MERCED, CA— Efficiency is the name of the
game when it comes to making non-gasoline vehicles more attractive,
both to manufacturers and to consumers. But testing engine
efficiency can be an expensive proposition, requiring hand-built
prototypes, pricey equipment and space to house operations.
Reducing these expenses is a key way to help make alternative fuels
practical for the mass market.
Professor Gerardo Diaz and Joel Martinez-Frias, Ph. D., of the
University of California, Merced, School of Engineering are
collaborating with a group of scientists at Lawrence Livermore
National Laboratory (LLNL) directed by Salvador Aceves, Ph.D., on
the development of advanced computational tools for analysis of
alternative fuel engines. Their project aims to lower the barriers
to new engine technologies that can help reduce dependence on
foreign oil, carbon emissions, and toxic emissions.
The work is sponsored by the Department of Energy’s Office of
Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.
“UC Merced is committed to research on efficient energy
systems,” Diaz said. “We hope our research takes society in the
same direction our campus is going — reducing our carbon
footprint and improving efficiency.”
“We believe we’ve found an excellent opportunity to address a
very important problem,” he added.
The research team aims to develop analysis tools that could be
transferred to the automotive industry. Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory has already begun working with corporations including
Cummins and Ford Motor Company. The computational models created by
the team can apply to heavy- or light-duty vehicle engines.
Work like this can get complicated — fuels like gasoline
and diesel are chemically complex, and models have to take into
account how each component of the fuel behaves as it ignites in an
engine, Aceves said.
The team creates what they call surrogate models —
combinations of molecules that behave similarly to those found in
the fuels — to work around some of those challenges. Then, to
make sure their models are accurate, Diaz and his colleagues
compare their results with real-world test results. The modeling
effort simplifies the experimental work by directing the research
into promising ways to maximize efficiency while meeting
increasingly tighter oncoming emissions standards.
Each scientist on the team brings a particular expertise toward
the research goals. Diaz developed expertise in analyzing energy
systems through a Ph.D. from the University of Notre Dame and
several years of industry experience at Modine Manufacturing and
Honeywell before joining the faculty at UC Merced in 2005. Aceves
leads the Engineering Directorate’s Energy Conversion and Storage
Group at LLNL and is sponsoring the project and developing the
chemical models used in the analysis. Martinez-Frias, a staff
researcher at UC Merced, contributes his knowledge in generating
the computer models for the project.
The team also collaborates with researchers at UC Berkeley,
Sandia National Laboratory and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
