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In this study, the influence of fuel premixing ratio (PMR) on the performance, combustion, and emission characteristics of dual-fuel operation in the compression ignition (CI) engine have been investigated. For dual fuel operation in CI-engine, two fuels of different reactivity are utilized in the same combustion cycle. In this study, low reactivity fuels (gasoline/butanol) is injected into the intake manifold, and high reactivity fuel (diesel) is directly injected into the cylinder. To operate the conventional CI engine in dual-fuel mode, the intake manifold of the engine was modified and a solenoid based port fuel injector was installed. A separate port fuel injector controller was used for injecting the gasoline or butanol. Suitable instrumentation was used to measure in-cylinder pressure and exhaust gas emissions. Experiments were performed by maintaining the constant fuel energy at different fuel PMR for different engine loads at constant engine speed.

In the present work, the in-cylinder tumble/swirl flow and its effect on the homogeneity, turbulence, and combustion of methane are investigated in a canted valve engine using ANSYS. The study is focused on the impact of initial swirl and tumble on the charge preparation, turbulent kinetic energy, and combustion of methane. The flow simulation was performed in ANSYS using hybrid mesh for cold flow simulation to study the tumble/swirl flow variation. For combustion simulation, a 2D axisymmetric model was used with an initial swirl and tumble ratio for studying the effect on premixed combustion. The flow simulation was performed for suction and compression to see the variation in the swirl and tumble with crank position and engine speed. The combustion simulation was performed only for compression and power stroke to save the computation time. The results depict that the flow inside the cylinder plays a significant role in the preparation of a homogeneous charge.

Homogenous charge compression ignition (HCCI) combustion emerged as a potential technique for reducing automotive pollution. Controlling the combustion timing at different engine operating conditions is one of the major challenges for the commercial application of HCCI combustion engines. To control HCCI ignition timing, it is often necessary to know the characteristics of HCCI cyclic variations. In this study, cyclic combustion variations in an HCCI engine are analyzed. Combustion stability and cycle-to-cycle variations of HCCI combustion parameters were investigated on a modified four-stroke diesel engine. The experiments were conducted by varying intake air temperatures and relative air-fuel ratios at constant engine speed. In the steady-state engine operating condition, in-cylinder pressure signals of 2000 consecutive engine combustion cycles are acquired for each test condition.

Homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) engines are attracting attention as next-generation internal combustion engines mainly because of very low NOx and PM emission potential and excellent thermal efficiency. Particulate emissions from HCCI engines have been usually considered negligible however recent studies suggest that PM number emissions from HCCI engines cannot be neglected. This study is therefore conducted on a modified four cylinder diesel engine to investigate this aspect of HCCI technology. One cylinder of the engine is modified to operate in HCCI mode for the experiments and port fuel injection technique is used for preparing homogenous charge in this cylinder. Experiments are conducted at 1200 and 2400 rpm engine speeds using gasoline, ethanol, methanol and butanol fuels. A partial flow dilution tunnel was employed to measure the mass of the particulates emitted on a pre-conditioned filter paper.

Diesel engines are lucrative in terms of high thermal efficiency and low specific fuel consumption. The major drawbacks of these engines are high NOx and particulate matter (PM) emissions due to heterogeneous combustion. In the current emissions norms (BS-VI), a limit for particle number concentration is also introduced. There are few numerical studies investigating the soot particle size and number characteristics at different engine operating conditions. In this work, a parametric numerical study is conducted to investigate the effect of engine operating parameters on PM characteristics such as number density, size, and volume fraction. Simulations were performed using the Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes equation with renormalization group K-ε turbulence model available in ANSYS FORTE CFD software.

This study examines the cycle-to-cycle variations (combustion instability) in the dual-fuel stationary compression ignition engine. The variations in the consecutive engine cycles are characterized under different load, gasoline/methanol-diesel premixing ratio (rp) and diesel injection timing (SOI). To investigate the combustion instability in dual-fuel CI-engine, gasoline and methanol are used as a low reactivity fuel (LRF) and is fed in the modified intake manifold during the suction stroke. The tests are performed for different fuel rp using developed port-fuel injector controller in the laboratory. The combustion instability is analyzed using the statistical method and Wavelet Transform (WT). Results indicate that combustion instability is more prone to lower and medium engine load, and variations are significantly higher for the high substitution fraction of LRF. The upper limit of fuel rp is restricted by higher variations in the combustion parameters.

Increase in the air pollution has driven the research towards the cleaner combustion technology for reciprocating engines. To tackle the challenge of the trade-off between the NOx and soot emissions from a conventional diesel engine, premixed low-temperature combustion (LTC) strategies are potential technologies. Among the LTC strategies, reactivity controlled compression ignition (RCCI) strategy has a better combustion phasing control along with higher fuel conversion efficiency and lower NOx and soot emissions. The present study investigated the nano-particle emissions from RCCI engine fueled with a port injection of gasoline/methanol (low reactivity fuel) and direct injection of diesel (high reactivity fuel). The RCCI combustion experiments were performed on a modified single cylinder compression ignition engine with development ECU. The mass of injected fuel per stroke for the port as well as the direct injection is controlled through ECU.

In the present study, experiments of reactivity control compression ignition (RCCI) combustion mode is performed on a single cylinder automotive diesel engine with development ECU (electronic control unit). For achieving RCCI combustion mode, low reactivity fuel (i.e., gasoline/methanol) is injected into the intake manifold, and high reactivity fuel (i.e., diesel) is directly injected into the engine cylinder. Mass of fuel injection per cycle and their injection events are controlled using ECU. This study presents the experimental investigation on the effect of high reactivity fuel injection timings on peak pressure rise rate (PPRR) and combustion stability in RCCI engine. The combustion parameters, i.e., PPRR, indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP) and total heat release (THR) are calculated from the in-cylinder pressure measurement data. In-cylinder pressure is measured using a piezoelectric pressure transducer installed on the engine cylinder head.

This study presents the experimental investigation of performance, combustion, gaseous and nano-particle emission characteristics of conventional compression ignition (CI) engine fueled with neat diesel and butanol/diesel blends. The experiments were conducted for neat diesel, 10%, 20% and 30% butanol/diesel blend on the volume basis at different engine loads. Combustion characteristics were investigated on the basis of in-cylinder pressure measurement and heat release analysis. The in-cylinder combustion pressure traces were recorded for 2000 consecutive engine combustion cycles for computation of heat release and different combustion parameters. Combustion stability analysis is conducted by analyzing the coefficient of variation of in indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP) and total heat release (THR). Wavelet analysis is also used for analyzing the temporal variations in IMEP data series.

Research in the utilization of hydrogen and syngas has significantly increased due to their clean-burning properties and the prospect of production from several renewable resources. Homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) engine is low-temperature combustion (LTC) concept which combines the best features of conventional spark-ignition (SI) and compression-ignition (CI) engines. HCCI combustion engine has shown the potential for higher efficiency and ultralow NOx and soot emissions. In this study, syngas fueled HCCI combustion is simulated using stochastic reactor model (SRM) with a detailed chemical kinetic mechanism (32 species and 173 reactions). Detailed syngas oxidation mechanism included NOx reactions also. In SRM models physical parameters are described by a probability density function (PDF). These parameters does not vary within the combustion chamber, and thus the spatial distribution (due to local inhomogeneity’s) of the charge is represented in terms of a PDF.

Automotive engines produce pollutant species which has the potential to damage human health as well as the environment. The toxicity potential of these species depends on the concentration, route, and exposure time. Toxicity studies are required in the current scenario due to increased pollution levels by vehicles used for transportation. This study is a review focused on the toxicity analysis of particulate, elemental (particle associated as soot), and organic carbon (organic fraction, PAHs) emission from the internal combustion engine with conventional and alternative fuels like biodiesel and alcohol. The study is focused on the formation, characterization, and quantification of particulate matter, elemental and organic carbon, and their effect on human health. The other part of the study is focused on mutagenicity (mutation in DNA) and cytotoxicity (cell toxicity) of the particulate emitted from the engines.

Emission regulations mandate the measurement of solid particles of size greater than 23 nm according to UNECE informal working group particle measurement protocol (PMP). The volatile particles from the engine exhaust are removed by heating and dilution in a device according to the UNECE PMP program. The analysis of solid particles from diesel engines requires aerosol conditioning systems, which can effectively remove volatile particles/species with minimum solid particle losses. Currently, the regulations only allow using an evaporation tube for the measurement of solid particles. Different laboratories have also demonstrated other alternatives such as thermodenuder and catalytic stripper for measuring the solid ultrafine particles emitted from the diesel engine. This paper reviews the recent literature related to the thermodenuder and catalytic striper’s design and operating characteristics.

Cyclic variations are inherent in the combustion of internal combustion engines. However, extreme cyclic combustion variations limit the operation of spark-ignition (SI) engines, particularly at highly lean and diluted charge operation. Lean charge operation is desired due to its expected benefits in fuel efficiency and engine-out NOx and HC emissions. Studies suggested the existence of the low-dimensional deterministic nature of cyclic variations, which is essential from the perspective of designing a high-frequency controller. The lean limit of a SI engine operation may be extended by controlling the deterministic component of cyclic variations to meet the future strict emissions and fuel economy regulations. This paper presents a review of the evolution of the experimental and analytical understanding of cyclic combustion variations of spark-ignition engines.

The influence of engine load and fuel premixing ratio (PMR) on unregulated emission from a methanol-diesel dual-fuel RCCI (MD-RCCI) engine is examined in this study. The study focuses on assessing the adverse effects of unregulated emissions (saturated HC, unsaturated HC, carbonyl compounds, aromatic hydrocarbon, NH3, and SO2) on the health of human beings and the environment. To quantify the effect on the environment, the greenhouse gas potential (GWPs), Eutrophication potential (EP), Acidification potential (AP), and Ozone forming potential (OFP) are calculated and presented. The cancer risk potential (CRP) of the carbonyl compounds (HCHO and CH3CHO) is calculated and presented to see the effect on human health. The results demonstrate that at lower engine load, with an increase in PMR, the OFP and CRP for MD-RCCI operation increase significantly, whereas AP, EP, and GWPs decrease. Additionally, with a rise in the load at a constant PMR, the AP, EP and OFP decrease significantly.