D2SE-Projects and partnerships

Ongoing collaborative projects

                                             
The Co-Wood-Green project aims to optimise the performance of a cogeneration unit by recycling different types of wood. NAODEN designs, manufactures and installs biomass micropower plants using gasification to convert biosourced resources into energy. One of NAODEN’s solutions, the Imperium 100, produces heat and electricity simultaneously. This unit needs to be optimised to produce green electricity that can be used to power the pumps of a heating network, for example in communal buildings, and to inject the hot water produced.
The D2SE team, with its expertise in engines, combustion and pollutant emissions, as well as in terms of engine testing and simulation, is taking part in the project alongside Solution Recyclage, an expert in the procurement and supply of Grade A&B waste wood.

This project is financed by the Pays de la Loire region, and was selected in the Pays de la Loire 2020 Call for Collaborative R&D Projects.

> Read more about this industrial chair

The Mann + Hummel Group and Centrale Nantes have created this chair "Filtration systems: fluid dynamics and energy" and started on 01/01/2019, for a period of five years.

Growing environmental awareness on the part of populations and governments is leading European legislators to intensify the use of new anti-pollution standards. Technical improvements are no longer sufficient to meet the increasing demands. In addition, current environmental concerns also relate to air quality. Indeed, whether in closed (such as vehicle interiors) or semi-open environments (such as platforms in public transit systems), significant improvements are still needed. The improvement of air quality can be achieved in particular through the use of filtering systems and can be approached along three main lines:

• Optimization of internal combustion engines to reduce fuel consumption (and therefore CO2 emissions) while maintaining acceptable driving pleasure;
• Concerns associated with driver well-being, both in terms of thermal comfort in the passenger compartment and air quality (CO2, particles, etc.). To do this, technical solutions can be put in place but with the lowest possible energy impact so as not to reduce the vehicle's range.
• Air quality in semi-open environments such as station platforms through the use of filtration systems.

 

The objective of this project is to develop innovative solutions to improve the operation of industrial engines, mainly to reduce their fuel consumption and their polluting emissions. The concepts are first tested by thermodynamic and fluid simulation then validated experimentally. There are many areas covered: supercharging, injection / combustion, cooling, hybridization, system interactions, etc. The targeted applications are naval propulsion and electricity production

The aim of the partnership is to accelerate the use of digital simulation techniques in powertrain design, development and testing, and increase model predictability. In the long term, it could be possible to develop a new engine using virtual testing only, without the need for laboratory tests and prototypes.
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The CRITT M2A Electrical Test Centre started work on the PEGAS²E (Energy Performance, Management and Autonomy of Electrical Storage Systems) four-year research programme on October 1st 2019. This programme aims to develop the electric vehicle market by overcoming the scientific challenges related to the optimisation of batteries used for automotive transportation. A PhD thesis began on the same date and is being undertaken in partnership with Ecole Centrale de Nantes (through Centrale Innovation) and Gamma Technologies. Professor David Chalet of the Research Laboratory in Hydrodynamics, Energetics & Atmospheric Environment (LHEEA), a joint Centrale Nantes and CNRS research unit, is supervising this PhD. He thus lends his expertise in energy system modelling to this research programme.

The PhD thesis aims to develop an electrothermal model of an electric vehicle traction battery based on test results obtained using Li-ion battery technology. The electrothermal model developed should be of low complexity, with a target of integration into a BMS (Battery Management System), while maintaining a strong link with the physico-chemical phenomena governing the behaviour of the electrochemical cell. To this end, the research work will be based on an innovative work methodology and will benefit from the latest generation of battery test benches (2kW/4kW cells and 50kW modules, 250/750kW pack benches, EIS (Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy)) as well as high-performance simulation tools.

The model will deal with managing battery pack cooling in any use case scenario of the electric vehicle. This entails understanding and optimising the physical phenomena linked to the thermal management of the "propulsion battery" and energy storage system. From a more general point of view, it will be necessary to overcome scientific and technological challenges to improve the life of the propulsion system and the vehicle's range. The innovation of the thesis work will be to couple this battery modelling with an energy optimisation of the complete vehicle system.

Recent collaborative projects

This chair aims to advance knowledge in the field of Digital Intelligence for the Hybrid Powertrain System (ISPHY). In this context, several areas are addressed, in particular deep learning for the prediction of pollutant emissions, Virtual Testing for hybrid and ADAS systems, and dynamic experimental designs.

The Mann+Hummel Group and Centrale Nantes set up an international teaching and research chair in automotive engineering dealing with innovative intake manifolds and thermal management'. The regulatory environment for the reduction of polluting emissions and CO2 from internal combustion engines is a major challenge for MANN + HUMMEL. Working with the LHEEA laboratory is intended to broaden knowledge of future technological innovation relating to powertrain mechanisms.  The research themes are:

• Air intake systems,
• Thermal engine management.

DIEPER is the acronym for DIesel Efficiency improvement with Particulates and Emission Reduction. This European project H2020 gathers together car manufacturers (Renault, Fiat, Iveco), suppliers (Continental, Johnson Matthey, Siemens, Bosch) and research centers (IFP, Ricardo, CMT Valence, Ecole Centrale de Nantes). This project aims for reduction of CO2 emissions while reducing conventional pollutants (CO, HC, NOx and PM) and nanoparticles (up to 10nm) of Diesel Powertrains.

This project involves the development of an innovative engine demonstrator with a downspeeding objective.

D2SE Participation: Organbank study and simulation of the bi-stepped supercharging system
With: Faurecia, Valeo, Renault, IFPen, Delphi, Honeywell, Mechadyne

This project concerns the optimized design of intake air and exhaust system.

D2SE Participation:

• Characterization of the compressor in pulsed flow on organ bank.
• Characterization of solutions allowing low filling gain
• Study of thermal discontinuities on the air intake line

Partners: Mann + Hummel France, Renault, LMFA, Supelec, ESTACA, P.H.A.S.E., Sherpa Engineering, Electricfil

                   

The chair’s research work will be to advance knowledge in the field of system modelling for the control and development of Renault’s internal combustion engines. This chair will also strengthen the alignment of courses provided to future engineers with current and future industrial projects.

> Renault/Siemens chair

The joint research program between CEA Tech and the Ecole Centrale de Nantes aims to study the possibilities of waste heat recovery by thermoelectricity (Seebeck effect).  The interactions between this kind of system and the non steady compressible flows in the exhaust lines of internal combustion engines are studied. This program started in October 2014 with the financial contribution of the Region des Pays de la Loire. A complete demonstrator is also realized.

This project concerns the development of a demonstrator of a natural gas engine of an industrial vehicle operating in lean mixture.

D2SE Participation: Study of supercharging and engine air loop
With: CRMT, LMS Imagine, Electricfil, IRECELYON

This project concerns advanced diagnostics and superchargement modeling.

D2SE participation: experimental characterization of the impact of heat transfer in turbochargers and influence of the compressor input velocity field on its behavior
Academic and industrial partners: LMFA (Centrale Lyon), CNAM Paris (turbomachine chair), Renault, PSA, BorgWarner