Search Results

The first several cycles determine the quality of an engine start. Low temperatures and air/fuel ratio cause incomplete combustion of the fuel. This can lead to dramatic increases in HC and PM emissions. In order to meet Euro V legislation requirements which have stricter cold start emission levels, it is critical to study the characteristics of cold and warm starting of engines in order to develop an optimized operation. The NO and THC emissions were measured by fast CLD and Fast FID gas analyzers respectively and PM in both nucleation and accumulation modes were measured by DMS500. The coolant temperature was controlled in order to guarantee the experiment repeatability. The results show that at cold start using RME60 produced higher NO and lower THC than the other tested fuels while combustion of HVO60 produced a similar level of NO but lower THC compared with mineral diesel. Meanwhile, the nucleation mode of mineral diesel was similar to RME60 but higher than HVO60.

Engine transient operation has attracted a lot of attention from researchers due to its high frequency of occurrence during daily vehicle operation. More emissions are expected compared to steady state operating conditions as a result of the turbo-lag problem. Ambient temperature has significant influences on engine transients especially at engine start. The effects of ambient temperature on engine-out emissions under the New European Driving Cycle (NEDC) are investigated in this study. The transient engine scenarios were carried out on a modern 3.0 L, V6 turbocharged common rail diesel engine fuelled with winter diesel in a cold cell within the different ambient temperature ranging between +20 °C and −7 °C. The engine with fuel, coolant, combustion air and lubricating oil were soaked and maintained at the desired test temperatures during the transient scenarios.

In this research, propane flash boiling sprays discharged from a five-hole gasoline direct injector were studied in a constant volume vessel. The fuel temperature (Tfuel) ranged from 30 °C to 90 °C, and the ambient pressure (Pamb) varied from 0.05 bar to 11.0 bar. Different flash boiling spray behavior compared to that under sub-atmospheric conditions was found at high Pamb. Specifically, at the sub-atmospheric pressures, the individual flashing jets merged into one single jet due to the strong spray collapse. In contrast, at Pamb above 3.0 bar and Tfuel above 50 °C, the spray collapse was mitigated and the flashing jets were separated from each other. Further analyses revealed that the mitigation of spray collapse at high Pamb was ascribed to the suppression of jet expansion. In addition, it was found that the spray structure was much different at similar Rp, indicating that Rp lacked the generality in describing the structure of flash boiling sprays.

Diesel engines are the versatile power source and is widely used in passenger car and commercial vehicle applications. Environmental temperature conditions, fuel quality, fuel injection strategies and lubricant have influence on cold start performance of the diesel engines. Strategies to overcome the cold start problem at very low ambient temperature include preheating of intake air, coolant, cylinder block. The present research work investigates the effect of coolant temperatures on passenger car diesel engine’s performance and exhaust emission characteristics during the cold start at cold ambient temperature conditions. The engine is soaked in the -7°C environment for 6 hours. The engine coolant is preheated to the desired coolant temperatures of 10 and 20°C by an external heater and the start ability tests were performed.

Cold start is a critical operating condition for diesel engines because of the pollutant emissions produced by the unstable combustion and non-performance of after-treatment at lower temperatures. In this research investigation, a light-duty turbocharged diesel engine equipped with a common rail injection system was tested on a transient engine testing bed to study the starting process in terms of engine performance and emissions. The engine (including engine coolant, engine oil and fuel) was soaked in a cold cell at −7°C for at least 8 hours before starting the test. The engine operating parameters such as engine speed, air/fuel ratio, and EGR rate were recorded during the tests. Pollutant emissions (Hydrocarbon (HC), NOx, and particles both in mode of nucleation and accumulation) were measured before and after the Diesel Oxidation Catalyst (DOC). The results show that conversion efficiency of NOx was higher during acceleration period at −7°C start than the case of 20°C start.

Little research has been done on spray characteristics of 2,5-dimethylfuran (DMF), since the breakthrough in its production method as an alternative fuel candidate. In this paper, the spray characteristics of pure fuels (DMF, Isooctane) and DMF-Isooctane blends under different ambient pressures (1 bar, 3 bar and 7 bar) and injection pressures (50 bar, 100 bar and 150 bar) were studied using Phase Doppler Particle Analyzer (PDPA) and high speed imaging. Droplet velocity, size distribution, spray angle and penetration of sprays were examined. Based on the results, DMF had larger SMD and penetration length than isooctane. The surface tension of fuel strongly influenced spray characteristics. Increasing the surface tension by 26 % resulted in 12 % increase in SMD. Higher ambient pressure increased the drag force, but SMD was not influenced by the increased drag force. However, the increased ambient pressure reduced the injection velocity and We number resulting in higher SMD.

Lithium-ion batteries (LiBs) have been widely used in electrified vehicles, and the battery thermal management (BTM) system is needed to maintain the temperature that is critical to battery performance, safety, and health. Conventionally, three-dimensional battery thermal models are developed at the early stage to guide the design of the BTM system, in which battery thermophysical parameters (radial thermal conductivity, axial thermal conductivity, and specific heat capacity) are required. However, in most literature, those parameters were estimated with greatly different values (up to one order of magnitude). In this paper, an investigation is carried out to evaluate the magnitude of the influence of those parameters on the battery simulation results. The study will determine if accurate measurements of battery thermophysical parameters are necessary.

Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) vehicles now make up the majority of European new car sales and a significant share of the existing car parc. Despite delivering measurable engine efficiency benefits, GDI fuel systems are not without issues. Fuel injectors are susceptible to the formation of deposits in and around the injector nozzles holes. It is widely reported that these deposits can affect engine performance and that different fuels can alleviate the buildup of those deposits. This project aims to understand the underlying mechanisms of how deposit formation ultimately leads to a reduction in vehicle performance. Ten GDI fuel injectors, with differing levels of coking were taken from engine testing and consumer vehicles and compared using a range of imaging and engine tests. At the time of writing, a new GDI engine test is being developed by the Co-ordinating European Council (CEC) to be used by the fuel and fuel additive industry.

To characterize emission performance and engine operating conditions during high-power cold starts (HPCS), a blended plug-in hybrid electric vehicle was tested over worldwide harmonized light-duty vehicle test cycle (WLTC), and a new cycle was developed to characterize HPCS. The results showed that the engine speed and load increased dramatically to high level during HPCS under the low temperature of coolant and catalysts. The higher concentration of particle number (PN) and NOx at higher speed and load, accounted for the higher emissions during HPCS. Besides, the cumulative PN emissions increased first and then decreased with the increasing coolant temperature.