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To control the auto ignition in end-gas region and to achieve higher thermal efficiency in a natural gas dual fuel engine operated under PREMIER combustion mode where the end-gas auto ignition occurs without knocking-like oscillation, the EGR (exhaust gas recirculation) and supercharging were applied. The EGR rate and the intake air pressure as well as the pilot injection timing of diesel fuel were varied, and the profiles of the in-cylinder pressure, the exhaust emissions and the heat balance were examined at the indicated mean effective pressure around 680 kPa. The experimental results showed that higher thermal efficiency can be achieved with the combination of the PREMIER combustion and the EGR rate of 30% due to the improvements in the combustion efficiency and the degree of constant volume heat release while reducing the cooling loss.

In this research, a spark plug with an optical fiber has been developed to obtain the emission spectra from the spark discharge and flame kernel. This developed spark plug with an optical fiber can obtain the time series of emission spectra from the spark discharge and Initial flame kernel in the real spark-ignition engine using EMCCD spectrometer. The plasma vibrational temperature of the spark discharge can be measured using the emission spectra from the electrically excited CN violet band system. The plasma of the spark discharge and gas rotational temperature of the initial flame kernel can be also measured using emission spectra from OH* radicals (P and R branches). The plasma temperature of the spark discharge was almost 8,000 K and the gas temperature of the Initial flame kernel approached that of the adiabatic flame temperature.

The authors have previously proposed a plume ignition and combustion concept (i.e., PCC combustion), in which a hydrogen fuel is directly injected to the combustion chamber in the latter half of compression stroke and forms a richer mixture plume. By combusting the plume, both cooling losses and NOx formation are reduced. In this study, thermal efficiency was substantially improved and NOx formation was reduced with PCC combustion by optimizing such characteristics as direction and diameter of the jets in combination with combustion of lean mixture. Output power declined due to the lean mixture, however, was recovered by supercharging while keeping NOx emissions at the same level. Thermal efficiency was further improved by slightly re-optimizing the jet conditions.

The present study helps to understand the local combustion characteristics of PREmixed Mixture Ignition in the End-gas Region (PREMIER) combustion mode while using increasing amount of natural gas as a diesel substitute in conventional CI engine. In order to reduce NOx emission and diesel fuel consumption micro-pilot diesel injection in premixed natural gas-air mixture is a promising technique. New strategy has been employed to simulate dual fuel combustion which uses well established combustion models. Main focus of the simulation is at detection of an end gas ignition, and creating an unified modeling approach for dual fuel combustion. In this study G-equation flame propagation model is used with detailed chemistry in order to detect end-gas ignition in overall low temperature combustion. This combustion simulation model is validated using comparison with experimental data for dual fuel engine.

A single cylinder, supercharged dual fuel gas engine with micro-pilot fuel injection is operated using methane only and methane-hydrogen mixtures. Methane only experiments were performed at various equivalence ratios and equivalence ratio of 0.56 is decided as the optimum operating condition based on engine performance, exhaust emissions and operation stability. Methane-hydrogen experiments were performed at equivalence ratio of 0.56 and 2.6 kJ/cycle energy supply rate. Results show that indicated mean effective pressure is maintained regardless of hydrogen content of the gaseous fuel while thermal efficiency is improved and presence of hydrogen reduces cyclic variations. Increasing the fraction of hydrogen in the fuel mixture replaces hydrocarbon fuels and reduces carbon monoxide and hydrocarbon emissions.

The combustion and exhaust emissions characteristics of a supercharged dual-fuel natural gas engine with a single cylinder were analyzed. We focused on EGR (Exhaust Gas Recirculation) to achieve higher thermal efficiency and lower exhaust emissions. The combustion of diesel fuel (gas oil) as ignition sources was visualized using a high-speed video camera from the bottom of a quartz piston. The luminous intensity and flame decreased as the EGR rate increased. Furthermore, the ignition delay became longer due to the EGR. Characteristics of the combustion and exhaust emissions were investigated with changing EGR rates under supercharged conditions. The indicated mean effective pressure and thermal efficiency decreased with increasing EGR rate. In addition, NOx emissions decreased due to the EGR. In this study two-stage combustion was observed.

In this study, fuel concentration measurements in a spark-ignition (SI) engine with ethanol blended gasoline were carried out using an optical sensor installed in the spark plug with laser infrared absorption technique. The spark plug sensor for in-situ fuel concentration measurement was applied to a port injected SI engine. The molar absorption coefficients of ethanol blended gasoline were determined for various pressures and temperatures in advance using a constant volume vessel with electric heating system. Ethanol blended gasoline with high volumetric ratios shows lower molar absorption coefficients due to lower molar absorption coefficients of ethanol. The molar absorption coefficients of ethanol blended gasoline can be estimated by considering the molar fraction of each component.

Non-intrusive measurement of transient unburned gas temperatures was developed with a fiber-optic heterodyne interferometry system. Using the value of the Gladstone-Dale constant for DME gas and combustion pressure we can calculate the in-cylinder temperature inside unburned and burned region. In this experimental study, it was performed to set up a fiber-optic heterodyne interferometry technique to measure the temperature before and behind the combustion region in a DME-HCCI engine. At first, measured temperature was almost the same as the temperature history assuming that the process that changes of the unburned and the burned are polytropic. In addition, we measured the temperature after combustion which of condition was burned gas with DME-HCCI combustion. The developed heterodyne interferometry used the spark-plug-in fiber-optic sensor has a good feasibility to measure the unburned and burned temperature history.

Experimental investigations of fuel breakup very close to nozzle of practical high-pressure swirl injector, which is used in gasoline direct injection (GDI) engine, were carried out. In GDI engines, fuel is directly injected into cylinder therefore the spray characteristics and mixture formation are of primary importance. In this research, visualizations of primary spray formation process were demonstrated using a high-speed video camera (maximum speed: 1Mfps) with a long-distance microscope. Initial state and development of the spray were discussed under the different injection pressure condition. During the injection period, the length and thickness of the liquid sheet, which is produced from the nozzle exit, were measured using Ar-ion laser sheet and high-speed camera. Primary spray structure and behavior of liquid sheet, especially surface wave of liquid sheet, at nozzle exit were discussed using obtained images.

In this study, a spark plug sensor for in-situ fuel concentration measurement was applied to a port injected lean-burn engine. Laser infrared absorption method was employed and a 3.392 μm He-Ne laser that coincides with the absorption line of hydrocarbons was used as a light source. In this engine, the secondary valve lift height of intake system was controlled to obtain appropriate swirl and tumble flow in order to achieve lean-burn with the characteristics of intake flow. For such in-cylinder stratified mixture distribution, the fuel concentration near the spark plug is very important factor that affects the combustion characteristics. Therefore, the mixture formation process near the spark plug was investigated with changing fuel injection timing. Under the intake stroke, the timing that fuel passed through near the spark plug depended largely on the fuel injection timing.

Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) combustion with dimethyl ether has been carried out in a single cylinder engine with a transparent piston. The engine was operated at 800 rpm with a wide-open throttle. The intake-premixed mixture was preheated with an electric heater to promote auto-ignition. HCCI combustion with dimethyl ether indicates multi-stage heat releases. Investigations were conducted with visualization of combustion in the cylinder and detailed and temporal spectroscopic measurements using spectrometer. In order to understand reaction mechanism of auto-ignition and combustion mechanism in HCCI engine, spectrum analysis of chemiluminescence was carried out.

A dual fuel engine fueled with methane from an inlet port and ignited with diesel fuel was prepared. This study focuses on the effects of early injection and exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) on the characteristics of combustion and exhaust emissions. The injection timing was changed between TDC and 50 degrees before the TDC. In the early injection timing, smoke was never seen and hydrocarbons were smaller compared with those at the normal injection timing. However, the combustion becomes too early to obtain an appropriate torque when the equivalence ratio increases. Then, moderate EGR was very effective to force the combustion to retard with lower NOx, higher thermal efficiency and almost the same hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide. The engine operated even under the condition of stoichiometric mixture.