Search Results

Classical diesel engine combustion with relatively short ignition delay, including papers dealing with low CR and high EGR calibrations. Papers describing experiments and test data, simulation results focused on applications, fuel/additive effects, combustion control, and mode change are part of this collections.

Abstract Automotive-grade high-strength steels are galvanized for improved corrosion resistance. However, selective oxidation of alloying elements during annealing heat-treatment may influence the subsequent zinc (Zn) coating quality. The formation of internal and external oxides depends on the alloy composition, especially the Si/Mn ratio, and the oxygen potential of the annealing atmosphere. In this work, a dual-phase (DP) steel was intercritically annealed with varied fuel-to-air ratios in a direct-fired furnace and then galvanized in a Zn bath with 0.2 wt% Al. The type of internal and external oxides and the interfacial structures between the steel substrate, the Al-Fe-Zn inhibition layer, and the Zn coating were examined by using site-specific focused ion beam (FIB) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM).

The effect that thermally and compositionally stratified flowfields have on the spatial progression of iso-octane-fueled homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) combustion were directly observed using highspeed chemiluminescence imaging. The stratified in-cylinder conditions were produced by independently feeding the intake valves of a four-valve engine with thermally and compositionally different mixtures of air, vaporized fuel, and argon. Results obtained under homogeneous conditions, acquired for comparison to stratified operation, showed a small natural progression of the combustion from the intake side to the exhaust side of the engine, a presumed result of natural thermal stratification created from heat transfer between the in-cylinder gases and the cylinder walls. Large differences in the spatial progression of the HCCI combustion were observed under stratified operating conditions.

A dual piston Variable Compression Ratio (VCR) engine has been newly developed. This compact VCR system uses the inertia force and hydraulic pressure accompanying the reciprocating motion of the piston to raise and lower the outer piston and switches the compression ratio in two stages. For the torque characteristic enhancement and the knocking prevention when the compression ratio is being switched, it is necessary to carry out engine controls based on accurate compression ratio judgment. In order to accurately judge compression ratio switching timing, a control system employing the Hidden Markov Model (HMM) was used to analyze vibration generated during the compression ratio switching. Also, in order to realize smooth torque characteristics, an ignition timing control system that separately controls each cylinder and simultaneously performs knocking control was constructed.

Previous research has shown that elevating fuel injection pressure results in better air-fuel mixture formation, allowing for a further increase in maximum exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) rate while consequently reducing NOx emissions. The aim of this paper is to find out whether there is an optimum injection pressure for lowest soot-NOx emissions at a given boost pressure in high-speed diesel engines. Experiments are carried out on a single-cylinder research engine with a prototype common-rail system, capable of more than 200 MPa injection pressure. The effect of injection pressure on soot-NOx formation is investigated for a variety of boost conditions, representing the conditions of single to multi-stage turbocharger systems. Analysis of the data is performed at the application relevant soot to NOx ratio of approximately 1:10. It is observed that above a critical injection pressure, soot-NOx emissions are not reduced any further.

Long chain alcohols possess major advantages over the currently used ethanol as bio-components for gasoline, including higher energy content, better engine compatibility, and less water solubility. The rapid developments in biofuel technology have made it possible to produce C 4 -C 5 alcohols cost effectively. These higher alcohols could significantly expand the biofuel content and potentially substitute ethanol in future gasoline mixtures. This study characterizes some fundamental properties of a C 5 alcohol, isopentanol, as a fuel for HCCI engines. Wide ranges of engine speed, intake temperature, intake pressure, and equivalence ratio are investigated. Results are presented in comparison with gasoline or ethanol data previously reported. For a given combustion phasing, isopentanol requires lower intake temperatures than gasoline or ethanol at all tested speeds, indicating a higher HCCI reactivity.

Simultaneous crank-angle-resolved measurements of gasoline concentration and gas temperature were made with two-color mid-infrared (mid-IR) laser absorption in a production spark-ignition engine (Nissan MR20DE, 2.0L, 4 cyl, MPI with premium gasoline). The mid-IR light was coupled into and out of the cylinder using fiber optics incorporated into a modified spark plug. The absorption line-of-sight was a 5.3 mm optical path located closely adjacent to the ignition spark providing spatially resolved absorption. Two sensor wavelengths were selected in the strong bands associated with the carbon-hydrogen (C-H) stretching vibration near 3.4 μm, which have an absorption ratio that is strongly temperature dependent. Fuel concentration and temperature were determined simultaneously from the absorption at these two wavelengths.

The post-flame oxidation of unburned hydrocarbons released from the ring-pack crevice was investigated for a small, air-cooled, spark-ignition utility engine. Spark timing sweeps were performed at 50, 75 and 100% load and speeds of 1800, 2400 and 3060 RPM while operating at a 12:1 air-fuel ratio, which is typical for these engines. A global HC consumption rate (GCR) was introduced based on the temporal profile of the mass released from the ring pack; the mass release after CA90 and up to the point where the remainder of the ring pack HC mass is equal to the exhaust HC level was taken as the mass oxidized, and a rate was defined based on this mass and the corresponding crank angle period over which this took place. For all conditions tested, the GCR varied with the spark timing; advanced spark timing gave higher GCR.

Hydrogen engines are required to provide high thermal efficiency and low nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions. There are many possible combinations of injection pressure, injection timing, ignition timing, lambda and EGR rate that can be used in a direct-injection system for achieving such performance. In this study, several different combinations of injection and ignition timings were classified as possible combustion regimes, and experiments were conducted to make clear the differences in combustion conditions attributable to these timings. Lambda and the EGR rate were also evaluated for achieving the desired performance, and indicated thermal efficiency of over 45% was obtained at IMEP of 0.95 MPa. It was found that a hydrogen engine with a high-pressure direct-injection system has a high potential for improving thermal efficiency and reducing NOx emissions.

Lean burn natural gas engines have high potential in terms of efficiency and NOx emissions in comparison with stoichiometric natural gas engines, and much lower particulate emissions than diesel engines. They are a promising solution to meet the increasingly stringent exhaust emission targets for both light and heavy-duty engines. Partially Stratified-Charge (PSC) is a novel concept which was conceived by prof. Evans (University of British Columbia, Vancouver). This technique allows to further limit pollutant emissions and improve efficiency of an otherwise standard spark-ignition engine fuelled by natural gas, operating with lean air-fuel ratio. The potential of the PSC technique lies in the control of load without throttling by further extending the lean flammability limit.

A newly developed small-sized IES (inductive energy storage) circuit with semiconductor switch at turn-off action is successfully applied to an ignition system of a small gasoline internal combustion engine. This IES circuit can generate repetitive nanosecond pulse discharges. An ignition system using repetitive nanosecond pulse discharges is investigated as an alternative to a conventional spark ignition system. The present study focuses on the extension of the operational limits for lean and diluted combustion using the repetitive nanosecond pulse discharges. First, in order to investigate the flame kernel formation process when the repetitive nanosecond pulse discharges are used, the initial flame kernel is observed using Schlieren photography with a high speed camera. As a result, the flame kernel generated by repetitive pulse discharges is larger than by a conventional ignition system.

Different optimization strategies for the optimization of the calibration of a turbocharged GDI engine through numerical simulation were analyzed, aiming to evaluate the opportunities offered by direct optimization techniques. A one-dimensional fluid dynamic engine model was used to predict engine performance, taking into account knock and exhaust temperature constraints. Air fuel ratio, spark advance, boost pressure and cam phasing were optimized by means of different optimization strategies, including direct search as well as numerical methods. Both full load (with maximum bmep targets) and part load (with minimum bsfc targets) were considered.

In order to extend the HCCI high load operational limit, the effects of the distributions of temperature and fuel concentration on pressure rise rate (dP/dθ) were investigated through theoretical and experimental methods. The Blow-Down Super Charge (BDSC) and the EGR guide parts are employed simultaneously to enhance thermal stratification inside the cylinder. And also, to control the distribution of fuel concentration, direct fuel injection system was used. As a first step, the effect of spatial temperature distribution on maximum pressure rise rate (dP/dθmax) was investigated. The influence of the EGR guide parts on the temperature distribution was investigated using 3-D numerical simulation. Simulation results showed that the temperature difference between high temperature zone and low temperature zone increased by using EGR guide parts together with the BDSC system.

The Lambert-Beer's coefficient K was measured in a wide range of temperatures (400-1200K) and pressures (2-8.2 MPa) in this paper. Based on the measured MAP of K and principle of energy conservation in the sprays mass and transfer, a quantitative presentation of equivalence ratio and temperature in vapor phase sprays at diesel engine like conditions was put forward. The experimental range of temperatures was 800-1100K and 20-100 kg/m₃ for density. It was found that the maximum equivalence ratio of vapor phase spray remained fairly constant at about 3.0 and the maximum equivalence ratio appearance earlier as the ambient density increased, while the ambient temperature in the constant volume vessel was set at 800K. The maximum equivalence ratio of vapor phase spray increased from about 3.0 to about 3.7 as ambient temperature increased from 800 to 1100K.

In HCCI engines, the Air/Fuel Ratio (AFR) and Residual Gas Fraction (RGF) are difficult to control during the SI-HCCI-SI transition, and this may result in incomplete combustion and/or high pressure raise rates. As a result, there may be undesirably high engine load fluctuations. The objectives of this work are to further understand this process and develop control methods to minimize these load fluctuations. This paper presents data on instantaneous AFR and RGF measurements, both taken by novel experimental techniques. The data provides an insight into the cyclic AFR and RGF fluctuations during the switch. These results suggest that the relatively slow change in the intake Manifold Air Pressure (MAP) and actuation time of the Variable Valve Timing (VVT) are the main causes of undesired AFR and RGF fluctuations, and hence an unacceptable Net IMEP (NIMEP) fluctuation. We also found large cylinder-to-cylinder AFR variations during the transition.

Designing advanced, clean and fuel-efficient engines requires detailed understanding of fuel chemistry. While knowledge of fuel combustion chemistry has grown rapidly in recent years, the representation of conventional fossil fuels in full detail is still intractable. A popular approach is to use a model-fuel or surrogate blend that can mimic various characteristics of a conventional fuel. Despite the use of surrogate blends, there remains a gap between detailed chemistry and its utilization in computational fluid dynamics (CFD), due to the prohibitive computational cost of using thousands of chemical species in large numbers of computational cells. This work presents a set of software tools that help to enable the use of detailed chemistry in representing conventional fuels in CFD simulation. The software tools include the Surrogate Blend Optimizer and a suite of automated mechanism reduction strategies.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a control method to reduce acceleration shock in motorcycles. Reducing the acceleration shock is very important in improving driveability of motorcycles. Motorcycles equipped with manual transmission have some backlashes in the transmission, with large backlash especially in dog clutch portions. We have figured out that one of the main causes of the acceleration shock is the collision of the dogs at high relative angular velocity during acceleration. Also, our data analysis has revealed that there is a correlation between a peak value of the longitudinal body acceleration and the relative angular velocity at the moment of the dog collision. A simulation was undertaken to verify this phenomenon, and its results have made it clear that we need to decrease the relative angular velocity at the moment of the dog collision so as to reduce the acceleration shock.

The Homogenous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) engine is positioned as a next-generation internal combustion engine and has been the focus of extensive research in recent years to develop a practical system. One reason is that this new combustion system achieves lower fuel consumption and simultaneous reductions of nitrogen oxide (NOx) and particulate matter (PM) emissions, which are major issues of internal combustion engines today. However, the characteristics of HCCI combustion can prevent suitable engine operation owing to the rapid combustion process that occurs accompanied by a steep pressure rise when the amount of fuel injected is increased to obtain higher power output. A major issue of HCCI is to control this rapid combustion so that the quantity of fuel injected can be increased for greater power. Controlling the ignition timing is also an issue because it is substantially influenced by the chemical reactions of the fuel.

In this study, optical measurements were made of the combustion chamber gas during operation of a Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) engine in order to obtain a better understanding of the ignition and combustion characteristics. The principal issues of HCCI engines are to control the ignition timing and to optimize the combustion state following ignition. Autoignition in HCCI engines is strongly influenced by the complex low-temperature oxidation reaction process, alternatively referred to as the cool flame reaction or negative temperature coefficient (NTC) region. Accordingly, a good understanding of this low-temperature oxidation reaction process is indispensable to ignition timing control. In the experiments, spectroscopic measurement methods were applied to investigate the reaction behavior in the process leading to autoignition.

In pursuit of reducing dependencies on foreign oil coupled with U.S. renewable fuel standards and an overall focus and interest in greenhouse gas emissions, investigations continue on feasibility of replacement biologically derived fuels such as ethanol and butanol. Majority of existing recreational products such as marine outboard engines, boats, personal watercraft, all terrain vehicles and snowmobiles are carbureted or operate open-loop, meaning the engine does not have the capability to sense air-fuel ratio. Ethanol has a specific energy content that is less than gasoline. Without means to compensate for air-fuel ratio requirements of specific fuels, open-loop engines may suffer from a condition known as enleanment, in which catastrophic engine failure may result. On the contrary, butanol has specific energy content closer to that of gasoline, suggesting open-loop engines may be less prone to negative effects of increased biologically derived fuel concentrations in gasoline.