Alessandro Mancarella

• Doctor of Engineering
• Polytechnic University of Turin

To meet future energy sustainability and carbon neutrality requirements, disruptive changes to the current energy mix are expected. Renewable fuels, such as hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO), could play an important role in this context. To assess the potential of HVO, further quantitative research analyses are still required in order to emphasize t...

The development and testing of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) is one of the most active fields in the automotive industry towards Automated Driving (AD). This work presents the deployment and testing of an Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) based on Model Predictive Control (MPC). The goal is to design and validate through the experimental ca...

Renewable fuels can play an important role in achieving future goals of energy sustainability and CO 2 reduction. In particular, hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) represents one of the most promising alternatives to petroleum-derived diesel fuels. Several studies have shown that conventional diesel engines can run on 100% HVO without significant mod...

To meet future goals of energy sustainability and carbon neutrality, disruptive changes to the current energy mix will be required, and it is expected that renewable fuels, such as hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO), will play a significant role. To determine how these fuels can transition from pilot scale to the commercial marketplace, extensive res...

This study examines the effects on combustion, engine performance and exhaust pollutant emissions of a modern Euro 6, dual-loop EGR, compression ignition engine running on regular EN590-compliant diesel and hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO). First, the potential of HVO as a “drop-in” fuel, i.e., without changes to the original, baseline diesel-orien...

In-cylinder pressure signal has been widely adopted to obtain simple offline and online diagnosis of the combustion process through one-zone analysis, which provides the apparent heat release of the mixture. The present paper also starts from the in-cylinder pressure measurement to apply time frequency analysis for an alternative evaluation of the...

In the present paper, a model-based controller of engine torque and engine-out Nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions, which was previously developed and tested by means of offline simulations, has been validated on a FPT F1C 3.0 L diesel engine by means of rapid prototyping. With reference to the previous version, a new NOx model has been implemented to i...

An experimental investigation has been carried out to highlight the effects of different injection strategies on the performance and emissions of a low compression ratio Euro 5 diesel engine operated with high EGR rates. Rate-shaped main injections, achieved with piezoelectric and solenoid injectors by means of boot and injection fusion, respective...

The exploitation of new advanced combustion concepts referred to as low-temperature combustion (LTC) strategies gives the possibility to reduce the typical NOx and PM emissions from conventional diesel combustion. These strategies are implemented using high quantity of exhaust gas recirculated at the intake manifold, which allows to lower the peak...

An experimental investigation has been carried out to compare the performance and emissions of a low-compression-ratio Euro 5 diesel engine featuring high EGR rates, equipped with different injector technologies, i.e., solenoid, indirect-acting, and direct-acting piezoelectric. The comparisons, performed with reference to a state-of-the-art double...

A real-time combustion model was assessed and applied to simulate BMEP (Brake Mean Effective Pressure) and NOx (Nitrogen Oxide) emissions in an 11.0 L FPT Cursor 11 diesel engine for heavy-duty applications. The activity was carried out in the frame of the IMPERIUM H2020 EU Project. The developed model was used as a starting base to derive a model-...

Premixed charge compression ignition (PCCI) is an advanced combustion mode that has the aim of simultaneously reducing particulate matter and nitrogen oxide exhaust emissions, compared with conventional diesel combustion, thanks to a partially premixed charge and low temperature combustion. In this work, PCCI combustion has been implemented by mean...

A precise estimation of the recirculated exhaust gas rate and oxygen concentration as well as a predictive evaluation of the possible EGR unbalance among cylinders are of paramount importance, especially if non-conventional combustion modes, which require high EGR flow-rates, are implemented. In the present paper, starting from the equation related...

In the present work, different combustion control strategies have been experimentally tested in a heavy-duty 3.0 L Euro VI diesel engine. In particular, closed-loop pressure-based and open-loop model-based techniques, able to perform a real-time control of the center of combustion (MFB50), have been compared with the standard map-based engine calib...

A premixed-charged compression ignition (PCCI) combustion mode has been applied to a Euro VI heavy-duty production engine to simultaneously diminish particulate matter and nitrogen oxide exhaust emissions. The considered methodology exploits statistical techniques to efficiently plan tests, analyze acquired data and provide cause-and-effect relatio...