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The homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) combustion process is capable of providing both high ‘diesel-like’ efficiencies and very low NOx and particulate emissions. However, among several technical challenges, controlling the combustion phasing, particularly during transients is a major issue, which must be resolved to exploit its commercial applications. This study is focused on the experimental investigations of behavior of combustion timing and other combustion parameters during startup and load transients. The study is conducted on a gasoline fuelled HCCI engine by varying intake air temperature and air-fuel ratio at different engine speeds. Port fuel injection technique is used for preparing homogeneous mixture of gasoline and air. For fueling startup transient test, fuel injection was turned off, and the engine was motored for several minutes until the fire-deck, intake and exhaust temperatures stabilized.

Due to the increasingly stricter emission legislations and growing demand for lower fuel consumption, there have been significant efforts to improve combustion efficiency, while satisfying the emission requirements. Homogenous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) combustion offers significant efficiency improvements compared to conventional gasoline engines. However, due to the nature of HCCI, fully homogeneous charge HCCI combustion can be realized only in a limited operating range. Control of HCCI engines to obtain the desirable operation requires understanding of how different charge variables influence the cyclic variations in HCCI combustion. Under certain operating conditions, HCCI engines exhibit large cyclic variations in ignition timing. Cyclic variability ranging from stochastic to deterministic patterns can be observed. One important design goal for engine development is to minimize cyclic variability.

Higher cycle to cycle variations in combustion results in adverse effects on efficiency, power, drivability, and emissions. Present study investigates the effect of compression ratio, injection pressure and engine load on cycle-to-cycle combustion variations in a diesel engine using statistical methods and wavelets. Cycle to cycle variations of different combustion parameters are analyzed using continuous wavelet transform. Experiments are conducted on a diesel engine at constant engine speed at different engine loads for three compression ratios and injection pressures (170, 200 and 220 bar). Combustion parameters are calculated from measured cylinder pressure data for 2000 consecutive engine cycles. Wavelet power spectrum and global wavelet spectrum is used to analyze the variations in combustion parameters. Highest cycle to cycle variability is found for compression ratio 16 at no load condition.

Homogenous charge compression ignition (HCCI) combustion emerged as a potential technique for reducing automotive pollution. Controlling the combustion timing at different engine operating conditions is one of the major challenges for the commercial application of HCCI combustion engines. To control HCCI ignition timing, it is often necessary to know the characteristics of HCCI cyclic variations. In this study, cyclic combustion variations in an HCCI engine are analyzed. Combustion stability and cycle-to-cycle variations of HCCI combustion parameters were investigated on a modified four-stroke diesel engine. The experiments were conducted by varying intake air temperatures and relative air-fuel ratios at constant engine speed. In the steady-state engine operating condition, in-cylinder pressure signals of 2000 consecutive engine combustion cycles are acquired for each test condition.

The development of automotive engines continues to be determined by gradually more stringent emission norms including CO2 emissions and fuel consumption. To fulfill the simultaneous emission requirements for near-zero pollutants and low CO2 levels, several research studies are currently being carried out around the world on new engine combustion process, such as Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI). In HCCI engines, combustion rate, and ignition timing are dominated by physical and chemical properties of fuel/air/residual gas mixtures, boundary conditions including ambient temperature, pressure, and humidity, and engine operating conditions such as load, speed, etc. Higher cycle-to-cycle variations are observed in HCCI combustion engines due to the large variability of these factors. The cyclic variations in the HCCI engine are investigated on a modified four-stroke, four-cylinder engine. The HCCI combustion mode is tested with methanol fuel.

The development of vehicles continues to be determined by increasingly stringent emissions standards including CO2 emissions and fuel consumption. To fulfill the simultaneous emission requirements for near zero pollutant and low CO2 levels, which are the challenges of future powertrains, many research studies are currently being carried out world over on new engine combustion process, such as Controlled Auto Ignition (CAI) for gasoline engines and Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) for diesel engines. In HCCI combustion engine, ignition timing and combustion rates are dominated by physical and chemical properties of fuel/air/residual gas mixtures, boundary conditions including ambient temperature, pressure, and humidity and engine operating conditions such as load, speed etc.

This paper presents the experimental investigation of combustion stability and nano-particle emissions from the CNG-diesel RCCI engine. A modified automotive diesel engine is used to operate in RCCI combustion mode. An open ECU is used to control the low and high reactivity fuel injection events. The engine is tested for fixed engine speed and two different engine load conditions. The tests performed for various port-injected CNG masses and diesel injection timings, including single and double diesel injection strategy. Several consecutive engine cycles are recorded using in-cylinder combustion pressure measurement system. Statistical and return map techniques are used to investigate the combustion stability in the CNG-diesel RCCI engine. Differential mobility spectrometer is used for the measurement of particle number concentration and particle-size and number distribution. It is found that advanced diesel injection timing leading to higher cyclic combustion variations.

Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) offers great promise for excellent fuel economy and extremely low emissions of NOx and PM. HCCI combustion lacks direct control on the "start of combustion" such as spark timing in SI engines and fuel injection timing in CI engines. Auto ignition of a homogeneous mixture is very sensitive to operating conditions of the engine. Even small variations of the load can change the timing from "too early" to "too late" combustion. Thus a fast combustion phasing control is required since it sets the performance limitation of the load control. Crank angle position for 50% heat release is used as combustion phasing feedback parameter. In this study, a dual-fuel approach is used to control combustion in a HCCI engine. This approach involves controlling the combustion heat release rate by adjusting fuel reactivity according to the conditions inside the cylinder. Two different octane fuels (methanol and n-heptane) are used for the study.

This paper deals with the evaluation of steel cap pistons for up-gradation of diesel electric locomotives for Indian Railways. These engines are four stroke, medium speed compression ignition engines (CR 12.5: 1) with output of 121 kW per cylinder on series 1 and 167 kW per cylinder on series 2. The series 1 engine uses single piece aluminum pistons, with rating of 0.295 kW/cm2 of piston crown area. A higher version of the series 1 engine with higher fuel efficiency and improvement in lube oil consumption was developed. As part of this improvement program, a composite steel cap piston with forged aluminum skirt was used. The whole engine up-gradation kit including the higher capacity turbocharger, higher fuel delivery pressure fuel pump, modified cam shaft, larger after-cooler along with the steel cap piston were evaluated for performance.

Diesel particulates are mainly composed of elemental carbon (EC) and organic carbon (OC) with traces of metals, sulfates and ash content. Organic fraction of the particulate are considered responsible for its carcinogenic effects. Diesel oxidation catalyst (DOC) is an important after-treatment device for reduction of organic fraction of particulates. In this study, two non-noble metal based DOCs (with different configurations) were prepared and evaluated for their performance. Lanthanum based perovskite (LaMnO3) catalyst was used for the preparation of DOCs. One of the DOC was coated with support material ceria (5%, w/w), while the other was coated without any support material. Prepared DOCs were retrofitted in a four cylinder water cooled diesel engine. Various emission parameters such as particulate mass, particle number-size distribution, regulated and unregulated emissions, EC/OC etc., were measured and compared with the raw exhaust gas emissions from the prepared DOCs.

The influence of engine load and fuel premixing ratio (PMR) on unregulated emission from a methanol-diesel dual-fuel RCCI (MD-RCCI) engine is examined in this study. The study focuses on assessing the adverse effects of unregulated emissions (saturated HC, unsaturated HC, carbonyl compounds, aromatic hydrocarbon, NH3, and SO2) on the health of human beings and the environment. To quantify the effect on the environment, the greenhouse gas potential (GWPs), Eutrophication potential (EP), Acidification potential (AP), and Ozone forming potential (OFP) are calculated and presented. The cancer risk potential (CRP) of the carbonyl compounds (HCHO and CH3CHO) is calculated and presented to see the effect on human health. The results demonstrate that at lower engine load, with an increase in PMR, the OFP and CRP for MD-RCCI operation increase significantly, whereas AP, EP, and GWPs decrease. Additionally, with a rise in the load at a constant PMR, the AP, EP and OFP decrease significantly.

The scarce and rapidly depleting conventional petroleum resources have promoted research for alternative fuels for internal combustion engines. Among various possible options, fuels derived from vegetable oils present promising “greener” substitutes for fossil fuels. Vegetable oils due to their agricultural origin are able to reduce net CO2 emissions to the atmosphere along with import substitution of petroleum products. However, several operational and durability problems of using straight vegetable oils in diesel engines reported, which are because of their higher viscosity and low volatility compared to mineral diesel. In the present research, experiments were designed to study the effect of reducing Jatropha oil's viscosity by blending with mineral diesel, thereby eliminating its effect on combustion characteristics of the engine. In the present experimental research, vegetable oil (Jatropha Curcus) was used as substitute fuel.

Biodiesel made from Jatropha oil by transesterification process has viscosity and other important physical properties comparable to mineral diesel hence it can be used as an alternate fuel in conventional diesel engines. It is important to investigate the spray characteristics of biodiesel because emissions from the engines are dependent on fuel atomization process and resulting fuel-air mixing. This study focuses on the Jatropha biodiesel spray investigations using Phase Doppler Interferometry (PDI) for measurement of various microscopic spray parameters such as Sauter mean diameter (SMD) and spray droplet size and velocity distributions. The spray and engine experiments were carried out for Jatropha biodiesel (JB100) and their 20% blends (JB20) with mineral diesel as baseline. Fuel injection pressure during the spray experiments was maintained at 200 bars for all tests, quite similar to small horse power agricultural engines, and the fuel injection quantity was varied.

The rising concerns of emissions have put enormous strain on the automotive industry. Industry is, therefore looking for next-generation engines and advanced combustion technologies with ultra-low emissions and high efficiency. To achieve this, more insights into the combustion and pollutant formation processes in IC engines is required. Since conventional measures have not been insightful, in-situ measurement of combustion and pollution formation through optical diagnostics is being explored. Gaining full optical access into the diesel engine combustion chamber is a challenging task. The late-compression flow dynamics is not well understood due to limited access into the engine combustion chamber. These flow structures contribute immensely to fuel-air mixing and combustion. The objective of this study is to understand the role of combustion chamber design on vertical plane air-flow structures.

New combustion concepts developed in internal combustion engines such as homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) have attracted serious attention due to the possibilities to simultaneously achieve higher efficiency and lower emissions, which will impact the environment positively. The HCCI combustion concept has potential of ultra-low NOX and particulate matter (PM) emission in comparison to a conventional gasoline or a diesel engine. Environmental Legislation Agencies are becoming increasingly concerned with particulate emissions from engines because the health and environmental effects of particulates emitted are now known and can be measured by sophisticated instruments. Particulate emissions from HCCI engines have been usually considered negligible, and the measurement of mass emission of PM from HCCI combustion systems shows their negligible contribution to PM mass. However some recent studies suggest that PM emissions from HCCI engines cannot be neglected.

Use of alternative fuels, and reduction of particulate and NOx emissions are major challenges for making diesel engines environmentally benign. Measures adopted for reducing gravimetric particulate emissions necessarily always do not reduce particulate number concentration, which is strongly related with adverse health effects. Current emission norms in some parts of the world limit particulate number concentration along with particulate mass. In this scenario, it becomes important to investigate effect of fuel injection parameters and fuel injection strategies such as pilot injections on particulate size-number distribution. A single cylinder research engine is used to evaluate the effect of different fuel injection strategies and injection timings (for pilot and main injections) on particulate size-number distribution and total particulate numbers.

IC engines are facing two major challenges in the 21st century namely threat of fossil fuel depletion and environmental concerns. HCCI engine is an attractive solution to meet stringent emission challenges due to its capability to simultaneously reduce NOx and PM. HCCI technology can be employed with different alternative fuels without significant modifications in the existing engines. In this study, HCCI combustion was investigated using B20 (20% v/v biodiesel with diesel). Investigations were carried out on a two cylinder engine, in which one cylinder was modified to operate in HCCI mode however the other cylinder operated in conventional CI combustion mode. A dedicated fuel vaporizer was used for homogeneous fuel-air mixture preparation. The experiments were performed at three different intake charge temperatures (160°C, 180°C and 200°C) and three different EGR ratios (0%, 10% and 20% EGR) at different engine loads.

Increase in the air pollution has driven the research towards the cleaner combustion technology for reciprocating engines. To tackle the challenge of the trade-off between the NOx and soot emissions from a conventional diesel engine, premixed low-temperature combustion (LTC) strategies are potential technologies. Among the LTC strategies, reactivity controlled compression ignition (RCCI) strategy has a better combustion phasing control along with higher fuel conversion efficiency and lower NOx and soot emissions. The present study investigated the nano-particle emissions from RCCI engine fueled with a port injection of gasoline/methanol (low reactivity fuel) and direct injection of diesel (high reactivity fuel). The RCCI combustion experiments were performed on a modified single cylinder compression ignition engine with development ECU. The mass of injected fuel per stroke for the port as well as the direct injection is controlled through ECU.

In the present study, experiments of reactivity control compression ignition (RCCI) combustion mode is performed on a single cylinder automotive diesel engine with development ECU (electronic control unit). For achieving RCCI combustion mode, low reactivity fuel (i.e., gasoline/methanol) is injected into the intake manifold, and high reactivity fuel (i.e., diesel) is directly injected into the engine cylinder. Mass of fuel injection per cycle and their injection events are controlled using ECU. This study presents the experimental investigation on the effect of high reactivity fuel injection timings on peak pressure rise rate (PPRR) and combustion stability in RCCI engine. The combustion parameters, i.e., PPRR, indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP) and total heat release (THR) are calculated from the in-cylinder pressure measurement data. In-cylinder pressure is measured using a piezoelectric pressure transducer installed on the engine cylinder head.

This study presents the experimental investigation of performance, combustion, gaseous and nano-particle emission characteristics of conventional compression ignition (CI) engine fueled with neat diesel and butanol/diesel blends. The experiments were conducted for neat diesel, 10%, 20% and 30% butanol/diesel blend on the volume basis at different engine loads. Combustion characteristics were investigated on the basis of in-cylinder pressure measurement and heat release analysis. The in-cylinder combustion pressure traces were recorded for 2000 consecutive engine combustion cycles for computation of heat release and different combustion parameters. Combustion stability analysis is conducted by analyzing the coefficient of variation of in indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP) and total heat release (THR). Wavelet analysis is also used for analyzing the temporal variations in IMEP data series.