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Although the application of cylinder pressure sensors to gain insight into the combustion process is not a novel topic itself, the recent availability of inexpensive in-cylinder pressure sensors has again prompted an upcoming interest for the utilization of the cylinder pressure signal within engine control and monitoring. Besides the use of the in-cylinder pressure signal for combustion analysis and control the information can also be used to determine related quantities in the exhaust or intake manifold. Within this work two different methods to estimate the pressure inside the exhaust manifold are proposed and compared. In contrary to first principle based approaches, which may require time extensive parameterization, alternative data driven approaches were pursued. In the first method a Principle Component Analysis (PCA) is applied to extract the cylinder pressure information and combined with a polynomial model approach.

In recent years, the increase of gasoline fuel injection pressure is a way to improve thermal efficiency and lower engine-out emissions in GDI homogenous combustion concept. The challenge of controlling particulate formation as well in mass and number concentrations imposed by emissions regulations can be pursued improving the mixture preparation process and avoiding mixture inhomogeneity with ultra-high injection pressure values up to 100 MPa. The increase of the fuel injection pressure in GDI homogeneous systems meets the demand for increased injector static flow, while simultaneously improves the spray atomization and mixing characteristics with consequent better combustion performance. Few studies quantify the effects of high injection pressure on transient gasoline spray evolution. The aim of this work was to simulate with OpenFOAM the spray morphology of a commercial gasoline injected in a constant volume vessel by a prototypal GDI injector.

The influence of jet-flow and jet-jet interactions on the lift-off length of diesel jets are investigated in an optically accessible heavy-duty diesel engine. High-speed OH chemiluminescence imaging technique is employed to capture the transient evolution of the lift-off length up to its stabilization. The engine is operated at 1200 rpm and at a constant load of 5 bar IMEP. Decreasing the inter-jet spacing shortens the liftoff length of the jet. A strong interaction is also observed between the bulk in-cylinder gas temperature and the inter-jet spacing. The in-cylinder swirl level only has a limited influence on the final lift-off length position. Increasing the inter-jet spacing is found to reduce the magnitude of the cycle-to-cycle variations of the lift-off length.

Metallic foams or sponges are materials with a cell structure suitable for many industrial applications, such as reformers, heat catalytic converters, etc. The success of these materials is due to the combination of various characteristics such as mechanical strength, low density, high specific surface, good thermal exchange properties, low flow resistance and sound absorption. Different materials and manufacturing processes produce different type of structure and properties for various applications. In this work a genetic algorithm has been developed and applied to support the design of catalytic devices. In particular, two substrates were considered, namely the traditional honeycomb and an alternative open-cell foam type. CFD simulations of pressure losses and literature based correlations for the heat and mass transfer were used to support the genetic algorithm in finding the best compromise between flow resistance and pollutant abatement.

Today, Direct-Injection systems are widely used on Spark-Ignition engines in combination with turbo-charging to reduce the fuel-consumption and the knock risks. In particular, the spread of Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) systems is mainly related to the use of new generations of multi-hole, high-pressure injectors whose characteristics are quite different with respect to the hollow-cone, low-pressure injectors adopted in the last decade. This paper presents the results of an experimental campaign conducted on the spray produced by a GDI six-holes injector into a constant volume vessel with optical access. The vessel was filled with air at atmospheric pressure. Different operating conditions were considered for an injection pressure ranging from 3 to 20 MPa. For each operating condition, spray images were acquired by a CCD camera and then post processed to evaluate the spray penetration and cone angles.

In this paper a three-dimensional time-domain CFD approach has been employed to predict and analyze the acoustic attenuation performance of complex perforated muffler geometries, where strong 3D effects limit the validity of the use of one-dimensional models. A pressure pulse has been imposed at the inlet to excite the wave motion, while unsteady flow computation have been performed to acquire the time histories of the pressures upstream and downstream of the silencer. Pressures in the time domain have been then transformed to acoustic pressures in the frequency domain, to predict the transmission loss.

The Pegasor Particle Sensor (PPS) is a small and lightweight sensor that can be used directly in raw exhaust to provide the mass and number concentration of exhaust aerosol. Its operation principle is based on the electrical charging of exhaust aerosol and determination of particle concentration by measuring the charge accumulated on the particles. In this paper we have applied the PPS in a variety of vehicle exhaust configurations to evaluate its performance characteristics. First, the output signal of the instrument was calibrated with diesel exhaust to deliver either the mass or the number concentration of exhaust aerosol. Linear response with the soot mass concentration measured by a Photo Acoustic Soot Sensor and number concentration measured by an Electrical Low Pressure Impactor was established.

The flow field resulting from injecting a gas jet into a crossflow confined in a narrow square duct has been studied under steady regime using schlieren imaging and laser Doppler velocimetry (LDV). This transparent duct is intended to simulate the intake port of an internal combustion engine fueled by gaseous mixture, and the jet is issued from a round nozzle. The schlieren images show that the relative small size of the duct would confine the development of the transverse jet, and the interaction among jet and sidewalls strongly influences the mixing process between jet and crossflow. The mean velocity and turbulence fields have been studied in detail through LDV measurements, at both center plane and several cross sections. The well-known flow feature formed by a counter rotating vortex pair (CVP) has been observed, which starts to appear at the jet exit section and persists far downstream contributing to enhancing mixing process.

A diesel engine developed for an international market must be able to run on different fuels considering the diesel fuel qualities and the increasing selection of biofuels in the world. This leads to the question of how different fuels perform relative to a standard diesel fuel when not changing the hardware settings. In this study five fuels (Japanese diesel, MK3, EN590 with 10% RME, EN590 with 30% RME and pure RME) have been compared to a reference diesel fuel (Swedish MK1) when run on three different speeds and three different loads at each speed. The experiments are run on a Scania 13l Euro5 engine with standard settings for Swedish MK1 diesel. In general the differences were not large between the fuels. NO x usually increased compared to MK1 and then soot decreased as would be expected. The combustion efficiency increased with increased RME contents of the fuel but the indicated efficiency was not influenced by RME except for at higher loads.

The behavior of Ethanol and seven fuels in the boiling point range of gasoline but with an Octane Number spanning from 69 to 99 was investigated in Partially Premixed Combustion. A load sweep was performed from 5 to 18 bar gross IMEP at 1300 rpm. The engine used in the experiments was a single cylinder Scania D12. To allow high load operations and achieve sufficient mixing, the compression ratio was decreased from the standard 18:1 to 14.3:1. It was shown that by using only 50% of EGR it is possible to achieve NOx below 0.30 g/kWh even at high loads. At 18 bar IMEP soot was in the range of 1-2 FSN for the gasoline fuels while it was below 0.06 FSN with Ethanol. The use of high boost combined with relatively short combustion duration allowed reaching gross indicated efficiencies in the range of 54 - 56%. At high load the partial stratified mixture allowed to keep the maximum pressure rise rate below 15 bar/CAD with most of the fuels.

Due to the increasing pressure to develop small-size and low-cost after-treatment systems meeting the legislative demands it is desirable to integrate multiple functionalities and exploit any possible synergies. Typical examples include DPFs catalyzed with deNOx catalysts, as well as LNT-SCR combinations using layered coating technology. The present paper deals with the modeling challenges involved for the proper simulation of such advanced concepts. Key role in such advanced simulation attempts has the coupling between diffusion-reaction phenomena, which is captured through intra-layer modeling. All investigations in this paper deal with the application of possible combined LNT-SCR system configurations. The simulation results show that a dual bed LNT- passive SCR configuration offers substantial NOx emissions reductions compared to a single LNT catalyst and effectively controls secondary NH3 emissions produced during LNT regeneration phases.

The current research focuses in understanding how inlet pressure, EGR, combustion phasing, engine speed and pilot main ratio are affecting the main parameters of the combustion (e.g. efficiency, NOx, soot, maximum pressure rise rate) in the novel concept of injecting high octane number fuels in partially premixed combustion. The influence of the above mentioned parameters was studied by performing detailed sweeps at 32 bar fuel MEP (c.a. 16-18 bar gross IMEP); three different kinds of gasoline were tested (RON: 99, 89 and 69). The experiments were ran in a single cylinder heavy duty engine; Scania D12. At the end of these sweeps the optimized settings were computed in order to understand how to achieve high efficiency, low emissions and acceptable maximum pressure rise rate.

A detailed investigation is made of the impact of mechanical deformation on the in-cylinder volume as function of crank angle degree in an optical engine of Bowditch design. The squish height is found to change linearly with mass and pressure forces. It increases due to pressure forces and decreases due to mass forces. The thermal forces have an impact on the squish height but it is not clear in what direction. The volume change caused by deformations did not change the calculated load significantly but gave errors during heat release calculations. Two different strategies to reduce these errors are presented.

In the most elementary treatment of plane-wave reflection at the open end of a duct system, it is often assumed that the ends are pressure nodes. This implies that pressure is assumed as a constant at the open end termination and that steady flow boundary condition is supposed as instantaneously established. While this simplifying assumption seems reasonable, it does not consider any radiation of acoustic energy from the duct into the surrounding free space; hence, an error in the estimation of the effects of the flow on the acoustical response of an open-end duct occurs. If radiation is accounted, a complicated three-dimensional wave pattern near the duct end is established, which tends to readjust the exit pressure to its steady-flow level. This adjustment process is continually modified by further incident waves, so that the effective instantaneous boundary conditions which determine the reflected waves depend on the flow history.

In this paper, computation fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations are employed to describe the effect of flow parameters on the formation of soot and NOx in a heavy duty engine under low load and high load. The complexity of diesel combustion, specially when soot, NOx and other emissions are of interest, requires using a detailed chemical mechanism to have a correct estimation of temperature and species distribution. In this work, Multiple Representative Interactive Flamelets (MRIF) method is employed to describe the chemical reactions, ignition, flame propagation and emissions in the engine. A phenomenological model for soot formation, including soot nucleation, coagulation and oxidation with O2 and OH is incorporated into the flamelet combustion model. Different strategies for modelling NOx are chosen to take into account the longer time scale for NOx formation. The numerical results are compared with experimental data to show the validity of the model for the cases under study.

The influence of spray-wall interaction on air entrainment in an unsteady non-evaporating diesel spray was studied using laser Doppler anemometry. The spray was injected into confined quiescent air at ambient pressure and temperature and made to impact on a flat wall. The air velocity component normal to a cylindrical surface surrounding the spray was measured during the entire injection period, allowing to evaluate the time history of the entrained air mass flow rate. The influence of wall distance and spray impingement angle on air entrainment characteristics has been investigated and the results indicate that the presence of a wall increases the entrained mass flow rate in the region close to the surface, during the main injection period. Normal impingement appears to produce stronger effects than oblique incidence at 30 and 45 deg. A qualitative explanation of the results is also proposed, based on the drop-gas momentum exchange mechanism.

The air entrainment in a transient diesel spray was studied using laser Doppler anemometry to provide information on the effect of gas density and temperature. The spray was injected vertically into a confined quiescent atmosphere and the entrained mass flow rate was evaluated by measuring the air velocity component normal to a cylindrical geometric surface surrounding the spray, and extending to about 200 nozzle diameters (50 mm). The experimental results, relative to a density range from 0.84 to 7.02 kg/m3 and a temperature range from 293 to 473 K, indicate that the non dimensional entrainment rate, averaged in time over the main injection period, depends on the distance from the nozzle and both gas density and temperature. A first analysis, based on the available data, allowed to quantify the dependence and provided a correlation with such variables.

The Columbus laboratory module for the International Space Station (ISS) uses active thermal control for cooling of avionics and payload in the pressurized compartment. The Active Thermal Control Subsystem (ATCS) is based on a water loop rejecting waste heat to the Medium Temperature Heat Exchanger and Low Temperature Heat Exchanger on Node 2, part of the US Segment of the ISS. Flow and temperature control in the ATCS is achieved by means of the Water Pump Assembly (WPA) and the 3-Way Modulating Valve (WTMO) units. For the flow control the WPA speed is commanded so that a fixed pressure drop is maintained over the plenum with the avionics and payload branches. Adjusting the WTMO internal flow split permit the two active units to perform the CHX and plenum inlet temperature control. The WPA includes a filter and an accumulator to control the pressure in the ATCS and to compensate for leakage and temperature-dependent volume variations.

A comprehensive model for sprays emerging from high pressure swirl injectors for GDI engine application has been developed. The primary and secondary atomization mechanism as well as the evaporation process both in standard and superheated conditions are taken into account. The spray modelling after the injection is based on the Liquid Instability Sheet Atomization (LISA) approach, modified to correctly predict the liquid sheet thickness at the breakup length. The effect of different values of the superheat degree on evaporation and impact on the spray distribution and fuel-air mixing is analyzed. Comparisons with experimental data show good agreements under atmospheric conditions and with different superheated degrees, while some discrepancies occur under higher ambient pressures.

The effects of fuel temperature on both the geometry and the droplet size and velocity of a GDI swirled injector spray were investigated by means of visualizations and PDA measurements. Isooctane was used as model fuel and was injected in a quiescent bomb at injection pressure of 7 MPa. Bomb pressure ranged from 40 kPa to 800 kPa with injector nozzle temperature ranging from 293 K to 393 K. A drastic change in spray geometry was observed when conditions above the vaporization curve were reached. The temperature increase has two macroscopic effects on the spray geometry: at the nozzle exit the liquid flash boiling strongly enlarges the spray angle, at a certain distance from the nozzle the air entrainment collapses the spray. Raising the fuel temperature up to flash boiling conditions causes a significant decrease of the average droplet size.