Impact of control strategies on the emissions in a city bus equipped with power-split transmission

The continuously variable hydromechanical transmission is an interesting solution for high power vehicles subject to frequent changes of speed, in which the comfort is a significant requirement. Despite their low average efficiency with respect to the mechanical transmissions, the hydromechanical transmissions allow to release the engine speed by the vehicle speed, and to open the possibility for the optimal control of the engine. It follows that the performance and emissions of the powertrain is heavily affected by the logic control. The aim of the paper is to investigate the emission reductions that can be obtained using a Power-Split transmission. Therefore, a hydromechanical transmission has been sized and tested on a 12-ton-city bus by using a one-dimensional model developed in an AMESim environment. Four different control strategies of the powertrain were applied to the model. The CUEDC-ME standard cycle for the characterization of emissions in heavy vehicles was used as a reference mission. The simulation results showed that the hydromechanical transmission reduces consumption or the emission levels with respect to the traditional transmission when managed according to appropriate control strategies. By means of emission values normalized with respect to the standard limits, it is possible to identify a control strategy that allows the reduction of emissions in every usage condition of the vehicle at the expense of a slight increase of consumption. The suggested procedure could help the manufacturer to satisfy the emission standard requirements.