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Hydrogen ICE can achieve carbon neutrality and is adaptable to medium and heavy-duty vehicles, for which electricity is not always a viable option. It can also be developed using high-quality conventional diesel/gasoline engine technology. Furthermore, it allows for the conversion of existing engines to hydrogen ICE, making it highly marketable. The reliability and durability of MPI hydrogen ICE is better than that of DI, and MPI has an advantage over DI in terms of cruising range because the low-pressure injection of hydrogen reduces the remaining hydrogen in the tank. Improving MPI output is, however, an important subject, and achieving this requires suppressing abnormal combustion such as pre-ignition. In this study, an inline four-cylinder 5L turbo-charged diesel engine was converted to a hydrogen engine. Hydrogen injectors were installed in the intake ports and spark plugs were installed instead of diesel fuel injectors.

A spark assist system was installed in a gasoline direct-injection single-cylinder test engine with the aim of controlling the ignition timing and accomplishing combustion of gasoline fuel by auto/compression ignition. A primary reference fuel having an octane number of 90 (PRF 90) was used to evaluate experimentally the spark assist function for gasoline auto/compression ignition and to examine the feasibility of combustion with a short ignition delay equivalent to conventional diesel combustion using the engine system. An optically accessible single-cylinder test engine was also used to evaluate and investigate spark-assisted auto/compression ignition. Ignition timing controllability with combinations of spark and injection timings for gasoline auto/compression ignition was also investigated under different operating load conditions.

Effects of chemical reaction characteristics of premixed fuel were experimentally studied in a dual fuel compression ignition engine using port injection (PI) of gasoline-like component and direct injection (DI) of diesel fuel. Octane number of port injection fuels, direct injection timing and injection amount ratio between PI and DI were swept to assess the interaction between chemical reaction and mixture distribution in a combustion chamber. Chemical kinetic study using multi-zone modeling was also performed in order to explain experimental results under quiescent condition.

Fuel design approach has been proposed as the control technique of spray and combustion processes in diesel engine to improve thermal efficiency and reduce exhaust emissions. In order to kwow if this approach is capable of controlling spray flame structure and interaction between the flame and a combustion chamber wall, the present study investigated ignition and flame characteristics of dual-component fuels, while varying mixing fraction, fuel temperature and ambient conditions. Those characteristics were evaluated through chemiluminescence photography and luminous flame photography. OH radical images and visible luminous flame images were analyzed to reveal flame shape aspect ratio and its fractal dimension.

Ignition, combustion and emissions characteristics of dual-component fuel spray were examined for ranges of injection timing and intake-air oxygen concentration. Fuels used were binary mixtures of gasoline-like component i-octane (cetane number 12, boiling point 372 K) and diesel fuel-like component n-tridecane (cetane number 88, boiling point 510 K). Mass fraction of i-octane was also changed as the experimental variable. The experimental study was carried out in a single cylinder compression ignition engine equipped with a common-rail injection system and an exhaust gas recirculation system. The results demonstrated that the increase of the i-octane mass fraction with optimizations of injection timing and intake oxygen concentration reduced pressure rise rate and soot and NOx emissions without deterioration of indicated thermal efficiency.

Auto-ignition and combustion processes of dual-component fuel spray were numerically studied. A source code of SUPERTRAPP (developed by NIST), which is capable of predicting thermodynamic and transportation properties of pure fluids and fluid mixtures containing up to 20 components, was incorporated into KIVA3V to provide physical fuel properties and vapor-liquid equilibrium calculations. Low temperature oxidation reaction, which is of importance in ignition process of hydrocarbon fuels, as well as negative temperature coefficient behavior was taken into account using the multistep kinetics ignition prediction based on Shell model, while a global single-step mechanism was employed to account for high temperature oxidation reaction. Computational results with the present multi-component fuel model were validated by comparing with experimental data of spray combustion obtained in a constant volume vessel.

The effects of the spray impinging part on the in-cylinder airflow were numerically analyzed in the combustion chamber of the impinging diffusion direct injection diesel engine using KIVA-3 code. KIVA-3 code was enhanced to cater the impinging part as an internal obstacle by adopting the virtual droplet method, which is relatively easy to implement. Numerical result shows that the turbulence generation is promoted by the impinging part and is transformed by the squish flow into the piston cavity. The secondary flow is generated beneath the impinging part as well. The secondary flow area increases as the distance between top surface of the impinging part and bottom surface of the cylinder cover increases.

The mixture formation by fuel spray impingement (OSKA system) was applied to a small direct-injection diesel engine in order to reduce the wall quenching- induced emissions, i.e., the emissions of THC and soluble organic fractions (SOF). Experiments were carried out using a single-cylinder engine, fitted with various piston cavity geometries, ran under a wide range of compression ratios and fuel injection specifications. The piston cavity was designed as a centrally located reentrant type. The combination of the high squish flow and the weak penetration of the OSKA spray was very effective in reducing harmful emissions. A short ignition delay, under the retarded fuel injection timing, was obtained because of the high compression ratio. The OSKA DI diesel engine showed reduced NOx, smoke, and THC emissions without deterioration of the fuel consumption compared to modern DI diesel engines used in automotive applications.

This paper is concerned with the formation of Particulate Matter (PM) in direct-injection (DI) diesel engines. A system featuring an electromagnetically actuated sampling valve was used for sampling of gas directly from the combustion chamber. The concentrations of total particulate matter (TPM) and of its two components, the Soluble Organic Fractions (SOF) and the Insoluble Fractions (ISF), were determined at different locations in the combustion chamber at different sampling times (different crank angles). High concentrations of SOF were found at sampling positions along the spray flame axis. The concentrations of SOF and ISF were higher at sampling positions close to the wall than away from the wall. The results suggest that SOF formation is significantly affected by wall quenching. Also, the PM concentrations were much higher in the combustion chamber than in the exhaust.

The OSKA-DH diesel engine employed a unique system (hereafter called OSKA system) which is composed of a single-hole fuel injector, an impinging disk and a re-entrant type combustion chamber. This study is concerned with the combustion observation of both OSKA-DH diesel engine and conventional DI diesel engine by the high-speed photography and video system. This video system enables us to take combustion photographs under the warm-up condition of the engine. From the observation of those photographs, the OSKA-DH engine shows the shorter ignition delay compared with a DI diesel engine and the combustion flame of OSKA-DH diesel engine are concentrated in the center of the combustion chamber and a relatively monotonous flame intensity are observed. THE AUTHORS HAVE DEVELOPED a new type of Direct Injection Stratified Charge Engine called “Direct Fuel Injection Impingement Diffusion Stratified Charge System” (hereafter called OSKA System).

This study is concerned with development of a new type of diesel engine using the fuel jet impingement (OSKA-DH). Simultaneous reduction of the NOx and smoke emission were demonstrated with single cylinder prototype OSKA-DH engine. As a fundamental study on the mixture formation process, the observation of impinged fuel spray was studied by using a pressurized constant volume vessel. The high-speed combustion photographs of both re-entrant and open type combustion chamber were also taken by using the experimental transparent engine. From the observation of pressurized vessel and high-speed combustion photographs, the mixture formation and combustion was strongly affected by the squish flow velocity. The short ignition delay and faster combustion were observed by the re-entrant type combustion chamber because of high squish speed.

As a fundamental work on Direct Injection Impinging Diffusion Combustion Engine, fuel spray was injected momentary into a pressured CO2 gas and impinged onto a projection on a wall. Instantaneous photograph was taken and analyzed to clarify the spray characteristics. Nozzle opening pressure was varied to clarify its effects on spray characteristics. Nozzle needle was cut to form two pairs of flats on needle surface instead of its cylindrical one. The effect of this needle shape was also studied. Opening pressure of injection nozzle has produced very little effect on the spray tip penetration. Spray thickness is larger when needle opening pressure of injection nozzle is high. Spray tip penetration and spray thickness have become large when widths across flats is narrow.

Wall quenching plays a vital role on particulate formation. A single cylinder engine test has been carried out to clarify the effects of wall quenching on particulate emission. A completely warmed up engine is fired in variety of operating period under various engine load, and then stopped immediately. Deposits are collected from 25 positions on the combustion chamber wall. Area basis concentration of deposit is obtained at each position. Soluble organic fractions (SOF) extracted from deposit are analyzed with gel permeation chromatograph (GPC). Results show the correlation between SOF in exhaust particulate and in deposit. Deposit concentration is highest on the spray axis impinging region of piston cavity wall. GPC pattern of the SOF in deposit indicates that higher molecular weight composition generates as a result of polymerization of fuel where the main jet region of the spray impinges.

This study is concerned with development of a new type of Diesel engine by impingement of fuel jet. The impinging part is installed on the cylinder head (OSKA-DH), against which the fuel jet is injected to spread and form fuel-air mixture. As a fundamental study on the mixture formation process, the observation of the impinged fuel jet was studied by using a pressurized vessel. High-speed combustion photographs of the OSKA and DI Diesel engine were also taken by using the experimental transparent engine. A single cylinder 4 stroke cycle prototype OSKA-DH engine (ø 118 x 108 mm) was developed. Pintle type single hole fuel injector is used and relatively low opening pressure of 15.3 MPa is employed. The re-entrant type combustion chamber and relatively high compression ratio of 20.4: 1 are employed. Experiments with a single cylinder proto-type engine showed that the lower NOx and smoke emissions compared with the conventional DI diesel engine.

In the small high speed DI diesel engines, wall quenching plays an important role on the particulate formation process. In order to clarify the particulate formation process, authors have analyzed the deposit on the combustion chamber wall, which are the results of the wall quenching. Deposit is sampled at 22 locations on the combustion chamber wall. On the wall of the piston cavity, dry and SOF deposits generate. The deposit quantity is the highest on the side surface of the cavity, but SOF ratio is the smallest in the cavity.

A low emission and high combustion load combustor is developed. The combustor reduces both NOx and unburnt fractions using rich-lean staged combustion. NOx is suppressed by fuel-rich combustion in the primary combustion chamber. Unburnt fraction is oxidized by the transition from rich to lean combustion. To avoid NOx formation, residence time nearby stoichiometry is shortened. NOx is less than 24.8 ppm(16 % O2 equivalence) or 2.26 g/kg throughout the experiments. Combustion efficiency is high regardless of the wide operating range. Specific combustion load is up to 33.6 MW/m3 without excessive NOx emission under atmospheric air condition.