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Pre-chamber ignition is one of the advanced technologies to improve the combustion performance for lean combustion natural gas engine, which could achieve low NOx, simultaneously. The designing scheme of the orifices, which connects the pre-chamber and the main chamber, is the main challenge limiting the further improvement. In this work, the three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics calculation based on a four-stroke engine with 320 mm cylinder bore was conducted to investigate the effects of orifice structure on the combustion and NOx performance. The results show that the schemes with 7 and 9 orifices lead to the delayed high-temperature jets formation due to the asymmetrical airflow in the pre-chamber, which retards the ignition timing but enhances the combustion in the main chamber. The 6 orifices scheme leads to the insufficient distribution of the high-temperature jets, and the 10 orifices result in the serious interference between the adjacent high-temperature jets.

For liquid fueled engine, the fuel atomization affects fuel’s evaporation, combustion, noise and vibration characteristics eventually. In this study, the effects of fuel species on the internal flow and near field primary breakup characteristics of a nozzle “Spray C” are investigated. Based on the framework of OpenFOAM, the newly developed solver which coupled cavitation model and the multifluid-quasi-VOF (Volume-of-Fluid) model, and combines the LES (Large Eddy Simulation) are applied to simulate the nozzle inner flow and near field jet breakup when using diesel and biodiesel respectively. The transient characteristics of nozzle inner flow and near field spray of two different fuels were analyzed, and the variation of axial pressure and velocity of nozzle was obtained. The simulation results show that the cavitation of biodiesel with high viscosity and low saturated vapor pressure develops slower and weaker.

Multi-sensor fusion strategies have gradually become a consensus in autonomous driving research. Among them, radar-camera fusion has attracted wide attention for its improvement on the dimension and accuracy of perception at a lower cost, however, the processing and association of radar and camera data has become an obstacle to related research. Our approach is to build a concise framework for camera and radar detection and data association: for visual object detection, the state-of-the-art YOLOv5 algorithm is further improved and works as the image detector, and before the fusion process, the raw radar reflection data is projected onto image plane and hierarchically clustered, then the projected radar echoes and image detection results are matched based on the Hungarian algorithm. Thus, the category of objects and their corresponding distance and speed information can be obtained, providing reliable input for subsequent object tracking task.

Focusing on the dual-mode dual-fuel (DMDF) combustion concept, a combined optimization of the piston bowl geometry with the fuel injection strategy was conducted at low, mid, and high loads. By coupling the KIVA-3V code with the enhanced genetic algorithm (GA), a total of 14 parameters including the piston bowl geometric parameters and the injection parameters were optimized with the objective of meeting Euro VI regulations while improving the fuel efficiency. The optimal piston bowl shape coupled with the corresponding injection strategy was summarized and integrated at various loads. Furthermore, the effects of the key geometric parameters were investigated in terms of organizing the in-cylinder flow, influencing the energy distribution, and affecting the emissions. The results indicate that the behavior of the DMDF combustion mode is further enhanced in the aspects of improving the fuel economy and controlling the emissions after the bowl geometry optimization.

Owing to the small size of engines and high injection pressures, it is difficult to avoid the fuel spray impingement on the combustion cylinder wall and piston head in Direct Injection Spark Ignition (DISI) engine, which is a possible source of hydrocarbons and soot emission. As a result, the droplets size and distribution are significantly important to evaluate the atomization and predict the impingement behaviors, such as stick, spread or splash. However, the microscopic behaviors of droplets are seldom reported due to the high density of small droplets, especially under high pressure conditions. In order to solve this problem, a “spray slicer” was designed to cut the spray before impingement as a sheet one to observe the droplets clearly. The experiment was performed in a constant volume chamber under non-evaporation condition, and a mini-sac injector with single hole was used.

The non-conventional diesel nozzles have attracted more and more attention for their ability to promote jet breakup. In the present study, the internal nozzle flow and jet breakup relying on the convergent-divergent nozzle are investigated by combining the cavitation model and LES model with Multi-Fluid-Quasi-VOF model based on the OpenFOAM code. This is a novel method for which the interphase forces caused by the relative velocity of gas and liquid can be taken into account while sharpening the gas-liquid interface, which is able to accurately present the evolution processes of cavitation and jet breakup. Primarily, the numerical model was verified by the mass flow rate, spray momentum flux, discharge coefficient and effective jet velocity of the prototype Spray D nozzle from the literature.

Controllability of ignition timing and combustion phase by means of dual-fuel direct injection strategy in jet-controlled compression ignition mode were investigated in a light-duty prototype diesel engine. Blended fuel with lower reactivity was delivered in the early period of compression stroke to form the premixed charge, while diesel fuel which has higher reactivity was injected near TDC to trigger the ignition. The effects of several important injection parameters including pre-injection timing, jet-injection timing, pre- injection pressure and ratio of pre-injection in the total heat value of injected fuel were discussed. Numerical Simulation by using CFD software was also conducted under similar operating conditions. The experimental results indicate that the jet-injection timing shows robust controllability on the start of combustion under all the engine load conditions.

Although turbulence plays a critical role in engines operated within low temperature combustion (LTC) regime, its interaction with chemistry on auto-ignition at low-ambient-temperature and lean-oxygen conditions remains inadequately understood. Therefore, it is worthwhile taking turbulence-chemistry interaction (TCI) into consideration in LTC engine simulation by employing advanced combustion models. In the present study, large eddy simulation (LES) coupled with linear eddy model (LEM) is performed to simulate the ignition process in n-heptane spray under engine-relevant conditions, known as Spray H. With LES, more details about unsteady spray flame could be captured compared to Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations (RANS). With LEM approach, both scalar fluctuation and turbulent mixing on sub-grid level are captured, accounting for the TCI. A skeletal mechanism is adopted in this numerical simulation, including 41 species and 124 reactions.

The chemical kinetic mechanism determines the ignition timing of homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) engines. The correlation of the ignition delay in shock tubes and HCCI engines under different operating conditions was studied with a reduced mechanism of the primary reference fuel (PRF) composing of n-heptane and iso-octane. According to the similarity analysis of the sensitivity coefficient, the operating conditions which affect the similarity factor are recognized. The results indicate that, under the negative temperature coefficient (NTC) region of the ignition delay in shock tubes, the weight of each reaction on the ignition delay in shock tubes is similar to that in HCCI engines. The ignition delay time in HCCI engines is defined as the period from the time of start of heat release (SHR) with the HRR greater than zero to CA10. At the high equivalence ratios in shock tubes, the similarity factor at the low ambient temperatures is small.

Flash boiling spray is effective in improving the atomization and evaporation characteristics for gasoline direct injection engines. However, for a multi-hole injector the morphology structure of spray has an obvious change with the fuel temperature increasing or the ambient pressure decreasing, which influences the process of mixture formation and flame propagation. Specially, the spray collapses with both long penetration and a narrow spray angle above certain high superheat degree, which deteriorates air/fuel mixing and hence increases emissions. It is not desired for engine applications while the mechanism of spray structure transformation for multi-hole injector still remains unclear. In the present study, a systematic flash boiling spray model for multi-hole injector is built to investigate the flash boiling spray of multi-hole injector.

The intersecting hole nozzle, in which each orifice is formed by the converging of two or more child-holes, was proposed for the purpose of enhancing the internal turbulence in diesel nozzle, so as to promote the fuel atomization. In this paper, the internal flow characteristics of a cylindrical hole nozzle and two intersecting hole nozzles are studied by CFD simulation. The results show that, compared with conventional cylindrical hole nozzle, the internal flow of intersecting hole nozzles is characterized with slower rate of pressure decrease in the hole, none or very little cavitation, as well as about 20% to 30% higher discharge coefficients, especially under conditions of high injection pressure. Additionally, the setting of the blind hole as a disturbing domain in the intersecting hole nozzle results in more perturbation for internal flow, which will be beneficial for fuel atomization.

As one of the most important auto-body moving parts, door hinge is the key point of door design and its accessories arrangement, also the premise of the door kinematic analysis. We proposed an effective layout procedure for door hinge and developed an intelligent system on CATIA CAA platform to execute it. One toolbar and five function modules are constructed - Axis Arrangement, Section, Parting Line, Kinematic, Hinge Database. This system integrated geometrical algorithms, automatically calculate the minimum clearances between doors, fender and hinges on sections to judge if the layout is feasible. As the sizes of the clearances are set to 0s, the feasible layout regions and extreme start/end points are shown in parts window, which help the engineer to check the parting line and design a new one. Our system successfully implemented the functions of five modules for the layout of door hinge axis and parting line based on a door hinge database.

In this work, large eddy simulation (LES) with a K-equation subgrid turbulent kinetic energy model is implemented into the CFD code KIVA3V to study the features of liquid fuel spray and combustion using gradually varying grid in a constant volume chamber. The characteristic time-scale combustion model (CTC) incorporating a turbulent timescale is adopted to predict the combustion process and the SHELL auto-ignition model is used to predict auto-ignition. Combustion is also simulated using Parallel Detailed Chemistry with Lu's n-heptane reduced mechanism (58 species), which has been added into the KIVA3V-LES code. The computational results are compared with Sandia experimental data for non-reacting and reacting cases. As a result, LES can capture the complex structure of the spray and temperature distribution as well as the trend of ignition delay and flame lift-off length variations. Better results are obtained using the Parallel Detailed Chemistry than the CTC model.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the spray characteristics and ignition stability of gasoline sprays injected from a hole-type nozzle. Using a single-hole VCO (Valve-Covered-Orifice) nozzle, the spray characteristics were studied with LAS (Laser Absorption Scattering) technique, and then flame propagation and ignition stability were investigated inside a high temperature high pressure constant volume vessel using a high speed video camera. The spatial ignition stability of the spray at different locations was tested by adjusting the position of the electrodes. By adjusting the ignition timings, the stable ignition windows for 3 determined locations where the ignition stability was high at a fixed ignition timing were studied. The flame propagation process was examined using high speed shadowgraph method. Experimental results show that when the ignition points are located on the spray axis, the ignition probability is low.

This paper presents a large eddy simulation study of the liquid spray mixing with hot ambient gas in a constant volume vessel under engine-like conditions with the injection pressure of 1500 bar, ambient density 22.8 kg/m₃, ambient temperature of 900 K and an injector nozzle of 0.09 mm. The simulation results are compared with the experiments carried out by Pickett et al., under similar conditions. Under modern direct injection diesel engine conditions, it has been argued that the liquid core region is small and the droplets after atomization are fine so that the process of spray evaporation and mixing with the air is controlled by the heat and mass transfer between the ambient hot gas and central fuel flow. To examine this hypothesis a simple spray breakup model is tested in the present LES simulation. The simulations are performed using an open source compressible flow solver, in OpenFOAM.

A large eddy simulation approach and different breakup models are used to analyze fuel injection and atomization processes in a constant volume combustion bomb. The study is focused on the influences of the subgrid turbulent kinetic energy, especially the source term induced by the fuel spray, on the droplet movement and spray characteristics. Furthermore, the influence of different subgrid scale (SGS) models, including the constant coefficient and dynamic Smagorinsky models, WALE model and the K-equation turbulent energy transport model, on fuel sprays and the turbulent dispersion of droplets are examined. Factors affecting the fuel spray are discussed based on numerical computations for various operating conditions and are compared with experimental data.

The need to meet the US 2007 emissions legislation has necessitated a change in Diesel engine technology, particularly to the fuel injection equipment (FIE). At the same time as these engine technology changes, legislation has dictated a reduction in fuel sulphur levels and there has also been increased use of fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) or biodiesel as a fuel blending component. The combination of changes to the engine and the fuel has apparently led to a sharp rise in the number of reports of field problems resulting from deposits within the FIE. The problem is usually manifested as a significant loss of power or the engine failing to start. These symptoms are often due to deposits to be found within the fuel injectors or to severe fouling of the fuel filter. The characteristics of the deposits found within different parts of the fuel system can be noticeably different.

The paper describes a novel method for calculating the residual gas fraction and the trapping efficiency in a 2 stroke engine. Assuming one dimensional compressible flow through the inlet and exhaust ports, the method estimates the instantaneous mass flowing in and out from the combustion chamber; later the residual gas fraction and trapping efficiency are estimated combining together the perfect displacement and perfect mixing scavenging models. It is assumed that when the intake port opens, the fresh mixture is pushing out the burned charge without any mixing and after a multiple of the time needed for the largest eddy to perform one rotation, the two gasses are instantly mixed up together and expelled. The result is a very simple algorithm that does not require much computational time and is able to estimate with high level of precision the trapping efficiency and the residual gas fraction in 2 stroke engines.

It has been known from multi-zone simulations that HCCI combustion can be significantly affected by temperature stratification of the in-cylinder gas. With the same combustion timing (i.e. crank angles at 50% heat release, denoted as CA50), large temperature stratification tends to prolong the combustion duration and lower down the in-cylinder pressure-rise-rate. With low pressure-rise-rate HCCI engines can be operated at high load, therefore it is of practical importance to look into more details about how temperature stratification affects the auto-ignition process. It has been realized that multi-zone simulations can not account for the effects of spatial structures of the stratified temperature field, i.e. how the size of the hot and cold spots in the temperature field could affect the auto-ignition process. This question is investigated in the present work by large eddy simulation (LES) method which is capable of resolving the in-cylinder turbulence field in space and time.

To understand the working mechanism of the porous medium (PM) internal combustion engine, effects of a porous medium heat regenerator inserted into a combustion chamber on the turbulent flow field and fuel-air mixture formation are studied by numerical simulation. The cylindrical chamber has a constant volume, in which a disk-shaped PM insert is fixed. A simplified model for the random structure of the PM is presented, in which the PM is represented by an assembly of a great number of randomly distributed solid units. To simulate flows in the PM a Brinkman-Forchheimer-extended Darcy's equation is introduced into the numerical solver. A version of two-equation k - ε turbulence model suggested by Antohe and Lage is employed for the turbulence prediction in the PM. A spray model, in which the effects of drop breakup, collision and coalescence are taken into account, is introduced to describe spray/wall interactions.