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This study aims to investigate the combustion and flow phenomena in a stoichiometrically operated methane-fueled passive pre-chamber ignited gas engine. The combustion phenomena are visualized with a high-speed camera and the chemical properties are resolved by Large Eddy Simulation (LES) turbulent model with the SAGE combustion approach. Results reveal that a highly compressed unburnt gas of intermediate fuel species emerges from the pre-chamber before the flame ejection due to the high-pressure difference which promptly consumes the main chamber charge and accelerates combustion. Moreover, the nozzle diameter and spark plug orientation significantly affect the flame propagation as well as the overall engine performance.

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation is widely used in the development and validation of automotive engine performance. In engine simulation, spray breakup submodels are important because spray atomization has a significant influence on mixture formation and the combustion process. However, no breakup models have been developed for the fuel spray with plate-type multi-hole nozzle installed in port fuel injection spark ignition (SI) engines. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to simulate spray formation in port fuel injection precisely. The authors proposed the heterogeneous sheet breakup model for gasoline spray injected from plate type multi-hole nozzle. The novel breakup model was developed by clarifying the phenomenological mechanism of the spray atomization process. In this paper, this model was improved in dispersion characteristics and evaluated by the comparison of the model calculation results with experimental data.

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.

The authors have reported significant smoke reduction in twin shaped semi-premixed diesel combustion with a newly designed combustion chamber to distribute the first and the second sprays into upper and lower layers. However, the first stage premixed combustion tends to advance far from the TDC, resulting in lowering of thermal efficiencies. In this report, improvement of thermal efficiency by optimizing the combustion phase with lower ignitability fuels was identified with the divided combustion chamber. The experiment was conducted with four fuels with different cetane numbers. The first stage premixed combustion can be retarded to the optimum phase with the fuel with cetane number 38, establishing high efficiencies.

The purpose of this study is to reduce cooling loss in gas engines using hydrogen. In this report, the effect of different hydrogen-CNG supply methods on combustion and exhaust characteristics of SI engine were investigated. As a result, the 13A-port-injection caused sharp heat release at hydrogen addition ratio (RH) of 20 %, with a maximum brake thermal efficiency of 27.5 %. Also, the hydrogen-port-injection promotes combustion above RH=40 % and reduces cooling loss, resulting in a maximum brake thermal efficiency of 31.0 % at RH=80 %, 1.8 pt higher than that of the 13A-port-injection.

In recent years, internal combustion engine using hydrogen gas, has attracted attention as one solution to the problem of global warming. Hydrogen gas has excellent combustion characteristics such as wide limits of inflammability and fast burning velocity because of high diffusion rate. Therefore, it has been made to obtain stable ignition and combustion by adding hydrogen with lean mixture in spark ignition engines using hydrocarbon fuels and to be attempted efficient operation by engine researchers. The purpose of this study is to reduce cooling loss in a gas engine using hydrogen gas and hydrogen Mixer system (Mixer) engine was remodeled to hydrogen Port Injection (PI) system engine. In this report, the heterogeneity of hydrogen mixture is clarified by comparing the combustion characteristics of the Mixer and the PI, and the effect of the difference in hydrogen supply systems on cooling loss is system. Ignition delay of the PI system is shorter than that of the Mixer.

Spark knock suppression with hydrogen addition was investigated at two engine speeds (2000 rpm and 4800 rpm). The experimental results showed that the spark knock is strongly suppressed with increasing hydrogen fraction at 2000 rpm while the effect is much smaller at 4800 rpm. To explain these results, chemical kinetic analyses with a two-zone combustion model were performed. The calculated results showed that the heat release in the end gas zone rises in two stages with a remarkable appearance of low temperature oxidation (LTO) at 2000 rpm, while a single stage heat release without apparent LTO process is presented at 4800 rpm due to the shorter residence time in the low temperature region.

Research on alternative fuels is necessary to reduce CO2 emissions. Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) of light fuel physically improves spray and combustion characteristics. Fatty Acid Methyl Ester (FAME) is an oxygenated fuel and its combustion characteristics are chemically improved, although its spray characteristics such as penetration and atomization are deteriorated. The purpose of this study is to understand the effects of blending HVO, which has carbon neutral (CN) characteristics, with FAME, which also has CN characteristics, on spray and combustion characteristics, and to further improve emission such as THC and Smoke. This report presents the effect of the combination of improved spray characteristics and oxygenated fuel on emissions. Spray characteristics such as penetration, spray angle and spray volume were investigated by shadowgraph photography.

In a natural gas fueled engine ignited by diesel fuel, the addition of hydrogen to the engine could be a possible way to improve thermal efficiency and reduce unburned methane which has a warming potential many times that of carbon dioxide as it promotes a more rapid and complete combustion. This study carried out engine experiments using a single cylinder engine with natural gas and hydrogen delivered separately into the intake pipe, and with pilot-injection of diesel fuel. The percentages of hydrogen in the natural gas-hydrogen mixtures were varied from 0% to 50% of the heat value. The results showed that the hydrogen addition has an insignificant effect on the ignition delay of the diesel fuel and that it shortens the combustion duration. The increase in the hydrogen ratio decreased the unburned hydrocarbon emissions more than the reduction of the amount of natural gas that was replaced by the hydrogen.

Fuel design concept has been proposed for low emission and combustion control in engine systems. In this concept, the multicomponent fuels, which are mixed with a high volatility fuel (gasoline or gaseous fuel components) and a low volatility fuel (gas oil or fuel oil components), are used for artificial control of fuel properties. In addition, these multicomponent fuels can easily lead to flash boiling which promote atomization and vaporization in the spray process. In order to understand atomization and vaporization process of multicomponent fuels in detail, the model for flash boiling spray of multicomponent fuel have been constructed and implemented into KIVA3V rel.2. This model considers the detailed physical properties and evaporation process of multicomponent fuel and the bubble nucleation, growth and disruption in a nozzle orifice and injected fuel droplets.

We have proposed the application of Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) gas dissolved fuel which might improve spray atomization through effervescent atomization instead of high injection pressure. Since EGR gas is included in the spray of EGR gas dissolved fuel, it directly contributes to combustion, and the further reduction of NOx emissions is expected rather than the conventional external EGR. In our research, since highly contained in the exhaust gas and highly soluble in the fuel, CO2 was selected as the dissolved gas to simulate EGR gas dissolved. In this paper, the purpose is to evaluate the influence of the application of CO2 gas dissolved fuel on the combustion characteristics and emission characteristics inside the single cylinder, direct injection diesel engine. As a result, by use of the fuel, smoke was reduced by about 50 to 70%, but NOx reduction does not have enough effect.

Bio-hydro fined diesel (BHD) oil is known as a second generation oil made from bio hydro finning process. Biodiesel in the first generation is made from transesterification process and it has several disadvantages such as high density and increased the viscosity that can cause operational problems because can make some deposits in the engine. To overcome this, the second generation process of biodiesel has been modified from the first generation oil. BHD is made from the waste cooking oil by using the hydro finning process without the trans-esterification process. The results of BHD oil has nearly the same with diesel oil. BHD oil has low viscosity and high oxidation stability. Therefore, BHD oil can be used in the diesel engine without making any modifications in the engine. In this study, the comparison of performance and emissions characteristics from BHD oil, waste cooking oil, and diesel oil are investigated.

In recent years, depletion of energy resources and increasing CO2 emission have been concerned. As this solution, the use of biofuels from garbage is focused. In this research, higher efficiency and lower emissions in the gas engine for power generation using biomass gas are aimed. However, the biomass gas is low caloric value and the output is low and the combustion is unstable. Therefore, a turbocharged spark ignition gas engine is used as the test institution. As a result, it is found that combustion stability and high efficiency of biomass gas can be realized.

This paper presents a study on the effects of the engine size and rotation speed on diesel combustion characteristics and engine performance of two differently sized diesel engines (85 mm and 135 mm bores). For simplification of the evaluation, the experimental conditions were set based on the similarity rules proposed by Chikahisa. The combustion characteristics and the indicated thermal efficiencies were compared for the small and the large engines at the same engine speed. To examine the effects of the velocities of the in-cylinder gas and the fuel spray on the combustion and the thermal efficiency, the engine speed was changed in the small engine, while maintaining a non-dimensional engine speed.

To improve the combustion characteristics in semi-premixed diesel combustion, consisting in the first-stage premixed combustion of the primary fuel injection and the second-stage spray combustion of the secondary injection, the effect of splitting the primary injection was investigated in a diesel engine and analyzed with a CFD. The indicated thermal efficiency improves due to reductions in heat transfer losses to the in-cylinder wall and the combustion noise is suppressed with the split primary injections. The CFD analysis showed that the reduction in heat transfer loss with the split primary injections is due to a decrease in the combustion quantity near the combustion chamber wall.

In previous study, the model for flash-boiling spray of multicomponent fuel was constructed and was implemented into KIVA code. This model considered the detailed physical properties and evaporation process of multicomponent fuel and the bubble nucleation, growth and disruption in a nozzle orifice and injected fuel droplets. These numerical results using this model were compared with experimental data which were obtained in the previous study using a constant volume vessel. The spray characteristics from numerical simulation qualitatively showed good agreement with the experimental results. Especially, it was confirmed from both the numerical and experimental data that flash-boiling effectively accelerated the atomization and vaporization of fuel droplets. However, in this previous study, injection pressure was very low (up to 15 MPa), and the spray characteristics of high pressure injection could not be analyzed.

The purpose of this study is to achieve thermal efficiency improvement and cooling loss reduction of a diesel engine with a combustion concept of earlier evaporation, higher entrainment, and compact spray flame. In order to realize this concept, the paper focused on two-component fuel (nC5H12/nC10H22) with high evaporation. In this paper, the effects of two-component fuel on thermal efficiency and exhaust characteristics are examined by using single cylinder diesel engine. In addition, spray characteristics are revealed in an optically accessible chamber and combustion characteristics are revealed by using RCEM.

We have proposed the application of EGR gas dissolved fuel which might improve spray atomization through effervescent atomization instead of high injection pressure. In this paper, the purpose is to evaluate the influence of the application of CO2 gas dissolved fuel on the combustion characteristics and emissions inside the single cylinder, direct injection diesel engine. As a result, by use of the fuel, smoke was reduced by about 50 to 70%. The amount of NOx was reduced at IMEP=0.3 MPa, but it was increased at IMEP=0.9 MPa.

A spark assist system was installed in a gasoline direct-injection single-cylinder test engine with the aim of controlling the ignition timing and accomplishing combustion of gasoline fuel by auto/compression ignition. A primary reference fuel having an octane number of 90 (PRF 90) was used to evaluate experimentally the spark assist function for gasoline auto/compression ignition and to examine the feasibility of combustion with a short ignition delay equivalent to conventional diesel combustion using the engine system. An optically accessible single-cylinder test engine was also used to evaluate and investigate spark-assisted auto/compression ignition. Ignition timing controllability with combinations of spark and injection timings for gasoline auto/compression ignition was also investigated under different operating load conditions.

The Dual-Fuel (DF) combustion is a promising technology for efficient, low NOx and low exhaust particulate matter (PM) engine operation. To achieve equivalent performance to a DF engine with only the use of conventional liquid fuel, this study proposes the implementation of an on-board fuel reformation process by piston compression. For concept verification, DF combustion tests with representative reformed gas components were conducted. Based on the results, the controllability of the reformed gas composition by variations in the operating conditions of the reformer cylinder were discussed.