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Fuel lean combustion and exhaust gas dilution are known to increase the thermal efficiency and reduce NOx emissions. In this study, experiments are performed to understand the effect of equivalence ratio on flame kernel formation and flame propagation around the spark plug for different low turbulent velocities. A series of experiments are carried out for propane-air mixtures to simulate engine-like conditions. For these experiments, equivalence ratios of 0.7 and 0.9 are tested with 20 percent mass-based exhaust gas recirculation (EGR). Turbulence is generated by a shrouded fan design in the vicinity of J-spark plug. A closed loop feedback control system is used for the fan to generate a consistent flow field. The flow profile is characterized by using Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) technique. High-speed Schlieren visualization is used for the spark formation and flame propagation.

Past experimental studies conducted by the current authors on a 13 liter 16.7:1 compression ratio heavy-duty diesel engine have shown that diesel-Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) Reactivity Controlled Compression Ignition (RCCI) combustion targeting low NOx emissions becomes progressively difficult to control as the engine load is increased. This is mainly due to difficulty in controlling reactivity levels at higher loads. For the current study, CFD investigations were conducted in CONVERGE using the SAGE combustion solver with the application of the Rahimi mechanism. Studies were conducted at a load of 5 bar BMEP to validate the simulation results against RCCI experimental data. In the low load study, it was found that the Rahimi mechanism was not able to predict the RCCI combustion behavior for diesel injection timings advanced beyond 30 degCA bTDC. This poor prediction was found at multiple engine speed and load points.

Gasoline compression ignition (GCI) technology shows the potential to obtain high thermal efficiencies while maintaining low soot and NOx emissions in light-duty engine applications. Recent experimental studies and numerical simulations have indicated that high reactivity gasoline-like fuels can further enable the benefits of GCI combustion. However, there is limited empirical data in the literature studying the gasoline compression ignition process at relevant in-cylinder conditions, which are required for further optimizing combustion system designs. This study investigates the temporal and spatial evolution of the compression ignition process of various high reactivity gasoline fuels with research octane numbers (RON) of 71, 74 and 82, as well as a conventional RON 97 E10 gasoline fuel. A ten-hole prototype gasoline injector specifically designed for GCI applications capable of injection pressures up to 450 bar was used.

In-cylinder ion sensing is a subject of interest due to its application in spark-ignited (SI) engines for feedback control and diagnostics including: combustion knock detection, rate and phasing of combustion, and mis-fire On Board Diagnostics (OBD). Further advancement and application is likely to continue as the result of the availability of ignition coils with integrated ion sensing circuitry making ion sensing more versatile and cost effective. In SI engines, combustion knock is controlled through closed loop feedback from sensor metrics to maintain knock near the borderline, below engine damage and NVH thresholds. Combustion knock is one of the critical applications for ion sensing in SI engines and improvement in knock detection offers the potential for increased thermal efficiency. This work analyzes and characterizes the ionization signal in reference to the cylinder pressure signal under knocking and non-knocking conditions.

This paper evaluates the potential of adding higher alcohols to gasoline blendstock in an attempt to improve overall fuel performance. The alcohols considered include ethanol, normal- and iso-structures of propanol, butanol and pentanol as well as normal-hexanol (C2-C6). Fuel performance is quantified based on energy content, knock resistance as well as petroleum displacement and promising multi-component blends are systematically identified based on property prediction methods. These promising multi-component blends, as well as their respective reference fuels, are subsequently tested for efficiency and emissions performance utilizing a gasoline direct injection, spark ignition engine. The engine test results confirm that combustion and efficiency of tailored multi-component blends closely match those of the reference fuels. Regulated emissions stemming from combustion of these blends are equal or lower compared to the reference fuels across the tested engine speed and load regime.

With concerns continuing to grow with respect to global warming from greenhouse gases, further regulations are being examined, developed and are expected for the emission of CO2 as an automobile exhaust. Renewable alternate fuels offer the potential to significantly reduce the CO2 impact of transportation. Hydrogen as a spark - ignition (SI) engine fuel provides this potential for significant CO2 reduction when generated from renewable resources. In addition, hydrogen has advantageous combustion properties including a wide flammable mixture range which facilitates lean burning and high dilution, fast combustion energy release and zero CO2 emissions. However, the high burning rates and fast energy release can lead to excessive in-cylinder pressures and temperatures resulting in combustion knock and high NOx emissions at stoichiometric operation.

Extensive studies have addressed diesel sprays under non-vaporizing, vaporizing and combusting conditions respectively, but further insights into the mechanism by which combustion alters the macroscopic characteristics including the spray penetration and the shape of the spray under diesel engine conditions are needed. Contradictory observations are reported in the literature regarding the combusting diesel spray penetration compared to the inert conditions, and it is an objective of this study to provide further insights and analyses on the combusting spray characteristics by expanding the range of operating parameters. Parameters varied in the studies are charge gas conditions including oxygen levels of 0 %, 15%, 19%, charge densities of 22.8 & 34.8 kg/m3, and charge temperatures of 800, 900 & 1050 K for injection pressures of 1200, 1500, and 1800 bar with a single-hole injector with a nozzle diameter of 100 μm.

The characteristics of combustion knock metrics over a number of engine cycles can be an essential reference for knock detection and control in internal combustion engines. In a Spark-Ignition (SI) engine, the stochastic nature of combustion knock has been shown to follow a log-normal distribution. However, this has been derived from experiments done with gasoline only and applicability of log-normal distribution to dual-fuel combustion knock has not been explored. To evaluate the effectiveness and accuracy of log-normal distributed knock model for methane-gasoline blended fuel, a sweep of methane-gasoline blend ratio was conducted at two different engine speeds. Experimental investigation was conducted on a single cylinder prototype SI engine equipped with two fuel systems: a direct injection (DI) system for gasoline and a port fuel injection (PFI) system for methane.

For spark-ignition gasoline engines operating under the wide speed and load conditions required for light duty vehicles, ignition quality limits the ability to minimize fuel consumption and NOx emissions via dilution under light and part load conditions. In addition, during transients including tip-outs, high levels of dilution can occur for multiple combustion events before either the external exhaust gas can be adjusted and cleared from the intake or cam phasing can be adjusted for correct internal dilution. Further improvement and a thorough understanding of the impact of the ignition system on combustion near the dilution limit will enable reduced fuel consumption and robust transient operation. To determine and isolate the effects of multiple parameters, a variable output ignition system (VOIS) was developed and tested on a 3.5L turbocharged V6 homogeneous charge direct-injection gasoline engine with two spark plug gaps and three ignition settings.

Higher carbon number alcohols offer an opportunity to meet the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS2) and improve the energy content, petroleum displacement, and/or knock resistance of gasoline-alcohol blends from traditional ethanol blends such as E10 while maintaining desired and regulated fuel properties. Part II of this paper builds upon the alcohol selection, fuel implementation scenarios, criteria target values, and property prediction methodologies detailed in Part I. For each scenario, optimization schemes include maximizing energy content, knock resistance, or petroleum displacement. Optimum blend composition is very sensitive to energy content, knock resistance, vapor pressure, and oxygen content criteria target values. Iso-propanol is favored in both scenarios' suitable blends because of its high RON value.

The U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS2) requires an increase in the use of advanced biofuels up to 36 billion gallons by 2022. Longer chain alcohols, in addition to cellulosic ethanol and synthetic biofuels, could be used to meet this demand while adhering to the RFS2 corn-based ethanol limitation. Higher carbon number alcohols can be utilized to improve the energy content, knock resistance, and/or petroleum displacement of gasoline-alcohol blends compared to traditional ethanol blends such as E10 while maintaining desired and regulated fuel properties. Part I of this paper focuses on the development of scenarios by which to compare higher alcohol fuel blends to traditional ethanol blends. It also details the implementation of fuel property prediction methods adapted from literature. Possible combinations of eight alcohols mixed with a gasoline blendstock were calculated and the properties of the theoretical fuel blends were predicted.

Combustion knock detection and control in internal combustion engines continues to be an important feature in engine management systems. In spark-ignition engine applications, the frequency of occurrence of combustion knock and its intensity are controlled through a closed-looped feedback system to maintain knock at levels that do not cause engine damage or objectionable audible noise. Many methods for determination of the feedback signal for combustion knock in spark-ignition internal combustion engines have been employed with the most common technique being measurement of engine vibration using an accelerometer. With this technique single or multiple piezoelectric accelerometers are mounted on the engine and vibrations resulting from combustion knock and other sources are converted to electrical signals. These signals are input to the engine control unit and are processed to determine the signal strength during a period of crank-angle when combustion knock is expected.

Today's advanced technology engines have a high content of electronic actuation requiring sophisticated real-time embedded software sensing and control. To enable research on such engines, a system with a flexible engine control unit (ECU) that can be rapidly configured and programmed is desired. Such a system is being used in the Advanced Internal Combustion Engine (AICE) Laboratories at Michigan Tech University (MTU) for research on a multi-cylinder spark-ignited gasoline, a high pressure common rail diesel and a single cylinder alternative fuels research engine. The system combines a production ECU with a software development system utilizing Mathworks Simulink/Stateflow © modeling tools. The interface in the Simulink modeling environment includes a library of modeling and interface blocks to the production Operating System (OS), Low Level Drivers (LLD) and CAN-based calibration tool.

A 1-D 2-layer model developed previously at MTU was used in this research to predict the pressure drop, filtration characteristics and various properties of the particulate filter and the particulate deposit layer. The model was used along with dilute emission data to characterize two catalyzed particulate filters (CPFs) having different catalyst loading and catalyst application processes. The model was calibrated and validated with data obtained from steady state experiments conducted using a 1995 Cummins M11-330E heavy-duty diesel engine with manual EGR with different fuels for the two different CPFs. The two different catalyzed particulate filters were CPF III (5 gms/ft3 Pt) and CPF V (50 gms/ft3 Pt). Both the CPFs had cordierite substrates with CPF III and CPF V had MEX and NEX catalyst type formulation respectively. The CPF III filter was catalyzed using a solution-impregnated process while the CPF V filter was catalyzed using a wash coat process.

The objective of this research was to study the effect of a catalyzed particulate filter (CPF) with a high loading of catalyst (50 gms/ft3) and ultra low sulfur fuel (ULSF -0.57 ppm of sulfur) on the emissions from a heavy duty diesel engine. The particulate emissions were measured using two different analytical methods, i.e., the gravimetric method and the thermal optical method (TOM). The results from the two different methods of analyses were compared. The experiments were performed at four different operating conditions chosen from the old Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 13-mode test cycle. A 1995 Cummins M11 heavy-duty engine with manually controlled exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) was used to perform the emission characterization experiments. The emission characterization included total particulate matter (TPM), which is composed of the solids (SOL), soluble organic fractions (SOF) and sulfates (SO4) analyzed using the gravimetric method.

A diesel piloted natural gas engine's performance varies depending on operating conditions and has performed best under medium to high loads. It can often equal or better the fuel conversion efficiency of a diesel-only engine in this operating range. This paper presents a study performed on a multi-cylinder Cummins ISB 6.7L diesel engine converted to run stoichiometric natural gas/diesel micro-pilot combustion with a maximum diesel contribution of 10%. This study systematically quantifies and ranks the sensitivity of control factors on combustion and performance while operating at medium loads. The effects of combustion control parameters, including the pilot start of injection, pilot injection pressure, pilot injection quantity, exhaust gas recirculation, and global equivalence ratio, were tested using a design of experiments orthogonal matrix approach.

When fuel at elevated temperatures is injected into an ambient environment at a pressure lower than the saturation pressure of the fuel, the fuel vaporizes in the nozzle and/or immediately upon exiting the nozzle; that is, it undergoes flash boiling. It is characterized by a two-phase flow regime co-located with primary breakup, which significantly affects the spray characteristics. Under flash boiling conditions, the near nozzle spray angle increases, which can lead to shorter penetration because of increased entrainment. In a multi-hole injector this can cause other impacts downstream resulting from the increased plume to plume interactions. To study the effect of injector temperature and injection pressure with real fuels, an experimental investigation of the spray characteristics of a summer grade gasoline fuel with 10% ethanol (E10) was conducted in an optically accessible constant volume spray vessel.

The increased availability of natural gas (NG) in the United States (US) and its relatively low cost compared to diesel fuel has heightened interest in the conversion of medium duty (MD) and heavy duty (HD) engines to NG fueled combustion systems. The aim for development for these NG engines is to realize fuel cost savings and reduce harmful emissions while maintaining durability. Transforming part of the vehicle fleet to NG is a path to reduce dependence on crude oil. Traditionally, port-fuel injection (PFI) or premixed NG spark-ignited (SI) combustion systems have been used for MD and HD engines with widespread use in the US and Europe. But this technology exhibits poor cycle efficiency and is load limited due to knock phenomenon. Direct Injection of NG during the compression stroke promises to deliver improved thermal efficiency by avoiding excessive premixing and extending the lean limits which helps to extend the knock limit.

The increased availability of natural gas (NG) in the United States (US), and its relatively low cost compared to diesel fuel has heightened interest in the conversion of medium duty (MD) and heavy duty (HD) engines to NG fueled combustion systems. The aim is to realize fuel cost savings and reduce harmful emissions, while maintaining durability. This is a potential path to help the US reduce dependence on crude oil. Traditionally, port-fuel injection (PFI) or premixed NG spark-ignited (SI) combustion systems have been used for MD and HD engines with widespread use in the US and Europe; however, this technology exhibits poor cycle efficiency and is load limited due to knock phenomenon. Direct Injection of NG during the compression stroke promises to deliver improved thermal efficiency by avoiding excessive premixing and extending the lean limits which helps to extend the knock limit.

The increased availability of natural gas (NG) in the United States (US) and its relatively low cost compared to diesel fuel has heightened interest in the conversion of medium duty (MD) and heavy duty (HD) diesel engines to NG fuel and combustion systems (compressed or liquefied). The intention is to realize fuel cost savings and reduce harmful emissions, while maintaining or improving overall vehicle fuel economy. This is a potential path to help the US achieve energy diversity and reduce dependence on crude oil. Traditionally, port-injected, premixed NG spark-ignited combustion systems have been used for medium and heavy duty engines with widespread use in the US and Europe. But this technology exhibits poor cycle efficiency and is load limited due to knock phenomenon. Direct Injection of NG during the compression stroke promises to deliver improved thermal efficiency by avoiding premixing and extending the lean limits which helps to extend the knock limit.