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The present work aims to determine the gas pressure acting in the ring pack area in a medium-speed four stroke diesel engine. The experimental part of the study was carried out as firing engine tests, with an instrumented piston, with telemetric data transmission, and an instrumented cylinder liner in a 6-cylinder test engine. The results, in terms of inter-ring gas pressure are compared with the results of computer simulations. Moreover, the computer simulations were carried out to predict and compare the effects of the piston running clearance and the ring face wear on the inter-ring pressures. The study comprises aspects on inter-ring pressures under a set of loads. The measured inter-ring gas pressures indicate steady ring operation. The simulation results show good agreement with measurement results.

The objective of this investigation was to identify the impingement event on a diesel piston surface. Eight fast-response, surface thermocouples were installed in one of the pistons of a 2.0 liter, four-cylinder, turbo-charged diesel engine (97 kW @ 3800 rpm). Piston temperatures were transmitted from the engine using wireless microwave telemetry. An impingement signal was identified on the piston bowl lip. A simple parameter for characterizing the impingement event is proposed. The results show an impingement signature at one of the bowl lip thermocouples, under specific operating conditions.

The development of diesel engines is constantly leading to greater increases in the power density. The heat load into the combustion chamber walls increases with the increased power density. Estimating correct local heat fluxes inside the combustion chamber is one of the most challenging tasks in engine simulation. In this study, the heat load of the piston was estimated with the help of the modern simulation tools CFD and FEM. The objective of the work was to evaluate the thermal stress of a research engine designed for an exceptionally high maximum and mean pressure. The local heat transfer coefficient and gas temperature were simulated with a CFD code with the standard and modified wall functions and used as boundary values for the FEM analysis. As a reference case, a model of a production engine with measured piston surface temperatures was used to validate the combined CFD and FEM analysis.

A study has been made of piston ring wear and total engine wear using literature data and new experimental results. The main purpose of the study was to establish the effects of oil and coolant temperatures on engine wear. Wear trends that were found in the early 1960's may not be valid any longer because of the development of higher BMEP turbocharged diesel engines, better metallurgical wear surfaces and improved lube oil properties. New data are presented for the purpose of describing present wear trends. A direct-injection, 4-cycle, turbocharged diesel engine was used for the wear tests. The radioactive tracer technique was used to measure the top piston ring chrome face wear. Atomic emission spectroscopy was employed to determine the concentration of wear metals in the oil to determine total engine wear based on iron and lead. The data were analyzed and compared to the results found in the literature from previous investigators.

A diesel piloted natural gas engine's performance varies depending on operating conditions and has performed best under medium to high loads. It can often equal or better the fuel conversion efficiency of a diesel-only engine in this operating range. This paper presents a study performed on a multi-cylinder Cummins ISB 6.7L diesel engine converted to run stoichiometric natural gas/diesel micro-pilot combustion with a maximum diesel contribution of 10%. This study systematically quantifies and ranks the sensitivity of control factors on combustion and performance while operating at medium loads. The effects of combustion control parameters, including the pilot start of injection, pilot injection pressure, pilot injection quantity, exhaust gas recirculation, and global equivalence ratio, were tested using a design of experiments orthogonal matrix approach.

Fuel spray interactions with piston surfaces and cylinder walls in internal combustion engines have been extensively studied in the past decades. However, there still exists an imperative knowledge gap on the fundamental understanding of dynamic droplet-wall interactions. Particularly, the impinging angle of droplet has been barely investigated as it renders asymmetrical droplet behaviors. This paper aims to provide detailed data of droplet-inclined surface impingement physics which could further support spray-wall model development. The experimental work of single diesel droplet impinging on an inclined dry surface was conducted under isothermal (25°C) conditions. Various droplet impact angle (φ) was achieved by adjusting surface tilting angle which was set from 0° to 45° in current study. A single diesel droplet impinged onto the inclined surface with different Weber number (around 20 ~ 800).

A new diesel van with a reference weight of 1661 kg and a pre-chamber engine with a displacement of 2400cc was tested on a chassis dynamometer. The fuel consumption and emissions of carbon monoxide, unburned hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides, carbon dioxide, particulate matter and associated organic material (SOF) as well as PAH (Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons) were measured under different driving conditions. The driving patterns used were recorded with a chase car at real traffic conditions on several roads in Copenhagen. The emissions were measured using different kind of diesel fuels as well as RME and biodiesel. CO, CO2, HC, and NOx levels generally decreased with increasing average speed of the driving cycle for all fuels tested. Cold start emissions were generally higher than for warm start.

Under low-temperature combustion for the high fuel efficiency and low emissions achievement, the fuel impingement often occurs in diesel engines with direct injection especially for a short distance between the injector and piston head/cylinder wall. Spray impingement plays an important role in the mixing-controlled combustion phase since it affects the air-fuel mixing rate through the disrupted event by the impingement. However, the degree of air entrainment into the spray is hard to be directly evaluated. Since the high spray expansion rate could allow more opportunity for fuel to mix with air, in this study, the expansion rate of impinged flame is quantified and compared with the spray expansion rate under non-vaporizing conditions. The experiments were conducted in a constant volume combustion chamber with an ambient density of 22.8 kg/m3 and the injection pressure of 150 MPa.

When fuel at elevated temperatures is injected into an ambient environment at a pressure lower than the saturation pressure of the fuel, the fuel vaporizes in the nozzle and/or immediately upon exiting the nozzle; that is, it undergoes flash boiling. It is characterized by a two-phase flow regime co-located with primary breakup, which significantly affects the spray characteristics. Under flash boiling conditions, the near nozzle spray angle increases, which can lead to shorter penetration because of increased entrainment. In a multi-hole injector this can cause other impacts downstream resulting from the increased plume to plume interactions. To study the effect of injector temperature and injection pressure with real fuels, an experimental investigation of the spray characteristics of a summer grade gasoline fuel with 10% ethanol (E10) was conducted in an optically accessible constant volume spray vessel.

Fuel spray-wall interaction frequently occurs on intake manifold wall in the port fuel injection engine and on the piston in the direct injection engine, especially during the cold start. The heat transfer between the spray and wall is involved in this interaction process and influences the dynamics of the impinged spray which can further affect the engine performance. The physics of impact dynamics of a single droplet serves as a fundamental for better comprehension of spray impingement. In our previous studies, we have focused on diesel droplets, at ambient temperature, impinging on both heated and non-heated wall and found impinged droplet morphology differences. To understand the effect of heat transfer and thermophysical properties on dynamics of droplet-wall interaction better, droplet temperature variation was introduced in this study. Therefore, different conditions were framed to explore the impact of thermophysical properties of the droplet.

The aim of this paper is to computationally investigate the combustion behavior and energy recovery processes of a six-stroke gasoline compression ignition (6S-GCI) engine that employs a continuously variable valve duration (CVVD) technique, under highly diluted, low-temperature combustion (LTC) conditions. The effects of variation of parameters concerning injection spray targeting (number of fuel injector holes. injector nozzle size and spray included angle) and combustion chamber geometry (piston bowl design) are analyzed using an in-house 3D CFD code coupled with high-fidelity physical sub-models with the Chemkin library in conjunction with a skeletal chemical kinetics mechanism for a 14-component gasoline surrogate fuel.

The increased availability of natural gas (NG) in the United States (US) and its relatively low cost compared to diesel fuel has heightened interest in the conversion of medium duty (MD) and heavy duty (HD) engines to NG fueled combustion systems. The aim for development for these NG engines is to realize fuel cost savings and reduce harmful emissions while maintaining durability. Transforming part of the vehicle fleet to NG is a path to reduce dependence on crude oil. Traditionally, port-fuel injection (PFI) or premixed NG spark-ignited (SI) combustion systems have been used for MD and HD engines with widespread use in the US and Europe. But this technology exhibits poor cycle efficiency and is load limited due to knock phenomenon. Direct Injection of NG during the compression stroke promises to deliver improved thermal efficiency by avoiding excessive premixing and extending the lean limits which helps to extend the knock limit.

The increased availability of natural gas (NG) in the United States (US), and its relatively low cost compared to diesel fuel has heightened interest in the conversion of medium duty (MD) and heavy duty (HD) engines to NG fueled combustion systems. The aim is to realize fuel cost savings and reduce harmful emissions, while maintaining durability. This is a potential path to help the US reduce dependence on crude oil. Traditionally, port-fuel injection (PFI) or premixed NG spark-ignited (SI) combustion systems have been used for MD and HD engines with widespread use in the US and Europe; however, this technology exhibits poor cycle efficiency and is load limited due to knock phenomenon. Direct Injection of NG during the compression stroke promises to deliver improved thermal efficiency by avoiding excessive premixing and extending the lean limits which helps to extend the knock limit.

A constant volume spray and combustion vessel utilizing the pre-burn mixture procedure to generate pressure, temperature, and composition characteristic of near top dead center (TDC) conditions in compression ignition (CI) engines was modified with post pre-burn gas induction to incorporate premixed methane gas prior to diesel injection to simulate processes in dual fuel engines. Two variants of the methane induction system were developed and studied. The first used a high-flow modified direct injection injector and the second utilized auxiliary ports in the vessel that are used for normal intake and exhaust events. Flow, mixing, and limitations of the induction systems were studied. As a result of this study, the high-flow modified direct injection injector was selected because of its controlled actuation and rapid closure. Further studies of the induction system post pre-burn were conducted to determine the temperature limit of the methane auto-ignition.

The increased availability of natural gas (NG) in the United States (US) and its relatively low cost compared to diesel fuel has heightened interest in the conversion of medium duty (MD) and heavy duty (HD) diesel engines to NG fuel and combustion systems (compressed or liquefied). The intention is to realize fuel cost savings and reduce harmful emissions, while maintaining or improving overall vehicle fuel economy. This is a potential path to help the US achieve energy diversity and reduce dependence on crude oil. Traditionally, port-injected, premixed NG spark-ignited combustion systems have been used for medium and heavy duty engines with widespread use in the US and Europe. But this technology exhibits poor cycle efficiency and is load limited due to knock phenomenon. Direct Injection of NG during the compression stroke promises to deliver improved thermal efficiency by avoiding premixing and extending the lean limits which helps to extend the knock limit.

The fuel spray impingement on the piston head and/or chamber often occurs in compact IC engines. The impingement plays one of the key roles in combustion because it affects the air-fuel mixing process. In this study, the impinged combustion has been experimentally investigated to understand the mechanism and dynamics of flame-wall interaction. The experiments were performed in a constant volume combustion chamber over a wide range of ambient conditions. The ambient temperature was varied from 800 K to 1000 K and ambient gas oxygen was varied from 15% to 21%. Diesel fuel was injected with an injection pressure of 150 MPa into ambient gas at a density of 22.8 kg/m3. The natural luminosity technique was applied in the experiments to explore the impinged combustion process. High-speed images were taken using a high-speed camera from two different views (bottom and side). An in-house Matlab program was used to post-process the images.

The application of hydrogen (H2) as an internal combustion (IC) engine fuel has been under investigation for several decades. The favorable physical properties of hydrogen make it an excellent alternative fuel for IC engines and hence it is widely regarded as the energy carrier of the future. Direct injection of hydrogen allows optimizing this potential as it provides multiple degrees of freedom to influence the in-cylinder combustion processes and consequently engine efficiency and exhaust emissions. At certain operating conditions the stratification associated with hydrogen direct injection (DI) leads to an efficiency improvement. However, it also results in higher emissions levels. This paper examines the effects of combining an advanced direct injection strategy with water injection for efficiency benefits and emissions reduction of a hydrogen fuelled DI spark ignition (SI) engine.

A three phase catalytic mathematical model was developed for analysis and optimization of the volatile reactor assembly (VRA) used on International Space Station (ISS) Water Processor. The Langmuir-Hinshelwood Hougen-Watson (L-H) expression was used to describe the surface reaction rate. Small column experiments were used to determine the L-H rate parameters. The test components used in the experiments were acetic acid, acetone, ethanol, 1-propanol, 2-propanol and propionic acid. These compounds are the most prevalent ones found in the influent to the VRA reactor. The VRA model was able to predict performance of small column data and experimental data from the VRA flight experiment.

Biodiesel, a fuel comprised of mono-alkyl esters of long-chain fatty acids also known as Fatty Acid Methyl Esters(FAME), derived from vegetable oils or animal fats, has become an important commercial marketplace automotive fuel in the United States (US) and around the world over last few years. FAME biodiesels have many chemical and physical property differences compared to conventional petroleum based diesel fuels. Also, the properties of biodiesel vary based on the feedstock chosen for biodiesel production. One of the key differences between petroleum diesel fuels and biodiesel is the energy content. The energy content, or heating value, is an important property of motor fuel, since it directly affects the vehicle fuel economy. While the energy content can be measured by combustion of the fuel in a bomb calorimeter, this analytical laboratory testing is time consuming and expensive.

Biodiesel use is increasing around the world. Vehicle failures due to filter clogging issues have been reported in the field with use of biodiesel blended fuels in winter months. In certain instances, filter clogging was caused by precipitate formation above the cloud point of the fuel. Minor contaminants in biodiesel such as sterol glucosides and saturated monoglycerides are suspected to cause precipitation above the cloud point. ASTM has added a requirement to test biodiesel fuel for cold soak filtration test to prevent occurrences of this phenomenon of precipitation above the cloud point. This study focuses on understanding the correlation between cold soak filtration test results and presence of contaminants such as sterol glucosides and saturated monoglycerides in biodiesel fuels. Test samples were also subjected to thermal cycling at temperatures below the cloud point of fuel to co-correlate the cold soak filtration test results to visual observation of precipitate formation.