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Ammonia is one of the carbon-free alternatives considered for power generation and transportation sectors. But ammonia’s lower flame speed, higher ignition energy, and higher nitrogen oxides emissions are challenges in practical applications such as internal combustion engines. As a result, modifications in engine design and control and the use of a secondary fuel to initiate combustion such as natural gas are considered for ammonia-fueled engines. The higher-octane number of methane (the main component in natural gas) and ammonia allows for higher compression ratios, which in turn would increase the engine's thermal efficiency. One simple approach to initiate and control combustion for a high-octane fuel at higher compression ratios is to use a spark plug. This study experimentally investigated the operation of a heavy-duty compression ignition engine converted to spark ignition and ammonia-methane blends.

The measurement of solid particles down to 10 nm is being incorporated into global technical regulations (GTR). This study explores the measurement of solid particles below 23 nm by using both current and proposed particle number (PN) systems having different volatile particle remover (VPR) methodologies and condensation particle counter (CPC) cutoff diameters. The measurements were conducted in dynamometer test cells using ten diesel and eight natural gas (NG) engines that were going under development for a variety of global emission standards. The PN systems measured solid PN from more than 700 test cycles. The results from the preliminary campaign showed a 10-280% increase in PN emissions with the inclusion of particles below 23 nm.

Performance of a natural gas two-stroke engine incorporated in a 1-kW free-piston oscillating Linear Engine Alternator (LEA) - a household electricity generator - was investigated under different resonant frequencies for pre-design phase purposes. To increase the robustness, power density, and thermal efficiencies, the crank mechanism in free-piston LEA is omitted and all moving parts of the generator operate at a fixed resonant frequency. Flexure springs are the main source of the LEA’s stiffness and the mass-spring dynamics dominates the engine’s speed. The trade-off between the engine’s performance, mass-spring system limits, and power and efficiency targets versus the LEA speed is very crucial and demands a careful investigation specifically at the concept design stages to find the optimum design parameters and operating conditions. CFD modeling was performed to analyze the effects of resonant frequency on the engine’s gas exchange behavior.

Our research focused on the assessment of fuel variation effects on performance of a 34 cc two-stroke, natural gas combustion engine designed for use as the prime mover in either slider-crank or novel linear generator applications. Nearly two-thirds of US homes have either natural gas or liquefied petroleum gas available at low pressures. We tested the engine with three different natural gas blends, pure methane, and pure propane. In order to reduce fuel compression power, we modified the engine to use low-pressure direct injection (LPDI) of gaseous fuels. We examined regulated gaseous emissions, greenhouse gas emissions, and combustion trends over a range of delivered air fuel ratios. Start of Injection (SOI) occurred at either 180 or 190 CA BTDC and efficiency improved by reducing fuel slip. However, for natural gas blends, the predominant emissions were methane - a potent greenhouse gas.

Aerodynamic drag testing is a key component of the CO2 certification schemes for heavy-duty vehicles around the world. This paper presents and compares the regulatory approaches for measuring the drag coefficient of heavy-duty vehicles in Europe, which uses a constant-speed test, and in the United States and Canada, which use a coastdown test. Two European trucks and one North American truck were tested using the constant-speed and coastdown methods. When corrected to zero yaw angle, a difference of up to 12% was observed in the measured drag coefficients from the US coastdown procedure and the EU constant-speed test.

Linear engine alternator (LEA) design optimization traditionally has been difficult because each independent variable alters the motion with respect to time, and therefore alters the engine and alternator response to other governing variables. An analogy is drawn to a conventional engine with a very light flywheel, where the rotational speed effectively is not constant. However, when springs are used in conjunction with an LEA, the motion becomes more consistent and more sinusoidal with increasing spring stiffness. This avoids some attractive features, such as variable compression ratio HCCI operation, but aids in reducing cycle-to-cycle variation for conventional combustion modes. To understand the cycle-to-cycle variations, we have developed a comprehensive model of an LEA with a 1kW target power in MATLAB®/Simulink, and an LEA corresponding to that model has been operated in the laboratory.

With continuously increasing concern for the emissions from two-stroke engines including regulated hydrocarbon (HC) and oxides of nitrogen (NOx) emissions, non-road engines are implementing proven technologies from the on-road market. For example, four stroke diesel generators now include additional internal exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) via an intake/exhaust valve passage. EGR can offer benefits of reduced HC, NOx, and may even improve combustion stability and fuel efficiency. In addition, there is particular interest in use of natural gas as fuel for home power generation. This paper examines exhaust throttling applied to the Helmholtz resonator of a two-stroke, port injected, natural gas engine. The 34 cc engine was air cooled and operated at wide-open throttle (WOT) conditions at an engine speed of 5400 RPM with fueling adjusted to achieve maximum brake torque. Exhaust throttling served as a method to decrease the effective diameter of the outlet of the convergent cone.

The range-extended electric vehicle (REEV) is a complex nonlinear system powered by internal combustion engine and electricity stored in battery. This research proposed a Multiple Operation Points (MOP) control strategy of REVV based on operation features of REEV and the universal characteristic curve of the engine. The switching logic rules of MOP strategy are designed for the desired transition of the operation mode, which makes the engine running at high efficiency region. A Genetic algorithm (GA) is adapted to search the optimal solution. The fuel consumption is defined as the target cost function. The demand power of engine is defined as optimal variable. The state of charge (SOC) and vehicle speed are selected as the state variables. The dynamic performance of vehicle and cycling life of battery is set as the constraints. The optimal switching parameters are obtained based on this control strategy. Finally, a dynamic simulation model of REEV is developed in Matlab/Simulink.

In this research, the magnetoplasmadynamic (MPD) effects of applying a toroidal magnetic field around an ionized exhaust plume were investigated to manipulate the exhaust profile of the plasma jet under near vacuum conditions. Tests for this experiment were conducted using the West Virginia University (WVU) Hypersonic Arc Jet Wind Tunnel. A series of twelve N52 grade neodymium magnets were placed in different orientations around a steel toroid mounted around the arc jet’s exhaust plume. Four different magnet orientations were tested in this experiment. Two additional configurations were run as control tests without any imposed magnetic fields surrounding the plume. Each test was documented using a set of 12 photographs taken from a fixed position with respect to the flow. The photographic data was analyzed by comparing images of the exhaust plume taken 10, 20, and 30 seconds after the plasma jet was activated.

The dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) has seen significantly increased levels of interest for its applications to various aerodynamic problems. The DBD produces stable atmospheric-pressure non-thermal plasma with highly energetic electrons and a variety of ions and neutral species. The resulting plasma often degrades the dielectric barrier between the electrodes of the device, ultimately leading to actuator failure. Several researchers have studied a variety of parameters related to degradation and time-dependent dielectric breakdown of various polymers such as PMMA or PVC that are often used in actuator construction. Many of these studies compare the degradation of these materials to that of borosilicate glass in which it is claimed that there is no observable degradation to the glass. Recent research at West Virginia University has shown that certain actuator operating conditions can lead to degradation of a glass barrier and can ultimately result in failure.

The dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) has been studied significantly in the past two decades for its applications to various aerodynamic problems. The most common aerodynamic applications have been stall/separation control and boundary layer modification. Recently several researchers have proposed utilizing the DBD in various configurations to act as viable propulsion systems for micro and nano aerial vehicles. The DBD produces stable atmospheric-pressure non-thermal plasma in a thin sheet with a preferred direction of flow. The plasma flow, driven by electrohydrodynamic body forces, entrains the quiescent air around it and thus develops into a low speed jet on the order of 10-1 to 101 m/s. Several researchers have utilized DBDs in an annular geometric setup as a propulsion device. Other researchers have used them to alter rectangular duct flows and directional jet devices. This study investigates 2-D duct flows for applications in micro plasma thrusters.

Reactivity controlled compression ignition (RCCI) is a form of dual-fuel combustion that exploits the reactivity difference between two fuels to control combustion phasing. This combustion approach limits the formation of oxides of nitrogen (NOX) and soot while retaining high thermal efficiency. The research presented herein was performed to determine the influences that high reactivity (diesel) fuel properties have on RCCI combustion characteristics, exhaust emissions, fuel efficiency, and the operable load range. A 4-cylinder, 1.9 liter, light-duty compression-ignition (CI) engine was converted to run on diesel fuel (high reactivity fuel) and compressed natural gas (CNG) (low reactivity fuel). The engine was operated at 2100 revolutions per minute (RPM), and at two different loads, 3.6 bar brake mean effective pressure (BMEP) and 6 bar BMEP.

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.

Three-way catalyst equipped stoichiometric natural gas vehicles have proven to be an effective alternative fuel strategy that has shown superior low NOx benefits in comparison to diesels equipped with SCR. However, recent studies have shown the TWC activity to contribute to high levels of tailpipe ammonia emissions. Although a non-regulated pollutant, ammonia is a potent pre-cursor to ambient secondary PM formation. Ammonia (NH3) is an inevitable catalytic byproduct of TWCduring that results also corresponds to lowest NOx emissions. The main objective of the study is to develop a passive SCR based NH3 reduction strategy that results in an overall reduction of NH3 as well as NOx emissions from a stoichiometric spark ignited natural gas engine. The study investigated the characteristics of Fe-based and Cu-based zeolite SCR catalysts in storage, and desorption of ammonia at high exhaust temperature conditions, that are typical of stoichiometric natural gas engines.

The free piston engine combined with a linear electric alternator has the potential to be a highly efficient converter from fossil fuel energy to electrical power. With only a single major moving part (the translating rod), mechanical friction is reduced compared to conventional crankshaft technology. Instead of crankshaft linkages, the motion of the translator is driven by the force balance between the engine cylinder, alternator, damping losses, and springs. Focusing primarily on mechanical springs, this paper explores the use of springs to increase engine speed and reduce cyclic variability. A numeric model has been constructed in MATLAB®/Simulink to represent the various subsystems, including the engine, alternator, and springs. Within the simulation is a controller that forces the engine to operate at a constant compression ratio by affecting the alternator load.

This study was aimed at experimentally investigating the impact of diesel/natural gas (NG) dual-fuel retrofitting onto gaseous emissions emitted by i) legacy, model year (MY) 2005 heavy-duty engines with cooled EGR and no after-treatment system, and ii) a latest technology engine equipped with DPF and urea-SCR after-treatment systems that is compliant with 2010 US-EPA emissions standards. In particular, two different dual-fuel conversion kits were evaluated in this study with pure methane (CH4) being used as surrogate for natural gas. Experiments were conducted on an engine dynamometer over a 13-mode steady-state test cycle as well as the transient FTP required for engine certification while gaseous emissions were sampled through a CVS system. Tailpipe NOx emissions were observed at a comparable level for diesel and diesel/CH4 dual-fuel operation for the 2010 compliant engine downstream the SCR.

Pedestrians account for a significant ratio of traffic fatalities; as a result, research on methods of reducing vehicle-pedestrian crashes is of importance. In this paper, we describe a system architecture that allows the use of vehicle-to-pedestrian (V2P) communication as a means of generating situational awareness and eventually predicting hazards and warning drivers and pedestrians. In contrast, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication for safety applications, V2P has not received much attention. One major reason for this lack of attention had been the unavailability of communication mechanisms between pedestrians and vehicles. Recent advances in enabling Wi-Fi and dedicated short range communication (DSRC) based communication using smart-phones is changing this picture. As a result, V2P communication can be considered as a possible solution.

Heavy-duty diesel (HDD) engines are the primary propulsion source for most heavy-duty vehicle freight movement and have been equipped with an array of aftertreatment devices to comply with more stringent emissions regulations. In light of concerns about the transportation sector's influence on climate change, legislators are introducing requirements calling for significant reductions in fuel consumption and thereby, greenhouse gas (GHG) emission over the coming decades. Advanced engine concepts and technologies will be needed to boost engine efficiencies. However, increasing the engine's efficiency may result in a reduction in thermal energy of the exhaust gas, thus contributing to lower exhaust temperature, potentially affecting aftertreatment activity, and consequently rate of regulated pollutants. This study investigates the possible utilization of waste heat recovered from a HDD engine as a means to offset fuel penalty incurred during thermal management of SCR system.

With the purpose of reducing emission level while maintaining the high torque character of diesel engine, various solutions have been proposed by researchers over the world. One of the most attractive methods is to use dual fuel technique with premixed gaseous fuel ignited by a relatively small amount of diesel. In this study, Methane (CH4), which is the main component of natural gas, was premixed with intake air and used as the main fuel, and diesel fuel was used as ignition source to initiate the combustion. By varying the proportion of diesel and CH4, the combustion and emissions characteristics of the dual fuel (diesel/CH4) combustion system were investigated. Different cases of CFD studies with various concentration of CH4 were carried out. A validated 3D quarter chamber model of a single cylinder engine (diesel fuel only) generated by using AVL Fire ESE was modified into dual fuel mode in this study.

Recent catastrophic air crashes have shown that physical redundancy is not a foolproof option for failures on Air Data Systems (ADS) on an aircraft providing airspeed measurements. Since all the redundant sensors are subjected to the same environmental conditions in flight, a failure on one sensor could occur on the other sensors under certain conditions such as extreme weather; this class of failure is known in the literature as “common mode” failure. In this paper, different approaches to the problem of detection, identification and accommodation of failures on the Air Data System (ADS) of an aircraft are evaluated. This task can be divided into component tasks of equal criticality as Sensor Failure Detection and Identification (SFDI) and Sensor Failure Accommodation (SFA). Data from flight test experiments conducted using the WVU YF-22 unmanned research aircraft are used.