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Sources of unburned hydrocarbon (UHC) emissions are examined for a highly dilute (10% oxygen concentration), moderately boosted (1.5 bar), low load (3.0 bar IMEP) operating condition in a single-cylinder, light-duty, optically accessible diesel engine undergoing partially-premixed low-temperature combustion (LTC). The evolution of the in-cylinder spatial distribution of UHC is observed throughout the combustion event through measurement of liquid fuel distributions via elastic light scattering, vapor and liquid fuel distributions via laser-induced fluorescence, and velocity fields via particle image velocimetry (PIV). The measurements are complemented by and contrasted with the predictions of multi-dimensional simulations employing a realistic, though reduced, chemical mechanism to describe the combustion process.

A novel 2-zone combustion chamber concept (patent pending) was developed using multi-dimensional modeling. At minimum volume, an axial projection in the piston divides the volume into distinct zones joined by a communication channel. The projection provides a means to control the mixture formation and combustion phasing within each zone. The novel combustion system was applied to reactivity controlled compression ignition (RCCI) combustion in both light-duty and heavy-duty diesel engines. Results from the study of an 8.8 bar BMEP, 2600 RPM operating condition are presented for the light-duty engine. The results from the heavy-duty engine are at an 18.1 bar BMEP, 1200 RPM operating condition. The effect of several major design features were investigated including the volume split between the inner and outer combustion chamber volumes, the clearance (squish) height, and the top ring land (crevice) volume.

Low-temperature combustion (LTC) strategies for diesel engines are of increasing interest because of their potential to significantly reduce particulate matter (PM) and nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions. LTC with late fuel injection further offers the benefit of combustion phasing control because ignition is closely coupled to the fuel injection event. But with a short ignition-delay, fuel jet mixing processes must be rapid to achieve adequate premixing before ignition. In the current study, mixing and pollutant formation of late-injection LTC are studied in a single-cylinder, direct-injection, optically accessible heavy-duty diesel engine using three laser-based imaging diagnostics. Simultaneous planar laser-induced fluorescence of the hydroxyl radical (OH) and combined formaldehyde (H2CO) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) are compared with vapor-fuel concentration measurements from a non-combusting condition.

The potential of low temperature combustion to yield low NOx and soot while maintaining diesel-like thermal efficiencies has been demonstrated through countless studies. Methods of achieving low temperature combustion are just as numerous and they range from using high cetane number fuels, like diesel, with large amounts of exhaust gas recirculation, to completely premixing a high octane number fuel, like gasoline, and approaching an HCCI-like condition. The potential of operating a heavy-duty compression ignition engine fueled with conventional gasoline in a partially premixed combustion mode to have high thermal efficiency and low emissions has been demonstrated in this study. The objective of this work was to optimize the engine using computational tools. The KIVA3V-CHEMKIN code, a multi-dimensional engine CFD model was coupled to a Nondominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm (NSGA II), which is a multi-objective genetic algorithm.

A multi-component fuel model is used to represent gasoline in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations of a dual-fuel engine that combines premixed gasoline injection with diesel direct injection. The simulations employ detailed-kinetics mechanisms for both the gasoline and diesel surrogate fuels, through use of an advanced and efficient chemistry solver. The objective of this work is to elucidate kinetics effects of dual-fuel usage in Reactivity Controlled Compression Ignition (RCCI) combustion. The model is applied to simulate recent experiments on highly efficient RCCI engines. These engine experiments used a dual-fuel RCCI strategy with port-fuel-injection of gasoline and early-cycle, multiple injections of diesel fuel with a conventional diesel injector. The experiments showed that the US 2010 heavy-duty NO and soot emissions regulations were easily met without aftertreatment, while achieving greater than 50% net indicated thermal efficiency.

Real transportation fuels, such as gasoline and diesel, are mixtures of thousands of different hydrocarbons. For multidimensional engine applications, numerical simulations of combustion of real fuels with all of the hydrocarbon species included exceeds present computational capabilities. Consequently, surrogate fuel models are normally utilized. A good surrogate fuel model should approximate the essential physical and chemical properties of the real fuel. In this work, we present a novel methodology for the formulation of surrogate fuel models based on local optimization and sensitivity analysis technologies. Within the proposed approach, several important fuel properties are considered. Under the physical properties, we focus on volatility, density, lower heating value (LHV), and viscosity, while the chemical properties relate to the chemical composition, hydrogen to carbon (H/C) ratio, and ignition behavior. An error tolerance is assigned to each property for convergence checking.

In multidimensional modeling, fuels have been represented predominantly by single components, such as octane for gasoline. Several bicomponent studies have been performed, but these are still limited in their ability to represent real fuels, which are blends of as many as 300 components. This study outlines a method by which the fuel composition is represented by a distribution function of the fuel molecular weight. This allows a much wider range of compositions to be modeled, and only requires including two additional “species” besides the fuel, namely the mean and second moment of the distribution. This approach has been previously presented but is applied here to multidimensional calculations. Results are presented for single component droplet vaporization for comparison with single component fuel predictions, as well as results for a multicomponent gasoline and a diesel droplet.

A direct injection-gasoline (DI-G) system was applied to a heavy-duty diesel-type engine to study the effects of charge stratification on the performance of premixed compression ignited combustion. The effects of the fuel injection parameters on combustion phasing were of primary interest. The simultaneous effects of the fuel stratification on Unburned Hydrocarbon (UHC), Oxides of Nitrogen (NOx), Carbon Monoxide (CO), and smoke emissions were also measured. Engine tests were conducted with altered injection parameters covering the entire load range of normally aspirated Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignited (HCCI) combustion. Combustion phasing tests were also conducted at several engine speeds to evaluate its effects on a fuel stratification strategy.

The causes of Unburned Hydrocarbon (UHC) emissions from a premixed compression ignited engine were investigated for both homogeneous and stratified charge conditions. A fast response Flame Ionization Detector (fast FID) was used to provide cycle-resolved UHC exhaust emission measurements. These fast FID UHC measurements were coupled with numerical flow simulation results to provide quantitative and qualitative insight into the sources of UHC emissions. The combined results were used to evaluate the effects of engine load, local gas temperatures, fuel stratification, and crevice quenching on UHC emissions.

An optimization study combining multidimensional CFD modeling and a global, evolutionary search technique known as the Genetic Algorithm has been carried out. The subject of this study was a 2-stroke, spark-ignited, direct-injection, single-cylinder research engine (SCRE). The goal of the study was to optimize the part load operating parameters of the engine in order to achieve the lowest possible emissions, improved fuel economy, and reduced wall heat transfer. Parameters subject to permutation in this study were the start-of-injection (SOI) timing, injection duration, spark timing, fuel injection angle, dwell between injections, and the percentage of fuel mass in the first injection pulse. The study was comprised of three cases. All simulations were for a part load, intermediate-speed condition representing a transition operating regime between stratified charge and homogeneous charge operation.

The present study attempted to model experimental results obtained on an optical engine at the Sandia National Laboratory. Measurements of in-cylinder unburned hydrocarbon (UHC) distributions were provided using advanced optical diagnostics on a near production type piston. Previous multidimensional modeling provided accurate pressure profiles and heat release rate (HRR) predictions. However, the experimental UHC distribution was not matched, and the model predicted UHC extending from the bowl into the squish region in the expansion stroke. To explore the causes of this discrepancy a parametric study was performed using a variety of initial conditions, boundary conditions and model constants to explore their effects on the UHC distribution. Of the initial conditions, the swirl ratio was found to have the biggest impact on the UHC distribution.

In automotive industry it has been a challenge to retain diesel-like thermal efficiency while maintaining low emissions. Numerous studies have shown significant progress in achieving low emissions through the introduction of common-rail injection systems, multiple injections and exhaust gas recirculation and by using a high octane number fuel, like gasoline, to achieve adequate premixing. On the other hand, low temperature combustion strategies, like HCCI and PCCI, have also shown promising results in terms of reducing both NOx and soot emissions simultaneously. With the increasing capacity of computers, multi-dimensional CFD engine modeling enables a reasonably good prediction of combustion characteristics and pollutant emissions, which is the motivation behind the present research. The current research effort presents an optimization study of light-duty compression ignition engine performance, while meeting the emission regulation targets.

Diesel fuels are complex mixtures of thousands of hydrocarbons. Since modeling their combustion characteristics with the inclusion of all hydrocarbon species is not feasible, a hybrid surrogate model approach is used in the present work to represent the physical and chemical properties of three different diesel fuels by using up to 13 and 4 separate hydrocarbon species, respectively. The surrogates are arrived at by matching their distillation profiles and important properties with the real fuel, while the chemistry surrogates are arrived at by using a Group Chemistry Representation (GCR) method wherein the hydrocarbon species in the physical property surrogates are grouped based on their chemical classes, and the chemistry of each class is represented by using up to two hydrocarbon species.

The effect of piston ring pack crevice flow and lubricant oil vaporization on heavy-duty diesel engine deposits is investigated numerically using a multidimensional CFD code, KIVA3V, coupled with Chemkin II, and computational grids that resolve part of the crevice region appropriately. Improvements have been made to the code to be able to deal with the complex geometry of the ring pack, and sub-models for the crevice flow dynamics, lubricating oil vaporization and combustion, soot formation and deposition were also added to the code. Eight parametric cases were simulated under reacting conditions using detailed chemical kinetics to determine the effects of variations of lube-oil film thickness, distribution of the oil film thickness, number of injection pulses, and the main injection timing on engine soot deposition. The results show that crevice-borne hydrocarbon species play an important role in deposit formation on crevice surfaces.

Combustion in an HSDI diesel engine using different injectors to realize low emissions is modeled using detailed chemical kinetics in this study. Emission characteristics of the engine are investigated using injectors that have different included spray angles, ranging from 50 to 130 degrees. The engine was operated under PCCI conditions featuring early injection times, high EGR levels and high intake temperatures. The Representative Interactive Flamelet (RIF) model was used with the KIVA code for combustion and emission modeling. Modeling results show that spray targeting plays an important role in determining the in-cylinder mixture distributions, which in turn affect the resulting pollutant emissions. High soot emissions are observed for injection conditions that result in locally fuel rich regions due to spray impingement normal to the piston surface.

Studies on the effects of methyl soyate (biodiesel) blends with #2 diesel fuel in conjunction with various high pressure injection schemes were conducted on a single cylinder version of the Caterpillar 3400 series heavy duty diesel engine. Engine operating conditions at both high and low loads were investigated. Experiments were performed over a range of injection timings allowing particulate versus NOx trade-off curves to be generated. Phillips 66 certified #2 diesel fuel was used as the baseline; mixtures of 20% and 40% by volume of methyl soyate with the baseline fuel were used as the biodiesel blends. A blend of 20% by volume octadecene (a hydrocarbon fuel that is representative of the biodiesel hydrocarbon's composition but without the oxygen) in #2 diesel fuel was also investigated to help determine the mechanisms of emissions reduction.

A numerical simulation and optimization study was conducted for a medium speed direct injection diesel engine. The engine's operating characteristics were first matched to available experimental data to test the validity of the numerical model. The KIVA-3V ERC CFD code was then modified to allow independent spray events from two rows of nozzle holes. The angular alignment, nozzle hole size, and injection pressure of each set of nozzle holes were optimized using a micro-genetic algorithm. The design fitness criteria were based on a multi-variable merit function with inputs of emissions of soot, NOx, unburned hydrocarbons, and fuel consumption targets. Penalties to the merit function value were used to limit the maximum in-cylinder pressure and the burned gas temperature at exhaust valve opening. The optimization produced a 28.4% decrease in NOx and a 40% decrease in soot from the baseline case, while giving a 3.1% improvement in fuel economy.

A study was performed that takes into account both turbulence and chemical kinetic effects in the numerical simulation of diesel engine combustion in order to better understand the importance of their respective roles at changing operating conditions. An approach was developed which combines the simplicity and low computational and storage requests of the laminar-and-turbulent characteristic-time model with a detailed combustion chemistry model based on well-known simplified mechanisms. Assuming appropriate simplifications such as steady state or equilibrium for most of the radicals and intermediate species, the kinetics of hydrocarbons can be described by means of three overall steps. This approach was integrated in the KIVA-II code. The concept was validated and applied to a single-cylinder, heavy-duty engine. The simulation covers a wide range of operating conditions.

While Low Temperature Combustion (LTC) strategies such as Reactivity Controlled Compression Ignition (RCCI) exhibit high thermal efficiency and produce low NOx and soot emissions, low load operation is still a significant challenge due to high unburnt hydrocarbon (UHC) and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions, which occur as a result of poor combustion efficiencies at these operating points. Furthermore, the exhaust gas temperatures are insufficient to light-off the Diesel Oxidation Catalyst (DOC), thereby resulting in poor UHC and CO conversion efficiencies by the aftertreatment system. To achieve exhaust gas temperature values sufficient for DOC light-off, combustion can be appropriately phased by changing the ratio of gasoline to diesel in the cylinder, or by burning additional fuel injected during the expansion stroke through post-injection.

3-D Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations have been performed to study particulate formation in a Spark-Ignition (SI) engine under premixed conditions. A semi-detailed soot model and a chemical kinetic model, including poly-aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) formation, were coupled with a spark ignition model and the G equation flame propagation model for SI engine simulations and for predictions of soot mass and particulate number density. The simulation results for in-cylinder pressure and particle size distribution (PSDs) are compared to available experimental studies of equivalence ratio effects during premixed operation. Good predictions are observed with regard to cylinder pressure, combustion phasing and engine load. Qualitative agreements of in-cylinder particle distributions were also obtained and the results are helpful to understand particulate formation processes.