Reasons for Engine Test

An engine test stand is a facility used to develop, characterize and test engines. The
facility, often offered as a product to automotive OEMs, allows engine operation in different
operating regimes and offers measurement of several physical variables associated with the
engine operation.
A sophisticated engine test stand houses several sensors, data acquisition features
and actuators to control the engine state. The sensors would measure several physical variables
of interest which typically include: crankshaft torque and angular velocity, intake air and fuel
consumption rates, often detected using volumetric and/or gravimetric measurement methods,
air-fuel ratio for the intake mixture, often detected using an exhaust gas oxygen sensor,
environment pollutant concentrations in the exhaust gas such as carbon monoxide, different
configurations of hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, and particulate matter. Also
temperatures and gas pressures at several locations on the engine body such as engine
oil temperature, spark plug temperature, exhaust gas temperature, intake manifold pressure
atmospheric conditions such as temperature, pressure, and humidity.
Todays engines and components require testing in a repeatable manner over a wide
variety of conditions, ensuring that the final manufactured product consistently meets customer
demands for performance and durability. The need for engines to be both economical and
environmentally friendly, places fresh challenges on developers.
The ever-increasing complexity of engine systems, new emissions legislation and
reduction of development time and cost are crucial in the development of engine test systems.
When developing new products even small improvements can create a leading edge, providing
you with a decisive advantage over the competition.
An emission test cycle is a protocol contained in an emission standard to allow repeatable
and comparable measurement of exhaust emissions for different engines or vehicles. Test cycles
specify the specific conditions under which the engine or vehicle is operated during the emission
test. There are many different test cycles issued by various national and international
governments and working groups. Specified parameters in a test cycle include a range
of operating temperature, speed, and load. Ideally these are specified so as to accurately and
realistically represent the range of conditions under which the vehicle or engine will be operated
in actual use. Because it is impractical to test an engine or vehicle under every possible
combination of speed, load, and temperature, this may not actually be the case.

Objectives of Engine Test

Governments around the world have worked to regulate pollution from cars and trucks
through engine emissions testing and requiring compliance with emissions standards traditionally
based on particle mass measurements. As air quality monitoring advances and increased efforts
are put toward understanding and limiting engine emissions and their effects on air quality,
climate, and health, it is critical to have the tools necessary to perform advanced and reliable
engine emissions testing.
Engine test is about enhancing performance and improving fuel economy while achieving
the desired emissions compliance, understanding the mechanical performance to improve
efficiency and develop and evaluate new solutions. Extensive and detailed instrumentation
capability with climatic cells and chiller units for thermal shocking, tilting cells for oil circuit
development and programmable systems for automated testing.
Research and Development (R&D) activities on engines at automobile OEMs have
necessitated sophisticated engine test stands. Automobile OEMs are usually interested in
developing engines that meet the following threefold objective: to provide high fuel efficiency,
to improve drivability and durability, to be in compliance to relevant emission legislation
Engine test stands allow for a full-fledged engine development exercise through
measurement, control and record of several relevant engine variables. Vehicle and engine
manufacturers may exploit the limited number of test conditions in the cycle by programming
their engine management systems to control emissions to regulated levels at the specific test
points contained in the cycle, but create a great deal more pollution under conditions experienced
in real operation but not represented in the test cycle. This result in real emissions higher than the
standards is supposed to allow, undermining the standards and public health.
Typical tests include ones that: determine fuel efficiency and drivability: torque-speed
performance test under steady-state and transient conditions, determine durability: ageing tests,
oil and lubrication tests, determine compliance to relevant emission legislations: volumetric and
mass emission tests over stated emission test cycles and gain further knowledge about the engine
itself: engine mapping exercise or development of multidimensional input-output maps among
different engine variables.