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Historically, the opposed-piston, two-stroke (OP2S) diesel engine set combined records for fuel efficiency and power density that have yet to be met by any other engine type. However, with modern emissions standards, wide-spread development of this engine for on-highway use stopped. At Achates Power, state-of-the-art analytical tools and engineering methods have produced an OP2S engine that, when compared to a leading medium-duty engine, has demonstrated a 21% fuel efficiency gain and engine-out emissions levels meeting U.S. EPA10 with conventional after-treatment. Among the presentation topics covered are thermodynamic efficiency, demonstrated engine results, cost and weight advantages, and overcoming two-stroke engine challenges. Presenter David Johnson, Achates Power Inc.

Abstract Gasoline particulate filters (GPFs) are important aftertreatment components that enable gasoline direct injection (GDI) engines to meet European Union (EU) 6 and China 6 particulate number emissions regulations for nonvolatile particles greater than 23 nm in diameter. GPFs are rapidly becoming an integral part of the modern GDI aftertreatment system. The Active Exhaust Tuning (EXTUN) Valve is a butterfly valve placed in the tailpipe of an exhaust system that can be electronically positioned to control exhaust noise levels (decibels) under various vehicle operating conditions. This device is positioned downstream of the GPF, and variations in the tuning valve position can impact exhaust backpressures, making it difficult to monitor soot/ash accumulation or detect damage/removal of the GPF substrate. The purpose of this work is to present a unique example of subsystem control and diagnostic architecture for an exhaust system combining GPF and EXTUN.

In order to satisfy a single-fuel mandate, the U.S. Department of Defense has a need for engines in the 20 to 50 hp range to power midsized Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and the ability to operate on JP-8 also known as “heavy” fuel. It is possible to convert two-stroke aircraft engines designed to operate on a gasoline-oil mixture to run on JP-8/oil using the Sonex Combustion System (SCS) developed by Sonex Research, Inc. Conversion of the engine involves replacing the cylinder heads with new components designed to accept a steel combustion ring insert. Also required are glow-plugs to preheat the cylinder head prior to engine start. The converted engine produces the same power output as the stock engine operating on gasoline. Conversion of both a 20 hp and 40 hp engine was successfully achieved using the SCS.

In a two-stroke engine, carbon is a natural by-product of incomplete combustion. Fuel and oil quality vary leading to various degrees of carbon deposit build up on critical engine parts over time. If the carbon deposits are left on engine components and allowed to accumulate, it can lead to reduced horsepower, reduced fuel economy, increased emissions, and in the worst case the deposits can cause engine damage. A novel two-stroke engine oil was developed specifically to remove these deposits, restore the operating efficiency, and potentially lengthen the useful life of the two-stroke engine. In order to prove the restorative ability of this novel technology, dynamometer tests and field trials were conducted. In the dynamometer portion, the oil was tested in two of the standard TC-W3® certification tests for marine engine oils. The first was the OMC 40HP and the second was the OMC 70HP test.

The target of substantial CO₂ reductions in the spirit of the Kyoto Protocol as well as higher engine efficiency requirements has increased research efforts into hybridization of passenger cars. In the frame of this hybridization, there is a real need to develop small Internal Combustion Engines (ICE) with high power density. The two-stroke cycle can be a solution to reach these goals, allowing reductions of engine displacement, size and weight while maintaining good NVH, power and consumption levels. Reducing the number of cylinders, could also help reduce engine cost. Taking advantage of a strong interaction between the design office, 0D system simulations and 3D CFD computations, a specific methodology was set up in order to define a first optimized version of a two-stroke uniflow diesel engine. The main geometrical specifications (displacement, architecture) were chosen at the beginning of the study based on a bibliographic pre-study and the power target in terms.

Depending on a vehicles drive cycle, an improvement of the overall drivetrain efficiency does not necessarily have to go along with an improvement of its mileage. In here the ratio of energy to overcome rolling resistance, aerodynamic drag, acceleration and energy wasted directly in wheel brakes is responsible for potentially differing trends. A detailed knowledge of energy flows, sources and sinks makes up a substantial step into optimizing any drive train. Most fuel energy leaves the drivetrain via exhaust pipes. Next to usable mechanical energy, a big amount is spent to heat up the system directly or to overcome drive train friction, which is converted into heat to warm up the system additionally. An in depth quantification of the most important energy flows for an upper middle-sized class gasoline powered drive train is given as results of warm-up cycle simulations.

Because of todays new emissions legislation, a new 45cc Husqvarna trimmer/clearing saw power head was needed. When reducing emissions in a conventional two-stroke engine or a stratified scavenged engine, it is important that the tuning and basic scavenging characteristics of the standard engine are maintained. A dual charge intake system is necessary for the stratified engine but it also creates air fuel delivery issues compared to a standard two stroke engine. With increasing trapping efficiency more spent gases mixes with the fresh charge, creating less favorable combustion properties and thermal loading on the engine. On top of this the sequential stratified scavenging technology introduces a spatial inhomogeneous mix problem between scavenging fresh air, new mixture and spent gases. This all add sensitivity to long term stability due to deposits of carbon both in combustion chamber and exhaust duct, resulting in a change in engine parameters due to aging.

Small gasoline engines are used in motorcycles and handheld machinery, because of their high power density, low cost and compact design. The reduction of hydrocarbon emissions and fuel consumption is an important factor regarding the upcoming emission standards and operational expenses. The scavenging process of the two-stroke engine causes scavenging losses. A reduction in hydrocarbon emissions due to scavenging losses can be achieved through inner mixture formation using direct injection (DI). The time frame for fuel vaporization is limited using two-stroke SI engines by the high number of revolutions. A high pressure DI system was used to offer fast and accurate injections. An injection pressure of up to 140 MPa was provided by a common rail system, built out of components normally used in automotive engineering. A standard electromagnetic injector is applied for the fuel injection. This injection unit is dimensioned for multi-point injections in diesel engines.

Fuel efficiency and torque performance are two major challenges for highly downsized turbocharged engines. However, the inherent characteristics of the turbocharged SI engine such as negative PMEP, knock sensitivity and poor transient performance significantly limit its maximum potential. Conventional ways of improving the problems above normally concentrate solely on the engine side or turbocharger side leaving the exhaust manifold in between ignored. This paper investigates this neglected area by highlighting a novel means of gas exchange process. Divided Exhaust Period (DEP) is an alternative way of accomplishing the gas exchange process in turbocharged engines. The DEP concept engine features two exhaust valves but with separated function. The blow-down valve acts like a traditional turbocharged exhaust valve to evacuate the first portion of the exhaust gas to the turbine.

A combination of optical and laser based methods have been employed for simultaneously studying fuel jet penetration and ignition behaviour of fuel jets inside the cylinder of a large marine two-stroke diesel engine during operation. Tests were performed on a four-cylinder Diesel engine with a bore diameter of 0.5 meter. Optical access was obtained through a custom designed engine cover. A double pulsed laser was employed for global illumination of the liquid fuel jet. For detection a dual camera set-up was employed, which allowed both simultaneous fuel jet and flame emission imaging, or dual frame fuel jet imaging for velocity measurements. From the data recorded the liquid penetration, jet cone angle, jet penetration velocity, ignition location, ignition time and flame lift-off could be extracted. Data was recorded for two different charge densities and temperatures, for two different atomizer designs, and for two different fuels.

One of the most significant current discussions worldwide is the anthropogenic climate change accompanying fossil fuel consumption. Sustainable development in all fields of combustion engines is required with the principal objective to enhance efficiency. This certainly concerns the field of hand-held power tools as well. Today, two-stroke SI engines equipped with a carburetor are the most widely used propulsion technology in hand-held power tools like chain saws and grass trimmers. To date, research tended to focus on two-stroke engines with rich mixture setting. In this paper the advantages and challenges of leaner and/or lean operation are discussed. Experimental investigations regarding the influence of equivalence ratio on emissions, fuel consumption and power have been performed. Accompanying 3D-CFD simulations support the experiments in order to gain insight into these complex processes. The investigations concentrate on two different mixture formation processes, i.e.

An afterburner-assisted turbocharged single-cylinder 425 cc two-stroke SI-engine is described in this simulation study. This engine is intended as a Backup Range Extender (REX) application for heavy-duty battery electric vehicles (BEV) when external electric charging is unavailable. The 425 cc engine is an upscaled version of a 125 cc port-injected engine [26] which demonstrated that the selected technology could provide a specific power level of 400 kW/L and the desired 150 kW in a heavy duty BEV application. The 425 cc single cylinder two-stroke engine is an existing engine as one half of a 850 cc snowmobile engine. This simulation study includes upscaling of the swept volume, impact on engine speed and gas exchange properties. In the same way as for the 125cc engine [26], the exhaust gases reaches the turbine through a tuned exhaust pipe and an afterburner or oxidation catalyst.

As per current global trends, low tailpipe and evaporative emissions is a major focus area in automotive development. This has led to imposition of stringent emission limits on both tailpipe and evaporative emission norms. In the field of evaporative emissions, the fuel valves must meet zero-leak of fuel to canister requirement under different operating conditions. Corresponding sealing design iterations and evaluating the performance through lab testing is time and cost consuming. Present study considers FEA based sealing analysis considering elastomeric-plastic interface using ANSYS®. The designs are evaluated by comparing surface contact of seal with valve orifice. In present study, different combinations of shape, size of plastic and elastomeric parts, material stiffness, axis position of elastomeric & plastic parts and use of supporting structure for elastomeric parts were evaluated.

Two-stroke opposed piston engines (2sOPEs) have great potential for industrial applications due to their simple design, technology and high efficiency, particularly with a turbocharging system. The paper presents possibilities for altering 2sOPE working parameters by changing geometrical parameters and boosting parameters. Obtaining higher engine efficiency is realised by altering the crank phase shift of the exhaust piston in relation to the transfer piston. It has been assumed that only the piston of the exhaust cylinder changes its position relative to the piston in the cylinder with transfer ports. Modifying the scavenging process by changing pistons’ position through connecting with two crankshafts enables asymmetrical scavenging timing. Closing the exhaust ports before the compression process and extending the time allotted to empty exhaust gases from the cylinder provides greater engine work, and a high boost ratio increases engine power.

The turbochargers are driven by unsteady, pulsating flow. Such flow is generated by the exhaust phase of an internal combustion engine (ICE). A lot of turbocharger simulations are done during steady-state operation. Such simulations are favorable for turbocharger optimization at a certain operating point. However, the frequency and amplitude of exhaust pulses can heavily influence turbine performance. This paper presents the results of the three-dimensional (3-D) simulations of the six-inlet turbocharger turbine, under pulsating operation with a moving mesh approach. One of the key points of interest was the separation of the pressure pulses from the six-exhaust pipes during engine operation. The leakage between the exhaust pipes was analyzed at each time step at the different turbine speed. Another key point was the turbine response during pulsating flow at the different rotor speed.

Oxides of Nitrogen (NOx) emissions are considered as among the most harmful emissions globally having a direct influence on human beings and the environment. This work deals with a strategy to arrive at achieving lower NOx values consistently in mass production of single cylinder automotive diesel engines meeting BS IV Emission standards using the DoE technique for dimensional optimization of critical parameters. Catalytic converters and particulate filters are mostly used as after - treatment devices for compression Ignition (CI) engines for bringing down the limits (Values) of the pollutants from the tail pipes. But the real ingenuity lies in achieving the same effect through optimization of in - cylinder combustion.

Short development cycles, less packaging space and stringent noise emission rules have increased the need of CAE usage and first time right design approach. Engine exhaust noise is the main contributor of automotive noise when vehicle speed is low to moderate. Exhaust noise contains tailpipe noise and shell radiation noise. As vehicle speed increases, contribution of flow noise and tire noise is comparatively at higher side. The cold end development engineer is responsible to design a muffler to meet tailpipe and shell radiation noise targets. Muffler shell stiffness is a key characteristic for deciding shell radiation noise. High intensity pulses of exhaust gas passes through the exhaust pipe and hits cold end from inside which causes shell vibration and respectively shell noise. There are several conventional methods available to improve shell stiffness, but all of them are not applicable for ‘double layered critically shaped mufflers’ and all of them are not cost-effective.

A radiation-based 2-color method (2C) and light extinction imaging (LEI) have been performed simultaneously to obtain two-dimensional soot distribution information within a diesel spray flame. All the measurements were conducted in an optically accessible two-stroke engine equipped with a single-hole injector. The fuel used here is a blend of 30% Decane and 70% Hexadecane (in mass). According to previous research, operating conditions with three different flame soot amounts were investigated. The main purpose of this work is to evaluate the two soot diagnostics techniques, after proper conversion of soot-related values from both methods. All the KL extinction values are lower than the saturation limit. As expected, both techniques show sensitivity with the parametric variation. The soot amount increases with higher ambient gas temperature and lower injection pressure. However, the LEI technique presents more sensitivity to the soot quantity.

A method of predictive simulation of flow-induced noise using computational fluid dynamics has been developed. The goal for the developed method was application in the vehicle development process, and the target of the research was therefore set as balancing the realization of a practical level of predictive accuracy and a practical computation time. In order to simulate flow-induced noise, it is necessary to compute detailed eddy flows and changes in the density of the air. In the research discussed in this paper, the occurrence or non-occurrence of flow-induced noise was predicted by conducting unsteady compressible flow calculation using large eddy simulation, a type of turbulence model. The target flow-induced noise for prediction was narrow-band noise, a type of noise in which sound increases in specific frequency ranges.

This study investigated the origin of knocking combustion accompanied by pressure wave and strong pressure oscillations in a Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) engine. Experiments were conducted with a two-stroke single cylinder optically accessible engine that allowed the entire bore area to be visualized. The test fuel used was n-heptane. The equivalence ratio and intake temperature were varied to induce a transition from moderate HCCI combustion to extremely rapid HCCI combustion accompanied by in-cylinder pressure oscillations. Local autoignition and pressure wave behavior under each set of operating conditions were investigated in detail on the basis of high-speed in-cylinder visualization and in-cylinder pressure analysis. As a result, under conditions where strong knocking occurs, a brilliant flame originates from the burned gas side in the process where the locally occurring autoignition gradually spreads to multiple locations.