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Diesel particulate filters are designed to reduce the mass emissions of diesel particulate matter and have been proven to be effective in this respect. Not much is known, however, about their effects on other unregulated chemical species. This study utilized source dilution sampling techniques to evaluate the effects of a catalyzed diesel particulate filter on a wide spectrum of chemical emissions from a heavy-duty diesel engine. The species analyzed included both criteria and unregulated compounds such as particulate matter (PM), carbon monoxide (CO), hydrocarbons (HC), inorganic ions, trace metallic compounds, elemental and organic carbon (EC and OC), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and other organic compounds. Results showed a significant reduction for the emissions of PM mass, CO, HC, metals, EC, OC, and PAHs.

The effect of the ring pack storage mechanism on the hydrocarbon (HC) emissions from an air-cooled utility engine has been studied using a simplified ring pack model. Tests were performed for a range of engine load, two engine speeds, varied air-fuel ratio and with a fixed ignition timing using a homogeneous, pre-vaporized fuel mixture system. The integrated mass of HC leaving the crevices from the end of combustion (the crank angle that the cumulative burn fraction reached 90%) to exhaust valve closing was taken to represent the potential contribution of the ring pack to the overall HC emissions; post-oxidation in the cylinder will consume some of this mass. Time-resolved exhaust HC concentration measurements were also performed, and the instantaneous exhaust HC mass flow rate was determined using the measured exhaust and cylinder pressure.

Many recent studies have shown that the Reactivity Controlled Compression Ignition (RCCI) combustion strategy can achieve high efficiency with low emissions. However, it has also been revealed that RCCI combustion is difficult at high loads due to its premixed nature. To operate at moderate to high loads with gasoline/diesel dual fuel, high amounts of EGR or an ultra low compression ratio have shown to be required. Considering that both of these approaches inherently lower thermodynamic efficiency, in this study natural gas was utilized as a replacement for gasoline as the low-reactivity fuel. Due to the lower reactivity (i.e., higher octane number) of natural gas compared to gasoline, it was hypothesized to be a better fuel for RCCI combustion, in which a large reactivity gradient between the two fuels is beneficial in controlling the maximum pressure rise rate.

In multidimensional modeling, fuels have been represented predominantly by single components, such as octane for gasoline. Several bicomponent studies have been performed, but these are still limited in their ability to represent real fuels, which are blends of as many as 300 components. This study outlines a method by which the fuel composition is represented by a distribution function of the fuel molecular weight. This allows a much wider range of compositions to be modeled, and only requires including two additional “species” besides the fuel, namely the mean and second moment of the distribution. This approach has been previously presented but is applied here to multidimensional calculations. Results are presented for single component droplet vaporization for comparison with single component fuel predictions, as well as results for a multicomponent gasoline and a diesel droplet.

The contribution to the engine-out hydrocarbon (HC) emissions from fuel that escapes the main combustion event in piston ring crevices was estimated for an air-cooled, V-twin utility engine. The engine was run with a homogeneous pre-vaporized mixture system that avoids the presence of liquid films in the cylinder, and their resulting contribution to the HC emissions. A simplified ring pack gas flow model was used to estimate the ring pack contribution to HC emissions; the model was tested against the experimentally measured blowby. At high load conditions the model shows that the ring pack returns to the cylinder a mass of HC that exceeds that observed in the exhaust, and thus, is the dominant contributor to HC emissions. At light loads, however, the model predicts less HC mass returned from the ring pack than is observed in the exhaust. Time-resolved HC measurements were performed and used to assess the effect of combustion quality on HC emissions.

Multi-zone CFD simulations with detailed kinetics were used to model iso-octane HCCI experiments performed on a single-cylinder research engine. The modeling goals were to validate the method (multi-zone combustion modeling) and the reaction mechanism (LLNL 857 species iso-octane) by comparing model results to detailed exhaust speciation data, which was obtained with gas chromatography. The model is compared to experiments run at 1200 RPM and 1.35 bar boost pressure over an equivalence ratio range from 0.08 to 0.28. Fuel was introduced far upstream to ensure fuel and air homogeneity prior to entering the 13.8:1 compression ratio, shallow-bowl combustion chamber of this 4-stroke engine. The CFD grid incorporated a very detailed representation of the crevices, including the top-land ring crevice and head-gasket crevice. The ring crevice is resolved all the way into the ring pocket volume. The detailed grid was required to capture regions where emission species are formed and retained.

As the issue of oil shortage and air pollution caused by automotive engine emissions become more and more serious day by day, researchers and engineers from all over the world are seeking for alternative fuels of lower pollution and renewable nature. This paper discusses in detail the feasibility of fueling gasoline engines with Butanol-gasoline blends. Besides the production, transportation, storage, physical and chemical properties of Butanol-gasoline blends, the combustion characteristics were analyzed as well. As the result Butanol was considered an excellent alternative fuel for gasoline engines, with many unique advantages superior to Natural Gas, LPG, Carbinol and Ethanol, the latter are widely studied at present time. In order to validate the above conclusions in engine application, engine dyno tests were conducted for a gasoline engine fueled with different concentrations of Butanol blend ranging from 10% to up to 35%.

We have developed a methodology for predicting combustion and emissions in a Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) Engine. This methodology combines a detailed fluid mechanics code with a detailed chemical kinetics code. Instead of directly linking the two codes, which would require an extremely long computational time, the methodology consists of first running the fluid mechanics code to obtain temperature profiles as a function of time. These temperature profiles are then used as input to a multi-zone chemical kinetics code. The advantage of this procedure is that a small number of zones (10) is enough to obtain accurate results. This procedure achieves the benefits of linking the fluid mechanics and the chemical kinetics codes with a great reduction in the computational effort, to a level that can be handled with current computers.

We have developed a methodology for predicting combustion and emissions in a Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) Engine. The methodology judiciously uses a fluid mechanics code followed by a chemical kinetics code to achieve great reduction in the computational requirements; to a level that can be handled with current computers. In previous papers, our sequential, multi-zone methodology has been applied to HCCI combustion of short-chain hydrocarbons (natural gas and propane). Applying the same procedure to long-chain hydrocarbons (iso-octane) results in unacceptably long computational time. In this paper, we show how the computational time can be made acceptable by developing a segregated solver. This reduces the run time of a ten-zone problem by an order of magnitude and thus makes it much more practical to make combustion studies of long-chain hydrocarbons.

A direct injection-gasoline (DI-G) system was applied to a heavy-duty diesel-type engine to study the effects of charge stratification on the performance of premixed compression ignited combustion. The effects of the fuel injection parameters on combustion phasing were of primary interest. The simultaneous effects of the fuel stratification on Unburned Hydrocarbon (UHC), Oxides of Nitrogen (NOx), Carbon Monoxide (CO), and smoke emissions were also measured. Engine tests were conducted with altered injection parameters covering the entire load range of normally aspirated Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignited (HCCI) combustion. Combustion phasing tests were also conducted at several engine speeds to evaluate its effects on a fuel stratification strategy.

The causes of Unburned Hydrocarbon (UHC) emissions from a premixed compression ignited engine were investigated for both homogeneous and stratified charge conditions. A fast response Flame Ionization Detector (fast FID) was used to provide cycle-resolved UHC exhaust emission measurements. These fast FID UHC measurements were coupled with numerical flow simulation results to provide quantitative and qualitative insight into the sources of UHC emissions. The combined results were used to evaluate the effects of engine load, local gas temperatures, fuel stratification, and crevice quenching on UHC emissions.

A multi-zone model has been developed that accurately predicts HCCI combustion and emissions. The multi-zone methodology is based on the observation that turbulence does not play a direct role on HCCI combustion. Instead, chemical kinetics dominates the process, with hotter zones reacting first, and then colder zones reacting in rapid succession. Here, the multi-zone model has been applied to analyze the effect of piston crevice geometry on HCCI combustion and emissions. Three different pistons of varying crevice size were analyzed. Crevice sizes were 0.26, 1.3 and 2.1 mm, while a constant compression ratio was maintained (17:1). The results show that the multi-zone model can predict pressure traces and heat release rates with good accuracy. Combustion efficiency is also predicted with good accuracy for all cases, with a maximum difference of 5% between experimental and numerical results.

Natural gas is a promising alternative fuel for internal combustion engines due to its rich reserves and low price, as well as good physical and chemical properties. Its low carbon structure and high octane number are beneficial for CO2 reduction and knock mitigation, respectively. Diesel and natural gas dual fuel combustion is a viable pathway to utilize natural gas in diesel engines. To achieve high efficiency and low emission combustion in a practical diesel engine over a wide range of operating conditions, understanding the performance responses to engine system parameter variations is needed. The controllability of two combustion strategies, diesel pilot ignition (DPI) and single injection reactivity controlled compression ignition (RCCI), were evaluated using the multi-dimension CFD simulation in this paper.

This work presents a comprehensive computational study of diesel - natural gas (NG) dual fuel engine. A complete computational model is developed for the operation of a diesel - NG dual fuel engine modified from an AVL 5402 single cylinder diesel test engine. The model is based on the KIVA-3V program and includes customized sub-models. The model is validated against test cell measurements of both pure diesel and dual fuel operation. The effects of NG on ignition and combustion in dual fuel operation are analyzed in detail. Zero-dimensional computations with a diesel surrogate reaction mechanism are conducted to discover the effects of NG on ignition and combustion and to reveal the fundamental chemical mechanisms behind such effects. Backed by the detailed theoretical analysis, the engine operation parameters are optimized with genetic algorithm (GA) for the dual fuel operation of the modified AVL 5402 test engine.

Significant amounts of particle-phase organic compounds are present in the exhaust of diesel vehicles. It is believed that some of these compounds have a greater impact on human health and the environment than other compounds. Therefore, it is of significant importance to speciate particle-phase organic compounds of diesel particulate matter (PM) to clarify the effects of PM on human health and the environment, and to understand the mechanisms of organic compounds formation in PM. A dilution source sampling system was incorporated into the exhaust measurement system of a single-cylinder heavy-duty direct-injection (D.I.) diesel engine. This system was designed specifically to collect fine organic aerosols from diesel exhaust. The detailed system is described in Kweon et al. [27].

The ASTROCULTURE™ (ASC) middeck flight experiment series was developed to test and integrate subsystems required to grow plants in reduced gravity, with the goal of developing a plant growth unit suitable for conducting quality biological research in microgravity. Flights on the Space Shuttle have demonstrated control of water movement through a particulate rooting material, growth chamber temperature and humidity control, LED lighting systems and control, recycling of recovered condensate, ethylene scrubbing, and carbon dioxide control. A complete plant growth unit was tested on STS-63 in February 1995, the first ASC flight in which plant biology experiments were conducted in microgravity. The methods and objectives used for control of environmental conditions in the ASC unit are described in this paper.

To help understand the fundamental processes involved in direct injection, a research project was conducted using a single-cylinder, two-stroke research engine at a mid-speed, boat load operating condition. A 24 statistical factorial experimental design was applied. Of the factors tested at this operating condition, spray type was the most important factor affecting hydrocarbon emissions, followed by in-cylinder flow-related factors. Injection spray was also most important for nitrogen oxide emissions, carbon monoxide emissions, and efficiency. The dominant mechanism influencing the results was misfire, with other mechanisms present for specific responses.

Studies on the effects of methyl soyate (biodiesel) blends with #2 diesel fuel in conjunction with various high pressure injection schemes were conducted on a single cylinder version of the Caterpillar 3400 series heavy duty diesel engine. Engine operating conditions at both high and low loads were investigated. Experiments were performed over a range of injection timings allowing particulate versus NOx trade-off curves to be generated. Phillips 66 certified #2 diesel fuel was used as the baseline; mixtures of 20% and 40% by volume of methyl soyate with the baseline fuel were used as the biodiesel blends. A blend of 20% by volume octadecene (a hydrocarbon fuel that is representative of the biodiesel hydrocarbon's composition but without the oxygen) in #2 diesel fuel was also investigated to help determine the mechanisms of emissions reduction.

A numerical simulation and optimization study was conducted for a medium speed direct injection diesel engine. The engine's operating characteristics were first matched to available experimental data to test the validity of the numerical model. The KIVA-3V ERC CFD code was then modified to allow independent spray events from two rows of nozzle holes. The angular alignment, nozzle hole size, and injection pressure of each set of nozzle holes were optimized using a micro-genetic algorithm. The design fitness criteria were based on a multi-variable merit function with inputs of emissions of soot, NOx, unburned hydrocarbons, and fuel consumption targets. Penalties to the merit function value were used to limit the maximum in-cylinder pressure and the burned gas temperature at exhaust valve opening. The optimization produced a 28.4% decrease in NOx and a 40% decrease in soot from the baseline case, while giving a 3.1% improvement in fuel economy.

Time-resolved measurements were made of the gas composition at the exhaust port of a direct-injection two-stroke engine operating at 2000 rpm and an air-fuel ratio of 30:1. A high-speed sampling valve capable of 1.0 ms (12 CAD) time resolution was used to collect samples 1 cm downstream of the exhaust port of the engine. The time-resolved NOx, CO2 and CO concentrations decreased continuously during the scavenging process due to the dilution by short-circuited air. The hydrocarbon emissions, however, behaved significantly differently from the other species. At the time of exhaust port opening the concentration was low, it reached a maximum value by BDC, then decreased slightly in the latter part of the scavenging event. The dilution rates calculated for the hydrocarbon data gave negative values, indicating that there was a significant production of hydrocarbons during the gas exchange period.