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Methanol has been regarded as a potential transportation fuel due to its advanced combustion characteristics and flexible source. However, it is suffering from misfire and high HC emissions problems under cold start and low load conditions either on methanol SI engine or on methanol/diesel dual fuel engine. Hydrogen is a potential addition that can enhance the combustion of methanol due to its high flammability and combustion stability. In the current work, the effect of hydrogen fraction on the laminar flame characteristics of methanol- hydrogen-air mixture under varied equivalence ratio was investigated on a constant volume combustion chamber system coupled with a schlieren setup. Experiments were performed over a wide range of equivalence ratio of the premixed charge, varied from 0.8 to 1.4, as well as different hydrogen fraction, 0%, 5%, 10%, 15% and 20% (n/n). All tests were carried out at fixed temperature and pressure of 400K and 0.1MPa.

As known, the constant injection mass is a criterion for measuring the thermal efficiency of diesel engines. In this study, the effects of nozzle hole diameter on diesel free-spray characteristics were investigated in constant injection mass condition. The experiment was performed in a constant volume combustion chamber equipped with a high pressure common-rail injector that can change nozzles. Three single-hole axis nozzles with different hole diameters were used. High speed camera and Schlieren visualization set-up were used to capture the spray behaviors of liquid phase and vapor phase respectively. For liquid phase spray, the higher nozzle hole diameter, the higher were the liquid phase spray penetration rate and the saturated liquid phase spray penetration length. The saturated liquid phase spray penetration length wound not grow but oscillate around different mean values at the steady stage.

Dual-fuel combustion combining a premixed charge of compressed natural gas (CNG) and a pilot injection of diesel fuel offer the potential to reduce diesel fuel consumption and drastically reduce soot emissions. In this study, dual-fuel combustion using methane ignited with a pilot injection of No. 2 diesel fuel, was studied in a single cylinder diesel engine with optical access. Experiments were performed at a CNG substitution rate of 70% CNG (based on energy) over a wide range of equivalence ratios of the premixed charge, as well as different diesel injection strategies (single and double injection). A color high-speed camera was used in order to identify and distinguish between lean-premixed methane combustion and diffusion combustion in dual-fuel combustion. The effect of multiple diesel injections is also investigated optically as a means to enhance flame propagation towards the center of the combustion chamber.

A boost system with an auxiliary gas turbine used to recover diesel engine power at plateau conditions is proposed. System matching calculation, preliminary design, and performance simulation of the compressor with double parameter output are presented, as well as the preliminary design, flow simulation, and combustion process of the combustion chamber. Results show that the new system has better recovery performance and higher fuel economy potential than the simple charging scheme. For future research work, possible improvements and development direction are recommended.

The combustion characteristics of gasoline-diesel dual-fuel in an electronic-controlled high pressure common rail optical engine were investigated under different diesel injection timings and gasoline/diesel ratios by a high-speed photography method. The experimental results show that the dual-fuel combustion process is influenced by diesel combustion and gasoline homogenous combustion, respectively, with bright yellow flames and blue flames observed in the combustion chamber. At a gasoline/diesel ratio of 0.91, the injection timing affects the ignition timing and combustion modes significantly. When the diesel injection timing is before −25° after top dead center (ATDC), advancing the injection timing tends to prolong the ignition delay and the gasoline-diesel dual-fuel combustion is similar to the pre-mixed charge compression ignition (PCCI) combustion with a rapid single-stage heat release.