ProductLMS

Business challengesCut truck development costs and timeReduce the number of prototypes and the use of test benchesMaintain a competitive edge by implementing energy recovery concepts

Keys to successDesign an efficient engine cooling system with advanced controls strategiesOptimize existing diesel engines by considering different design optionsAnalyze the impact of the exhaust heat recovery technology under real driving conditions

ResultsOptimized engine cooling controls strategies

Siemens PLM Software solution helps Dongfeng Commercial Vehicle investigate the Rankine cycle concept to boost truck fuel efficiency

Quest for sustainable trucksThe truck market is an excellent barometer for assessing the health of the global econ-omy. This small but significant segment of the automotive industry provides transpor-tation for all consumer and industrial goods by complementing other means of conveyance or by supporting the entire logistics chain.

However, even though trucks represent a relatively small slice of the transportation market, they play an outsized role in

Automotive and transportation

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Dongfeng Commercial VehicleLeading truck manufacturer optimizes engine cooling controls strategies with LMS Imagine.Lab Amesim

energy usage and emissions. For instance, in 2010 heavy-duty trucks represented only four percent of registered vehicles in the United States, but accounted for approximately 25 percent of on-road energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. It is therefore not surprising that truck manufacturers have followed the lead of the automakers by shifting toward greener vehicle designs.

Currently, nearly 60 percent of the energy contained in the fuel of a heavy-duty truck is wasted in the engine through pumping, friction, cooling and exhaust losses. Moreover, considering that fuel is the main expense for the truck fleets, the pay-back period for energy-efficient technolo-gies is sometimes less than one year, which is 5 to 10 times faster than for cars.

As a leading transport service partner in China, DFCV is currently working on engine fuel efficiency to optimize freight transportation patterns.

Thus, heavy-duty truck manufacturers, like their counterparts in the car industry, are accelerating their efforts to develop efficient energy recovery concepts.

One of the most promising approaches for the truck industry is the exhaust heat recovery technology with a Rankine cycle system. In a closed Rankine cycle loop, the working fluid, heated by exhaust gases, turns into vapor. Then the fluid vapor runs a turbine, which can be directly linked either to the crankshaft of the engine or to an electric generator. In spite of controls and design complexity, there is rising interest in this technology because it would allow truck producers to improve overall fuel efficiency by approximately 5 percent.

“We needed a simulation tool that would allow us to understand all of the techni-cal issues of a complex system such as an engine, by modeling its combustion, cooling, lubrication subsys-tems and then integrating these subsystem models into the entire vehicle model.”

Zhang Xin Controls Engineer Performance and Controls Section Engine Development Department DFCV Technical Center

Conquering the largest marketDue to its rapid economic growth, China has become the world’s largest heavy-duty truck market, representing more than 40 percent of the global share. To gain access to the promising Chinese market and share development costs of new-generation engines, European and American truck manufacturers are establishing joint ven-tures with local truck producers. At the same time, this cooperation allows Asian truck original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to reinforce their technical exper-tise and worldwide presence.

In 2013, the Swedish auto manufacturer AB Volvo signed an agreement with the Chinese OEM Dongfeng Motor Group

“With LMS Amesim, we have reduced our development costs significantly because we no longer need to use a test bench to validate our controls strategies.” Zhang Xin Controls Engineer Performance and Controls Section Engine Development Department DFCV Technical Center

Results (continued)Analyzed behavior of the combustion, cooling and lubrication subsystems in the context of the entire vehicleStudied Rankine cycle technology before the first prototype was available

Using LMS Amesim helps DFCV validate advanced controls strategies of the modern diesel engine’s cooling system.

(DFG) to establish the joint venture Dongfeng Commercial Vehicle (DFCV). This agreement will make AB Volvo the world’s largest manufacturer of heavy-duty trucks.

Enhancing diesel engine control strategies To meet the strong demand of its domestic market, DFCV seeks to optimize the diesel engine development cycle while reducing the number of prototypes and the use of test benches in the early design phases. Acknowledged as a leading transport ser-vice partner in China, DFCV is currently working on engine fuel efficiency to opti-mize freight transportation patterns.The Engine Development Department of the DFCV Technical Center is dealing with increasingly complex control strategies that make it possible to optimize engine

thermal management. In order to maxi-mize engine fuel efficiency, the engineers of the Performance and Controls Section have to answer a number of questions, such as “What is the best way to optimize fan controls to save fuel while maintaining cooling performance?” and “How could a controlled thermostat or water pump improve the cooling system performance?”

“We needed a simulation tool that would allow us to understand all of the technical issues of a complex system such as an engine, by modeling its combustion, cool-ing, lubrication subsystems and then inte-grating these subsystem models into the entire vehicle model,” says Zhang Xin, a controls engineer in the Performance and Controls Section of the Engine Development Department of the DFCV Technical Center.

“We believe that our simulation approach, supported by LMS Amesim, contributes strongly to our future competitiveness.”Zhang Xin Controls Engineer Performance and Controls Section Engine Development Department DFCV Technical Center

Best-of-breed truck manufacturers must take a sustainable path by offering innovative, greener engine designs.

The Engine Development Department turned to Siemens PLM Software for help. Following a benchmark, DFCV was impressed by the unprecedented accuracy of results obtained with an engine thermal model built using LMS Imagine.Lab Amesim™ software.

“Using LMS Amesim, we now assemble all engine subsystems in one model in order to test controls strategies to assess fuel consumption via co-simulation between an LMS Amesim and Simulink models,” says Xin. “We can not only analyze the fuel effi-ciency of our existing architectures, but also capitalize and re-use the same model to optimize current designs.

“With LMS Amesim, we have reduced our development costs significantly because we no longer need to use a test bench to validate our controls strategies.”

Taking the lead with energy recovery concepts To stay in the global fuel-efficiency race, DFCV is currently investigating innovative energy recovery technologies such as a Rankine cycle-based system.

The Rankine cycle concept requires even more complicated controls strategies and its behavior must be analyzed separately at first, and then integrated into the com-plete vehicle simulation model to assess the system performance on multiple driving cycles.

“We believe that our simulation approach, supported by LMS Amesim, contributes strongly to our future competitiveness,” says Xin. “Our research and development activity around the Rankine cycle technol-ogy wouldn’t be possible without the two-phase flow library of LMS Amesim as well as other predefined and validated multi-domain LMS Amesim components, which allow us to analyze the effect of this inno-vative approach under real driving condi-tions before the first prototype has been produced.”

The lubrication circuit is one of the engine subsystems that DFCV models with LMS Amesim in order to integrate it into the entire vehicle model.

DFCV models the Rankine cycle loop using the two-phase flow library of LMS Amesim.

Solutions/ServicesLMS Imagine.Lab Amesim www.siemens.com/plm/ lms-amesim

Customer’s primary businessWith eight plants and 28,000 employees, Dongfeng Commercial Vehicle is China’s leading manufacturer of medium-duty and heavy- duty trucks. www.dfmc.com.cn

Customer location Wuhan China

“Our research and develop-ment activity around the Rankine cycle technology wouldn’t be possible without the two-phase flow library of LMS Amesim as well as other predefined and validated multi-domain LMS Amesim components, which allow us to analyze the effect of this innovative approach under real driving conditions before the first prototype has been produced.”

Zhang Xin Controls Engineer Performance and Controls Section Engine Development Department DFCV Technical Center

Performing co-simulation with models utilizing LMS Amesim and the Simulink® environment allows DFCV to save testing time.

“Our research and development activity around the Rankine cycle technology wouldn’t be possible without the two-phase flow library of LMS Amesim...”Zhang Xin Controls Engineer Performance and Controls Section Engine Development Department DFCV Technical Center

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