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Mode transition between low temperature combustion (LTC) and conventional combustion was performed by changing the exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) rate from 60% to 0% or vice versa in a light duty diesel engine. The indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP) before mode transition was set at 0.45 MPa, representing the maximum load of LTC in this research engine. Various engine operating parameters (rate of EGR change, EGR path length, and residual gas) were considered in order to investigate their influence on the combustion mode transition. The characteristics of combustion mode transition were analyzed based on the in-cylinder pressure and hydrocarbon (HC) emission of each cycle. The general results showed that drastic changes of power output, combustion noise, and HC emission occurred during the combustion mode transition due to the improper injection conditions for each combustion mode.

We used a one-dimensional monolithic catalyst model to predict the transient thermal and conversion characteristics of a dual monolithic catalytic converter with a Palladium only (Pd-only) catalyst and a Palladium/Rhodium (Pd/Rh) catalyst. Prior to the numerical investigation of the dual-catalyst converter, we modified the pre-exponential factor and activation energy of each reaction for both catalysts to achieve acceptable agreement with experimental data under typical operating conditions of automobile applications. We validated the conversion behavior of the lumped parameter model for each catalyst against different engine operating conditions. Two higher cell density substrates, Pd-only catalyst (600cpsi/3.9mil) and Pd/Rh catalyst (600cpsi/4mil), for faster light-off and improved warm-up performance are used in this study and the two monoliths has been connected without the space between monoliths.

In this study a new model is proposed for turbulent premixed combustion in a spark-ignition engine. An independent transport equation is solved for the mean reaction progress variable in a propagation form in KIVA-3V. An expression for turbulent burning velocity was previously given as a product of turbulent diffusivity in unburned gas, laminar flame speed and maximum flame surface density. The model has similarity with the G equation approach, but originates from zone conditionally averaged formulation for unburned gas. A spark kernel grows initially as a laminar flame and becomes a fully developed turbulent flame brush according to a transition criterion in terms of the kernel size and the integral length scale. Simulation of a homogeneous charge pancake chamber engine showed good agreement with measured flame propagation and pressure trace. The model was also applied against experimental data of Hyundai θ-2.0L SI engine.

To reduce diesel engine emissions, a split injection strategy with PHCCI combustion in a diesel engine was investigated with simulation. A multidimensional CFD application, Star-CD coupled with a modified 2-D flamelet was used to simulate multiple injection combustion. Several mass ratios of the first injection and second injection conditions compared to the conventional pilot and main injection strategy were evaluated. The injection angle and the injection timing of the first injection were fixed to 150° and 55° BTDC, respectively. Because of the early injection, the in-cylinder pressure and temperature were much lower than those of normal injection conditions, and the fuel could not fully evaporate. As a result, wall impingement can be occurred, and THC and CO would be increased. To eliminate the wall impingement, the injection timing of the first injection was then retarded to 35-30° BTDC, and the piston bowl geometry was modified to capture droplets in the piston bowl.

The strict new emission regulations have resulted in the development of new techniques to meet the control of cold-start emission in various competitive ways. In this study, the dual walled air gap exhaust pipe system is developed as an effective countermeasure to reduce pollutant exhaust gas emission, particularly to reduce pollutant exhaust gas emission at cold start and idling stage, in which the catalytic converter has not reached to light-off temperature. In this study, it is shown that dual walled air gap exhaust system can shorten the time to reach to light off temperature of the catalytic converter in cold start state, and reduce the emission of Hydrocarbon (HC) significantly due to its low thermal capacity and high thermal insulation effect. In the study, a thermal analysis of the dual walled air gap exhaust pipe system has been done using the computational fluid dynamics method.

On-board diagnostics (OBD) of diesel vehicles require various sensors to detect system malfunctions. The Particulate Matter (PM) sensor is one of OBD devices which gather information which could be critical in determining a crack in the diesel particulate filters (DPFs). The PM sensor detects PM which penetrates cracked DPFs and converts the amount of PM into electrical values. The PM sensor control unit (SCU) receives those analog signals and converts them to digital values through hardware and software solutions. A capacitive sensing method would be a stable solution because it detects not raw analog signals but electrical charges or a time constant going through the capacitive load. Therefore, amount of PM would be converted reasonable value of capacitance even though there is a little amount of PM.