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Previous experimental studies on Diesel engines have demonstrated the potential of high-pressure exhaust gas recirculation (HP EGR) as an in-cylinder NOx control method. With ever more stringent emissions standards, the use of a low pressure EGR loop (LP EGR) seems to be an interesting method to further reduce NOx emissions while maintaining PM emissions at a low level. Actually, contrary to HP EGR, the gas flow through the turbine is unchanged while varying the EGR rate. Thus, by closing the variable geometry turbine (VGT) vanes, higher boost pressure can be reached, allowing the use of high rates of supplemental EGR. Some experiments are conducted on a 2.0 l HSDI common-rail DI Diesel engine equipped with HP and LP EGR loops on a test bench under low and part load conditions, as those encountered in the European emissions test cycle for light-duty vehicles.

This paper presents an experimental study of a water injection (WI) application where water fog is added in the intake of a common rail High-Speed Direct Injection (HSDI) automobile Diesel engine in order to reduce pollutant emissions Nitrogen Oxides and Particulate Matter (NOx and PM) for future emissions standards. Also studied are the physical parameters of the engine (in-cylinder pressure, air inlet temperature, air mass flow, specific fuel consumption etc). The results are compared with those obtained with low-pressure dry Exhaust Gas Recirculation (LP EGR) on the same engine. Tests performed with the water injection system show that a much better NOx / PM trade-off (reduced NOx emission levels at constant PM emission levels) is obtained than with EGR especially at points of high engine loads. In addition, tests are performed with EGR in parallel with water injection to investigate the reduction of NOx emissions while potentially reducing water consumption.

Diesel engines are being more commonly used for light automotive applications, due to their higher efficiency, despite the difficulty of depollution and extra associated costs. They require more accessories to function properly, such as turbocharging and post-treatment systems. The most important pollutants emitted from diesel engines are NOx and particles (in conventional engines), being difficult to reduce and control because reducing one increases the other. Low temperature combustion (LTC) diesel engines are able to reduce both pollutants, but increase emissions of CO and HC. Besides HCCI and EGR systems, one method that could achieve LTC conditions is by using multiple injections (pilot/main, split injection, etc.). However, understanding multiple diesel injection is no easy task, so far done by trial and error and complex 3D CFD models, or too simplified by 0D models. Therefore, a numerical 1D model is to be adapted to simulate multiple injection situations in a diesel engine.

Residual gas plays a crucial role in the combustion process of SI engines. It acts as a diluent and has a huge impact on pollutant emissions (NOx and CO emissions), engine efficiency and tendency to knock. Therefore, characterizing the residual gas fraction is an essential task for engine modelling and calibration purposes. Thus, an in-cylinder sampling technique has been developed on a spark ignition VVT engine to measure residual gas fraction. Two gas sampling valves were flush mounted to the combustion chamber walls; they are located between the 2 intake valves and between intake and exhaust valves respectively. In-cylinder gas was sampled during the compression stroke and stored in a sampling bag using a vacuum pump. The process was repeated during a large number of engine cycles in order to get a sufficient volume of gas which was then characterized with a standard gas analyzer.

Unsteady flow in the inlet and exhaust systems of Internal Combustion Engines can be simulated with multi-dimensional simulation codes. Due to their computational time, other methods are widely used and give the opportunity of coupling it with a model of the complete engine. This paper reports on an investigation undertaken to compare the accuracy of the method of inertia, the acoustic method and the one-dimensional method for modeling the gas flow in pipe systems. Results of this study give the advantage and disadvantage of each approach. The comparison shows good agreement between one-dimensional and experimental results while the calculation time is kept acceptable.