The individual urban mobility strategy of the years 2000 requires transportation means with high safety systems and low environmental impact. For the utilisation in cities with high population density these transportation means will be constituted by two-and-three-wheel vehicles.
The main purpose of this research is to develop an innovative engine for such vehicles socially acceptable and characterised by very low pollutant gas and noise emitted by the exhaust and maximum fuel energy utilisation (lower carbon dioxide production). Another aim of this project is to generate information for a parallel study on behalf of the European Commission (Pollution Working Group), financed by the motorcycle industry in order to define realistic emission standards for the next years.
The core of the system is a new concept, air assisted, direct fuel injection, two-stroke engine around which the best of engine / transmission technologies shall be implemented. In fact, in this project the validation and tuning of electronic engine control system for two-stroke engine will be carried out with oil consumption reduction devices and a catalytic system. The new direct injected two-stroke engine presents new lubrication requirements in terms of lubricity, detergency and other aspects such as the compatibility with catalyst. They will require appropriate lubricants and oxidation catalyst formulations which will have to be developed.
The objectives of the proposed programme are to work on these new lubrication requirements with the aim of significantly reducing the oil consumption and of developing compatible new oxidation catalyst technology and precious metal formulations specifically adapted for ultra low emissions, air assisted, direct fuel injection, two-stroke engines.
The engine components structure will be also optimised for low and good noise (sound insulated shielding), low vibration and harshness (NVH) and low weight.