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Owing to climate change issues caused by global warming, the role of alternative fuels, such as low-carbon and non-carbon fuels, is becoming increasingly important, particularly in the transportation sector. Therefore, hydrogen has emerged as a promising fuel for internal combustion engines because it does not emit carbon dioxide. Direct injection is mandatory for hydrogen-based internal combustion engines to mitigate backfires and low energy density. However, there is a lack of measurement of the equivalence ratio methodology because hydrogen has a higher diffusion rate than conventional fuels. The objective of this research is a feasibility study of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBs) for measuring the equivalence ratio. The second harmonic ND-YAG laser was implemented to induce the atomic emission of hydrogen via the breakdown phenomenon. Simultaneously, the hydrogen jet structure was visualized in a constant volume vessel using Schlieren imaging.

Incomplete-combustion and misfire are the hurdles in internal combustion engines to run on ultra-lean mixture, whereas high thermal efficiency has been achieved at lean mixture. The burning characteristics of n-heptane with 0% and 30% hydrogen additions were studied at 393K-453K and 100kPa-300kPa up to near lean burn limits, λ=0.8-2.0. The flame appeared in spherical shape only by 37-mJ ignition energy (IE) at λ=0.8-1.5, while further lean mixture, ≥1.6, could be ignited only by 3000-mJ with the distorted flame shape. The flame buoyed in the mixture when burning velocity calculated by kinetic mechanism was equal or less than 19.83 cm/s at the initial conditions of λ=1.8, 393K and 100kPa. The thermal instability under impact of initial pressure and temperature was higher at lean mixture than at stoichiometric mixture.

The SAE J300 classification was expanded to 0W-12 and 0W-8 viscosity grades in 2015, and lower viscosity engine oils have been studied in the industry. ILSAC GF-6B that will be introduced in 2020 will specify a 0W-16 requirement, but 0W-12 and 0W-8 grades are not considered. Because engine oil equal to or higher than the 0W-20 grade is recommended for almost all engines globally, suitable engine tests for 0W-12 and 0W-8 do not exist. Therefore, the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association, Petroleum Association of Japan and Society of Automotive Engineers of Japan decided to establish new 0W-12 and 0W-8 low viscosity engine oil specifications. It is referred to as JASO GLV-1, and together with a new fuel economy engine test procedure, these engine oils for better fuel economy will be put on the Japanese market in 2019. Motoring friction torque tests are widely used to ascertain the friction reduction effect of fuel-economy engine oils.

A three-dimensional model of a diesel engine exhaust port was established. The reliability of modeling method and the exhaust port model were verified by the steady-flow test, PIV test and pressure field test. Based on the exhaust port model, the influence of the key section parameters such as inlet area S1, throat area S2, and outlet area S3 on the flow capacity of the exhaust port was studied. The results show that, under different pressure difference and exhaust back pressure conditions, the mass flow rate increases first and then converges with the increase of the area ratio of outlet and inlet or the area ratio of throat and inlet. With the increase of the relative pressure difference, the optimal area ratio of outlet and inlet decreases and converges to 1.02, but the optimal area ratio of throat and inlet increases and converges to 1.13.

The spray structure and vaporization processes of flash-boiling sprays in a constant volume chamber under a wide range of superheated conditions were experimentally investigated by a high speed imaging technique. The Engine Combustion Network’s Spray G injector was used. Four fuels including gasoline, ethanol, and gasoline-ethanol blends E30 and E50 were investigated. Spray penetration length and spray width were correlated to the degree of the superheated degree, which is the ratio of the ambient pressure to saturated vapor pressure (pa/ps). It is found that parameter pa/ps is critical in describing the spray transformation under flash-boiling conditions. Three distinct stages namely the slight flash-boiling, the transition flash-boiling, and the flare flash-boiling are identified to describe the transformation of spray structures.

Engine cylinder pressure is traditionally measured with a piezo-electric pressure transducer, and as such, must be referenced or pegged to a known value. Frequently, the cylinder pressure is pegged to the pressure in the intake manifold plenum whereby the manifold absolute pressure (MAP) at the end of the intake stroke is measured and the cylinder pressure trace for the entire cycle is adjusted such that the cylinder pressure is set equal to the manifold pressure at the end of the intake stroke. However, any error in pegging induces an error in the cylinder pressure trace, which has an adverse effect on the entire combustion analysis. This research is focused on assessing the pegging error for several pegging methods across a wide range of engine operating conditions, and ultimately determining best practices to minimize error in pegging and the calculated combustion metrics. The study was conducted through 1D simulations using the commercially available GT-Power.

A three-dimensional model of a diesel engine intake port was established and was verified by steady-flow test. Based on this model, the influence of intake valve lift on the flow capacity of intake port was studied and a design method of maximum valve lift was put forward. The results show that, under different intake pressure and relative pressure difference conditions, the discharge coefficient increases first and then converges with the increase of valve lift. Under the same valve lift condition, with the increase of relative pressure difference, the discharge coefficient decreases slightly in subsonic state and decreases sharply from subsonic state to supersonic state, but the mass flow rate increases slightly. The optimum ratio of valve lift and valve seat diameter is related to relative pressure difference, it increases first and then keeps constant with the increase of relative pressure difference.

The electronic unit pump system, which is widely applied to the heavy-duty diesel engine, belongs to the pulsating high-pressure fuel injection system, and the fuel pressure fluctuations have an essential influence on the spray and combustion in the internal combustion engine. Besides, pressure fluctuations are always aroused by the motion of actuators, such as the injector or other control valves, so it is also an advantage for fault diagnosis and feedback control to ascertain the relationship between the pressure fluctuation and the motion of the actuator. In this study, experiments and 1D-simulation were carried on to investigate the fuel pressure fluctuation characteristics and their correlations with the transient motion of the needle valve in the injector.

The diesel low temperature combustion (LTC) can keep high efficiency and produce low emission. Which has been widely studied at home and abroad in recent years. The combustion control parameters, such as injection pressure, injection timing, intake oxygen concentration, intake pressure, intake temperature and so on, have an important influence on the combustion and emission of diesel LTC. Therefore, to realize different combustion modes and combustion mode switch of diesel engine, it is necessary to accurately control the injection parameters and intake parameters of diesel engine. In this work, experimental study has been carried out to analyze the effect of intake oxygen concentration, intake pressure and intake temperature in combustion and emission characteristics of diesel LTC, such as in-cylinder pressure, temperature, heat release rate, NOx and soot emission.

The acquisition of more authentic cylinder pressure data is the basis of engine combustion analysis. Due to the multiple advantages, quartz piezoelectric pressure transducers are generally applied to the measurement of the cylinder pressure. However, these transducers can only produce dynamic cylinder pressure data which may be significantly different from the actual values. Thus, the cylinder pressure data need to be corrected through a certain method, while different cylinder pressure correction methods will cause result divergences of the combustion analysis. This paper aims to acquire a proper cylinder pressure correction method by carrying out theoretical analysis based on the polytropic process in the compression stroke as well as the experimental research of the cylinder pressure of a turbocharged eight-cylinder diesel engine.

The control valve is the most important implementation part of a high pressure common rail system, and its flow characteristics have a great influence on the performance of an injector. In this paper, based on the structure and the working principle of an electromagnetic injector in a high pressure common rail system, a simulation model of the injector is established by AMESim software. Some key parameters of the control valve, including the volume of the control chamber, the diameter of the orifice Z (feeding orifice), the diameter of the orifice A (discharge orifice) and the hole diameter of the fuel diffusion hole are studied by using this model. The results show that these key structural parameters of the control valve have a great influence on the establishment of the control chamber pressure and the action of the needle valve.

The pressure fluctuation characteristics of a constant pressure fuel system has great influence on its fuel injection characteristics. It is, therefore important to understand the impacts of these fluctuations in order to better study and optimize the fuel injection characteristics. In this study, the pressure fluctuation characteristics of the high pressure common rail system have been investigated experimentally. The transient pressure at different positions in the high pressure common rail system have been measured. The phase of pressure fluctuation during the injection process has been analyzed and the corresponding fluctuating characteristic parameters have been characterized for each phase. The changes in pressure wave propagation velocity, fuel injection pressure drop amplitude, wave amplitude, period and decay time are obtained by studying the fluctuation characteristic parameters caused by fuel pressure and temperature change.

Low Temperature Combustion (LTC) engines are promising to improve powertrain fuel economy and reduce NOx and soot emissions by improving the in-cylinder combustion process. However, the narrow operating range of LTC engines limits the use of these engines in conventional powertrains. Extended range electric vehicles (EREVs), by decoupling the engine from the drivetrain, allows the engine to operate in a limited operating range; thus, EREVs offer an ideal platform for realizing the advantages of LTC engines. In this study, the global optimum fuel economy improvement of an experimentally developed 2-liter multi-mode LTC engine in a series EREV is investigated. The engine operation modes include Homogeneous-Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI), Reactivity Controlled Compression Ignition (RCCI), and conventional Spark Ignition (SI).

The medium and heavy duty vehicle industry has fostered an increase in emissions research with the aim of reducing NOx while maintaining power output and thermal efficiency. This research describes a proof-of-concept numerical study conducted on a Caterpillar single-cylinder research engine. The target of the study is to reduce NOx by taking a unique approach to combustion air handling and utilizing enriched nitrogen and oxygen gas streams provided by Air Separation Membranes. A large set of test cases were initially carried out for closed-cycle situations to determine an appropriate set of operating conditions that are conducive for NOx reduction and gas diffusion properties. Several parameters - experimental and numerical, were considered. Experimental aspects, such as engine RPM, fuel injection pressure, start of injection, spray inclusion angle, and valve timings were considered for the parametric study.

The output power of a turbocharged diesel engine will decrease and the maximum torque point in the full load torque map will move backwards when the engine is operating at plateau.

With the development of advanced ABE fermentation technology, the volumetric percentage of acetone, butanol and ethanol in the bio-solvents can be precisely controlled. To seek for an optimized volumetric ratio for ABE-diesel blends, the previous work in our team has experimentally investigated and analyzed the combustion features of ABE-diesel blends with different volumetric ratio (A: B: E: 6:3:1; 3:6:1; 0:10:0, vol. %) in a constant volume chamber. It was found that an increased amount of acetone would lead to a significant advancement of combustion phasing whereas butanol would compensate the advancing effect. Both spray dynamic and chemistry reaction dynamic are of great importance in explaining the unique combustion characteristic of ABE-diesel blend. In this study, a semi-detailed chemical mechanism is constructed and used to model ABE-diesel spray combustion in a constant volume chamber.

Within the hydraulic shifting circuit of power-shift steering transmission, the performance of filter is generally characterized by the theoretical filtration ratio. However in practical work, the actual filtration ratio is far less than the theoretical ratio. On the basis of investigation on the structural characteristics, the oil flowing distribution and the filter mechanisms, the re-filtering rate ω and recontaminative rate θ are defined to simulate the actual filtering process. Therefore, the dynamic filtration ratio is modelled and simulated in MATLAB/Simulink to investigate that how the filtering rate ω and θ influence the dynamic filtration ratio and the deviation between the dynamic ratio and theoretical ratio. Afterwards, the variation of dynamic filtration ratio is tested through a filtration experiment under the circumstances of various flow rate, temperature and pressure.

The effect of temporally-splitting high pressure injection on Diesel spray combustion and soot formation processes was studied by using the high-speed video camera. The spray was injected by the single-hole nozzle with a hole diameter of 0.11mm into the high-pressure and high-temperature constant volume vessel. The free spray and the spray impingement on the two dimensional (2D) piston cavity wall were examined. Injection pressures of 100 and 160 MPa for the single injection and 160 MPa for the split injection were selected. The flame structure and soot formation process were examined by using the two-color pyrometry. The soot generated in the flame under the split injection under 160 MPa becomes higher than that of the single injection under 160 MPa.

Computer programs and models are playing an increasing role in simulating vehicle crashworthiness, dynamic, and fuel efficiency. To maximize the effectiveness of these models, the validity and predictive capabilities of these models need to be assessed quantitatively. For a successful implementation of Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) models as an integrated part of the current vehicle development process, it is necessary to develop objective validation metric that has the desirable metric properties to quantify the discrepancy between multiple tests and simulation results. However, most of the outputs of dynamic systems are multiple functional responses, such as time history series. This calls for the development of an objective metric that can evaluate the differences of the multiple time histories as well as the key features under uncertainty.

In this study, the effects of Variable Valve Timing (VVT) on the performance of a Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) engine are analyzed by developing a computationally efficient modeling approach for the HCCI engine cycle. A full engine cycle model called Sequential Model for Residual affected HCCI (SMRH) is developed using a multi zone thermo-kinetic combustion model coupled with flow dynamic models. The SMRH utilizes CHEMKIN®-PRO and GT-POWER® software along with an in-house exhaust gas flow model. Experimental data from a single cylinder HCCI engine is used to validate the model for different operating conditions. Validation results show a good agreement with experimental data for predicting combustion phasing, Indicated Mean Effective Pressure (IMEP), thermal efficiency as well as CO emission. The experimentally validated SMRH is then used to investigate the effects of intake and exhaust valve timing on residual affected HCCI engine combustion.