Abstract:

Vehicle emissions are the most important source of air pollution in urban environments worldwide, and their detection and control are critical to protecting public health.It is common for vehicle owners and mechanics to focus primarily on faults that affect safety, drivability, and fuel economy, but lack knowledge or interest in emissions-related faults. In addition, most emissions-related damage is invisible, except smoke problems, which are rare on modern vehicles, making them difficult for vehicle owners and mechanics without emissions testing equipment to find. In this context, it is of particular importance in the training of students of these specialties to emphasize this global problem, namely to make several engine malfunction simulations and track their impact on harmful emissions. It is necessary to study which engine faults have the greatest impact on each pollutant so that mechanics can identify possible faulty parts and repair them quickly when a high-emission vehicle is found. The purpose of this research presented in the report is to simulate the various faults in a car engine and show their effect on vehicle emissions. An experimental methodology was implemented and tested for the study of various engine malfunctions during the education of students from engineering majors directly corresponding to automotive technology. A total of 10 different worst-case failures are presented. The obtained tabular data give the students a reason to form knowledge and skills for a better understanding of the material. Graphical results are aggregated and analyzed to provide information on the emissions performance of motor vehicles. The data can be used to estimate the effect of parameters such as engine load and ambient temperature on vehicle emissions. The students performed tests that were simulated and grouped into the following functional areas: air intake, fuel delivery, ignition, and exhaust after-treatment systems. Deterioration of spark-ignition engine emission control systems has been found to be primarily a gradual wear process occurring as vehicle mileage accumulates. In order to identify the impact of hardware degradation and failures, a Volkswagen Golf passenger car with a gasoline engine was used, on which the students during the experiments demonstrated simulated failures of the engine's hardware systems. To measure the impact on emissions, professional equipment was used to measure the composition of harmful emissions in the exhaust gases from the car. After the tests, it was found that at first glance, insignificant issues can worsen the composition of harmful emissions many times. From an educational and scientific perspective, this study provided essential knowledge and skills to automotive repair and maintenance students to effectively identify and repair emissions-related damage in gasoline vehicles. Therefore, students must be trained to correctly perform these procedures, based on the analysis of objective control data. This leads to a better understanding of the specifics of the material taught in the field and of modern fuel controllers and their application to improve the environmental situation in cities.

Keywords:

Engineering education, harmful emissions, engine malfunctions, simulation, harmful emissions.