Recent News
ERC T-25 get-together at 2013 SAE Congress
As usual, we will be having a T-25/ERC get-together on Wednesday morning, April 17th at 7:00AM in the basement food court at the Renaissance Center in Detroit. We would be most pleased to see you again and to re-establish old ties.
For those attending the SAE Congress, the schedule of presentation of ERC papers can be viewed here.
We look forward to seeing you again in Detroit!
ERC Bowling Champion Crowned
Congratulations to the 2012 ERC Team Bowling Champions - Swoll Team Six! Chris Gross, Cory Adams, Matt Blessinger, Nick Neal, Noah Van Dam, and Dustin Witkowski claimed the trophy at the ERC Holiday Party in the Union South bowling alley on the evening of Friday, December 14. The competition for Ugliest Sweater, however, was less hotly contested with Martin Wissink unanimously taking the crown - great job Martin!
Arstechnica references UW ERC work on RCCI in "The Road Head: How we'll get to 54.5 mpg by 2025"
At the end of August this year, the US Department of Transport's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced new standards to significantly improve the fuel economy of cars and light trucks by 2025. Read more
Engine research for a cleaner future
By Christie Taylor, College of Engineering News
The future of clean, efficient transportation is emerging at UW-Madison, where a team of faculty, staff and students explores the fundamentals of spark-ignition and diesel engines and leads the nation in low-temperature combustion and innovative dual-fuel systems research.
In an era of tightening fuel supplies, rising costs and increasingly sustainability minded institutions and industries, finding more efficient ways to transport passengers from point A to point B is an important enterprise.
Centered around the research of seven mechanical engineering professors, the Engine Research Center (ERC) is the largest of its kind in the United States. It continues a long tradition of engine research on campus, which began with engine combustion temperature research in a metal shack in 1946.
Continue reading at College of Engineering News.
Study makes cover of Combustion Theory and Modelling
A study on modeling the subgrid scale mixing effect on detailed kinetics combustion, which was done by Yuxin Zhang and Prof. Christopher Rutland, is recently featured as the cover article by Journal of Combustion Theory and Modelling.
The picture on the cover, obtained by high resolution engine experiments and multi-cycle LES simulation, shows the scalar mixing process found in a production spark ignition engine. The non-reacting scalar field (Figure a) at Bachelor scale is obtained using two-dimensional high accuracy PLIF measurements (B. Petersen, J. Ghandhi, SAE 2010-01-0185). The simulated scalar field at base filter level (Figure b) is sampled in a cycle from the LES simulation at the same operating condition. The high accuracy measurements and high fidelity simulation results provide validation of a formulation of subgrid scale mixing time scale at realistic engine conditions. The mixing time scale, which is based on mixture fraction variance and its dissipation, is used as an important part of the mixing controlled direct chemistry (MCDC) model presented in this cover article.
Combustion Theory and Modelling, Volume 16, Number 3, June 2011, Pages 571-588. ““A Mixing Controlled Direct Chemistry (MCDC) Model for Diesel Engine Combustion Modeling Using Large Eddy Simulation” by Yuxin Zhang and Christopher J. Rutland.
Engine research accolades for Reitz
Wisconsin Distinguished Professor of Mechanical Engineering Rolf Reitz received the U.S. Department of Energy 2012 Energy Vehicle Technologies R&D Award in May. The award recognizes his work on innovative dual-fuel combustion strategies and their significant improvements in efficiency over gasoline- and diesel-only engines. Reitz also won, along with graduate students Derek Splitter and Reed Hanson, the Harry L. Horning Memorial Award at the SAE 2012 Congress. The award recognizes their 2010 paper, “High efficiency, low emissions RCCI combustion by use of a fuel additive,” as the year's best paper related to the better mutual adaptation of fuels and internal combustion engines.
Modeling Biofuels for the U.S. Navy
By Christie Taylor, College of Engineering News
With the help of a $2 million grant from the U.S. Office of Naval Research, mechanical engineers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison will develop a tool to characterize the performance of a new class of alternative fuels that could be used in maritime vehicles such as submarines and aircraft carriers.
Continue reading at College of Engineering News.
SAE Technical Paper cited
CSEG (Computational Science Experts Group) cites , “Analysis of Deviations from Steady State Performance During Transient Operation of a Light Duty Diesel Engine,” SAE Technical Paper 2012-01-1067, 2012, doi:10.4271/2012-01-1067 by Glewen, W., Heuwetter, D., Foster, D., Andrie, M. et al., presented at the 2012 SAE World Congress on transient modeling of powertrain components. They believe this paper is one of three outstanding papers on Engine Thermal Management and Overall Vehicle performance simulation because it had surprising counterintuitive conclusions or quantified certain phenomena on today’s engines which others can reference.
“The important conclusion from this paper is that the steady-state data on the engine is NOT a reliable indicator of transient performance, especially in high load changing cases. In various OEMs today, a good portion of the engine calibration and research is done under steady-state conditions and this steady-state data is used to provide guidance on transient performance. This study saw large variations in transient and steady-state behavior especially under high load transitions. It is worth keeping this in mind while calibrating the predictive models. But all hope is not lost. Not by a long shot. I personally have used steady-state performance data (such as engine heat rejection data) to predict transient behavior reasonably well. So, I know for a fact that steady-state data can be used to predict most transient behavior for commonly used drive cycles. The variations that were measured in the paper were on emissions, and that is directly linked with the combustion phenomena and the heat generated in the engine.”
To read blog by CSEG: Link
DOE Secretary Chu's Remarks on ERC LTC Research
DOE Secretary Chu highlighted ERC Low Temperature Combustion research January 11th at the Detroit Economic Club, quote:
“Research we’ve supported by the University of Wisconsin and Sandia National Labs has shown that low-temperature combustion could considerably improve engine efficiency and increase the fuel economy of light-duty vehicles by more than 50 percent.”
Rothamer Wins CAREER Award
Assistant Professor David Rothamer has received a National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development Award (CAREER). This prestigious award provides $405,000 over five years to pursue gas temperature diagnostic development using an innovative laser-based phosphor approach. See the full story here, and the abstract of the project here.
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