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To meet the target of the CO2 regulations, it is mandatory to replace high-carbon fossil fuels with low-carbon fuels. Diesel/Natural Gas (NG) reactivity-controlled compression ignition (RCCI) can reduce CO2 emission, which stratifies two types of fuels with different reactivity. And also, RCCI produces less NOx and particulate matter emissions by reducing the in-cylinder temperature. However, RCCI must still be enhanced in terms of the thermal and combustion efficiencies at low and medium loads. In this work, a modified piston geometry was applied to improve the RCCI combustion. The piston geometry was designed to minimize heat loss and reduce flame quenching in an RCCI engine. Experiments were conducted using a single-cylinder engine with a displacement volume of 1,000 cc. Diesel was directly injected into the cylinder, and NG was fed through the intake port.

Spark ignition knock is highly sensitive to changes in intake air temperature. Hot surface temperatures due to ceramic thermal barrier coatings increase knock propensity by elevating the incoming air temperature, thus mitigating the positive impacts of low heat transfer losses by requiring spark retard to avoid knock. Low thermal inertia coatings (i.e. Temperature swing coatings) have been proposed as a means of reducing or eliminating the open cycle charge heating penalty of traditional TBCs through a combination of low thermal conductivity and low volumetric heat capacity materials. However, in order to achieve a meaningful gain in efficiency, a significant fraction of the combustion chamber must be coated. In this study, a coated piston and intake and exhaust valves with coated combustion faces, backsides, and stems are installed in a single-cylinder research engine to evaluate the effect of high coated fractions of the combustion chamber in a knock-sensitive architecture.

In military applications, diesel engines are required to achieve high power outputs and therefore must operate at high loads. This high load operation leads to high piston component temperatures and heat rejection rates limiting the packaged power density of the powertrain. To help predict and understand these constraints, as well as their effects on performance, a thermodynamic engine model coupled to a finite element heat conduction solver is proposed and validated in this work. The finite element solver is used to calculate crank angle resolved, spatially averaged piston temperatures from in-cylinder heat transfer calculations. The calculated piston temperatures refine the heat transfer predictions as well requiring iteration between the thermodynamic model and finite element solver.

Opposed-piston 2-stroke (OP-2S) engines have the potential to achieve higher thermal efficiency than a typical diesel engine. However, the uniflow scavenging process is difficult to control over a wide range of speeds and loads. Scavenging performance is highly sensitive to pressure dynamics, port timings, and port design. This study proposes an analysis of the effects of port vane angle on the scavenging performance of an opposed-piston 2-stroke engine via simulation. A CFD model of a three-cylinder opposed-piston 2-stroke was developed and validated against experimental data collected by Achates Power Inc. One of the three cylinders was then isolated in a new model and simulated using cycle-averaged and cylinder-averaged initial/boundary conditions. This isolated cylinder model was used to efficiently sweep port angles from 12 degrees to 29 degrees at different pressure ratios.

The application of dual-fuel combustion in the freight transportation sectors has received considerable attention due to the capability of achieving higher fuel efficiency and less pollutant emissions than the conventional diesel engines. In this study, high-speed flame visualization was used to investigate the phenomena of natural gas/diesel dual-fuel combustion in a single-cylinder heavy-duty engine with optical access. To implement diverse fuel blending conditions, diesel injection timing and natural gas substitution ratio were varied under constant fuel energy input. A novel flame regime separation method was implemented based on color segmentation in HSV color space to characterize the spatial distributions of premixed and non-premixed flame regimes. Flame images for larger natural gas substitution showed a significant reduction in the non-premixed flame regime accompanied by flame propagation along the vaporized diesel sprays.

In this work, a novel opposed piston architecture is proposed where one crankshaft rotates at twice the speed of the other. This results in one piston creating a 2-stroke profile and another with a 4-stroke profile. In this configuration, the slower piston operates in the 2-stroke CAD domain, while the faster piston completes 2 reciprocating cycles in the same amount of time (4-stroke). The key benefit of this cycle is that the 4-stroke piston increases the rate of compression and expansion (dV/dθ), which lowers the combustion-induced pressure rise rate after top dead center (crank angle location of minimum volume). Additionally, it lowers in-cylinder temperatures and pressures more rapidly, resulting in a lower residence time at high temperatures, which reduces residence time for thermal NOx formation and reduces the temperature differential between the gas and the wall, thereby reducing heat transfer.

In-cylinder surface temperature is of heightened importance for Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) combustion since the combustion mechanism is thermo-kinetically driven. Thermal Barrier Coatings (TBCs) selectively manipulate the in-cylinder surface temperature, providing an avenue for improving thermal and combustion efficiency. A surface temperature swing during combustion/expansion reduces heat transfer losses, leading to more complete combustion and reduced emissions. At the same time, achieving a highly dynamic response sidesteps preheating of charge during intake and eliminates the volumetric efficiency penalty. The magnitude and temporal profile of the dynamic surface temperature swing is affected by the TBC material properties, thickness, morphology, engine speed, and heat flux from the combustion process. This study follows prior work of authors with Yttria Stabilized Zirconia, which systematically engineered coatings for HCCI combustion.

Most internal combustion engine makers have adopted after-treatment systems, such as selective catalytic reduction (SCR), diesel particulate filter (DPF), and diesel oxidation catalyst (DOC), to meet emission regulations. However, as the emission regulations become stricter, the size of the after-treatment systems become larger. This aggravates the price competitiveness of engine systems and causes fuel efficiency to deteriorate due to the increased exhaust pressure. Dual-fuel premixed charge compression ignition (DF-PCCI) combustion, which is one of the advanced combustion technologies, makes it possible to reduce nitrogen oxides (NOx) and particulate matter (PM) during the combustion process, while keeping the combustion phase controllability as a conventional diesel combustion (CDC). However, DF-PCCI combustion produces high amounts of hydrocarbon (HC) and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions due to the bulk quenching phenomenon under low load conditions as a huddle of commercialization.

The spray and combustion of diesel fuel were investigated to provide a better understanding of the evaporation and combustion process under the simulated cold-start condition of a diesel engine. The experiment was conducted in a constant volume combustion chamber and the engine cranking period was selected as the target ambient condition. Mie scattering and shadowgraph techniques were used to visualize the liquid- and vapor-phase of the fuel under evaporating non-combustion conditions (oxygen concentration=0%). In-chamber pressure and direct flame visualization were acquired for spray combustion conditions (oxygen concentration=21%). The fuel was injected at an injection pressure of 30 MPa, which is the typical pressure during the cranking period.

This paper presents the transient power optimization of an organic Rankine cycle waste heat recovery (ORC-WHR) system operating on a heavy-duty diesel (HDD). The optimization process is carried on an experimentally validated, physics-based, high fidelity ORC-WHR model, which consists of parallel tail pipe and EGR evaporators, a high pressure working fluid pump, a turbine expander, etc. Three different ORC-WHR mixed vapor temperature (MVT) operational strategies are evaluated to optimize the ORC system net power: (i) constant MVT; (ii) constant superheat temperature; (iii) fuzzy logic superheat temperature based on waste power level. Transient engine conditions are considered in the optimization. Optimization results reveal that adaptation of the vapor temperature setpoint based on evaporation pressure strategy (ii) provides 1.1% mean net power (MNP) improvement relative to a fixed setpoint strategy (i).

The limited operational range of low temperature combustion engines is influenced by near-wall conditions. A major factor is the accumulation and burn-off of combustion chamber deposits. Previous studies have begun to characterize in-situ combustion chamber deposit thermal properties with the end goal of understanding, and subsequently replicating the beneficial effects of CCD on HCCI combustion. Combustion chamber deposit thermal diffusivity was found to differ depending on location within the chamber, with significant initial spatial variations, but a certain level of convergence as equilibrium CCD thickness is reached. A previous study speculatively attributed these spatially dependent CCD diffusivity differences to either local differences in morphology, or interactions with the fuel-air charge in the DI engine. In this work, the influence of directly injected gasoline on CCD thermal diffusivity is measured using the in-situ technique based on fast thermocouple signals.

The effects of hydrogen ratio and exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) on combustion and emissions in a hydrogen/diesel dual-fuel premixed charge compression ignition (PCCI) engine were investigated. The control of combustion phasing could be improved using hydrogen enrichment and EGR due to the retarded combustion phasing with a higher hydrogen ratio. The indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP) was increased with a higher hydrogen ratio because the hydrogen enrichment intensified the high temperature reactions and thus decreased the combustion duration. Hydrocarbon (HC) and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions were reduced significantly in a hydrogen/diesel dual-fuel PCCI mode with a similar NOx emissions level as that of the diesel PCCI mode.

Transient tests in a 2.0 liter in-line 4 cylinder downsizing gasoline direct injection engine were conducted under various transient conditions in order to investigate effects of lower rotational inertia of titanium aluminide alloy (TiAl) turbine wheel on engine and turbocharger performances. As a representative result, fast boost pressure build up was achieved in case of TiAl turbocharger compared to Inconel turbocharger. This result was mainly due to lower rotational inertia of TiAl turbine wheel. Engine torque build up response was also improved with TiAl turbocharger even though engine torque response gap between both turbochargers was slightly reduced due to retarded combustion phase. In addition, with advanced ignition timing, fuel consumption became less than that of Inconel turbocharger with similar engine torque response.

This paper presents a new way to evaluate vehicle speed profile aggressiveness, quantify it from the perspective of the rapid speed fluctuations, and assess its impact on vehicle fuel economy. The speed fluctuation can be divided into two portions: the large-scale low frequency speed trace which follows the ongoing traffic and road characteristics, and the small-scale rapid speed fluctuations normally related to the driver's experience, style and ability to anticipate future events. The latter represent to some extent the driver aggressiveness and it is well known to affect the vehicle energy consumption and component duty cycles. Therefore, the rapid speed fluctuations are the focus of this paper. Driving data collected with the GPS devices are widely adopted for study of real-world fuel economy, or the impact on electrified vehicle range and component duty cycles.

Low Temperature Combustion (LTC) is known to be feasible only in lower load ranges so in real world application of LTC, engine operation mode should frequently change back and forth between LTC mode in lower loads and conventional mode in higher loads. In this research, effect of injection strategy on smoothness and emissions during mode transition in a single cylinder heavy duty diesel engine is studied. The Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) line was controlled by a servo-valve capable of opening or closing the EGR loop within only one engine cycle. Ten cycles after the EGR valve closure were taken as the transition period during which injection timing and quantity were shifted in various ways (i.e. injection strategies) and the effect on Indicated Mean Effective Pressure (IMEP) stability and emissions was studied.

The recent advent of highly effective drilling and extraction technologies has decreased the price of natural gas and renewed interest in its use for transportation. Of particular interest is the conversion of dedicated diesel engines to operate on dual-fuel with natural gas injected into the intake manifold. Dual-fuel systems with natural gas injected into the intake manifold replace a significant portion of diesel fuel energy with natural gas (generally 50% or more by energy content), and produce lower operating costs than diesel-only operation. Diesel-natural gas engines have a high compression ratio and a homogeneous mixture of natural gas and air in the cylinder end gases. These conditions are very favorable for knock at high loads. In the present study, knock prediction concepts that utilize a single step Arrhenius function for diesel-natural gas dual-fuel engines are evaluated.

The fidelity of the hybrid electric vehicle simulation is increased with the integration of a computationally-efficient finite-element based electric machine model, in order to address optimization of component design for system level goals. In-wheel electric motors are considered because of the off-road military application which differs significantly from commercial HEV applications. Optimization framework is setup by coupling the vehicle simulation to the constrained optimization solver. Utilizing the increased design flexibility afforded by the model, the solver is able to reshape the electric machine's efficiency map to better match the vehicle operation points. As the result, the favorable design of the e-machine is selected to improve vehicle fuel economy and reduce cost, while satisfying performance constraints.

Spray and combustion of gasoline and diesel were visualized under different ambient conditions in terms of pressure, temperature and density in a constant volume chamber. Three different ambient conditions were selected to simulate the three combustion regimes of homogeneous charge compression ignition, premixed charge compression ignition and conventional combustion. Ambient density was varied from 3.74 to 23.39 kg/m3. Ambient temperature at the spray injection were controlled to the range from 474 to 925 K. Intake oxygen concentration was also modulated from 15 % to 21 % in order to investigate the effects of intake oxygen concentrations on combustion characteristics. The injection pressure of gasoline and diesel were modulated from 50 to 150 MPa to analyze the effect of injection pressure on the spray development and combustion characteristics. Liquid penetration length and vapor penetration length were measured based on the methods of Mie-scattering and Schileren, respectively.

Steady and transient tests in a downsizing Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) in-line 4 cylinders 2.0 liter engine were carried out to investigate characteristics of turbocharger with Titanium aluminide (TiAl) turbine wheel. The density of TiAl material is lower than Inconel 718 (Inconel) which is raw material for conventional turbine wheel. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of light rotational inertia of turbine wheel on engine performance. Performance of TiAl turbine wheel turbocharger itself was also compared to that of Inconel turbine wheel turbocharger. Except for the turbine wheels, all experimental conditions were matched to be the same load and engine speed conditions. The compressor total-to-total pressure ratio of TiAl turbocharger was higher under part load condition due to higher turbocharger speed of TiAl turbocharger, which was led by lower rotational inertia of TiAl turbine wheel, while the engine performance was not much improved.

Mode transition between low temperature combustion (LTC) and conventional combustion was performed by changing the exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) rate from 60% to 0% or vice versa in a light duty diesel engine. The indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP) before mode transition was set at 0.45 MPa, representing the maximum load of LTC in this research engine. Various engine operating parameters (rate of EGR change, EGR path length, and residual gas) were considered in order to investigate their influence on the combustion mode transition. The characteristics of combustion mode transition were analyzed based on the in-cylinder pressure and hydrocarbon (HC) emission of each cycle. The general results showed that drastic changes of power output, combustion noise, and HC emission occurred during the combustion mode transition due to the improper injection conditions for each combustion mode.