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The effects of jet-jet angle on the combustion process were investigated in an optical accessible rapid compression and expansion machine (RCEM) under various injection conditions and intake oxygen concentrations. The RCEM was equipped with an asymmetric six-hole nozzle having jet-jet angles of 30° and 45°. High-speed OH* chemiluminescence imaging and direct photo imaging using the Mie scattering method captured the transient evolution of the spray flame, characterized by lift-off length and liquid length. The RCEM operated at 1200 rpm. The injection timing was -5°ATDC, and the in-cylinder pressure and temperature were 6.1 MPa and 780 K at the injection timing, respectively, which achieved a short ignition delay. The effects of injection pressure, nozzle hole diameter, and oxygen concentration were investigated.

Natural gas/diesel dual fuel engines have potential for a high thermal efficiency and low NOx emissions. However, they have the disadvantages of high unburned species emissions and lower thermal efficiencies at low loads (at low equivalence ratio). A way to solve this problem is to properly distribute the pilot fuel vapor in a natural-gas premixture. The combustion chamber geometry affects the combustion process since it influences the distribution of the pilot fuel vapor. This study investigates the influence of injection conditions and the piston bowl geometry on the performance and emissions of a dual fuel engine. Experiments were carried out using two pistons with different bowl diameters, 52 mm and 58 mm, at single-and two-stage diesel-fuel injection. The results show that the larger bowl provides lower hydrocarbon emissions at a lower equivalence ratio in the case of single-stage injection.

The main objective of this study is to evaluate the characteristics of combustion that combine premixed charge compression ignition (PCCI)-based combustion with conventional mixing controlled combustion. In this type of combustion, it is supposed that the combustion duration is shortened due to the synchronization of the timing of two types of combustions. In addition, the cooling loss caused by spray impingement is expected to decrease by the reduction of the proportion of mixing controlled combustion. In this study, the effect of injection pressure, injection timing, and split injection on thermal efficiency and emissions were investigated in order to determine the appropriate injection parameters for PCCI-based combustion to realize the proposed combustion concept.

A series of experiments was conducted using a single-cylinder small-bore (85 mm) diesel engine to investigate the smoke-reduction effect of post injection by varying the number of injection nozzle orifices and the injection pressure. The experiments were performed under a constant injection quantity condition and under a fixed NOx emission condition. The results indicated that the smoke emission of six-hole, seven-hole, and eight-hole nozzles decreased for advanced post injection, except that the smoke emission of the 10-hole nozzle increased as the post injection was advanced from a moderately late timing around 17° ATDC. However, the smoke emission of the 10-hole nozzle with a higher injection pressure decreased for advanced post injection. These trends were explained considering the influence of the main-spray flames on post sprays based on CFD simulation results.

A series of experiments using a single-cylinder direct injection diesel engine was conducted to investigate the smoke reduction effect of post injection while varying numerous parameters: the post-injection quantity, post-injection timing, injection pressure, main-injection timing, intake pressure, number of injection nozzle orifices, and combustion chamber shape. The experiments were performed under a fixed NOx emission condition by selecting the total injection quantities needed to obtain the predetermined smoke emission levels without post injection. The smoke reduction effects were compared when changing the post injection timing for different settings of the above parameters, and explanations were found for the measured smoke emission trends. The results indicate that close post injection provides lower smoke emission for a combination of a reentrant combustion chamber and seven-hole nozzle.

Numerical calculations were performed to investigate the mixture formation, ignition, and combustion processes in a diesel spray. The spray was formed by injecting n-heptane into a constant volume vessel under high-temperature and high-pressure conditions. The fuel droplets were described by a discrete droplet model (DDM). Numerical calculations for the flow and turbulent diffusion processes were performed on the basis of large eddy simulation (LES) to describe the processes of local non-homogeneous mixture formation and heat release. The oxidation processes in the mixture were calculated by Schreiber's five-step mechanism for n-heptane. Calculations were performed for sprays formed by single-stage injection and pilot/main two-stage injection. The flame structure in a diesel spray and its temporal change were discussed using a flame index proposed by Yamashita et al.

The methodology of lubricity evaluation for DME fuel was established by special modified HFRR (High-Frequency Reciprocating Rig) such as Multi-Pressure/Temperature HFRR (MPT-HFRR). The obtained results were summarized as follows: The HFRR method is adaptable with DME fuel. There is no effect of the test pressure (up to 1.8 MPa) and the test temperature (up to 100°C) of MPT-HFRR on wear scar diameter. The results with MPT-HFRR can be applied at the sliding parts of the injection needle and the fuel supply pump's plungers which are secured lubricity by the boundary lubrication mode mainly and the mixed lubrication mode partially. Using the fatty-acid-based lubricity improver in amounts of approximately 100 ppm, the lubricity of DME, which has a lack of self-lubricity, is ensured as same as the diesel fuel equivalent level. There is a big deviation of measured wear scar diameter when the LI concentration is not enough.

Numerical calculations based on large eddy simulation were performed in order to investigate mixture formation, ignition, and combustion processes in a diesel spray formed by fuel injection into a constant-volume vessel under high-temperature and high-pressure conditions. Fuel concentration distributions in a spray and local non-homogeneous mixture distributions were compared with experimental results to verify the accuracy of the calculations. In addition, calculations were carried out to examine the effect of injection parameters, namely, injection pressure and nozzle orifice diameter. Ignition and combustion processes were also investigated using Schreiber's model for calculating the progress of oxidation reactions.

The purpose of this study is to determine a pilot injection control strategy for the improvement of dual-fuel combustion with a lean natural gas/air mixture. Experiments were performed using a single cylinder test engine equipped with a common-rail injection system. The injection pressure, timing and quantity were varied at a fixed overall equivalence ratio of 0.5. The results of single-stage-injection experiments show that middle injection timings (−20 to −10 degATDC) produce low emissions of unburned species, because the pilot-fuel vapor spreads into the natural-gas lean mixture and raises the effective equivalence ratio, which leads to fast flame propagation. Early injection (−35degATDC) is advantageous for low NOx emission; however, increased emissions of unburned species are barriers.

The objective of this study is to obtain a strategy for adapting injection and exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) conditions to various engine speeds. An experimental study was conducted using a single-cylinder test engine and varying the injection timings of two-stage injection, the injection-quantity ratio, the EGR rate, and the swirl ratio at low (1300 rpm) and high (2300 rpm) engine speeds. When using base injection conditions, the results indicated that problems occurred for the high maximum pressure rise rate at low engine speed and the low thermal efficiency at high engine speed. At low engine speed, retarding the injection timings and increasing the first-injection quantity ratio reduced the maximum pressure rise rate without sacrificing engine performance. At high engine speed, advancing the injection timings improved the thermal efficiency but increased smoke emission.

The objective of the present study is to elucidate the combustion process of partial premixed charge compression ignition (PCCI) combustion using multiple injections in diesel engines. The effects of the ratio of the quantity of fuel used in the first and second injections, and the injection dwell time on heat release rate, soot and nitrogen oxide (NOx) formations are investigated in simulated partial PCCI combustion using a constant-volume vessel. N-heptane is used as fuel. The experiments are carried out under an ambient condition of 2 MPa and 900 K, which simulates a PCCI-like heat release rate with long ignition delays. The oxygen concentration is set to 21 and 15% to simulate conditions without and with exhaust-gas recirculation (EGR), respectively. The fuel quantity in the first injection is varied between 10 to 40% of the total fuel quantity, and the injection dwell is varied between 0.5 to 2.0 ms.

The tasks to improve diesel emissions and fuel consumption must be accomplished with urgency. However, due to the trade-off relationship between NOx emissions, soot emissions and fuel consumption, clean diesel combustion should be achieved by both innovative combustion and fuel technologies. The objective of this study is to extend the clean diesel combustion operating range (Engine-out emission: NOx ≺ 0.2 g/kWh, Soot ≺ 0.02 g/kWh). In this study, performance of a single-cylinder test engine equipped with a hydraulic valve actuation system and an ultra-high pressure fuel injection system was investigated. Also evaluated, were the effects of fuel properties such as auto-ignitability, volatility and aromatic hydrocarbon components, on combustion performance. The results show that applying a high EGR (Exhaust gas recirculation) rate can significantly reduce NOx emission with an increase in soot emission.

This study aims to determine strategies for improving the relations between the pressure rise rate and emissions of nitrogen oxide (NOx), hydrocarbons (HC), and carbon monoxide (CO) in low temperature combustion (LTC) operation of a diesel engine. For this purpose, an analysis was conducted on data from experiments carried out using a single-cylinder direct-injection diesel engine with variation in the injection quantity, injection timing, exhaust-gas recirculation (EGR) rate, injection pressure, injection nozzle specification and combustion chamber geometry. The results reveal that the pressure rise rate and NOx exhibit similar tendencies when varying injection timing and EGR rate, which is opposite to CO and total HC (THC) emissions, regardless of injection quantity. When the injection quantity is increased, smoke emission becomes problematic in the selection of the injection timing.

It has been clarified that diesel fuel properties have a great effect on the exhaust emissions and fuel consumption of a conventional diesel combustion regime. And as other diesel combustion regimes are applied in order to improve exhaust emissions and fuel consumption, it can be supposed that the fuel properties also have significant effects. The purpose of this study is to propose the optimum diesel fuel properties for a premixed compression ignition (PCI) combustion regime. In this paper, the effect of the auto-ignitability of diesel fuels on exhaust emissions and fuel consumption was evaluated using a heavy-duty single-cylinder test engine. In all experiments, fuels were injected using an electronically controlled, common-rail diesel fuel injector, and most experiments were conducted under high EGR conditions in order to reduce NOx emissions.

The present study aims to obtain a strategy for optimizing the combination of injection conditions and combustion chamber geometry to achieve low carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NOx) and smoke emissions with high thermal efficiency at low loads in direct-injection premixed charge compression ignition (DI-PCCI) operation in a diesel engine. To this end, experiments were performed using a naturally-aspirated single-cylinder DI diesel engine equipped with a common-rail injection system and a cooled exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) system under various injection conditions, including injection timing, injection angle and injection quantity, and combustion chamber geometry. The results indicate that CO emission was reduced at injection timings that provide high peak heat release rates. To improve the NOx-CO trade-off relation, the spray angle should be properly selected depending on the combustion chamber geometry.

Formation of nitrogen oxides (NOx) in direct-injection premixed charge compression ignition (DI-PCCI) combustion simulated in a constant volume vessel was investigated using an ignition-combustion model that combines a stochastic mixing model with a reduced chemical reaction scheme. Several improvements were made to the model in order to predict the combustion processes in DI-PCCI. Calculations were carried out for the injection and ambient conditions equivalent to the measurements using the constant volume vessel. Analysis of the calculated results clarified the effects of mixture heterogeneity on NO concentrations and the mechanisms are discussed. The results show that the model successfully represents the experimental tendency for NO concentration when the injection conditions and ambient oxygen mole fraction are varied.

The performance of a medium duty DME truck was evaluated by field tests and engine bench tests. The DME vehicle was given a public license plate on October 2004, after which running tests were continued on public roads and a test course. The DME vehicle could run the whole distance, about 500 km, without refueling. The average diesel equivalent fuel consumption of the fully loaded DME truck was 5.75 km/l, running at 80 km/h on public highways. Remedying several malfunctions that occurred in the power-train subsystems enhanced the vehicle performance and operation. The DME vehicle accumulated 13,000 km as of August, 2006 with no observed durability trouble of the fuel injection pump. Disassembly and inspection of the fuel injectors after 7,700 km operation revealed a few differences in the nozzle tip and the needle compared to diesel fuel operation. However, the injectors were used again after cleanup.

In this study, diesel exhaust emission characteristics were investigated as GTL (Gas To Liquid) fuel was applied to a heavy-duty diesel truck which had been developed to match a Japanese new long-term exhaust emission regulation (NOx < 2.0 g/kWh, PM < 0.027 g/kWh). The results in this study show that although the test vehicle has advanced technologies (e.g. high pressure fuel injection, oxidation catalyst, and urea-SCR aftertreatment system, etc.) which are applied to reduce diesel emissions, the neat GTL fuel has a great advantage to reduce particulate matter emissions and poly aromatic hydrocarbons. And regarding nano-size PM emissions, nuclei mode particles emitted during idling are significantly decreased by using the GTL fuel.

In this study, measurement methods of aldehydes and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from off-road engine have been investigated. Also, their emission characteristics have been evaluated. By using high-performance liquid chromatograph (HPLC), aldehydes could be measured with small variation. Major aldehydes from off-road engine are formaldehyde and acetaldehyde. Total aldehydes emission is not necessarily low compared to THC emission. The emission characteristics of aldehydes are similar to that of CO, THC and PM. For VOCs sampling, sampling tube with absorbent was better than sampling bag because some kinds of VOCs tend to become absorbed on the sampling bag. Except for 1,3-butadiene, VOCs could be measured with small variation by using gas chromatography-mass spectrometer (GC-MS). Benzene, toluene and xylene were major species found in VOCs. The emission characteristics of VOCs were also similar to ones of CO, THC and PM.

The effects of fuel injection conditions (injection pressure, nozzle orifice diameter and fuel injection quantity) on NOx formation in direct-injection Premixed Charge Compression Ignition (DI-PCCI) combustion were investigated using a constant-volume vessel and a total gas-sampling device. The results show that promotion of fuel-air mixing reduces final NOx mass accompanying a delayed hot flame. In particular, under low oxygen mole fraction conditions, in addition to the hot flame delay, the promotion of fuel-air mixing results in a lower heat release rate. In this case, the final NOx mass is further reduced. For a fixed nozzle orifice diameter, the final NOx mass is reduced with increasing injection pressure. This effect is remarkable for smaller nozzle orifice diameters. Regardless of the oxygen mole fraction, under the low injection fuel quantity condition, enhancement of fuel-air mixing reduces the final NOx mass per released heat.