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The Research Association for Internal Combustion Engines and its Japanese sister organisation AICE successfully launched another CORNET project // The German-Japanese research consortium continues its successful research projects on oil transport and supply in narrow gaps using the example of the lubricating oil film thickness at the edges of the piston oil control ring
The European funding programme CORNET (Collective Research Networking) recently published good news regarding the successful collaboration between CORNET and the Japanese partner organisation NEDO (New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Association): An AICE (Japanese Research Association of Automotive Internal Combustion Engines) & FVV (Research Association for Combustion Engines) partner project submitted in the 27th call has now been approved for funding and can start its work soon: "Fuel Oil Flow Measure - Clarification of fuel and oil flow behaviour around piston rings of internal combustion engines aims to make significant contributions regarding the global conditions of the lubricating oil film at the piston assembly, fuel and oil flow and the basic mechanism as well as influencing factors in both SI (Spark Ignition) and CI (Compression Ignition) engines".
The piston assembly is a crucial system to internal combustion engines. It is a highly complex tribological system formed by the piston, multiple piston rings and the liner. Furthermore, the lubricating oil and gases inside the combustion chamber and the crank case need to be considered. The piston assembly has big influence on the engines behaviour regarding frictional losses, oil emissions, wear, blow-by and acoustics. Even though a lot of research has been performed on these topics, especially the fuel and oil flow (often carried by combustion chamber or crank case gas) is not fully understood yet.
The CORNET project “Fuel/Oil Flow Measurement” addresses this lack of knowledge by developing and enhancing new measurement techniques to determine the oil film thickness, fuel and oil flow within the piston assembly and the oil emissions. In order to do so, engines with a glass window inside the cylinder liner are developed and used. Both, SI and CI engines types are investigated. In order to visualize oil film thickness and the oil flow through the piston assembly, two different measurement techniques will be installed: laser induced fluorescence (LIF) and photochromism (PC). By combining both methods we will be able to use the advantages of both techniques to dramatically increase the value of measurement data received. In addition to measurement of oil film thickness as well as fuel and oil flow, oil emissions will be measured. This unique combination and enhancement of new and established measurement techniques will lead to a deeper understanding of tribological phenomena within the piston assembly.
The outcomes will help to enhance optical measurement techniques, not only in the area of internal combustion engines. Deeper understanding of fuel and oil flow inside the piston assembly will directly support the development of new, both ecological and economical enhanced engines. The research data generated will be helpful in order to develop powerful simulation tools in order to support engine development in the future. This will lead to a decrease of global CO2 emissions due to higher mechanical efficiency of the engines and reduced oil consumption. Considering the large number of engines sold worldwide every year even small improvements will have a meaningful impact on the environment, leading towards the age of environmentally sustainable mobility.
The project consortium consists of two research associations - AICE and FVV - and four research and technology (RTD) performers from Germany and Japan: Tokai University, Tokyo City University, Institute for Analytical Measurement Technology Hamburg (IAM) and Technical University of Munich - Chair of Internal Combustion Engines (LVK)
NEDO had joined CORNET in 2017 and is already co-funding another successfully running AICE-FVV cooperation project: "Post-oxidation (HC, CO and PM) in the Exhaust Manifold of SI (Spark Ignition) Engines".
CORNET enables and promotes international projects, which are carried out in the framework of the precompetitive industrial collective research programme IGF and are funded on the German side by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi). The 28th CORNET Call for Proposals starts in mid-December and ends on 25 March 2020.
FVV members will find further information on the research project in our project management database THEMIS.
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Research Association for Combustion Engines eV
Lyoner Strasse 18
60528 Frankfurt am Main
Germany
T +49 69 6603 1345