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A problem for the diesel engine that remains since its invention is injection nozzle hole fouling. More advanced injection systems and more complex fuels, now also including bio-components, have made the problem more intricate. Zinc and biodiesel have often been accused of being a big part of the problem, but is this really the case? In this study, nozzle fouling experiments were performed on a single cylinder engine. The experiments were divided in three parts, the first part studied the influence of zinc neodecanoate concentration on nozzle hole fouling, the second part studied the effect of neodecanoates of zinc, sodium, calcium, copper, and iron on fuel flow loss and in the last part it was examined how RME concentration in zinc neodecanoate contaminated petroleum diesel affected nozzle hole fouling propensity. After completed experiments, the nozzles were cut open and the deposits were analyzed in SEM and with EDX.

In order for premixed methane diesel dual fuel engines to meet current and future legislation, the emissions of unburned hydrocarbons must be reduced while high efficiency and high methane utilization is maintained. This paper presents an experimental investigation into the effects of in cylinder air motion, swirl and tumble, on the emissions, heat transfer and combustion characteristics of dual fuel combustion at different air excess ratios. Measurements have been carried out on a single cylinder engine equipped with a fully variable valve train, Lotus AVT. By applying different valve lift profiles for the intake valves, the swirl was varied between 0.5 and 6.5 at BDC and the tumble between 0.5 and 4 at BDC. A commercial 1D engine simulation tool was used to calculate swirl number and tumble for the different valve profiles. Input data for the simulation software was generated using a steady-state flow rig with honeycomb torque measurements.

The diesel engine is still one of the most common and most efficient mobile energy converters. Nevertheless, it is troubled by many problems, one of them being nozzle coking. This is not a new problem; however, due to the introduction of more advanced injection systems and a more diverse fuel matrix, including biofuels, the problem has become more complex. The nozzle holes are also much narrower today than when the problem first appeared and are therefore more sensitive to coking. Two CEC sanctioned coking tests exist for diesel engines, but no universally accepted test for heavy duty engines. In this paper, tests have been performed with B10 doped with 1 ppm zinc on a single cylinder engine, based on a heavy duty engine, with the purpose to develop a simple accelerated coking test. To have relevance to real usage, the test was based on real engine load points from a high power Euro V engine calibration. The coking propensity was studied in an engine speed sweep at max load.

A large portion of fuel energy is wasted through the exhaust of internal combustion engines. Turbocompound can, however, recover part of this wasted heat. The energy recovery depends on the turbine efficiency and mass flow as well as the exhaust gas state and properties such as pressure, temperature and specific heat capacity. The main parameter influencing the turbocompound energy recovery is the exhaust gas pressure which leads to higher pumping loss of the engine and consequently lower engine crankshaft power. Each air-fuel equivalence ratio (λ) gives different engine power, exhaust gas temperature and pressure. Decreasing λ toward 1 in a Diesel engine results in higher exhaust gas temperatures of the engine. λ can be varied by changing the intake air pressure or the amount of injected fuel which changes the available energy into the turbine. Thus, there is a compromise between gross engine power, created pumping power, recovered turbocompound power and consumed compressor power.

In-cylinder flow pattern has been examined experimentally in a heavy duty optical diesel engine and simulated with CFD code during the combustion and the post-oxidation phase. Mean swirling velocity field and its evolution were extracted from optical tests with combustion image velocimetry (CIV). It is known that the post-oxidation period has great impact on the soot emissions. Lately it has been shown in swirling combustion systems with high injection pressures, that the remaining swirling vortex in the post-oxidation phase deviates strongly from solid body rotation. Solid body rotation can only be assumed to be the case before fuel injection. In the studied cases the tangential velocity is higher in the centre of the piston bowl compared to the outer region of the bowl. The used CIV method is closely related to the PIV technique, but makes it possible to extract flow pattern during combustion at full load in an optical diesel engine.

Turbocharger performance maps, which are used in engine simulations, are usually measured on a gas-stand where the temperatures distributions on the turbocharger walls are entirely different from that under real engine operation. This should be taken into account in the simulation of a turbocharged engine. Dissimilar wall temperatures of turbochargers give different air temperature after the compressor and different exhaust gas temperature after the turbine at a same load point. The efficiencies are consequently affected. This can lead to deviations between the simulated and measured outlet temperatures of the turbocharger turbine and compressor. This deviation is larger during a transient load step because the temperatures of turbocharger walls change slowly due to the thermal inertia. Therefore, it is important to predict the temperatures of turbocharger walls and the outlet temperatures of the turbocharger working fluids in a turbocharged engine simulation.

In-cylinder flow pattern was evaluated during diesel combustion and post-oxidation in a heavy duty optical engine and compared with CFD calculations. In this work the recently developed optical method combustion image velocimetry (CIV) is evaluated. It was used for extracting the flow pattern during combustion and post-oxidation by tracing the glowing soot clouds in the cylinder. The results were compared with CFD sector simulation on the same heavy duty engine geometry. Load was 10 bar IMEP and injection pressure was varied in two steps together with two different swirl levels. The same variations were done in both the optical engine and in the CFD simulations. The main results in this work show that the CIV method and the CFD results catch the same flow pattern trends during combustion and post-oxidation. Evaluation of the CIV technique has been done on large scale swirl vortices and compared with the CFD results at different distances from the piston bowl surface.

Emissions of unburned methane are the Achilles heel of premixed gas engines whether they are spark ignited or diesel pilot ignited. If the engine is operated lean, lower temperatures prevail in the combustion chamber and several of the mechanisms behind the hydrocarbon emissions are aggravated. This paper presents an experimental investigation of the contribution from combustion chamber crevices and quenching to the total hydrocarbon emissions from a diesel-methane dual fuel engine at different operating conditions and air excess ratios. It is shown that the sensitivity to a change in topland crevice volume is greater at lean conditions than at stoichiometry. More than 70% of hydrocarbon emissions at air excess ratios relevant to operation of lean burn engines can be attributed to crevices.

After-oxidation in Heavy Duty (HD) diesel combustion is of paramount importance for emissions out from the engine. During diffusion diesel combustion, lots of particulate matter (PM) is created. Most of the PM are combusted during the after-oxidation part of the combustion. Still some of the PM is not, especially during an engine transient at low lambda. To enhance the PM oxidation in the late engine cycle, swirl together with high injection pressure can be implemented to increase in-cylinder turbulence at different stages in the cycle. Historically swirl is known to reduce soot particulates. It has also been shown, that with today's high injection pressures, can be combined with swirl to reduce PM at an, for example, engine transient. The mechanism why the PM engine out is reduced also at high injection pressures is however not so well understood.

Engine simulation based on one-dimensional gas dynamics is well suited for integration of all aspects arising in engine and powertrain developments. Commonly used turbocharger performance maps in engine simulation are measured in non-pulsating flow and without taking into account the heat transfer. Since on-engine turbochargers are exposed to pulsating flow and varying heat transfer situations, the maps in the engine simulation, i.e. GT-POWER, have to be shifted and corrected which are usually done by mass and efficiency multipliers for both turbine and compressor. The multipliers change the maps and are often different for every load point. Particularly, the efficiency multiplier is different for every heat transfer situation on the turbocharger. The aim of this paper is to include the heat transfer of the turbocharger in the engine simulation and consequently to reduce the use of efficiency multiplier for both the turbine and compressor.

Spray and mixture formation in a compression-ignition engine is of paramount importance in the diesel combustion process. In an engine transient, when the load increases rapidly, the combustion system needs to handle low λ operation without producing high NOx emissions and large amounts of particulate matter. By changing the in-cylinder flow, the emissions and engine efficiency are affected. Optical engine studies were therefore performed on a heavy-duty engine geometry at different fuel injection pressures and inlet airflow characteristics. By applying different inlet port designs and valve seat masking, swirl and tumble were varied. In the engine tests, swirl number was varied from 2.3 to 6.3 and the injection pressure from 500 to 2500 bar. To measure the in-cylinder flow around TDC, particle image velocimetry software was used to evaluate combustion pictures. The pictures were taken in an optical engine using a digital high-speed camera.

Diesel Dual Fuel, DDF, is a concept where a combination of methane and diesel is used in a compression ignited engine, maintaining the high compression ratio of a diesel engine with the resulting benefits in thermal efficiency. Attention has recently been drawn to the fact that the tip of the diesel injector may reach intolerable temperatures. The high injector tip temperatures in the DDF engine are caused by the reduction in diesel flow through the injector. For dual fuel operation, as opposed to diesel, high load does not necessarily imply a high flow of diesel through the injector nozzle. This research investigated the factors causing high injector tip temperatures in a DDF engine and the underlying mechanisms which transfer heat to and from the injector tip. Parameter sweeps of each influential parameter were carried out and evaluated. In addition to this, a simple and useful model was constructed based on the heat balance of the injector tip.

Diesel Dual Fuel, DDF, is a concept which promises the possibility to utilize CNG/biogas in a compression ignition engine maintaining a high compression ratio, made possible by the high knock resistance of methane, and the resulting benefits in thermal efficiency associated with diesel combustion. A series of tests has been carried out on a single-cylinder lab engine, equipped with a modern common rail injection system supplying the diesel fuel and two gas injectors, placed in the intake runners. One feature of port-injected Dual Fuel is that full diesel functionality is maintained, which is of great importance when bringing the dual fuel technology to market. The objective of the study was to characterize and investigate the potential for dual fuel combustion utilizing all degrees of freedom available in a modern diesel engine. Increased diesel pilot proved efficient at reducing NOx emissions at low λ.

Diesel Dual Fuel, DDF, is a concept where a combination of methane and diesel is used in a compression ignited engine, maintaining the high compression ratio of a diesel engine with the resulting benefits in thermal efficiency. One benefit of having two fuels on board the vehicle is the additional degree of freedom provided by the ratio between the fuels. This additional degree of freedom enables control of combustion phasing for combustion modes such as Homogenous Charge Compression Ignition, HCCI, and Partly Premixed Compression Ignition, PPCI. These unconventional combustion modes have great potential to limit emissions at light load while maintaining the low pumping losses of the base diesel engine. A series of tests has been carried out on a single cylinder lab engine, equipped with a modern common rail injection system supplying the diesel fuel and two gas injectors, placed in the intake runners.

Increasingly stringent emission legislation as well as increased demand on fuel efficiency calls for further research and development in the diesel engine field. Spray formation, evaporation and ignition delay are important factors that influence the combustion and emission formation processes in a diesel engine. Increased understanding of the mixture formation process is valuable in the development of low emission, high efficiency diesel engines. In this paper spray formation and ignition under real engine conditions have been studied in an optical engine capable of running close to full load for a real HD diesel engine. Powerful external lights were used to provide the required light intensity for high speed camera images in the combustion chamber prior to ignition. A specially developed software was used for spray edge detection and tracking. The software provides crank angle resolved spray penetration data.

A simplified combustion and emission formation model for diesel engines has been developed in a project where the long term objective is to predict emissions during transient operation. The intended application implies that the final model must be both computationally inexpensive and comprehensive so that it can be used for optimization of engine control variables when coupled to full-engine simulation software. As starting point, the proposed model uses diesel spray correlations established in combustion vessels regarding spray penetration, dispersion, gas entrainment, ignition and flame lift-off. It has been found that with minor adaption, these correlations are valid also for combustion in an engine. By assuming a fully mixing controlled combustion after ignition and by use of simplified emission models, the correlations have been found useful for predicting trends in engine-out emission with low computational cost.

As the engines of today decrease in displacement with unchanged power output, focus of today's research is on transient response. The trend of today is to use a turbocharger with high boost level. For SI-engines a regular WG-turbocharger has been used, but in the future, when the boost level increases together with higher demand on the transient response, a Variable Nozzle Turbine (VNT) will be used together with Variable Valve Timing (VVT). As the degree of freedom increases, the control strategies during a transient load step will be more difficult to develop. A 1D simulation experiment has been conducted in GT-Power where the transient simulation was “frozen” at certain time steps. The data from these time steps was put in a stationary simulation and the excessive energy was then bled off to obtain the same conditions for the engine in the stationary simulation as if the engine where in the middle of the transient.

EGR has been proven to reduce NOx emissions from diesel engines significantly and is nowadays widely used in production engines. To reach future emission legislation standards, alternative EGR-routings that deliver higher EGR-rates get into the focus of researchers. As the steady-state emissions are reduced more and more, the emission peaks in transient parts of driving cycles gain importance. Therefore it is interesting to analyze the transient behavior of different EGR-routings. In this work, a 1-D simulation is performed in GT-Power for a 1.9 liter passenger car diesel engine equipped with cooled short-route EGR and a variable geometry turbine. For calibration of the simulation, load transients are measured including the measurement of transient EGR-rates using a fast CO2-analyzer and cylinder pressure to obtain heat-release data.

In this paper, the performance of a radial turbine working under pulsatile flow conditions is computed with two different modeling approaches, time resolved 1-dimensional (1-D) and 3-dimensional (3-D) CFD. The 1-D modeling approach is based on measured turbine maps which are used to compute the mass flow rate and work output from the turbine for a given expansion ratio and temperature at the inlet. The map is measured under non-pulsatile flow conditions, and in the 1-D method the turbine is treated as being a quasi-stationary flow device. In the 3-D CFD approach, a Large Eddy Simulation (LES) turbulence approach is used. The objective of LES is to explicitly compute the large scales of the turbulence while modeling the effects of the unresolved scales. Three different cases are considered, where the simplest case only consist of the turbine and the most complex case consist of an exhaust manifold and the turbine.

Surge is a phenomenon that limits the operational range of the compressor at low mass flow rates. The objective of this research is to study effective operational range for a ported shroud compressor. The size of the compressor is typical for a turbocharger used on diesel engines. To be able to extend the operational range, the surge characteristics have to be assessed. This is done by performing measurement of the flow at the inlet to the compressor wheel and pressure fluctuations at the inlet and outlet of the compressor housing. Detailed numerical computations of the flow in the entire compressor section under similar operating conditions have also been carried out. The experimental work includes Particle Imaging Velocimetry (PIV) measurements of the instantaneous and mean velocity field at the inlet. At surge, low frequency pulsations are detected that seem to result from back flow already observed in stall.