Search Results

The production unit number of small diesel engine cars tends to decline except recreational vehicles in Japanese market in recent years, while the production unit number in Europe market keeps on increasing owing to the merits of the durability and the fuel consumption. The small diesel engines will have to be improved in the near future by solving major problems such as noise and vibration pollution, environmental pollution, improvement in performance of diesel engines, in order to expand the production of the engines. This paper refers to a basic study on the experimental and analytical methods for the reduction of resonant vibration in each vibration mode on some cylinder blocks of small high-speed diesel engines in rated engine speed range. Hammering test method, which is easy and useful for measuring frequency response functions, is carried out in the experiments.

As a basic tool for fundamental studies on combustion and heat transfer in diesel engines, a new rapid compression machine with a cylinder bore of 200 mm was developed which can realize in it a free diesel flame in a quiescent atmosphere, a diesel flame in a swirl, and a diesel flame impinging on the wall. The piston of this machine is driven by high pressure nitrogen, and its speed is controlled by a sophisticated hydraulic system. This paper describes the details of the mechanism and performances of the machine, and presents some examples of studies conducted with this machine.

An experimental study was conducted to investigate piston-impact generated noise in diesel engines. A coherence model was used to represent the noise generating mechanisms of the engine. The model was applied to an in-line turbo-charged diesel engine. Frequency response functions were measured between the cylinder liner vibration and the engine noise, and between the combustion pressure and the engine noise. The noise coherent with piston impacts was separated from the noise coherent with combustion. Guidelines are presented showing how the results of the coherence model may be used for engine design and noise prediction.

The quality of the nitrocarburized layer has a decisive influence in the service life of components with pistons that work together with polymeric seals, since it interferes in the abrasion and wear mechanisms of the involved materials. Thus it is necessary to select the most adequate process to apply in a given component aiming for a quality improvement and warranty costs reduction. The literature offers a great volume of information about the different nitriding processes, but there are few reports comparing them. In this paper the salt bath and plasma processes are discussed concerning the white layer metallography, roughness and the process effect on corrosion resistance of gas spring rods manufactured with SAE 1040 steel.

In order to better understand how the Atkinson cycle and the Miller cycle influence the fuel consumption at different engine speeds and loads, an investigation was conducted to compare influences of early intake valve closing (EIVC) and late intake valve closing (LIVC) on the fuel consumption of a 1.5L turbo-charged gasoline direct injection (TGDI) engine. The engine was tested with three different intake cams, covering three intake durations: 251 degCA (the base engine), 196 degCA (the Miller engine), and 274 degCA (the Atkinson engine). Compression ratios are 9.5:1 for the base engine and 11.4:1 for the Atkinson and Miller engines, achieved with piston modifications. Results of this investigation will be reported in three papers focusing respectively on characteristics of the engine friction, in-cylinder charge motions for different intake events, and combustion and fuel economy without and with EGR for the naturally aspirated mode and boost mode.

The engine parameters of a diesel engine (using coated and uncoated pistons) operating with alumina additive chlorella vulgaris biodiesel blends were evaluated experimentally. The properties of test fuel samples were investigated using ASTM standards, and the composition of C. Vulgaris biodiesel was also examined using an FTIR report. A diesel engine’s performance and pollution characteristics were studied using different fuel samples such as diesel, CBD20, CBD20ANP with coated and uncoated pistons. The experimental results showed that the coated engine had a higher BTE (1.8-3.2 percent) and a lower BSFC (1.2-3.8 percent) than the uncoated engine. It is also identified that, exhaust emissions like as CO, HC, and smoke opacity have also been moderately reduced with the coated engine, while NOx emissions were slightly increased.

Experiments have been conducted in a firing single-cylinder spark-ignition engine employing a Ford Zetec cylinder head that has been modified to operate with either standard port-fuel-injection, air-forced port-fuel-injection or direct-injection. The engine utilizes a fused silica cylinder and therefore provides extensive optical access to the combustion chamber. Tests were conducted using a constant speed simulated cold start procedure, which is composed of an initial start-up transient and a quasi-steady-state idle period. In this procedure, the engine is briefly motored at 889 rpm and then combustion commences shortly after the start of fuel injection. Measurements which were performed include in-cylinder pressure as well as intake valve, exhaust valve, piston, cylinder, head, and intake air temperature throughout each cycle of the test period. The engine-out total hydrocarbon emissions were also measured.

Time-averaged temperatures at critical locations on the piston of a direct-fuel injected, two-stroke, 388 cm3, research engine were measured using an infrared telemetry device. The piston temperatures were compared to data [7] of a carbureted version of the two-stroke engine, that was operated at comparable conditions. All temperatures were obtained at wide open throttle, and varying engine speeds (2000-4500 rpm, at 500 rpm intervals). The temperatures were measured in a configuration that allowed for axial heat flux to be determined through the piston. The heat flux was compared to carbureted data [8] obtained using measured piston temperatures as boundary conditions for a computer model, and solving for the heat flux. The direct-fuel-injected piston temperatures and heat fluxes were significantly higher than the carbureted piston. On the exhaust side of the piston, the direct-fuel injected piston temperatures ranged from 33-73 °C higher than the conventional carbureted piston.

It has previously been shown experimentally and computationally that the process of Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) is very dependent on the pre-combustion gas temperature field. This study looks in detail at how temperature fields can evolve by comparing results of two combustion chamber designs, a piston with a square bowl and a disk shaped piston, and relates these temperature fields to measured HCCI combustion durations. The contributions of combustion chamber surface area and turbulence levels to the gas temperature evolution are considered over the crank angle range from intake valve closure to top-dead-center. This is a CFD study, whose results were transformed into traditional analysis methods of convective heat transfer (q=h*A*ΔT) and boundary layers.

This paper presents a comprehensive study on using MO (Mahua oil) as fuel effectively in a diesel engine by adopting emulsification and TBC (Thermal Barrier Coating) techniques. A mono cylinder diesel engine was used for the study. Initially trials were made on the engine using neat diesel (ND), Neat Mahua oil (NMO) as fuels. In the second phase, NMO was converted into its stable emulsion (called as MOE) and tested in the engine. Finally thermal barrier coating of 0.2 mm was made on the piston, valves and cylinder head of the engine using the ceramic power of Al2O3 and the engine was tested using NMO and MOE as fuels in the TBC engine. Results indicated improvement in BTE (brake thermal efficiency) with MOE as compared to NMO mainly at high power outputs in the unmodified engine. The maximum BTE was found as 31.5% with ND, 27.2% with NMO and 30.4% with MOE at the peak power output.

Low vibration and noise level in internal combustion engines has become an essential part of the design process. It is well known that the piston assembly can be a major source of engine mechanical friction and cold start noise, if not designed properly. The piston secondary motion and piston-bore contact pattern are critical in piston design because they affect the skirt-to-bore impact force and therefore, how the piston impact excitation energy is damped, transmitted and eventually radiated from the engine structure as noise. An analytical method is presented in this paper for simulating piston secondary dynamics and piston-bore contact for an asymmetric half piston model. The method includes several important physical attributes such as bore distortion effects due to mechanical and thermal deformation, inertia loading, piston barrelity and ovality, piston flexibility and skirt-to-bore clearance. The method accounts for piston kinematics, rigid-body dynamics and flexibility.

This paper describes a comprehensive model of piston skirt lubrication, developed for use in conjunction with piston secondary dynamic analysis, to accurately characterize the effects of the skirt-cylinder oil film on piston motions. The model represents both hydrodynamic and boundary lubrication modes and applies an asperity contact pressure when surfaces are in close proximity with each other. In addition to skirt dimensions and surface roughness properties, the circumferential extent of lubrication, an arbitrary skirt profile and bore distortion are specifiable inputs to the model. The model is also extended to represent the oil starvation at the cylinder end of the skirt by allowing the axial extent of lubrication on the skirt surface to vary circumferentially and with time to satisfy continuity of oil.

The Piston assembly friction loss contributes for larger part in the engine frictional loss. In order to reduce the frictional loss due to piston assembly motion, a complete model describing the dynamics of assembly is necessary. This paper presents a model to study the primary and secondary motion of piston and also a model for determination of frictional losses in the piston assembly of an automotive Internal Combustion Engine. A mixed lubrication model based on a two-dimensional Reynolds equation is presented to use in conjunction with a piston secondary motion analysis.

Elasto-Hydrodynamic Lubrication (EHL) analysis of a fully flooded piston skirt-liner conjunction is a useful methodology for design analysis of pistons. However, under typical engine operating conditions, oil present in the clearance region between the skirt and liner is sufficient to wet only a portion of the piston skirt (partial skirt lubrication). The reduction in damping due to partial skirt lubrication is an important consideration to address issues related to piston slap noise, liner cavitation and other noise and vibration aspects. The existing simulation methodology for EHL analysis of a fully flooded piston skirt uses a finite-difference scheme to solve the coupled Reynolds, Greenwood-Tripp and elasticity equations in order to calculate the nodal oil film pressures, contact pressures and elastic deformations respectively. Detection of cavitation zones within the oil film done via implementation of the Half-Sommerfeld boundary condition.

A PPCI-diffusion combustion strategy has shown the potential to achieve high efficiency, clean gasoline compression ignition (GCI) combustion across the full engine operating range. By conducting a 3-D CFD-led combustion system design campaign, this investigation was focused on developing a next generation (NextGen), step-lipped piston design concept in a 2.6L advanced light-duty GCI engine. Key geometric features of the NextGen piston bowl were parametrized and studied with customized spray targeting. A low lip positioning design with 128° spray targeting was found to provide the best performance. Fuel injection strategy optimization was performed at a full-load operating point (OP), 2000 rpm/24 bar closed-cycle IMEP (IMEPcc).

In a recent study, quantitative measurements were presented of in-cylinder spatial distributions of mixture equivalence ratio in a single-cylinder light-duty optical diesel engine, operated with a non-reactive mixture at conditions similar to an early injection low-temperature combustion mode. In the experiments a planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF) methodology was used to obtain local mixture equivalence ratio values based on a diesel fuel surrogate (75% n-heptane, 25% iso-octane), with a small fraction of toluene as fluorescing tracer (0.5% by mass). Significant changes in the mixture's structure and composition at the walls were observed due to increased charge motion at high swirl and injection pressure levels. This suggested a non-negligible impact on wall heat transfer and, ultimately, on efficiency and engine-out emissions.

Combustion characteristics of a hydrogen (H2) direct-injected (DI) pre-chamber (PC)-assisted opposed piston two-stroke (OP2S) engine are investigated by 3D computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. The architecture of the OP2S engine has potential features for reducing wall heat losses, as the DI H2 jets are not directed towards the piston face. To overcome the high resistance to autoignition of H2, a PC technology was implemented in order to enhance the ignition of the mixture by the multiple hot reactive jets. To further investigate the interaction between the H2 plume and the chamber walls, three different piston bowl designs were evaluated and ranked based on a merit function. For the cases under study, the flat piston design was found to be most favorable (compared to the narrow and wide pistons) due to its reduced surface area for lower wall heat losses.

In a direct-injection (DI) engine, charge motion and mixture preparation are among the most important factors deciding the performance and emissions. This work was focused on studying the effect of injector positioning on fuel-air mixture preparation and fuel impingement on in-cylinder surfaces during the homogeneous mode of operation in a naturally aspirated, small bore, 0.2 l, light-duty, air-cooled, four-stroke, spark-ignition engine modified to operate under the DI mode. A commercially available, six-hole, solenoid-operated injector was used. Two injector locations were identified based on the availability of the space on the cylinder head. One location yielded the spray-guided (SG) configuration, with one of the spray plumes targeted towards the spark plug. In the second location, the spray plumes were targeted towards the piston top in a wall-guided (WG) configuration so as to minimize the impingement of fuel on the liner.

A computer - controlled valve actuation system for research engines is described. The system can be used for the complete real-time control of valve motion, including valve lift, dwell, valve event overlap and valve timing. The value actuator is a fast electro-hydraulic unit, incorporating a small hydraulic actuator and a high-performance servovalve. The actuator assembly mounts over the engine valve and replaces the existing camshaft and rocker arm. An analog position-feedback controller coupled to a laboratory minicomputer provides the system control. The closed-loop step response time is 3 milliseconds with a 0.5 millisecond initial delay. The system currently operates at engine speeds less than 1000 rpm and with appropriate control software is expected to operate at engine speeds approaching 3000 rpm. The actuation system is suitable for a research environment and has many potential applications in piston engine research and development.