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Isooctane sprays from a multi-hole GDI injector were investigated in a constant volume chamber by means of high speed imaging techniques. The tests were performed under inert conditions (nitrogen), at temperatures and densities ranging between representative operating conditions of late injection, flash boiling and early injection in a GDI engine. The global parameters of the sprays were obtained by processing Schlieren, Shadowgraph, DBI and Mie-scattering images through an in-house image processing method. Thus, the boundaries of the spray vapor phase can be easily detected with great accuracy, regardless of whether Schlieren or the less sensitive shadowgraph imaging is used. Furthermore, the boundaries of the liquid phase were also obtained from shadowgraph images and compared with those obtained through DBI and scattering. The results show that the signature of the liquid phase in a shadowgraph image can be distinguished from that of the vaporized fuel.

In the last years, increasing concerns about environmental pollution and fossil sources depletion led transport sectors research and development towards the study of new technologies capable to reduce vehicles emissions and fuel consumption. Direct-injection systems (DI) for internal combustion engines propose as an effective way to achieve these goals. This technology has already been adopted in Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) engines and, lately, a great interest is growing for its use in natural gas fueling, so increasing efficiency with respect to port-fuel injection ones. Alone or in combination with other fuels, compressed natural gas (CNG) represents an attractive way to reduce exhaust emission (high H/C ratio), can be produced in renewable ways, and is more widespread and cheaper than gasoline or diesel fuels. Gas direct-injection process involves the occurrence of under-expanded jets in the combustion chamber.

The in-cylinder direct injection of natural gas can be a further step towards cleaner and more efficient internal combustion engines (ICE). However, the injector design and its characterization, both experimentally and by numerical simulation, is challenging because of the complex fluid dynamics related to gas compressibility and the small length scale. In this work, the under-expanded flow of methane from an outward-opening poppet-valve injector has been experimentally characterized by high-speed schlieren imaging. The investigation has been performed at ambient temperature and pressure and different nozzle pressure ratios (NPR) ranging from 10 to 18. The gaseous jet has been characterized in terms of its macroscale parameters. A scaling-law analysis of the results has been performed. The gas-dynamic structure at the nozzle exit has been also investigated.

The combustion quality in modern diesel engines depends strictly on the quality of the air-fuel mixing and, in turn, from the quality of spray atomization process. So air-fuel mixing is strongly influenced by the injection pressure, geometry of the nozzle duct and the hydraulic characteristics of the injector. In this context, spray concepts alternative to the conventional multi-hole nozzles could be considered as solutions to the extremely high injection pressure increase to assure a higher and faster fuel-air mixing in the piston bowl, with the final target of increasing the fuel efficiency and reducing the engine emissions. The study concerns an experimental depiction of a spray generated through a prototype high-pressure hollow-cone nozzle, under evaporative and non-evaporative conditions, injecting the fuel in a constant-volume combustion vessel controlled in pressure and temperature up to engine-like gas densities in order to measure the spatial and temporal fuel patterns.

The application of more efficient compression ignition combustion concepts requires advancement in terms of fuel injection technologies. The injector nozzle is the most critical component of the whole injection system for its impact on the combustion process. It is characterized by the number of holes, diameter, internal shape, and opening angle. The reduction of the nozzle hole diameter seems the simplest way to promote the atomization process but the number of holes must be increased to keep constant the injected fuel mass. This logic has been applied to the development of a new generation of injectors. First, the tendency to increase the nozzle number and to reduce the diameter has led to the replacement of the nozzle with a circular plate. The vertical movement of the needle generates an annulus area for the fuel delivery on 360 degrees, so controlling the atomization as a function of the vertical plate position.

The detailed study of part-load conditions is essential to characterize engine-out emissions in key operating conditions. The relevance of part-load operations is further emphasized by the recent regulations such as the new WLTP standard. Combustion development at part-load operations depends on a complex interplay between moderate turbulence levels (low engine speed and tumble ratio), low in-cylinder pressure and temperature, and stoichiometric-to-lean mixture quality (to maximize fuel efficiency). From a modelling standpoint, the reduced turbulence intensity compared to full-load operations complicates the interaction between different sub-models (e.g., reconsideration of the flamelet hypothesis adopted by common combustion models). In this article, the authors focus on chemistry-based simulations for laminar flame speed of gasoline surrogates at conditions typical of part-load operations. The analysis is an extension of a previous study focused on full-load operations.

The paper describes the challenges and results achieved in developing a new high-speed Diesel combustion system capable of exceeding the imaginative threshold of 100 kW/l. High-performance, state-of-art prototype components from automotive diesel technology were provided in order to set-up a single-cylinder research engine demonstrator. Key design parameters were identified in terms boost, engine speed, fuel injection pressure and injector nozzle flow rates. In this regard, an advanced piezo injection system capable of 3000 bar of maximum injection pressure was selected, coupled to a robust base engine featuring ω-shaped combustion bowl and low swirl intake ports. The matching among the above-described elements has been thoroughly examined and experimentally parameterized.

In the context of a transport sustainability, some solutions could be proposed from the integration of many disciplines, architects, environmentalists, policy makers, and consequently it may be addressed with different approaches. These solutions would be applied at different geographical levels, i.e. national, regional or urban scale. Moreover, the assessment of cars emissions in real use plays a fundamental role for their reductions. This is also the direction of the new harmonized test procedures (WLTP). Furthermore, it is fundamental to keep in mind that the new WLTC cycle will reproduce a situation closer to the reality comparing to the EUDC/NEDC driving cycle. In this paper, we will be focused on vehicle kinematic evaluation aimed at valuation of traffic situation and emissions.

The management of multiple injections in compression ignition (CI) engines is one of the most common ways to increase engine performance by avoiding hardware modifications and after-treatment systems. Great attention is given to the profile of the injection rate since it controls the fuel delivery in the cylinder. The Injection Rate Shaping (IRS) is a technique that aims to manage the quantity of injected fuel during the injection process via a proper definition of the injection timing (injection duration and dwell time). In particular, it consists in closer and centered injection events and in a split main injection with a very small dwell time. From the experimental point of view, the performance of an IRS strategy has been studied in an optical CI engine. In particular, liquid and vapor phases of the injected fuel have been acquired via visible and infrared imaging, respectively. Injection parameters, like penetration and cone angle have been determined and analyzed.

Technologies for direct injection of fuel in compression ignition engines are in continuous development. One of the most investigated components of this system is the injector; in particular, main attention is given to the nozzle characteristics as hole diameter, number, internal shape, and opening angle. The reduction of nozzle hole diameter seems the simplest way to increase the average fuel velocity and to promote the atomization process. On the other hand, the number of holes must increase to keep the desired mass flow rate. On this basis, a new logic has been applied for the development of the next generation of injectors. The tendency to increase the nozzle number and to reduce the diameter has led to the replacement of the nozzle with a circular plate that moves vertically. The plate motion allows to obtain an annulus area for the delivery of the fuel on 360 degrees; while the plate lift permits to vary the atomization level of the spray.

The recent interest in alternative non-fossil fuels has led researchers to evaluate several alcohol-based formulations. However, one of the main requirements for innovative fuels is to be compatible with existing units’ hardware, so that full replacement or smart flexible-fuel strategies can be smoothly adopted. n-Butanol is considered as a promising candidate to replace commercial gasoline, given its ease of production from bio-mass and its main physical and chemical properties similar to those of Gasoline. The compared behavior of n-butanol and gasoline was analyzed in an optically-accessible DISI engine in a previous paper [1]. CFD simulations explained the main outcomes of the experimental campaign in terms of combustion behavior for two operating conditions. In particular, the first-order role of the slower evaporation rate of n-butanol compared to gasoline was highlighted when the two fuels were operated under the same injection phasing.

The interest of the vehicle producers in fulfillment emission legislations without adopting after treatment systems is driving to the use of non-conventional energy sources for modern engines. A previous test campaign dealing with the use of blends of diesel and propane in a CI engine has pointed out the potential of this non-conventional fuel for diesel engines. The soft adaptation of the common rail injection system and the potential benefits, in terms of engine performances and pollutant emissions, encourage the use of propane-diesel blends if an optimization of the injection strategies is performed. In this work, the performances of a propane-diesel mixture in a research diesel engine have been investigated. The injection strategies of Euro 5 calibration have been used as reference for the development of optimized strategies. The aim of the optimization process was to ensure the same engine power output and reduce the pollutant emissions.

During an injection process, a fluid undergoes a sudden pressure drop across the nozzle. If the pressure downstream the injector is below the saturation value of the fluid, superheated conditions are reached and thermodynamic instabilities realized. In internal combustion engines, flashing conditions greatly influence atomization and vaporization processes of a fuel as well as the mixture formation and combustion. This paper reports imaging behavior of a fuel under both flash boiling and non-flash boiling conditions. A GDI injector, eight-hole, 15.0 cc/s @ 10 MPa static flow, injected a single-component fluid (iso-octane), generating the spray. Experiments were carried out in an optically-accessible constant-volume quiescent vessel by Mie-scattering technique. A C-Mos high-speed camera was used to acquire cycle-resolved images of the spray evolving in the chamber filled with N2 which pressure ranged between 0.05 and 0.3 MPa.

Liquids with stable suspensions of nanoscale materials are defined as nanofluids. As reported in recent scientific literature, a very small amount of suspended nanostructures has the potential to enhance the thermo physical, transport and radiative properties of the base fluid. One of the main applications of this technology is in the field of combustion and fuels. In fact, adding nanomaterials (such as metals, oxides, carbides, nitrides, or carbon-based nanostructures) to liquid fuels is able to enhance ignition and combustion. The focus of this research is to gain a fundamental understanding of the characteristics of a nanofluid fuel prepared using carbon nanoparticles (CNPs) and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) dispersed in butanol. This study starts with the investigation of the optical properties of the mixtures. The transmission spectra of the nanofluids are measured in a wide wavelength range from UV (250 nm) to near IR (800 nm).

Diesel sprays from an axially-disposed single-hole injector are studied under both non-vaporizing and vaporizing conditions in a constant-volume vessel. A hybrid shadowgraph/Mie-scattering imaging set-up is used to acquire the liquid and vapor phases of the fuel distribution in a near-simultaneous visualization mode by a high-speed camera (40,000 fps). A diesel injector with k0 factor is used, having the exit-hole diameter of 0.1 mm and the ratio L/d =10. The studies are performed at the injection pressures of 70, 120, and 180 MPa, 25.37 kg/m3 ambient gas density, at the environment temperature of 373, 453 and 900 K. The instantaneous tip penetration of the liquid and vapor phases is extracted from the collected images and processed by a properly assessed software, under the various operating conditions. The AVL FIRE™ code is also used to simulate the spray dynamics. The model is validated on the ground of the collected experimental data.

High pressure diesel sprays were visualized under vaporizing and combusting conditions in a constant-volume combustion vessel. Near-simultaneous visualization of vapor and liquid phase fuel distribution were acquired using a hybrid shadowgraph/Mie-scattering imaging setup. This imaging technique used two pulsed LED's operating in an alternative manner to provide proper light sources for both shadowgraph and Mie scattering. In addition, combustion cases under the same ambient conditions were visualized through high-speed combustion luminosity measurement. Two single-hole diesel injectors with same nozzle diameters (100μm) but different k-factors (k0 and k1.5) were tested in this study. Detailed analysis based on spray penetration rate curves, rate of injection measurements, combustion indicators and 1D model comparison have been performed.

In the present paper, two different methodologies are adopted and critically integrated to analyze the knock behavior of a last generation small size spark ignition (SI) turbocharged VVA engine. Particularly, two full load operating points are selected, exhibiting relevant differences in terms of knock proximity. On one side, a knock investigation is carried out by means of an Auto-Regressive technique (AR model) to process experimental in-cylinder pressure signals. This mathematical procedure is used to estimate the statistical distribution of knocking cycles and provide a validation of the following 1D-3D knock investigations. On the other side, an integrated numerical approach is set up, based on the synergic use of 1D and 3D simulation tools. The 1D engine model is developed within the commercial software GT-Power™. It is used to provide time-varying boundary conditions (BCs) for the 3D code, Star-CD™.

The performance and emission characteristics of the compression ignition engines are largely governed by the fuel atomization and air mixing, processes which in turn are strongly influenced by the flow dynamics inside the injector nozzle. This is controlled by dynamic (injection pressure, needle lift, etc.) and geometrical factors (orifice conicity, hydro grinding, etc.). Moreover, the modern diesel fuel injection systems are susceptible of deposits formation that can occur in different locations, e.g. in nozzle spray-holes and inside the injector body. The present paper describes the results of a research project aimed at studying the impact of injector coking on diesel spray formation for three injectors with different flow numbers. The characterization of the injection process has been carried out in terms of fuel injection rate as well as spatial and temporal fuel distribution in a quiescent chamber in non evaporative conditions.

The present paper reassumes the results of an experimental study focused on the effects of the nozzle injector's coking varying the flow number (FN); the performance and emissions of an automotive Euro5 diesel engine have been analyzed using diesel fuel. As the improvement of the diesel engine performance requires a continuous development of the injection system and in particular of the nozzle design, in the last years the general trend among OEMs is lowering nozzle flow number and, as a consequence, nozzle holes size. The study carried out moves from the consideration that a reduction of the nozzle holes diameter could increase the impact of their coking process. For this purpose, an experimental campaign has been realized, testing the engine in steady state in three partial load operating points, representative of the European homologation driving cycle, and in full load conditions.

A set of additives was selected to improve the durability of the physical-chemical and biological characteristics of mineral diesel and its blend with biodiesel. Two biodiesels were used: soybean (SME) and rapeseed (RME). Both physical-chemical properties and fuel dispersion of fuel blends and their mixtures with additives were measured that could have effects on the combustion process in diesel engines. The dispersion of the fuel is affected by the injection nozzle integrity, influencing the capacity of the fuel to vaporize, while the modification of the fuel molecular structure can cause changes in combustion reaction. A 7 hole Common Rail (CR) 2nd generation injector, 136 μm in diameter, was used at 80 MPa and 1.0 ms injection pressure and duration, respectively. The injection rate was determined using the Bosch's Method, while the fuel dispersion was measured by analyzing the images of spray evolving in an optical accessible quiescent vessel.