Applied Thermal Engineering 162 (2019) 114236

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Applied Thermal Engineering

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apthermeng

Research Paper

Study of the electric-booster and turbo-generator system and its influence on T

a 1.5 L gasoline engine
⁎
Dongliang Zia, Li Zhanga, , Bin Chena, Qing Zhangb
a
School of Automotive Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044, PR China
b
Changan Automobile Company Limited., Chongqing 400044, PR China

H I GH L IG H T S

• AA new electric turbo-compounding layout was proposed and studied.

• Exergy
detail model of engine was established and validated by experiments.
• Transientanalysis was conducted to show the exergy flow in engine.
• performance of the engine was surveyed.

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: To effectively recovery the energy in exhausts and improve the transient performance of internal combustion
Internal combustion engine engine. In this paper, a new electric turbo-compounding layout called electric-booster and turbo-generator
Waste heat recovery system (EBTG) was established and studied in a 1.5 L gasoline engine. In the EBTG system, the turbo and
Electric turbo-compounding compressor operate independently. Its impact on a gasoline engine was analyzed from the perspective of fuel
Exergy analysis
economy, power output, availability distribution and transient performance. Results show that the proposed
Transient response
EBTG system is effective to improve the thermal efficiency of engine at high-speed and wide-open throttle
conditions. Simultaneously, it is also valuable to solve the turbo-lag of engine. By applying EBTG system, the
maximum reduction of specific fuel consumption was 2.6%. Exergy analysis showed that the EBTG system can
reduce the irreversibility in turbine and recovery more exergy from exhausts. There was a 0.8 percentage point
exergy efficiency increment at 4400 rpm and full-load operation. The step response time of boost pressure in
EBTG engine decreased to about half of it in baseline at 2000 rpm and full-load condition.

1. Introduction
In recent decades, more and more attention has been paid to re-
ducing vehicle fuel consumption and CO2 emissions [1]. For that aim,
improving the thermal efficiency of internal combustion engines (ICEs)
is necessary. Many methods such as employing alternative fuels [2,3]
and exploring creative combustion modes [4,5] have been proposed
and researched based on the energy and exergy analysis of ICEs [6].
Another hot point is the technology of waste heat recovery. Numbers of
important studies have been conducted by A. C. Alkidas [7] and Jianqin
Fu et al. [8] to show the potential of recovering waste heat on fuel
savings of ICEs. To recover the energy in the exhausts of ICEs, three
approaches are attached the great importance. (1) Turbo-compounding
technology (TC); (2) Organic Rankine Cycle system [9–13]; (3) ther-
moelectric generation device [14–19].
The most feasible way to recover exhaust energy of ICEs is the TC
technology. For the modern ICE, the turbocharger is an effective device
to enhance economy and power density, by recovering exhaust energy
and compressing intake charge. Whereas, when it is restricted by intake
pressure, redundant exhaust gas will bypass the turbine under wide-
open throttle conditions. Therefore, a turbocharger cannot exert its full
potential to retrieve exhaust energy. Another problem of the turbo-
charger is the poor transient response during vehicle acceleration,
which is called turbo-lag.
Therefore, it is necessary to install a power turbine at the down-
stream or parallel with the turbocharger turbine to capture additional
energy. The essence behind the TC is the application of a power turbine
that can recover not only the thermal energy but also the kinetic energy
of exhaust gas. Additionally, a TC is easier to assemble than an Organic
Rankine Cycle system and cheaper than a thermoelectric generation

⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: 20153201011@cqu.edu.cn (L. Zhang).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2019.114236
Received 1 April 2019; Received in revised form 3 July 2019; Accepted 9 August 2019
Available online 10 August 2019
1359-4311/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
D. Zi, et al. Applied Thermal Engineering 162 (2019) 114236

Nomenclature Subscript

a specific availability 0 true dead state

A availability i any species
ā molar availability j any species
c specific heat capacity tm thermo-mechanical
e specific exergy ch chemical
eff thermal efficiency in intake
g specific Gibbs free enthalpy ex exhaust
ḡ molar Gibbs free energy cyl cylinder
h specific enthalpy comp compressor
H enthalpy turb turbine
I irreversibility tol total
k constant BW brake work
m mass IW indicated work
mf mass flow rate IVC intake valve close
M molecular mass EVO exhaust valve open
MFReduced reduced mass flow rate
MFcorretted corrected mass flow rate Superscript
n rotational speed
NReducced reduced speed * restricted dead state
Ncorretted corrected speed
Q heat transfer Abbreviations
p pressure
R gas constant EBTG electric-booster and turbo-generator
s specific entropy ICE internal combustion engine
T temperature BSFC brake specific fuel consumption
u specific internal energy BMEP brake mean pressure
v specific volume M-TC mechanical turbo-compounding
y molar fraction E-TC electric turbo-compounding
μ specific chemical potential sE-TC series electric turbo-compounding
pE-TC parallel electric turbo-compounding
eA-TC electric assisted turbo-compounding

device. According to different energy feedback forms, turbo-com-
pounding can be classified as mechanical and electric. As the name
implies, mechanical turbo-compounding (M-TC) feeds the mechanical
energy gained by the power turbine back to the ICE crankshaft via
mechanical devices (e.g. gear train [20–22] and continuously variable
transmission [23]). Electric turbo-compounding (E-TC) converts the
mechanical energy to electric energy by a linked generator, and then it
is used to recharge the battery or drive the vehicle directly [24–26].
The M-TC is commonly used on heavy-duty diesel engines for fuel
reduction. But the E-TC is more suitable for light-duty vehicles due to
its power-on-demand capability, high flexibility and relatively low
implementation costs [24]. Especially with the development of hybrid
automobiles, the present powertrain structure provides great con-
venience for the application of E-TC [25,26]. Based on the various re-
lative positions of the power turbine and the turbocharger turbine, E-TC
can be further divided into the series layout (sE-TC), the parallel layout
(pE-TC) and the electric assisted configurations (eA-TC), as shown in
Fig. 1.
In the sE-TC system, the power turbine is placed at the downstream
of the turbocharger, so it must be operated at lower pressure conditions.
Especially for a light duty engine, commercially turbines could not take
the role as a power turbine. Hence, a turbine suitable for the special
working surroundings was designed and tested in some of the literature.
A.M.I. Bin Mamat et al. [24] designed a new low-pressure turbine for
turbo-compounding applications in a 1.0 L three-cylinder gasoline en-
gine. Test results demonstrated a maximum BSFC reduction of 2.6%,
achieved at an engine speed of 2500 rpm during the part-load opera-
tion. Aman M.I. Mamat et al. [26] did similar work and came to the
conclusion that the extra energy recovered by the turbo-compounding
device can offer significant benefits in terms of engine performance.
However, the application of sE-TC does not improve the transient re-
sponse of the turbocharger, because it does not change the turbocharger
structure.
The pE-TC layout avoids the demanding requirement for power
turbine. However, similar as the sE-TC, it cannot deal with the turbo-lag
problem. Weilin Zhuge et al. [27] optimized the turbine geometrical
parameters and operating speed of a pE-TC system implemented on a
1.8 L gasoline engine. They concluded that the optimization of power
turbine geometry design cannot meet the requirements of the ICE in
practical driving cycles. But the rotational speed optimization of the
turbo-generator improved the engine fuel economy significantly in
practical driving cycles. The optimization strategy was employed in this
paper as well.
The eA-TC system contains an electric machine coupling on the
shaft of the turbocharger. The electric machine can be used either to
recover energy from the exhaust or to add power to the turbocharger
shaft during the accelerating process. The major benefit of eA-TC is its
potential to reduce turbo-lag. Marcelo Algrain [28] compared three
control strategies of eA-TC. Then, he established a detailed control
framework and simulated it on a complete truck engine model. The
results show an overall reduction of about 5 percent in fuel consump-
tion, under the given operating conditions. Gianluca Pasini et al. [29]
evaluated the impact of the application of eA-TC to a 0.9 L gasoline
engine. They drew the conclusion that it is not advantageous to use eA-
TC on a conventional turbocharger turbine when it is used in a fixed
operating point. However, eA-TC can slightly improve the average
overall efficiency, when the ICE must provide a variable power output.
It also leads to the benefit of turbo-lag reduction. In spite of the great
improvement in transient performance, the shaft link between the
compressor and the turbine causes speed coupling, which also impacts

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D. Zi, et al. Applied Thermal Engineering 162 (2019) 114236

Fig. 1. Different layouts of E-TC (a) sE-TC (b) pE-TC (c) eA-TC (d) EBTG.

the efficiency of recovering energy for the turbine. n pin, turb (total)
NReduced, turb = , εturb = , MFReduced, turb
In this paper, an new E-TC layout called electric-booster and turbo- Tin, turb pex , turb (static )
generator system (EBTG) was proposed (Fig. 1d). In the EBTG system,
mfturb · Tin, turb
the compressor and turbine were decoupled, so the compressor and the =
turbine can work independently. The compressor was driven by a motor pin, turb (1)
to avoid the turbo-lag. And the turbine was controlled to work at high-
n· Tref pex , comp (total)
efficiency zone. Firstly, a detailed ICE model was established based on a NCorrected, comp = Tin, comp
, εcomp = pin, comp (total)
, MFCorrected, comp
real engine and validated. Then, the model of EBTG system was built
mfcomp ·pref · Tin, comp
up. The power turbine was optimized to operate at high-efficiency zone = pin, comp · Tref
by using the speed optimization strategy. Afterwards, the impacts of the
(Tref = 298K , pref = 1bar ) (2)
EBTG system to the ICE were analyzed from perspective of specific fuel
consumption (BSFC), brake mean pressure (BMEP) and exergy dis- The bench test of the ICE was conducted to validate the established
tribution. Finally, the transient model was established by GT-Power to model (Fig. 5). The specification of test instruments are shown in
evaluate the transient response of baseline and EBTG engine. Table 2. The match between the turbocharger and the ICE is shown in
Fig. 6. It can be seen that the compressor and the present engine match
2. Model and method well. Operating points of compressor cross through the high-efficiency
zone on the map.
2.1. ICE model and validation Figs. 7 and 8 shows the validation results of model. Fig. 7(a) and (c)
show the power and BSFC of baseline engine at full load and different
A 4-cylinder turbocharged gasoline engine was employed in the
present paper. Features of that 1.5 L commercial engine were shown in Table 1
Table 1. The detailed ICE model, including air filter, cylinder, inter- Baseline engine specifications.
cooler, turbocharger and other necessary components, was established Number of cylinders 4
with 1-D simulation code GT-Power (Fig. 2). In the cylinder model, the Displacement 1.5 L
combustion process of the fuel was calculated by the Wiebe function. Compression ratio 10
Bore × stroke 76 mm× 82.6 mm
The heat transfer of cylinder was calculated by the Woschni model. The
Connecting rod length 133.2 mm
compressor and the turbine were simulated using map data, as shown in Type of injection Direct
Figs. 3 and 4. Parameters in the map are defined as follows:

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D. Zi, et al. Applied Thermal Engineering 162 (2019) 114236

Fig. 2. Model of baseline engine in GT-Power.

speeds. Fig. 7(b) and (d) show the results under 3200 rpm but various
loads. Fig. 8(a) and (c) show the comparison under full load conditions,
and Fig. 8(b) and (d) demonstrate the results under 3200 rpm. There is
an acceptable agreement between the simulation and experiments re-
sults.
Other simulation results at important locations (temperature &
pressure before & after compressor, temperature & pressure before &
after intercooler) were also validated, and the error of calculations was
kept within 5.0%. So, it is reasonable to believe the baseline model is
accurate and can be used to replace real engine at a certain extent.
Then, further research was conducted.
2.2. EBTG modeling and simulation
Based on the model of the baseline engine, the application of EBTG
system was achieved by replacing the shaft connection between the
compressor and the turbine with electric machines and a battery. In the
present paper, to simplify the calculation, efficiency of the generator

Fig. 3. Map of compressor in baseline engine.

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D. Zi, et al. Applied Thermal Engineering 162 (2019) 114236

Fig. 4. Map of turbine in baseline engine.

Fig. 5. Bench test of the ICE.

Table 2 Fig. 6. Co-operating map of turbocharger and baseline engine.

Specification of main test instruments and equipment.
Equipment name Type Precision Powercomp
Powertol = Powercyl + Powerturb·ηgenerator ·ηbattery −
ηmotor (3)
Eddy current dynamometer DW250 Torque: ± 0.4%F.S
Speed: ± 1%rpm
Dynamometer control system ET2100 ± 0.5%F.S The compressor and turbine in EBTG system can be controlled in-
Fuel consumption meter ET4500 < ± 0.2%F.S dependently, because of the absence of direct mechanical connections.
Coolant temperature control system ET2900-LQY ± 2 °C
In this paper, a PID controller was employed to control the speed of the
Oil temperature control system ET2900-JY ± 2 °C
Intake temperature sensor PT 100 ± 1 °C compressor, and the gas pressure after compressor was adopted as the
Exhaust temperature sensor K type thermocouple ± 3 °C feedback signal. The purpose of this control is to maintain the boost
pressure at the same value as it in baseline under the same operating
conditions. The model of EBTG engine established in GT-Power is
and the motor was assumed as a constant of 0.85 [30]. Transfer effi- shown in Fig. 9.
ciency of the battery was also considered as a constant of 0.9 [31]. The bypass valve of the turbine was abolished to enforce all exhaust
Further, the turbine of the EBTG system was scaled up to 1.6 based on flow through the turbine. The speed control strategy mentioned by
the baseline to ensure that all exhausts can go through turbine. There Weilin Zhuge et al. [27] was also employed in the present paper to
was no change in the compressor and other instruments. So, the model ensure the maximum efficiency of the turbine. The principle behind this
of EBTG engine can be considered as accurate as the baseline model. optimization strategy is to control the turbine speed by adjusting the
The power of EBTG engine may be expressed as Function (3): excitation parameters of the generator. During operation, the mass flow
rate, temperature and pressure of the inlet gas were measured. Then,

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D. Zi, et al. Applied Thermal Engineering 162 (2019) 114236

Fig. 7. Validation of model regarding power and BSFC.

those measured data were used to calculate the reduced mass flow rate control is illustrated in Fig. 10.
and determine the optimal speed. Finally, the excitation parameters of
the generator were adjusted to control the speed of the turbine. In this 2.3. Exergy analysis
paper, the rotational speed of the turbine was controlled directly by a
mathematic function (Fig. 9). The objective curve of the turbine speed Unavoidably, the implantation of EBTG would increase the

Fig. 8. Validations of model regarding the exhausts temperature and pressure around the turbine.

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D. Zi, et al. Applied Thermal Engineering 162 (2019) 114236

Fig. 9. Mode of EBTG engine in GT-Power.

work as a system changes from the restricted dead state to the true dead
state [32]. In this paper, the composition of work fluids in the engine
was assumed to contain O2, CO, NO, N2, H2O, H2, CO2 and Ar. The
fraction of these compositions was calculated by the chemical dynamic
model integrated into the GT-Power. The thermodynamic properties
were calculated by NASA Polynomials [33].
For a closed system, neglecting kinetic and potential energy, the
specific thermo-mechanical exergy of the working fluids is defined as
Function (4).

atm = (u − u*) + p0 (v − v *) − T0 (s − s *) (4)

When the working medium is assumed to be an ideal gas, the spe-

cific thermo-mechanical exergy can be expressed further as Function
(5).
T T cv v dv
atm = ∫T
0
c v dT + p0 (v − v *) − T0 ∫T 0 T
dT − T0 Rg ∫v
⁎
v (5)

Fig. 10. Operating line of turbine after speed optimization. The specific chemical exergy of the working medium in a closed
system is calculated as:
backpressure of engine, which would impact the intake mass and ach = μ⁎ − μ0 (6)
change the working status of the entire engine system. The influence of
EBTG system was analyzed from the perspective of exergy. μ = g = h + Ts (7)
The exergy of a system in a given state is defined as the maximum
Regarding an ideal gas, the calculation of the specific chemical
useful work that can be produced through the interaction of the system
potential can be expressed as:
with its surroundings, as it reaches thermal, mechanical and chemical
equilibrium [6]. The standard atmosphere is usually seen as the sur-
Table 3
roundings of the system, and its standard thermodynamic state is de-
Temperature, pressure and composition at true dead state.
fined as the true dead state (Table 3). It is customary to divide the total
exergy into thermo-mechanical exergy and chemical exergy. The former Substance Molar fraction
term is defined as the maximum output of mechanical work when the
Nitrogen, N2 0.7567
system comes into thermal and mechanical equilibrium with the stan- Oxygen, O2 0.2035
dard surrounding atmosphere, but not chemical equilibrium. That in- Water, H2O 0.0303
termediate state that has the same temperature and pressure as the Carbon dioxide, CO2 0.0003
Other, Ar 0.0092
environment, but differs in composition, is called the restricted dead
T0 = 298.15 K p0 = 1.01325 bar
state. Chemical exergy is associated as the maximum extractable useful

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D. Zi, et al. Applied Thermal Engineering 162 (2019) 114236

p dp
ach = (h* − h 0) − T0 (s * − s0) = T0 Rg ∫p 0 p (8)
There is a special condition under which the composition of the
working medium does not exist in the components of the environment,
such as NO, fuel, H2 and so on. Calculation of chemical exergy for these
new components requires a chemical reaction, in which new compo-
nents react with species in the environment through a reversible pro-
cess and are completely converted into species that exist in the en-
vironment [34,35]. The specific chemical exergy of fuel (Ci Hj ) can be
approximated by Function (9), which is provided in [6]. In this paper,
gasoline is assumed to be a hydrocarbon and its chemical formula is
C7.55 H14.65 .
j 0.042 ⎞
ach, fuel = LHV ⎛1.04224 + 0.011925 −
⎝ i i ⎠ (9)
For an open system, the specific total exergy of the working fluids is
defined as Function (10).
etol = etm + ech = h − h* − T0 (s − s *) + (μ* − μ0 ) (10)
Fig. 11. Validation of transient model at 2000 rpm condition.
Then, the exergy balance was established. For a cylinder in the
spark-ignited engine, the exergy balance may be expressed as Function
(11). response effectively.
In this paper, the comparison of transient response between baseline
dAcyl = dAfuel, cyl + dAin, cyl + dAQ, cyl − dAIW , cyl − dA ex , cyl − dIcyl (11) engine and EBTG engine was explored in a transient GT-Power model.
Compared to the steady model, parameters (such as air-fuel ratio, the
⎡ ⎤ 50% heat release point, combustion duration, intake valve time, etc.) in
dAcyl = d ⎢∑ mi (atm, i + ach, i )⎥
⎣ i ⎦ (12) the transient model are the function of speed and load. These para-
meters were expressed in the form of a pointer whose value is asso-
dAIW , cyl = (p − p0 ) dV (13) ciated with the BMEP and speed. Fig. 11 shows the comparison between
simulation results and measured values of boost pressure at 2000 rpm
T
dAQ, cyl = ⎛1 − 0 ⎞ dQcyl condition. The transient response of simulated boost pressure is a little
⎝ T⎠ (14)
faster than the measured result. However, considering the complexity
dAin, cyl = ∑ (etol,i·dmin,i) of transient simulation and the test error, the model is also valuable to
i (15) show the transient response of the ICE.

dAex , cyl = ∑ (etol, i·dmex,i) 3. Results and analysis

i (16)
dIcyl denotes the irreversibility produced in the thermodynamic process.
It mirrors the devaluation of the energy quality. Combustion, gas
mixture and other irreversible processes all lead to irreversibility.
As for the turbine, the bypass is considered a part of the turbine
system, and the exergy balance for the entire cycle can be expressed as
Function (17).
ABW , turb = Ain, turb − A ex , turb − Iturb (17)
42 operating points with different speeds and various loads were
simulated and compared in this paper, to reflect the impacts of EBTG
system on the ICE. The comparison of BSFC between baseline and EBTG
engine are shown in Fig. 12. The reduction of BSFC can be found when
EBTG engine works at high-speed and wide-open throttle (WOT) con-
ditions. But this area is limited. In other words, employing EBTG can
improve the thermal efficiency of ICE under these conditions. The

Similar to the turbine system, the availability balance among the

compressor, intercooler and throttle can be established.
ABW , comp + Ain, comp = Aex , comp + Icomp (18)

Ain, cooler = A ex , cooler + Icooler (19)

Ain, throttle = Aex , throttle + Ithrottle (20)

Finally, the availability balance for the entire engine system during
a complete cycle can also be established as Function (21).
Ain, comp + Afuel, cyl =
ABW , tol + Aex , turb + Icomp + Icooler + Ithrottle + Icyl + Iturb + I frication + Iother
(21)

2.4. Transient response analysis

Turbo-lag impacts the driving experience of vehicle seriously. It is

caused by the terrible transient response of turbocharger, especially
when ICE works at low-speed conditions. In the EBTG system, in-
dependent compressor and turbine would improve the transient Fig. 12. BSFC improvement by adopting EBTG.

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D. Zi, et al.
largest BSFC reduction was 2.6% gained at 4400 rpm and full-load
condition. Whereas, the application of EBTG negatively influenced
BSFC of engine at low-speed and light-load conditions. This trend is
similar as the results given by Gianluca Pasini et al. [29]. They re-
searched the benefit of eA-TC layout in a 0.9 L gasoline engine. But
different from the literature, the advantageous zone is smaller in this
paper.
Fig. 13 reflects the impact on the BMEP by adopting EBTG system.
The EBTG system negatively influences the power of engine at most
operating conditions. The worst performance occurred when engine
operates at light-load conditions. In this area not only fuel economy,
but also power output all deteriorated.
To summarize the above analysis, the EBTG benefits the thermal
efficiency at high-speed and WOT conditions only. It has negative im-
pacts on power output at most conditions. So the EBTG may be more
suitable for ICE on hybrid vehicles.
To further illustrate the impact of EBTG, the backpressure of ICE
under three various speeds and three different loads were compared in
Fig. 14. The backpressure increases with the increment of engine’s ro-
tational speed and load, no matter in baseline or EBTG engine. While,
because of the absence of bypass valve, all exhausts must go through
the turbine. So, the EBTG system has a greater impact on the back-
pressure when engine works at high rotational speed and heavy-duty
conditions. It has little influence at low-speed or light-duty conditions.
As Fig. 14 shows, compared to baseline, the backpressure increased
0.6 bar at 5600 rpm WOT condition by applying EBTG. The change of
backpressure at 1600 rpm is small. About the increase of backpressure,
it is a usual problem of all E-TC layouts. This phenomenon can be find
from many literatures [25,29]. It is impacted by rotational speed and
load of engine.
Because of the rise of backpressure but the same intake pressure, so
the air flow rate of EBTG engine decreased. Fig. 15 shows the air flow
rate of the baseline and EBTG engines under three rotational speeds and
three various loads. In contrast to the backpressure, the air flow rate of
EBTG engine showed an obvious reduction at 5600 rpm and 100% load
condition, but little change at low rotational speed and light-duty
conditions.
Reduction of the air flow rate leads to less consumption of fuel
compared with the baseline because of the same air-fuel ratio. This
means that the power produced by cylinders would be lessened as
shown in Fig. 16. When ICE worked at 5600 rpm and full-load condi-
tion, the brake power originating from four cylinders decreased ob-
viously. However, it has little influence on low-speed or light-duty
conditions. This conclusion is in agreement with the results of air flow
rate.
According to Function (3), the total power output of the engine
comprises two parts: power from cylinders and power from EBTG
system. Reduction of power from cylinders resulting by the increase of
back pressure is one of the reasons to explain why the BMEP deterio-
rated when adopting EBTG on engine. Ian Briggs et al. [25] attributed it
to the increase of pump work. Another reason is the energy conversion
loss in EBTG system.
Fig. 17 shows the power from the EBTG system under different
engine speeds and loads. For the turbocharger in baseline engine,
power originating from turbine is equal to power consumed by com-
pressor. While the speed coupling between turbine and compressor is
broken in the EBTG system. Turbine and compressor can work in-
dependently. Thus, turbine can provide more power than the demands
of compressor. First of all, the power consumption of compressor in
EBTG decreased compared with that in baseline due to the reduction of
the air flow rate. Additionally, all exhausts can be used in EBTG system
because of the abolishment of bypass valve. Furthermore, the rotational
speed of turbine in EBTG can be controlled to ensure it always works in
a high-efficiency zone. So turbine can give more power output than the
consumption of compressor.
Whereas, considering the transfer efficiency of the generator, motor
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Applied Thermal Engineering 162 (2019) 114236
and battery, the power distribution in EBTG has a large discount as
shown in Fig. 18. At low-speed and light-duty conditions, power ori-
ginating from turbine can’t fulfill the demands of compressor. It is an-
other important reason why the BMEP of EBTG engine deteriorated. So,
the transfer efficiency of electric machines has impacts on the perfor-
mance of EBTG system.
According to the second law of thermodynamics, energy is not only
quantitative but also qualitative. To objectively explore the transfer and
conversion process of energy in the ICE, the 1.5L engine under two
representative operating points were analyzed in the following. As
shown in Fig. 12, EBTG provides the largest improvement of BSFC at
4400 rpm and full-load condition. It has the worst results at 2000 rpm
and 27% load condition. Therefore, these two operating conditions are
chosen as being representative. Results of exergy analysis are shown as
follows.
Fig. 19 demonstrates the exergy distribution of the entire ICE
system. Fig. 19(a) shows the exergy distribution of ICE working at
2000 rpm and 27% load point. Fig. 19(b) shows the distribution at
4400 rpm and 100% load condition. It is clear to see that the avail-
ability distribution of ICE system is quite different at various operating
states. Heat transfer through cylinder wall was the main loss of fuel
exergy when the engine works under low rotational speed and light-
duty conditions. Under high rotational speed and full-duty conditions,
the main loss was replaced by exhausts and other factors (sum of heat
transfer in exhaust manifold, dissipation in electric machines). This
phenomenon was mainly caused by two reasons. The inadequate ex-
pansion of hot gas in cylinder because of ignition delay and the reduce
of time for hot gas stays in cylinder due to the increment of rotational
speed.
Additionally, part of fuel availability dissipated in the throttle when
the engine was working at 2000 rpm and 27% load condition. For the
4400 rpm and 100% load state, that loss was approximately equal to
zero. Fig. 19(b) shows that the application of EBTG improved the ex-
ergy efficiency of ICE system from 20.9% to 21.7% at 4400 rpm and
full-load condition. Because it reduced both the dissipation in turbine
and the percentage of exhausts availability. However, application of
EBTG system leads the loss percentage of availability through heat
transfer increase. This is also the reason why the exergy efficiency of
ICE at 2000 rpm and 27% load decreased.
Fig. 20 shows the exergy distribution of the cylinder in two working
states. The exergy distribution is similar to the availability distribution
in the entire system. The application of EBTG had little influence on the
availability distribution in cylinder. However, the exergy efficiency of
cylinder deteriorated at all these two conditions. The loss through heat
Fig. 13. BMEP improvement by adopting EBTG.
D. Zi, et al. Applied Thermal Engineering 162 (2019) 114236

Fig. 14. The backpressure of engine. Fig. 17. Power from turbine and consumed by compressor.

Fig. 15. The air flow rate into engine.

Fig. 18. Power from turbo-generator and consumed by electric-booster (con-
sidering the transfer efficiency of electric machines).

applying EBTG. It can be found that the percentage of exergy recovered

by turbine increased from 9.4% to 13.0% at 4400 rpm and full-load
condition. These are the reasons why EBTG can improve the fuel
economy of ICE under certain conditions.
Figs. 22 and 23 show the step response of boost pressure at
2000 rpm and 4400 rpm load of ICE step from 45% to 100%. It can be
found the turbo-lag phenomenon is more serious at 2000 rpm condition
because of the limited mass flow rate of exhausts. The EBTG system
expressed well improvement on transient response at 2000 rpm. But for
4000 rpm condition, the transient response of baseline and EBTG en-
gine were similar. The EBTG has benefit on improving transient per-
formance at low-speed conditions.

4. Conclusion

An electric-booster and turbo-generator system (EBTG), in which

Fig. 16. The power from cylinders.
transfer and exhausts increased correspondingly. This phenomenon
would be the result of backpressure increasing. It leads to the in-
adequate expansion of gas in cylinder.
Fig. 21 shows the percentage of exergy recovered by turbo at two
states. Whether the conditions were low-speed and light-duty or high-
speed and heavy-load, the exergy recovering rate of turbo all raised by
the booster and turbo operate independently, was established and dis-
cussed to recovery energy from exhausts and deal with the turbo-lag
problem of engine in this paper. The influence of the EBTG system on a
1.5 L gasoline engine was studied from perspective of fuel economy,
power output, exergy and transient performance. Results show that the
EBTG system is effective to improve the fuel economy of ICE at high-
speed and heavy-load conditions. It can also improve the transient
performance of engine especially under low-speed and light-load

10
D. Zi, et al. Applied Thermal Engineering 162 (2019) 114236

Fig. 19. Exergy distribution in the whole ICE system.

Fig. 22. Step response of boost pressure at 2000 rpm.

Fig. 20. Exergy distribution in the cylinder.

Fig. 21. Exergy recovering rate of turbine. Fig. 23. Step response of boost pressure at 4400 rpm.

condition. More details include the following: high-speed and heavy-duty conditions, but this impact deteriorates
under low-speed and light-duty conditions. A BSFC reduction of
(1) The EBTG system can reduce the fuel consumption of engine under about 2.6% was gained under 4400 rpm and 100% load condition.
(2) Exergy analysis shows that the exergy efficiency of the entire engine

11
D. Zi, et al.
system increases under high-speed and heavy-load conditions, be-
cause the availability percentage of exhausts and the irreversibility
of turbine are decreased. The exergy efficiency of the entire system
improves 0.8 percentage points at 4400 rpm and full-load state.
Analysis of turbine shows that the exergy recovering rate of turbine
increases from 9.4% to 13.0%.
(3) The power output of gasoline engine deteriorated at almost all
working points by adopting the EBTG. This result is mainly ascribed
to the increment of back pressure and the loss during energy con-
version processes in EBTG.
(4) Energy transfer efficiency of the generator, motor and battery have
obvious influence on the performance of EBTG system, which im-
pact the net power output of EBTG system.
(5) The EBTG system can improve the transient performance at low-
speed conditions. When ICE works at 2000 rpm and load step from
45% to 100%, the response time of boost pressure in EBTG engine is
only about half of it in baseline engine.
This paper provided a method to improve the thermal efficiency of
engine while solving the turbo-lag problem. Its influence on a 1.5 L
gasoline engine was studied. The mechanism of this method about how
it improves the thermal efficiency of engine was also investigated.
Results show that it is more suitable for engine operating in the region
of high loads and speeds. While, its performance on a vehicle and under
different driving cycles should be detailed studied in the future.
Acknowledgement
This research was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds
for the Central Universities (Grant NO. 106112016CDJXZ338825).
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