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This paper deals with experimental study of in-cylinder tumble flows in a single-cylinder, four-stroke, two-valve internal combustion engine using a pentroof-offset-bowl piston under non-reacting conditions with four intake manifold orientations at an engine speed of 1000 rev/min., during suction and compression strokes using particle image velocimetry. Two-dimensional in-cylinder tumble flow measurements and analysis are carried out in combustion space on a vertical plane passing through cylinder axis. Ensemble average velocity vectors are used to analyze the tumble flows. Tumble ratio (TR) and average turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) are evaluated and used to characterize the tumble flows. From analysis of results, it is found that at end of compression stroke, 90° intake manifold orientation shows an improvement in TR and TKE compared other intake manifold orientations considered.

For controlling oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and particular matter (PM) emissions from diesel engines, various fuel and combustion mode modification strategies are investigated in the past. Low temperature combustion (LTC) is an alternative combustion strategy that reduces NOx and PM emissions through premixed lean combustion. Dual fuel reactivity-controlled compression ignition (RCCI) is a promising LTC strategy with better control over the start and end of combustion because of reactivity and equivalence ratio stratification. However, the unburned hydrocarbon (HC) and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions are significantly higher in RCCI, especially at part-load conditions. The present work intends to address this shortcoming by utilizing oxygenated alternative fuels. Considering the limited availability and higher cost, replacing conventional fuels completely with alternative fuels is not feasible.

The presence of unsaturated methyl esters in biodiesel makes it susceptible to oxidation and fuel quality degradation upon long-term storage. In the present work, the effects of oxidation of Karanja biodiesel upon long-term storage on the combustion and emission characteristics of a heavy-duty truck diesel engine are studied. The Karanja biodiesel is stored for one year in a 200 litres steel barrel at room conditions to mimic commercial storage conditions. The results obtained show that compared to diesel, the start of injection of fresh and aged biodiesels are advanced by ~2-degree crank angle, and the ignition delay time is reduced. Aged biodiesel showed a slightly smaller ignition delay compares to fresh biodiesel. The fuel injection and combustion characteristics of fresh and aged biodiesels were similar at all the load conditions. Both fresh and aged biodiesels produced higher oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and lower smoke emissions compared to diesel.

In-cylinder emission control methods for simultaneous reduction of oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and particulate matter (PM) are gaining attention due to stringent emission targets and the higher cost of after-treatment systems. In addition, there is a renewed interest in using carbon-neutral biodiesel due to global warming concerns with fossil diesel. The bi-directional NOx-PM trade-off is reduced to a unidirectional higher NOx emission problem with biodiesel. The effect of water injection with biodiesel with low water quantities is relatively unexplored and is attempted in this investigation to mitigate higher NOx emissions. The water concentrations are maintained at 3, 6, and 9% relative to fuel mass by varying the pulse width of a low-pressure port fuel injector. Considering the corrosive effects of water at higher concentrations, they are maintained below 10% in the present work.

Adopting a low compression ratio (LCR) is a viable approach to meet the stringent emission regulations since it can simultaneously reduce the oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and particulate matter (PM) emissions. However, significant shortcomings with the LCR approach include higher unburned hydrocarbon (HC) and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions and fuel economy penalties. Further, poor combustion stability of LCR engines at cold ambient and part load conditions may worsen the transient emission characteristics, which are least explored in the literature. In the present work, the effects of implementing the low compression ratio (LCR) approach in a mass-production light-duty vehicle powered by a single-cylinder diesel engine are investigated with a major focus on transient emission characteristics.

Today, GDI engines are becoming very popular because of better fuel economy and low exhaust emissions. The gain in fuel economy in these engines is realized only in the stratified mode of operation. In wall-guided GDI engines, the mixture stratification is realized by properly shaping the combustion chamber. However, the level of mixture stratification varies significantly with engine operating conditions. In this study, an attempt has been made to understand the effect of engine operating parameters viz., compression ratio, engine speed and inlet air pressure on the level of mixture stratification in a four-stroke wall-guided GDI engine using CFD analysis. Three compression ratios of 10.5, 11.5 and 12.5, three engine speeds of 2000, 3000 and 4000 rev/min., and three inlet air pressures of 1, 1.2 and 1.4 bar are considered for the analysis. The CONVERGE software is used to perform the CFD analysis. Simulation is done for one full cycle of the engine.

Today, gasoline direct injection (GDI) engine is one of the best strategies to meet the requirement of low pollutant emissions and fuel consumption. Generally, the GDI engine operates in stratified mixture mode at part-load conditions and homogeneous mixture mode at full-load conditions. But, at part-loads, soot emissions are found to be high because of improper air-fuel mixing. To overcome the above issue, a homogenous-stratified mixture (a combination of the overall homogeneous lean mixture with a combustible mixture at the location of the spark plug) is found to be better to reduce soot emissions compared to a stratified mixture mode. It will also help reduce fuel consumption. In this study, the analysis has been done to evaluate the effect of homogeneous-stratified mixture combustion on the performance and emission characteristics of a spray-guided GDI engine under various conditions using computational fluid dynamics (CFD).

In this work a novel mixture injection system has been developed and tested on a two stroke scooter engine. This system admits finely atomized gasoline directly into the combustion chamber. It employs many components that were individually developed, fabricated, tested and then coupled together. A small compressor driven by the engine sends pressurized air at the correct crank angle through a timing valve. This is connected to a mechanical injector through a high pressure pipe. Fuel is metered into the high pressure pipe using a standard low pressure injector. The developed mixture injection system resulted in considerable improvements in thermal efficiency and reduction in HC emissions over the manifold injection method at all engine outputs. A considerable reduction in short circuiting losses was seen. The highest brake thermal efficiency achieved was 25.5% as against 23% with the manifold injection system.

Experimental investigations were carried out to assess the effect of using diethyl ether to improve performance & emissions of a DI diesel engine running on water-diesel emulsion. The water-diesel ratio was 0.4:1 (by weight) and diethyl ether percentages of 5, 10 & 15 by weight were tried. The optimum quantity of diethyl ether was chosen as 10% based on emissions. It was found that diethyl ether, when added to water-diesel emulsion can significantly lower NOx and smoke levels without adverse effect on brake thermal efficiency. High HC & CO levels which are problems with water-diesel emulsions, can be significantly lowered with the addition of diethyl ether particularly at high outputs. Ignition delay and maximum rate of pressure rise at full load are also reduced. Even at part load the addition of the diethyl ether can improve the performance as compared to neat water-diesel emulsion without any adverse effect on NOx emission.

Mixture distribution in the combustion chamber of gasoline direct injection (GDI) engines significantly affects combustion, performance and emission characteristics. The mixture distribution in the engine cylinder, in turn, depends on many parameters viz., fuel injector hole diameter and orientation, fuel injection pressure, the start of fuel injection, in-cylinder fluid dynamics etc. In these engines, the mixture distribution is broadly classified as homogeneous and stratified. However, with currently available engine parameters, it is difficult to objectively classify the type of mixture distribution. In this study, an attempt is made to objectively classify the mixture distribution in GDI engines using a parameter called the “stratification index”. The analysis is carried out on a four-stroke wall-guided GDI engine using computational fluid dynamics (CFD).

The classical trade-off between NOx and soot emissions from conventional diesel engines has been a limiting factor in meeting ever stringent emission norms. The electronic control of fuel injection in diesel engines emerged as an important strategy for their simultaneous reduction. The high pressure multiple-injection in a common rail direct injection system has been promising in this regard. While, the effects of pilot injection or multiple pulses of CRDI injection schedule on simultaneous reduction of NOx and soot have been widely investigated and reported, the investigations concerning three and more injection pulses have been limited. In this paper, the ability of a predictive model, developed by the authors, in providing optimal multiple-injection schedule is demonstrated through parametric investigations. The effects of pilot and post fuel quantity and dwell between the injection pulses on NOx and soot emissions are discussed.

Oil with high free fatty acid (FFA) content may not be an appropriate contestant for biodiesel production due to poor process yield. The high FFA content (≻1%) will cause soap formation and the separation of products will be exceedingly difficult, and as a result, it has low yield of biodiesel product. In order to increase the process yield, pretreatment setup is required. This involves additional cost and will increase overall fuel price. Hence crude vegetable oils having high FFA can be blended with diesel for effectual employment in diesel engines. In this context, Jatropha Curcas L, non-edible tree-based oil with higher FFA content, can be considered as one of the prominent blending sources for diesel. The primary objective of the present work is to analyze the effect of FFA content of crude Jatropha Curcas L oil (CJO) on performance and emission characteristics of a direct injection (DI) diesel engine.

Engine modelling aims at studying the combustion related phenomenon occurring in Internal Combustion (IC) engines. In this regard, a low dimensional mathematical model using first principles has been developed to study Spark Ignited (SI) engines. The resulting equations are Ordinary Differential Equations (ODE) (for volume, pressure, torque, speed and work done) and Partial Differential Equations (PDEs) for temperature and species conservation equations (fuel, CO, CO2, NO). This model utilizes simplified reaction kinetics for the oxidation of fuel in the combustion chamber. A two-step mechanism for the combustion of fuel and the classical Zeldovich Mechanism are used to predict the amount of NO formed during combustion. The model is solved in FORTRAN using LSODE subroutine (for stiff equations) with lumped parameters for thermal properties and diffusion, and invoking the ideal gas assumption.

Nowadays, Direct Injection Spark Ignition (DISI) engines are very popular because of their lower fuel consumption and exhaust emissions due to lean stratified mixture operation at most of load conditions. In these engines, achieving mixture stratification plays an important role on performance and emission characteristics of the engine. Also, mixture stratification is mainly dependent on in-cylinder flows and air-fuel interaction, which in turn largely dependent on valve configurations. Therefore, understanding them is very much essential in order to improve the engine performance. In this study, a CFD analysis has been carried out on two- and four-valve four-stroke engines to analyze in-cylinder flows and air-fuel interaction at different conditions. The engines specifications considered here are taken from the literature for which experimental data is available. ‘STAR-CD’ software has been used for the CFD analysis. For meshing, polyhedral trimmed cells have been adopted.

Cold formed carbon steel C sections are often employed as load carrying structural members in heavy commercial trucks. The cold forming operations employed during the making of these members generate certain amount of residual stresses throughout the sections. As the residual stresses play a significant role in determining the structural behavior of truck frame rail members, a careful assessment of residual stresses resulting from cold forming operation is needed. In the present investigation, residual stresses in frame rail corner sections were numerically predicted with the help of non-linear Finite Element (FE) analysis in ABAQUS and compared with the experimentally measured residual stress values using X-ray diffraction technique. It has been observed that the numerically predicted residual stresses are in agreement with the experimentally measured residual stresses in forming direction.

Direct injection diesel engines are used in both light duty and heavy duty vehicles because of higher thermal efficiency compared to SI engines. However, due to only short time available for fuel-air mixing, combustion process depends on proper mixing. As a result, DI Diesel engine emits more NOx and soot into the atmosphere. Therefore, to achieve better combustion with less emission and also to accelerate the fuel-air mixing to improve the combustion, appropriate design of combustion chamber is crucial. Hence, in this work a study has been carried out using CFD to evaluate the effect of combustion chamber configuration on Diesel combustion with two different piston bowls. The two different piston configurations considered in this study are centre bowl on flat piston and pentroof offset bowl piston.

Premixed Charge Compression Ignition (PCCI) is a promising LTC strategy to reduce NOx and soot emissions without relying on after-treatment devices. One major drawback of PCCI is high HC and CO emissions resulting from fuel-wall impingement due to early injection of diesel. Narrow-angle direct injection (NADI) helps reduce the wall wetting of fuel. But it is effective only at lower loads. At mid and higher loads, it increases soot and CO emissions in small-bore engines due to the formation of fuel-rich pockets in the piston bowl region. This problem is addressed using a split injection strategy in the present work. A 3-D CFD model is developed and validated with experimental data at two load conditions. Simulations are performed using CONVERGE CFD software. Split injection strategies are explored using wide (148 deg) and narrow (88 deg) spray included angles.

Supercharging a single-cylinder diesel engine has proved to be a viable methodology to reduce engine-out emissions and increase full-load torque and power. The increased air availability of the supercharger (SC) system helps to inject more fuel quantity that can improve the engine's full-load brake mean effective pressure (BMEP) without elevating soot emissions. However, the increased inlet temperature of the boosted air and the availability of excess oxygen can pose significant challenges to contain oxides of nitrogen (NOx) emissions. Hence, it is important to investigate the potential NOx reduction options in supercharged diesel engines. In the present work, the potential of low-pressure exhaust gas recirculation (LP EGR) was evaluated in a single-cylinder supercharged diesel engine for its benefits in NOx emission reduction and impact on other criteria emissions and brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC).

Single-cylinder engines in mass production are generally not turbocharged due to the pulsated and intermittent exhaust gas flow into the turbocharger and the phase lag between the intake and exhaust stroke. The present work proposes a novel approach of decoupling the turbine and the compressor and coupling them separately to the engine to address these limitations. An impulse turbine is chosen for this application to extract energy during the pulsated exhaust flow. Commercially available AVL BOOST software was used to estimate the overall engine performance improvement of the proposed novel approach compared to the base naturally aspirated (NA) engine. Two different impulse turbine layouts were analyzed, one without an exhaust plenum and the second layout having an exhaust plenum before the power turbine. The merits and limitations of both layouts are compared in the present study.

Unsaturated methyl esters in biodiesel make it susceptible to oxidation and fuel quality degradation upon long-term storage. It is almost impossible to use biodiesel for commercial applications immediately after production. The lead time between biodiesel production and usage is generally high, causing auto-oxidation and fuel quality degradation. Hence any onsite improvement in fuel quality should be tested with aged biodiesel. To avoid the food versus fuel debate, non-edible oil feedstocks are preferable for producing biodiesel. However, biodiesel from non-edible oil sources has more unsaturated methyl ester constituents. The traditional trade-off between oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and soot emissions in conventional diesel combustion is reduced to a more severe NOx problem with biodiesel. In the present study, NOx mitigation through fuel modifications is studied for oxidized biodiesel produced from a non-edible oil, Karanja.