Enhancing Fuel Economy in Transport Applications

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Enhancing Fuel Economy in Transport Applications

• Fuel Efficient Lubricants
• Neil McTavish Castrol Lubricants Automotive
  Technology Mgr

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Enhancing Fuel EconomyTopics

• Why is fuel economy important?
• What factors influence fuel economy?
• How do lubricants improve fuel economy?
• Effect of viscosity
• Effect of chemistry

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Enhancing Fuel EconomyTopics

• How do engine operating conditions change the
  benefits?
• Effect of engine load
• Conclusions

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Why is Fuel Economy important?
How far can you travel on 500 of diesel?
1999
2002
2005
2008
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What factors influence Fuel Economy?
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How do you measure the influence of each factor?

• Measuring fuel economy is not a trivial task.
• Traditional methods of measuring fuel economy
  will be accurate to only /- 10.
• This makes is extremely difficult to measure the
  effect of small efficiency improvements, i.e.
  through engine lubricants.

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Measuring lubricant fuel economy under controlled
conditions
1980
1990
2000
2010

• HD OEM
• Japanese 10 15 mode cycles
• FE retention

• Cummins M11 HD
• Full transient cycle ETC (Hill/Bus/Urban)

• Friction Rig HD PC
• Developed with Torque Flange

• Honda CBR600RR MC
• Telemetry data of Brands Hatch perfect
  reproduction of reality

• PC OEM Diesel
• Willans Line

• Volvo D12A HD
• Willans Line
• Steady State

• Caterpillar C13 HD
• Full transient duty cycles

Friction Rig HD PC Component and Full Engine
A/C dyno with Invertor control

• MB M111 PC
• Gasoline
• Simple CEC cycles

• MAN D20 HD
• ETC cycles
• Load mapping

• Sequence VIB PC
• Gasoline
• ASTM Phase 2

64Hz PC controlled test beds

• Cummins ISB HD
• Transient cycles
• Regional
• Load mapping

• Telco 697TC HD
• Pseudo transient cycle dynamic measurements on
  an absorption dyno

Key HD Heavy Duty PC Passenger Car MC
Motorcycle
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Castrol HD Engine Installation
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How do lubricants improve FE?

• A lubricant can influence engine efficiency in
  two ways
• Physically (i.e. Viscosity)
• Reduce viscous drag and pumping losses

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How do lubricants improve FE?

• Chemically (i.e. Components)
• Reduce friction in surface contact
• These factors are independent of external effects
  like tyres, weather etc.
• The scale of influence will be dependent only on
  engine operating conditions.

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Effect of lubricant viscosity

• Lubricant viscosity has a large influence on
  engine efficiency.
• Low viscosity lubricants help reduce drag and
  pumping losses in the engine.
• Industry and OEM specifications currently limit
  the minimum viscosity to xW-30.

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Effect of lubricant chemistry

• Lubricant chemistry can improve engine efficiency
  by reducing friction in surface contact
  conditions.
• This effect is not as large as viscosity,
  however, it can be material even within the same
  viscosity grade.

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How do engine operating conditions change the
benefits?

• The lubricant benefits shown on the previous
  slides have all been demonstrated under
  consistent operating conditions.
• So, how do these benefits change for engines
  operating in different environments?
• The single largest engine performance factor
  affecting lubricant fuel economy is
• Engine load

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Effect of engine load

• Under high load conditions the effect of viscous
  drag, pumping losses and friction reduces as a
  of the total engine power.
• This means that the ability of the lubricant to
  improve fuel economy benefit reduces.

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Effect of engine load

• However, although the fuel economy benefit from
  the lubricant reduces with engine load, the
  benefit in absolute terms is consistent and
  actually increasing

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How does this apply on-road?

• Truck A
• 40 ton
• Average 30 L/100km
• If FE benefit 2.0
• Total fuel used 266 litres
• Fuel saving 5.3 litres

• Truck B
• 62.5 ton
• Average 60 L/100km
• If FE benefit 1.0
• Total fuel used 532 litres
• Fuel saving 5.3 litres

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Transmissions and Axles

• Most improvement is seen for cold starts in urban
  or suburban type operation.
• Smallest improvement seen in motorway/highway
  type operations

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To conclude

• Lubricants can offer fuel economy benefits,
  however, traditional measurement methods are
  unlikely to be accurate enough to measure this.
• The benefit is always present regardless of
  terrain, weather, cargo
• Lubricants are one of the easiest methods to
  implement compared with many other fuel economy
  products, e.g. aero aids, tyres etc.

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Enhancing Fuel Economy in Transport Applications

• Fuel Efficient Lubricants