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Engine knock is a major challenge that limits the achievement of higher engine efficiency by increasing the compression ratio of the engine. To address this issue, using a higher octane number fuel can be a potential solution to reduce or eliminate the propensity for knock and so obtain better engine performance. Methanol, a promising alternative fuel, can be produced from conventional and non-conventional energy resources, which can help reduce pollutant emissions. Methanol has a higher octane number than typically gasolines, which makes it a viable option for reducing knock intensity. This study compared the combustion characteristics of gasoline and methanol fuels in an optical spark-ignition engine using multiple spark plugs. The experiment was carried out on a single-cylinder four-stroke optical engine. The researchers used a customized metal liner with four circumferential spark plugs to generate multiple flame kernels inside the combustion chamber.

The passive pre-chamber (PC) is valued for its jet ignition (JI) and is suitable for wide use in the field of gasoline direct injection (GDI) for small passenger cars, which can improve the performance of lean combustion. However, the intake, exhaust, and ignition combustion stability of the engine at low speed is a shortcoming that has not been overcome. Changing the structural design to increase the fluidity of the main chamber (MC) and pre-chamber (PC) may reduce jet ignition performance, affecting engine dynamics. This investigation is based on non-uniformly nozzles distributed passive pre-chamber, which is adjusted according to the working medium exchange between PC and MC. The advantages and disadvantages of the ignition mode of PC and SI in the target engine speed range are compared through optical experiments on a small single-cylinder GDI engine.

Ultra-lean combustion of GDI engine could achieve higher thermal efficiency and lower NOx emissions, but it also faces challenges such as ignition difficulties and low-speed flame propagation. In this paper, the sparked-spray is proposed as a novel ignition method, which employs the spark to ignite the fuel spray by the cooperative timing control of in-cylinder fuel injection and spark ignition and form a jet flame. Then the jet flame fronts propagate in the ultra-lean premixed mixture in the cylinder. This combustion mode is named Sparked-Spray Induced Combustion (SSIC) in this paper. Based on a 3-cylinder 1.0L GDI engine, a 3D simulation model is established in the CONVERGE to study the effects of ignition strategy, compression ratio, and injection timing on SSIC with a global equivalence ratio of 0.50. The results show it is easier to form the jet flame when sparking at the spray front because the fuel has better atomization and lower turbulent kinetic energy at the spray front.

As a novel ignition technology, pre-chamber ignition can enhance ignition energy, promote flame propagation, and augment turbulence. However, this technology undoubtedly faces challenges, particularly in the context of emission regulations. Of this study, the transient characteristics of combustion and emissions in a hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) gasoline engine with active pre-chamber ignition (PCI) under the first combustion cycle of quick start are focused. The results demonstrate that the PCI engine is available on the first cycle for lean combustion, such as lambda 1.6 to 2.0, and exhibit particle number (PN) below 7×107 N/mL at the first cycle. These particles are predominantly composed of nucleation mode (NM, <50 nm) particles, with minimal accumulation mode (AM, >50 nm) particles.

Exhaust gas recirculation technology is one of the main methods to reduce engine emissions. The pressure of the intake pipe of turbocharged direct-injection diesel engine is high, and it is difficult to realize EGR technology. The application of Venturi tube can easily solve this problem. In this paper, the working principle of guide-injection Venturi tube is introduced, the EGR system and structure of a turbocharged diesel engine using the guide-injection Venturi tube are studied. According to the working principle of EGR system of turbocharged diesel engine, the model of guide-injection Venturi tube is established, the calculation grid is divided, and it is carried out by using Computational Fluid Dynamics method that the three-dimensional numerical simulation of the internal flow of Venturi tube under different EGR rates injection.

Argon power cycle hydrogen engine is an internal combustion engine that employs argon instead of nitrogen of air as the working fluid, oxygen as the oxidizer, and hydrogen as the fuel. Since argon has a higher specific heat ratio than air, argon power cycle hydrogen engines have theoretically higher indicated thermal efficiencies according to the Otto cycle efficiency formula. However, argon makes the end mixture more susceptible to spontaneous combustion and thus is accompanied by a stronger knock at a lower compression ratio, thus limiting the improvement of thermal efficiency in engine operation. In order to suppress the limitation of knock on the thermal efficiency, this paper adopts a combination of experimental and simulation methods to investigate the effects of port water injection on the knock suppression and combustion characteristics of an argon power cycle hydrogen engine.

Argon Power Cycle (APC) is an innovative future potential power system for high efficiency and zero emissions, which employs an Ar-O2 mixture rather than air as the working substance. However, APC hydrogen engines face the challenge of knock suppression. Compared to hydrogen, methane has a better anti-knock capacity and thus is an excellent potential fuel for APC engines. In previous studies, the methane is injected into the intake port. Nevertheless, for lean combustion, the stratified in-cylinder mixture formed by methane direct injection has superior combustion performances. Therefore, based on a methane direct injection engine at compression ratio = 9.6 and 1000 r/min, this study experimentally investigates the effects of replacing air by an Ar-O2 mixture (79%Ar+21%O2) on thermal efficiencies, loads, and other combustion characteristics under different excess oxygen ratios. Meanwhile, the influences of varying the methane injection timing are studied.

Hydrogen-fueled Argon Power Cycle engine is a novel concept for high efficiency and zero emissions, which replaces air with argon/oxygen mixtures as working fluid. However, one major challenge is severe knock caused by elevated in-cylinder temperature resulting from high specific heat ratio of Argon. A typical knock-limited compression ratio is around 5.5:1, which limits the thermal efficiency of Argon Power Cycle engines. In this article, preliminary experimental research on the effect of water direct injection at late exhaust stroke is presented at 1000 r/min with IMEP ranging from 0.3~0.6 MPa. Results show that, with temperature-reducing effect of water evaporation, knock is greatly inhibited and the engine can run normally at a higher compression ratio of 9.6:1. Water injected at the exhaust stroke minimizes its reducing effect on the specific heat ratio of the working fluid during the compression and expansion strokes.

With the continuous upgrading of emission regulations, NOx emission limit is becoming more and more strict, especially in the cold start phase. Passive NOx absorber (PNA) can adsorb NOx at a relatively low exhaust temperature, electrically heated catalyst (EHC) has great potential to improve exhaust gas temperature and reduce pollutant emissions of diesel engines at cold start conditions, while experimental research on the combined use of these two kinds of catalysts and the coupling mode of the electrically heated catalyst and the aftertreatment system under the cold start condition are lacking. In this paper, under a certain cold start and medium-high temperature phase, the exhaust gas temperature and emission characteristics of PNA, EHC and aftertreatment system under different coupling modes were studied.

To improve the thermal efficiency and inhibit the knock tendency of gasoline direct injection (GDI) engines, water injection technology has a bright application prospect. Utilize gasoline/water mixture as a way to realize this technology can lower the cost of modifying the engines and bring potential for better spray qualities. Hence it is essential to give deep insight into the effects of water on spray atomization, evaporation and mixture formation for gasoline/water mixtures. A spray synchronous measurement experimental system with a single hole nozzle is used to investigate the spray morphology, spray width and droplet size distribution of gasoline/water mixtures sprays under different water volume fractions (0 %, 20 %, 35 %) and different initial fuel temperatures (50 °C~ 130 °C). There are critical temperatures of 80 °C(G100), 100 °C(G80) and 120 °C(G65), above which the ‘collapsed’ spray appears.

Combustion diagnostics of highly diluted mixtures are essential for the estimation of the combustion quality, and control of combustion timing in advanced combustion systems. In this paper, a novel fast response flame detection technique based on active plasma is introduced and investigated. Different from the conventional ion current sensing used in internal combustion engines, a separate electrode gap is used in the detecting probing. Further, the detecting voltage across the electrode gap is modulated actively using a multi-coil system to be slightly below the breakdown threshold before flame arrival. Once the flame front arrives at the probe, the ions on the flame front tend to decrease the breakdown voltage threshold and trigger a breakdown event. Simultaneous electrical and optical measurements are employed to investigate the flame detecting efficacy via active plasma probing under both quiescent and flow conditions.

China VI emission standards (Limits and measurement methods for emissions from diesel fueled heavy-duty vehicles, China VI, GB17691-2018) have strict particle number (PN) emission standards and so the coated diesel particulate filter (DPF) technology from the EU and US market has challenge in meeting the regulation. Hence, a coated DPF with higher PN filtration efficiency (FE) is required. Currently, there are two approaches. One is from the DPF substrate standpoint by using small pore size DPF substrate. The other is from the coating side to develop a novel coating technology. Through the second approach, a layer coating process has been developed. The coated DPF has an on-wall catalytic layer from inlet side and an in-wall catalytic coating from outlet side. The DPF has improved PN filtration efficiency and can meet China VI regulation without any pre-treatment. It has lowered soot loading back pressure (SLBP), compared to the DPF with small pore size.

The catalyzed diesel particulate filter with Pt and Pd noble metals as the main loaded active components are widely used in the field of automobile engines, but the high cost makes it face huge challenges. Rare earth element doping can improve the soot oxidation performance of the catalyzed diesel particulate filter and provide a new way to reduce its cost. In this paper, thermogravimetric tests and chemical reaction kinetic calculations were used to explore the effect of Pt-Pd catalysts doped Ce, and La rare earth elements on the oxidation properties of soot. The results shown that, among Pt-Pd-5%Ce, Pt-Pd-5%La, and Pt-Pd-5%Ce-5%La catalysts, Pt-Pd-5%La catalyst has the highest soot conversion, the highest low-temperature oxidation speed, and the activation energy is the smallest. Compared with soot, this catalyst reduced T10 and T20 by 82% and 26%, respectively, meaning the catalytic activity of Pt-Pd-5%La catalyst was the best.

Numerical analysis of thermal efficiency improvement up to 45% of an 1.8-liter turbocharged direct-injection (DI) gasoline engine was conducted in this study in response to the need of improving vehicle fuel economy. 1D thermodynamics simulations and 3D computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling were carried out to investigate the technical approaches for improving engine thermal efficiency. Effects of various technologies on the improvement in the engine performance were evaluated, and then the technical routes to achieve 41% and 45% brake thermal efficiency were summarized, respectively. It is concluded that 41% thermal efficiency can be reached under stoichiometric combustion conditions, while it is expected lean burn technology is needed for the target of 45% thermal efficiency. The effects of high tumble intake flow on accelerating burning speed and of high compression ratio on intensifying knocking were analyzed.

Ethanol reforming gas combined with EGR technology can not only improve thermal efficiency, but also reduce pollutant emission under lean combustion condition. In this investigation, GT-Power is used to carry out one-dimensional simulation model calculation and analysis to explore the combustion characteristics, economy performance of a direct injection gasoline engine when the excess air coefficient (λ) increases from 1 to 1.3 and the ethanol reforming gas mixing ratio increases from 0% to 30% at the working condition of 2000 r/min and 10 bar. Then the EGR system is introduced to deeply discuss the working characteristics of the direct injection gasoline engine when the EGR rate increases from 0% to 20%. The results show that the increase of λ leads to the decrease of in-cylinder pressure and the delay of the peak of cylinder pressure.

In the ultra-lean combustion mode, the combustion temperature is relatively low, which is expected to avoid the high-temperature NOx generation. And it also can use excess air to fully oxidize CO, HC and Soot, to achieve cleaner combustion. But at the same time, ultra-lean combustion has difficulties in ignition and flame propagation. This paper used CONVERGE to simulate the combustion process and products of a new ultra-lean combustion mode, which ignited the ultra-lean premixed fuel/air mixture with the spark-ignited micro-fuel-jet, in a constant-volume vessel with a 6-hole GDI injector. The differences of combustion processes and products were simulated for two spark-ignition positions, including ‘on’ the micro-jet spray and ‘between’ two micro-jet sprays. It was found that the combustion duration (the time for burned-fuel-ratio from 10% to 90%) could be shortened by about 14.3% if igniting ‘on’ the micro-jet spray, but the amount of NOx generated would increase about 21.0%.

Diesel engine is vital in the industry for its characteristics of low fuel consumption, high-torque, reliability, and durability. Existing diesel engine technology has reached the upper limit. It is difficult to break through the fuel consumption and emission of diesel engines. VVA (Variable Valve Actuation) is a new technology in the field of the diesel engines. In this paper, GT-Suite and ANN (artificial neural network) model are established based on engine experimental data and DoE simulation results. By inputting Intake Valve Opening crake angle (IVO), Intake Valve Angle Multiplier (IVAM) and Exhaust Valve Angle Multiplier (EVAM) into the ANN Model, and by using SA (simulated annealing algorithm), the optimized results of intake and exhaust valve lift under the target conditions are obtained.

The argon power cycle engine, which uses hydrogen as fuel, oxygen as oxidant, and argon other than nitrogen as the working fluid, is considered as a novel concept of zero-emission and high-efficiency system. Due to the extremely high in-cylinder temperature caused by the lower specific heat capacity of argon, the compression ratio of spark-ignition argon power cycle engine is limited by preignition or super-knock. Compression-ignition with direct-injection is one of the potential methods to overcome this challenge. Therefore, a detailed flammability limit of H2 under Ar-O2 atmosphere is essential for better understanding of stable autoignition in compression-ignition argon power cycle engines.

The Argon Power Cycle engine is a novel concept for high efficiency and zero emission through the replacement of N2 by Ar. However, the higher in-cylinder temperature and pressure as by-products cause heavier knock. The anti-knock strategies, such as reducing compression ratio and retarding ignition time, offset the efficiency increased by the Argon Power Cycle. Therefore, knock control becomes the most urgent task for the Argon Power Cycle engine development. The anti-knock methods, including fuel replacement, ultra-lean combustion, high dilution combustion, and water injection, were considered. The simulated ignition delay times were used to evaluate the probability of knock. The Otto cycle, combined with chemical equilibrium, was utilized to confirm the effect on the thermal conversion efficiency and each in-cylinder thermodynamic state parameter. The results show that the ignition delay times increase by a factor of two when the Ar dilution ratio increases from 79% to 95%.

In this study, a new system of assessment method was developed to evaluate the characteristics of urban buses based on remote online monitoring. Four types of buses, including China V emission standards diesel bus, lean-burn CNG bus, air-fuel equivalence ratio combustion CNG bus and gas-electric hybrid bus, were chosen as samples to analyze the emission characteristics of urban buses with different engine types in urban scenario. Based on the traffic conditions in Beijing, the actual emission characteristics of buses under newly-built driving conditions were analyzed. Moreover, the emission factor database of urban buses in Beijing was established to analyze the characteristics of excess emission. The research results are shown as follows. 1) Compared with other types of buses, NOX emission factor and emission rate of lean-burn CNG bus are much higher.