Abstract
Experimental work to show potential of reducing fuel consumption of a turbocharger version of the well-known FIAT FIRE engine, for high performance applications, has been performed.
The FIAT FIRE 1.2l 16V engine was chosen and developed for this activity due to its small dimensions and light weight, very low cost, high production volumes, and its high quality and reliability features. The activity target, with respect to a baseline vehicle equipped with a 1.8L engine, was to significantly reduce fuel consumption in a high performance vehicle, complying with the EURO4 exhaust emissions engineering limits while at least maintaining performance levels. A further advantage of this particular approach was a reduction in overall engine dimensions and weight, which are very interesting aspects considering the limited space available in next generation vehicles.
The vehicle considered for this work was the 1.8 litre FIAT PUNTO HGT, which is the highest performance version of the PUNTO model. The activity was carried out exclusively at the engine test bed, and included: engine development; turbocharger matching; performance and BSFC measurements. On-vehicle engine behaviour was then simulated in the NEDC cycle, considering vehicle speed versus time track in the cycle, vehicle drag force behaviour, engine performance and BSFC maps, and transient and warm-up enrichments. In this way, on-vehicle FC and performance figures were predicted. The vehicle simulation with reference engine was initially matched with experimental data from the chassis dynamometer.