Search Results

Effects of fuel cell material properties on water management were numerically investigated using Volume of Fluid (VOF) method in the FLUENT. The results show that the channel surface wettability is an important design variable for both serpentine and interdigitated flow channel configurations. In a serpentine air flow channel, hydrophilic surfaces could benefit the reactant transport to reaction sites by facilitating water transport along channel edges or on channel surfaces; however, the hydrophilic surfaces would also introduce significantly pressure drop as a penalty. For interdigitated air flow channel design, it is observable that liquid water exists only in the outlet channel; it is also observable that water distribution inside GDL is uneven due to the pressure distribution caused by interdigitated structure. An in-situ water measurement method, neutron imaging technique, was used to investigate the water behavior in a PEM fuel cell.

Surrogates for JP-8 have been developed in the high temperature gas phase environment of gas turbines. In diesel engines, the fuel is introduced in the liquid phase where volatility plays a major role in the formation of the combustible mixture and autoignition reactions that occur at relatively lower temperatures. In this paper, the role of volatility on the combustion of JP-8 and five different surrogate fuels was investigated in the constant volume combustion chamber of the Ignition Quality Tester (IQT). IQT is used to determine the derived cetane number (DCN) of diesel engine fuels according to ASTM D6890. The surrogate fuels were formulated such that their DCNs matched that of JP-8, but with different volatilities. Tests were conducted to investigate the effect of volatility on the autoignition and combustion characteristics of the surrogates using a detailed analysis of the rate of heat release immediately after the start of injection.

An experimental study was carried out to characterize the exhaust flow structure inside the closed-coupled catalytic converter, which is installed on a firing four-cylinder 12-valve passenger car gasoline engine. Simultaneous velocity and pressure measurements were taken using cycle-resolved Laser Doppler anemometer (LDA) technique and pressure transducer. A small fraction of titanium (IV) iso-propoxide was dissolved in gasoline to generate titanium dioxide during combustion as seeding particles for the LDA measurements. It was found that the velocity is highly fluctuating due to the pulsating nature of the engine exhaust flow, which strongly depends on the engine operating conditions and the measuring locations. The pressure oscillation is correlated with the transient exhaust flow characteristics. The main exhaust flow event from each cylinder can only be observed at the certain region in front of the monolith brick.

For the application of advanced clean combustion technologies, such as diesel HCCI/LTC, a compressor with high efficiency over a broad operation range is required to supply a high amount of EGR with minimum pumping loss. A compressor with high pitch of vaneless diffuser would substantially improve the flow range of the compressor, but it is at the cost of compressor efficiency, especially at low mass flow area where most of the city driving cycles resides. In present study, an ultra low solidity compressor vane diffuser was numerically investigated. It is well known that the flow leaving the impeller is highly distorted, unsteady and turbulent, especially at relative low mass flow rate and near the shroud side of the compressor. A conventional vaned diffuser with high stagger angle could help to improve the performance of the compressor at low end. However, adding diffuser vane to a compressor typically restricts the flow range at high end.

Self recirculation casing treatment has been showed to be an effective technique to extend the flow range of the compressor. However, the mechanism of its surge extension on turbocharger compressor is less understood. Investigation and comparison of internal flow filed will help to understand its impact on the compressor performance. In present study, experimentally validated CFD analysis was employed to study the mechanism of surge extension on the turbocharger compressor. Firstly a turbocharger compressor with replaceable inserts near the shroud of the impeller inlet was designed so that the overall performance of the compressor with and without self recirculation casing treatment could be tested and compared. Two different self recirculation casing treatments had been tested: one is conventional self recirculation casing treatment and the other one has deswirl vanes inside the casing treatment passage.

A quantitative and time-resolved technique has been developed to probe the fuel distribution very near the nozzle of a high-pressure diesel injector. This technique uses the absorption of synchrotron x-rays to measure the fuel mass with good time and position resolution. The penetrating power of x-rays allows measurements that are difficult with other techniques, such as quantitative measurements of the mass and penetration measurements of the trailing edge of the spray. Line-of-sight measurements were used to determine the fuel density as a function of time. The high time resolution and quantitative nature of the measurement also permit an accurate measure of the instantaneous mass flow rate through the nozzle.

Experimental data is used in conjunction with multi-dimensional modeling in a modified version of the KIVA-3V code to characterize the emissions behavior of a high-speed, direct-injection diesel engine. Injection pressure and EGR are varied across a range of typical small-bore diesel operating conditions and the resulting soot-NOx tradeoff is analyzed. Good agreement is obtained between experimental and modeling trends; the HSDI engine shows increasing soot and decreasing NOx with higher EGR and lower injection pressure. The model also indicates that most of the NOx is formed in the region where the bulk of the initial heat release first takes place, both for zero and high EGR cases. The mechanism of NOx reduction with high EGR is shown to be primarily through a decrease in thermal NOx formation rate.

The emissions trade-off and combustion characteristics of a high speed, small-bore, direct injection, single cylinder, diesel engine are investigated at three different load conditions. The experiments covered a wide range of parameters including the injection pressure, exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) rate and swirl ratio (Sw). The effects of each parameter on the ignition delay (ID), apparent rate of energy release (ARER), NOx, Bosch smoke unit (BSU), CO and hydrocarbons are investigated. The results show that the NOx emission dropped continuously with the increase in EGR (up to 55%), but with increasing smoke emission in a classical trade-off relationship. The increase in injection pressure generally reduced smoke with NOx penalty; however, the NOx penalty decreased at higher EGR. There also appears to be an increase in the cool flame intensity at the high EGR rates. Applying swirl at high EGR rate and high injection pressure conditions further reduced smoke emissions.

An experimental setup using rapid compression machine to provide excellent optical access to visualize simulated high-speed small-bore direct injection diesel engine combustion processes is described. Typical combustion visualization results of diesel spray combustion under different EGR, swirl, and injection pressure and nozzle conditions are presented. Different swirl intensities are achieved using an air nozzle with variable orientations and a check valve to connect the compression chamber and the combustion chamber. Different EGR ratios are achieved by pre-injection of diesel fuel prior to the main observation sequence. Clear visualization of the high-pressure fuel injection, ignition, combustion and spray/wall/swirl interactions is obtained. The injection system is a high-pressure common-rail system with either a VCO or a mini-sac nozzle. High-speed movies up to 35,000 frame-per-second are taken using a framing drum camera to record the combustion events.

A parametric study on the effects of critical injector design parameters of inwardly-opening pressure-swirl injectors was carried out using 3-D internal flow simulations. The pressure variation and the integrated momentum flux across the injector, as well as the flow distributions and turbulence structure at the nozzle exit were analyzed. The critical flow effects on the injector design identified are the swirler efficiency, discharge coefficient, and turbulence breakup effects on the spray structure. The study shows that as a unique class of injectors, pressure-swirl injectors is complicated in fluid mechanics and not sufficiently characterized or optimized. The swirler efficiency is characterized in terms of the trade-off relationship between the swirl-to-axial momentum-flux ratio and pressure drop across the swirler. The results show that swirl number is inversely proportional to discharge coefficient, and that hole diameter and swirler height is the most dominant parameters.

The nozzle configuration for an injector is known to have an important effect on the fuel atomization. A comprehensive experimental and numerical investigation has been performed to determine the influence of various internal geometries on the primary spray breakup and development using the electronically controlled high-pressure diesel injection systems. Different types of multi-hole minisac and VCO nozzles with cylindrical and tapered geometries, and different types of single-hole nozzles with defined grades of Hydro Grinding (HG) were investigated. The global characteristics of the spray, including spray angle, spray tip penetration and spray pattern were measured from the spray images with a high-speed drum camera. A long-distance microscope with a pulsed-laser as the optical shutter was used to magnify the diesel spray at the nozzle hole vicinity. A CFD analysis of the internal flow through various nozzle geometries has been carried out with a commercial code.

The combustion and emission characteristics of a high speed, small-bore, direct injection, single cylinder, diesel engine are investigated using two different nozzles, a 430-VCO (0.171mm) and a 320 Mini sac (0.131mm). The experiments were conducted at conditions that represent a key point in the operation of a diesel engine in an electric hybrid vehicle (1500 rpm and light load condition). The experiments covered fuel injection pressures ranging from 400 to 1000 bar and EGR ratios ranging from 0 to 50%. The effects of nozzle hole geometry on the ignition delay (ID), apparent rate of energy release (ARER, ARHR), NOx, Bosch smoke unit (BSU), CO and hydrocarbons are investigated.

Simultaneous measurements of the radial and the tangential components of velocity are obtained in a high-speed, direct-injection diesel engine typical of automotive applications. Results are presented for engine operation with fuel injection, but without combustion, for three different swirl ratios and four injection pressures. With the mean and fluctuating velocities, the r-θ plane shear stress and the mean flow gradients are obtained. Longitudinal and transverse length scales are also estimated via Taylor's hypothesis. The flow is shown to be sufficiently homogeneous and stationary to obtain meaningful length scale estimates. Concurrently, the flow and injection processes are simulated with KIVA-3V employing a RNG k-ε turbulence model. The measured turbulent kinetic energy k, r-θ plane mean strain rates ( 〈Srθ〉, 〈Srr〉, and 〈Sθθ〉 ), deviatoric turbulent stresses , and the r-θ plane turbulence production terms are compared directly to the simulated results.

Three jet fuel surrogates were compared against their target fuels in a compression ignited optical engine under a range of start-of-injection temperatures and densities. The jet fuel surrogates are representative of petroleum-based Jet-A POSF-4658, natural gas-derived S-8 POSF-4734 and coal-derived Sasol IPK POSF-5642, and were prepared from a palette of n-dodecane, n-decane, decalin, toluene, iso-octane and iso-cetane. Optical chemiluminescence and liquid penetration length measurements as well as cylinder pressure-based combustion analyses were applied to examine fuel behavior during the injection and combustion process. HCHO* emissions obtained from broadband UV imaging were used as a marker for low temperature reactivity, while 309 nm narrow band filtered imaging was applied to identify the occurrence of OH*, autoignition and high temperature reactivity.

With increasing interest to reduce the dependency on gasoline and diesel, alternative energy source like compressed natural gas (CNG) is a viable option for internal combustion engines. Spark-ignited (SI) CNG engine is the simplest way to utilize CNG in engines, but direct injection (DI) Diesel-CNG dual-fuel engine is known to offer improvement in combustion efficiency and reduction in exhaust gases. Dual-fuel engine has characteristics similar to both SI engine and diesel engine which makes the combustion process more complex. This paper reports the computational fluid dynamics simulation of both DI dual-fuel compression ignition (CI) and SI CNG engines. In diesel-CNG dual-fuel engine simulations and comparison to experiments, attention was on ignition delay, transition from auto-ignition to flame propagation and heat released from the combustion of diesel and gaseous fuel, as well as relevant pollutants emissions.

The present study helps to understand the local combustion characteristics of PREmixed Mixture Ignition in the End-gas Region (PREMIER) combustion mode while using increasing amount of natural gas as a diesel substitute in conventional CI engine. In order to reduce NOx emission and diesel fuel consumption micro-pilot diesel injection in premixed natural gas-air mixture is a promising technique. New strategy has been employed to simulate dual fuel combustion which uses well established combustion models. Main focus of the simulation is at detection of an end gas ignition, and creating an unified modeling approach for dual fuel combustion. In this study G-equation flame propagation model is used with detailed chemistry in order to detect end-gas ignition in overall low temperature combustion. This combustion simulation model is validated using comparison with experimental data for dual fuel engine.

Low cetane JP-8 fuels have been identified as being difficult to use under conventional diesel operation. However, recent focus on low-temperature combustion (LTC) modes has led to an interest in distillate hydrocarbon fuels having high volatility and low autoignition tendency. An experimental study is performed to evaluate low-temperature combustion processes in a small-bore optically-accessible diesel engine operated in a partially-premixed combustion mode using low-cetane Sasol JP-8 fuel. This particular fuel has a cetane number of 25. Both single and dual injection strategies are tested. Since long ignition delay is a consequence of strong autoignition resistance, under the conditions examined, low cetane Sasol JP-8 combustion can only take place with a double injection strategy: one pilot injection event in the vicinity of exhaust TDC and one main injection event near firing TDC.

Gasoline-direct-injection (GDI) engines have been adopted increasingly by the automotive industry in the recent years due to their performance, effects on the environment, and customers' demand on advanced technology. However, the knowledge of detailed combustion process in such engines is still not thoroughly analyzed and understood. With optically accessible engines (OAE) and advanced measuring techniques, such as high-speed digital imaging, the in-cylinder combustion process is made available directly to researchers. The present study primarily focuses on the effects of different parameters of engine control on the combustion process, such as fuel types, valve deactivation, ignition timing, spark energy, injection timing, air-fuel ratio, and exhaust gas recirculation. Three engine heads of a 2.0L GDI engine are used with modification to acquire different optical access.

Integrated control strategies for the O.P.E.R.A.S. (Optimization of injection Pressure, EGR ratio, injection Retard or Advance and Swirl ratio) are demonstrated. The strategies are based on an investigation of combustion and emissions in a small bore, high speed, direct injection diesel engine. The engine is equipped with a common rail injection system and is tested under simulated turbocharged engine conditions at two loads and speeds that represent two key operating points in a medium size HEV vehicle. A new phenomenological model is developed for the fuel distribution in the combustion chamber and the fractions that are injected prior to the development of the flame, injected in the flame or deposited on the walls. The investigation covered the effect of the different operating parameters on the fuel distribution, combustion and engine-out emissions.

Port fuel injection system in gasoline engines is receiving an increasing attention for its potential advantages in meeting the constrains of simultaneous reduction in fuel consumption and exhaust emission, and maintaining a good engine performance. The structure of port injector spray dominates the mixture preparation process and strongly affect the subsequent engine combustion characteristics over a wide range of operating conditions in port-injection gasoline engines. In this paper, an experimental and analytical study is made to characterize the breakup mechanism and atomization process of the non-air-assisted port injector sprays in gasoline engines. The liquid sprays resulted from various types of current and development-type automotive fuel injectors were visualized using planar laser-induced fluorescence imaging technique. A comparison was made on the spray structure of the single hole and multi-hole injectors.