy. In order to further optimize the thermal management of internal combustion engines, a detailed analysis of the energy flow in each component of internal combustion engines is indispensable. In this paper, the test bench of a heavy duty diesel engine was established to obtain the target parameters. The energy distributions in each component of the diesel engine, including compressor, intercooler, shaft power, turbine, coolant and exhaust, were calculated using tested parameters. The lubricating oil consumption was also taken into consideration. In addition, the potential influences of different turbochargers on the total thermal efficiency were analyzed. The results showed that the thermal efficiency of the diesel engine was more than 38% when the engine operated at 50%–100% engine load and 1000 rpm–1700 rpm conditions. The energy loss by coolant was more than 50% of the total fuel energy consumption in the low power output conditions. However, it was lower than 30% in high power output conditions, and the thermal loss was more than 150 kW around rated power conditions. The maximum proportion of the energy being consumed by turbine was ∼10% of the fuel energy; additionally, the exhaust energy distributions changed significantly after the turbine expansion. 1%–3% of the fuel energy was recycled by the turbocharger, then, flowed into the cylinders. The energy loss through the intercooler accounted for ∼6% of the fuel energy. Significant reductions of exhaust emissions and fuel consumptions can be achieved by optimizing the coolant and lubricating oil thermal conditions. Turbochargers presented a huge effect on exhaust temperature distributions at high power output conditions, and the total thermal efficiency changed significantly if all kinds of energy recovery approaches were applied.