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The soot distribution as function of ambient O₂ mole fraction in a heavy-duty diesel engine was investigated at low load (6 bar IMEP) with laser-induced incandescence (LII) and natural luminosity. A Multi-YAG laser system was utilized to create time-resolved LII using 8 laser pulses with a spacing of one CAD with detection on an 8-chip framing camera. It is well known that the engine-out smoke level increases with decreasing oxygen fraction up to a certain level where it starts to decrease again. For the studied case the peak occurred at an O₂ fraction of 11.4%. When the oxygen fraction was decreased successively from 21% to 9%, the initial soot formation moved downstream in the jet. At the lower oxygen fractions, below 12%, no soot was formed until after the wall interaction. At oxygen fractions below 11% the first evidence of soot is in the recirculation zone between two adjacent jets.

This paper presents new measurements of liquid and liftoff lengths, vapor penetration, and ignition delay using the Engine Combustion Network (ECN) ‘Spray B’ injector in a 2.34 L skip-fired heavy-duty optical engine. The data from the Spray B injector, having three 90-micron holes, are compared with previously existing constant-volume vessel data using both the Spray B injector as well as the ECN Spray A injector, which has a single 90-micron axial hole. The new data were acquired using Mie scattering, OH* chemiluminescence imaging, schlieren imaging, and incylinder pressure measurements. This paper presents data from estimated isentropic-core top-dead-center conditions with ambient densities of 15.2 and 22.8 kg/m3, temperatures of 800, 900, and 1000 K, and for both non-reacting (0% and 7.5% O2) and reacting (13, 15, and 21% O2) injections of n-dodecane at fuel-rail pressures of 500, 1000, and 1500 bar.

Post-injection strategies aimed at reducing engine-out emissions of unburned hydrocarbons (UHC) were investigated in an optical heavy-duty diesel engine operating at a low-load, low-temperature combustion (LTC) condition with high dilution (12.7% intake oxygen) where UHC emissions are problematic. Exhaust gas measurements showed that a carefully selected post injection reduced engine-out load-specific UHC emissions by 20% compared to operation with a single injection in the same load range. High-speed in-cylinder chemiluminescence imaging revealed that without a post injection, most of the chemiluminescence emission occurs close to the bowl wall, with no significant chemiluminescence signal within 27 mm of the injector. Previous studies have shown that over-leaning in this near-injector region after the end of injection causes the local equivalence ratio to fall below the ignitability limit.

Partially premixed low-temperature combustion (LTC) using exhaust-gas recirculation (EGR) has the potential to reduce engine-out NOx and soot emissions, but increased unburned hydrocarbon (UHC) emissions need to be addressed. In this study, we investigate close-coupled post injections for reducing UHC emissions. By injecting small amounts of fuel soon after the end of the main injection, fuel-lean mixtures near the injector that suffer incomplete combustion can be enriched with post-injection fuel and burned to completion. The goal of this work is to understand the in-cylinder mechanisms affecting the post-injection efficacy and to quantify its sensitivity to operational parameters including post-injection duration, injection dwell, load, and ignition delay time of the post-injection mixture.

By using a radio frequency (RF) audio distortion measurement test setup, communication devices can be evaluated for degradation caused by electromagnetic interference (EMI) from active vehicle components. This measurement technique can be used to determine the performance of a radio receiver under a variety of conditions. The test setup consists of making measurements on a baseband audio signal that is sent to the device under test (receiver) via over-the-air RF transmissions. Once a baseline is established, active components on the vehicle can be powered on to determine their contribution to the receiver's degradation. The degradation measured is a result of distortion caused by conducted, radiated, and/or coupled EMI from active components into the receiver's passband.

When considering the addition of radio frequency reception and transmission equipment to the suite of electronics already installed on a modern motor vehicle, numerous issues must be considered and tested to ensure reliable and safe operation not only of the additional equipment but the vehicle itself. This paper addresses some of the major issues and suggests modest design and testing practices that will accomplish the desired reliability and safety. The modest design and testing proposed addresses good engineering practices of electrically bonding metallic surfaces of the vehicle, grounding equipment, shielding signal cables, introducing filters, and appropriately separating cables into bundles.

Over the past decade, laser diagnostics have improved our understanding of many aspects of diesel combustion. However, interactions between the combusting fuel jet and the piston-bowl wall are not well understood. In heavy-duty diesel engines, with typical fuels, these interactions occur with the combusting vapor-phase region of the jet, which consists of a central region containing soot and other products of rich-premixed combustion, surrounded by a diffusion flame. Since previous work has shown that the OH radical is a good marker of the diffusion flame, planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF) imaging of OH was applied to an investigation of the diffusion flame during wall interaction. In addition, simultaneous OH PLIF and planar laser-induced incandescence (PLII) soot imaging was applied to investigate the likelihood for soot deposition on the bowl wall.

Although accumulated in-cylinder soot can be measured by various optical techniques, discerning soot formation rates from oxidation rates is more difficult. Various optical measurements have pointed toward ways to affect in-cylinder soot oxidation, but evidence of effects of operational variables on soot formation is less plentiful. The formation of soot and its precursors, including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), are strongly dependent on temperature, so factors affecting soot formation may be more evident at low-temperature combustion conditions. Here, in-cylinder PAHs are imaged by planar laser-induced fluorescence (PAH-PLIF) using three different excitation wavelengths of 355, 532, and 633 nm, to probe three different size-classes of PAH from 2-3 to 10+ rings. Simultaneous planar laser-induced incandescence of soot (soot-PLII) using 1064-nm excitation provides complementary imaging of soot formation near inception.

Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), as a common alternative fuel for internal combustion engines is currently widespread in use for fleet vehicles. However, a current majority of the LPG-fueled engines, uses port-fuel injection that offers lower power density when compared to a gasoline engine of equivalent displacement volume. This is due to the lower molecular weight and higher volatility of LPG components that displaces more air in the intake charge due to the larger volume occupied by the gaseous fuel. LPG direct-injection during the closed-valve portion of the cycle can avoid displacement of intake air and can thereby help achieve comparable gasoline-engine power densities. However, under certain engine operating conditions, direct-injection sprays can collapse and lead to sub-optimal fuel-air mixing, wall-wetting, incomplete combustion, and increased pollutant emissions.

Mixture formation in a hydrogen-fueled heavy-duty engine with direct injection and a nearly-quiescent top-hat combustion chamber was investigated using laser-induced fluorescence imaging, with 1,4-difluorobenzene serving as a fluorescent tracer seeded into hydrogen. The engine was motored at 1200 rpm, 1.0 bar intake pressure, and 335 K intake temperature. An outward opening medium-pressure hollow-cone injector was operated at two different injection pressures and five different injection timings from early injection during the intake stroke to late injection towards the end of compression stroke. Fuel fumigation upstream of the intake provided a well-mixed reference case for image calibration. This paper presents the evolution of in-cylinder equivalence ratio distribution evaluated during the injection event itself for the cylinder-axis plane and during the compression stroke at different positions of the light sheet within the swirl plane.