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In this work, engine-out particle mass (PM) and particle number (PN) emissions were experimentally examined from a gasoline direct injection (GDI) engine operating in two lean combustion modes and one stoichiometric mode with a fuel of known properties. Ten steady state operating points, two constant speed load steps, and an engine cold start were examined. Results showed that solid particles emitted from the engine under steady state stoichiometric conditions had a uniquely broad size distribution that was relatively flat between the diameters of 10 and 100 nm. In most operating conditions, lean homogenous modes can achieve lower particle emissions than stoichiometric modes while improving engine thermal efficiency. Alternatively, lean stratified operating modes resulted in significantly higher PN and PM emissions than both lean homogeneous and stoichiometric modes with increased efficiency only at low engine load.

Diesel low temperature combustion (LTC) is an operational strategy that effectively limits soot and oxides of nitrogen (NOx) emissions in-cylinder. Unfortunately, LTC results in increased hydrocarbon emissions as compared to conventional diesel combustion (CDC). Previous work has shown that exhaust conditions resulting from LTC inhibit oxidation of HC within a diesel oxidation catalyst (DOC). Further, these elevated HC emissions result in engine-out particulate matter (PM) that primarily consists of semi-volatile organic material. The current work shows that a DOC incompletely oxidizes this PM forming material. These results investigated the effectiveness of both a DOC and a diesel particulate filter (DPF) in reducing particle emissions for LTC. In this work, engine-out, DOC-out, and DPF-out exhaust were sampled using a micro-dilution system. Particle distributions were determined with a scanning mobility particle sizer (SMPS) and engine exhaust particle sizer (EEPS).

In recent years, there has been growing interest in alternative cycles to the standard 4-stroke Otto engine for improving efficiency and lowering emissions of spark-ignition engines. One proposed concept is the 5-stroke engine which uses two types of cylinders, a combustion cylinder and an expansion cylinder with a transfer port between them. Excess pressure in the combustion cylinder can be further expanded by using a second expansion cylinder to harness additional work. The expansion cylinder runs on a two-stroke cycle, allowing the use of two combustion cylinders to one expansion cylinder in a three cylinder configuration to increase efficiency. Previous work has investigated the performance of prototype 5-stroke engines compared to 1-D modeling results; none have conducted a thorough study on the interactions of various design parameters.

Diesel low temperature combustion (LTC) is an operational strategy that is effective at reducing soot and oxides of Nitrogen (NOx) emissions at low engine loads in-cylinder. A downside to LTC in diesel engines is increased hydrocarbon (HC) emissions. This study shows that semi-volatile species from LTC form the bulk of particulate matter (PM) upon dilution in the atmosphere. The nature of gas-to-particle conversion from high HC operating modes like LTC has not been well characterized. In this work, we explore engine-out PM and HC emissions from LTC and conventional diffusion combustion (CC) operation for two different engine load and speed modes using a modern light-duty diesel engine. An experimental method to investigate PM volatility was implemented. Raw exhaust was diluted under two dilution conditions. A tandem differential mobility analyzer (TDMA) was used to identify differences in volatility between particle sizes.

Hydrogen was used to operate a single cylinder engine in homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) mode. The engine was a modified 435 cm3 single cylinder air cooled Yanmar L100V direct injection (DI) compression ignition (CI) engine. The original diesel fuel injection system was removed and a hydrogen port fuel injection (PFI) system was added, along with a 1 kW intake air heater. The piston was modified from the original re-entrant bowl piston to a dish shaped piston, while maintaining the original 21.2:1 compression ratio. The engine speed was maintained at a constant 1800 RPM. Three hydrogen fueling conditions of 25, 30, and 35 slpm were investigated, which corresponded to an excess air ratio (λ) of roughly 4.38, 3.64, and 3.16, respectively The fuel conversion efficiency for the conditions tested ranged from 23% - 27%.

Combustion aerosols consist mainly of elemental and organic carbon (EC and OC). Since EC strongly absorbs light and thus affects atmospheric visibility and radiation balance, there is great interest in its measurement. To this end, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) published a standard method to determine the mass of EC and OC on filter samples. Another common method of measuring carbon in aerosols is the aethalometer, which uses light extinction to measure “black carbon” or BC, which is considered to approximate EC. A third method sometimes used for estimating carbon in submicron combustion aerosols, is to measure particle size distributions using a scanning mobility particle sizer (SMPS) and calculate mass using the assumptions that the particles are spherical, carbonaceous and of known density.