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High pressure diesel sprays were visualized under vaporizing and combusting conditions in a constant-volume combustion vessel. Near-simultaneous visualization of vapor and liquid phase fuel distribution were acquired using a hybrid shadowgraph/Mie-scattering imaging setup. This imaging technique used two pulsed LED's operating in an alternative manner to provide proper light sources for both shadowgraph and Mie scattering. In addition, combustion cases under the same ambient conditions were visualized through high-speed combustion luminosity measurement. Two single-hole diesel injectors with same nozzle diameters (100μm) but different k-factors (k0 and k1.5) were tested in this study. Detailed analysis based on spray penetration rate curves, rate of injection measurements, combustion indicators and 1D model comparison have been performed.

The effects of imaging system resolution and laser sheet thickness on the measurement of the Batchelor scale were investigated in a single-cylinder optical engine. The Batchelor scale was determined by fitting a model spectrum to the dissipation spectrum that was obtained from fuel tracer planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF) images of the in-cylinder scalar field. The imaging system resolution was quantified by measuring the step-response function; the scanning knife edge technique was used to measure the 10-90% clip width of the laser sheet. In these experiments, the spatial resolution varied from a native resolution of 32.0 μm to 137.4 μm, and the laser sheet thickness ranged from 108 μm to 707 μm. Thus, the overall resolution of the imaging system was made to vary by approximately a factor of four in the in-plane dimension and a factor of six in the out-of-plane dimension.

The focus of the present study was to characterize Reactivity Controlled Compression Ignition (RCCI) using a single-fuel approach of gasoline and gasoline mixed with a commercially available cetane improver on a multi-cylinder engine. RCCI was achieved by port-injecting a certification grade 96 research octane gasoline and direct-injecting the same gasoline mixed with various levels of a cetane improver, 2-ethylhexyl nitrate (EHN). The EHN volume percentages investigated in the direct-injected fuel were 10, 5, and 2.5%. The combustion phasing controllability and emissions of the different fueling combinations were characterized at 2300 rpm and 4.2 bar brake mean effective pressure over a variety of parametric investigations including direct injection timing, premixed gasoline percentage, and intake temperature. Comparisons were made to gasoline/diesel RCCI operation on the same engine platform at nominally the same operating condition.

An experimental investigation of non-intrusive combustion sensing was performed using a tri-axial accelerometer mounted to the engine block of a small-bore high-speed 4-cylinder compression-ignition direct-injection (CIDI) engine. This study investigates potential techniques to extract combustion features from accelerometer signals to be used for cycle-to-cycle engine control. Selection of accelerometer location and vibration axis were performed by analyzing vibration signals for three different locations along the block for all three of the accelerometer axes. A magnitude squared coherence (MSC) statistical analysis was used to select the best location and axis. Based on previous work from the literature, the vibration signal filtering was optimized, and the filtered vibration signals were analyzed. It was found that the vibration signals correlate well with the second derivative of pressure during the initial stages of combustion.

The effect of direct-injected fuel on particle size distributions (PSDs) of particulate matter emitted from dual-fuel combustion strategies was investigated. The PSD data were acquired from a light-duty single-cylinder diesel engine operated using conventional diesel combustion (CDC) and two diesel/natural gas dual-fuel combustion strategies. Three different direct-injection (DI) fuels (diesel, 2,6,10-trimethyldodecane, and a primary reference fuel blend) and two different injector nozzles were studied. The DI fuels were chosen to have similar energy and ignition characteristics (heat of combustion and cetane number) but different physical and chemical properties (volatility, aromatics %, viscosity, density). The two nozzles (with different orifice diameter and spray angle) allowed a wide range in DI fuel quantity for the dual-fuel combustion strategies.

In order to extend the operability limit of the gasoline compression ignition (GCI) engine, as an avenue for low temperature combustion (LTC) regime, the effects of parametric variations of engine operating conditions on the performance of six-stroke GCI (6S-GCI) engine cycle are numerically investigated, using an in-house 3D CFD code coupled with high-fidelity physical sub-models along with the Chemkin library. The combustion and emissions were calculated using a skeletal chemical kinetics mechanism for a 14-component gasoline surrogate fuel. Authors’ previous study highlighted the effects of the variation of injection timing and split ratio on the overall performance of 6S-GCI engine and the unique mixing-controlled burning mode of the charge mixtures during the two additional strokes. As a continuing effort, the present study details the parametric studies of initial gas temperature, boost pressure, fuel injection pressure, compression ratio, and EGR ratio.

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.

Combustion systems with advanced injection strategies have been extensively studied, but there still exists a significant fundamental knowledge gap on fuel spray interactions with the piston surface and chamber walls. This paper is meant to provide detailed data on spray-wall impingement physics and support the spray-wall model development. The experimental work of spray-wall impingement with non-vaporizing spray characterization, was carried out in a high pressure-temperature constant-volume combustion vessel. The simultaneous Mie scattering of liquid spray and schlieren of liquid and vapor spray were carried out. Diesel fuel was injected at a pressure of 1500 bar into ambient gas at a density of 22.8 kg/m3 with isothermal conditions (fuel, ambient, and plate temperatures of 423 K). A Lagrangian-Eulerian modeling approach was employed to characterize the spray-gas and spray-wall interactions in the CONVERGETM framework by means of a Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) formulation.

The objective of this study was to identify and gain an understanding of the origins of noise in a commercial excavator cab. This paper presents the results of two different tests that were used to characterize the vibration and acoustic characteristics of the excavator cab. The first test was done in an effort to characterize the vibration properties of the cab panels and their associated contribution to the noise level inside the cab. The second set, of tests, was designed to address the contribution of the external airborne noise produced by the engine and hydraulic pump to the overall interior noise. This paper describes the test procedures used to obtain the data for the signature analysis, operational deflection shapes (ODS), and sound diagnosis analysis. It also contains a discussion of the analysis results and an inside look into the possible contributors of key frequencies to the interior noise in the excavator cab.

Fuel spray atomization and breakup processes within a direct-injection spark-ignition (DISI) engine and outside the engine were modeled using a modified KIVA-3V code with improved spray models. The structures of the predicted sprays were qualitatively compared with planar images. The considered sprays were created by a prototype pressure-swirl injector and the planar images were obtained by laser sheet imaging in an optical DISI engine. In the out-of-engine case, the spray was injected into atmospheric air, and was modeled in a two dimensional bomb. In the engine case, the injection started from 270° ATDC, and full 3-D computations in the same engine were performed. In both cases, two liquid injection pressure conditions were applied, that is, 3.40 MPa and 6.12 MPa. The model gives good prediction of the tip penetration, and external spray shape, but the internal structure prediction has relatively lower accuracy, especially near the spray axis.

A global optimization method has been developed for an engine simulation code and utilized in the search of optimal fuel injection strategies. This method uses a Lagrange interpolation function which interpolates engine output data generated at the vertices and the intermediate points of the input parameters. This interpolation function is then used to find a global minimum over the entire parameter set, which in turn becomes the starting point of a CFD-based optimization. The CFD optimization is based on a steepest descent method with an adaptive cost function, where the line searches are performed with a fast-converging backtracking algorithm. The adaptive cost function is based on the penalty method, where the penalty coefficient is increased after every line search. The parameter space is normalized and, thus, the optimization occurs over the unit cube in higher-dimensional space.

The favorable physical properties of hydrogen (H2) make it an excellent alternative fuel for internal combustion (IC) engines and hence it is widely regarded as the energy carrier of the future. Hydrogen direct injection provides multiple degrees of freedom for engine optimization and influencing the in-cylinder combustion processes. This paper compares the results in the mixture formation and combustion behavior of a hydrogen direct-injected single-cylinder research engine using two different injector locations as well as various injector nozzle designs. For this study the research engine was equipped with a specially designed cylinder head that allows accommodating a hydrogen injector in a side location between the intake valves as well as in the center location adjacent to the spark plug.

Optimal fuel injection strategies are obtained with a micro-genetic algorithm and an adaptive gradient method for a nonroad, medium-speed DI diesel engine equipped with a multi-orifice, asynchronous fuel injection system. The gradient optimization utilizes a fast-converging backtracking algorithm and an adaptive cost function which is based on the penalty method, where the penalty coefficient is increased after every line search. The micro-genetic algorithm uses parameter combinations of the best two individuals in each generation until a local convergence is achieved, and then generates a random population to continue the global search. The optimizations have been performed for a two pulse fuel injection strategy where the optimization parameters are the injection timings and the nozzle orifice diameters.

The current study was focused on flow field measurements of diesel sprays. The global fuel spray characteristics, such as spray penetration, have also been measured. Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) was utilized for flow field measurements and the global spray characteristics were recorded with high-speed back light photographing. The flow field was scanned to get an idea of the compatibility of PIV technique applied to dense and high velocity sprays. It is well proven that the PIV technique can be utilized at areas of low number density of droplets, but the center of the spray is way beyond the ideal PIV measurement conditions. The depth at which accurate flow field information can be gathered was paid attention to.

A quasi-steady 1-dimensional computer model of a catalyzed particulate filter (CPF) capable of simulating active regeneration of the CPF via diesel fuel injection upstream of a diesel oxidation catalyst (DOC) or other means to increase the exhaust gas temperature has been developed. This model is capable of predicting gaseous species concentrations (HC's, CO, NO and NO2) and exhaust gas temperatures within and after the CPF, for given input values of gaseous species and PM concentrations before the CPF and other inlet variables such as time-varying temperature of the exhaust gas at the inlet of the CPF and volumetric flow rate of exhaust gas.

As the incentive to produce cleaner and more efficient engines increases, diesel engines will become a primary, worldwide solution. Producing diesel engines with higher efficiency and lower emissions requires a fundamental understanding of the interaction of the injected fuel with air as well as with the surfaces inside the combustion chamber. One aspect of this interaction is spray impingement on the piston surface. Impingement on the piston can lead to decreased combustion efficiency, higher emissions, and piston damage due to thermal loading. Modern high-speed diesel engines utilize high pressure common-rail direct-injection systems to primarily improve efficiency and reduce emissions. However, the high injection pressures of these systems increase the likelihood that the injected fuel will impinge on the surface of the piston.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison Snowmobile Team has designed and constructed a clean, quiet, high performance snowmobile for entry in the 2008 Society of Automotive Engineers' Clean Snowmobile Challenge. Built on a 2003 cross-country touring chassis, this machine features a 750 cc fuel-injected four-stroke engine equipped with a fuel sensor which allows operation ranging from regular gasoline to an 85% blend of ethanol and gasoline (E85). The engine has been customized with a Mototron control system which allows for full engine optimization using a range of fuels from E00 to E85. Utilizing a heated oxygen sensor and a 3-way catalyst customized for this engine by W.C. Heraeus-GmbH, this sled reduces NOx, HC and CO emissions by up to 89% to an average specific mass of 0.484, 0.154, 4.94 g/kW-hr respectively. Finally, the Mototron system also allowed Wisconsin to extract another 4 kW from the Weber 750cc engine; producing 45 kW and 65 Nm of torque.

The design and testing of the valve train for a new two-stroke diesel engine concept [1,2] is presented. The gas exchange of this process requires extremely fast-acting inlet valves, which constituted a very demanding designing task. A simulation model of the prototype valve train was constructed with commercially available software. The simulation program served as the main tool for optimizing the dynamic behavior of the valve train. The prototype valve train was built according to the simulations and valve acceleration measurements were performed in order to validate the simulation results. The simulations and measurements are presented in detail in this paper.

A novel two-stroke engine concept is introduced. The cylinder scavenging takes place during the upward motion of the piston. The gas exchange valves are similar to typical four-stroke valves, but the intake valves are smaller and lighter. The scavenging air pressure is remarkably higher than in present-day engines. The high scavenging air pressure is produced by an external compressor. The two-stroke operation is achieved without the drawbacks of port scavenged engines. Moreover, the combustion circumstances, charge pressure and temperature and internal exhaust gas re-circulation (EGR) can be controlled by using valve timings. There is good potential for a substantial reduction in NOx emissions through the use of adjustable compression pressure and temperature and by using the adjustable amount of exhaust gas re-circulation.