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The evaporation of different fuels and fuel components in hollow-cone sprays at conditions similar to those at stratified cold start has been investigated using a combination of planar laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) and Mie scattering. Ketones of different volatility were used as fluorescent tracers for different fuel components in gasoline-like model fuels and ethanol-based fuels. LIF and Mie images were compared to evaluate to what extent various fuel components had evaporated and obtained a spatial distribution different from that of the liquid drops, as a function of fuel temperature and time after start of injection. A selective and sequential evaporation of fuel components of different volatility was found.

The EU emission standards for new rail Diesel engines are becoming even more stringent. EGR and SCR technologies can both be used to reduce NOx emissions; however, the use of EGR is usually accompanied by an increase in PM emissions and may require a DPF. On the other hand, the use of SCR requires on-board storage of urea. Thus, it is necessary to study these trade-offs in order to understand how these technologies can best be used in rail applications to meet new emission standards. The present study assesses the application of these technologies in Diesel railcars on a quantitative basis using one and three dimensional numerical simulation tools. In particular, the study considers a 560 kW railcar engine with the use of either EGR or SCR based solutions for NOx reduction. The NOx and PM emissions performances are evaluated over the C1 homologation cycle.

It has been previously shown that engine-out soot emissions can be reduced by using Fischer-Tropsch (FT) fuels, due to their lack of aromatics, compared to conventional Diesel fuels. In this investigation the engine-out emissions and fuel consumption parameters of an FT fuel derived from natural gas were compared to those of Swedish low sulfur diesel (MK1) when used in Low Temperature Combustion mode in a single cylinder heavy-duty diesel engine. The effects of varying Needle Opening Pressure (NOP), Charge Air Pressure (CAP) and Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) according to an experimental design on the measured variables were also assessed. CAP and EGR were found to be the most significant factors for the combustion and emission parameters of both fuels. Increases in CAP resulted in lower soot emissions due to enhanced charge mixing, however NOx emissions rose as CAP increased.

In order to avoid the high CO and HC emissions associated with low temperature when using high levels of EGR, partially premixed combustion is an interesting possibility. One way to achieve this combustion mode is to increase the ignition delay by adjusting the inlet valve closing timing, and thus the effective compression ratio. The purpose of this study was to investigate experimentally the possibilities of using late and early inlet valve closure to reduce NOx emissions without increasing emissions of soot or unburned hydrocarbons, or fuel consumption. The effect of increasing the swirl number (from 0.2 to 2.5) was also investigated. The combustion timing (CA50) was kept constant by adjusting the start of injection and the possibilities of optimizing combustion using EGR and high injection pressures were investigated. Furthermore, the airflow was kept constant for a given EGR level.

When increasing EGR from low levels to a level that corresponds to low temperature combustion, soot emissions initially increase due to lower soot oxidation before decreasing to almost zero due to very low soot formation. At the EGR level where soot emissions start to increase, the NOx emissions are low, but not sufficiently low to comply with future emission standards and at the EGR level where low temperature combustion occurs CO and HC emissions are too high. The purpose of this study was to investigate the possibilities for shifting the so-called soot bump (where soot levels are increased) to higher EGR levels, or to reduce the magnitude of the soot bump using very high injection pressures (up to 240 MPa) while reducing the NOx emissions using EGR. The possibility of reducing the CO and HC emissions at high EGR levels due to the increased mixing caused by higher injection pressure was also investigated and the flame was visualized using an endoscope at chosen EGR values.

To characterize the effects of renewable fuels on particulate emissions from GDI engines, engine experiments were conducted using EN228-compliant gasoline fuel blends containing no oxygenates, 10% ethanol (EtOH), or 22% ethyl tert-butyl ether (ETBE). The experiments were conducted in a single cylinder GDI engine using a 6-hole fuel injector operated at 200 bar injection pressure. Both PN in raw exhaust and solid PN (SPN) were measured at two load points and various start of injection (SOI) timings. Raw PN and SPN results were classified into various size ranges, corresponding to current and future legislations. At early SOI timings, where particulate formation is dominated by diffusion flames on the piston due to liquid film, the oxygenated blends yielded dramatically higher PN and SPN emissions than reference gasoline because of fuel effects.

Alcohol-based fuels are a viable alternative to fossil fuels for powering vehicles. As a drop-in fuel, an oxygenated fuel blend containing the C8 alcohol 2-ethylhexanol (isomer of octanol), hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) and rapeseed methyl ester (RME) can reduce soot and NOx emissions whilst maintaining engine performance. However, fuel injection strategy significantly affects combustion and hence has been investigated with a view to reducing emissions whilst maintaining engine efficiency. In a single cylinder light-duty compression ignition research engine, the effect of different injection strategies (main, main/post, double pre/main, double pre/main/post injection) and EGR levels (0%, 19%) on specifically NOx, soot emissions and particle size distribution was investigated for three different fuels: fossil diesel fuel, HVO and the oxygenated blend. The blend was designed to have diesel-like combustion properties (cetane number of 52) and had an oxygen content of 5.4% by mass.

Laws concerning emissions from heavy duty (HD) internal combustion engines are becoming increasingly stringent. New engine technologies are needed to satisfy these new requirements and to reduce fossil fuel dependency. One way to achieve both objectives can be to partially replace fossil fuels with alternatives that are sustainable with respect to emissions of greenhouse gases, particulates and nitrogen oxides (NOx). A suitable candidate is methanol. The aim of the study presented here was to investigate the possible advantages of combusting methanol in a heavy duty Diesel engine. Those are, among others, lower particulate emissions and thereby bypassing the NOx-soot trade-off. Because of methanol’s poor auto-ignition properties, Diesel was used as an igniting sources and both fuels were separately direct injected. Therefore, two separate standard common rail Diesel injection systems were used together with a newly designed cylinder head and adapted injection nozzles.

Future emission legislation will require substantial reductions of NOx and particulate matter (PM) emissions from diesel engines. The combustion and emission formation in a diesel engine is governed mainly by spray formation and mixing. Important parameters governing these are droplet size, distribution, concentration and injection velocity. Smaller orifices are believed to give smaller droplet size, even with reduced injection pressure, which leads to better fuel atomization, faster evaporation and better mixing. In this paper experiments are performed on a single cylinder heavy-duty direct injection diesel engine with three nozzles of different orifice diameters (Ø0.227 mm, Ø0.130 mm, Ø0.090 mm). Two loads (low and medium) and three speeds were investigated. The test results confirmed a substantial reduction in HC and soot emissions at lower loads for the small orifices.

Operating an engine in homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) mode requires the air fuel mixture to be very lean or highly diluted with residuals. This is in order to slow the kinetics down and to avoid too rapid heat release. Consequently, the operational window for the engine in HCCI mode is not the same as for the engine operating in spark ignited (SI) mode. Homogeneous charge compression ignition engine mode, in this study, is accomplished by trapping residual mass using variable valve timing. With the residual trapping method, the engine cannot be started in HCCI mode and due to the dilution, the engine in HCCI mode can only be operated in the part - load regime. Hence, a mode change between spark ignited and HCCI modes, and vice versa is required. This study reports the development of a mode change strategy for a single cylinder camless engine, and its successful implementation in a camless multi cylinder engine.

Eight different cylinder pressure trace based knock detection methods are compared using two reference cycles of different time-frequency content, reflecting single blast and developing blast, and a test population of 300 knocking cycles. It is shown that the choice of the pass window used for the pressure data has no significant effect on the results of the different methods, except for the KI20. In contrast to other authors, no sudden step in the knock characteristics is expected; first, because the data investigated contain only knocking cycles, and second, because a smooth transition between normal combustion and knock is expected, according to recent knock theory. It is not only the correlation coefficient, but also the Kendall coefficient of concordance, that is used to investigate the differences between the knock classification methods.

This investigation includes a comparison of two Fischer Tropsch (FT) fuels derived from natural gas and a Rapeseed Methyl Ester (RME) fuel with Swedish low sulfur Diesel in terms of emissions levels, fuel consumption and combustion parameters. The engine used in the study was an AVL single cylinder heavy-duty engine, equipped with a cylinder head of a Volvo D12 engine. Two loads (25% and 100%) were investigated at a constant engine speed of 1200 rpm. The engine was calibrated to operate in different levels of EGR and with variable injections timings. A design of experiments was constructed to investigate the effects of these variables, and to identify optimal settings. The results showed that the soot emissions yielded by FT and RME fuels are up to 40 and 80 percent lower than those yielded by the Swedish Diesel. In addition the FT fuel gave slightly lower, and the RME significant higher NOx emissions than the Swedish Diesel.

The purpose of the investigation presented here was to compare the effects of fuel composition on combustion parameters, emissions and fuel consumption in engine tests and simulations with five fuels: a Diesel-water emulsion, a Diesel-ethanol blend, a Diesel-ethanol blend with EHN (cetane number improver), a Fischer-Tropsch Diesel and an ultra-low sulfur content Diesel. The engine used in the experiments was a light duty, single cylinder, direct injection, common rail Diesel engine equipped with a cylinder head and piston from a Volvo NED5 engine. In tests with each fuel the engine was operated at two load points (3 bar IMEP and 10 bar IMEP), and a pilot-main fuel injection strategy was applied under both load conditions. Data were also obtained from 3-D CFD simulations, using the KIVA code, to compare to the experimental results and to further analyze the effects of water and ethanol on combustion.

Reducing emissions and improving efficiency are major goals of modern internal combustion engine research. The use of biomass-derived fuels in Diesel engines is an effective way of reducing well-to-wheels (WTW) greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Moreover, partially premixed combustion (PPC) makes it possible to achieve very efficient combustion with low emissions of soot and NOx. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of using alcohol/Diesel blends or neat alcohols on emissions and thermal efficiency during PPC. Four alcohols were evaluated: n-butanol, isobutanol, n-octanol, and 2-ethylhexanol. The alcohols were blended with fossil Diesel fuel to produce mixtures with low cetane numbers (26-36) suitable for PPC. The blends were then tested in a single cylinder light duty (LD) engine. To optimize combustion, the exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) level, lambda, and injection strategy were tuned.

Diesel Particulate Filters (DPFs) need to be periodically regenerated in order to achieve efficient and safe vehicle operation. Under typical diesel exhaust conditions, this invariably requires the raising of the exhaust gas temperature by active means, up to the point that particulate (soot) oxidation can be self-sustained in the filter. In the present work the development path of an advanced catalytic filter technology is presented. Full scale optimized Catalytic Diesel Particulate Filters (CDPFs) are tested in the exhaust of a light-duty modern diesel engine in line with a Diesel Oxidation Catalyst (DOC). The management of the DOC-CDPF emission control system is facilitated by a virtual soot sensor in order to ensure energy-efficient operation of the emission control system.

Power dense internal combustion engines (ICEs) are interesting candidates for onboard charging devices in different electric powertrain applications where the weight, volume and price of the energy storage components are critical. Single-cylinder naturally aspirated two-stroke spark-ignited (SI) engines are very small and power dense compared to four-stroke SI engines and the installation volume from a single cylinder two-stroke engine can become very interesting in some concepts. During charged conditions, four-stroke engines become more powerful than naturally aspirated two-stroke engines. The performance level of a two-stroke SI engines with a charging system is less well understood since only a limited number of articles have so far been published. However, if charging can be successfully applied to a two-stroke engine, it can become very power dense.

Asymmetric and Variable Cell (AVC) geometry Diesel Particulate Filters (DPF) occupy an increasing portion of the DPFs currently offered by various DPF manufacturers, aiming at providing higher filtration area in the same filter volume to meet demanding emission control applications for passenger cars but also for heavy duty vehicles. In the present work we present an approach for designing and optimizing such DPFs by providing a quantitative description of the flow and deposition of soot in these structures. Soot deposit growth dynamics in AVC DPFs is studied computationally, primary and secondary flows over the inlet channels cross-sectional perimeters are analyzed and their interactions are elucidated. The result is a rational description of the observed growth of soot deposits, as the flow readjusts to transport the soot particles along the path of least resistance (which is not necessarily the shortest geometric path between the inlet and outlet channel, i.e. the wall thickness).

In order to meet future emissions legislation for Diesel engines and reduce their CO2 emissions it is necessary to improve diesel combustion by reducing the emissions it generates, while maintaining high efficiency and low fuel consumption. Advanced injection strategies offer possible ways to improve the trade-offs between NOx, PM and fuel consumption. In particular, use of high EGR levels (⥸ 40%) together with multiple injection strategies provides possibilities to reduce both engine-out NOx and soot emissions. Comparisons of optical engine measurements with CFD simulations enable detailed analysis of such combustion concepts. Thus, CFD simulations are important aids to understanding combustion phenomena, but the models used need to be able to model cases with advanced injection strategies.

Global warming driven by “greenhouse gas” emissions is an increasingly serious concern of both the public and legislators. A potentially potent way to reduce these emissions and conserve fossil fuel resources is to use n-butanol, iso-butanol or octanol (2-ethylhexanol) from renewable sources as alternative fuels in diesel engines. The effects of adding these substances to diesel fuel were therefore tested in a single-cylinder heavy duty diesel engine operated using factory settings. These alcohols have better calorific values, flash points, lubricity, cetane numbers and solubility in diesel than shorter-chain alcohols. However, they have lower cetane numbers than diesel, so either hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) or Di-tertiary-butyl peroxide (DTBP) was added to the diesel-alcohol mixtures to generate blends with the same Cetane Number (CN) as diesel.

Experiments were performed using a Light-Duty, single-cylinder, research engine in which the emissions, fuel consumption and combustion characteristics of two Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) Diesel fuels derived from natural gas and two conventional Diesel fuels (Swedish low sulfur Diesel and European EN 590 Diesel) were compared. Due to their low aromatic contents combustion with the F-T Diesel fuels resulted in lower soot emissions than combustion with the conventional Diesel fuels. The hydrocarbon emissions were also significantly lower with F-T fuel combustion. Moreover the F-T fuels tended to yield lower CO emissions than the conventional Diesel fuels. The low emissions from the F-T Diesel fuels, and the potential for producing such fuels from biomass, are powerful reason for future interest and research in this field.