Abstract
Stringent regulations of exhaust emission from vehicles become a major issue in automotive industries. In SI engines, it is one of the crucial factor to reduce exhaust emissions during cold start in order to meet stringent regulations such as SULEV or EURO-4, because SI engines emit a large portion of total harmful exhaust compounds when they are cold. At early stages of cold start in gasoline engines, exhaust gas temperature plays a key role to improve three way catalyst by virtue of fast warmup. Therefore, this study focused on the increase of exhaust gas temperature under controls of engine operating parameters such as spark ignition timing, valve overlap by virtue of intake VVT and catalyst heating function. Furthermore, effects on harmful emission due to these parameters are also investigated. Experiments showed that retarded spark ignition timings and increased valve overlap may be helpful to increase exhaust gas temperature. It was also found that $NO_x$ was decreased with increased valve overlap. This study also showed that sudden changes in ISA and amount of fuel due to the deactivation of catalyst heating function cause temporal increase of harmful emissions.
