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Diesel-fueled heavy-duty vehicles (HDVs) can be retrofitted with conversion kits to operate as dual-fuel vehicles in which partial diesel usage is offset by a gaseous fuel such as compressed natural gas (CNG). The main purpose of installing such a conversion kit is to reduce the operating cost of HDVs. Additionally, replacing diesel partially with a low-carbon fuel such as CNG can potentially lead to lower carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the tail-pipe. The main issue of CNG-diesel dual-fuel vehicles is the methane (CH4, the primary component of CNG) slip. CH4 is difficult to oxidize in the exhaust after-treatment (EAT) system and its slip may offset the advantage of lower CO2 emissions of natural gas combustion as CH4 is a strong greenhouse gas (GHG). The objective of this study is to compare the emissions of an HDV with a CNG conversion kit operating in diesel and dual-fuel mode during highway operation.

In 2017 the National Research Council of Canada developed an evaporation model for controlling engine icing tunnels in real time. The model included simplifications to allow it to update the control system once per second, including the assumption of sea level pressure in some calculations. Recently the engine icing system was required in an altitude facility requiring operation down to static temperatures of -40°C, and up to an altitude of 9.1 km (30 kft) or 30 kPa. To accommodate the larger temperature and pressure range the model was modified by removing the assumption of sea level operation and expanding the temperature range. In addition, due to the higher concentration of water vapor that can be held by the atmosphere at lower pressures, the significance of the effect of humidity on the air properties and the effect on the model was investigated.

Future compliance to FAA 14 CFR Part 25 and EASA CS-25 Appendix O conditions has required icing wind tunnels to expand their cloud simulation envelope, and demonstrate accurate calibration of liquid water content and droplet particle size distributions under these conditions. This has led to a renewed community interest in the accuracy of these calibrations, and the potential inter-facility bias due to the choice of instrumentation and processing methods. This article provides a comparison of the response of various hot-wire liquid water content instruments under Appendix C and supercooled large droplet conditions, after an independent similar analysis at other wind tunnel facilities. The instruments are being used, or are under consideration for use, by facilities collaborating in the ICE GENESIS program.

This article presents an autonomous steering control scheme for articulated heavy vehicles (AHVs). Despite economic and environmental benefits in freight transportation, lateral stability is always a concern for AHVs in high-speed highway operations due to their multi-unit vehicle structures, and high centers of gravity (CGs). In addition, North American harsh winter weather makes the lateral stability even more challenging. AHVs often experience amplified lateral motions of trailing vehicle units in high-speed evasive maneuvers. AHVs represent a 7.5 times higher risk than passenger cars in highway operation. Human driver errors cause about 94% of traffic collisions. However, little attention has been paid to autonomous steering control of AHVs.

Road vehicles in the real world experience aerodynamic conditions that might be unappreciated and omitted in wind-tunnel experiments or in numerical simulations. Precipitation can potentially have an impact on the aerodynamics of road vehicles. An experimental study was devised to measure, in a wind tunnel, the impact of rain on the aerodynamic forces of the DrivAer research model. In this study, a rain system was commissioned to simulate natural rain in a wind-tunnel environment for full-scale rain rates between about 8 and 250 mm/hr. A 30%-scale DrivAer model was tested with and without precipitation for two primary configurations: the notch-back and estate-back variants. In addition, mirror-removal and covered-wheel-well configurations were investigated. The results demonstrate a distinct relationship between increasing rain intensities and increased drag of the model, providing evidence that road vehicles experience higher drag when travelling in precipitation conditions.

Use of natural gas-diesel dual-fuel (NDDF) combustion in compression ignition engines is a method of reducing the net greenhouse gas (GHG) and particulate matter (PM) emissions of these engines. Compressed natural gas (NG) is injected into the intake manifold of the engine and the air-NG mixture is ignited by a direct injection of diesel in the cylinder. One of the main challenges with NDDF combustion is the methane (primary component of NG) slip at low and medium loads, which reduces the engine efficiency and offsets the advantage of lower carbon dioxide emissions of the NG combustion. In order to address this issue, an intake manifold insert is devised with the objective to alter the intake flow profile into the engine and ultimately reduce the methane slip. This is a novel strategy for an NDDF engine since modifying the in-cylinder flow profile can intensify the mixing between diesel and air-NG mixture in order to improve the NG utilization in the cylinder.

In North America, heavy-duty diesel engines for on-road use have to meet strict regulations for their emissions of nitric oxide and nitrogen dioxide (cumulatively referred to as ‘NOx’) besides other criteria pollutants. Over the next decade, regulations for NOx emissions are expected to becoming more stringent in North America. One of the major technical barriers for achieving in-use NOx emissions commensurate with the levels determined from in-laboratory test procedures required by regulations is controlling NOx emissions during cold start and engine idling. Since the exhaust gas temperature can be low during these conditions, the effectiveness of the exhaust after-treatment (EAT) system may be reduced. Under colder climate conditions like in Canada, the impact may be even more significant.

Natural gas is an increasingly attractive fuel for marine applications due to its abundance, lower cost, and reduced CO2, NOx, SOx, and particulate matter (PM) emissions relative to conventional fuels such as diesel. Methane in natural gas is a potent greenhouse gas (GHG) and must be monitored and controlled to minimize GHG emissions. In-use GHG emissions are commonly estimated from emission factors based on steady state engine operation, but these do not consider transient operation which has been noted to affect other pollutants including PM and NOx. This study compares methane emissions from a coastal marine vessel during transient operation to those expected based on steady state emission factors. The exhaust methane concentration from a diesel pilot-ignited, low pressure natural gas-fuelled engine was measured with a wavelength modulation spectroscopy system, during periods of increasing and decreasing engine load (between 3 and 90%).

Natural gas (NG)-diesel dual-fuel combustion can be a suitable solution to reduce the overall CO2 emissions of heavy-duty vehicles using diesel engines. One configuration of such a dual-fuel engine can be port injection of NG to form a combustible air-NG mixture in the cylinder. This mixture is then ignited by a direct injection of diesel. Other potential advantages of such an engine include the flexibility of switching back to diesel-only mode, reduced hardware development costs and lower soot emissions. However, the trade-off is lower brake thermal efficiency (BTE) and higher hydrocarbon emissions, especially methane, at low load and/or high engine speed conditions. Advancing the diesel injection timing tends to improve the BTE but may cause the NOx emissions to increase.

The National Research Council of Canada (NRC) has undergone the development of a Small Axial Compressor Rig for modelling altitude ice accretion in aircraft engines. The rig consists of two axial compressor stages measuring approximately 150mm in diameter, an extension duct to allow residence time for partial melting of ice crystals and a test piece. The axial compressor stages are intended to provide realistic engine conditioning such as fracture, pressure rise, temperature rise and centrifuging of glaciated ice crystals entering the rig. The rig was designed for use in altitude icing wind tunnels such as the NRC’s altitude icing wind tunnel (AIWT), research altitude test facility (RATFac.), and those of other organization such as NASA Glenn and Technical University of Braunshweig. Previous development work [1] provided partial validation of the aerodynamic performance of just the first compressor stage at 90% power.

High altitude ice crystals are causing in-service events in excess of one per month for commercial aircraft. The effects include air data probes malfunctioning (pitot pressure and total air temperature in particular), and uncommanded engine power loss or flameout events. The National Research Council Canada (NRC) has developed a particle detection probe (PDP) that mounts on the fuselage of aircraft to sense and quantify the ice crystals in the environment. The probe is low-power and non-intrusive. This paper presents the results of ground and flight testing of this probe. Results are presented for ground testing in a sea level ice crystal wind tunnel and an altitude icing tunnel capable of generating both ice crystal and super-cooled liquid. The PDP was operated on several flight campaigns and the results of two will be presented.

The National Research Council’s Gas Turbine Laboratory provides industry leading icing facilities that allow manufacturers to develop, validate and certify new products for flight in adverse conditions. This paper shows how NRC measurement techniques are used across the facilities, and presents a literature-review of recently developed capabilities. The overview includes new details on some facilities, and future capabilities that are in development or planned for the near future. Methods developed at the NRC for characterizing inclement conditions are discussed and include the Isokinetic Probe, Particle Shadow Velocimetry, the Particle Detection Probe, and a size-binned real-time thermodynamic evaporation model.

A study has been conducted into icephobic properties of some highly durable “off-the-shelf” elastomer materials using a rotating ice adhesion test rig installed in the NRC’s Altitude Icing Wind Tunnel. This enabled the formation of ice at environmental conditions similar to those experienced during in-flight icing encounters. Initially, the tests indicated some very positive results with ice adhesion shear stress as low as 8KPa. On further examination, however, it became apparent that the test preparation process, in which the samples were cleaned with an ethanol alcohol solution, influenced the results due to absorption and prolonged retention of the cleaning fluid. The uptake of the ethanol alcohol solution by the elastomer was found to be a function of the surface temperature and remained absorbed into the coating during the ice accretion process changing the characteristics of the coating in such a way that led to a reduction in the ice/surface bond strength.

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model has been widely applied in internal combustion (IC) engine research. The integration of chemical kinetic model with CFD provides an opportunity for researchers to investigate the detailed chemical reactions for better understanding the combustion process of IC engines. However, the simulation using CFD has generally focused on the examination of primary parameters, such as temperature and species distributions. The detailed investigation on chemical reactions is limited. This paper presents the development of a post-processing tool capable of calculating the rate of production (ROP) of interested species with the known temperature, pressure, and concentration of each species in each cell simulated using CONVERGE-SAGE CFD model.

With increasing use of boat-tails on Canadian roads, a concern had been raised regarding the possibility for ice and snow to accumulate and shed from the cavity of a boat-tail affixed to a dry-van trailer, posing a hazard for other road users. This paper describes a preliminary evaluation of the potential for ice and snow accumulation in the cavity of a boat-tail-equipped heavy-duty vehicle. A transient CFD approach was used and combined with a quasi-static particle-tracking simulation to evaluate, firstly, the tendency of various representative ice or snow particles to be entrained in the vehicle wake, and secondly, the potential of such particles to accumulate on the aft end of a dry-van trailer with and without various boat-tail configurations. Results of the particle tracking analyses showed that the greatest numbers of particles impinge on the base of the trailer for the no-boat-tail case, concentrated on the upper surface of the back face of the trailer.

In an effort to support Phase 2 of Greenhouse Gas Regulations for Heavy-Duty Vehicles in the United States, a track-based test program was jointly supported by Transport Canada (TC), Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the National Research Council Canada (NRC) to assess aerodynamic evaluation methodologies proposed by the EPA and to provide a site-verification exercise against a previous test campaign with the same vehicle. Coast-down tests were conducted with a modern aerodynamic tractor matched to a conventional 16.2 m (53 ft) dry-van trailer, and outfitted with two drag reduction technologies. Enhanced wind-measurement instrumentation was introduced, consisting of a vehicle-mounted fast-response pressure probe and track-side sonic anemometers that, when used in combination, provided improved reliability for the measurements of wind conditions experienced by the vehicle.

This study reports gaseous and particle (ultrafine and black carbon (BC)) emissions from a turbofan engine core on standard Jet A-1 and three alternative fuels, including 100% hydrothermolysis synthetic kerosene with aromatics (CH-SKA), 50% Hydro-processed Esters and Fatty Acid paraffinic kerosene (HEFA-SPK), and 100% Fischer Tropsch (FT-SPK). Gaseous emissions from this engine for various fuels were similar but significant differences in particle emissions were observed. During the idle condition, it was observed that the non-refractory mass fraction in the emitted particles were higher than during higher engine load condition. This observation is consistent for all test fuels. The 100% CH-SKA fuel was found to have noticeable reductions in BC emissions when compared to Jet A-1 by 28-38% by different BC instruments (and 7% in refractory particle number (PN) emissions) at take-off condition.

This paper describes the equipment, analysis methods and results obtained for particle size measurements based on a particle imaging velocimetry (PIV) system in which a short duration laser pulse is used to backlight airborne particles. This produces high quality and high resolution images of fast moving airborne particles in a non-intrusive manner. This imaging technique is also used to examine particle morphology and 2D particle trajectory and velocity. The image analysis methods are outlined and validation test results discussed which show the measurement of reference glass beads between 20 and 400 microns were generally to within their stated size. As well, validation testing using known icing wind tunnel droplet distributions were compared with Spraytek 2000 Malvern droplet size measurements and showed agreement of the MVD's to be within ±5% for distributions having nominally 20, 40 and 80 micron MVD's.

Simulations of supercooled large droplet (SLD) icing environments within the NRC's Altitude Icing Wind Tunnel (AIWT) have been performed in which broad band mass distribution spectra are achieved that include a distinct pattern of liquid water content (LWC) over a range of droplet sizes (i.e., bi-modal distribution). The mass distribution is achieved through modification of the existing spray system of the AIWT to allow two spray profiles with differing LWC and median volumetric diameter (MVD) to be simultaneously injected into the flow. Results of spray profile distributions measured in the test section have demonstrated that freezing drizzle conditions, where MVD is either less than or greater than 40 μm, can be achieved.

Ice crystals ingested by a jet engine at high altitude can partially melt and then accrete within the forward stages of the compressor, potentially causing performance loss, damage and/or flameout. Recent research into this ice crystal icing (ICI) phenomenon conducted at the National Research Council of Canada suggests that the liquid water content vliq of an accretion significantly affects the accretion's susceptibility to erosion by ice crystals, and therefore accretion growth. This paper describes the development and application of an instrument for measuring vliq, potentially providing a method for correlating erosion behavior (e.g. as ductile or brittle) and properties. The instrument measures the complex admittance Y* of a mixed-phase deposit bridging a pair of electrodes, which is modeled as a resistor and capacitor in parallel, and calculates the deposit's relative permittivity εr from the capacitance.