Energy Conversion and Management 281 (2023) 116844

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Energy Conversion and Management

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

Experimental investigation of the effects of preheating temperature on

low-temperature cold start performance, emissions and energy conversion
of diesel-electric hybrid
Peng Wang a, Biao Qin a, Lei Shi a, Wei Kang b, Bin Zhao b, Kangyao Deng a, *
a
Key Laboratory for Power Machinery and Engineering of Ministry of Education, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
b
China North Engine Research Institute, Datong 037000, China

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Low compression end temperatures, high heat loss, and large resistance torque cause difficulty in starting con­
Preheating temperature ventional diesel engines at extremely low temperatures. The diesel-electric hybrid is equipped with high-capacity
Low-temperature cold start battery, which can support high-energy-consuming preheating measures to improve low-temperature cold-start
Energy consumption and conversion
performance. However, only a few studies have been conducted on the effect of preheating on the low-
Diesel-electric hybrid
Experimental investigation
temperature cold-start performance of diesel-electric hybrid. In this study, the influence of different preheat­
ing temperatures on the performance, emissions, energy consumption, and conversion of a diesel-electric hybrid
was experimentally investigated by designing an environmental simulation system and a preheating system. The
results showed that intake air preheating consumed less energy and maintained a high energy conversion effi­
ciency. As the intake air temperature increased, the combustion conditions improved, increasing the indicated
mean effective pressure and enhancing combustion stability. However, intake preheating was invalid when the
ambient temperature was below 244 K because of the high heat loss and large resistance torque. As the coolant
temperature increased, the ignition delay period was significantly reduced, allowing the maximum pressure in
the cylinder to increase. The corresponding position became closer to the top dead center, resulting in a steady
increase in the speed rise rate, a reduction in hydrocarbon emissions from 1403 ppm to 298 ppm, and a reduction
in opacity from 85% to 43%. The increase in the lubrication temperature mainly decreased the resistance torque,
resulting in a reduction in the drag time and rise time of 0.37 s and 2.21 s, respectively. At 233 K, the minimum
energy consumption of the combined preheating of the coolant and intake air was 2557 kJ. In contrast, the
combined preheating of the lubricant and intake air was only 379 kJ, but the emission performance of coolant
preheating was better than that of lubricant preheating. This result could be considered as the constraint
boundary for optimizing the total equivalent energy consumption and is useful for optimizing the preheating
strategy and development of diesel-electric-hybrid low-temperature thermal management.

1. Introduction
Owing to the gradual global consensus on carbon peaking and carbon
neutrality [1–4], diesel-electric hybrid is being widely used in many
fields because of its considerable advantages in reducing emissions
while maintaining diesel engine power and reliability [5–8]. However,
in mid-latitude and high-latitude regions during the winter, the average
temperature of the environment drops below − 20 ◦ C and even − 40 ◦ C in
some areas [9]. This causes difficulty in starting hybrid diesel engines
and substantial deterioration in the emission performance during the
cold-start phase owing to poor fuel atomization and poor combustion at
low temperatures, limiting the further promotion of diesel-electric
hybrid [10–14].
The temperature at the end of compression in the cylinder is an
essential factor that determines whether a diesel engine can start suc­
cessfully [15–17]. However, the low intake air temperature adversely

Abbreviations: HC, hydrocarbon; NOx, nitrogen oxide; CO, carbon monoxide; PTC, positive temperature coefficient; DC, direct current; Pmax, maximum pressure in
cylinder; COVPmax, cycle-to-cycle variations of Pmax; ATDC, after top dead center; CA, crankshaft angle; TDC, top dead center; IMEP, indicated mean effective
pressure; SOC, start of combustion; SRR, speed rise rate.
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: kydeng@sjtu.edu.cn (K. Deng).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enconman.2023.116844
Received 7 November 2022; Received in revised form 12 February 2023; Accepted 15 February 2023
Available online 26 February 2023
0196-8904/© 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
P. Wang et al. Energy Conversion and Management 281 (2023) 116844

approximately 703 K. At extremely low ambient temperatures, the diesel

engine struggled to reach the critical auto-ignition temperature at the
end of cylinder compression. Therefore, auxiliary devices were required
to increase the in-cylinder temperature. Ramadhas et al. [25–26] from
the University of Birmingham studied the potential of intake air pre­
heating on diesel engine starting and emissions in low-temperature en­
vironments. They placed an air heater upstream of the intake manifold
to increase the initial intake air temperature. Studies have shown that
preheating the intake air at a low ambient temperature significantly
reduces the start time, improves fuel economy, and reduces hydrocarbon
(HC) and nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions.
The relationship between the dynamic viscosity of different types of
lubrication and the ambient temperature is shown in Fig. 1. The results
showed that with the decrease of the ambient temperature, the dynamic
viscosity of different types of lubrication had a sharp upward trend, and
the dynamic viscosity of lubrication at − 30 ◦ C was more than 100 times
the dynamic viscosity at 30 ◦ C [27]. When the starting resistance torque
Fig. 1. Fresh oil viscosity versus temperature for different lubrications using
was greater than the starting torque of the motor, the motor could not
the modified Vogel equation [27].
drive the diesel engine, making the cold start of the diesel engine
challenging to succeed at low temperatures [28–31]. Furthermore, in a
affects the in-cylinder compression temperature [18–20]. Eq. (1), based low-temperature environment, the dynamic viscosity of the lubricant
on the multivariable process model proposed by Hardenberg et al. [21], increased, resulting in poor fluidity. This causes an insufficient oil sup­
describes the relationship between the diesel engine’s compression end ply between the friction surfaces, such as the crankshaft and bearing
temperature and the intake air temperature. It should be noted that the bush of the diesel engine, resulting in semi-dry friction or dry friction,
gap between mechanical parts increases at low temperatures, leading to which increases the wear of each moving part [32–37] Simultaneously,
air leakage in the cylinder. As the ambient temperature decreases, the the coolant and cylinder wall temperatures were very low at extremely
air leakage phenomenon becomes more apparent, leading to the en­ low temperatures. This caused an increase in the heat dissipation loss in
gine’s actual compression ratio being less than the theoretical the cylinder. The temperature and pressure of the mixture of fuel and air
compression ratio. In addition, heat loss increases with the low tem­ at the end of the cylinder compression were reduced, leading to poor
perature of the cylinder wall, which decreases the compression variable combustion and worse emissions [38–41].
index. Therefore, the compression end temperature at the low temper­ Although intake air preheating is an effective method for improving
ature is further reduced. the low-temperature cold start performance of diesel engines, as the
TTDC = Ta • εnc c − 1
(1) ambient temperature decreases, the dynamic viscosity of the lubricant
increases rapidly. This causes a sharp increase in starting resistance
where TTDC is the compression end temperature, Ta is the intake air torque, while the decrease in coolant temperature causes an increase in
temperature, εc is the compression ratio, and nc is the compression heat dissipation loss in the cylinder. In addition, at extremely low
variable index. temperatures, the available capacity of the battery is significantly
Based on this, Lindl et al. [22] established a diesel engine with a reduced [42–43]. Aris et al. [44] showed that a cold environment
compression ratio of 17. The results indicated that different initial intake significantly reduces the available capacity of the battery while
air temperatures significantly affected the final compression tempera­ increasing its internal impedance. The discharge voltage curve of the
ture. Zahdeh et al. [23] reached the same conclusion through experi­ battery showed a rapid downward trend as ambient temperature
ments on a single-cylinder four-stroke direct-injection diesel engine. In decreased. Furthermore, the power characteristics of the power battery
addition, an ambient temperature that is too low causes deterioration of deteriorated, and the time required for the power battery to reach the
the fuel spray process. Their research revealed that the in-cylinder gas cut-off voltage was shortened, indicating a significant decrease in
density under cold start conditions was lower than that under normal available capacity. Therefore, it is essential to reduce the energy con­
conditions, resulting in an increase in the fuel injection crushing dis­ sumption of the diesel-electric hybrid low-temperature cold start process
tance, poor atomization performance, and an increase in the amount of and utilize battery energy in a highly efficient manner.
fuel attached to the wall. Furthermore, due to the low temperature of the These aforementioned studies reveal that in an extremely low-
combustion chamber wall, it was difficult for the fuel attached to the temperature environment, the preheating of the lubrication and
wall to evaporate, resulting in a reduction in the amount of fuel evap­ coolant is particularly important. However, the battery capacity of or­
orated in the cylinder and a poor starting performance. Li et al. [24] dinary diesel engines is small, which is further reduced at low temper­
found that the critical autoignition temperature of a diesel engine is atures, making it impossible to preheat the lubricant and coolant.
Therefore, only a few studies have been conducted to compare the ef­
Table 1 fects of preheating intake air, coolant, and lubricant at different tem­
Specifications of tested diesel-electric hybrid. peratures on the low-temperature cold start performance and emissions
Item Content of diesel-electric hybrid. Additionally, there is no literature on the en­
ergy consumption required to preheat the intake air, coolant, and
Engine type V-type, two-cylinder, four-stroke
Displacement (L) 1 lubricant at different temperatures. In this study, the intake air, coolant,
Bore (mm) 86 and lubrication were preheated to different temperatures by using
Stroke (mm) 86 different preheaters to investigate the low-temperature cold-start per­
Compression ratio 16.2 formance of diesel-electric hybrid, which has the large-capacity battery
Injection pressure (MPa) 120
Engine rated power (kW) 30
and the preheating energy consumption was determined. In this way,
Engine rated speed (r/min) 3200 the effects of intake air, coolant, and lubrication temperatures on the
Aspiration mode Turbocharged, intercooled low-temperature cold start performance, emission, energy consumption,
Motor type Permanent magnet synchronous motor and conversion of the diesel-electric hybrid were studied. The results of
Motor phase Three phase
this study could provide guidance for further improving the low-

2
P. Wang et al.
Fig. 2. Test bench of diesel-electric-hybrid low-temperature cold start.
temperature cold start performance and reducing the energy consump­
tion and emissions of diesel-electric hybrid.
2. Test engine and method
2.1. Test platform and experimental apparatus
To study the effect of different preheating temperatures on the low-
temperature cold start performance, emission, energy consumption, and
conversion characteristics, a diesel-electric hybrid was used for experi­
mental research. The main specifications of the diesel-electric hybrid are
listed in Table 1.
To ensure the controllability and repeatability of the test, it was
performed in a walk-in constant temperature laboratory. The constant-
temperature laboratory (model AZWT17L-SP) had an adjustable tem­
perature range of 228–353 K, a temperature fluctuation rate of less than
0.5 K, and a cooling rate of 2.5 K /min. The walk-in constant-tempera­
ture laboratory could quickly and accurately simulate different ambient
temperatures to satisfy the requirements of this test. The heat exchange
device between the lubrication system and coolant system was removed
to study the effect of preheating lubrication and coolant on low-
temperature cold start.
Ordinary diesel engine lubrication systems were mostly equipped
with mechanical pumps that cannot operate when the engine was not
started. In this test, an electronic pump powered by power battery was
used to achieve mechanical decoupling from the engine so that the heat
Fig. 3. Instantaneous energy consumption acquisition module and high-speed acquisition card.
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Energy Conversion and Management 281 (2023) 116844
could be effectively diffused in the lubrication system before the engine
was started.
As the charging and discharging characteristics of the power battery
were affected by many factors and were nonlinear characteristic curves,
repeating the tests with the same characteristics was impossible. Addi­
tionally, over-charging or over-discharging of the power battery
increased the risk of fire. Therefore, to ensure the repeatability and
safety of the experiment, an EVWDS series battery simulator was used.
The battery simulator can call the characteristic curves of various power
batteries, edit and set variable conditions such as the state of charge of
the battery, and realize the function of simulating the charging and
discharging characteristics of the power battery. It has high output
stability, high precision, fast transient response, and bidirectional en­
ergy flow. It can accurately simulate the dynamic characteristics of
power battery charging and discharging, and simultaneously create a
safe experimental environment.
Due to the safety and space limitation in the cylinder, the preheating
plug can only heat a small range of temperature therefore it is not evenly
heated. It leads to high fluctuation in the combustion cycle and large
engine vibration and noise [20], which is challenging to meet the rele­
vant design specifications. After the successful start of the diesel engine,
the preheating plug affect fuel spray development, worsening the diesel
engine’s combustion characteristics and emission characteristics. Since
the flame-type preheater required the installation of a special pre-
injection fuel system, and the complex structure was difficult to install
in an actual vehicle. Therefore, the intake preheater in this test was
P. Wang et al.
Fig. 4. Smoke and NOx emission test equipment.
Fig. 5. Schematic diagram of tested bench.
intake grille preheating with a simple structure and easy installation.
The coolant heater used in this test was a PTC electric heater, which has
the advantages of fast heating speed, good reliability, and automatic
adjustment of the calorific value (see Fig. 2).
To facilitate the collection of the energy consumption of the intake
air heater, coolant heater, and lubricant heater, multiple direct-current
(DC) voltage transmitters and DC current transmitters were used in this
experiment to collect the instantaneous current and instantaneous
voltage of each heater, as shown in Fig. 3. Then, the instantaneous
power was obtained by multiplying the instantaneous current and
instantaneous voltage, and the energy consumption of each heater was
obtained by integrating the instantaneous power and heating time.
Fig. 4 shows the smoke and instantaneous NOx emission test equipment.
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Energy Conversion and Management 281 (2023) 116844
2.2. Experimental setup
Fig. 5 shows the schematic diagram of the diesel-electric hybrid low-
temperature cold start test bench. The test bench included an intake air
preheater, a coolant preheater, a lubricant preheater, a motor and its
control system, a battery simulator, a high-pressure common rail system,
a coolant control system, an electronic control unit system, an emission
analysis system, a combustion analysis system, a supercharging system,
and various sensors.
The bench had an incremental photoelectric encoder and an A/D
converter with 12-bit precision for continuous cycle and cylinder pres­
sure data collection in a transient process based on a crankshaft angle
(CA) accuracy of 0.5 ◦ CA. The cylinder pressure acquisition software
was written in VC++. The software collected the diesel engine cylinder
pressure and encoder crankshaft signals through the NI high-speed
acquisition card and finally displayed the cylinder pressure curve on
P. Wang et al. Energy Conversion and Management 281 (2023) 116844

Table 2 Table 5
Total mass and flow of working medium. The uncertainties of the measurements.
Working medium Total mass (kg) Flow (g/s) Measurement Uncertainty

Intake air 0.47 27.6 K type thermocouple (Intake air temperature) ± 0.7 K
Lubricant 3 33.3 K type thermocouple (exhaust temperature) ± 1K
Coolant- 5 166.7 Flowmeter (Coolant flow) ± 0.22 m3h− 1

Temperature sensor (Coolant & Lubricant temperature) ± 0.4 K

Pressure transmitter (Intake air pressure) ± 1 KPa

Table 3
Main specifications of instruments and equipment. obtained at 233 K ambient temperature, 293 K coolant temperature and
Equipment Type Precision 293 K lubricating oil temperature, while the intake air mass flow rate is
/Resolution obtained after the engine has entered idle speed (the speed has stabilized
Cold storage refrigeration system AZXWT17L-SP / and the intake air mass per second is the same).
Data collector ADAM-4015,4117,4118 ±0.5%FS Table 3 lists the specifications of the main instruments and the
High-speed acquisition NI PXle-1071/6358 / equipment used in this study. The accuracy was recalibrated before the
instrument NI SCB-68A / test in accordance with the calibration manual. The diesel engine
High-speed capture card
Exhaust emissions analyzer AVL-1000 CO:0.001% vol
lubrication system, coolant system, fuel supply system, and other
HC:1ppm vol equipment, as well as the diesel-electric hybrid power plant, were all
CO2:0.01% vol placed at the required test temperature and maintained for a sufficient
O2:0.01% vol time before the test. This ensured that the temperature of all measuring
NO:1ppm vol
points was within 1 K of the ambient temperature. Meanwhile, the test
Smoke Tester AVL-4800 ±2%
NOx sensor Uni-5WK97109A / humidity and pressure conditions were kept constant while ensuring
Lambda analysis meter ALM-II ±0.001 that no factors that cause changes in environmental conditions were
Combustion analyzer AVL-IndiSet ADVANCED / introduced. During the starting test, the fuel injection strategy and
PLUS motor drag torque were maintained consistently. It is also important to
Cylinder pressure sensor Kistler 6056A 0.1 % F.S
Torque speed sensor NJ1 ±0.1%
note that the crankshaft was rotated to the position just before the
CA calculator AVL 4CA1.01 ±0.5 ◦ CA bottom dead center of the exhaust and when the exhaust valve was first
Pressure transmitters HALO-XQ-WG ±0.5%FS opened before each start to ensure that the initial position of the
DC current transmitter JXK-10VD-D50A-B3 ±0.1%FS crankshaft was consistent in each test. After the start switch was turned
DC voltage transmitter VDT-21-36 V-B3/ ±0.2%FS
on, the motor dragged the diesel engine into running at 500r/min and
VDT-21-500 V-B3
Amplifier Kistler 5015 ±0.01 V started to inject fuel. When the speed reached 800 r/min, the motor
Fuel consumption measuring FC2210 / unloaded the torque, and the diesel engine could run smoothly within
instrument HM90-H3 / 15 s, which was considered a successful start. The fuel used in the test
Inlet and exhaust transient Pt100, K type / was − 50# diesel oil, and the lubrication was 0 W/40. The total amount
pressure sensor thermocouple
Temperature sensor
of working medium and the circulating flow are presented in Table 3.
In this study, the influence of different preheating temperatures on
the low-temperature cold start of a diesel-electric hybrid was investi­
the acquisition interface. The cylinder pressure signal was imported into gated. Table 4 lists the description of the test conditions. Each operating
the postprocessing software for combustion analysis. After the top dead point was tested five times to ensure the reliability of the test data, and
center (TDC) of the collected cylinder pressure data was corrected by the final analysis data were obtained from five times the average value.
setting the engine structure and working condition parameters, the The uncertainties of the corresponding measurement data are listed
cylinder pressure signal was analyzed and processed to obtain charac­ in Table 5. The uncertainty analysis method for the experimental data
teristic combustion parameters, such as instantaneous heat release rate was obtained from [45,46].
and cumulative heat release rate. In addition, the HC, smoke, carbon The starting process of a diesel engine is a typical transient process
monoxide (CO) and NOx emissions were measured using an exhaust with many influencing factors and high uncertainty. Even under the
emission analyzer system to analyze the pollutant emissions of the same operating conditions, the two starting processes performed at
engine. different times may produce different results. Therefore, before the
The heat transfer coefficient and heat transfer are closely related to specific experimental study, the repeatability test of the start-up process
the mass flow rate based on the correlation of forced convection heat of this testbed was carried out to verify the validity of the test and the
transfer in the pipe, and the total mass of the working medium affects reliability of the data in this study. The coolant, lubricant, and test
the total energy consumption of preheating. Therefore, in order to ambient temperatures were 248 K, and the intake air was preheated to
describe the experimental conditions more accurately, the total mass of 313 K. The speed and emissions of the 15 starting tests were calculated
the working medium and the mass flow rate are listed in Table 2. It separately, and the statistical results are shown in Fig. 6 and Table 6. The
should be noted that the total mass of the intake air is not a constant average value of the peak speed during the 15 starting tests was 1161.8
value since it is related to the starting time. The starting process is a fast r/min with a standard deviation of 10.7, and the average value of the
transient change process and the intake mass flow rate changes even peak NOx was 417.8 ppm with a standard deviation of 7.2. A statistical
more with each cycle. Therefore, the intake air total mass in Table 2 is analysis of the speed and NOx emissions of the 15 repeatability tests

Table 4
Description of test conditions of diesel-electric hybrid.
Ambient Intake air Coolant Lubricant temperature (K)
temperature (K) temperature (K) temperature (K)

248 283;293;303;313 248 248

233 283;293;303;313 273;278;283;288;293 233
233 283;293;303;313 233 273;278;283;288;293

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P. Wang et al. Energy Conversion and Management 281 (2023) 116844

1400 500

1200
400
1000
Speed(r/min)
300

NOx(ppm)
800

600 Experiment 1 Experiment 1

Experiment 4 200 Experiment 4
Experiment 8 Experiment 8
400 Experiment 12 Experiment 12
Experiment 15 100 Experiment 15
200

0 0
0 10 20 30 0 10 20 30
Time(s) Time(s)

(a) Speed repeatability test (b) NOx emission repeatability test

Fig. 6. Repeatability test of starting process.

Egain− cool
Table 6 ηcool = (9)
Econ− cool
Mean and standard deviation of starting process performance.
Item Mean Standard deviation Maximum Minimum Egain− lub
ηlub = (10)
Peak speed (r/min) 1161.8 10.7 1183 1130 Econ− lub
Peak NOX (ppm) 417.8 7.2 438 400
Here,Egain− air ,Egain− cool , and Egain− lub represent the energy gained per
unit mass of the intake air, coolant, and lubricant,
showed that the starting tests performed on the diesel-electric hybrid respectively.Econ− air ,Econ− cool , and Econ− lub denote the energy consumed per
low-temperature cold starting bench had good repeatability and high unit mass of the intake air, coolant, and lubricant, respectively.ηair ,ηcool ,
credibility. Therefore, subsequent experimental studies could be and ηlub indicate the energy conversion efficiency of the intake air,
conducted. coolant, and lubricant, respectively.cp− air ,cp− cool , and cp− lub refer to the
constant pressure specific heat capacity of the intake air, coolant, and
2.3. Data processing lubricant, respectively. In this study,cp− air ,cp− cool , and cp− lub were calcu­
lated according to the constant value, and the characteristic temperature
Since the energy loss due to heat transfer is difficult to calculate, this of the taken constant value was 273 K and the characteristic pressure
paper measures the temperature change of the working medium by a was1.01325 × 105 Pa.ΔTair ,ΔTcool , and ΔTlub refer to the difference be­
temperature sensor and combines it with the constant pressure specific tween the preheating temperature and the ambient temperature of
heat capacity to calculated the energy gained. The instantaneous power intake air, coolant, and lubricant, respectively. U refers to the instan­
is obtained by collecting the instantaneous current and instantaneous taneous voltage of the heater, I refers to the instantaneous current of the
voltage of each heater through multiple DC voltage transmitters and DC heater, and t refers to the preheating time of the heater.mair ,mcool , and
current transmitters, and then the total energy consumption of the mlub refer to the mass of the intake air, coolant, and lubricant,
working medium is obtained by integrating the instantaneous power respectively.
and heating time. Finally, the energy consumed per unit mass is calcu­ The indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP) was calculated by
lated. The energy conversion efficiency is calculated from the energy using Eq. (11):
gained per unit mass and the energy consumed per unit mass without ∫ 360◦ CA
calculating the energy loss. The energy gained per unit mass, energy IMEP = − 360 CA
◦ pdv
(11)
consumed per unit mass, and energy conversion efficiency were calcu­ Vs
lated by using Eqs. (2–10). where p is the instantaneous in-cylinder pressure of the engine, and
Egain− = cp− (2) VS is the cylinder displacement.
air air • ΔTair
The cycle-to-cycle variations in Pmax (COVPmax) could be calculated
Egain− cool = cp− cool • ΔTcool (3) by using Eqs. (12 and 13):
∑n
Pmax (i)
Egain− lub = cp− lub • ΔTlub (4) Pmax = i=1 (12)
n
∫t √̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅
UIdt ∑ n /
Econ− air = 0
(5) (Pmax (i) − Pmax )2 n − 1
mair
(13)
i=1
COVPmax = × 100%
∫t Pmax
UIdt
Econ− cool = 0
(6) where Pmax refers to the maximum pressure in the cylinder, Pmax refers
mcool
to the mean value of the maximum pressure in the cylinder, and n refers
∫t
UIdt to the number of cycles in the sample, which was 30 in this study.
Econ− lub = 0
(7) The speed rise rate (SRR) was calculated by using Eq. (14):
mlub
Speak − Sstarting
Egain− air SRR = (14)
ηair = (8) trise
Econ− air

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P. Wang et al. Energy Conversion and Management 281 (2023) 116844

Energy consumption per unit temperature rise(kJ/k)

Energy conversion efficiency of heating intake air

200 20 1.0
Energy gained of intake air Experimental data
Energy consumption for preheating intake air Conversion efficiency characteristic curve
160 Energy consumption per unit temperature rise 16 0.8

120 12 0.6
Energy (kJ)

80 8 0.4

40 4 0.2

0 0 0.0
40 50 60 70 80 40 50 60 70 80
D-value of preheating temperature and environment temperature K D-value of preheating temperature and environment temperature K

(a) Preheating characteristics of preheating intake air (b) Energy conversion efficiency of preheating intake air

Fig. 7. Preheating characteristics and energy conversion efficiency of preheating intake air.

5000 600 Energy consumption per unit temperature rise(kJ/K)

Energy conversion efficiency of heating coolant

Energy gained of coolant 1.0 Experimental data
Energy consumption for preheating coolant 500 Conversion efficiency characteristic curve
4000 Energy consumption per unit temperature rise
0.8
400
3000
Energy (kJ)

0.6
300
2000
0.4
200

1000 0.2
100

0 0 0.0
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
D-value of preheating temperature and environment temperature K D-value of preheating temperature and environment temperature K

(a) Preheating characteristics of preheating coolant (b) Energy conversion efficiency of preheating coolant

Fig. 8. Preheating characteristics and energy conversion efficiency of preheating coolant.

Energy consumption per unit temperature rise(kJ/K)

Energy conversion efficiency of heating lubricant

4000 1000
Energy gained of lubricant
Energy consumption for preheating lubricant 1.0 Experimental data
Energy consumption per unit temperature rise Conversion efficiency characteristic curve
800
3000 0.8

600
Energy (kJ)

0.6
2000
400
0.4

1000
200 0.2

0 0 0.0
10 20 30 40 50 60 10 20 30 40 50 60
D-value of preheating temperature and environment temperature K D-value of preheating temperature and environment temperature K

(a) Preheating characteristics of preheating lubricant (b) Energy conversion efficiency of preheating lubricant

Fig. 9. Preheating characteristics and energy conversion efficiency of preheating lubricant.

7
P. Wang et al.
where SRR represents the speed rise rate, Speak denotes the peak speed
before the starting process, Sstarting refers to the starting speed, and trise
refers to the speed rise time, more specifically the time from the starting
speed to the peak speed before the starting process.
The fuel and electrical energies were calculated using Eqs. (15–16).
∑
n
Efuel = LHV⋅ ṁ(i)
i=1
∫ t
Eelectrical = UIdt
0 2
where Efuel refers to the fuel energy, Eelectrical refers to the electrical
energy,LHV refers to the low heat value of diesel, ṁ refers to the fuel
injection mass per cycle, and n refers to the number of cycles in the
starting process.
3. Results and discussions
3.1. Preheating characteristics and energy conversion efficiency
The battery impedance increased significantly at low temperatures,
and the available capacity decreased sharply. The battery energy needs
to be efficiently utilized to ensure successful start-up at low tempera­
tures. Therefore, the preheating energy consumption characteristics and
energy conversion efficiency should be explored first. In this study,
power consumption tests were conducted with intake air, coolant, and
lubricant preheated to different temperatures at an ambient temperature
of 233 K. The quality, preheating temperature, preheating time, pre­
heater instantaneous current and voltage, and other parameters were
obtained using a power consumption collection device, and the mean
value of five tests at each working condition point was obtained. Ac­
cording to Eq. (2) – (10), the energy obtained per unit mass, the energy
consumed per unit mass, and the energy consumed per unit temperature
increased, and the energy conversion efficiency was calculated. The
calculation results are shown in Figs. 7-9.
Fig. 7 (a), 8(a), and 9(a) depict that the energy consumed to preheat
the intake air, coolant, and lubricant increases with the temperature
difference between the preheating and ambient temperatures. The en­
ergy consumption per unit temperature of the preheating intake air,
lubricant oil, and coolant increases rapidly after the temperature dif­
ference between the preheating temperature and ambient temperature
reaches 65 K, 40 K, and 50 K, respectively. Even if the temperature
difference between the heating temperature and the ambient tempera­
ture reaches 80 K, the energy consumption for intake air preheating is
below 200 kJ. In contrast, the energy consumption for coolant and
lubrication preheating exceeds 4000 kJ and 3500 kJ, respectively. There
are two primary reasons for this phenomenon. First, the air quality and
specific heat capacity were small, whereas the coolant and lubrication
quality and specific heat capacity were large. Second, the power of the
preheater was specific. The heat dissipation loss of the lubrication and
coolant increased sharply as the temperature difference between the
preheating temperature and the ambient temperature increased, while
the energy used to improve the coolant and lubricant temperature
decreased sharply. As a result, a large amount of energy was consumed
for each 1 K increase in the lubrication and coolant. Therefore, the
preheating strategy should take advantage of the preheating condition
before the inflection point to reduce heat loss.
The variation trend of the preheating energy conversion efficiency
with the preheating temperature is shown in Fig. 7(b), 8(b), and 9(b).
The intake air preheating energy conversion efficiency changed very
little as the preheating temperature increased. However, the coolant
preheating energy conversion efficiency and lubrication preheating
energy conversion efficiency decreased rapidly with increasing pre­
heating temperature and were close to 0 when the preheating temper­
ature reached a certain value. This was primarily due to the requirement
Energy Conversion and Management 281 (2023) 116844
10 0.30
Intake air temperature
283K 0.25
8
293K
Cylinder pressure (MPa)
303K
6 313K 0.20
(15)
4 0.15
(16) 0.10
0.05
0
0.00
-40 -20 0 20 40 60
Fig. 10. Variations of cylinder pressure and normalized heat release rate with
the intake air temperature.
that the intake air of each cycle was required to reach the specified
preheating temperature during the starting process. The intake air
heater always preheats the low-temperature air entering from the
environment so that the intake air can obtain energy more efficiently.
The preheating of the lubrication and coolant is a closed-loop system.
The heat loss increased rapidly with an increase in the temperature
difference between the preheating and ambient temperatures. When the
heat from the lubrication and coolant heater was equal to the heat loss of
heat dissipation, no matter how long the preheater worked, the tem­
perature of the lubrication and coolant did not increase. In particular,
the energy obtained by the lubricant and coolant did not increase,
resulting in a continuous decrease of the molecule, as shown in Eq.
(9–10). Consequently, the preheating energy conversion efficiency of
the lubricant and coolant continued to decrease. The loss of preheating
energy was mainly caused by thermal convection and thermal radiation
between the pipeline and the cryogenic environment. Therefore,
reducing the heat transfer area of pipes and the cryogenic environment,
increasing insulation measures, and reducing the heat transfer coeffi­
cient could improve the efficiency of the preheating energy conversion
and utilize the battery energy more effectively.
3.2. Effects of intake air preheating temperature
To investigate the influence of the intake air preheating temperature
on a low temperature cold start, tests with different intake air preheating
temperatures were conducted at 248 K.
Fig. 10 and Fig. 11 show the influence of the intake air preheated to
different temperatures on cylinder pressure, heat release rate, and
combustion characteristic parameters at the initial stage of low-
temperature cold start, respectively. To eliminate the influence of
chance factors, the average value of the first ten combustion cycles was
used to characterize the combustion state at the initial stage of the
starting process. As shown in Figs. 10 and 11, when the intake air was
only preheated to 283 K, the combustion became worse due to poor in-
cylinder thermal atmosphere, inadequate fuel mixing and evaporation
in the air, and a long ignition delay period. The IMEP was only 0.11 MPa,
which was insufficient to overcome the starting resistance torque, and
the hybrid diesel engine was unable to start. When the intake air tem­
perature was preheated to 293 K, the fuel mixing and evaporation in the
air were improved. The SOC was advanced to 1.2 ◦ CA, and the ignition
delay period was shortened to 7.2 ◦ CA. Moreover, the 50% combustion
position point was reduced, the cylinder pressure peak point was
increased, and the corresponding CA of the cylinder pressure peak point
became closer to the TDC. Therefore, the IMEP was increased to 0.61
MPa, and the diesel-electric hybrid was started successfully.
8
P. Wang et al. Energy Conversion and Management 281 (2023) 116844

20 20

18 17.5
50% combustion position 18

50% combustion position (°CA ATDC

16 Ignition delay 16

14 14

Ignition delay (°CA

12 11.6 12
10 9.1 10
8 7.8 8
7.2
6.6
6 5.8 6
5.3

4 4
2 2

0 0
283 293 303 313
Intake air temperature K

(a) 50% combustion position and ignition delay (b) SOC and IMEP

Fig. 11. Variations of combustion characteristic parameters with the intake air temperature.

500
Intake air temperature
8.5 283K
400 293K
6.8 303K
Maximum pressure in cylinder (MPa)

313K
Intake air temperature:293K
5.1 COV:20.21%
NOx(ppm)
300
Mean value:7.08
3.4
200
8.5

6.8 100
Intake air temperature:303K
5.1
COV:18.22% 0
Mean value:7.62 0 10 20 30
3.4
Time(s)
8.5 (a) NOx at different intake air temperatures
6.8
Intake air temperature:313K 3.1
Peak value of CO (%)

5.1 COV:16.56% Peak value of CO

Mean value:8.06 2.4
3.4
10 20 30 40 1.7
Cycle number
1.0 1500 Peak value of HC (ppm)
Fig. 12. Variations of COVPmax with the intake air temperature. Peak value of HC
1000
The variation in the maximum pressure in the cylinder and COVPmax
with intake air temperature from the 10th cycle to the 40th cycle is 500
Peak value of opacity (%)

shown in Fig. 12, which was used to characterize the influence of intake
air temperature on combustion stability in the starting process. The low 100 0
working temperature caused a proportion of fuel to adhere to cold Peak value of soot
surfaces such as intake ports or cylinder walls, forming wall film and 80
reducing the vaporization rate of fuel, resulting in a poor mixture for
60
combustion. The presence of a wall film combined with poor mixture
preparation led to unstable combustion [47]. It could be seen that with
40
an increase in the intake air temperature, the mean value of the 273 278 283 288 293
maximum combustion pressure in the cylinder increased, and the fluc­ Coolant temperature K
tuation decreased. When the intake air temperature increased from 293
K to 313 K, the mean value of the maximum combustion pressure
(b) Smoke, CO, and HC at different intake air temperatures
increased from 7.08 MPa to 8.06 MPa, COVPmax decreased from 20.21%
to 16.56%, and bad combustion cycles (the maximum combustion Fig. 13. Emission performance at different intake air temperatures.
pressure below 5 MPa) decreased from 5 to 2. This was mainly due to
fact that the increase in intake air temperature enabled the injected fuel

9
P. Wang et al. Energy Conversion and Management 281 (2023) 116844

16 120 100
Transition time 200 Fuel energy consumption
Rise time Electrical energy consumption
14 Drag time
176
100

Electrical energy consumption (kJ)

12.21s Speed rise rate 157 80
160

Fuel energy consumption (kJ)

12 11.10s 148

Speed rise rate (r/min)/s

1.55 10.62s
1.54 80 61
10 1.55 60
120
Time (s)

8 60 46
8.41 80 37 40
6 7.33 6.84 31
40
4
Start failed 40 20
20
2
2.23 2.23 2.23 2.23
0 0 0 0
283 293 303 313 283 293 303 313
Intake air temperature K Intake air temperature K

(a) Starting time and SRR (b) Fuel and electrical energy consumption

Fig. 14. Starting time and energy consumption at different intake temperatures.

The total starting time is generally subdivided into drag time, rise
313 time, and transition time. Drag time refers to the time when the motor
Preheating temperature boundary
308 drives the engine from 0 r/min to the starting speed (800 r/min in this
study). Rise time refers to the time from the starting speed to the peak
303
speed. The transition time refers to the time from the starting speed to
Intake air temperature(K)

298
293
288
283
278 Unsuccessful start
273
268 Preheating invalid
244K
263
233 238 243 248 253
Environment temperature(K)
Fig. 15. Intake air preheating temperature boundary.
to burn more completely. Therefore, the maximum combustion pressure
fluctuation between cycles decreased, and the combustion process
became stable.
Fig. 13 shows the NOx history, and the peaks of soot, CO, and HC
emissions when the intake air temperature increases by 10 K, that is,
from 283 K to 313 K. With the increase in the intake air temperature, the
peak NOx emission increased. Moreover, the time corresponding to the
emission peak was advanced, the opacity intensity decreased from 75%
to 48%, the peak HC emission decreased from 1102 ppm to 503 ppm,
and the peak CO emission decreased from 2.6% to 1.5%. According to
the literature [48], the most part of HC emissions in diesel engines is
produced during the ignition delay, when the amount of fuel that is
mixed leaner than the lean combustion limit increases rapidly. Under
this condition, the over-lean mixture would not auto ignite or sustain a
propagating flame, and it could be only oxidized by relative slow
thermal-oxidation reactions that would be incomplete [49]. In this
sense, the intake air heating accelerated the pre-combustion chemical
reactions and contributes to a reduction of the ignition delay (as can be
observed in Fig. 11a). Therefore, increasing the intake air temperature
reduced the products of incomplete combustion. Also as the intake air
temperature increases, when soot particles crossed the flame front and
most of them burn, the charge temperature had a positive effect due to
the increase of particles oxidised. This led to a decrease in smoke
emissions. All of this indicated that the increase in the intake air tem­
perature had significantly improved combustion during the starting
process.
the idle speed. Fig. 14 illustrates the change in the drag time, rise time,
Successful start transition time, SRR, and energy consumption during the entire starting
process with the intake air temperature. Fig. 14 (b) displays that
although the electric energy consumed for preheating the intake air
increased from 37 kJ to 61 kJ, the fuel energy consumed during the
starting process decreased from 176 kJ to 148 kJ, which was mainly due
to the shortening of the starting time. Fig. 14 (a) shows that with the
increase in the intake air temperature, the total starting time was
No need
shortened from 12.21 s to 10.62 s, while the rise time was shortened
Preheating
from 8.41 s to 6.84 s, and the SRR was increased from 35.7 (r/min)/s to
43.9 (r/min)/s. This was primarily because with the increase in the
258 263 268 273 intake air preheating temperature, the compression endpoint tempera­
ture increased, and the thermal atmosphere in the cylinder increased
significantly. Moreover, the fuel was easily vaporized and atomized, and
the combustion characteristic parameters were improved significantly.
Furthermore, each cycle was easier to catch fire, which reduced the
phenomenon of cycle misfire, and increasing IMEP and strong work
capacity caused the engine speed to rise rapidly.
Fig. 15 shows the intake air preheating temperature boundary. It was
observed that as the ambient temperature decreased, a higher temper­
ature was required for intake preheating. When the ambient tempera­
ture was 263 K or above, intake air preheating was not required and the
hybrid engine could be started successfully. When the ambient tem­
perature was 248 K, the intake air preheating temperature must be
greater than 290 K to start successfully. Intake air preheating was invalid
when the ambient temperature was low. As shown in Fig. 15, the diesel-
electric hybrid could not start when the ambient temperature was below
244 K, even if the intake air was preheated to a very high temperature.
The main reason for this phenomenon was that with the continuous
decrease of ambient temperature, the rapid increase in lubricant power
viscosity led to a dramatic increase in starting resistance torque, while
the decrease in coolant temperature led to an increased heat loss in the
cylinder. The intake preheating alone no longer meets the requirements
for the successful starting of diesel engines at extremely low
temperatures.
3.3. Effects of coolant and lubricant preheating temperature
At low temperatures, the impedance of the battery increased signif­
icantly, and the available capacity decreased sharply. [42]. Therefore, it
is necessary to use battery energy efficiently to ensure successful starting
at low temperatures. This section focuses on the effect of the preheating

10
P. Wang et al. Energy Conversion and Management 281 (2023) 116844

10 0.30
Coolant temperature
273K 0.25
8
278K
Cylinder pressure (MPa) 283K
6 288K 0.20
293K
0.15
4

0.10
2

0.05
0

0.00
-40 -20 0 20 40 60

(a) Cylinder pressure and normalized heat release rate with the coolant temperature

10 0.30
Lubricant temperature
273K 0.25
8
278K
Cylinder pressure (MPa)

283K
288K 0.20
6
293K
0.15
4

0.10
2
0.05
0
0.00
-40 -20 0 20 40 60

(b) Cylinder pressure and normalized heat release rate with the lubricant temperature

Fig. 16. Variations in cylinder pressure and normalized heat release rate with the coolant temperature and lubricant temperature.

coolant and lubrication to the same temperature at 233 K ambient
temperature on the combustion, emission, and energy consumption of
the diesel-electric hybrid during a low-temperature cold start. According
to the conclusions in Sections 3.1 and 3.2, intake air preheating could
effectively improve the cold start performance at low temperatures with
low energy consumption and high energy conversion efficiency.
Therefore, in this section, the intake air was preheated to 313 K, and the
effect of preheating coolant and lubricant on cold start at low temper­
atures was investigated.
Fig. 16 and Fig. 17 show the changes in cylinder pressure, heat
release rate, and combustion characteristic parameters with coolant
temperature and lubrication temperature at the initial stage of starting

11
P. Wang et al. Energy Conversion and Management 281 (2023) 116844

20 20 7 1.0
18 18 SOC
50% combustion position 6

50% combustion position (°CA ATDC

IMEP 0.84
Ignition delay 0.81
16 16 0.76 0.8
5
14 14
4

Ignition delay (°CA

SOC (°CA ATDC

12 12

IMEP (MPa)
0.6
3
10 9.7 10
8.1 2
8 8 0.4
6.4 6.1 1
6 5.7 6 0.4
4.1 0
4 4 -0.3 0.2
2 2 -1
Start failed Start failed
-1.9
0 0 -2 0.0
273 278 283 288 293 273 278 283 288 293
Coolant temperature (K) Coolant temperature (K)

(a) 50% combustion position and ignition delay with the coolant temperature (b) SOC and IMEP with the coolant temperature
20 20 7 1.0
18 18 SOC
50% combustion position 6
50% combustion position (°CA ATDC

IMEP
16 Ignition delay 16 0.8
5
14 14 0.66 0.67 0.68
Ignition delay (°CA 4 0.62 0.64

SOC (°CA ATDC

12 12

IMEP (MPa)
3.2 3 0.6
3 2.7
10 9.6 9.2 9.3 10 2.4
9.0 8.9 8.7 8.5
2.1
8.4 8.0 8.1 2
8 8 0.4
6 6 1

4 4 0 0.2
2 2 -1
0 0 -2 0.0
273 278 283 288 293 273 278 283 288 293
Lubricant temperature (K) Lubricant temperature (K)

(c) 50% combustion position and ignition delay with the lubricant temperature (d) SOC and IMEP with the lubricant temperature

Fig. 17. Variations of combustion characteristic parameters with the coolant temperature and lubricant temperature.

the process. Fig. 16 (a) shows that with the increase in the coolant was poor due to the lower temperature of the engine cylinder wall
temperature, the maximum cylinder pressure increased at the initial surface, even though the resistance torque was large. Furthermore, the
stage of the starting process, and the CA corresponding to the maximum combustion cylinder pressure curve nearly coincided with the
cylinder pressure gradually approached the TDC. When the coolant was compression curve, and the output power was extremely low, resulting
preheated only to 273 K and 278 K, the fuel combustion environment in engine start failure. When the coolant was preheated to 283 K, the

8.8 8.8
6.6 Lubricant temperature:273K
COV:20.55%
6.6 4.4 Mean value:6.72
Maximum pressure in cylinder (MPa)
Maximum pressure in cylinder (MPa)

Coolant temperature:283K
COV:15.53% 8.8
4.4 Mean value:7.41 Lubricant temperature:278K
6.6
COV:19.31%
8.8 4.4 Mean value:6.83
8.8
6.6 6.6 Lubricant temperature:283K
Coolant temperature:288K COV:18.55%
4.4 Mean value:6.96
4.4 COV:12.16%
Mean value:8.14 8.8
6.6 Lubricant temperature:288K
8.8 COV:17.69%
4.4 Mean value:7.05
6.6 8.8
Coolant temperature:293K Lubricant temperature:293K
COV:10.40% 6.6
4.4 COV:17.32%
Mean value:8.58 4.4 Mean value:7.18
10 20 30 40 10 20 30 40
Cycle number(-) Cycle number (-)

Fig. 18. Variations of COVPmax with the coolant temperature and lubricant temperature.

12
P. Wang et al. Energy Conversion and Management 281 (2023) 116844

500 500
Lubricant temperature
273K
400 400 278K
283K
288K
293K
300 300
NOx(ppm)

NOx(ppm)
200 Coolant temperature 200
273K
278K
283K
100 100
288K
293K

0 0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Time(s) Time(s)

(a) NOx at different coolant temperatures (b) NOx at different lubricant temperatures

3.1 3
Peak value of CO (%)

Peak value of CO (%)

Peak value of CO Peak value of CO
2.4 2

1.7 Peak value of HC (ppm) 1

Peak value of HC (ppm)

1.0 1500 0 1500
Peak value of HC Peak value of HC
1000 1000

500 500
Peak value of opacity (%)
Peak value of opacity (%)

100 0 100 0
Peak value of soot Peak value of soot
80 80

60 60

40 40
273 278 283 288 293 273 278 283 288 293
Coolant temperature K Lubricant temperature K
(c) Smoke, CO, and HC at different coolant temperatures (d) Smoke, CO, and HC at different lubricant temperatures

Fig. 19. Emission performance at different coolant temperatures and lubricant temperatures.

cylinder pressure curve became full, and the fuel combustion output between components decreased, and resistance torque decreased.
power made the engine start successfully. As the temperature of the However, compared with the preheated coolant, a further increase in the
coolant increased from 283 K to 293 K, the temperature of the inner wall lubricant temperature had less effect on the cylinder pressure and
of the engine cylinder continued to increase, and the mixing and evap­ combustion characteristic parameters. When the lubricant temperature
oration of fuel and air were complete. The SOC advanced from 0.4 ◦ CA was increased from 283 K to 293 K, the SOC was advanced from 2.7 ◦ CA
to − 1.9 ◦ CA, the ignition delay period decreased from 6.4 ◦ CA to to 2.1 ◦ CA, the ignition delay period was reduced from 8.7 ◦ CA to
4.1 ◦ CA, and the 50% combustion position point advanced from 9.7 ◦ CA 8.1 ◦ CA, the 50% combustion position point was advanced from 8.9 ◦ CA
to 6.1 ◦ CA, which made the IMEP increase from 0.76 MPa to 0.84 MPa, to 8 ◦ CA, and the IMEP was only increased from 0.66 MPa to 0.68 MPa.
and the power output was significantly increased. This was primarily Fig. 18 shows the variations of COVPmax in the 10th to 40th cycles of
because at low temperatures the cylinder wall temperature was very low starting the process with the temperature of coolant and lubrication.
and most of the energy produced by combustion was transferred to the COVPmax gradually decreased as coolant and lubricant temperatures
cylinder wall due to the high temperature difference between the cyl­ increased while the mean value of maximum cylinder pressure
inder wall and the combustion gases. With this in mind, thermody­ increased. When the coolant temperature increased from 283 K to 293 K,
namics indicated that increasing the coolant temperature as much as COVPmax decreased from 15.53% to 10.40%, while the mean value of
possible increase the conversion efficiency of combustion energy to maximum cylinder pressure increased from 7.41 MPa to 8.58 MPa. The
mechanical brake work. reason for this was that the coolant temperature increased, reducing
Compared with the preheating coolant, the engine could be started heat loss during the starting process. Moreover, the rise in compression
successfully when the lubrication was preheated to 273 K and 278 K. end temperature decreased the ignition delay period, and the smaller
This was mainly due to the fact that the dynamic viscosity of lubrication inter-cycle variations resulted in a significant increase in starting sta­
had an exponential relationship with the temperature being low. When bility. Nevertheless, when the lubricant temperature increased from
the temperature was increased by a small margin, the dynamic viscosity 283 K to 293 K, COVPmax only decreased from 18.55% to 17.32%, and
decreased significantly. As the temperature of the lubricant increased the mean value of the maximum cylinder pressure only increased from
from 283 K to 293 K, the fluidity of the lubricant improved, friction 6.96 MPa to 7.18 MPa, indicating that its combustion stability and

13
P. Wang et al. Energy Conversion and Management 281 (2023) 116844

400 60 ambient temperatures increased the heat losses during the compression
Dynamic viscosity and thereby increased the ignition delay of air–fuel mixture, and the
350 Resistance torque
55 coolant preheated the engine block, thus weakening this property. The
308
300 coolant warmed up the engine block thereby weakened the attribute

Resistance torque (N.m)

Dynamic viscosity (mPa.s

51
250 235 47
200
150
100
50
0 30
273 278
Lubricant temperature K
Fig. 20. Dynamic viscosity and resistance torque at different lubricant
temperatures.
power output were worse than the coolant preheating to the same
temperature.
The variations in NOx, HC, CO, and smoke emission performance
with coolant temperature and lubrication temperature are shown in
Fig. 19. With an increase in the coolant temperature, HC, CO, and smoke
emissions dropped significantly, whereas the peak concentration of NOx
increased. At the same temperature increase, the increase in lubrication
temperature had no obvious impact on HC, smoke, CO, and NOX. When
the coolant temperature was 273 K and 283 K, the NOx emissions were
low, and the smoke and HC emissions were very high. This phenomenon
was mainly due to the cylinder wall and other combustion-related parts
of the temperature being low. Therefore, the formation of the mixture of
heat loss and compression end temperature was low, resulting in a long
delay in the ignition. Since the most of the remaining fuel was mixed
with the exhaust gas, and some of the fuel sprayed into the cylinder wall
remained in the cylinder, a portion of the fuel could not participate in
the combustion or could not be completely burned.
When the coolant temperature increased from 283 K to 293 K, the
peak of HC emission decreased from 608 ppm to 301 ppm, the peak of
smoke emission decreased from 52% to 43%, the peak of CO decreased
from 2.9% to 1.5%, and the peak of NOX concentration increased from
358 ppm to 475 ppm. The reasons for this phenomenon were threefold.
First, at extreme ambient temperatures, the clearance between the pis­
ton and the cylinder became larger and the lubricant may enter the
cylinder and burn thus leading to deteriorating emissions, while the
increase in coolant temperature reduced the clearance between the
piston and the cylinder. Secondly, the fuel could have higher viscosity
and thus higher surface tension at low temperature conditions. As a
result, the fuel underwent slow evaporation, poor atomization or even
impingement into the cylinder wall before combustion. Engine at cold
50 [50]. Finally, the increase in coolant temperature raised the temperature
of the combustion chamber walls and reduced wall flame extinction,
45 while increasing the evaporation of fuel and the temperature of the
180 44
42 initial combustion stage, and incomplete combustion was improved,
144
40
40 leading to optimized emission performance. This indicates that with the
107
increase in coolant temperature, there was a significant improvement in
35 combustion. Moreover, incomplete combustion was reduced, and the
ignition delay period was significantly shortened. The rapid increase in
in-cylinder temperature and pressure due to full combustion was the
283 288 293 main factor leading to the emission results.
Fig. 21 illustrates the variations in the drag time, rise time, transition
time, and SRR with the coolant and lubricant temperatures. The total
starting time was shortened with the increase in coolant temperature
and lubrication temperature. When the coolant temperature increased
from 283 K to 293 K, the total starting time decreased from 10.59 s to
9.65 s, which was mainly due to the reduction of the rise time from 6.02
s to 5.11 s, and the SRR increased from 49.8 (r/min)/s to 58.7 (r/min)/s.
The coolant temperature directly affected the temperature of the engine
cylinder wall and other combustion-related components, which in turn
affected the formation of a hot atmosphere in the cylinder before the
diesel engine fires. In addition, the increase in coolant temperature
could reduce the clearance between the piston and the cylinder block,
reducing the possibility of lubricant entering the cylinder for combus­
tion and reducing air leakage. Thus, it showed that improving the
coolant temperature played an important role in reducing the heat
transfer loss and improving the combustion in the starting process. The
total starting time decreased from 11.2 s to 8.62 s when the lubrication
temperature increased from 273 K to 293 K, mainly due to the reduction
of rise time from 7.66 s to 5.45 s and the increase in the SRR from 39.16
(r/min)/s to 55.02 (r/min)/s.
An explanation for this is shown in Fig. 20, where there was a sig­
nificant decrease in the dynamic viscosity and resistive torque as the
lubricant temperature increased. The decrease in resistance torque also
resulted in a decrease in the drag time from 2.07 s to 1.7 s. After the
coolant temperature reached 283 K and the lubrication temperature
reached 273 K, the reduction in the starting time decreased with each 5
K increase in temperature. However, the effect of coolant temperature
and lubrication temperature on the starting performance became
weaker.
The fuel energy consumption and electrical energy consumption of
the coolant and lubrication preheated to different temperatures are
shown in Fig. 22. Fuel energy consumption decreased with the increase
in the coolant temperature and lubrication temperature. When the
coolant temperature increased from 283 K to 293 K, the fuel energy
consumption decreased from 136 kJ to 120 kJ. When the lubrication

16 120 16 120
Transition time Transition time
14 Rise time 14 Rise time
Drag time 100 Drag time 100
Speed rise rate
12 Speed rise rate 12 11.20s
Speed rise rate (r/min)/s

Speed rise rate (r/min)/s

10.59s 10.24s
9.96s 80 1.47 80
10 1.65 9.65s 10 9.50s
1.47 8.98s 8.62s
1.64
Time (s)

Time (s)

1.65 1.46
8 60 8 1.46 1.47 60

6 6.02 5.42 6 7.66

5.11 40 6.86 40
6.24 5.78
4 4 5.45

20 20
2 2
Start failed Start failed 2.92 2.9 2.89 2.07 1.91 1.8 1.74 1.7
0 0 0 0
273 278 283 288 293 273 278 283 288 293
Coolant temperature K Lubricant temperature K

Fig. 21. Starting time at different coolant temperatures and lubricant temperatures.

14
P. Wang et al. Energy Conversion and Management 281 (2023) 116844

6000 12000
200 5668 200 Fuel energy consumption 11106
Fuel energy consumption
Electrical energy consumption Electrical energy consumption
5000 10000

Electrical energy consumption (kJ)

Electrical energy consumption (kJ)

162

Fuel energy consumption (kJ)

160

Fuel energy consumption (kJ)

160
148
136 3790 4000 136 8000
125 128
120 6933 123
120 120
3027
3000 6000
2407
80 80
1992 3900
2000 4000

40 40 2253
1000 2000
1146

0 0 0 0
273 278 283 288 293 273 278 283 288 293
Coolant temperature K Lubricant temperature K

Fig. 22. Energy consumption at different coolant temperatures and lubricant temperatures.

313 293
19665kJ Preheating temperature boundary 10995kJ
308 288 Preheating temperature boundary

303 283

Lubrication temperature(K)
9593kJ 3692kJ
Coolant temperature(K)

298 Successful start 278 Successful start

6177kJ
293 273
1058kJ
288 4251kJ 268
3704kJ 596kJ
283 263
3034kJ
Unsuccessful start 2759kJ 435kJ
278 258 Unsuccessful start
279K 2557kJ
384kJ
273 253
253K 379kJ
268 248
263 243
273 278 283 288 293 298 303 308 313 273 278 283 288 293 298 303 308 313
Intake air temperature(K) Intake air temperature(K)

Fig. 23. Combined coolant and intake air preheating temperature boundary. Fig. 24. Combined lubricant and intake air preheating temperature boundary.

temperature increased from 273 K to 293 K, the fuel energy consump­ preheated to 298 K, the coolant temperature only needed to be pre­
tion decreased from 162 kJ to 123 kJ. This was mainly due to the heated to 286 K. Section 3.1 describes that the energy consumed to
reduction in the heat transfer loss in the cylinder and the starting preheat the coolant is considerably greater than the energy used to heat
resistance torque, which shortened the starting time. the intake air. From this point of view, the intake air temperature should
When the coolant temperature increased from 283 K to 288 K, the be allowed to heat up to the limit. However, the increase in intake air
electrical energy consumed for preheating increased from 3027 kJ to temperature led to a decrease in the volumetric efficiency. Therefore,
3790 kJ, an increase of 763 kJ. However, when it increased from 288 K the optimal value for the intake air preheating temperature was
to 293 K, the electrical energy consumed for preheating increased from explored. Combining the matching rule between the heater and the
3790 kJ to 5668 kJ, an increase of 1878 kJ. The electrical energy engine, this optimum value is 313 K at an ambient temperature of 233 K.
consumed for lubricant preheating exhibited the same trend. This was At the optimum value of the intake air temperature, the minimum
mainly determined by the preheating properties of the coolant and preheating temperature of the coolant could be obtained as 279 K.
lubricant. According to Section 3.1, the preheat energy conversion ef­ Similarly, as shown in Fig. 24, the lowest preheating temperature of
ficiency of the coolant and lubricant decreased significantly with an lubrication under the limit value of intake air temperature was 253 K.
increase in the preheating temperature. When the coolant was preheated The electrical energy consumption of the combined intake air with
to 283 K, the energy conversion efficiency was 0.372, whereas when the coolant preheating and combined intake air with lubricant preheating
coolant was preheated to 293 K, the energy conversion efficiency was was calculated. This is shown in Figs. 23 and 24, respectively. The
only 0.231. Similarly, when the lubricant was preheated to 273 K, the minimum electrical energy consumption for the combined coolant with
energy conversion efficiency was 0.236, whereas when the lubricant intake air preheating was 2557 kJ with a successful start, whereas the
was preheated to 293 K, the energy conversion efficiency was only minimum electrical energy consumption for the combined lubricant
0.031. with intake air was only 379 kJ.
To further guide the start-up preheating strategy of the hybrid en­
gine, the combined preheating temperature boundary of the intake 4. Conclusions
preheat and coolant preheat at 233 K ambient temperature was
explored, as shown in Fig. 23. The coolant preheating temperature, In this study, a method for preheating intake air, coolant, and
which was predicted on a successful start, decreased significantly as the lubrication to solve the difficulty of cold start at low temperatures of
intake air temperature increased. When the intake air temperature was diesel-electric hybrid was proposed. Effects of different preheating
only preheated to 283 K, the coolant temperature needed to be pre­ temperatures on the low-temperature cold-start performance, emissions,
heated to 302 K, whereas when the intake air temperature was and energy conversions were experimentally compared. This conclusion

15
P. Wang et al.
Fig. 25. Ideas and important points of this study.
could be used as the constraint boundary for optimizing the total
equivalent energy consumption and provides a basis for optimizing the
preheating strategy and developing diesel-electric hybrid low-
temperature thermal management. The ideas and important points of
this study are shown in Fig. 25. The main conclusions are as follows:
(1) The intake air preheating consumed less energy and maintained a
high energy conversion efficiency, whereas coolant and lubrica­
tion preheating consumed more energy, and the energy conver­
sion coefficient decreased significantly with an increase in the
preheating temperature. The inflection point of the energy con­
version efficiency curve was found. Therefore, the preheating
strategy should adopt the preheating conditions before the in­
flection point to reduce heat loss.
(2) The phenomenon of ineffective intake preheating was found and
its boundary point was obtained, which depends mainly on the
starting resistance torque and starting torque. With the increase
in intake temperature, the ignition delay period was shortened.
This led to an earlier SOC and 50% combustion position point,
resulting in an increase in the IMEP and enhanced combustion
stability.
(3) With the increase in coolant temperature, the ignition delay
period was significantly shortened, the maximum in-cylinder
pressure increased, and the corresponding position became
closer to the TDC. Moreover, an increase in the IMEP led to a
steady increase in the SRR, resulting in a significant reduction in
the starting time, a reduction in HC emissions from 1403 ppm to
298 ppm, and a reduction in opacity from 85% to 43%.
(4) Compared with coolant preheating, the change in the combustion
characteristic parameters was not obvious with an increased
lubrication temperature. However, the lubrication temperature
directly affects the starting resistance torque, reducing drag and
rise times by 0.37 s and 2.21 s, respectively. The starting time was
shorter when the lubrication was preheated to the same tem­
perature as of the coolant, which can provide a basis for opti­
mizing the preheating strategy.
(5) Regardless of the coolant or lubrication preheating, increasing
the same temperature after reaching the preheating boundary
temperature weakened the improvement in the starting perfor­
mance, while the energy consumption rapidly increased. At 233 K
ambient temperature, the minimum electrical energy
16
Energy Conversion and Management 281 (2023) 116844
consumption for the combined coolant with intake air preheating
was 2557 kJ with a successful start. In contrast, the minimum
electrical energy consumption for the combined lubricant with
intake air was only 379 kJ. However, the emission performance
of coolant preheating was better than that of lubrication
preheating.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Peng Wang: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing – original
draft. Biao Qin: Data curation, Writing – review & editing, Investiga­
tion. Lei Shi: Data curation, Investigation. Wei Kang: Data curation,
Investigation. Bin Zhao: Data curation, Writing – review & editing,
Investigation. Kangyao Deng: Investigation.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare the following financial interests/personal re­
lationships which may be considered as potential competing interests:
Lei Shi reports financial support was provided by National Natural Sci­
ence Foundation of China.
Data availability
The authors are unable or have chosen not to specify which data has
been used.
Acknowledgment
The authors would like to acknowledge the National Natural Science
Foundation of China (Grant No.51576129) for grants and supports.
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