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A 10cc single-valve, reverse uniflow 2S engine is being developed to power a compact compressor system; the output from this device could be hydraulic or pneumatic power. In this design a free piston is used to directly compress the power fluid. In the initial configuration fresh charge will be delivered through a single, dual-acting spring-loaded poppet valve located in the center of the cylinder and the burned charge is exhausted through symmetrically-arranged ports located at the bottom section of the cylinder; two combustion chambers exist on opposite ends of the piston. Of particular interest in the early stages of the engine development is the gas transfer system; proper cylinder scavenging is required to ensure adequate engine operation. An initial design is being investigated using the commercial computational fluid dynamics software suite, STAR-CD/ESICE. This report will document some initial simulations and indicate areas requiring further refinement.

A high pressure capable, free piston rapid compression expansion machine (RCEM) has been used to investigate the autoignition, or Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) behavior of a wide range of fuels. Thermal efficiencies and emissions characteristics were reported previously, but the heat release rates (HRR) and mass fractions burned (χ) seen under the experimental conditions were not specifically determined. This work investigates the characteristic heat losses in this device for use in determination of the HRR and χ. The heat flux is derived from surface temperature thermocouple data; a spatially-uniform, global convection model is correlated to this. Data from lean n-pentane and n-hexane in air mixtures were used to calibrate the model. The RCEM-calibrated model was compared to similar models that were calibrated to IC engines operating on HCCI, and to predictions from the CFD code KIVA3V.

A floating-stroke, free-piston internal combustion reciprocating engine (FS-FPE) is currently under development with the primary goal of high engine efficiency, along with ultra-low emissions. High compression ratio, boosted, lean operation is targeted with kinetically-modulated combustion expected to be utilized as a principal mode of operation. To aid the engine's preliminary design stage modeling is conducted in order to explore the engine's operational characteristics and charge conditioning needs. Natural gas and gasoline are considered as potential fuels. A single-zone, homogeneous reactor model (HRM) is employed to approximate the in-cylinder processes, especially the ignition chemistry (timing) which is important for operation under these conditions. Sub-models are integrated into the HRM to describe fuel evaporation, heat transfer, and piston crevice / ringpack flows.

A free piston, internal combustion (IC) engine, operating at high compression ratio (∼30:1) and low equivalence ratio (ϕ∼0.35), and utilizing homogeneous charge compression ignition combustion, has been proposed by Sandia National Laboratories as a means of significantly improving the IC engine's cycle thermal efficiency and exhaust emissions. A zero-dimensional, thermodynamic model with detailed chemical kinetics, and empirical scavenging, heat transfer, and friction component models has been used to analyze the steady-state operating characteristics of this engine. The cycle simulations using hydrogen as the fuel, have indicated the critical factors affecting the engine's performance, and suggest the limits of improvement possible relative to conventional IC engine technologies.