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Reaching near-zero cold start emissions in a wide range of ambient conditions is a challenging, yet necessary objective. Optimizing the combustion, although fundamental to lower specific engine-out emissions, is not sufficient, especially in high-performance engines. A very high after-treatment efficiency from engine start-up onwards is mandatory. Active heating technologies allow quick heating up of after-treatment devices like a three way catalyst above their light-off temperature, regardless of engine operation. In this work, the particular characteristics of a fuel burner were analyzed. The steps that led to the design of an exhaust system equipped with a fuel burner are reported. The fuel burner ability to efficiently heat up after-treatment devices was assessed by numerical simulations and then verified experimentally. Cumulative results were compared with a passive catalyst heating strategy.

In the next years, the upcoming emission legislations are expected to introduce further restrictions on the admittable level of pollutants from vehicles measured on homologation cycles and real drive tests. In this context, the strict control of pollutant emissions at the cold start will become a crucial point to comply with the new regulation standards. This will necessarily require the implementation of novel strategies to speed-up the light-off of the reactions occurring in the after-treatment system, since the cold start conditions are the most critical one for cumulative emissions. Among the different possible technological solutions, this paper focuses on the evaluation of the potential of a burner system, which is activated before the engine start. The hypothetical burner exploits the lean combustion of an air-gasoline mixture to generate a high temperature gas stream which is directed to the catalyst section promoting a fast heating of the substrate.

Regulations regarding vehicles’ CO2 emissions are continuing to become stricter due to global warming. The CO2 regulations urge automobile manufacturers to develop gasoline engines with improved efficiency; however, the main obstacle to the improvement is the knock phenomenon in spark-ignition engines. If knock is predicted, the efficiency potential can be maximized in an engine by applying modest spark timing. Several research regarding knock prediction modeling have been conducted, and typically Livengood-Wu integral model is used to predict the knock occurrence. For the prediction, knock onset should be determined on a given pressure signal of given knock cycles for establishing the 0D ignition delay model. Several methodologies for knock onset determination have been developed because checking all the knock onset position by hand is impossible considering the breadth of data sets.

In this study, we developed a predictive model for knock intensity in spark-ignition (SI) engine with gasoline-ethanol-nbutanol (GEnB) blend fuel, which is being considered as an alternative fuel for conventional gasoline in South Korea, to understand the potential improvement of engine performance with the introduction of GEnB blend fuel. First, the ignition delay of the stoichiometric mixture of GEnB blend fuel and air was measured on a pressure of 10-30 bar and a temperature of 721-831 K by using rapid compression machine (RCM). Then, we derived the empirical correlation of the ignition delay with which the Livengood-Wu integration along pressure-temperature profile in RCM gives the best prediction for the start of combustion. The ignition delay correlation was applied to 0-D two-zone SI engine model, and we predicted the knocking intensity of GEnB blend fuels by using Livengood-Wu integration and Bougrine’s knocking intensity model.

As a result of stringent global regulations on fuel economy and CO2 emissions, the development of high-efficiency SI engines is more urgent now than ever before. Along with advanced techniques in friction reduction, many researchers endeavor to decrease the B/S (bore-to-stroke) ratio from 1.0 (square) to a certain value, which is expected to reduce the heat loss and enhance the burning rate of SI engines. In this study, the effects of B/S ratios were investigated in aspects of efficiency and knock characteristics using a single-cylinder LIVC (late intake valve closing) GDI (gasoline direct injection) engine. Three B/S ratios (0.68, 0.83 and 1.00) were tested under the same mechanical compression ratio of 12:1 and the same displacement volume of 0.5 L. The head tumble ratio was maintained at the same level to solely investigate the effects of geometrical changes caused by variations in the B/S ratio.

As fuel injection strategies in spark-ignition (SI) engines have been diversified, inhomogeneous mixing of the fuel-air mixture can occur to varying extents during mixture preparation. In this study, we analyzed the effect of inhomogeneous mixing on the knocking characteristics of iso-octane and air mixture under a standardized fuel testing condition for research octane number (RON), based on ASTM D2699. For this purpose, we assumed that both lean spots and rich spots existed in unburned gas during compression stroke and flame propagation and calculated the thermodynamic state of the spots by using an in-house multi-zone, zero-dimensional SI engine model. Then, the ignition delay was measured over the derived thermodynamic profiles by using rapid compression machine (RCM), and we calculated ξ, the ratio of sound speed to auto-ignition propagation speed, based on Zel’dovich and Bradley’s ξ − ε theory to estimate knock intensity.

Large-eddy simulation (LES) applications for internal combustion engine (ICE) flows are constantly growing due to the increase of computing resources and the availability of suitable CFD codes, methods and practices. The LES superior capability for modeling spatial and temporal evolution of turbulent flow structures with reference to RANS makes it a promising tool for describing, and possibly motivating, ICE cycle-to-cycle variability (CCV) and cycle-resolved events such as knock and misfire. Despite the growing interest towards LES in the academic community, applications to ICE flows are still limited. One of the reasons for such discrepancy is the uncertainty in the estimation of the LES computational cost. This in turn is mainly dependent on grid density, the CFD domain extent, the time step size and the overall number of cycles to be run. Grid density is directly linked to the possibility of reducing modeling assumptions for sub-grid scales.

Increasing compression ratio is essential for developing future high-efficiency engines due to the intrinsic characteristics of spark-ignited engines. However, it also causes the unfavorable, abnormal knocking phenomena which is the auto-ignition in the unburned end-gas region. To cope with regulations, many researchers have been experimenting with various methods to suppress knock occurrence. In this paper, it is shown that cooling the combustion chamber using coolants, which is one of the most practical methods, has a strong effect on knock mitigation. Furthermore, the relationship between thermal boundary and coolant temperatures is shown. In the beginning of this paper, knock metrics using an in-cylinder pressure sensor are explained for readers, even though entire research studies cannot be listed due to the innumerableness. The coolant passages for the cylinder head and the liner were separated to examine independent cooling strategies.

The increasing interest in the application of Large Eddy Simulation (LES) to Internal Combustion Engines (hereafter ICEs) flows is motivated by its capability to capture spatial and temporal evolution of turbulent flow structures. Furthermore, LES is universally recognized as capable of simulating highly unsteady and random phenomena driving cycle-to-cycle variability (CCV) and cycle-resolved events such as knock and misfire. Several quality criteria were proposed in the recent past to estimate LES uncertainty: however, definitive conclusions on LES quality criteria for ICEs are still far to be found. This paper describes the application of LES quality criteria to the TCC-III single-cylinder optical engine from University of Michigan and GM Global R&D; the analyses are carried out under motored condition.

Livengood-Wu integration model is acknowledged as a relatively simple but fairly accurate autoignition prediction method which has been widely recognized as a methodology predicting knock occurrence of a spark-ignition (SI) engine over years. Fundamental idea of the model is that the chemical reactivity of fuel under a certain thermodynamic test condition can be represented by inverse of the acquired ignition delay. However, recent studies show that the predictability of the model seems to deteriorate if the tested fuel exhibits negative temperature coefficient (NTC) behavior which is primarily caused by two-stage ignition characteristics. It is convincing that the cool flame exothermicity during the first ignition stage is a major cause that limits the prediction capability of the integration model, therefore a new ignition delay concept based on cool flame elimination is introduced in order to minimize the thermal effect of the cool flame.

Currently, diesel engine-out exhaust NOx emission level prediction is a major challenge for complying with the stricter emission legislation and for control purpose of the after-treatment system. Most of the NOx prediction research is based on the Zeldovich thermal mechanism, which is reasonable from the physical point of view and for its simplicity. Nevertheless, there are some predictable range limitations, such as low temperature with high EGR rate operating conditions or high temperature with low EGR rates. In the present paper, 3 additional considerations, pilot burned gas mixing before the main injection; major NO formation area; concentration correction, were applied to the previously developed real-time NO estimation model based on in-cylinder pressure and data available from ECU. The model improvement was verified on a 1.6 liter EURO5 diesel engine in both steady and transient operation.

Due to the direct injection of fuel into a combustion chamber, particulate emission is a challenge in DISI engines. Specifically, a significant amount of particulate emission is produced under the cold start condition. In this research, the main interest was to investigate particulate emission characteristics under the catalyst heating condition because it is one of the significant particulate-emissionproducing stages under the cold start condition. A single-cylinder optically accessible engine was used to investigate the effect of injection strategies on particulate emission characteristics under the catalyst heating condition. The split injection strategy was applied during intake stroke with various injection pressures and injection timings. Using luminosity analysis of the soot radiation during combustion, the particulate formation characteristics of each injection strategy were studied. Moreover, the factors that affect PM formation were analyzed via fuel injection visualization.

Diesel engine noise is classified into mechanical noise, flow dynamic noise and combustion noise. Among these, combustion noise level is higher than the others due to the high compression ratio of diesel combustion and auto ignition. The injected fuel is mixed with air in the ignition delay process, followed by simultaneous ignition of the premixed mixture. This process results in a rapid pressure rise, which is the main source of combustion noise. The amount of fuel burned during premixed combustion is mainly affected by the ignition delay. The exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) rate has an impact on ignition delay, and thus, it influences the combustion noise characteristics. Therefore, during the transient state, the combustion noise characteristics change as the EGR rate deviates from the target value. In this study, the effect of the EGR rate deviation during the transient state of the combustion noise is examined. A 1.6 liter diesel engine with a VGT was used for the experiment.

Ethanol is becoming more popular as a fuel component for spark-ignited engines. Ethanol can be used either as an octane enhancer of low RON gasoline or splash-blended with gasoline if a single injector is used for fuel injection. If two separate injectors are used, it is possible to inject gasoline and ethanol separately and the addition of ethanol can be varied on demand. In this study, the effect of the ethanol injection strategy on knock suppression was observed using a single cylinder engine equipped with two port fuel injectors dedicated to each side of the intake port and one direct injector. If the fuel is injected to only one side of the intake port, it is possible to form a stratified charge. The experiment was conducted under a compression ratio of 12.2 for various injection strategies.

The alternative fuel jet propellant 8 (JP-8, NATO F-34) can be used as an auto-ignition source instead of diesel. Because it has a higher volatility than diesel, it provides a better air-fuel premixing condition than a conventional diesel engine, which can be attributed to a reduction in particulate matter (PM). In homogeneous charged compression ignition (HCCI) or dual-fuel premixed charge compression ignition (PCCI) combustion or reactivity controlled compression ignition (RCCI), nitrogen oxides (NOx) can also be reduced by supplying external exhaust gas recirculation (EGR). In this research, the diesel and JP-8 injection strategies under conventional condition and dual-fuel PCCI combustion with and without external EGR was conducted. Two tests of dual-fuel (JP-8 and propane) PCCI were conducted at a low engine speed and load (1,500 rpm/IMEP 0.55 MPa). The first test was performed by advancing the main injection timing from BTDC 5 to 35 CA to obtain the emissions characteristics.

In this work, the operating strategy for diesel injection methods and a way to control the exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) rate under dual-fuel PCCI combustion with an appropriate ratio of low-reactivity fuel (propane) to achieve high combustion stability and low emissions is introduced. The standards of combustion stability were carbon monoxide (CO) emissions below 5,000 ppm and a CoV of the indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP) below 5 %. Additionally, the NOx emissions was controlled to not exceed 50 ppm, which is the standard of conventional diesel combustion, and PM emissions was kept below 0.2 FSN, which is a tenth of the conventional diesel value without a diesel particulate filter (DPF). The operating condition was a low speed and load condition (1,500 rpm/ near gIMEP of 0.55 MPa).

Direct-injection spark-ignition (DISI) engines are regarded as a promising technology for the reduction of fuel consumption and improvement of engine thermal efficiency. However, due to direct injection, the shortened fuel-air mixing duration leads to a spatial gradient of the equivalence ratio, and these locally rich regions cause the formation of particulate matter. In the current study, numerical investigations on pollutant formation in a DISI engine were performed using combined flamelet models for premixed and diffusion flames. The G-equation model for partially premixed combustion was improved by incorporating the laminar flamelet library. Gasoline fuel was represented as a ternary mixture of gasoline surrogate and its laminar flame speeds were obtained under a wide range of engine operating conditions.

Ethanol, one of the most widely used biofuels, has the potential to increase the knock resistance of gasoline and decrease harmful emissions when blended with gasoline. However, due to the characteristics of ethanol, a trade-off relationship between knock tolerance and BSFC exists which is balanced by the blending ratio of gasoline and ethanol. Furthermore, in a spark-ignited engine, it is reported that the blending ratio that maximizes thermal efficiency varies based on the engine operating conditions. Therefore, an injection system that can deliver gasoline and ethanol separately is needed to fully exploit the benefit of ethanol. In this study, PFI injectors and a DI injector are used to deliver ethanol and gasoline, respectively. Using the dual fuel injection system, the compression ratio was increased from 9.5 to 13.3, and the knock mitigation characteristics at the full load condition were examined.

As EURO-6 regulations will be enforced in 2014, the reduction of NOx emission while maintaining low PM emission levels becomes an important topic in current diesel engine research. EGR is the most effective way to reduce the NOx emission because EGR has a dilution and thermal effect as a means to reduce the oxygen concentration and combustion temperature. Although EGR is useful in reducing the NOx emission, it suffers from a higher level of CO and THC emissions, which indicates a low combustion efficiency and poor fuel consumption. Therefore, in this research, a close post injection strategy, which is implemented using main injection and post injection, is introduced to improve combustion efficiency and to reduce PM emission under a high EGR rate. In addition, a modified hardware configuration using a double-row nozzle and a two-staged piston bowl geometry is adapted to improve the effect of the close post injection.

Much research has been devoted to reducing NOx and soot emissions simultaneously in diesel engines. The low temperature combustion (LTC) concept has the potential to reduce these emissions at the same time, but it has limitations to its commercialization. In-cylinder EGR stratification is another combustion concept meant to reduce both types of emissions simultaneously using non-uniform in-cylinder EGR gas distribution. The EGR stratification concept uses a locally high EGR region of the in-cylinder so that the emissions can be reduced without increasing the overall EGR rate. In this study, the EGR stratification concept was improved with a CFD-based analysis. First, a two-step piston was developed to maximize the stratified EGR effect. Then, the feasibility of combustion and emission control by stratified EGR was evaluated under cases of artificially distributed EGR stratification and conventional diesel engine conditions.