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Mass-production single-cylinder engines are generally not turbocharged due to pulsated exhaust flow. Hence, about one-third of the fuel chemical energy is wasted in the engine exhaust. To extract the exhaust energy and boost the single-cylinder engines, a novel supercharging with a turbo-compounding strategy is proposed in the present work, wherein an impulse turbine extracts energy from the pulsated exhaust gas flow. Employing an impulse turbine for a vehicular application, especially on a single-cylinder engine, has never been commercially attempted. Hence, the design of the impulse turbine assumes higher importance. A nozzle, designed as a stator part of the impulse turbine and placed at the exhaust port to accelerate the flow velocity, was included as part of the layout in the present work. The layout was analyzed using the commercial software AVL BOOST. Different nozzle exit diameters were considered to analyze their effect on the exhaust back pressure and engine performance.

Single-cylinder engines in mass production are generally not turbocharged due to the pulsated and intermittent exhaust gas flow into the turbocharger and the phase lag between the intake and exhaust stroke. The present work proposes a novel approach of decoupling the turbine and the compressor and coupling them separately to the engine to address these limitations. An impulse turbine is chosen for this application to extract energy during the pulsated exhaust flow. Commercially available AVL BOOST software was used to estimate the overall engine performance improvement of the proposed novel approach compared to the base naturally aspirated (NA) engine. Two different impulse turbine layouts were analyzed, one without an exhaust plenum and the second layout having an exhaust plenum before the power turbine. The merits and limitations of both layouts are compared in the present study.

Supercharging a single-cylinder diesel engine has proved to be a viable methodology to reduce engine-out emissions and increase full-load torque and power. The increased air availability of the supercharger (SC) system helps to inject more fuel quantity that can improve the engine's full-load brake mean effective pressure (BMEP) without elevating soot emissions. However, the increased inlet temperature of the boosted air and the availability of excess oxygen can pose significant challenges to contain oxides of nitrogen (NOx) emissions. Hence, it is important to investigate the potential NOx reduction options in supercharged diesel engines. In the present work, the potential of low-pressure exhaust gas recirculation (LP EGR) was evaluated in a single-cylinder supercharged diesel engine for its benefits in NOx emission reduction and impact on other criteria emissions and brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC).

Despite the advantages of turbocharging in improved engine performance and reduced exhaust emissions, commercial single-cylinder engines used for automotive applications remain naturally aspirated (NA) and are not generally turbocharged. This is due to the shortcomings with pulsated and intermittent exhaust gas flow into the turbine and the phase lag between the intake and exhaust stroke. In the present study, experimental investigations are initially carried out with a suitable turbocharger closely coupled to a single-cylinder diesel engine. Results indicated that the engine power dropped significantly by 40% for the turbocharged engine compared to the NA version even though the air mass flow rate was increased by at least 1.5 times with turbocharging. A novel approach of decoupling the turbine and the compressor and coupling them separately to the engine is proposed to address these limitations.

Adopting a low compression ratio (LCR) is a viable approach to meet the stringent emission regulations since it can simultaneously reduce the oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and particulate matter (PM) emissions. However, significant shortcomings with the LCR approach include higher unburned hydrocarbon (HC) and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions and fuel economy penalties. Further, poor combustion stability of LCR engines at cold ambient and part load conditions may worsen the transient emission characteristics, which are least explored in the literature. In the present work, the effects of implementing the low compression ratio (LCR) approach in a mass-production light-duty vehicle powered by a single-cylinder diesel engine are investigated with a major focus on transient emission characteristics.

The present work investigates the effects of lowering the compression ratio (LCR) from 18:1 to 14:1 and optimizing the fuel injection parameters across the operating range of a mass production light-duty diesel engine. The results were quantified for a regulatory Indian drive cycle using a one-dimensional simulation tool. The results show that the LCR approach can simultaneously reduce the oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and soot emissions by 28% and 64%, respectively. However, the unburned hydrocarbon (HC) and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions increased significantly by 305% and 119%, respectively, with a 4.5% penalty in brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC). Hence, optimization of fuel injection parameters specific to LCR operation was attempted. It was evident that advancing the main injection timing and reducing the injection pressure at low-load operating points can significantly help to reduce BSFC, HC and CO emissions with a slight increase in the NOx emissions.

In the present work, the possibility of engine knock detection is investigated based on in-cycle speed data, which is readily available to the ECU. Experiments were conducted at 3000 rpm with wide-open throttle condition in a single-cylinder, air-cooled, port-fuel-injection spark-ignition engine at different levels of knocking. It was found that amplitude of speed oscillations increased with the knock intensity for considered window with the size of 100 crank angle degree, starting from the top dead center of compression. The proposed knock indicators based on in-cycle speed oscillations were found to be able to identify the knock-limited spark timings at different operating conditions. Results showed that the amplitude of speed oscillations, derived from in-cycle speed data with resolution of six crank angle degree, could also be used to quantify the knock. The knock frequency based on speed oscillations also showed a sharp increase at the onset of knock.

Gasoline Controlled Auto-Ignition (GCAI) combustion, which can be categorized under Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI), is a low-temperature combustion process with promising benefits such as ultra-low cylinder-out NOx emissions and reduced brake-specific fuel consumption, which are the critical parameters in any modern engine. Since this technology is based on uncontrolled auto-ignition of a premixed charge, it is very sensitive to any change in boundary conditions during engine operation. Adopting real time valve timing and fuel-injection strategies can enable improved control over GCAI combustion. This work discusses the outcome of collaborative experimental research by the partnering institutes in this direction. Experiments were performed in a single cylinder GCAI engine with variable valve timing and Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) at constant indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP). In the first phase intake and exhaust valve timing sweeps were investigated.

Direct injection of fuel has been seen as a potential method to reduce fuel short circuiting in two stroke engines. However, most work has been on low pressure injection. In this work, which employed high pressure direct injection in a small two stroke engine (2S-GDI), a detailed study of injection parameters affecting performance and combustion has been presented based on experiments for evaluating its potential. Influences of injection pressure (IP), injection timing (end of injection - EOI) and location of the spark plug at different operating conditions in a 199.3 cm3 automotive two stroke engine using a real time open engine controller were studied. Experiments were conducted at different throttle positions and equivalence ratios at a speed of 3000 rpm with various sets of injection parameters and spark plug locations. The same engine was also run in the manifold injection (2S-MI) mode under similar conditions for comparison.

In this experimental work the effect of double injection of diesel in a biogas-diesel partially premixed charge compression ignition (BDPPCCI) engine was studied. Biogas was inducted along with air while diesel was injected through a common rail system using an open electronic control unit. Experiments were done at a fixed brake mean effective pressure of 2 bar and an intake charge temperature of 40°C. The effect of start of injection (SOI) of first and second injection pulses and also the biogas energy share (BGES) were evaluated. Experiments were also done in the BDPPCCI mode with diesel being injected in a single pulse and in the biogas-diesel dual fuel (BDDF) mode for comparison. The thermal efficiency in the BDPPCCI mode was better with double injection of diesel as compared to single pulse injection due to better combustion phasing. Improved charge homogeneity and reduced wall wetting of diesel lowered the smoke emission levels with split injection.

Owing to a high power-to-weight ratio, mini internal combustion engine is used in propelling an unmanned air vehicle. In comparison to the performance characteristics, the investigations on the combustion aspects of mini engines are scanty. This investigation concerns study of the combustion process of a mini engine and its variability. For this purpose, the experimental cylinder pressure histories were obtained on a laboratory set-up of a 7.45 cm3 capacity mini engine. The analyses of experimental data at different throttle settings reveal that there existed a varied range of rich and lean misfiring limits around a reference equivalence ratio that corresponds to the respective maximum indicated mean effective pressure. At the limiting equivalence ratios, cylinder pressure measurements showed a high degree of cycle-to-cycle variations. In some cases, a slow combustion or misfiring event preceded a rapid combustion.

Short-circuiting of the fuel air mixture during scavenging is the main reason for high fuel consumption and hydrocarbon (HC) emissions in two-stroke SI engines. Though direct injection of the fuel after the closure of ports has advantages, it is costly and complex. In this work, in a 2S-SI, single cylinder, automotive engine, LPG (liquefied Petroleum Gas) was injected through the boost port to reduce short-circuiting losses. A fuel injector was located on one of the boost ports and the air alone was fed through the other transfer and boost ports for scavenging. Experiments were done at 25% and 70% throttle openings with different injection timings and optimal spark timing at 3000 rpm. Boost port injection (BPI) of LPG reduced HC emissions at all conditions as compared to LPG-MI (Manifold Injection). Particularly significant reductions were seen at high throttle conditions and rich mixtures. HC reductions with BPI were 19% and 25% as compared to LPG-MI and gasoline-MI respectively.

This experimental study was aimed at improving a two-stroke S.I engine by injecting gasoline with air assistance through the cylinder barrel. Experimentally obtained performance and emission parameters of the engine at 25% and 100% throttle positions were analyzed at 3000 rpm. The timing of air assisted injection was optimized at 25% throttle and 3000 rpm. The performance and emissions of the engine were compared with those obtained with an optimized manifold injection system. In all cases the best spark timing was used. At 25% throttle although the thermal efficiency was increased only slightly, there was a significant reduction in HC emissions to 6.63 g/kW-h with cylinder barrel injection from 10.69 g/kW-h with manifold injection due to reduced short circuiting of the fuel. There was a reduction in NO emissions as well with cylinder barrel injection. Comparisons were made at the point of highest thermal efficiency at 100% throttle also.

Setting the correct valve timing and lift based on the operating speed will be the key to achieving good volumetric efficiency and torque. Continuously variable valve timing systems are the best choice but are too expensive. In this work a novel two stage variable valve actuation system was conceived and developed for a small single cylinder three wheeler spark ignition engine. The constraints were space, cost and complexity. The developed system uses one cam for low speeds and another cam that has a higher lift and duration for high speeds. The shift between the cams occurs through the mechanism even as the engine runs by the operation of a stepper motor which can be connected to the engine controller. A one dimensional simulation model validated with experimental data was used to predict the suitable valve timings and lifts in low and high speed ranges. Two profiles were then selected.