Search Results

This paper presents experimental results for two fuel-related topics in a diesel engine: (1) how fuel volatility affects the premixed burn and heat release rate, and (2) how ignition quality influences the soot formation. Fast evaporation of fuel may lead to more intense heat release if a higher percentage of the fuel is mixed with air to form a combustible mixture. However, if the evaporation of fuel is driven by mixing with high-temperature gases from the ambient, a high-volatility fuel will require less oxygen entrainment and mixing for complete vaporization and, consequently, may not have potential for significant heat release simply because it has vaporized. Fuel cetane number changes also cause uncertainty regarding soot formation because variable ignition delay will change levels of fuel-air mixing prior to combustion.

The major challenge of the post-processing of soot aggregates in transmission electron microscope (TEM) images is the detection of soot primary particles that have no clear boundaries, vary in size within the fractal aggregates, and often overlap with each other. In this study, we propose an automated detection code for primary particles implementing the Canny Edge Detection (CED) and Circular Hough Transform (CHT) on pre-processed TEM images for particle edge enhancement using unsharp filtering as well as image inversion and self-subtraction. The particle detection code is tested for soot TEM images obtained at various ambient and injection conditions, and from five different combustion facilities including three constant-volume combustion chambers and two diesel engines.

Combustion issued from an eight-hole, direct-injection spray was experimentally studied in a constant-volume pre-burn combustion vessel using simultaneous high-speed diffused back-illumination extinction imaging (DBIEI) and OH* chemiluminescence. DBIEI has been employed to observe the liquid-phase of the spray and to quantitatively investigate the soot formation and oxidation taking place during combustion. The fuel-air mixture was ignited with a plasma induced by a single-shot Nd:YAG laser, permitting precise control of the ignition location in space and time. OH* chemiluminescence was used to track the high-temperature ignition and flame. The study showed that increasing the delay between the end of injection and ignition drastically reduces soot formation without necessarily compromising combustion efficiency. For long delays between the end of injection and ignition (1.9 ms) soot formation was eliminated in the main downstream charge of the fuel spray.

Diesel low-temperature combustion strategies often rely on early injection timing to allow sufficient fuel-ambient mixing to avoid NOx and soot-forming combustion. However, these early injection timings permit the spray to penetrate into a low ambient temperature and density environment where vaporization is poor and liquid impingement upon the cylinder liner and piston bowl are more likely to occur. The objective of this study is to measure the transient liquid and vapor penetration at early-injection conditions. High-speed Mie-scatter and shadowgraph imaging are employed in an optically accessible chamber with a free path of 100 mm prior to wall impingement and using a single-spray injector. The ambient temperature and density within the chamber are well-controlled (uniform) and selected to simulate in-cylinder conditions when injection occurs at -40 crank-angle degrees (CAD) or fewer before top-dead center (TDC).

Methods for detection of the spatial position and timing of diesel ignition with improved accuracy are demonstrated in an optically accessible constant-volume chamber at engine-like pressure and temperature conditions. High-speed pressure measurement using multiple transducers, followed by triangulation correction for the speed of the pressure wave, permits identification of the autoignition spatial location and timing. Simultaneously, high-speed Schlieren and broadband chemiluminescence imaging provides validation of the pressure-based triangulation technique. The combined optical imaging and corrected pressure measurement techniques offer improved understanding of diesel ignition phenomenon. Schlieren imaging shows the onset of low-temperature (first-stage) heat release prior to high-temperature (second-stage) ignition. High-temperature ignition is marked by more rapid pressure rise and broadband chemiluminescence.

Although low-temperature combustion (LTC) strategies for compression-ignition engines can achieve very low emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and particulate matter (PM) at high efficiency, they typically have increased emissions of other pollutants, including unburned hydrocarbons (UHC). In the current study, the equivalence ratio of mixtures near the injector are quantified under non-combusting conditions by planar laser-Rayleigh scattering (PLRS) in a constant-volume combustion chamber and by planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF) of a fuel tracer (toluene) in a single-cylinder direct-injection heavy-duty diesel engine at typical LTC conditions. The optical diagnostic images show that the transient ramp-down at the end of fuel injection produces a low-momentum, fuel-lean mixture in the upstream region of the jet, which persists late in the cycle.

Laser plasma ignition has been pursued by engine researchers as an alternative to electric spark-ignition systems, potentially offering benefits by avoiding quenching surfaces and extending breakdown limits at higher boost pressure and lower equivalence ratio. For this study, we demonstrate another potential benefit: the ability to control the timing of ignition with short, nanosecond pulses, thereby optimizing the type of mixture that burns in rapidly changing, stratified fuel-air mixtures. We study laser ignition at various timings during single and double injections at simulated gasoline engine conditions within a controlled, high-temperature, high-pressure vessel. Laser ignition is accomplished with a single low-energy (10 mJ), short duration (8 ns) Nd:YAG laser beam that is tightly focused (0.015 mm average measured 1/e₂ diameter) at a typical GDI spark plug location.

For better understanding of soot formation and oxidation processes in a biodiesel spray flame, the morphology, microstructure and sizes of soot particles directly sampled in a spray flame fuelled with soy-methyl ester were investigated using transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The soot samples were taken at different axial locations in the spray flame, 40, 50 and 70 mm from injector nozzle, which correspond to soot formation, peak, and oxidation zones, respectively. The biodiesel spray flame was generated in a constant-volume combustion chamber under a diesel-like high pressure and temperature condition (6.7 MPa, 1000K). Density, diameter of primary particles and radius of gyration of soot aggregates reached a peak at 50 mm from the injector nozzle and was lower or smaller in the formation or oxidation zones of the spray.

Multi-hole diesel fuel injectors have shown significant transients in spreading angle during injections, different than past fundamental research using single-hole injectors. We investigated the effect of a this transient spreading angle on combustion parameters such as ignition delay and lift-off length by comparing a three-hole nozzle (Spray B) and single-hole nozzle (Spray A) with holes of the same size and shape as targets for the Engine Combustion Network (ECN). With the temperature distribution for a target plume of Spray B characterized extensively in a constant-volume combustion chamber, the ignition delay and lift-off length were measured and compared. Results show that the lift-off length of Spray B increases and grows by approximately 1.5 mm after the initial stages of ignition, in an opposite trend compared to Spray A where the lift-off length decreases with time.