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The use of Thermal Barrier Coatings (TBCs) has been shown to be a promising technology to improve internal combustion engine efficiencies by reducing heat rejection to the coolant and oil. In recent studies, temperature swing coatings that have simultaneously low volumetric heat capacity and low thermal conductivity have been shown to be particularly promising in this regard. In this study, a traditional and a newer swing coating are applied to the piston of an on-road medium-duty diesel engine to assess the benefits of their use. An analytical wall temperature model is coupled to the 1-D engine simulation software GT-POWER and predictions of wall temperature, heat transfer and chemical heat release rate are presented. The swing coating is found to yield an ~1.2% efficiency benefit at the highest load condition studied alongside an 80°C improvement in exhaust temperature at the lowest load condition studied compared to a reference uncoated piston.

A new generation of low heat capacitance Thermal Barrier Coatings (TBCs) has been developed under U.S. Dept. of Energy / Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E) sponsored research. The TBCs developed under this project have significantly lower thermal conductivity of < 0.35 W/m-K, thermal heat capacitance of < 500 kJ/m3-K, and density of <0.35 g/cm3. Two different binder types were used for thermal barrier coatings applied by High Velocity Low Pressure (HVLP) spraying to the piston, cylinder head, and valve combustion surfaces of a small natural gas engine. The effects of thermal barrier coatings on engine efficiency and knock characteristics were studied in a small, high compression ratio, spark-ignition, internal combustion engine operating on methane number fuels from 60 to 100. The new TBCs with low thermal conductivity and low thermal heat capacities have been shown to increase overall engine efficiency through reduced heat transfer to the piston and cylinder head.

Although turbocharging can extend the high load limit of low temperature combustion (LTC) strategies such as reactivity controlled compression ignition (RCCI), the low exhaust enthalpy prevalent in these strategies necessitates the use of high exhaust pressures for improving turbocharger efficiency, causing high pumping losses and poor fuel economy. To mitigate these pumping losses, the divided exhaust period (DEP) concept is proposed. In this concept, the exhaust gas is directed to two separate manifolds: the blowdown manifold which is connected to the turbocharger and the scavenging manifold that bypasses the turbocharger. By separately actuating the exhaust valves using variable valve actuation, the exhaust flow is split between two manifolds, thereby reducing the overall engine backpressure and lowering pumping losses. In this paper, results from zero-dimensional and one-dimensional simulations of a multicylinder RCCI light-duty engine equipped with DEP are presented.

Natural gas is a promising alternative fuel for internal combustion engines due to its rich reserves and low price, as well as good physical and chemical properties. Its low carbon structure and high octane number are beneficial for CO2 reduction and knock mitigation, respectively. Diesel and natural gas dual fuel combustion is a viable pathway to utilize natural gas in diesel engines. To achieve high efficiency and low emission combustion in a practical diesel engine over a wide range of operating conditions, understanding the performance responses to engine system parameter variations is needed. The controllability of two combustion strategies, diesel pilot ignition (DPI) and single injection reactivity controlled compression ignition (RCCI), were evaluated using the multi-dimension CFD simulation in this paper.

In the current work, a series-hybrid vehicle has been constructed that utilizes a dual-fuel, Reactivity Controlled Compression Ignition (RCCI) engine. The vehicle is a 2009 Saturn Vue chassis and a 1.9L turbo-diesel engine converted to operate with low temperature RCCI combustion. The engine is coupled to a 90 kW AC motor, acting as an electrical generator to charge a 14.1 kW-hr lithium-ion traction battery pack, which powers the rear wheels by a 75 kW drive motor. Full vehicle testing was conducted on chassis dynamometers at the Vehicle Emissions Research Laboratory at Ford Motor Company and at the Vehicle Research Laboratory at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. For this work, the US Environmental Protection Agency Highway Fuel Economy Test was performed using commercially available gasoline and ultra-low sulfur diesel. Fuel economy and emissions data were recorded over the specified test cycle and calculated based on the fuel properties and the high-voltage battery energy usage.

While Low Temperature Combustion (LTC) strategies such as Reactivity Controlled Compression Ignition (RCCI) exhibit high thermal efficiency and produce low NOx and soot emissions, low load operation is still a significant challenge due to high unburnt hydrocarbon (UHC) and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions, which occur as a result of poor combustion efficiencies at these operating points. Furthermore, the exhaust gas temperatures are insufficient to light-off the Diesel Oxidation Catalyst (DOC), thereby resulting in poor UHC and CO conversion efficiencies by the aftertreatment system. To achieve exhaust gas temperature values sufficient for DOC light-off, combustion can be appropriately phased by changing the ratio of gasoline to diesel in the cylinder, or by burning additional fuel injected during the expansion stroke through post-injection.

The application of close-coupled post injections in diesel engines has been proven to be an effective in-cylinder strategy for soot reduction, without much fuel efficiency penalty. But due to the complexity of in-cylinder combustion, the soot reduction mechanism of post-injections is difficult to explain. Accordingly, a simulation study using a three dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model, coupled with the SpeedChem chemistry solver and a semi-detailed soot model, was carried out to investigate post-injection in a constant volume combustion chamber, which is more simple and controllable with respect to the boundary conditions than an engine. A 2-D axisymmetric mesh of radius 2 cm and height 5 cm was used to model the spray. Post-injection durations and initial oxygen concentrations were swept to study the efficacy of post-injection under different combustion conditions.

The present experimental engine efficiency study explores the effects of intake pressure and temperature, and premixed and global equivalence ratios on gross thermal efficiency (GTE) using the reactivity controlled compression ignition (RCCI) combustion strategy. Experiments were conducted in a heavy-duty single-cylinder engine at constant net load (IMEPn) of 8.45 bar, 1300 rev/min engine speed, with 0% EGR, and a 50% mass fraction burned combustion phasing (CA50) of 0.5°CA ATDC. The engine was port fueled with E85 for the low reactivity fuel and direct injected with 3.5% 2-ethylhexyl nitrate (EHN) doped into 91 anti-knock index (AKI) gasoline for the high-reactivity fuel. The resulting reactivity of the enhanced fuel corresponds to an AKI of approximately 56 and a cetane number of approximately 28. The engine was operated with a wide range of intake pressures and temperatures, and the ratio of low- to high-reactivity fuel was adjusted to maintain a fixed speed-phasing-load condition.

An experimental study has been conducted to provide insight into heat transfer to the piston of a light-duty single-cylinder research engine under Conventional Diesel (CDC), Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI), and Reactivity Controlled Compression Ignition (RCCI) combustion regimes. Two fast-response surface thermocouples embedded in the piston top measured transient temperature. A commercial wireless telemetry system was used to transmit thermocouple signals from the moving piston. A detailed comparison was made between the different combustion regimes at a range of engine speed and load conditions. The closed-cycle integrated and peak heat transfer rates were found to be lower for HCCI and RCCI when compared to CDC. Under HCCI operation, the peak heat transfer rate showed sensitivity to the 50% burn location.

One in-cylinder strategy for reducing soot emissions from diesel engines while maintaining fuel efficiency is the use of close-coupled post injections, which are small fuel injections that follow the main fuel injection after a short delay. While the in-cylinder mechanisms of diesel combustion with single injections have been studied extensively and are relatively well understood, the in-cylinder mechanisms affecting the performance and efficacy of post injections have not been clearly established. Here, experiments from a single-cylinder heavy-duty optical research engine incorporating close- coupled post injections are modeled with three dimensional (3D) computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. The overall goal is to complement experimental findings with CFD results to gain more insight into the relationship between post-injections and soot. This paper documents the first stage of CFD results for simulating and analyzing the experimental conditions.

A single-cylinder light-duty diesel engine was used to investigate dual fuel reactivity controlled compression ignition (RCCI) operated with two different fuel combinations: gasoline/diesel fuel and methanol/diesel fuel. The engine was operated over a range of conditions, from 1500 to 2300 rpm and 3.5 to 17 bar gross IMEP. Using the stock re-entrant piston bowl geometry, both fuel combinations were able to achieve low NOx and PM emissions with a peak gross indicated efficiency of 48%. However, at light load conditions both gasoline and methanol yielded poorer combustion efficiencies. Previous studies have shown that the high-levels of piston induced mixing that are created by the stock piston are not required, and in fact are detrimental due to increased heat transfer losses, for premixed combustion. Thus a modified piston featuring a shallow, flat piston bowl with nearly no squish land was also investigated.

In a recent study, quantitative measurements were presented of in-cylinder spatial distributions of mixture equivalence ratio in a single-cylinder light-duty optical diesel engine, operated with a non-reactive mixture at conditions similar to an early injection low-temperature combustion mode. In the experiments a planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF) methodology was used to obtain local mixture equivalence ratio values based on a diesel fuel surrogate (75% n-heptane, 25% iso-octane), with a small fraction of toluene as fluorescing tracer (0.5% by mass). Significant changes in the mixture's structure and composition at the walls were observed due to increased charge motion at high swirl and injection pressure levels. This suggested a non-negligible impact on wall heat transfer and, ultimately, on efficiency and engine-out emissions.

Improved wall models for LES are presented in this paper. The classical Werner-Wengle (WW) wall shear stress model was used along with the eddy viscosity near walls. A sub-grid scale turbulent kinetic energy was employed in a model for the eddy viscosity. To provide heat flux results, a modified classical variable-density wall heat transfer model, which includes the variation of the turbulent Prandtl number in the boundary layer, was also employed. The fully turbulent developed flow in a square duct with constant wall temperature was used to validate the model and the friction factor and Nusselt number predictions are in good agreement with experimental results. The resulting time and spatially averaged velocity and temperature wall functions from the new wall models match well with the law-of-the-wall experimental data. Additionally, the model was validated using experimental data from a Caterpillar engine operated with conventional diesel combustion.

Low pressure EGR offers greater effectiveness and flexibility for turbocharging and improved heat transfer compared to high pressure EGR systems. These characteristics have been shown to provide potential for further NOx, soot, and fuel consumption reductions in modern diesel engines. One of the drawbacks is reduced transient response capability due to the long EGR path. This can be largely mitigated by combining low pressure and high pressure loops in a hybrid EGR system, but the changes in transient response must be considered in the design of an effective control strategy. The effect of low pressure EGR on transient emissions was evaluated using two different combustion strategies over a variety of transient events. Low pressure EGR was found to significantly lengthen the response time of intake oxygen concentration following a transient event, which can have a substantial effect on emissions formation.

More stringent emissions regulations are continually being proposed to mitigate adverse human health and environmental impacts of internal combustion engines. With that in mind, it has been proposed that vehicular particulate matter (PM) emissions should be regulated based on particle number in addition to particle mass. One aspect of this project is to study different sample handling methods for number-based aerosol measurements, specifically, two different methods for removing volatile organic compounds (VOCs). One method is a thermodenuder (TD) and the other is an evaporative chamber/diluter (EvCh). These sample-handling methods have been implemented in an engine test cell with a spark-ignited direct injection (SIDI) engine. The engine was designed for stoichiometric, homogeneous combustion.

An investigation of high speed direct injection (DI) compression ignition (CI) engine combustion fueled with gasoline (termed GDICI for Gasoline Direct-Injection Compression Ignition) in the low temperature combustion (LTC) regime is presented. As an aid to plan engine experiments at full load (16 bar IMEP, 2500 rev/min), exploration of operating conditions was first performed numerically employing a multi-dimensional CFD code, KIVA-ERC-Chemkin, that features improved sub-models and the Chemkin library. The oxidation chemistry of the fuel was calculated using a reduced mechanism for primary reference fuel combustion. Operation ranges of a light-duty diesel engine operating with GDICI combustion with constraints of combustion efficiency, noise level (pressure rise rate) and emissions were identified as functions of injection timings, exhaust gas recirculation rate and the fuel split ratio of double-pulse injections.

Several diffusion combustion scaling models were experimentally tested in two geometrically similar single-cylinder diesel engines with a bore diameter ratio of 1.7. Assuming that the engines have the same in-cylinder thermodynamic conditions and equivalence ratio, the combustion models primarily change the fuel injection pressure and engine speed in order to attain similar performance and emissions. The models tested include an extended scaling model, which scales diffusion flame lift-off length and jet spray penetration; a simple scaling model, which only scales spray penetration at equal mean piston speed; and a same speed scaling model, which holds crankshaft rotational velocity constant while also scaling spray penetration. Successfully scaling diffusion combustion proved difficult to accomplish because of apparent differences that remained in the fuel-air mixing and heat transfer processes.

Single-cylinder engine experiments were used to investigate a fuel reactivity controlled compression ignition (RCCI) concept in both light- and heavy-duty engines and comparisons were made between the two engine classes. It was found that with only small changes in the injection parameters, the combustion characteristics of the heavy-duty engine could be adequately reproduced in the light-duty engine. Comparisons of the emissions and performance showed that both engines can simultaneously achieve NOx below 0.05 g/kW-hr, soot below 0.01 g/kW-hr, ringing intensity below 4 MW/m2, and gross indicated efficiencies above 50 per cent. However, it was found that the peak gross indicated efficiency of the baseline light-duty engine was approximately 7 per cent lower than the heavy-duty engine. The energy balances of the two engines were compared and it was found that the largest factor contributing to the lower efficiency of the light-duty engine was increased heat transfer losses.

The objective of this investigation is to optimize a light-duty diesel engine in order to minimize soot, NOx, carbon monoxide (CO), unburned hydrocarbon (UHC) emissions and peak pressure rise rate (PPRR) while improving fuel economy in a low oxygen environment. Variables considered are the injection timings, fractional amount of fuel per injection, half included spray angle, swirl, and stepped-bowl piston geometry. The KIVA-CHEMKIN code, a multi-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) program with detailed chemistry is used and is coupled to a multi-objective genetic algorithm (MOGA) along with an automated grid generator. The stepped-piston bowl allows more options for spray targeting and improved charge preparation. Results show that optimal combinations of the above variables exist to simultaneously reduce emissions and fuel consumption. Details of the spray targeting were found to have a major impact on the combustion process.

This study explores an Adaptive Injection Strategy (AIS) that employs multiple injections at both low and high pressures to reduce spray-wall impingement, control combustion phasing, and limit pressure rise rates in a Premixed Compression Ignition (PCI) engine. Previous computational studies have shown that reducing the injection pressure of early injections can prevent spray-wall impingement caused by long liquid penetration lengths. This research focuses on understanding the performance and emissions benefits of low and high pressure split injections through experimental parametric sweeps of a 0.48 L single-cylinder test engine operating at 2000 rev/min and 5.5 bar nominal IMEP. This study examines the effects of 2nd injection pressure, EGR, swirl ratio, and 1st and 2nd injection timing, for both single heat release and two-peak high temperature heat release cases. In order to investigate the AIS concept experimentally, a Variable Injection Pressure (VIP) system was developed.