// Combus­ti­on Engi­ne Powertrains

Incre­asing Effi­ci­en­cy — Redu­cing Emissions

In order to achie­ve the over­ri­ding social goals of envi­ron­men­tal and clima­te protec­tion, the power­train must be conti­nuous­ly deve­lo­ped. Conflicts of inte­rest arise from the various target figu­res to be opti­mi­sed, such as effi­ci­en­cy, emis­si­ons and product costs. Ever shorter deve­lo­p­ment cycles, grea­ter product comple­xi­ty and a larger number of deri­va­ti­ves requi­re a syste­ma­tic and effi­ci­ent approach right from the start of power­train deve­lo­p­ment. APL is happy to meet this chall­enge and support its custo­mers throug­hout the enti­re deve­lo­p­ment process.
Mecha­ni­cal Deve­lo­p­ment, Compo­nent Test­ing and Validation

Our power­train engi­nee­ring staff take care of all ques­ti­ons raised by our custo­mers. Due to our employees’ precise, parti­cu­lar work methods, abnor­mal features in the deve­lo­p­ment process are detec­ted early on and dama­ge is avoided.

Varied proce­du­res are used for this purpose:

  • Online wear and emis­si­on analy­sis to resol­ve and assign dama­ge mecha­nisms over time
  • Oil supp­ly
  • Fric­tion power analysis
  • Compo­nent and dama­ge analy­sis, for which we have modern 3D laser scan­ners at our disposal
Tribo­lo­gy
The reduc­tion of fric­tion in the power­train to a mini­mum not only increa­ses effi­ci­en­cy but also the compon­ents’ service life. In order to opti­mal­ly design sliding cont­acts, a combi­ned approach of surface measu­re­ment, 3D-EHD calcu­la­ti­on and micro­wear simu­la­ti­on is appli­ed. The results are vali­da­ted on compo­nent test benches and in reali­stic opera­ti­on with radi­o­nu­cli­de technology.
Fuel Selec­tion and Testing

The choice of fuel is a decisi­ve factor in conti­nuous­ly opti­mi­sing target varia­bles such as engi­ne perfor­mance, effi­ci­en­cy, emis­si­ons and product costs.

APL offers compre­hen­si­ve know-how in test­ing, evalua­ti­on and deve­lo­p­ment of opera­ting mate­ri­als. Examp­les include the evalua­ti­on of fuel compo­si­ti­on (blen­ding, worst-case & rege­ne­ra­ti­ve fuels) with regard to emis­si­ons or deve­lo­p­ment of methods for evalua­ting addi­ti­ves and lubri­cants and their pre-igni­ti­on gradi­ent (low-speed pre-ignition).

Oil Circuit
The combi­na­ti­on of constant further deve­lo­p­ment of engi­ne mecha­nics and incre­asing­ly low-visco­si­ty engi­ne oils – to redu­ce fric­tion – increa­ses the demands on the oil circuit of modern combus­ti­on engi­nes. To inves­ti­ga­te and vali­da­te oil trans­port concepts, we carry out both gas content measu­re­ments and tilt tests on tilting test benchs. Here, the influence of dyna­mic driving maneu­vers is trans­fer­red from the vehic­le to the engi­ne test bench in order to be able to test the influen­ces of late­ral and longi­tu­di­nal acce­le­ra­ti­on on all compon­ents in the oil circuit.
Broad Range of Measu­re­ment Technology
By using various special measu­ring tech­ni­ques, we reach our goals much faster. In a solu­ti­on-orien­ted manner, we use online measu­ring methods, combus­ti­on diagno­stics, exhaust gas analy­sis systems as well as systems for vibra­ti­on analy­sis and early dama­ge detec­tion, thus effec­tively and effi­ci­ent­ly support­ing the deve­lo­p­ment process. One exam­p­le is our mass spec­tro­me­ters, which enable online oil emis­si­on measurements.
Combus­ti­on Process, Ther­mo­dy­na­mics, Basic Application
Combus­ti­on proces­ses of modern gaso­li­ne and diesel engi­nes in conjunc­tion with complex exhaust aftert­re­at­ment are beco­ming incre­asing­ly complex. APL uses simu­la­ti­on models, state-of-the-art test benches and (imaging) measu­re­ment tech­ni­ques to further impro­ve the quali­ty and robust­ness of combus­ti­on processes.
Exhaust Gas Aftert­re­at­ment: Compon­ents, Func­tion, Data Proces­sing, Aging, Security

In the deve­lo­p­ment of exhaust gas aftert­re­at­ment, the system combi­na­ti­on of engi­ne, exhaust gas aftert­re­at­ment compon­ents and func­tions must always be conside­red. APL offers a compre­hen­si­ve service port­fo­lio for this very purpo­se – start­ing with basic analy­ses (e.g. depo­sit forma­ti­on), through compo­nent and func­tion deve­lo­p­ment, to vali­da­ti­on on the engi­ne test bench or in the vehicle.

 

On our test benches for hot gas, for exam­p­le, we exami­ne cata­ly­tic conver­ters under repro­du­ci­b­le condi­ti­ons. On our test benches for SCR systems we analy­se spray forma­ti­on and can opti­mi­se mixing sections.

During the imple­men­ta­ti­on of deve­lo­p­ment projects there is always a need for aged exhaust aftert­re­at­ment compon­ents. Both as part of our custo­mer projects and as an inde­pen­dent service, APL offers aging of exhaust systems in the hydro­ther­mal furnace and targe­ted aging on the engi­ne test bench. The aging para­me­ters are free­ly selec­ta­ble and, thanks to aging on seve­ral paral­lel lines or test benches, large quan­ti­ties can be comple­ted in a short time.

Basis Cali­bra­ti­on
As soon as the combus­ti­on process and compo­nent concepts have been fina­li­sed, the basic appli­ca­ti­on, i.e. the basic opera­ti­on of the engi­ne, begins. This is model-based and, if neces­sa­ry, includes the deve­lo­p­ment of new func­tions of the control unit soft­ware. The data (e.g. igni­ti­on timing, air and fuel path, torque struc­tu­re), which is usual­ly deter­mi­ned by statio­na­ry measu­re­ments and simu­la­ti­ons, forms the basis for the subse­quent appli­ca­ti­on in the drive network or the vehicle.
Drive­train: Cali­bra­ti­on, Test­ing, Security
APL’s state-of-the-art drive train test benches enable vehic­le cali­bra­ti­on (drivea­bi­li­ty, emis­si­ons, etc.) even befo­re vehic­le proto­ty­pes are available. The faster condi­tio­ning of the drive­train allows consider­a­b­ly more test cycles in the same amount of time, compared to the vehic­le on the road.
Appli­ca­ti­on, Test­ing and Vali­da­ti­on in the Vehic­le, Emis­si­ons, OBD
APL’s vehic­le topics are broad­ly diver­si­fied. Veri­fi­ca­ti­on of basic data, vehic­le drive opti­mi­sa­ti­on – on the chas­sis dyna­mo­me­ter test bench and/or the road — certi­fi­ca­ti­on and moni­to­ring confor­mi­ty of produc­tion (CoP) — read more here!
Rela­ted topics:

Test­ing of Inter­nal Combus­ti­on Engi­ne Drivetrains

Chami­cal and Physi­cal Laboratory

// Loca­ti­ons 

Head­quar­ters Land­au
APL Auto­mo­bil-Prüf­tech­nik
Land­au GmbH
Am Hölzel 11
76829 Land­au

 

// Wolfs­burg
APL Auto­mo­bil-Prüf­tech­nik
Land­au GmbH
Gustav-Hertz-Stra­ße 10
38448 Wolfs­burg

 

// Bietig­heim-Bissin­gen
APL Auto­mo­bil-Prüf­tech­nik
Land­au GmbH
Robert-Bosch-Stra­ße 12
74321 Bietig­heim-Bissin­gen

// APL Group

APL Auto­mo­bil-Prüf­tech­nik Land­au GmbH

AIP GmbH & Co. KG

IAVF Antriebs­tech­nik GmbH

IAVF-Volke Prüf­zen­trum für Verbren­nungs­mo­to­ren GmbH

MOT GmbH

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