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Ducted fuel injection (DFI) was tested for the first time in a heavy-duty diesel metal engine. It was implemented on a Caterpillar 2.5-liter single-cylinder heavy-duty diesel engine fitted with a common rail fuel system and a Tier 4 final production piston. Engine tests consisted of single-injection timing sweeps at A100 and C100, where rail pressure and exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) were also varied. A 6-hole fuel injector tip with 205 am orifices was used with a 130° spray angle and rail pressures up to 250 MPa. The ducts were 14 mm long, had a 2.5 mm inner diameter, and were placed 3.8 mm away from the orifice exits. The ducts were attached to a base, which in turn was attached to the cylinder head with bolts. Furthermore, alignment of the ducts and their corresponding fuel jets was accomplished.

A multi-year Power System R&D project was initiated with the objective of developing an off-road hybrid heavy-duty concept diesel engine with front end accessory drive-integrated energy storage. This off-road hybrid engine system is expected to deliver 15-20% reduction in fuel consumption over current Tier 4 Final-based diesel engines and consists of a downsized heavy-duty diesel engine containing advanced combustion technologies, capable of elevated peak cylinder pressures and thermal efficiencies, exhaust waste heat recovery via SuperTurbo™ turbocompounding, and hybrid energy recovery through both mechanical (high speed flywheel) and electrical systems. The first year of this project focused on the definition of the hybrid elements using extensive dynamic system simulation over transient work cycles, with hybrid supervisory controls development focusing on energy recovery and transient load assist, in Caterpillar’s DYNASTY™ software environment.

This paper details results of a numerical and experimental investigation into the relative performance of vaned and vaneless mixed flow turbines for application to medium and heavy-duty diesel engines utilizing pulse exhaust systems. Previous investigations into the impact of nozzle vanes on turbine performance considered only open turbine housings, whereas a majority of medium and heavy-duty diesel engine applications are six-cylinder engines using pulse exhaust systems with divided turbines. The two turbine stages for this investigation were carefully designed to meet the constraints of engines with pulse exhaust systems and to control confounding factors that would undermine the vaned vs vaneless performance comparison. Detailed CFD analysis and turbine dynamometer test results confirm a significant efficiency advantage for the vaned turbine stage under both full and partial admission conditions.

The Society of Automotive Engineers Fatigue Design & Evaluation Committee [SAE FD&E] is actively working on a total life project for weldments, in which the welding residual stress is a key contributor to an accurate assessment of fatigue life. Physics-based welding process simulation and various types of residual stress measurements were pursued to provide a representation of the residual stress field at the failure location in the fatigue samples. A well-controlled and documented robotic welding process was used for all sample fabrications to provide accurate inputs for the welding simulations. One destructive (contour method) residual stress measurement and several non-destructive residual stress measurements-surface X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive X-ray diffraction (EDXRD), and neutron diffraction (ND)-were performed on the same or similarly welded samples.

There are a few different ways in which biofuels can be sourced, with the most popular coming from agricultural sources. An alternative approach is to utilize biowaste. An estimated 20 million dry tons of volatile organic compounds, or biowaste, is annually deposited in US municipal wastewaters. Most of this biowaste energy content is not recovered and, as a result, the biowaste could be a massive potential source of renewable energy. Biocrude diesel is converted from wet biowaste via hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL). Three types of feedstocks (algae, swine manure, and food processing waste) were converted into biocrude oil via HTL. From the previous experiments done in an AVL 5402 single-cylinder diesel engine, it was observed that the presence of 20% of HTL in the blend performed similarly during combustion to pure diesel. By studying these mixtures in a constant volume chamber, these observations could be compared to the results in the diesel engine.

The increase in computational power in recent times has led to multidimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling tools being used extensively for optimizing the diesel engine piston design. However, it is still common practice in engine CFD modeling to use constant uniform boundary temperatures. This is either due to the difficulty in experimentally measuring the component temperatures or the lack of measurements when simulation is being used predictively. This assumption introduces uncertainty in heat flux predictions. Conjugate heat transfer (CHT) modeling is an approach used to predict the component temperatures by simultaneously modeling the heat transfer in the fluid and the solid phase. However, CHT simulations are computationally expensive as they require more than one engine cycle to be simulated to converge to a steady cycle-averaged component temperature.

Single-cylinder engine experiments and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling were used in this study to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the accuracy of the modeling approach, with a focus on soot emissions. A semi-empirical soot model, the classic two-step Hiroyasu model with Nagle and Strickland-Constable oxidation, was used. A broad range of direct-injected (DI) combustion systems were investigated to assess the predictive accuracy of the soot model as a design tool for modern DI diesel engines. Experiments were conducted on a 2.5 liter single-cylinder engine. Combustion system combinations included three unique piston bowl shapes and seven variants of a common rail fuel injector. The pistons included a baseline “Mexican hat” piston, a reentrant piston, and a non-axisymmetric piston similar to the Volvo WAVE design. The injectors featured six or seven holes and systematically varied included angles from 120 to 150 degrees and hole sizes from 170 to 273 μm.

Ducted fuel injection (DFI) is a developing technology for reducing in-cylinder soot formed during mixing-controlled combustion in diesel compression ignition engines. Fuel injection through a small duct has the effect of extending the lift-off length (LOL) and reducing the equivalence ratio at ignition. In this work, the feasibility of DFI to reduce soot and to enable leaner lifted-flame combustion (LLFC) is investigated for a single diesel jet injected from a 138 μm orifice into engine-like (60-120 bar, 800-950 K) quiescent conditions. High-speed imaging and natural luminosity (NL) measurements of combusting sprays were used to quantify duct effects on jet penetration, ignition delay, LOL, and soot emission in a constant pressure high-temperature-pressure vessel (HTPV). At the highest ambient pressure and temperatures tested, soot luminosity was reduced by as much as 50%.

Bio-butanol has been considered as a promising alternative fuel for internal combustion engines due to its advantageous physicochemical properties. However, the further development of bio-butanol is inhibited by its high recovery cost and low production efficiency. Hence, the goal of this study is to evaluate two upstream products from different fermentation processes of bio-butanol, namely acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE) and isopropanol-butanol-ethanol (IBE), as alternative fuels for diesel. The experimental comparison is conducted on a single-cylinder and common-rail diesel engine under various main injection timings (MIT) and equivalent engine load (EEL) conditions. The experimental results show that ABE and IBE significantly affect the combustion phasing. The start of combustion (SOC) is retarded when ABE and IBE are mixed with diesel. Furthermore, the ABE/IBE-diesel blends are more sensitive to the changes in MIT compared with that of pure diesel.

Mandated pollutant emission levels are shifting light-duty vehicles towards hybrid and electric powertrains. Heavy-duty applications, on the other hand, will continue to rely on internal combustion engines for the foreseeable future. Hence there remain clear environmental and economic reasons to further decrease IC engine emissions. Turbocharged diesels are the mainstay prime mover for heavy-duty vehicles and industrial machines, and transient performance is integral to maximizing productivity, while minimizing work cycle fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. 1D engine simulation tools are commonplace for “virtual” performance development, saving time and cost, and enabling product and emissions legislation cycles to be met. A known limitation however, is the predictive capability of the turbocharger turbine sub-model in these tools.

Fundamental understanding of the sources of fuel-derived Unburned Hydrocarbon (UHC) emissions in heavy duty diesel engines is a key piece of knowledge that impacts engine combustion system development. Current emissions regulations for hydrocarbons can be difficult to meet in-cylinder and thus after treatment technologies such as oxidation catalysts are typically used, which can be costly. In this work, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations are combined with engine experiments in an effort to build an understanding of hydrocarbon sources. In the experiments, the combustion system design was varied through injector style, injector rate shape, combustion chamber geometry, and calibration, to study the impact on UHC emissions from mixing-controlled diesel combustion.

A new approach of NOx reduction in the compression-ignition engine is introduced in this work. The previous research has shown that during the combustion stage, the high temperature ignition tends to occur early at the near-stoichiometric region where the combustion temperature is high and majority of NOx is formed; Therefore, it is desirable to burn the leaner region first and then the near-stoichiometric region, which inhibits the temperature rise of the near-stoichiometric region and consequently suppresses the formation of NOx. Such inverted ignition sequence requires mixture with inverted phi-sensitivity. Fuel selection is performed based on the criteria of strong ignition T-sensitivity, negligible negative temperature coefficient (NTC) behavior, and large heat of vaporization (HoV).

Diesel engine downsizing aimed at reducing fuel consumption while meeting stringent exhaust emissions regulations is currently in high demand. The boost system architecture plays an essential role in providing adequate air flow rate for diesel fuel combustion while avoiding impaired transient response of the downsized engine. Electric Turbocharger Assist (ETA) technology integrates an electric motor/generator with the turbocharger to provide electrical power to assist compressor work or to electrically recover excess turbine power. Additionally, a variable geometry turbine (VGT) is able to bring an extra degree of freedom for the boost system optimization. The electrically-assisted turbocharger, coupled with VGT, provides an illuminating opportunity to increase the diesel engine power density and enhance the downsized engine transient response. This paper assesses the potential benefits of the electrically-assisted turbocharger with VGT to enable heavy-duty diesel engine downsizing.

Today’s business climate and economy demand new, innovative strategies from the initial kickoff of research and development - to the mining of ore from the earth - to the final inspection of a finished product in a mid-western factory. From startup companies with two employees to the largest companies, the world faces new and challenging requirements every day. The demands from companies, customers, executives, and shareholders continue to drive for higher outputs with more efficient use of personnel and investments. Fortunately, the rate of technology continues to exponentially accelerate, which allows those at the cutting edge of technology to capitalize. Caterpillar has been a pioneer in advanced technology since its inception and has been developing the foundation for autonomy over the past four decades.

With the development of advanced ABE fermentation technology, the volumetric percentage of acetone, butanol and ethanol in the bio-solvents can be precisely controlled. To seek for an optimized volumetric ratio for ABE-diesel blends, the previous work in our team has experimentally investigated and analyzed the combustion features of ABE-diesel blends with different volumetric ratio (A: B: E: 6:3:1; 3:6:1; 0:10:0, vol. %) in a constant volume chamber. It was found that an increased amount of acetone would lead to a significant advancement of combustion phasing whereas butanol would compensate the advancing effect. Both spray dynamic and chemistry reaction dynamic are of great importance in explaining the unique combustion characteristic of ABE-diesel blend. In this study, a semi-detailed chemical mechanism is constructed and used to model ABE-diesel spray combustion in a constant volume chamber.

Acetone-Butanol-Ethanol (ABE) is an intermediate product in the ABE fermentation process for producing bio-butanol. As an additive for diesel, it has been shown to improve spray evaporation, improve fuel atomization, enhance air-fuel mixing, and enhance combustion as a whole. The typical compositions of ABE are in a volumetric ratio of 3:6:1 or 6:3:1. From previous studies done in a constant volume chamber, it was observed that the presence of additional acetone in the blend caused advancement in the combustion phasing, but too much acetone content led to an increase in soot emission during combustion. The objective of this research was to investigate the combustion of these mixtures in a diesel engine. The experiments were conducted in an AVL 5402 single-cylinder diesel engine at different speeds and different loads to study component effects on the various engine conditions. The fuels tested in these experiments were D100, ABE(3:6:1)10, ABE(3:6:1)20, ABE(6:3:1)10, and ABE(6:3:1)20.

Engine electrification is a critical technology in the promotion of engine fuel efficiency, among which the electrified turbocharger is regarded as the promising solution in engine downsizing. By installing electrical devices on the turbocharger, the excess energy can be captured, stored, and re-used. The electrified turbocharger consists of a variable geometry turbocharger (VGT) and an electric motor (EM) within the turbocharger bearing housing, where the EM is capable in bi-directional power transfer. The VGT, EM, and exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) valve all impact the dynamics of air path. In this paper, the dynamics in an electrified turbocharged diesel engine (ETDE), especially the couplings between different loops in the air path is analyzed. Furthermore, an explicit principle in selecting control variables is proposed. Based on the analysis, a model-based multi-input multi-output (MIMO) decoupling controller is designed to regulate the air path dynamics.

All around the world, steps are being taken to improve the quality of our environment. Prominent among these are the definition, implementation, and attainment of increasingly stringent emissions regulations for all types of engines, including off-highway diesels. These rigorous regulations have driven use of technologies like after-treatment, advanced air systems, and advanced fuel systems. Fuel dispensed off-highway is routinely and significantly dirtier than fuel from on-highway outlets. Furthermore, fuels used in developing countries can be up to 30 times dirtier than the average fuels in North America. Poor fuel cleanliness, coupled with the higher pressures and performance demands of modern fuel systems, create life challenges greater than encountered with cleaner fuels. This can result in costly disruption of operations, loss of productivity, and customer dissatisfaction in the off-highway market.

Off-highway machine mounting system isolation, especially the cab mounting system, significantly affects the operator comfort by providing damping to the harsh inputs and isolating the structure-borne energy from traveling into the cab. Mounting system isolation performance is decided not only by the isolation component, but also the mounting bracket structure, and should be treated as a system. This paper gives a review of how the mounting system isolates structural energy and the effect of the bracket structure stiffness to the mounting system isolation performance.

Although soot-formation processes in diesel engines have been well characterized during the mixing-controlled burn, little is known about the distribution of soot throughout the combustion chamber after the end of appreciable heat release during the expansion and exhaust strokes. Hence, the laser-induced incandescence (LII) diagnostic was developed to visualize the distribution of soot within an optically accessible single-cylinder direct-injection diesel engine during this period. The developed LII diagnostic is semi-quantitative; i.e., if certain conditions (listed in the Appendix) are true, it accurately captures spatial and temporal trends in the in-cylinder soot field. The diagnostic features a vertically oriented and vertically propagating laser sheet that can be translated across the combustion chamber, where “vertical” refers to a direction parallel to the axis of the cylinder bore.