Simple method of estimating consumption of internal combustion engine for hybrid application

This article presents two simple methods to evaluate the fuel consumption of internal combustion engines. Furthermore, it points out the link between piston volume, engine size and fuel consumption as it gives the possibility to visualize the chosen working points inside an internal combustion engine operation points map. This leads to the fact that this approach is a very helpful tool for the design of hybrid systems including internal combustion engines. The two presented methods, one very simple, one more elaborated, are interesting as first approach of internal combustion engine sizing and to evaluate the consumption of internal combustion engine. The results for six pure internal combustion engines on two different driving cycles have been compared to literature data showing extremely satisfying accuracy. An application on a series hybrid vehicle underlines the potential of fuel savings due to hybrid architecture.