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Pre-chamber ignition is one of the advanced technologies to improve the combustion performance for lean combustion natural gas engine, which could achieve low NOx, simultaneously. The designing scheme of the orifices, which connects the pre-chamber and the main chamber, is the main challenge limiting the further improvement. In this work, the three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics calculation based on a four-stroke engine with 320 mm cylinder bore was conducted to investigate the effects of orifice structure on the combustion and NOx performance. The results show that the schemes with 7 and 9 orifices lead to the delayed high-temperature jets formation due to the asymmetrical airflow in the pre-chamber, which retards the ignition timing but enhances the combustion in the main chamber. The 6 orifices scheme leads to the insufficient distribution of the high-temperature jets, and the 10 orifices result in the serious interference between the adjacent high-temperature jets.

Ammonia fuel is typically characterized by low viscosity, low flash point, and non-flammability. This means that fuel characteristics and operational requirements significantly deviate from those of conventional fuels, requiring a significant technical upgrade to the existing fuel supply and injection systems. This research involves a numerical analysis of ammonia utilization in high-pressure direct injection. Considering the non-isothermal compressibility of the fuel flow process, the fluid properties in the model are specifically defined based on the physical properties of the ammonia fuel. The injection performance of ammonia fuel was studied, including comparing the injection performance of ammonia fuel with conventional diesel fuel under typical operating conditions in the injector, and exploring the injection characteristics of ammonia fuel injector under a wide fuel temperature range.

A phenomenological model for high-pressure direct injection natural gas-diesel dual-fuel marine engine was developed, which includes natural gas mixing process using Musculus discrete control volume transient diesel jet model, combustion process using quasi-steady model and Woschini heat transfer model, NO generation using Zeldovich mechanism. Effects of natural gas injection pressure and the start of injection timing on the mixing and combustion process were investigated. The results indicated that increasing the injection pressure with fixed injection mass, the NO emission decreased. While the start of injection timing was before TDC, retarding the injection start timing will increase NO generation.

Ammonia, as a carbon-free fuel, is a promising alternative fuel source for decarbonization of the shipping industry. Nevertheless, the poor flammability and low flame speed restrict its potential application as marine engine fuel. In order to explore the ammonia application feasibility and methods in marine engines, the effects of two combustion promoters, including n-heptane and hydrogen, on improving the ammonia combustion characteristics were compared and discussed theoretically in this study, in terms of flammable intake boundary conditions and laminar flame speed under engine operating conditions. A new detailed reaction mechanism of ammonia/n-heptane dual fuel was developed and validated to characterize the combustion of ammonia and diesel. The results demonstrate that the flammability of ammonia is more sensitive to intake temperature as compared to equivalence ratio and intake pressure.

Multi-sensor fusion strategies have gradually become a consensus in autonomous driving research. Among them, radar-camera fusion has attracted wide attention for its improvement on the dimension and accuracy of perception at a lower cost, however, the processing and association of radar and camera data has become an obstacle to related research. Our approach is to build a concise framework for camera and radar detection and data association: for visual object detection, the state-of-the-art YOLOv5 algorithm is further improved and works as the image detector, and before the fusion process, the raw radar reflection data is projected onto image plane and hierarchically clustered, then the projected radar echoes and image detection results are matched based on the Hungarian algorithm. Thus, the category of objects and their corresponding distance and speed information can be obtained, providing reliable input for subsequent object tracking task.

Focusing on the dual-mode dual-fuel (DMDF) combustion concept, a combined optimization of the piston bowl geometry with the fuel injection strategy was conducted at low, mid, and high loads. By coupling the KIVA-3V code with the enhanced genetic algorithm (GA), a total of 14 parameters including the piston bowl geometric parameters and the injection parameters were optimized with the objective of meeting Euro VI regulations while improving the fuel efficiency. The optimal piston bowl shape coupled with the corresponding injection strategy was summarized and integrated at various loads. Furthermore, the effects of the key geometric parameters were investigated in terms of organizing the in-cylinder flow, influencing the energy distribution, and affecting the emissions. The results indicate that the behavior of the DMDF combustion mode is further enhanced in the aspects of improving the fuel economy and controlling the emissions after the bowl geometry optimization.

Increasingly strict emission regulations and unfavorable economic climate bring severe challenges to the energy conservation of marine low-speed engine. Besides traditional methods, the energy and exergy analysis could acknowledge the losses of fuel from a global perspective to further improve the engine efficiency. Therefore, the energy and exergy analysis is conducted for a marine low-speed engine based on the experimental data. Energy analysis shows the exhaust gas occupies the largest proportion of all fuel energy waste, and it rises with the increment of engine load. The heat transfer consumes the second largest proportion, while it is negatively correlated to engine load. The energy analysis indicates that the most effective way to improve the engine efficiency is to reduce the energy wasted by exhaust gas and heat transfer. However, the latter exergy analysis demonstrates that there are other effective approaches to improve the engine efficiency.

Lean-burn combustion is an effective method for increasing the thermal efficiency of gasoline engines fueled with stoichiometric fuel-air mixture, but leads to an unacceptable level of high cyclic variability before reaching ultra-low nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions emitted from conventional gasoline engines. Multi-point micro-flame ignited (MFI) hybrid combustion was proposed to overcome this problem, and can be can be grouped into double-peak type, ramp type and trapezoid type with very low frequency of appearance. This research investigates the micro-flame ignition stages of double-peak type and ramp type MFI combustion captured by high speed photography. The results show that large flame is formed by the fast propagation of multi-point flame occurring in the central zone of the cylinder in the double-peak type. However, the multiple flame sites occur around the cylinder, and then gradually propagate and form a large flame accelerated by the independent small flame in the ramp type.

Owing to the small size of engines and high injection pressures, it is difficult to avoid the fuel spray impingement on the combustion cylinder wall and piston head in Direct Injection Spark Ignition (DISI) engine, which is a possible source of hydrocarbons and soot emission. As a result, the droplets size and distribution are significantly important to evaluate the atomization and predict the impingement behaviors, such as stick, spread or splash. However, the microscopic behaviors of droplets are seldom reported due to the high density of small droplets, especially under high pressure conditions. In order to solve this problem, a “spray slicer” was designed to cut the spray before impingement as a sheet one to observe the droplets clearly. The experiment was performed in a constant volume chamber under non-evaporation condition, and a mini-sac injector with single hole was used.

High pressure common rail system (HRCRS) is regarded as the most promising fuel injection system. As the key element of the HPCRS, the performance of the electronically controlled common rail injector (ECCRI) determines the working ability of the diesel engines. Excellent response characteristic is an important guarantee for the ECCRI to realize ideal injection rate, which means a lot to the combustion quality for the diesel engines. In an effort to investigate the response characteristics of the ECCRI, a simulation model for high power ECCRI was presented in this article. And 8 crucial structural parameters about the response characteristics were selected as the research factors. Based on Central Composite Design of Experiment and Response Surface Method, the prediction models between the opening response time (ORT) and the closing response time (CRT) of the ECCRI and the crucial parameters were established.

In vehicle accident, the bumper beam generally requires high stiffness for sufficient survival space for occupants while it may cause serious pedestrian lower extremity injuries. The aim of this study is to promote an aluminum-steel hybrid material double-hat bumper to meet the comprehensive requirements. The hybrid bumper is designed to improve the frontal crash and pedestrian protection performances in collision accidents. Finite element (FE) models of the hybrid bumper was built, validated, and integrated into an automotive model. The Fixed Deformable Barrier (FDB) and Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) legform model were used to obtain the vehicle crashworthiness and pedestrian lower leg injury indicators. Numerical results showed that the hybrid bumper had a great potential for crashworthiness performance and pedestrian protection characteristics. Based on this, a multi-objective optimization design (MOD) was performed to search the optimal geometric parameters.

Controllability of ignition timing and combustion phase by means of dual-fuel direct injection strategy in jet-controlled compression ignition mode were investigated in a light-duty prototype diesel engine. Blended fuel with lower reactivity was delivered in the early period of compression stroke to form the premixed charge, while diesel fuel which has higher reactivity was injected near TDC to trigger the ignition. The effects of several important injection parameters including pre-injection timing, jet-injection timing, pre- injection pressure and ratio of pre-injection in the total heat value of injected fuel were discussed. Numerical Simulation by using CFD software was also conducted under similar operating conditions. The experimental results indicate that the jet-injection timing shows robust controllability on the start of combustion under all the engine load conditions.

Low-speed two-stroke dual-fuel engines has been paid more attention due to the energy efficiency design index and Tier III emissions limitations issued by International Marine Organization. Although the dual-fuel engines have strong merits on emissions reduction, which can reach the IMO Tier III without aftertreatment, the power output is much lower than that of diesel engines. Therefore, the dual-fuel engine is also needed to improve continuously. However, the mixing and combustion processes in the engine have not been fully understood. In this study, a 3D-CFD model of the dual-fuel engine was established using CONVERGE to explore the mixing and combustion processes. Locally embedding fine grids are considered at scavenging ports, natural gas injection ports, pre-chamber. The model was validated by experimental in-cylinder pressure.

The stripping of cylinder oil at the scavenging ports of low-speed two-stroke marine engines is one of the main sources of floating oil droplets existing in cylinders. The combustion of these oil droplets is one of the major reasons of PM emissions and pre-ignition for dual-fuel engines. In order to investigate the stripping behavior, a prototype model and a test bench were set up to carry out the experiment of cylinder oil stripping behavior and single droplet deformation under different conditions. Meanwhile, a CFD model was established to analyze the actual scavenging flow field, and the verification results were obtained: in the case of excessive lubrication, a considerable amount of cylinder oil remains on the upper surface of the scavenge ports. Such cylinder oil can be blown into the cylinder when the ports are opened.

Multiple-injection strategy widely used in modern diesel engines can control the in-cylinder mixing process and adjust the combustion process to fit the engine operating conditions. This study uses a one-dimensional spray model with improved injection velocity calculation and determination of spray tip to simulate the diesel spray with multiple-injection. Then the calculated spray penetrations are compared to the experimental data to validate the developed spray model. Analysis is performed on mixing process of diesel spray with multiple-injection using entrainment rate, equivalence ratio, velocity over cross-section, with the spray-to-spray interaction revealed and the entrainment wave effects on spray-to-spray interaction discussed.

Although turbulence plays a critical role in engines operated within low temperature combustion (LTC) regime, its interaction with chemistry on auto-ignition at low-ambient-temperature and lean-oxygen conditions remains inadequately understood. Therefore, it is worthwhile taking turbulence-chemistry interaction (TCI) into consideration in LTC engine simulation by employing advanced combustion models. In the present study, large eddy simulation (LES) coupled with linear eddy model (LEM) is performed to simulate the ignition process in n-heptane spray under engine-relevant conditions, known as Spray H. With LES, more details about unsteady spray flame could be captured compared to Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations (RANS). With LEM approach, both scalar fluctuation and turbulent mixing on sub-grid level are captured, accounting for the TCI. A skeletal mechanism is adopted in this numerical simulation, including 41 species and 124 reactions.

The electrical control common-rail injector (CRI) is a key component in marine diesel engines. Herein, a detailed fluid-mechanical-electric-magnetic coupling mathematic model regarding the CRI was established, considering the transient of fuel properties, different structure parameters of the CRI, and the nonlinear magnetization and magnetic saturation of magnetic materials of the high-speed solenoid valve (HSV) for the CRI. This model was verified by comparing the calculated injection rate with the experimental data at different injection pressures, and the good consistencies obtained proved the validity of this model. Based on this model, the effect of different factors on the dynamic response of the injector was investigated to prepare for the optimization.

Syngas is considered to be a promising alternative fuel for the dual-fuel reactivity controlled compression ignition (RCCI) engine to reduce the fuel consumption and emissions. However, the optimal syngas compositions and fuel supply strategies in RCCI combustion are significantly affected by engine configurations, which have not been investigated yet. In this study, by integrating the KIVA-3V code and the non-dominated sort genetic algorithm II (NSGA-II), the optimizations for a 0.477 L single-cylinder engine with shallow/wide piston bowl (Engine A) and a 1.325 L single-cylinder engine with conventional omega-type piston (Engine B) under the syngas/diesel RCCI combustion were performed. The optimized operating parameters include the fuel-supply strategies, syngas compositions, and intake conditions. The results indicate that the fuel-supply strategy is flexible in Engine A due to the shallow/wide piston bowl and the relatively small cylinder bore.

The potential of diesel/gasoline RCCI combustion coupled with late intake valve closing (LIVC) and double direct injection of diesel for meeting high fuel efficiency with ultra-low emissions was investigated in this study. The study was aiming at high load operation in a heavy-duty diesel engine. Based on the reactivity stratification of RCCI combustion, the employment of double injection of diesel fuel provided concentration stratification of the high-reactivity fuel, which is to further realize effective control of the combustion process. Meanwhile, late intake valve closing (LIVC) strategy is introduced to control the maximum in-cylinder pressure and nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions.

A detailed chemistry-based CFD model (GTEA, General Transport Equation Analysis) is developed to simulate the diesel spray, combustion and emission process. The numerical model incorporates an improved droplet tracking model, the Hybrid breakup model that consider the influence of turbulence inside the nozzle, the reaction mechanism of n-decane coupled with a reduced NOx mechanism, a phenomenological soot model, a modified dynamic mesh model, a spray/wall impingement model, and other improved sub models in the GTEA codes. The model is first applied to predict the diesel spray process. The computational results demonstrate that the model is capable of predicting satisfactory fuel spray process, and the improved agreement is attributed to the ability of the new Hybrid breakup model to account for the effects of turbulence inside the nozzle, which enhance the spray process.