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The effects of combining premixed, low temperature combustion (LTC) with biodiesel are relatively unknown to this point. This mode allows simultaneously low soot and NOx emissions by using high rates of EGR and increasing ignition delay. This paper compares engine performance and emissions of neat, soy-based methyl ester biodiesel (B100), B20, B50, pure ultra low sulfur diesel (ULSD) and a Swedish, low aromatic diesel in a multi-cylinder diesel engine operating in a late-injection premixed LTC mode. Using heat release analysis, the progression of LTC combustion was explored by comparing fuel mass fraction burned. B100 had a comparatively long ignition delay compared with Swedish diesel when measured by start of ignition (SOI) to 10% fuel mass fraction burned (CA10). Differences were not as apparent when measured by SOI to start of combustion (SOC) even though their cetane numbers are comparable.

Stringent fuel economy and emissions regulations have driven development of new mixture preparation technologies and increased spark-ignition engine complexity. Additional degrees of freedom, brought about by devices such as cam phasers and charge motion control valves, enable greater range and flexibility in engine control. This permits significant gains in fuel efficiency and emission control, but creates challenges related to proper engine control and calibration techniques. Accurate experimental characterization of high degree of freedom engines is essential for addressing the controls challenge. In particular, this paper focuses on the evaluation of three experimental residual gas fraction measurement techniques for use in a spark ignition engine equipped with dual-independent variable camshaft phasing (VVT).

Homogenous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) engines offer a good potential for achieving high fuel efficiency while virtually eliminating NOx and soot emissions from the exhaust. However, realizing the full fuel economy potential at the vehicle level depends on the size of the HCCI operating range. The usable HCCI range is determined by the knock limit on the upper end and the misfire limit at the lower end. Previously proven high sensitivity of the HCCI process to thermal conditions leads to a hypothesis that combustion chamber deposits (CCD) could directly affect HCCI combustion, and that insight about this effect can be helpful in expanding the low-load limit. A combustion chamber conditioning process was carried out in a single-cylinder gasoline-fueled engine with exhaust re-breathing to study CCD formation rates and their effect on combustion. Burn rates accelerated significantly over the forty hours of running under typical HCCI operating conditions.

A study has been conducted in order to investigate the effect of the location of knock initiation on heat flux in a Spark-Ignition (SI) combustion chamber. Heat flux measurements were taken on the piston and cylinder head under different knock intensity levels, induced by advancing the spark timing. Tests were performed with two engine configurations, the first with the spark-plug located on the rear side of the chamber and the other having a second non-firing spark-plug placed at the front side of the chamber. The presence of the non-firing spark-plug consistently shifted the location of autoignition initiation from the surface of the piston to its vicinity, without causing a noticeable increase in knock intensity. By localizing the initiation of knock, changes induced in the secondary flame propagation pattern affected both the magnitude and the rate of change of peak heat flux under heavy knock.

A detailed chemical kinetic mechanism, consisting of 22 species and 104 elementary reactions, has been used in conjunction with the multi-dimensional reactive flow code KIVA-3 to study autoignition of natural gas injected under compression ignition conditions. Calculations for three different blends of natural gas are performed on a three-dimensional computational grid by modeling both the injection and ignition processes. Ignition delay predictions at pressures and temperatures typical of top-dead-center conditions in compression ignition engines compare well with the measurements of Naber et al. [1] in a combustion bomb. Two different criteria, based on pressure rise and mass of fuel burned, are used to detect the onset of ignition. Parametric studies are conducted to show the effect of additives like ethane and hydrogen peroxide in increasing the fuel consumption rate.

The thermal conditions of an engine structure, in particular the wall temperatures, have been shown to have a great effect on the HCCI engine combustion timing and burn rates through wall heat transfer, especially during transient operations. This study addresses the effects of thermal inertia on combustion in an HCCI engine. In this study, the control of combustion timing in an HCCI engine is achieved by modulating the residual gas fraction (RGF) while considering the wall temperatures. A multi-cylinder engine simulation with detailed geometry is carried out using a 1-D system model (GT-Power®) that is linked with Simulink®. The model includes a finite element wall temperature solver and is enhanced with original HCCI combustion and heat transfer models. Initially, the required residual gas fraction for optimal BSFC is determined for steady-state operation. The model is then used to derive a map of the sensitivity of optimal residual gas fraction to wall temperature excursions.

Premixed diesel combustion is intended to supplant conventional combustion in the light to mid load range. This paper demonstrates the operating load limits, limiting criteria, and load-based emissions behavior of a direct-injection, diesel-fueled, premixed combustion mode across a range of test fuels. Testing was conducted on a modern single-cylinder engine fueled with a range of ultra-low sulfur fuels with cetane number ranging from 42 to 53. Operating limits were defined on the basis of emissions, noise, and combustion stability. The emissions behavior and operating limits of the tested premixed combustion mode are independent of fuel cetane number. Combustion stability, along with CO and HC emissions levels, dictate the light load limit. The high load limit is solely dictated by equivalence ratio: high PM, CO, and HC emissions result as overall equivalence ratio approaches stoichiometric.

Natural gas quality, in terms of the volume fraction of higher hydrocarbons, strongly affects the auto-ignition characteristics of the air-fuel mixture, the engine performance and its controllability. The influence of natural gas composition on engine operation has been investigated both experimentally and through chemical kinetic based cycle simulation. A range of two component gas mixtures has been tested with methane as the base fuel. The equivalence ratio (0.3), the compression ratio (19.8), and the engine speed (1000 rpm) were held constant in order to isolate the impact of fuel autoignition chemistry. For each fuel mixture, the start of combustion was phased near top dead center (TDC) and then the inlet mixture temperature was reduced. These experimental results have been utilized as a source of data for the validation of a chemical kinetic based full-cycle simulation.

Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) catalysts used in Lean NOx Trap (LNT) - SCR exhaust aftertreatment systems typically encounter alternating oxidizing and reducing environments. Reducing conditions occur when diesel fuel is injected upstream of a reformer catalyst, generating high concentrations of hydrogen (H₂), carbon monoxide (CO), and hydrocarbons to deNOx the LNT. In this study, the functionality of an iron (Fe) zeolite SCR catalyst is explored with a bench top reactor during steady-state and cyclic transient SCR operation. Experiments to characterize the effect of an LNT deNOx event on SCR operation show that adding H₂ or CO only slightly changes SCR behavior with the primary contribution being an enhancement of nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) decomposition into nitric oxide (NO). Exposure of the catalyst to C₃H₆ (a surrogate for an actual exhaust HC mixture) leads to a significant decrease in NOx reduction capabilities of the catalyst.

Degreening is crucial in obtaining a stable catalyst prior to assessing its performance characteristics. This paper characterizes the light-off behavior and conversion efficiency of a Diesel Oxidation Catalyst (DOC) during the degreening process. A platinum DOC is degreened for 16 hours in the presence of actual diesel engine exhaust at 650°C and 10% water (H2O) concentration. The DOC's activity for carbon monoxide (CO) and for total hydrocarbons (THC) conversion is checked at 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, and 16 hours of degreening. Pre-and post-catalyst hydrocarbon species are analyzed via gas chromatography at 0, 4, 8, and 16 hours of degreening. It is found that both light-off temperature and species-resolved conversion efficiencies change rapidly during the first 8 hours of degreening and then stabilize to a large degree. T50, the temperature where the catalyst is 50% active towards a particular species, increases by 14°C for CO and by 11°C for THC through the degreening process.

Premixed compression ignition low-temperature diesel combustion (PCI) can simultaneously reduce particulate matter (PM) and oxides of nitrogen (NOx). Carbon monoxide (CO) and total hydrocarbon (THC) emissions increase relative to conventional diesel combustion, however, which may necessitate the use of a diesel oxidation catalyst (DOC). For a better understanding of conventional and PCI combustion, and the operation of a platinum-based production DOC, engine-out and DOC-out exhaust hydrocarbons are speciated using gas chromatography. As combustion mode is changed from lean conventional to lean PCI to rich PCI, engine-out CO and THC emissions increase significantly. The relative contributions of individual species also change; increasing methane/THC, acetylene/THC and CO/THC ratios indicate a richer combustion zone and a reduction in engine-out hydrocarbon incremental reactivity.

A program to explore the effects of natural and additive-derived cetane on various aspects of diesel performance and combustion has been carried out. Procedures have been developed to measure diesel engine fuel consumption and power to a high degree of precision. These methods have been used to measure fuel consumption and power in three heavy-duty direct-injection diesel engines. The fuel matrix consisted of three commercial fuels of cetane number (CN) of 40-42, the same fuels raised to CN 48-50 with a cetane improver additive, and three commercial fuels of base CN 47-50. The engines came from three different U.S. manufacturers and were of three different model years and emissions configurations. Both fuel economy and power were found to be significantly higher for the cetane-improved fuels than for the naturally high cetane fuels. These performance advantages derive mainly from the higher volumetric heat content inherent to the cetane-improved fuels.

A comprehensive quasi-dimensional computer simulation of the spark-ignition (SI) engine was used to explore part-load, fuel economy benefits of the Variable Stroke Engine (VSE) compared to the conventional throttled engine. First it was shown that varying stroke can replace conventional throttling to control engine load, without changing the engine characteristics. Subsequently, the effects of varying stroke on turbulence, burn rate, heat transfer, and pumping and friction losses were revealed. Finally these relationships were used to explain the behavior of the VSE as stroke is reduced. Under part load operation, it was shown that the VSE concept can improve brake specific fuel consumption by 18% to 21% for speeds ranging from 1500 to 3000 rpm. Further, at part load, NOx was reduced by up to 33%. Overall, this study provides insight into changes in processes within and outside the combustion chamber that cause the benefits and limitations of the VSE concept.

The effect of natural gas composition on ignition delay has been investigated numerically by using detailed and reduced chemical kinetic mechanisms. Three different blends of natural gas have been analyzed at pressures and temperatures that are typical of top dead center conditions in compression ignition engines. The predicted ignition delay shows a decrease with temperature in an Arrhenius manner and has a first order dependence on pressure. Similar trends have been observed by Naber et al. [1] in their experimental study of natural gas autoignition in a bomb. It is shown that two kinetic mechanisms (GRI-Mech 1.2 and reduced set DRM22) are best capable of predicting the ignition delay of natural gas under compression ignition conditions. The DRM22 mechanism has been chosen for further studies as t involves lower computational costs compared to the full GRI-Mech 1.2 mechanism.

Piston heat transfer measurements were taken under varying knock intensity in a modern spark-ignition engine combustion chamber. For a range of knocking spark timings, two knock intensity levels were obtained by using a high (80°C) and a low (50°C) cylinder head coolant temperature. Data were taken with a central and a side spark plug configuration. When the spark-plug was placed at the center of the combustion chamber, a linear variation of peak heat flux with knock intensity was found in the end-gas region. Very large changes in peak heat flux (on the order of 100%) occurred at probes whose relative location with respect to the end gas zone changed from being within (80°C coolant case) to being outside the zone (50°C coolant case). With side spark-plug, distinct differences in peak heat flux occurred at all probes and under all knock intensities, but the correlation between knock intensity and heat flux was not linear.

Variable Compression Ratio (VCR) technology has long been recognized as a method of improving Spark Ignition (SI) engine fuel economy. The Pressure Reactive Piston (PRP) assembly features a two-piece piston, with a piston crown and separate piston skirt which enclose a spring set between them. The unique feature is that the upper piston reacts to the cylinder pressure, accommodating rapid engine load changes passively. This mechanism effectively limits the peak pressures at high loads without an additional control device, while allowing the engine to operate at high compression ratio during low load conditions. Dynamometer engine testing showed that Brake Specific Fuel Consumption (BSFC) improvement of the PRP over the conventional piston ranged from 8 to 18 % up to 70% load. Knock free full load operation was also achieved. The PRP equipped engine combustion is characterized by reverse motion of the piston crown near top dead center and higher thermal efficiency.

Simultaneous reduction of nitric oxides (NOx) and particulate matter (PM) emissions is possible in a diesel engine by employing a Partially Premixed Compression Ignition (PPCI) strategy. PPCI combustion is attainable with advanced injection timings and heavy exhaust gas recirculation rates. However, over-advanced injection timing can result in the fuel spray missing the combustion bowl, thus dramatically elevating PM emissions. The present study investigates whether the use of narrow spray cone angle injector nozzles can extend the limits of early injection timings, allowing for PPCI combustion realization. It is shown that a low flow rate, 60-degree spray cone angle injector nozzle, along with optimized EGR rate and split injection strategy, can reduce engine-out NOx by 82% and PM by 39%, at the expense of a modest increase (4.5%) in fuel consumption.

Lean Premixed Compression Ignition (PCI) low-temperature combustion promises to simultaneously reduce NOx and PM emissions, while suffering a moderate penalty in fuel consumption. Similarly, opportunities exist to develop rich PCI combustion strategies which can provide the necessary exhaust constituents for aggressive regeneration of a Lean NOx Trap (LNT). The current work highlights the development of lean and rich PCI combustion strategies. It is shown that the lean PCI combustion strategy successfully operates with low NOx and PM, at the expense of a 5% increase in fuel consumption over conventional diesel operation. The rich PCI combustion strategy similarly operates with low NOx and PM, and produces enough CO (up to 5% by volume in exhaust) for aggressive regeneration of an LNT.

This paper presents an overview of techniques for measuring friction using bench tests and fired engines. The test methods discussed have been developed to provide efficient, yet realistic, assessments of new component designs, materials, and lubricants for in-cylinder and overall engine applications. A Cameron-Plint Friction and Wear Tester was modified to permit ring-in-piston-groove movement by the test specimen, and used to evaluate a number of cylinder bore coatings for friction and wear performance. In a second study, it was used to evaluate the energy conserving characteristics of several engine lubricant formulations. Results were consistent with engine and vehicle testing, and were correlated with measured fuel economy performance. The Instantaneous IMEP Method for measuring in-cylinder frictional forces was extended to higher engine speeds and to modern, low-friction engine designs.