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The increasing of global energy demand and stringent pollution regulations have promoted research on alternative fuels. In Thailand, ethanol, can be produced from many sources of national agriculture products as renewable fuel, which was strongly promoted by government due to its many merits for use in transportation field. In this study, combustion characteristics of ethanol-gasoline blend (20%, 85%, and 100%) as well as pure gasoline (E0) were investigated by using a swirl-generated constant volume combustion chamber. Flame propagations of different fuel blends were observed by high speed Schlieren photography technique while pressure history data were recorded for detailed combustion analysis. Combustion behavior, combustion duration and rate of pressure rise of all tested fuels were investigated in various swirl intensities and equivalence ratios. In addition, effect of swirl intensities and ethanol concentration on lean misfire limit were also discussed.

The present study aims to investigate the parameters affecting cold start characteristics of ethanol at low temperature, and suggest a solution to avoid cold starting problem without the installation of second fuel tank. The testing engine is a 125cc volume displacement, single-cylinder four strokes SI engine with fuel injection and ignition timing system controlled by ECU (electronic control unit). The cold starting performance tests were extensively conducted with different percentages of ethanol blends, surrounding temperatures, heating inside combustion chamber, heater injector, pre-cranking without fuel injection, and amount of fuel injection. From the experimental results, when using ethanol fuel in conventional engine, the problem of cold starting was observed at surrounding temperature lower than 20°C for ethanol. Increasing of injection duration can lower the possible cold start temperature of neat ethanol.

To extend the operating range of a gasoline HCCI engine, the blowdown supercharging (BDSC) system and the EGR guide were developed and experimentally examined. The concepts of these techniques are to obtain a large amount of dilution gas and to generate a strong in-cylinder thermal stratification without an external supercharger for extending the upper load limit of HCCI operation whilst keeping dP/dθmax and NOx emissions low. Also, to attain stable HCCI operation using the BDSC system with wide operating conditions, the valve actuation strategy in which the amount of dilution gas is smaller at lower load and larger at higher load was proposed. Additionally to achieve multi-cylinder HCCI operation with wide operating range, the secondary air injection system was developed to reduce cylinder-to-cylinder variation in ignition timing. As a result, the acceptable HCCI operation could be achieved with wide operating range, from IMEP of 135 kPa to 580 kPa.

In order to investigate the combustion phenomena in a combustion chamber of the diesel engine at transient operations, the simultaneous measurements of temperatures of flame and wall surface in a combustion chamber were conducted. The new technique for simultaneous measurements of flame temperature and wall surface was developed. Laser-Induced phosphorescence was used for the measurement of wall surface temperature which was coupled with the flame temperature measurement by a two-color pyrometry. The NOx and soot emissions were also measured simultaneously in transient operations. The relation between the temporal changes of emissions and temperatures of flame and surface wall are discussed. The results show that the temporal change of NOx emission during transient operation is similar to that of the average gas temperature in a chamber. On the other hand, the temporal change of soot emission is similar to neither that of flame temperature nor that of average gas temperature.

To avoid knocking phenomena, a special crank mechanism for gasoline engine that allowed the piston to move rapidly near TDC (Top Dead Center) was developed and experimentally demonstrated in the previous study. As a result, knocking was successfully mitigated and indicated thermal efficiency was improved [1],[2],[3],[4]. However, performance of the proposed system was evaluated at only limited operating conditions. In the present study, to investigate the effect of piston movement near TDC on combustion characteristics and indicated thermal efficiency and to clarify the knock mitigation mechanism of the proposed method, experimental studies were carried out using a single cylinder engine with a compression ratio of 13.7 at various engine speeds and loads. The special crank mechanism, which allows piston to move rapidly near TDC developed in the previous study, was applied to the test engine with some modification of tooling accuracy.

Energy optimal control theory (EOC) is applied to the energy flow control of a hybrid electric vehicle. Since the differential equation is solved analytically, the control law can be easily implemented in real time. Because the objective function is described in power form that permits negative value, not only the energy consumption is minimized but also the energy regeneration by the motor is maximized. In the simulation for the 10-mode driving, it is shown that the fuel cost of EOC is 15% lower than the rule based control (RBC).

Through microscopic visualization experiments, a process generally known as depth filtration was shown to be caused by surface pores. Moreover, the existence of a soot cake layer was an important advantage for filtration performance because it could trap most of the particulates. We proposed an ideal diesel particulate filter (DPF), in which a silicon carbide (SiC) nanoparticle membrane (made from a mixture of 80 nm and 500 nm powders) instead of a soot cake was sintered on the DPF wall surface; this improved the filtration performance at the beginning of the trapping process and reduced energy consumption during the regeneration process. The proposed filter was called a diesel particulate membrane filter (DPMF). A diesel fuel lamp was used in the trapping process to verify the trapping and oxidation mechanisms of ultrafine particulate matter. Thus, the filtration performance of the membrane filters was shown to be better than that of conventional DPFs.

The objective of this study is to develop a practical technique to achieve HCCI operation with wide operation range. To attain this objective, the authors previously proposed the blowdown supercharge (BDSC) system and demonstrated the potential of the BDSC system to extend the high load HCCI operational limit. In this study, experimental works were conducted with focusing on improvement of combustion stability at low load operation and the reduction in cylinder to cylinder variation in ignition timing of multi-cylinder HCCI operation using the BDSC system. The experiments were conducted using a slightly modified production four-cylinder gasoline engine with compression ratio of about 12 at constant engine speed of 1500 rpm. The test fuel used was commercial gasoline which has RON of 91. To improve combustion stability at low load operation, the valve actuation strategy for the BDSC system was newly proposed and experimentally examined.

Particulate matter (PM) trapping and oxidation in regeneration on the surface of a diesel particulate catalyst-membrane filter (DPMFs) were investigated in detail using an all-in-focus optical microscope. The DPMF consists of two-layer sintered filters, where a SiC-nanoparticle membrane (made from a mixture of 80 nm and 500 nm powders) covers the surface of a conventional SiC filter. Using a visualization experiment, it was shown that PMs were trapped homogeneously along fine surface pores of the membrane's top surface, whereas in the regeneration process, the particulates in contact with the membrane may have been oxidized with some catalytic effect of the SiC nanoparticles. A soot cake was reacted continuously on the nanoparticles since pushed by a gas flow. The oxidation temperature of particulate trapped on the SiC-nanoparticle membrane was about 75 degrees lower than that on the conventional diesel particulate filters (DPF) without a catalyst.

In order to extend the HCCI high load operational limit, the effects of the distributions of temperature and fuel concentration on pressure rise rate (dP/dθ) were investigated through theoretical and experimental methods. The Blow-Down Super Charge (BDSC) and the EGR guide parts are employed simultaneously to enhance thermal stratification inside the cylinder. And also, to control the distribution of fuel concentration, direct fuel injection system was used. As a first step, the effect of spatial temperature distribution on maximum pressure rise rate (dP/dθmax) was investigated. The influence of the EGR guide parts on the temperature distribution was investigated using 3-D numerical simulation. Simulation results showed that the temperature difference between high temperature zone and low temperature zone increased by using EGR guide parts together with the BDSC system.

In this study, particle transport and captured behaviors in a Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF) was investigated with Lattice Boltzmann Method. LBM calculation was performed to a 3D-reconstructed micro porous DPF substrate, which was obtained by micro-focus 3D X-ray technique. Simulating advection-diffusion behaviors of diesel particulates in micro porous channel, we adapted a LBM method used for high Peclet number flow, simulating flow conditions in DPFs. We investigated flow behaviors in a wide variety of inlet velocity. LBM simulation has clearly shown that non-dimensional flow field is similar in wide range of flow conditions in the DPF, because flow Reynolds number in the micro porous substrate is sufficiently low, dominated by laminar flow regime. It was also revealed that less than 40% pore channels was responsible for more than 80% volume flux in the porous substrate without particle loading.

A newly developed small-sized IES (inductive energy storage) circuit with a semiconductor switch at turn-off action was successfully applied to an ignition system. This IES circuit can generate repetitive nanosecond pulse discharges. An ignition system using repetitive nanosecond pulse discharges was investigated as an alternative to conventional spark ignition systems in the previous papers. Experiments were conducted using constant volume chamber for CH₄ and C₃H₈-air mixtures. The ignition system using repetitive nanosecond pulse discharges was found to improve the inflammability of lean combustible mixtures, such as extended flammability limits, shorted ignition delay time, with increasing the number of pulses for CH₄ and C₃H₈-air mixtures under various conditions. The mechanisms for improving the inflammability were discussed and the effectiveness of IES circuit under EGR condition was also verified.

A simultaneous multi-composition analyzing (SMCA) resonance enhanced multi-photon ionization (REMPI) system was used to investigate gasoline engine exhaust. Observed peaks for exhaust were smaller mass numbers than those from diesel exhaust. However, large species up to three ring aromatics were observed suggesting that soot precursor forms even in the gasoline engine. At low catalyst temperature condition, the reduction efficiencies of a three-way catalyst were higher for higher mass numbers. This result indicates that the larger species accumulate in the catalyst or elsewhere due to their lower vapor pressures. To evaluate the emission of low volatility species, the accumulation should be taken into account. In the hot mode, reduction efficiencies for aromatic species of three-way catalyst were almost 99.5% however, they fall to 70% in the cold start condition.

Real-time analysis of benzene in automobile exhaust gas was performed using the Jet-REMPI (supersonic jet / resonance enhanced multi-photon ionization) method. Real-time benzene concentration of two diesel trucks and one gasoline vehicle driving in Japanese driving modes were observed under ppm level at 1 s intervals. As a result, it became obvious that there were many differences in their emission tendencies, because of their car types, driving conditions, and catalyst conditions. In two diesel vehicle, benzene emission tendencies were opposite. And, in a gasoline vehicle, emission pattern were different between hot and cold conditions due to the catalyst conditions.

A simple real-time measurement system for the components of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in automobile exhaust gas using a laser ionization method was developed. This method was used to detect VOCs and PAHs in the exhaust gas of a diesel truck while idling, at 60 km/h, and in the Japanese driving mode JE05. As a result, various VOCs and PAHs, such as xylene and naphthalene, were simultaneously detected, and real-time changes in their concentration were obtained at 1 s intervals.

Trapping and regeneration processes in a SiC wall-flow diesel particulate filter (DPF) without a catalyst were investigated in detail through microscopic visualization. By microscopic observation of the cross section and surface, the transition from depth filtration to surface filtration could be observed clearly. The open pores on the wall surface were strongly related to the filtration depth of diesel particulate matter (PM). During the regeneration process, after the soot cake was burnt out, the particulates trapped inside the surface pores were oxidized. As a result, the particulate trapping and oxidation behaviors were strongly dependent on the microstructural surface pores.

In order to investigate the mechanism of heat transfer on the chamber wall of direct-injection diesel engines, 2-D temperature imaging and heat flux measurement in the flame impinging region on the chamber wall were conducted using laser-induced phosphorescence technique. The temperature of the chamber wall surface was measured by the calibrated intensity variation of the 355nm-excited laser-induced phosphorescence from an electrophoretically deposited thin layer of La2O2S:Eu phosphor on a quartz glass plate placed in a rapid compression and expansion machine (RCEM). Instantaneous 2-D images of wall temperature at different timings after start of injection and time-resolved (10kHz) heat flux near the flame impinging region were obtained for combusting and non-combusting diesel sprays with impinging distance of 23.4mm at different injection pressures (80 and 120MPa).

A newly developed small-sized IES (inductive energy storage) circuit with static induction thyristor at turn-off action was successfully applied to an ignition system. This IEC circuit can generate repetitive nanosecond pulse discharges. In this paper, the ignition system using repetitive nanosecond pulse discharges was investigated as an alternative to conventional spark ignition systems. The experiments were conducted using spherically expanding flame configuration for CH4 and C3H8-air mixtures under various conditions. In conclusions, the ignition system using repetitive nanosecond pulse discharges was found to extend lean flammability limits compared with conventional spark ignition systems. In addition, the ignition system using repetitive nanosecond pulse discharges could shorten ignition delay time.

In this study, the combustion characteristics of diesel flame achieved in a rapid compression and expansion machine (RCEM) at various patterns of oxygen distribution in the chamber are investigated in order to clarify the effect of heterogeneity of oxygen distribution in diesel engines induced by EGR on the soot and NOx emissions. To make the heterogeneous distribution of oxygen in a combustion chamber, the mixtures with different oxygen concentrations are injected through the each different port located on the cylinder wall. Results indicate that the amount of oxygen entrained into the spray upstream the luminous flame region affects the NO emission from diesel flame strongly.

Trapping of diesel particulates and phenomena of chemical reaction in regeneration were investigated by visualization through the cross-sectional area of a diesel-particulate-filter wall, using a digital-microscope with a high focusing depth. Herein, SiC-DPF walls were polished up to make a uniform height and to create a mirror-like surface on each SiC-particle-grain. At the beginning of the trapping process, it was observed that large particulates were trapped once in the small pores inside the wall, and then, since the flow-pattern was changed drastically, the trapped particulates were pushed out and blown off again, and finally, trapped in a region further downstream. As time passed, image analysis disclosed that since fine particulates were deposited around the SiC-particle-grain surface, the flow-channels became increasingly narrow.