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In a direct-injection (DI) engine, charge motion and mixture preparation are among the most important factors deciding the performance and emissions. This work was focused on studying the effect of injector positioning on fuel-air mixture preparation and fuel impingement on in-cylinder surfaces during the homogeneous mode of operation in a naturally aspirated, small bore, 0.2 l, light-duty, air-cooled, four-stroke, spark-ignition engine modified to operate under the DI mode. A commercially available, six-hole, solenoid-operated injector was used. Two injector locations were identified based on the availability of the space on the cylinder head. One location yielded the spray-guided (SG) configuration, with one of the spray plumes targeted towards the spark plug. In the second location, the spray plumes were targeted towards the piston top in a wall-guided (WG) configuration so as to minimize the impingement of fuel on the liner.

In many Asian countries a significant automobile market share is held by two and three wheelers. Generally, cost and simplicity considerations limit the performance and emission levels of small engines. Methanol is an excellent alternative fuel for SI engines due to its high-octane number, high flame speed, presence of oxygen in its molecule and thus can be used to enhance the performance of small engines. However, use of neat methanol in SI engines poses constraints due to low energy density and poor vaporization characteristics. Also, the effectiveness of methanol as a fuel has still to be thoroughly investigated in small-bore SI engines in order to assess its potential. In this work, a small-bore 200cc three-wheeler automotive engine was modified to operate in the port fuel injection mode with neat methanol as the fuel.

Cycle-to-cycle flow variations significantly influence the combustion variations from one cycle to the next, particularly at low operating loads in small spark-ignition engines. Hence in the present work, cycle-to-cycle flow variations are analyzed at low throttle opening of 25% in a small spark-ignition engine using particle image velocimetry (PIV) technique. Experiments are conducted in an optically accessible single-cylinder, port-fuel-injection engine (volume: 110 cm3) at 1200 rpm engine speed. Images are captured at different crank angle positions during both intake and compression strokes over a tumble measurement plane bisecting the intake and exhaust valves, and processed using cross-correlation method to obtain the instantaneous velocity fields considering 200 image pairs at each crank angle position considered.

Nowadays, emission regulations and the requirement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions have escalated engine development efforts. In the present work, the effect of compression ratio on the performance, combustion and emission characteristics of a spark-ignition engine is evaluated at different operating conditions. A single-cylinder, water-cooled, spark-ignition engine (modified from a compression-ignition version) was used, with combustion chamber geometry consisted of flat cylinder head and a hemispherical bowl in the piston. Results showed that the brake thermal efficiency was increased from 9.8% to 12.9% when compression ratio was increased from 6.7:1 to 9.4:1 at low operating load of 5 N-m. Carbon monoxide emission was decreased when compression ratio was increased at all operating loads. However, as expected, nitric oxide emission was increased with the increase in compression ratio, with lower difference at low loads compared to medium and high loads.

The aim of this work is to study the combustion and gaseous emissions characteristics of a diesel engine dual-fueled with natural gas at different operating conditions (light to full load) for generator application. The electromechanical system was composed of a commercially available 18 liter, 6-cylinder diesel engine, coupled with the generator rated at 600 kWe at full-load. The flow of natural gas was electronically controlled using a throttle valve, and was inducted in the intake manifold before being introduced into the combustion chambers. Gaseous emissions of carbon monoxide (CO), hydrocarbons (HC) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) were measured under both diesel and dual fuel operations at different loads. This work also presents the effects of diesel oxidation catalyst to reduce HC and CO emissions under dual fuel operation. At each operating load, gas percentage was increased with corresponding decrease in diesel pilot while maintaining the same power output.

Nowadays, due to stringent emission regulations, it is imperative to incorporate modeling efforts with experiments. This paper presents the development of a phenomenological model to investigate the effects of various in-cylinder strategies on combustion and emission characteristics of a common-rail direct-injection (CRDI) diesel engine. Experiments were conducted on a single-cylinder, supercharged engine with displacement volume of 0.55 l at different operating conditions with various combinations of injection pressure, number of injections involving single injection and multiple injections with two injection pulses, and EGR. Data obtained from experiments was also used for model validation. The model incorporated detailed phenomenological aspects of spray growth, air entrainment, droplet evaporation, wall impingement, ignition delay, premixed and mixing-controlled combustion rates, and emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and diesel soot.