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In order to clarify the reason why NOx emissions factor becomes higher at vehicle acceleration at intersections etc, two freight vehicles, that have EGR system for the reduction of NOx, were tested by an on-board NOx measurement system. Higher NOx emissions factor was observed in operations in lower-gear operation for each vehicle. Since the engine speed change was higher in the operation of lower gears, NOx emissions characteristics were analyzed in view of engine torque, NOx mass emissions and EGR rate, considering engine speed change. It was found that lower-gear operations made the engine speed change higher and the EGR rate lower. This seems to be one of the factors to engender the intensive NOx pollution at roadsides.

Prediction of the discharge path behavior between electrodes on a spark plug is important for efficient energy use in internal combustion engines, especially in lean combustion. In this paper, we propose a numerical model for the prediction of the spark path behaviors based on the coupling of a flow field, a Lagrangian particle model, and an equivalent circuit model. A turbulent flow around cylinders imitating electrodes is solved using a direct numerical simulation, in which Lagrangian particles along the spark path are tracked. Electric current and inter-electrode voltage are computed based on the energy conversion rate from the circuit to the mixture gas. As a result, a discharge path is reproduced with Lagrangian tracking particles virtually aligned between the cylinders. The spark path has a complicated structure along the spanwise direction due to the complex three-dimensional vortical structure of the cylinder wake.

This study tried to find a potential of dedicated EGR (d-EGR) system added to the four-cylinder spark ignition (SI) engine to decrease heat loss (Qheatloss) and improve thermal efficiency (ηth). Test fuels were chosen by methane and propane. PREMIX code in CHEMKIN-PRO was employed to calculate laminar burning velocity (SL) and flame temperature (Tf). Wiebe function and Wocshni's heat transfer coefficient were considered to calculate ηth. The results show that the d-EGR system increased ηth and it was higher than that of stoichiometric combustion of conventional SI engines due to the low Tf and fast SL.

Ignition by Nanosecond Repetitively Pulsed Discharges (NRPD) at EXponential Increase of Minimum Ignition Energy (MIE-EXI) region under super lean SI engine conditions was studied. Fundamental experiments were conducted with a turbulent ignition test chamber with twin counter-rotating fans. The MIE-EXI region by arc discharge appeared over 6500 rpm of fan speed. In the MIE-EXI region (7000 rpm), successful ignition was achieved by establishing coupled ignition kernels with NRPD at 15 kHz although ignition was unsuccessful at 1 kHz. Results show that ignition by NRPD has potential advantages for lean burn applications. Preliminary engine test results with NRPD were also demonstrated.

The dynamics model and model-based controller (LQG servo controller) have been constructed to improve performance of diesel engine in transient condition. The input parameters of the model are fuel quantity of main injection, timing of main injection, fuel quantity of pilot injection, timing of pilot injection, external EGR ratio and boost pressure. The parameters that are succeeded between cycles to express transient condition are residual gas temperature and of residual oxygen. In the model, one cycle is discretized into 10 representative points. The precision of the accuracy of the model and the responsiveness of the controller were confirmed.

It has been shown that lean burn is effective for improving the thermal efficiency of gasoline SI engines. This happens because the reduction of heat loss by decrease of flame temperature. On the other hand, the fuel dilution of the premixed gas makes the combustion speed low, and cycle-to-cycle variations of combustion are increased by excessive dilution, it is difficult to increase the thermal efficiency of the gasoline SI engine. Influence of ignition by spark discharge is considered as a factor of combustion variation, and it is necessary to understand the effects of spark discharge characteristics on the lean combustion process. Spark discharge in the SI engines supplies energy to the premixed-gas via a discharge channel in the spark plug gap which ignites the premixed-gas. The discharge channel is elongated by in-cylinder gas flow and its behavior varies in each cycles.

When the compression ratio of the spark ignition engine is set high as a method of improving the fuel efficiency of passenger cars, it is often combined with the direct fuel injection system for knock mitigation. In port injection, there are also situations where the fuel is guided into the cylinder while the vaporization is insufficient, especially at the cold start. If the fuel is introduced into the cylinder in a liquid state, the temperature in the cylinder will change due to sensible heat and latent heat of the fuel during vaporization. Further, if the fuel is unevenly distributed in the cylinder, the effect of the specific heat is added, and the local temperature difference is expanded through the compression process. In this research, an experiment was conducted using a rapid compression machine for the purpose of discussing the effect of the temperature-pressure time history of fuel on ignition delay time.

In this study, effects of nozzle hole diameter and EGR ratio on flame temperature (indication of NO formation) and KL value (indication of soot formation) were investigated. Combustion of a single diesel fuel spray in the cylinder of a rapid compression machine (RCM) was analyzed. Three nozzles with different hole diameter were used corresponding to present, near term and long term heavy duty diesel engine specifications. EGR was simulated through 2%vol. CO2 addition to the inlet air and by increase of in-cylinder surrounding gas temperature. Various types of fuels were used in this. The ignition and combustion processes of diesel fuel spray were observed by a high-speed direct photography and by indicated pressure diagrams. Flame temperature and KL factor were analyzed by a two-color method. With larger nozzle hole diameters there are larger high temperature areas. With smaller nozzle hole diameters there is more soot formed. Introduction of 2% vol.

Knock is a factor hindering enhancement of the thermal efficiency of spark ignition engines, and is an unsteady phenomenon that does not necessarily occur each cycle. In addition, the heat release history of the flame also fluctuates from cycle to cycle, and the auto-ignition process of the unburned mixture (end-gas), compressed by the global increase in pressure due to release of chemical energy, is affected by this fluctuation. Regarding auto-ignition of the end-gas, which can be the origin of knock, this study focused on the fluctuation of the flame heat release pattern, and used a zero-dimensional (0D) detailed chemical reaction calculation in an attempt to analyze and examine the consequence on the end-gas compression and auto-ignition process of changes in the i) start of combustion, ii) combustion duration and iii) center of heat release of the flame.

Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) engine attracts much attention because of its high thermal efficiency and low NOx, PM emissions. On the other hand, Di-Methyl Ether (DME) is expected as one of alternative fuel for the internal combustion engines. In this study, four-stroke HCCI engine running on DME is developed to make it realistic application in production engines. This paper shows construction of the control method using both internal EGR at high temperature and external EGR at low temperature and estimates the performance of developed HCCI engine. Besides combustion characteristics of DME and the effects of EGR are researched with experiment and numerical calculation with elementary reactions. As a result, developed HCCI engine got comparable high thermal efficiency to conventional diesel engine but much lower Indicated Mean Effective Pressure (IMEP) than that. Meanwhile it can be said that DME is suitable fuel for the HCCI engines in combustion characteristics.

Improving the thermal efficiency of spark ignition (SI) engine is strongly required due to its widespread use but considerably less efficiency than that of compression ignition (CI) engine. Although lean SI engine operation can offer substantial improvements of the thermal efficiency relative to that of traditional stoichiometric SI operation, the cycle-to-cycle variations of combustion increases with the level of air dilution, and becomes unacceptable. To improve the stability of lean operation, this study examines the effects of spark discharge pattern and tumble level on cycle-to-cycle variations of combustion at lean limits. The spark discharge pattern was altered by a custom inductive ignition system using ten spark coils and the tumble level was increased by a custom adapter installed in the intake port (tumble adapter).

Nowadays, highly super charging is required corresponded to downsizing concept for improving thermal efficiency in direct-injected spark ignition (DISI) engine. However, highly super charging increases the possibility of super-knock caused by pre-ignition. Recently, in many studies, the reason of pre-ignition has been investigated but the reason why pre-ignition leads such strong knocking called super-knock has not been investigated. In DISI engine, it is estimated that there is more inhomogeneity of equivalence ratio and temperature of air-fuel mixture than it in port injection SI engine. In this study, factors which decide self-ignition timing was reviewed and the influence of inhomogeneity of air-fuel mixture to super-knock was investigated based on numerical calculation.

This work has been investigated the potential of in-cylinder EGR stratification for reducing the pressure rise rate of DME HCCI engines, and the coupling of both thermal stratification and fuel stratification. The numerical analyses were done by using five-zone version of CHEMKIN-II kinetics rate code, and kinetic mechanics for DME. The effects of inert components were used for the presence of EGR in calculation. Three cases of EGR stratification were tested on both thermal stratification and fuel stratification at the fixed initial temperature, pressure and fueling rate at BDC. In order to explore the appropriate stratification of EGR, EGR width was employed from zero to thirty percent. Firstly, EGR homogeneity case which means EGR width zero was examined. Secondly, EGR is located densely in hotter zone for combining with thermal stratification or in richer zone for a combination with fuel stratification. Lastly, the case was judged inversely with the second case.

The characteristics of cycle-to-cycle variations of indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP) with combustion-phasing retard have been investigated experimentally and computationally in an homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) engine using dimethyl ether (DME). The experiments were conducted in a single-cylinder HCCI research engine equipped with an exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) passage for external EGR and a two-stage exhaust cam for rebreathed EGR. To understand the chemical effects of rebreathed EGR, which is assumed to contribute to the autoignition enhancement, the computations were performed with a single-zone model of CHEMKIN using a chemical-kinetic mechanism developed by combining DME mechanism and NOx submechanism.

To adhere to stringent environmental regulations, SI (spark ignition) engines are required to achieve higher thermal efficiency. In recent years, EGR (exhaust gas recirculation) systems and lean-burn operation has been recognized as key technologies. Under such operating conditions, reducing CCV (cycle-to-cycle variation) in combustion is critical to the enhancement of overall engine performance. Flow-field CCV is one of the considerable factors affecting combustion in engines. Conventionally, in research on flow fields in SI engines, the ensemble average is used to separate the measured velocity field into a mean component and a fluctuation component, the latter of which contains a CCV component and a turbulent component. To extract the CCV of the flow field, previous studies employed spatial filter, temporal filter, and POD (proper orthogonal decomposition) methods.

This study computationally investigates the combined effects of EGR and boost pressure on HCCI autoignition using iso-octane, PRF50 and n-heptane. The computations were conducted using the single-zone model of CHEMKIN included in CHEMKIN-PRO with detailed chemical-kinetics mechanisms for iso-octane, PRF and n-heptane from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). To better reproduce the state of EGR addition in real engine, the EGR composition is determined after several combustion cycles under the constant amount of fuel. All data points were acquired with a CA50 of 5°CA aTDC by adjusting initial temperature to remove the effect of combustion phasing, which can influence on HCCI autoignition from any effect of the EGR and boost pressure themselves. The results show that EGR increases the burn duration and reduces the maximum pressure-rise rate with lower peak of maximum heat-release rates for all fuels even for a boost pressure, which accelerates a HCCI autoignition propensity.