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This paper describes an in-cylinder lean-rich combustion (no-post-injection for rich) switching control approach for modern diesel engines equipped with exhaust-treatment systems. No-post-injection rich combustion is desirable for regeneration of engine exhaust-treatment systems thanks to its less fuel penalty compared with regeneration approaches using post-injections and / or in-exhaust injections. However, for vehicle applications, it is desirable to have driver-transparent exhaust-treatment system regenerations, which challenge the in-cylinder rich-lean combustion transitions. In this paper, a nonlinear in-cylinder condition control system combined with in-cylinder condition guided fueling control functions were developed to achieve smooth in-cylinder lean-rich switching control at both steady-state and transient operation. The performance of the control system is evaluated on a modern light-duty diesel engine (G9T600).

This paper describes a diesel engine lean NOx trap (LNT) regeneration air to fuel ratio (AFR) control system using a nonlinear model predictive control (NMPC) technique for simultaneous regeneration fuel penalty and overall tailpipe-out NOx reductions. A physics-based and experimentally validated nonlinear LNT dynamic model was employed to construct the NMPC control algorithm, which dictates the AFR value during regenerations. Different choices of NMPC cost function were examined in terms of the impact on fuel penalty and total tailpipe NOx slip amount. The cost function to achieve the best tradeoff between fuel penalty and tailpipe-out NOx was selected based on physical insights into the LNT system NOx and oxygen storage dynamics. The NMPC regeneration AFR control system was evaluated on a vehicle simulator cX-Emissions1 with a 1.9L diesel engine model through the FTP75 driving cycle.

The objective of the work reported in this paper was to develop and demonstrate an injection nozzle which can be used to inject both diesel fuel and methanol in to a direct injection diesel engine. The constraints on the nozzle were that it must provide acceptable fuel metering and atomization for the diesel fuel so that the engine can be operated at rated load on diesel fuel alone, or operate at full load with the diesel fuel as a pilot for the methanol. An additional constraint was that the nozzle design was to be easily adaptable to the existing injection nozzle so that engine head modifications are not required. The initial design was evaluated in a constant volume test chamber in which the pressure was varied from atmospheric to engine compression pressures.

Methods to reduce direct injected diesel engine emissions in the combustion chamber will be discussed in this paper. The following NOx emission reduction technologies will be reviewed: charge air chilling, water injection, and exhaust gas recirculation (EGR). Emphasis will be placed on the development of an EGR system and the effect of EGR on NOx and particulates. The lower limit of NOx that can be obtained using conventional diesel engine combustion will be discussed. Further reductions in NOx may require changing the combustion process from a diffusion flame to a homogeneous charge combustion system.

A new diesel engine system adopting alternative combustion with rich and near rich combustion, and an airflow-dominant control system for precise combustion control was used with a 4-way catalyst system with LNT (lean NOx trap) to achieve Tier II Bin 5 on a 2.2L TDI diesel engine. The study included catalyst temperature control, NOx regeneration, desulfation, and PM oxidation with and without post injection. Using a mass-produced lean burn gasoline LNT with 60,000 mile equivalent aging, compliance to Tier II Bin 5 emissions was confirmed for the US06 and FTP75 test cycles with low NVH, minor fuel penalty and smooth transient operation.

This paper describes a hybrid robust nonlinear control approach for modern diesel engines running low temperature combustion and conventional diesel combustion modes. Using alternative combustion modes has become a promising approach to reduce engine emissions. However, due to very different in-cylinder conditions and fueling parameters for different combustion modes, control of engines operating multiple combustion modes is very challenging. It becomes difficult for conventional calibration / mapping based approaches to produce satisfactory results in terms of engine torque responses and emissions. Advanced control techniques are then demanded to accomplish the tasks. An innovative hybrid control system is designed to track different key engine operating variables at different combustion modes as well as avoid singularity which is inherent for turbocharged diesel engines running multiple combustion modes.

Alternative combustion modes such as homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) and low temperature combustion (LTC) have shown very promising engine-out emissions. However, these combustion modes are close to the combustion stability boundaries and very sensitive to in-cylinder condition variations. Thus, transient control of engines operating in alternative combustion modes are very challenging compared with control of engines with conventional combustion mode only. This paper presents some advanced air-path control and estimation techniques/practice for multiple and alternative combustion mode engine transient operation. Based on the mean-value engine dynamic models, robust controllers can be designed to track the desired air-path performance variables to ensure desirable combustion during transient operation.

The engine-out emissions and fuel consumption rates for a modern, heavy-duty diesel engine were compared when fueling with a conventional diesel fuel and three water-blend-fuel emulsions. Four different fuels were studied: (1) a conventional diesel fuel, (2) PuriNOx,™ a water-fuel emulsion using the same conventional diesel fuel, but having 20% water by mass, and (3,4) two other formulations of the PuriNOx™ fuel that contained proprietary chemical additives intended to improve combustion efficiency and emissions characteristics. The emissions data were acquired with three different injection-timing strategies using the AVL 8-Mode steady-state test method in a Caterpillar 3176 engine, which had a calibration that met the 1998 nitrogen oxides (NOX) emissions standard.

Significant reductions of particulate matter (PM) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions from diesel engines have been realized through fueling with water-fuel emulsions. However, the physical and chemical in-cylinder mechanisms that affect these pollutant reductions are not well understood. To address this issue, laser-based and chemiluminescence imaging experiments were performed in an optically-accessible, heavy-duty diesel engine using both a standard diesel fuel (D2) and an emulsion of 20% water, by mass (W20). A laser-based Mie-scatter diagnostic was used to measure the liquid-phase fuel penetration and showed 40-70% greater maximum liquid lengths with W20 at the operating conditions tested. At some conditions with low charge temperature or density, the liquid phase fuel may impinge directly on in-cylinder surfaces, leading to increased PM, HC, and CO emissions because of poor mixing.

An experimental investigation of the effects of partial premixed charge compression ignition (PCCI) combustion and EGR temperature was conducted on a Caterpillar C-12 heavy-duty diesel engine (HDDE). The addition of EGR and PCCI combustion resulted in significant NOx reductions over the AVL 8-mode test. The lowest weighted BSNOx achieved was 2.55 g/kW-hr (1.90 g/hp-hr) using cooled EGR and 20% port fuel injection (PFI). This represents a 54% reduction compared to the stock engine. BSHC and BSCO emissions increased by a factor of 8 and 10, respectively, compared to the stock engine. BSFC also increased by 7.7%. In general, BSHC, BSCO, BSPM, and BSFC increased linearly with the amount of port-injected fuel.

Vegetable oils are candidates for alternative fuels in diesel engines. These oils, such as soybean, sunflower, rapeseed, cottonseed, and peanut, consist of various triglycerides. The chemistry of the degradation of vegetable oils when used as alternate diesel fuels thus corresponds to that of triglycerides. To study the chemistry occurring during the precombustion phase of a vegetable oil injected into a diesel engine, a reactor simulating a diesel engine was constructed. Pure triglycerides were injected into the reactor in order to determine differences in the precombustion behavior of the various triglycerides. The reactor allowed motion pictures to be prepared of the injection event as the important reaction parameters, such as pressure, temperature, and atmosphere were varied. Furthermore, samples of the degradation products of precombusted triglycerides were collected and analyzed (gas chromatography / mass spectrometry).

This paper explores the possibility of on-board fuel classification for fuel property adaptive compression-ignition engine control system. The fuel classifier is designed to on-board classify the fuel that a diesel engine is running, including alternative and renewable fuels such as bio-diesel. Based on this classification, the key fuel properties are provided to the engine control system for optimal control of in-cylinder combustion and exhaust treatment system management with respect to the fuel. The fuel classifier employs engine input-output response characteristics measured from standard engine sensors to classify the fuel. For proof-of-concept purposes, engine input-output responses were measured for three different fuels at three different engine operating conditions. Two neural-network-based fuel classifiers were developed for different classification scenarios. Of the three engine operating conditions tested, two conditions were selected for the fuel classifier to be active.

Four different vegetable oils, degummed soybean, once refined cottonseed, peanut and sunflower oils, were injected into a high-pressure, high-temperature environment of nitrogen. The environment was controlled to resemble, thermodynamically, conditions present in a diesel engine at the time of fuel injection. Samples were removed from the sprays of these oils while they were being injected. A sonic, water-cooled probe and a cold trap were used to collect the samples. Chemical analyses of the samples indicated that significant chemical changes occur in the oils during the injection process. The major change is the formation of low-molecular weight compounds from the C18:2 and C18:3 fatty acids.

Mixtures of methanol, water and heavier alcohols, simulating “raw’ methanol at various levels of processing, were tested in a constant volume combustion apparatus (CVCA) and in a single-cylinder, direct-injection diesel engine. The ignition characteristics determined in the CVCA indicated that the heavier alcohols have beneficial effects on the auto-ignition quality of the fuels, as compared to pure methanol. Water, at up up to 10 percent by volume, has little effect on the ignition quality. In all cases, however, the cetane numbers of the alcohol mixtures were very low. The same fuels were tested in a single cylinder engine, set-up in a configuration similar to current two-valve DI engines, except that the compression ratio was increased to 19:1. Pure methanol and five different blends of alcohols and water were tested in the engine at five different speed-load conditions.

Five different diesel fuel feedstocks were processed to two levels of aromatic (0.05 sulfur, and then 10 percent) content. These materials were distilled into 6 to 8 narrow boiling range fractions that were each characterized in terms of the properties and composition. The fractions were also tested at five different speed load conditions in a single cylinder engine where high speed combustion data and emissions measurements were obtained. Linear regression analysis was used to develop relationships between the properties and composition, and the combustion and emissions characteristics as determined in the engine. The results are presented in the form of the regression equations and discussed in terms of the relative importance of the various properties in controlling the combustion and emissions characteristics. The results of these analysis confirm the importance of aromatic content on the cetane number, the smoke and the NOx emissions.

Diesel engine optimization for low emissions and high efficiency involves the use of very high injection pressures. It was generally thought that increased injection pressures lead to improved fuel air mixing due to increased atomization in the fuel jet. Injection experiments in a high-pressure, high-temperature flow reactor indicated, however, that high injection pressures, in excess of 150 MPa, leads to greatly increased penetration rates and significant wall impingement. An endoscope system was used to obtain movies of combustion in a modern, 4-valve, heavy-duty diesel engine. Movies were obtained at different speeds, loads, injection pressures, and intake air pressures. The movies indicated that high injection pressure, coupled with high intake air density leads to very short ignition delay times, ignition close to the nozzle, and burning of the plumes as they traverse the combustion chamber.

The key feature of diesel fuel ignition quality is ignition delay time. In the American Society for Testing and Materials standard test for cetane number measurement, (ASTM D 613) the ignition delay time is held constant while the compression ratio is varied until ignition occurs at the set time. On the other hand, commercial diesel engines have set compression ratios and therefore, the ignition delay time varies with the cetane number of the fuel. The shorter this delay time, the wider the time window over which the combustion processes are spread. This leads to a more controlled heat release rate and pressure rise, resulting in prevention of diesel knock and in lowering of emissions. High cetane fuels exhibit short ignition delay times. The Constant Volume Combustion Apparatus (CVCA) precisely measures the ignition delay time of fuels. This study investigates the CVCA as a supplementary tool for characterization of diesel fuel ignition quality under a variety of conditions.

A single-cylinder, direct-injection diesel engine was modified to operate on compression ignition of homogenous mixtures of diesel fuel and air. Previous work has indicated that extremely low emissions and high efficiencies are possible if ignition of homogeneous fuel-air mixtures is accomplished. The limitations of this approach were reported to be misfire and knock. These same observations were verified in the current work. The variables examined in this study included air-fuel ratio, compression ratio, fresh intake air temperature, exhaust gas recirculation rate, and intake mixture temperatures. The results suggested that controlled homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) is possible. Compression ratio, EGR rate, and air fuel ratio are the practical controlling factors in achieving satisfactory operation. It was found that satisfactory power settings are possible with high EGR rates and stoichiometric fuel-air mixtures.

A 2003 heavy-duty diesel engine (2002 emissions level) was used to test a representative biodiesel fuel as well as the methyl esters of several different fatty acids. The fuel variables included degree of saturation, the oxygen content, and carbon chain length. In addition, two pure normal paraffins with the corresponding chain lengths of two of the methyl esters were also tested to determine the impact of chain length. The dependent variables were the NOx and the particulate emissions (PM). The results indicated that the primary fuel variable affecting the emissions is the oxygen content. The emissions results showed that the highest oxygen content test fuel had the lowest emissions of both NOx and PM. As compared to the baseline diesel fuel the NOx emissions were reduced by 5 percent and the PM emissions were reduced by 83 percent.

SwRI has developed a new technology concept involving the use of high EGR rates coupled with a high-energy ignition system in a gasoline engine to improve fuel economy and emissions. Based on a single-cylinder study [1], this study extends the concept of a high compression ratio gasoline engine with EGR rates > 30% and a high-energy ignition system to a multi-cylinder engine. A 2000 MY Isuzu Duramax 6.6 L 8-cylinder engine was converted to run on gasoline with a diesel pilot ignition system. The engine was run at two compression ratios, 17.5:1 and 12.5:1 and with two different EGR systems - a low-pressure loop and a high pressure loop. A high cetane number (CN) diesel fuel (CN=76) was used as the ignition source and two different octane number (ON) gasolines were investigated - a pump grade 91 ON ((R+M)/2) and a 103 ON ((R+M)/2) racing fuel.