Abstract
EGR(Exhaust gas recirculation) provides an important contribution in achieving the development targets of low fuel consumption and low exhaust emission levels on gasoline engine for hybrid vehicles while allowing stoichiometric fuelling to be retained for applications using the three-way catalysts. However, the occurrence of excessive cyclic variation with high EGR normally prevents substantial fuel economy improvements from being achieved in practice. Therefore, the optimum EGR rate in gasoline engine for hybrid vehicles should be carefully determined in order to achieve low fuel consumption and low exhaust emission. In this study, 2 liters gasoline engine with E-EGR system was used to investigate the effects of EGR with optimum EGR rate on fuel economy, combustion stability, engine performance and exhaust emissions. As the engine load becomes higher, the optimum EGR rate tends to increase. The increase in engine load and reduction in engine speed make the fuel consumption better. The fuel consumption was improved by maximum 5.5% at low speed, high load operating condition. As the simulated EGR variation on a cylinder is increased, due to the increase in cyclic variation, the fuel consumption and emissions characteristics were deteriorated simultaneously. To achieve combustion stability without a penalty in fuel consumption and emissions, the cylinder-to-cylinder variations must be maintained under 10%.