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This paper investigates flow and combustion in a full-cycle simulation of a four-stroke, three-valve HCCI engine by visualizing the flow with pathlines. Pathlines trace massless particles in a transient flow field. In addition to visualization, pathlines are used here to trace the history, or evolution, of flow fields and species. In this study evolution is followed from the intake port through combustion. Pathline analysis follows packets of intake charge in time and space from induction through combustion. The local scalar fields traversed by the individual packets in terms of velocity magnitude, turbulence, species concentration and temperatures are extracted from the simulation results. The results show how the intake event establishes local chemical and thermal environments in-cylinder and how the species respond (chemically react) to the local field.

Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV)/coir fiber composites were prepared via both conventional and microcellular injection-molding processes. The surface of the hydrophilic coir fiber was modified by alkali and silane-treatment to improve its adhesion with PHBV. The morphology, thermal, and mechanical properties were investigated. The addition of coir fiber (treated and untreated) reduced cell size and increased cell density. Further decrease in cell size and increase in cell density were observed for treated fibers compared with PHBV/untreated fiber composites. Mechanical properties such as specific toughness and strain-at-break improved for both solid and microcellular specimens with the addition of coir fibers (both treated and untreated); however, the specific modulus remained essentially the same statistically while the specific strength decreased slightly.

The impingement of liquid fuels on surfaces in IC engines affects performance and emissions. To better understand liquid/solid interactions, the impact of single droplets on a healed surface was experimentally examined. The droplet impingement was photographed with a high speed cine camera to obtain a history of the hydrodynamics of the impingement process. Images obtained from the cine photography were inspected to determine hydrodynamic regimes: wetting, transition, and non-wetting, associated with the specific impingement conditions (droplet size, velocity, surface temperature, and ambient pressure). Images from selected impingement conditions were further analyzed to quantify the atomization resulting from the impingement.

Combustion under stratified operating conditions in a direct-injection spark-ignition engine was investigated using simultaneous planar laser-induced fluorescence imaging of the fuel distribution (via 3-pentanone doped into the fuel) and the combustion products (via OH, which occurs naturally). The simultaneous images allow direct determination of the flame front location under highly stratified conditions where the flame, or product, location is not uniquely identified by the absence of fuel. The 3-pentanone images were quantified, and an edge detection algorithm was developed and applied to the OH data to identify the flame front position. The result was the compilation of local flame-front equivalence ratio probability density functions (PDFs) for engine operating conditions at 600 and 1200 rpm and engine loads varying from equivalence ratios of 0.89 to 0.32 with an unthrottled intake. Homogeneous conditions were used to verify the integrity of the method.

Control of the flow of thermal energy in an air-cooled engine is important to the overall performance of the engine because of potential effects on engine performance, durability, design, and emissions. A methodology is being developed for the assessment of thermal flows in air-cooled engines, which includes the use of cycle simulation and in-cylinder heat flux measurements. The mechanism for the combination of cycle simulation, the measurement of in-cylinder heat flux and wall temperatures, and comparison of predicted and measured heat flux in the methodology is presented. The methodology consists of both simulation and experimental phases. To begin, a one-dimensional gas dynamics code (WAVE) has been used in conjunction with a detailed in-cylinder flow and combustion model (IRIS) in order to simulate engine operation in a variety of operating conditions. The methods used to apply the model to the air-cooled engine case are described in detail.