engIne technology GASOlINE ENGINES

THE NEW MAZDA GASOLINE

ENGINE SKYACTIV-G
Skyactiv is a generic term for Mazda’s next-generation technologies being
developed to achieve both driving pleasure and environmental and safety
performance. It is a contribution to the company’s long-term vision for
technology development. Of these technologies, this article describes the
development of Mazda’s new highly-efficient direct-injection gasoline
engine that achieves a compression ratio of 14.0 to 1.

40
 AUTHORS Introduction fuel injection (PFI) engine. To achieve this
target, the technical objectives Mazda set
Mazda forecasts that internal combustion for Skyactiv-G are as follows:
engines will still account for a high per- :: increasing CR to 14.0
centage of automobile powertrains even :: preventing increase in combustion
in 2020. In view of this, priority is given duration even with a high CR of 14
to the improvement in internal combus- :: reducing pumping loss by 20 %
Tsuyoshi Goto tion engine efficiency as it offers the high- :: reducing mechanical loss by 30 %
is Manager Engine Design est impact for environmental friendly :: increasing the charging efficiency by
­Engineering Gr. No. 2 at
Mazda Motor Corporation
vehicles in the markets. 10 %.
in Hiroshima (Japan). In Mazda’s opinion, whether a gasoline
engine or a diesel engine, the ideal internal
Problems to Overcome with
combustion engine to aspire to is the same.
High Compression Engine
To reach this, Mazda has been adopting
the advantages of a diesel engine to a gaso- Developing a high compression engine
line engine, and vice versa, and enhancing creates two key issues. Firstly, lower knock-
the strengths of each engine, ❶. Through ing resistance leads to ignition timing delay
Ritarou Isobe this challenge, Mazda newly developed at high load, which reduces the engine
is Manager Engine Performance
the 2.0-l-Skyactiv-G as a gasoline engine torque. Secondly, there is a higher sensi-
­Development Gr. No. 2 at
Mazda Motor Corporation and 2.2-l-Skyactiv-D as a diesel engine tivity for pre-ignition due to hot envi­
in Hiroshima (Japan). and plans to introduce them to the Euro- ronment and varied fuel octane number.
pean market. Therefore, robustness against abnormal
combustions (knocking, pre-ignition) was
the key challenge to overcome.
Development Objective

The first step for Skyactiv-G to come closer

Power Loss Due to Knocking
to an ideal internal combustion engine
Masahisa Yamakawa
was to improve its disadvantages relative ❷ shows the power loss seen on a direct-
is Staff Manager PT Technology
­Element Development Gr. at to a diesel engine, namely the compres- injection engine in the early development
Mazda Motor Corporation sion ratio (CR) and pumping loss, and to phase when the CR was increased from
in Hiroshima (Japan). enhance its advantage regarding mechani- 11.2 to 14 with conventional technology.
cal resistance. The ignition timing was significantly de­­
In light of this, Mazda set the overall layed at 1500 rpm, resulting in a torque
target for the Skyactiv-G, aiming for a 15 % loss of 7 %. However, this torque loss value
contribution to the improvement in the was smaller than Mazda initially predict­­ed.
NEDC (New European Driving Cycle) mode And even when the CR was increased to 15,
fuel consumption and a 15 % increase in the slope of torque loss curve was gentle,
Masami Nishida
is Assistant Manager Engine Design
power output over the entire engine speed ②. Factor analyses re­vealed that weak exo-
Engineering Gr. No. 2 at range compared to the current Mazda port thermic reactions took place be­­fore ignition
Mazda Motor Corporation
in Hiroshima (Japan).

❶ Vision for evolution of internal

­combustion engine

04I2011 Volume 11 41
Engine Technology Gaso line Engines

❷ Torque loss ❸ Initial in-cylinder temperature representing equal knocking resistance

because of the increased CR, and this Key to efficiently cool down the initial trapezoidal-shape, ❹. With this piston,
­minimized the decrease in torque. Mazda in-cylinder gas temperature is to reduce however, an even lower thermal efficiency
assumed that a high torque could be both, working gas temperature by the was achieved. It is believed that the initial
ensured even in a high compression en­­ latent heat of fuel vaporization and the flame front hit the piston, which increased
gine by resolving the knocking problems. amount of hot residual gas, which leads cooling loss and inhibited proper flame
Deterioration in knock resistance bases to the charging efficiency improvement propagation. To resolve this, a hemispher-
on gas temperature and pressure rise in with minimum deterioration in knock ical cavity was created on the piston top
the cylinders. ❸ is a numerical simulation resistance. It is common understanding to enable initial flame to grow properly.
which shows influence of both parameters. that rapid combustion is efficient to improve With this change, the combustion dura-
Lower in-cylinder gas temperature at the knock resistance [2], and Mazda has tion (main combustion duration: 10-90 %
end of intake process is able to restore made following changes to achieve this. mass burn ratio) was reduced by 1° CA at
knock resistance characteristics which are 1500 rpm. At the same time, knock resis­
deteriorated by the increased CR. tance improved, resulting in torque rise of
Improvement of Knock
When the CR is increased from 11.2 to approximately 2 %.
­Resistance by Rapid Combustion
14 at 1500 rpm, the equivalent knock re­­ For further improvement of the com-
sistance can be ensured if the initial in- At project start, a conventional flat piston bustion duration, the entry angle of the
cylinder temperature (intake valve closed) shape was used. For increasing the CR, the intake port and valve fillet angle were
is decreased by 35 K. top of the piston was simply raised in a optimized to intensify the in-cylinder

❹ Measures on torque loss due to knocking

42
 ❺ Optimum exhaust system for scavenging effect

torque on a high compression engine. The

current 4 into 1 exhaust manifold system
offered 6.7 % of residual gas. A reduction
to 3.9 % was aimed, which would decrease
the initial in-cylinder temperature by 18 K
and raise charging efficiency by 9 %. As
per ③, this temperature decrease is consid­­
ered to be equal to the decrease of CR by
1.5, and this implies that the target torque
can be achieved.
When a high blowdown pressure arrives
at the next cylinder during the intake and
exhaust valve overlap, the amount of hot
residual gas increases, deteriorating the
knock resistance. To avoid such condition
beyond 2000 rpm, a 4-2-1 long exhaust
manifold was applied.
For adequate scavenging a high vacuum
pressure wave is required during the valve
overlap period. With appropriate exhaust
system specifications for the targeted ex­­
haust pulse and controlled valve overlap
period, a good scavenging effect can be
achieved over a wide engine speed range,
❺. This improved knocking resistance and
charging efficiency by 9 %, resulting in
further torque improvement of 7.5 %, ④.

The fuel cell | 11th Forum for producers and users

flow, and the cylinder bores were made with optimized penetration and spray
smaller than those of the current Mazda angle was employed. The analysis of the
2.0-l-engine (di­­ameter 87.5 to 83.5 mm) in-cylinder temperature showed an im­­
to shorten the combustion duration. This proved temperature distribution through
led to a further reduction of the combus- the split injection of the MHI and a re­­
Photo: Daimler AG

tion duration by 2° CA, improving the duced initial in-cylinder temperature by

torque by another 4 %. 6 K. With this effect, knock resistance
was im­­proved, and torque was increased
by 3.5 %. Sept. 26–27, 2011
Improvement of Knock
Stuttgart,
­Resistance by Latent Heat The international Germany
of Fuel Vaporization Improvement of Charging forum for the fuel cell Hometown of
Porsche and Daimler
­Volume (Torque) and Knock industry
In order to efficiently cool down the in-
­Resistance by Scavenging Effect
cylinder gas temperature by the latent Focal point 2011: Symposium
Mobile applications – Trade Fair
heat of fuel vaporization, fuel pressure Mazda focused on improving the charging f-cell award
fuel cells and batteries
at 1500 rpm was raised to 10 MPa and efficiency by scavenging the hot residual moving the future www.f-cell.de
a modified multi-hole (6) injector (MHI) gas to maintain knock resistance and raise

04I2011 Volume 11 43
Engine Technology Gaso line Engines

❻ shows the torque curve of the start was reduced roughly by half. As for combustion, limiting the rise in exhaust
2.0-l-Skyactiv-G and the improvements the rapid catalyst converter warming gas temperature. In the case of the Sky-
of the initial in-cylinder temperature and after engine-start, raising exhaust gas activ-G, direct injection creates an ideal
combustion duration. Compared to the temperature by delaying the ignition tim- air-fuel mixture for combustion around
conventional 2.0-l-PFI-engines torque ing is known to be effective. Excessive the spark plug and generates lean strati-
has been improved by more than 15 % retardation, however, causes unstable fied combustion. The lean stratified com-
over the entire engine speed range (over
10 % torque improvement when com-
pared to the direct-injection engine with
❻ Improvement of
a CR of 11.2). torque, initial in-cylinder
temperature and ­
combustion duration
Robustness against Pre-ignition

Especially under disadvantageous envi-

ronmental conditions it is essential for
high compression engines not to generate
abnormal combustion such as pre-igni-
tion. Therefore an advanced pre-ignition
avoidance control system had to be de­­
veloped with focus on:
:: influential factors (intake air tempera-
ture, humidity, coolant temperature,
CR increase due to carbon build-up,
octane number, etc.)
:: effects of control factors (injection timing,
intake valve closing (IVC) timing, etc.).
Accordingly, Mazda established a control
logic ensuring a sufficient safety margin
against pre-ignition under various environ­
mental conditions.
If, by accident, circumstances force
minor pre-ignition, Skyactiv-G’s robust
system detects a slight change in combus-
tion pattern as a change of ion current,
and it then enriches the air/fuel ratio and
controls IVC timing in order to further pre-
vent pre-ignition.

❼ Improvement of catalyst converter warming after engine-start

Emission Reduction Technology

The catalyst converter temperature of the

4-2-1 long exhaust system does not rise as
rapidly as that of the conventional 4-1
short exhaust system with close-coupled
catalyst (CCC), causing a delay in the
starting time of exhaust gas purification.
Furthermore, raw hydrocarbon (HC)
increases with CR. It was therefore indis-
pensable to develop advanced emission
reduction technology that would meet
even severer emission regulations of the
future. This led Mazda to focus on both
HC reduction at engine-start when HC
level is high as well as the rapid catalyst
converter warming after engine-start.
As for the engine-start, Mazda raised
the start-up fuel pressure from 0.43 MPa
to 6 MPa. As a result, the HC at engine-

44
bustion and the raised combustion stabil- converter warming even with the 4-2-1 Fuel Efficiency
ity by increasing the CR led to a large long exhaust manifold while maintaining
improvement of the tradeoff between the stable combustion, achieving an emis- ❽ shows the Skyactiv-G’s contribution to
gas temperature raised by ignition timing sion reduction system that even meets the improvement in NEDC mode fuel
delay and combustion stability, ❼. Con- the PZEV (Partial Zero Emission Vehicle) ­consumption and the breakdown. A 15 %
sequently, Mazda achieved rapid catalyst requirements. im­­provement has been made by the
­Sky­activ-G mounted on a medium-sized
car compared to the current Mazda
2.0-l-PFI-engine.

Effect of Increasing CR
­( Including Effect of
Reducing Pumping Loss)

In the early development stage, the fuel

consumption did not show any further
im­­provement when applying CRs higher
than 13. The cause of this was the flat pis-
ton preventing the initial flame propaga-
tion. As a countermeasure, Mazda
promoted the initial flame propagation by
combining the hemispherical piston cav-
ity and the intensified tumble flow, which
is also an effective measure against the
torque loss at WOT (wide-open throttle).
The hemispherical piston cavity also pre-
vented the hot initial flame from hitting
the piston surface, which reduced cooling
loss. Cooling loss was reduced further by
adopt­ing the smaller cylinder bore, which
largely im­­proved thermal efficiency.
❽ Improvement in NEDC mode fuel consumption Furthermore, a large reduction in pump-
ing loss was made by utilizing the merits
of increasing the CR. A conventional meth­
­od to reduce pumping loss is to delay IVC
timing and add external EGR gas. In this
method, however, the reduction in pump-
ing loss is very limited due to a decrease in
combustion stability. Whereas with Skyac-
tiv-G, the high CR secures an effective CR
necessary for combustion even with signif-
icantly-delayed IVC, and moreover, hot
internal EGR (exhaust gas recirculation)
gas is ­utilized. This delivers the combus-
tion as stable as that of con­ventional PFI
engines despite the IVC at 110° CA and the
internal EGR gas increas­­ed by the extended
valve overlap with use of a dual variable
valve timing, ❾ (above). Thanks to this,
pumping loss has been reduced approxi-
mately by 20 %, ⑨ (below).

Reduction in
Mechanical ­Resistance
❾ IVC timing delay
In total, the mechanical resistance of the
and reducing pumping
loss satisfying combustion Skyactiv-G has been reduced by 30 % com­
stability pared to the current Mazda 2.0-l-PFI-engine.

04I2011 Volume 11 45
 Engine Technology Gaso line Engines

❿ shows the reduction rate of each sys-

tem achieved by the following changes:
:: Crankshafts, pistons and conrods: The
major changes were the reduction of
the crank journal diameter from 52 to
47 mm while ensuring required stiffness,
and improvement of LOC robustness,
which achieved a 38 % reduction in pis-
ton ring tension.
:: Valve train and chain systems: The
major changes to the valve train system
were the adoption of roller finger follow-
ers and valve lift load reduction by
cam lift curve optimization. The major
changes to the chain system were the
reduction in friction between the chain
and chain guide by employing a high-
stiffness straight guide and the reduction
of chain tension through the stabiliza-
tion of chain behaviour by the control
arm on which load is evenly dispersed.
:: Lubrication system: The major changes
were the adoption of simple hydraulic
routing to reduce pressure loss, minimi-
zation of oil pressure required by each
hydraulic device to reduce oil discharge
amount, and adoption of the electroni-
cally-controlled variable pressure oil
pump to reduce oil pressure at light-
load operation.
:: Cooling system: The major changes
were the reduction of resistance in the
coolant passage to lighten work load of
the water pump and adoption of the
high-efficiency plastic impellers to im­­
prove work efficiency of the water pump.

Summary

The Skyactiv-G unit is Mazda’s next-gen-

eration key engine that achieved 15 % im­­ ❿ Reduction in mechanical resistance
provement in fuel efficiency and signifi-
cant performance upgrade symbolized by
15 % increase in torque in the whole speed
range compared to the current PFI en­­
gines. The goals for cost and weight were
l­y and economical gasoline engine together
with further enhancement of the vehicle
THANKS
also achieved. performance. This enables Mazda to offer
Technical highlight is the concept of a a competitive power train for the coming
An important contribution to this article was
natural aspirated gasoline engine with very new passenger car generation.
made by Ichirou Hirose and Hidetoshi Kudou,
high compression ratio of 14 for achieving
all who are involved in the development of
best engine internal efficiency. Various References
the Skyactiv-G at Mazda Motor Corporation
DOI: 10.1365/s35595-011-0052-1

technical measures were developed in [1] J. C. Livengood et al.: Correlation of Autoigni-

tion, Phenomena in internal Combustion Engine and members of Mazda Motor Europe.
order to overcome the issues, which until and Rapid, Compression Machines, Proceeding of
now prevented the application of very 5 th Symposium (international) on Combustion
high compression ratios. (1955), pp. 347 – 356
[2] Hisato Hirooka, Sachio Mori and Rio Shimizu:
With the introduction of 2.0-l-Skyactiv-G,
Effects of High Turbulence Flow on Knock Cha­ Would you like to Know more?
Mazda meets the requirements of Euro- racteristics, SAE Technical Paper Series 2004-01- Order your MTZ trial subscription now:
pean customers for an environmental friend­ 0977 www.emagazine.ATZonline.com

46
 WWW.VIEWEGTEUBNER.DE

Tyres, wheels, suspension –

how comfortable are our cars?
Bernd Heißing | Metin Ersoy (Hrsg.)
Chassis Handbook
Fundamentals, Driving Dynamics, Components, Mechatronics, Perspectives
2011. XXIV, 591 pp. with 970 fig. and 75 tab. (ATZ/MTZ-Fachbuch) hardc. EUR 69,95
ISBN 978-3-8348-0994-0
In spite of all the assistance offered by electronic control systems, the latest generation of
passenger car chassis still relies on conventional chassis elements. With a view towards
driving dynamics, this book examines these conventional elements and their interaction with
mechatronic systems. First, it describes the fundamentals and design of the chassis and goes
on to examine driving dynamics with a particularly practical focus. This is followed by a
detailed description and explanation of the modern components. A separate section is
devoted to the axles and processes for axle development.
With its revised illustrations and several updates in the text and list of references, this new
edition already includes a number of improvements over the first edition.
The contents
Introduction - Fundamentals - Driving Dynamics - Chassis Components - Axles in the Chassis
- Driving Comfort: Noise, Vibration, Harshness (NVH) - Chassis Development - Innovations in
the Chassis - Future Aspects of Chassis Technology
The authors
Univ.-Prof. Dr.-Ing. Bernd Heißing is director of the Chair for Automotive Engineering at the
Technical University of Munich. For almost 15 years, he held a managerial post in chassis
development at Audi and is still additionally involved in numerous research projects and
participates in congresses on chassis issues.
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Metin Ersoy completed his doctorate in Design Systematics at the Technical
University of Braunschweig and spent more than 30 years at a managerial level at various
companies, including 20 years at ZF Lemförder, where his most recent post was Head of
Predevelopment. He is also an honorary professor for chassis technology at the University
of Applied Sciences in Osnabrück.

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Subject to change.