Search Results

This study improved the computational efficiency significantly using parallel computation and reduced mechanisms. A 3-dimensional engine moving mesh of intake port, exhaust port and combustion chamber was established for HCCI engine cycle simulation. To achieve a more accurate analysis, chemical kinetics was implemented into the CFD code to study the intake, spray, ignition, combustion, and pollution formation process in HCCI engine. The simulations were run on a cluster of 16-CPU, parallelized by Message-Passing Interface (MPI) mode. The cases with detailed and reduced reaction mechanisms were calculated using 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 CPUs respectively and the corresponding computational time and speed-up were discussed. Using MPI 8-CPU with reduced mechanism (less than 40 species) is the optimal scheme for CFD/Chemistry calculation of typical HCCI engine.

The detailed chemical kinetics was implemented into the 0D single-zone model, 1D engine cycle model and 3D CFD model respectively. Both simulation and experiment were carried out on a four-stroke gasoline HCCI engine with direct injection. The 0D model (HRG) was developed to study the isolating effect of HCCI parameters. The 1D engine cycle model with HRG was established to study the gas exchange process and the direct injection strategy in the gasoline HCCI engine with two-stage direct injection (TSDI) and negative valve overlap (NVO). The 3D model with HRG was constructed to study the ignition control mechanism in “two-zone HCCI” combustion via analysis the auto-ignition spots distribution in combustion chamber. “Two-zone HCCI” is defined in this paper as premixed ultra-lean compression ignition combining with premixed ultra-rich compression ignition. The three models were validated by experiments.

HCCI combustion was studied in a 4-stroke gasoline engine with a direct injection system. The electronically controlled two-stage gasoline injection and spark ignition system were adopted to control the mixture formation, ignition timing and combustion rate in HCCI engine. The engine could be operated in HCCI combustion mode in a range of load from 1 to 5 bar IMEP and operated in SI combustion mode up to load of 8 bar IMEP. The HCCI combustion characteristics were investigated under different A/F ratios, engine speeds, starts of injection, as well as spark ignition enabled or not. The test results reveal the HCCI combustion features as a high-pressure gradient after ignition and has advantages in high thermal efficiency and low NOx emissions over SI combustion. At the part load of 1400rpm and IMEP of 3.5bar, ISFC in HCCI mode is 25% lower and NOx emissions is 95% lower than that in SI mode.

In order to enhance the thermal efficiency of gasoline engines, a combustion mode namely Homogeneous Charge Induced Ignition (HCII) was introduced and examined in this paper. Port-injected gasoline was used as the main fuel and formed a homogeneous charge in the cylinder. Diesel was used as the pilot fuel, directly injected into the cylinder, and self-ignited and this induced the ignition of the premixed gasoline-air charge. The images of HCII combustion process were taken on an optical engine through a high-speed CMOS camera. The multi-point induced ignition phenomena were observed and the parameters like flame luminance, ignition delay and combustion duration were analyzed by image analysis. The result shows that as the gasoline/diesel ratio increases with a fixed low pilot amount, the ignition delay increases, the initial ignition area extends from the center towards the periphery of the combustion chamber, and the combustion velocity increased.

Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) engines developed at nineties of the twentieth century can greatly improve the fuel economy. But the combustion chamber design and mixture control of the engines are very complex compared with Port Fuel Injection (PFI) gasoline engines. A two-stage gasoline direct injection (TSGDI) combustion system is developed and aimed to solve the problem of the complexity. Two-stage fuel injection and flexible injection timings are adopted as main means to form reasonable stratified mixture in the cylinder. A simple combustion chamber and helical intake port are designed to assist the mixture's stable combustion, which reduces the difficulties of the combustion system design. Systematical simulation and experimental studies of the effects of injection strategies such as different first,second injection timings and injection ratios, on the mixture formation processes and engine performanc are made in detail.

Homogeneous charge combustion and emissions of ethanol ignited by pilot diesel fuel were investigated on a two-cylinder diesel engine. The results show that emissions depend on loads and ethanol volume fraction. At low loads, ethanol has little effects on smoke. With the increase of ethanol, NOx decreases, but CO emissions increase. At high loads, smoke emissions reduce greatly with increasing ethanol, but NOx and total hydrocarbon (THC) emissions increase. With the increase of ethanol, ignition delays, combustion duration shortens. The maximum rates of heat release for the fuel containing 10 vol% ethanol (E10) and 30 vol% ethanol (E30) increase. Brake specific energy consumption (BSEC) of E10 and E30 is improved slightly only at full loads. Compared to smoke emissions obtained on the same engine using ethanol blended diesel fuels, the tendency of smoke reduction is similar to that of homogeneous charge combustion of ethanol at the same operating conditions.

In this paper a Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) was used to measure flow velocity fields in different inlet cones under different mass flux conditions on a steady state flow rig. Meanwhile, a mathematical model of the flow in catalytic converters was established and simulated using CFD code. Validation of the model shows that simulation results have a good agreement with experiments, which means that the established model is feasible and can be applied to predict the flow characteristics in catalytic converters with different inlet cone configurations. Experimental and computational results indicate that the inlet cone configuration significantly affects flow distribution. For a conventional inlet cone, the cone angle is one of the key factors to affect flow characteristics and should be kept as small as possible in a design. An enhanced inlet cone can greatly improve flow uniformity in catalytic converters.

This paper measured unsteady temperature fields of uncoated-monolith and catalytic monolith under real engine operating conditions using thermocouples. A multi-dimensional flow mathematical model of the turbulence, heat and mass transfer, and chemical reactions in monoliths was established using a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code and numerically solved in the whole flow field of the catalytic converter. The purpose of this paper is to study unsteady warm-up characteristics of the monoliths and to investigate effects of inlet cone structure on temperature distribution of the catalytic converter. Experimental results show that the warm-up behaviors between uncoated-monolith and catalytic monolith are quite different. Simulation results indicate that the established model can qualitatively predict the warm-up characteristics.