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Increased research is being driven by the automotive industry facing challenges, requiring to comply with both current and future emissions legislation, and to lower the fuel consumption. The reason for this legislation is to restrict the harmful pollution which every year causes 3.3 million premature deaths worldwide [1]. One factor that causes this pollution is NOx emissions. NOx emission legislation has been reduced from 8 g/kWh (Euro I) down to 0.4 g/kWh (Euro VI) and recently new legislation for ammonia slip which increase the challenge of exhaust aftertreatment with a SCR system. In order to achieve a good NOx conversion together with a low slip of ammonia, small droplets of Urea solution needs to be injected which can be rapidly evaporated and mixed into the flow of exhaust gases.

Yearly 3.3 million premature deaths occur worldwide due to air pollution and NOx pollution counts for nearly one seventh of those [1]. This makes exhaust after-treatment a very important research and has caused the permitted emission levels for NOx to decrease to very low levels, for EURO 6 only 0.4 g/kWh. Recently new legislation on ammonia slip with a limit of 10 ppm NH3 has been added [2], which makes the SCR-technology more challenging. This technology injects small droplets of an aqueous Urea solution into the stream of exhaust gases and through a catalytic reaction within the SCR-catalyst, NOx is converted into Nitrogen and Water. To enable the catalytic reaction the water content in the Urea solution needs to be evaporated and the ammonia molecules need to have sufficient time to mix with the gases prior to the catalyst.

In order to reduce nitrogen oxides (NOx) and soot emissions while maintaining high thermal efficiency, more advanced combustion concepts have been developed over the years, such as Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) and Partially Premixed Combustion (PPC), as possible combustion processes in commercial engines. Compared to HCCI, PPC has advantages of lower unburned hydrocarbon (UHC) and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions; however, due to increased fuel stratifications, soot emissions can be a challenge when adding Exhaust-Gas Recirculation (EGR) gas. The current work presents particle size distribution measurements performed from HCCI-like combustion with very early (120 CAD BTDC) to PPC combustion with late injection timing (11 CAD BTDC) at two intake oxygen rates, 21% and 15% respectively. Particle size distributions were measured using a differential mobility spectrometer DMS500.

Model-based analysis of in-cylinder pressure sensor signals has been a key component for internal combustion engine research, diagnostics and controller development during the past decades. This analysis is often based on simple thermodynamic models of the in-cylinder processes. In order for the analysis to give accurate results, the models need to be sufficiently calibrated. This paper investigates the use of the extended Kalman filter and the particle filter for the purpose of online estimation of top-dead-center offset, a convective heat-transfer coefficient and cylinder-wall temperature in a Gatowski heat-release model. Simulation results show that the filters are consistent in estimating the true parameters, that the assumed model uncertainty and heat-release noise density works as filter tuning parameters. The filters were found to be sensitive to errors on pressure-sensor offset and the cylinder compression ratio.

Partially Premixed Combustion (PPC) is a promising combustion concept with high thermodynamic efficiency and low emission level, and also with minimal modification of standard engine hardware. To use PPC in a production oriented engine, the optimal intake charge conditions for PPC should be included in the analysis. The experiments in this paper investigated and confirmed that the optimal intake conditions of net indicated efficiency for PPC are EGR between 50% and 55% as possible and the lambda close to 1.4. Heat-transfer energy and exhaust gas waste-energy contribute to the majority of the energy loss in the engine. The low EGR region has high heat-transfer and low exhaust gas enthalpy-waste, while the high EGR region has low heat-transfer and high exhaust gas waste-enthalpy. The optimal EGR condition is around 50% where the smallest energy loss is found as a trade-off between heat transfer and exhaust-gas enthalpy-waste.

In order to comply with the stringent emission regulations, many researchers have been focusing on diesel-compressed natural gas (CNG) dual fuel operation in compression ignition (CI) engines. The diesel-CNG dual fuel operation mode has the potential to reduce both the soot and NOx emissions; however, the thermal efficiency is generally lower than that of the pure diesel operation, especially under the low and medium load conditions. The current experimental work investigates the potential of using diesel-1-butanol blends as the pilot fuel to improve the engine performance and emissions. Fuel blends of B0 (pure diesel), B10 (90% diesel and 10% 1-butanol by volume) and B20 (80% diesel and 20% 1-butanol) with 70% CNG substitution were compared based on an equivalent input energy at an engine speed of 1200 RPM. The results indicated that the diesel-1-butanol pilot fuel can lead to a more homogeneous mixture due to the longer ignition delay.

The use of compressed natural gas (CNG) in light duty applications is still restricted to conventional spark ignition engines operating at low compression ratio, so overall efficiency is limited. A combustion concept that has been successfully applied on large stationary engines and to some extent on heavy-duty engines is dual-fuel combustion, where a compression-ignited diesel pilot injection is used to ignite a homogeneous charge of methane gas and air. CNG is injected in the intake ports during the intake stroke and later in the cycle the premixed air-CNG mixture is ignited via a pilot diesel injection close to top dead center. However, this concept has not been applied to a significant extent on light duty engines yet. The main reasons are linked to high temperature methane oxidation requirements and poor combustion efficiency at diluted conditions at low loads.

The new DI diesel engine combustion system named Double-Layer Diverging Combustion System (DLDCS) results in a better Brake Specific Fuel Consumption (BSFC) and lower exhaust emissions. The previous results of numerical simulation and bench test of a single cylinder DI diesel engine showed that more homogeneous fuel distribution, better BSFC and lower emission level were obtained by employing this combustion system. In this research, further numerical simulation are employed to seek the best injection advance angle and investigate the influence of different volume fraction and type lines of upper layer with AVL Fire.

A novel combustion system called Jet Controlled Compression Ignition (JCCI) is investigated to directly control the combustion phasing of premixed diesel compression ignition. Experiments were conducted on a single-cylinder naturally aspirated diesel engine at 3000r/min without EGR. The experimental results showed a good linear relationship between spark timing in the ignition chamber and CA10 and CA50, which indicated the ability for direct combustion phasing control in premixed diesel combustion. The NOx and soot emissions gradually changed with the spark advance angle. Then, load sweep experiments were performed with fixed spark timing. The results showed the onset of combustion was almost unchanged over a wide load range. Additionally, NOx emission was greatly reduced at all test loads compared with the original engine. Soot emission was reduced at a comparatively high load while similar with that of the original engine at low loads.

The combustion timing in internal combustion engines affects the fuel consumption, in-cylinder peak pressure, engine noise and emission levels. The combination of an in-cylinder pressure sensor together with a direct injection fuel system lends itself well for cycle-to-cycle control of the combustion timing. This paper presents a method of controlling the combustion timing by the use of a cycle-to-cycle injection-timing algorithm. At each cycle the currently estimated heat-release rate is used to predict the in-cylinder pressure change due to a combustion-timing shift. The prediction is then used to obtain a cycle-to-cycle model that relates combustion timing to gross indicated mean effective pressure, max pressure and max pressure derivative. Then the injection timing that controls the combustion timing is decided by solving an optimization problem involving the model obtained.

Partially Premixed Combustion (PPC) is a promising advanced combustion mode for future engines. In order to investigate the sensitivity of PPC to exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) rate, intake gas temperature, intake gas pressure, and injection timing, these parameters were swept individually at three different loads in a single cylinder diesel engine with gasoline-like fuel. A factor of sensitivity was defined to indicate the combustion's controllability and sensitivity to inlet gas parameters and injection timings. Through analysis of experimental results, a control window of inlet gas parameters and injection timings is obtained at different loads in PPC mode from 5 bar to 10 bar IMEPg load at 1200 rpm. To further study the PPC controllability with injection timing, main injection timing was adjusted to sustain steady combustion phasing subject to perturbation of inlet gas state.

It has previously been shown by the authors that the pre-chamber ignition technique operating with fuel-rich pre-chamber combustion strategy is a very effective means of extending the lean limit of combustion with excess air in heavy duty natural gas engines in order to improve indicated efficiency and reduce emissions. This article presents a study of the influence of pre-chamber volume and nozzle diameter on the resultant ignition characteristics. The two parameters varied are the ratio of pre-chamber volume to engine's clearance volume and the ratio of total area of connecting nozzle to the pre-chamber volume. Each parameter is varied in 3 steps hence forming a 3 by 3 test matrix. The experiments are performed on a single cylinder 2L engine fitted with a custom made pre-chamber capable of spark ignition, fuel injection and pressure measurement.

In the last couple of decades, countries have enacted new laws concerning environmental pollution caused by heavy-duty commercial and passenger vehicles. This is done mainly in an effort to reduce smog and health impacts caused by the different pollutions. One of the legislated pollutions, among a wide range of regulated pollutions, is nitrogen oxides (commonly abbreviated as NOx). The SCR (Selective Catalytic Reduction) was introduced in the automotive industry to reduce NOx emissions leaving the vehicle. The basic idea is to inject a urea solution (AdBlue™) in the exhaust gas before the gas enters the catalyst. The optimal working temperature for the catalyst is somewhere in the range of 300 to 400 °C. For the reactions to occur without a catalyst, the gas temperature has to be at least 800 °C. These temperatures only occur in the engine cylinder itself, during and after the combustion.

This work investigates the performance potential of an engine running with partially premixed combustion (PPC) using commercial diesel engine hardware. The engine was a 2.01 SAAB (GM) VGT turbocharged diesel engine and three different fuels were run - RON 70 gasoline, RON 95 Gasoline and MK1 diesel. With the standard hardware an operating range for PPC from idle at 1000 rpm up to a peak load of 1000 kPa IMEPnet at 3000 rpm while maintaining a peak pressure rise rate (PPRR) below 7 bar/CAD was possible with either RON 70 gasoline and MK1 diesel. Relaxing the PPRR requirements, a peak load of 1800 kPa was possible, limited by the standard boosting system. With RON 95 gasoline it was not possible to operate the engine below 400 kPa. Low pressure EGR routing was beneficial for efficiency and combined with a split injection strategy using the maximum possible injection pressure of 1450 bar a peak gross indicated efficiency of above 51% was recorded.

To directly control the premixed combustion phasing, a novel method called Jet Controlled Compression Ignition (JCCI) is investigated. Experiments were conducted on a single cylinder natural aspirated diesel engine at 3000 r/min without EGR. Numerical model was validated by pressure and heat release rate curves at a fixed spark timing. The simulation results showed that the reacting active radical species with high temperature issued from ignition chamber played an important role on the onset of combustion in JCCI system. The combustion of diesel pre-mixtures was initiated rapidly by the combustion products issued from ignition chamber. Consequently, the experiments of spark timing sweep were conducted to verify the above deduction. The results showed a good linear relationship between spark timing and CA10 and CA50, which validated the ability for direct combustion phasing control in diesel premixed combustion.

Emissions and in-cylinder pressure traces are used to compare the relative importance of soot formation and soot oxidation in a heavy-duty diesel engine. The equivalence ratio at the lift-off length is estimated with an empirical correlation and an idealized model of diesel spray. No correlation is found between the equivalence ratio at lift-off and the soot emissions. This confirms that trends in soot emissions cannot be directly understood by the soot formation process. The coupling between soot emission levels and late heat release after end of injection is also studied. A regression model describing soot emissions as function of global engine parameters influencing soot oxidation is proposed. Overall, the results of this analysis indicate that soot emissions can be understood in terms of the efficiency of the oxidation process.

The emission control in heavy-duty vehicles today is based on predefined injection strategies and after-treatment systems such as SCR (selective catalytic reduction) and DPF (diesel particulate filter). State-of-the-art engine control is presently based on cycle-to-cycle resolution. The introduction of the crank angle resolved pressure measurement, from a piezo-based pressure sensor, enables the possibility to control the fuel injection based on combustion feedback while the combustion is occurring. In this paper a study is presented on the possibility to control NOx (nitrogen oxides) formation with a crank angle resolved NOx estimator as feedback. The estimator and the injection control are implemented on an FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array) to manage the inherent time constraints. The FPGA is integrated with the rest of the engine control system for injection control and measurement.

In the quest for efficiency improvement in heavy duty truck engines, waste heat recovery could play a valuable role. The evaporative cycle is a waste heat recovery technology aimed at improving efficiency and decreasing emissions. A humid air motor (HAM) uses the waste heat from the exhaust of the engine to humidify the inlet air; this humid air, with higher specific heat, reduces NOx emission to a greater extent [1] [2]. Despite this benefit of emission reduction, the increase or decrease in efficiency of the humid air motor compared to the conventional engine is not discussed in the literature [3] [4] [5]. In this paper, an attempt is made to study the efficiency of the HAM using system model simulations of a 13-liter heavy duty Volvo engine with a humidifier. The commercial software GT-SUITE is used to build the system model and to perform the simulations. The efficiency improvement of the HAM comes from the expansion of the vapor mass flow produced as a result of humidification.

In the automotive industry, the piezo-based in-cylinder pressure sensor is getting commercialized and used in production vehicles. For example, the pressure sensor offers the opportunity to design algorithms for estimation of engine emissions, such as soot and NO , during a combustion cycle. In this paper a zero-dimensional NO model for a diesel engine is implemented that will be used in real time. The model is based on the thermal NO formation and the Zeldovich mechanism using two non-geometrical zones: burned and unburned zone. The influence of EGR on combustion temperature was modeled using a well-known thermodynamic identity where specific heat at constant pressure is included. Specific heat will vary with temperature and the gas composition. The model was implemented in LabVIEW using tools specific for an FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array).

Gasoline partially premixed combustion (PPC) has the potential of high efficiency and simultaneous low soot and NOx emissions. Running the engine in PPC mode with high octane number fuels has the advantage of a longer premix period of fuel and air which reduces soot emissions. The problem is the ignitability at low load and idle operating conditions. In a previous study it was shown that it is possible to use NVO to improve combustion stability and combustion efficiency at operating conditions where available boosted air is assumed to be limited. NVO has the disadvantage of low net indicated efficiency due to heat losses from recompressions of the hot residual gases. An alternative to NVO is the rebreathing valve strategy where the exhaust valves are reopened during the intake stroke. The net indicated efficiency is expected to be higher with the rebreathing strategy but the question is if similar improvements in combustion stability can be achieved with rebreathing as with NVO.