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Complexity of the modern diesel engine has increased to meet the stringent future emission regulations especially for NO (nitrogen oxide) and PM (particulate matter). Air management system including exhaust gas recirculation (EGR), turbocharger and variable valve actuation (VVA) must be optimized of its design and control algorithm for combustion improvement coupled with precision control of fuel injection. As a matter of course, the optimization of aftertreatment system is extremely important for the exhaust emissions reduction. In addition, improvement of fuel consumption is very important from the standpoint of response to energy security and reduction of CO₂ (carbon dioxide) emission as the greenhouse gas. However an enormous amount of energy will be required to develop such kind of the complex engine system by conventional actual testing.

Further improvement in fuel consumption is needed for diesel engines to address regulatory requirement particularly for heavy duty diesel in Japan enforced in 2015, in addition to the compliance to the regulatory requirements for exhaust emission, which seems to be more stringent in future. The authors have participated in the project of “Comprehensive Technological Development of Innovative, Next-Generation, Low-Pollution Vehicles” organized by New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), and innovative devices such as multi stage boosting system, ultra high-pressure fuel injection system and variable valve actuation (camless) system had been developed in this project from a standpoint of simultaneous improvement of fuel consumption and exhaust emission. In camless system, intake and exhaust valves are driven by hydraulic pressure. So, fully flexible setting of opening and closure timings and lift of the intake and exhaust valves is possible.

Study of DME diesel engines was conducted to improve fuel consumption and emissions of its. Additionally, DME trucks were built for the promotion and the road tests of these trucks were executed on EFV21 project. In this paper, results of diesel engine tests and DME truck driving tests are presented. As for DME diesel engines, the performance of a DME turbocharged diesel engine with LPL-EGR was evaluated and the influence of the compression ratio was also explored. As for DME trucks, a 100,000km road test was conducted on a DME light duty truck. After the road test, the engine was disassembled for investigation. Furthermore, two DME medium duty trucks have been developed and are now the undergoing practical road testing in each area of two transportation companies in Japan.

An exhaust turbocharging system makes it possible to increase the brake mean effective pressure (BMEP) and lower emissions levels for a diesel engine while further improving the thermal efficiency. However, in order to meet future emission regulations, further reductions in NOx and particle matter (PM) emissions are necessary. In addition, the diesel engine should have further reductions in fuel consumption to reduce CO₂, which is one of the main greenhouse gases. Authors participated in a program for the comprehensive technological development of innovative, next-generation, low-pollution vehicles with the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) from 2004 through 2008 in cooperation with the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST). A low-emission and high-efficiency diesel engine system was developed to meet the target of NEDO project.

Previous research in our laboratory has shown that NOx emissions can be sharply reduced by PREDIC (PRE-mixed lean DIesel Combustion), in which fuel is injected very early in the compression process. However some problems still remain, such as higher fuel consumption, a lack of ignition timing control, and a large increase in THC and CO, compared to conventional diesel combustion. Appropriate mixture formation is necessary to solve these problems. In this paper, the influence of mixture formation on PREDIC was investigated. It was found that the pintle type injection nozzle was shown to be suitable for PREDIC, because it produced a comparatively uniform mixture in the combustion chamber and avoided collision of the fuel spray with the cylinder liner. Modeling by the KIVA-II software package was carried out to improve our understanding of the mixture formation process.

Effects of pilot injection on diesel combustion have been studied on a turbocharged direct-injection diesel engine. Under various engine operating injection conditions, emissions were measured while the pilot quantity and timing were varied. The result showed that the pilot injection at low engine load could reduce NOx and THC and, also, improve fuel consumption in some degree. To grasp the phenomena, diesel combustion was analyzed and combustion process observed with an endoscope. It was found that the pilot injection reduced average combustion gas temperature due to a restriction on pre-mixed combustion and a slower combustion during diffusion. The photographs of the entrainment of the burned gas, generated from the pilot combustion, by the main fuel spray injected into the pilot flame and of the resulting slow down of the diesel combustion were taken.

Typical DI diesel engines operate with fuel injection taking place within a range of about 30 crank angle degrees before top dead center, at the end of the compression stroke. When injection takes place far earlier, at the beginning of the compression stroke, another form of combustion occurs, which we termed PREmixed lean Diesel Combustion, or PREDIC. With PREDIC operation, self-ignition occurs near top dead center and NOx emissions are drastically lower. When ignition occurs, the fuel-air mixture is thought to be nearly homogeneous, with only slight heterogeneity. Appropriate fuel spray formation is very important for successful PREDIC operation. Using a single-zone NOx formation model, calculations showed that the mean excess air ratio in the PREDIC combustion zone was 1.87, which resulted in very low (20 ppm) NOx emissions. Conventional combustion at the same conditions resulted in a mean combustion zone excess air ratio of 0.88.

Previous research in our laboratory has shown that NOx emissions can be sharply reduced by PREDIC (PRE-mixed lean DIesel Combustion), in which fuel is injected very early in the compression process. However some points of concern remained unsolved, such as a large increase in THC and CO, higher fuel consumption, and an operating region narrowly limited to partial loads, compared to conventional diesel operation. In this paper, the causes of PREDIC's problem areas were analyzed through engine performance tests and combustion observation with a single cylinder engine, through fuel spray observation with a high-pressure vessel, and through numerical modeling. Subsequently, measurable improvements were achieved on the basis of these analyses. As a result, the ignition and combustion processes were clarified in terms of PREDIC fuel-air mixture formation. Thus, THC and CO emissions could be decreased by adopting a pintle type injection nozzle, or a reduced top-land-crevice piston.