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Carbon dioxide (CO2 or R744) is a promising next-generation refrigerant for mobile air-conditioning applications (MAC), which has the advantages of good heating performance in cold climates and environmental-friendly properties. This paper presents a simulation model of an integrated internal heat exchanger (IHX) and accumulator (Acc) using the finite volume method. The results are validated by a group of experimental data collected with different transcritical R744 mobile air-conditioner and heat pump (MHP) systems, and the error was within ±10%. The impacts of refrigerant mass flow rate and operating temperatures on the heat transfer rate of the IHX, improvement on refrigeration capacity and the liquid level in the Acc were studied. Results show that the net benefits of IHX are significant in AC mode, while it helps preventing flooding of the compressor in MHP mode.

Hydrogen fuel is a future energy to solve the problems of energy crisis and environmental pollution. Hydrogen internal combustion engines can combine the advantage of hydrogen without carbon pollution and the main basic structure of the traditional engines. However, the power of the port fuel injection hydrogen engines is smaller than the same volume gasoline engine because the hydrogen occupies the volume of the cylinder and reduces the air mass flow. The turbocharger can increase the power of hydrogen engines but also increase the NOx emission. Hence, a comprehensive controlling strategy to solve the contradiction of the power, BTE and NOx emission is important to improve the performance of hydrogen engines. This paper shows the controlling strategy for a four-stroke, 2.3L hydrogen engine with a turbocharger. The controlling strategy divides the operating conditions of the hydrogen engine into six parts according to the engine speeds and loads.

Inverted phi (ϕ)-sensitivity is a new approach of NOx reduction in compression-ignition (C.I.) engines. Previously, pure ethanol (E100) was selected as the preliminary test fuel in a single injection compression-ignition engine, and was shown to have good potential for low engine-out NOx emissions under low and medium load conditions due to its inverted ignition sequence. Under high load, however, the near-stoichiometric and non-homogeneous fuel/air distribution removes the effectiveness of the inverted ϕ-sensitivity. Therefore, it is desirable to recover the combustion sequence in the chamber such that the leaner region is burned before the near-stoichiometric region. When the combustion in near-stoichiometric region is inhibited, the temperature rise of that region is hindered and the formation of NOx is suppressed.

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 demand for mobile heat pump systems increases with the growing popularity of electric vehicles. One big challenge of such systems using low pressure refrigerant is the substantial drop of heating capacity at low ambient temperature conditions, when heat is most needed. The low suction density associated with low operating pressure in the evaporator is the major reason for the capacity drop. In extremely low ambient temperature, compressor speed may need to be regulated in order to prevent suction pressure going below atmospheric pressure, hence further reducing heat pumping capability. Other factors like pressure drop induced temperature glide and refrigerant maldistribution in the outdoor evaporator also weakens the system ability to absorb heat from ambient air. This paper presents detailed and in-depth analysis of the performance and limiting factors on low ambient temperature operation of a mobile heat pump system using refrigerant R1234yf.

Ignition location is one of the important factors that affect the thermal efficiency, exhaust emissions and knock sensitivity in premixed-charge ignition engines. However, the ignition initiation locations of pre-chamber generated turbulent jet ignition, which is a promising ignition enhancement method, are not clearly understood due to the complex physics behind it. Motivated by this, the ignition initiation location of a transient turbulent jet in a constant volume combustor is analyzed by the use of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. In the CFD simulations of this work, commercial codes KIVA-3 V release 2 and an in-house-developed chemical solver with a detailed mechanism for H2/air mixtures are used. Comparisons are performed between simulated and experimental ignition initiation locations, and they agree well with one another. A detailed parametric study of the influence of in-cylinder temperature on the ignition initiation location is also performed.

The formation of fuel film in the combustion cylinder affects the mixing process of the air and the fuel, and the process of the combustion propagation in engines. Some models of film evaporation have been developed to predict the evaporation behavior of the film, but rarely experimental results have been produced, especially when the temperature is high. In this study, the evaporation behavior of the film of different species of oil and their blends at different temperature are observed. The 45 μL films of isooctane, 1-propanol, 1-butanol, 1-pentanol, and their blends were placed on a quartz glass substrate in the closed temperature-controlled chamber. The shape change of the film during evaporation was monitored by a high-speed camera through the window of the chamber. First, the binary blends film of isooctane and one of the other three oils were evaporated at 30 °C, 50 °C, 70 °C and 90 °C.

Bio-butanol has been widely investigated as a promising alternative fuel. However, the main issues preventing the industrial-scale production of butanol is its relatively low production efficiency and high cost of production. Acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE), the intermediate product in the ABE fermentation process for producing bio-butanol, has attracted a lot of interest as an alternative fuel because it not only preserves the advantages of oxygenated fuels, but also lowers the cost of fuel recovery for individual component during fermentation. If ABE could be directly used for clean combustion, the separation costs would be eliminated which save an enormous amount of time and money in the production chain of bio-butanol.

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.

This paper presents the study of refrigerant charge imbalance between A/C (cooling) mode and HP (heating) mode of a mobile reversible system. Sensitivities of cooling and heating capacity and energy efficiency with respect to refrigerant charge were investigated. Optimum refrigerant charge level for A/C mode was found to be larger than that for HP mode, primarily due to larger condenser size in A/C mode. Refrigerant charge retention in components at both modes were measured in the lab by quick close valve method. Modeling of charge retention in heat exchangers was compared to experimental measurements. Effect of charge imbalance on oil circulation was also discussed.

This paper presents the results of an experimental study to determine the effect of vapor-liquid refrigerant separation in a microchannel condenser of a MAC system. R134a is used as the working fluid. A condenser with separation and a baseline condenser identical on the air side have been tested to evaluate the difference in the performance due to separation. Two categories of experiments have been conducted: the heat exchanger-level test and the system-level test. In the heat exchanger-level test it is found that the separation condenser condenses from 1.6% to 7.4% more mass flow than the baseline at the same inlet and outlet temperature (enthalpy); the separation condenser condenses the same mass flow to a lower temperature than the baseline condenser does. In the system-level test, COP is compared under the same superheat, subcooling and refrigerating capacity. Separation condenser shows up to 6.6% a higher COP than the baseline condenser.

This paper introduces the concept of separation of two-phase flow in condenser as a way to improve condenser efficiency. The benefits of vapor-liquid refrigerant separation and the reason why it will improve the condenser performance are explained. Numerical studies are presented on the effects of separation on performance of an R134a microchannel condenser, with the comparison to experiment data. Model predicts that at the same mass flow rate, the exit temperature is lower by 2.2 K in the separation condenser compared with that in the baseline. Up to 9% more flow rate of condensate is also predicted by the model in the separation condenser. Experiment results confirm the same trend. In addition, the reason why a certain circuiting of passes with pre-assumed separation results in the header improves the condenser is investigated by the model and results are presented.

Biodiesel is a widely used biofuel in diesel engines, which is of particular interest as a renewable fuel because it possesses the similar properties as the diesel fuel. The pure soybean biodiesel was tested in an optical constant volume combustion chamber using natural flame luminosity and forward illumination light extinction (FILE) methods to explore the combustion process and soot distribution at various ambient temperatures (800 K and 1000 K) and oxygen concentrations (21%, 16%, 10.5%). Results indicated that, with a lower ambient temperature, the autoignition delay became longer for all three oxygen concentrations and more ambient air was entrained by spray jet and more fuel was burnt by premixed combustion. With less ambient oxygen concentration, the heat release rate showed not only a longer ignition delay but also longer combustion duration.

This paper presents the latest results for a new high efficiency clean diesel combustion system – Adaptive PCCI Combustion (a premixed charge compression ignition mixed-mode combustion) using a micro-variable circular orifice (MVCO) fuel injector. Key characteristics of the new combustion system such as low NOx and soot emissions, high fuel efficiency, increased engine torque are presented through KIVA simulation results. While early premixed charge compression ignition (PCCI) combustion reduces engine-out NOx and soot, it's limited to partial loads by known issues such as combustion control, high HC and CO, and high pressure rise rate, etc. Conventional combustion is well controlled diffusion combustion but comes with high NOx and soot. Leveraging the key merits of PCCI and conventional combustion in a practical engine is both meaningful and challenging.

The operation of a small bore high speed direct injection (HSDI) engine with a MVCO injector is simulated by the KIVA 3V code, developed by Los Alamos National Laboratory. The MVCO injector extends the range of injection timings over conventional injectors and it extra flexibility in designing injection schemes. Combustion from very early injection is observed with MVCO injections but not with conventional injection. This improves the fuel economy of the engine in terms of lower ISFC. Even better efficiency can be achieved by using biodiesel, which may be due to extra oxygen in the fuel improving the combustion process. Biodiesel sees a longer ignition delay for the initial injection. It also exhibits a faster burning rate and shorter combustion duration. Biodiesel also lowered both NOx and soot emissions. This is consistent with the general observation for soot emissions.

An optically accessible single-cylinder high-speed direct-injection (HSDI) Diesel engine equipped with a Bosch common rail injection system was used to study the spray and combustion processes for European low sulfur diesel, bio-diesel, and their blends at different blending ratio. Influences of injection timing and fuel type on liquid fuel evolution and combustion characteristics were investigated under similar loads. The in-cylinder pressure was measured and the heat release rate was calculated. High-speed Mie-scattering technique was employed to visualize the liquid distribution and evolution. High-speed combustion video was also captured for all the studied cases using the same frame rate. NOx emissions were measured in the exhaust pipe. The experimental results indicated that for all of the conditions the heat release rate was dominated by a premixed combustion pattern and the heat release rate peak became smaller with injection timing retardation for all test fuels.

Biodiesel fuels and their blends with diesel are often used to reduce emissions from diesel engines. However, biodiesel has been shown to increase the NOx emissions. Operating a compression ignition engine in low-temperature combustion mode as well as using multiple injections can reduce NOx emissions. Experimental data for biodiesel are compared to those for diesel to show the effect of the biodiesel on the peak pressure, temperature, and emissions. Accurate prediction of biodiesel properties, combined with the KIVA 3V code, is used to investigate the combustion of biodiesel. The volume fraction of the cylinder that has temperatures greater than 2200 K is shown to directly affect the production of oxides of nitrogen. Biodiesel is shown to burn faster during the combustion events, though the ignition delay is often longer for biodiesel compared to diesel.

Combustion processes employing different injection strategies in a High-Speed Direct Inject (HSDI) diesel engine were investigated using a narrow angle injector (70 degree). Whole-cycle combustion was visualized using a high-speed digital video camera. The liquid spray evolution process was imaged by the Mie-scattering technique. Different injection strategies were employed in this study including early pre-Top Dead Center (TDC) injection, post-TDC injection, multiple injection strategies with an early pre-TDC injection and a late post-TDC injection. Smokeless combustion was obtained under some operating conditions. Compared with the original injection angle (150 degree), some new combustion phenomena were observed for certain injection strategies. For early pre-TDC injection strategies, liquid fuel impingement is observed that results in some newly observed fuel film combustion flame (pool fires) following an HCCI-like weak flame.

Biodiesel fuel can be produced from a wide range of source materials that affect the properties of the fuel. The diesel engine has become a highly tuned power source that is sensitive to these properties. The objectives of this research were to measure and predict the key properties of biodiesel produced from a broad range of source materials to be used as inputs for combustion modeling; and second to compare the results of the model with and without the biodiesel fuel definition. Substantial differences in viscosity, surface tension, density and thermal conductivity were obtained relative to reference diesel fuels and among the different source materials. The combustion model revealed differences in the temperature and emissions of biodiesel when compared to reference diesel fuel.

In-cylinder concentrations of nitric oxide (NO) in a diesel engine were studied using a laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) technique that employs two-photon excitation. Two-photon NO LIF images were acquired during the expansion and exhaust portions of the engine cycle providing useful NO fluorescence signal levels from 60° after top dead center through the end of the exhaust stroke. The engine was fueled with the oxygenated compound diethylene glycol diethyl ether to minimize soot within the combustion chamber. Results of the two-photon NO LIF technique from the exhaust portion of the cycle were compared with chemiluminescence NO exhaust-gas measurements over a range of engine loads from 1.4 to 16 bar gross indicated mean effective pressure. The overall trend of the two-photon NO LIF signal showed good qualitative agreement with the NO exhaust-gas measurements.