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To measure the fuel vapor concentration in an unsteady evaporating spray injected into nitrogen atmosphere, the exciplex-forming method, which produces spectrally separated fluorescence from the liquid and vapor phase, was applied in this study. Two experiments were conducted to investigate the qualitative and quantitative applicability of the technique in a high temperature and high pressure atmosphere during the fuel injection period. One is to examine the thermal decomposition of TMPD dopant at a high temperature and a high pressure nitrogen atmosphere during a short period of time. The other is to calibrate the relationship between fluorescence intensity and vapor concentration of TMPD at different vapor temperatures. And then, the qualitative measurement of fuel vapor concentration distributions in diesel sprays was made by applying the technique.

The two-dimensional distribution of a soot cloud in an unsteady spray flame in a rapid compression machine(RCM) was visualized using the laser sheet scattering technique. A 40 mm x 50 mm cross section on the flame axis was illuminated by a thin laser sheet from a single pulsed Nd:YAG laser(wavelength 532 nm). Scattered light from soot particles was taken by a CCD camera via a high speed gated image intensifier. The temporal variation of the scattered light images were presented with the injection pressure as a parameter. The results showed that scattered light was intense near the periphery of the flame tip and that the scattered light becomes weaker significantly and disappears fast after the end of injection as injection pressure is increased. This technique was also applied to the visualization of the two-dimensional distribution of liquid droplets in the non-evaporating spray to correlate it with the soot concentration distribution.

A direct numerical simulation of turbulent premixed flames in a constant volume vessel is conducted to understand flame-wall interactions and heat loss characteristics under the pressure rising condition. The contribution of the burnt region to the total heat flux is more significant compared to the reaction region. The velocity profiles indicate inward and outward motions. The profile of the turbulent kinetic energy is damped by the wall, and no distinct turbulence production is observed. Since the turbulence is weakened in the burnt region, the effect of near wall turbulence to the total wall heat flux is considered to be limited.

To adhere to stringent environmental regulations, SI (spark ignition) engines are required to achieve higher thermal efficiency. In recent years, EGR (exhaust gas recirculation) systems and lean-burn operation has been recognized as key technologies. Under such operating conditions, reducing CCV (cycle-to-cycle variation) in combustion is critical to the enhancement of overall engine performance. Flow-field CCV is one of the considerable factors affecting combustion in engines. Conventionally, in research on flow fields in SI engines, the ensemble average is used to separate the measured velocity field into a mean component and a fluctuation component, the latter of which contains a CCV component and a turbulent component. To extract the CCV of the flow field, previous studies employed spatial filter, temporal filter, and POD (proper orthogonal decomposition) methods.

A new technique is developed for the in-situ measurement of Sauter mean diameter of droplets in non-evaporating transient dense sprays. This method analyzes the image of a shadowpicture of a spray based on the incident light extinction principle, and allows the sizing of Sauter mean diameter of whole droplets in a transient spray with any shape. In addition, this method allows the measurement of the local droplet size in a quasi-steady region of an axisymmetric spray if the conservation equations regarding mass and momentum are included in the calculation and data analysis. A calibration was carried out using glass beads as test particles: this was proved to have an accuracy of Sauter mean diameter measurement within 10%, on average. Applications of the new technique to both diesel and gasoline (EFI) sprays have been made.

The structure of dense sprays was investigated using 2-D imaging techniques. To investigate the mechanism of atomization, the liquid phase in a non-evaporating spray was visualized by a thin laser sheet formed by a single pulse from a Nd:YAG laser at the distance from 4 to 19 mm from the nozzle orifice with the injection pressure and the surrounding gas density as parameters. A new technique for the visualization of vapor phase in an evaporating spray, the SSI (Silicone particle Scattering Imaging) method, was proposed to investigate the structure of the vapor phase regions of the spray.

A multi-functional membrane filter was developed through deposition of agglomerated Three-Way Catalyst particles with a size of 1 ~ 2 microns on the conventional bare particulate filter. The filtration efficiency reaches almost 100 % from the beginning of soot trapping with a low pressure drop and both reductions of NO and CO emission were achieved.

A rapid compression-expansion machine was developed, which can simulate intake, compression, expansion and exhaust strokes in a single Diesel cycle by an electrically controlled and hydraulically actuated driving system. The whole system which is composed of a hydraulic actuator, fuel injector and a valve driving device, is sequentially controlled by a micro-computer. The machine features; 1) accurate control of piston position at TDC, 2) no effect of lubricant on HC emission due to the use of dry piston rings; 3) independent control of local wall temperature; and 4) high power output to drive heavy piston at high frequency. The single cycle operation permits Diesel combustion experiments under a wide range of operating conditions and easy access of optical diagnostics with minimized amount of test fuel. The performance test showed that the machine can drive a DI Diesel type piston with a 100 mm bore at a maximum frequency of 16.7 Hz at a maximum compression pressure of 15 MPa.

The characteristics of diesel spray and flame in a quiescent atmosphere were studied as a function of injection pressure ranging from 30 to 110 MPa. Measurements included the spray form and Sauter mean diameter of a non-evaporating spray, the liquid phase penetration of an evaporating spray and the visualization of sooting zone in a flame. Experimental results show that high pressure injection improves the atomization and air entrainment of non-evaporating spray and that the liquid phase penetration of evaporating spray is hardly affected by injection pressure, demonstrating a promotion of evaporation with injection pressure. Visualization of the sooting zone in a flame made it clear that high pressure injection is advantageous in reducing soot formation and shortening the combustion duration.

Serious problems occur in an exhaust gas recirculation system due to an adhesive hard deposit. It is important to clarify the mechanism of the hard deposit formation to suppress it. In this study, the effect of exhaust gas composition on hard deposit formation was investigated. The amount of the hard deposit formed under various operating conditions while keeping the total hydrocarbon concentration constant was different. The component analyses of the exhaust gas and the hard deposit clarified that polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon in the exhaust gas strongly affected the hard deposit formation.

Three-way catalysts are used in gasoline vehicles for simultaneous purifying nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide, and hydrocarbon in recent years. However, the reduction of ammonia emission generated in the three-way catalyst is pressing issue. In EURO 7, ammonia will also be subject to the Real Driving Emissions regulation, and its emissions must be reduced. Previous studies have shown that ammonia emissions are higher under fuel-rich conditions, suggesting that differences in driving behavior have a significant impact on ammonia emissions in real-world driving, which includes various driving environments. In this study, driving tests were conducted on a direct- injection gasoline vehicle equipped with a three-way catalyst and Portable Emission Measurement System and Sensor-based Emission Measurement System to investigate the actual ammonia emissions on actual roads.

A newly developed small-sized IES (inductive energy storage) circuit with a semiconductor switch at turn-off action was successfully applied to an ignition system. This IES circuit can generate repetitive nanosecond pulse discharges. An ignition system using repetitive nanosecond pulse discharges was investigated as an alternative to conventional spark ignition systems in the previous papers. Experiments were conducted using constant volume chamber for CH₄ and C₃H₈-air mixtures. The ignition system using repetitive nanosecond pulse discharges was found to improve the inflammability of lean combustible mixtures, such as extended flammability limits, shorted ignition delay time, with increasing the number of pulses for CH₄ and C₃H₈-air mixtures under various conditions. The mechanisms for improving the inflammability were discussed and the effectiveness of IES circuit under EGR condition was also verified.

The relation between the characteristics of a non-evaporating spray and those of a corresponding frame achieved in a rapid compression machine was investigated experimentally. The fuel injection pressure was changed in a range of 55 to 260 MPa and the other injection parameters such as orifice diameter and injection duration were changed systematically. The characteristics of the non-evaporating spray such as the Sauter mean diameter and the mean excess air ratio of the spray were measured by an image analysis technique. The time required for a pressure rise due to combustion was taken as an index to characterize the flame. It was concluded that the mean excess air ratio of a spray is the major factor which controls the burning rate and that the high injection pressure is effective in shortening the combustion duration and reducing soot formation.

Experiments on the effects of temperature T and equivalence ratio ϕ on soot formation at high pressures up to 5 MPa were conducted. The soot formation region is mapped on ϕ-T diagram using the results obtained in the experiments and the published data. NO formation region is also determined by the Zeldovich equations and is plotted on the same diagram. The time histories of ϕ and T of the flame in a DI diesel engine which was obtained by a gas sampling study, are plotted on the ϕ-T diagram to form a trajectory. Discussion of the trajectory in relation to both soot and NO formation region gives suggestion of a possibility of high temperature - rich mixture combustion to reduce particulate formation in diesel engines.

Diesel engines are high thermal efficiency because of high compression ratio but produce high concentration of particulate matter (PM) because of direct injection fuel diffusion combustion. PM must be removed from the exhaust gas to protect human health. This research describes biodiesel engine performance, efficiency and combustion behavior using combustion pressure analyzer. It was clearly observed that PM emitted from CI engines can be reduced by using renewable bio-oxygenated fuels. The morphology and nanostructure of fossil fuel and biofuel PMs were investigated by using a Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The morphology of biodiesel and diesel doesn’t have much different in the viewpoint of particulate matter trapping using DPF micro surface pores. The agglomerated ultrafine particles and primary nanoparticles sizes of diesel and biodiesel engine’s PM are approximately 50-500 nm and 20-50 nm, respectively.

The influence of the head shape on intracranial responses under impact was investigated by using Finite Element Method. Head shape models of 52 young adult male Japanese were analyzed by Multi Dimensional Scaling (MDS), and a 2 dimensional distribution map of head shapes was obtained. Five finite element models of the Japanese head were constructed by a transformed finite element model of an average European adult male (H-Head model) using Free Form Deformation (FFD) technique. The constructed models represent the 5th and 95th percentile of the first 2 scales obtained by MDS. The same acceleration pulse was applied to the H-Head model and the five finite element models. The cause of the difference was considered to be differences in pressure distribution in the brain caused by the differences in the head shape. Variation in the head shape should be taken into account in simulating the effects of impact using a finite element model.

Measurements of Excitation-Emission Matrix (EEM) of shock-heated vapors of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) at high temperature (750-1500K) and high pressure (0.3-1.3MPa) conditions were conducted using a multi-wavelength excitation laser in order to demonstrate the potential of the single-measurement EEM fluorometry for investigation of soot precursors. Argon-diluted vapors of naphthalene and pyrene, as PAH model compounds, were heated in an optically accessible shock tube. The PAH vapors were excited by a coherent multi-wavelength “rainbow” laser light generated by converting the 4th harmonic (266nm) of a pulsed Nd:YAG laser using a Raman cell frequency converter filled with high-pressure (2MPa) methane-hydrogen mixture.

Soot concentration is very high in the periphery near the head of an unsteady spray flame which is achieved in a quiescent atmosphere in a rapid compression machine. To reduce soot concentration in this region, it was intended to improve fuel-air mixing by letting the flame impinge on a turbulence-generating plate. Two types of turbulence-generating plates, one donut-type, the other cross-type, were tested. Soot concentration in the flame was imaged using the laser shadow technique. The effect of injection pressure on soot reduction by the flame impingement was also investigated. The overall soot concentration is reduced significantly in the case when the flame impinges on the cross-type turbulence-generating plate at 50 mm (333 nozzle diameters) from the nozzle exit. The flame impingement on the cross-type turbulence-generating plate at 333 nozzle diameters makes soot reduction little dependent on injection pressures.

Diesel engine is one the effective solutions for reducing CO2 and recognized as a leading candidate for mitigating global warming. To comply with increasingly stringent emission standards, all diesel engines require some sort of NOx control systems such as selective catalytic reduction (SCR) systems. The SCR catalyst for reducing NOx from diesel engines is classified into two groups, urea-SCR and HC-SCR catalyst, respectively. Although the urea-SCR catalyst is widely recognized as promising de-NOx technology in respect to the NOx conversion efficiency, it have some outstanding issues such as ammonia slip, urea injection, storage space, freezing and some infrastructures for supplying urea water solutions. In an attempt to overcome the inherent shortcoming of existing urea-SCR catalyst, hydrocarbons have been considered as alternative reducing agents for SCR process, instead of NH3.

Particulate matter (PM) trapping and oxidation in regeneration on the surface of a diesel particulate catalyst-membrane filter (DPMFs) were investigated in detail using an all-in-focus optical microscope. The DPMF consists of two-layer sintered filters, where a SiC-nanoparticle membrane (made from a mixture of 80 nm and 500 nm powders) covers the surface of a conventional SiC filter. Using a visualization experiment, it was shown that PMs were trapped homogeneously along fine surface pores of the membrane's top surface, whereas in the regeneration process, the particulates in contact with the membrane may have been oxidized with some catalytic effect of the SiC nanoparticles. A soot cake was reacted continuously on the nanoparticles since pushed by a gas flow. The oxidation temperature of particulate trapped on the SiC-nanoparticle membrane was about 75 degrees lower than that on the conventional diesel particulate filters (DPF) without a catalyst.