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Accurate and useful mathematical models of physical processes can be made when we understand all of the phenomena involved. This paper reviews our understanding of the fluid flow, heat transfer and thermodynamic processes occurring in engines and the status of mathematical models expressing this understanding. Thermodynamic single system rate models are found to be extremely useful in predicting power and fuel consumption performance but of limited value in predicting emission performance. Multiple-zone, nonequilibrium models are essential for predicting emissions but are limited in accuracy by computer capacity and our understanding of engine phenomena which vary rapidly both with space and time. The need for and ability of new types of instrumentation, primarily optical, to increase our understanding of engine phenomena and improve our models is discussed.

A constant volume combustion simulation has been used to compute the ignition delays of pure fuels and binary fuel mixtures in air. Minima in the ignition delays were predicted by a comprehensive chemical kinetic mechanism for binary fuel mixtures with methane. A model has been developed to predict the occurrence of autoignition in a spark ignited engine. Experimental pressure data from a CFR engine were used in the model to simulate the temperature-pressure history of the end gas and to determine the time when autoignition occurred. Comprehensive chemical kinetic mechanisms were used to predict the reactions in the end gas. Methanol, methane, ethane, ethylene, propane and n-butane were used as fuels. The initial temperatures in the model were adjusted to give agreement between predicted and observed autoignition. Engine data for methane-ethane mixtures indicated a problem with the kinetic mechanism.

To date there is no universal agreement as to the interaction between fuel type, fuel-air mixture preparation and combustion chamber flow characteristics and their effect on soot formation. A propane fueled modified conical back-mixed steady flow reactor was built in which the fuel and air could be mixed together in varying degrees and reacted in at different mixing intensities. The onset of soot and soot loading were determined qualitatively by a photomultiplier focused on the volume inside the reactor. Increasing the degree of premix from a diffusion flame to a distribution of Φmax/Φavg = 5.0 resulted in increases of 3 to 17 percent of the soot-onset equivalence ratio and decreases in soot loading down to zero. Changes in the mixing intensity from 32.5 sec−1 to 75.7 sec−1 resulted in a change in the soot-onset equivalence ratio from 1.26 to 1.52. Soot loading was found to depend on both the mixing intensity, β, and the average number of mixes per mean residence time, β/α.

The heat release type models have been classified as zero-dimensional because they have no spatial resolution and therefore don't contain any information on the fluid mechanics in them. They have been a significant contribution because they incorporate the rate processes occurring in the engine and are an aid in the analysis of the data. Because they are thermodynamic models it is necessary to define the control volumes on which the thermodynamic analysis is to be performed. The different control volume descriptions, called one, two and three zone models, and the analysis of the combustion event using these models is discussed. Finally a description of second law zero-dimensional models is given. These models have similar limitations as the First Law models; no spatial resolution and a control volume definition is required. These models are useful because they enable one to analyze the magnitude of the losses that occur in the different processes which comprise the engine cycle.

A Texaco L-163S TCCS (Texaco Controlled Combustion System) engine was operated with pure methanol to investigate the origin and mechanism of unburned fuel (UBF) and formaldehyde emissions. The effects of engine load, speed and coolant temperature on the exhaust emissions were studied using both continuous and time-resolved sampling methods. Within the range studied, increasing the engine load resulted in a decrease of the exhaust UBF emissions and an increase in the formaldehyde emissions. Engine speed had little effect on both UBF and formaldehyde emissions. Decreasing the engine coolant temperature from 85°C to 45°C caused the exhaust UBF emissions to approximately double and the formaldehyde emission to increase approximately 20 percent. It is hypothesized that both fuel impingement and spray tailing are responsible for the high UBF emissions. In-cylinder formation of formaldehyde was found to be the major source of the exhaust aldehyde emissions in this experiment.

This paper will focus on the spray characteristics of a high pressure (up to 155 MPa) accumulator type injector in a high pressure (chosen density) quiescent spray chamber. The injector uses a standard single orifice nozzle which produces a full cone spray. Using this apparatus, we are examining the fundamental aspects of high pressure spray formation under controlled conditions. Experimental data was collected using high speed photography (10,000 frames per second) which used a pulsed copper-vapor laser as a light source. Two photographic techniques are being utilized. Direct attenuation allows measurement of tip penetration, spray cone angle, and injection duration. Scattering from a sheet of laser light perpendicular to the camera field of view is being developed in an attempt to resolve inner spray cone structure. In addition to the quantitative data from the high speed photography, injector accumulator pressure, supply pressure and injection rate histories were recorded.

In this paper we report the results of experiments done during the transient operation of a single cylinder Cummins NH engine. The data taken include cycle resolved pressure, combustion chamber surface temperatures and ignition delay. The data was taken during a special type of engine operation in which the engine was repeatedly hopped from one load to another. In this way cycle to cycle variations could be averaged out by ensemble averaging individual cycles after the step load change. For analysis of the heat transfer a unique finite difference temperature probe was developed to delineate the 3-D heat transfer effects in place of the standard 1-D assumptions and a new analysis technique was developed to calculate the instantaneous heat flux during the transient. Analysis of the data indicates that the combustion reaches an equivalent steady state condition within 2000 engine cycles after the load change.

A model developed to predict outoignition is used with data from a premixed charge, spark-ignition engine. A detailed chemical kinetics mechanism is used to predict the reactions which occur in the end-gas and lead to autoignition. Experimental pressure data from a CFR engine are used in the model to determine end-gas temperatures. The initial temperature at the time of spark must be increased above the bulk temperature for the predicted time of outoignition to agree with the observed time. A method for estimating the initial temperature based on an adiabotic compression from the time of intake valve closing is presented. The predictions of the model are examined over a range of engine speeds and fuel-air equivalence ratios. The magnitude by which the initial temperature must be increased above the bulk temperature decreases with increasing engine speed. This magnitude follows a trend which can be related to a heat transfer correlation.

In the first part of this study, a one-dimensional code was used to compare predictions from six different two-equation turbulence models. It is shown that the application of the traditional k-ε models to the viscous-dominated region of the boundary layer can produce errors in both the calculated heat flux and surface friction. A low-Reynolds-number model does not appear to predict similar non-physical effects. A new one-dimensional model, which includes the effect of compression, has been formulated by multiparameter fit to the numerical solution of the energy equation. This model can be used in place of the law-of-the-wall to calculate the surface heat flux. The experiments were performed in a specially-instrumented engine, allowing optical access to the clearance volume. Measurements of heat flux, swirl velocities, and momentum boundary layer thickness were made for different engine speeds.

This paper presents the results of an experimental program in which a Texaco L-163S engine was fueled with methanol and operated in its traditional stratified charge mode and then modified to run as a homogeneous charge spark ignited engine. The primary data taken were the aldehyde and unburned fuel emissions (UBF). These data were taken using a continuous time-averaging sampling probe at the exhaust tank and at the exhaust port and with a rotary time-resolving sampling valve located at the exhaust port. The data are for two loads, 138.1 kPa (20 psi) and 207.1 kPa (30 psi) BMEP and three speeds, 1000, 1400 and 1800 rpm. The data indicate that for both the stratified charge and the homogeneous charge modes of operation formaldehyde was the only aldehyde detected in the exhaust and it primarily originated in the cylinder.

Six specially blended diesel fuels were tested in an open chamber TACOM-LABECO single cylinder diesel engine at turbocharged conditions, to determine if the chemical composition of the volatile fraction of the fuels had a significant effect on performance and emissions. The tests show that for this engine, which has a moderately high swirl and a four hole nozzle, the effects are very small. Additional tests were run, with these same fuels, in a homogenous autoigniting mode to determine if ignition trends were similar to those produced by the heterogeneous diesel ignition. The ignition delay trends were found to follow the same pattern, reinforcing the conclusion that the fuel combustion in the diesel was not significantly affected by distillation effects during the vaporization process.

Laser Doppler velocimetry has been used to measure velocity and turbulence intensity profiles in the wall boundary layer of a spark-ignited homogeneous-charge research engine. By using a toroidal contoured engine head it was possible to bring the laser probe volume to within 60 μm of the wall. Two different levels of engine swirl were used to vary the flow Reynolds number. For the high swirl case under motored operation the boundary layer thickness was less than 200 μm, and the turbulence intensity increased as the wall was approached. With low swirl the 700-1000 μm thick boundary layer had a velocity profile that was nearly laminar in shape, and there was no increase in turbulence intensity near the wall. When the engine was fired the boundary layer thickness increased for both levels of swirl.

A study was performed in which the effects on the regulated emissions from a commercial small DI diesel engine were measured for different refinery-derived fuel blends. Seven different fuel blends were tested, of which two were deemed to merit more detailed evaluation. To investigate the effects of fuel properties on the combustion processes with these fuel blends, two-color pyrometry was used via optically accessible cylinderheads. Additional data were obtained with one of the fuel blends with a heavy-duty DI diesel engine. California diesel fuel was used as a baseline. The fuel blends were made by mixing the components typically found in gasoline, such as methyl tertiary-butyl ether (MTBE) and whole fluid catalytic cracking gasoline (WH-FCC). The mixing was performed on a volume basis. Cetane improver (CI) was added to maintain the same cetane number (CN) of the fuel blends as that of the baseline fuel.

The authors used auxiliary gas injection (AGI) to increase in-cylinder mixing during the latter portion of combustion in a direct injection (DI) diesel engine in order to reduce soot emissions without affecting NOx. Experiments were conducted using various gas injection directions and compositions to explore the effect of these parameters. Simulations were employed to provide additional insight. AGI direction was found to have a profound impact on soot emissions. Researchers suggested that this was due to changes in the fuel spray-gas jet interaction with injection direction. Simulations supported this theory and suggested that the number of soot clouds affected by the gas jet may also be a factor. The oxygen content of the gas jet was also found to have an influence on emissions. Researchers found that, when the oxygen content of the gas jet was increased, soot emissions decreased. However, this was found to have a detrimental affect on NO.

Oxygen enhancement in a direct injection (DI) diesel engine was studied to investigate the potential for particulate matter and NOx emissions control. The local oxygen concentration within the fuel plume was modified by oxygen enrichment of the intake air and by oxygenating the base fuel with 20% methyl t-butyl ether (MTBE). The study collected overall engine performance and engine-out emissions data as well as in-cylinder two-color measurements at 25% and 75% loads over a range of injection timings. The study found oxygen enhancement, whether it be from intake air enrichment or via oxygenated fuels, reduces particulate matter, the effectiveness depending on the local concentration of oxygen in the fuel plume. Since NOx emissions depend strongly on the temperature and oxygen concentration throughout the bulk cylinder gas, the global thermal and dilution effects from oxygen enrichment were greater than that from operation on oxygenated fuel.

Premixed diesel combustion offers the potential of high thermal efficiency and low emissions, however, because the rapid rate of pressure rise and short combustion durations are often associated with low temperature combustion processes, noise is also an issue. The reduction of combustion noise is a technical matter that needs separate attention. Engine noise research has been conducted experimentally with a premixed diesel engine and techniques for engine noise simulation have been developed. The engine employed in the research here is a supercharged, single cylinder DI diesel research engine with a high pressure common rail fuel injection system. In the experiments, the engine was operated at 1600 rpm and 2000 rpm, the engine noise was sampled by two microphones, and the sampled engine noise was averaged and analyzed by an FFT sound analyzer.

The light-medium load operating regime (4-8 bar net IMEP) presents many challenges for advanced low temperature combustion strategies (e.g. HCCI, PPC) in light-duty, high speed engines. In this operating regime, lean global equivalence ratios (Φ<0.4) present challenges with respect to autoignition of gasoline-like fuels. Considering this intake temperature sensitivity, the objective of this work was to investigate, both experimentally and computationally, gasoline compression ignition (GCI) combustion operating sensitivity to inlet swirl ratio (Rs) variations when using a single fuel (87-octane gasoline) in a 0.475-liter single-cylinder engine based on a production GM 1.9-liter high speed diesel engine. For the first part of this investigation, an experimental matrix was developed to determine how changing inlet swirl affected GCI operation at various fixed load and engine speed operating conditions (4 and 8 bar net IMEP; 1300 and 2000 RPM).

An investigation of several diesel injector nozzles that produced different engine emissions performance was performed. The nozzle styles used were two VCO type nozzles that were manufactured using two different techniques, and two mini-sac nozzles that provided comparison. Fired experiments were conducted on a Detroit Diesel Series 50 engine. Optical access was obtained by substituting a sapphire window for one exhaust valve. Under high speed, high load, retarded injection timing conditions, it was discovered that each nozzle produced different specific soot and NOx emissions. High-speed film images were obtained. It was discovered that the temperature and KL factor results from the 2-color optical pyrometry showed significant differences between the nozzles. The authors propose the possibility that differences in air entrainment, caused by potential differences in CD due to surface finish, may contribute to the variance in emissions performance.

Factors affecting the measurement of the fuel consumption of FCVs were analyzed to reveal their sensitivity. The method for measuring fuel consumption described in WLTP is to measure the hydrogen consumption by using an electric precision balance and off-vehicle tanks (not on-vehicle tanks). This is unique compared with conventional vehicles such as petrol-engine vehicles and pure-electric vehicles. Therefore, we examined the sensitivities of the effect of hydrogen consumption determination, the effect of hydrogen supply pipe design, and the effect of hydrogen supply pipe management. The experiments were conducted with two production models of FCVs having different FC management systems. The effects were quantitatively evaluated by comparing the fuel consumption rate driving in WLTC.