Search Results

For meeting 21st-century exhaust emission standards for HD diesel engines, new methods are necessary for reducing NOx and PM emissions without increasing fuel consumption. The stratified diesel fuel-water-diesel fuel (DWD) injection in combination with exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) is as a means for NOx and PM reduction without any negative effect on fuel economy. The investigation was performed on a charged HD single-cylinder direct-injection diesel engine with a modern low-swirl combustion system, 4-valve technology and high pressure injection. The application of DWD injection combined with EGR resulted in a 60 percent lower NOx emission at full load and a 75 percent reduced NOx emission at part load when compared with present day (EURO II) technology. This was achieved without any fuel economy penalty, but with an additional PM emission reduction.

The combustion process of a heavy-duty DI-Diesel truck engine has been investigated using numerical simulation. The numerical modeling was based on an improved version of the KIVA-2 engine simulation code, employing a modified characteristic time-scale combustion model and a modified Kelvin-Helmholtz spray atomization model. The NO-formation process was modeled using the extended thermal Zeldovich mechanism. The simulation efforts included the effects of different injection characteristics such as varying the injection rate profile or number of injection holes and sizes. The physical sub-models used to improve the simulation of the mixture-formation and the combustion process were validated through comparison with single-cylinder engine experiments. Special attention was given to accurately model the in-cylinder flame propagation of the individual sprays and their effect on thermal NO-formation. All simulations were based on full load cases at medium speed.

The high efficiency of the diesel engine has made it the primary propulsion source for truck applications worldwide. In Europe, the penetration of diesel engines in passenger cars is growing rapidly in an effort to meet the stringent CO2 future emission targets. However, future regulations call for increasingly lower NOx emission levels. Extremely low engine out NOx emission levels, if at all possible, have significant negative effects on fuel economy and engine life-cycle cost. As such, a viable strategy is to tune the engine for optimum fuel consumption, while relying on an exhaust aftertreatment system to reduce NOx emissions. The Selective Catalytic NOx Reduction (SCR) enables the engine to run in the overall speed/load range at best fuel economy, while the exhaust aftertreatment system reduces the NOx emissions significantly. The NOx reduction efficiency of an “engine map controlled”, open-loop SCR system is about 65 percent.

For the development of new HD Diesel engines which meet the demands of future international emission regulations and, at the same time, ensure economic operation modern development tools need to be used, especially for an optimisation of the combustion principle. To find the optimal engine set up, the variation of a large number of engine and injection system parameters, i.e. injection system, number of nozzle holes and sizes, injection rate profiles, etc. is required. To speed up the design process, modern optical engine diagnostics and 3D-numerical simulation can help to analyse the highly transient in-cylinder processes in detail. These methods provide essential insight to understand the complicated physical and chemical interactions and acting mechanisms during mixture formation, combustion and pollutant formation as well as the function of components of the system.