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Silicon Carbide (SiC) has been shown to have a high melting/decomposition temperature, good mechanical strength, and high thermal conductivity, which make it well suited for use as a material for diesel particulate filters. The high thermal conductivity of the material tends to reduce the temperature gradients and maximum temperature which arise during regeneration. The purpose of this paper is to experimentally investigate the thermal loading which arise under regenerations of varying severity. An experimental study is presented, in which regenerations of varying severity are conducted for uncoated SiC and Cordierite filters. The severity is varied through changes in the particle loading on the filters and by changing the flow conditions during the regeneration process itself. Temperature distributions throughout the filters are measured during these regeneration.

A detailed description of a numerical method for computing unsteady flows in engine intake and exhaust systems is given. The calculations include the effects of heat transfer and friction. The inclusion of such calculations in a mathematically simulated engine cycle is discussed and results shown for several systems. In particular, the effects of bell-mouth versus plain pipe terminations and the effects of a finite surge tank are calculated. Experimental data on the effect of heat transfer from the back of the intake valve on wave damping are given and show the effect to be negligible. Experimental data on wave damping during the valve closed period and on the temperature rise of the air near the valve are also given.

The ratio of two temperature gradients across the combustion-chamber wall in a diesel engine is used to provide a heat flow ratio showing the radiant heat transfer as a per cent of local total heat transfer. The temperature gradients were obtained with a thermocouple junction on each side of the combustion-chamber wall. The first temperature gradient was obtained by covering the thermocouple at the cylinder gas-wall interface with a thin sapphire window, while the second was obtained without the window. Results show that the time-average radiant heat transfer is of significant magnitude in a diesel engine, and is probably even more significant in heat transfer during combustion and expansion.

The objective of this research was to investigate the effect of injection pressure on air entrainment into transient diesel sprays. The main application of interest was the direct injection diesel engine. Particle Image Velocimetry was used to make measurements of the air entrainment velocities into a spray plume as a function of time and space. A hydraulically actuated, electronically controlled unit injector (HEUI) system was used to supply the fuel into a pressurized spray chamber. The gas chamber density was maintained at 27 kg/m3. The injection pressures that were studied in this current research project were 117.6 MPa and 132.3 MPa. For different injection pressures, during the initial two-thirds of the spray plume there was little difference in the velocities normal to the spray surface. For the last third of the spray plume, the normal velocities were 125% higher for the high injection pressure case.

Diesel fuels are complex mixtures of thousands of hydrocarbons. Since modeling their combustion characteristics with the inclusion of all hydrocarbon species is not feasible, a hybrid surrogate model approach is used in the present work to represent the physical and chemical properties of three different diesel fuels by using up to 13 and 4 separate hydrocarbon species, respectively. The surrogates are arrived at by matching their distillation profiles and important properties with the real fuel, while the chemistry surrogates are arrived at by using a Group Chemistry Representation (GCR) method wherein the hydrocarbon species in the physical property surrogates are grouped based on their chemical classes, and the chemistry of each class is represented by using up to two hydrocarbon species.

This work presents the experimental investigation of Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF) regeneration and a calibration procedure of a 1D DPF simulation model based on the commercial software AVL BOOST v. 5.1. Model constants and parameters are fitted on the basis of a number of steady state DPF experiments where the DPF is exposed to real engine exhaust gas in a test bed. The DPF is a silicon carbide filter of the wall flow type without a catalytic coating. A key task concerning the DPF model calibration is to perform accurate DPF experiments because measured gas concentrations, temperatures and soot mass concentrations are used as model boundary conditions. An in-house-developed raw exhaust gas sampling technique is used to measure the soot concentration upstream the DPF which is also needed to find the DPF soot burn rate.

This work concerns the modelling of soot formation process in diesel spray combustion under engine-like conditions. The key aim is to investigate the soot formation characteristics at different ambient temperatures. Prior to simulating the diesel combustion, numerical models including a revised multi-step soot model is validated by comparing to the experimental data of n-dodecane fuel in which the associated chemistry is better understood. In the diesel spray simulations, a single component n-heptane mechanism and the multi-component Diesel Oil Surrogate (DOS) model are adopted. A newly developed C16-based model which comprises skeletal mechanisms of n-hexadecane, heptamethylnonane, cyclohexane and toluene is also implemented. Comparisons of the results show that the simulated liftoff lengths are reasonably well-matched to the experimental measurement, where the relative differences are retained to below 18%.

A detailed mathematical model of the thermodynamic events of a crankcase scavenged, two-stroke, SI engine is described. The engine is divided into three thermodynamic systems: the cylinder gases, the crankcase gases, and the inlet system gases. Energy balances, mass continuity equations, the ideal gas law, and thermodynamic property relationships are combined to give a set of coupled ordinary differential equations which describe the thermodynamic states encountered by the systems of the engine during one cycle of operation. A computer program is used to integrate the equations, starting with estimated initial thermodynamic conditions and estimated metal surface temperatures. The program iterates the cycle, adjusting the initial estimates, until the final conditions agree with the beginning conditions, that is, until a cycle results.

Many of the materials which have been developed for use as particle filters in the exhaust of diesel engines have characteristics which give rise to significant problems in practical use. Due to its special characteristics, it is shown that SiC is very well suited for use as the base material for particulate filters. The physical and thermal properties of porous SiC substrate material as applied to diesel particulate filters have been determined and are presented. Experimental results from several types of filter regeneration processes in exhaust gas systems confirm the improvements in the area of thermal load and reduction in temperature level during regeneration. The reduction in temperature during regeneration is shown to be consistent with the high thermal conductivity of SiC.

Highly time resolved measurements of cylinder pressure acquired simultaneously from three transducers were used to investigate the nature of knocking combustion and to identify biases that the pressure measurements induce. It was shown by investigating the magnitude squared coherence (MSC) between the transducer signals that frequency content above approximately 40 kHz does not originate from a common source, i.e., it originates from noise sources. The major source of noise at higher frequency is the natural frequency of the transducer that is excited by the impulsive knock event; even if the natural frequency is above the sampling frequency it can affect the measurements by aliasing. The MSC analysis suggests that 40 kHz is the appropriate cutoff frequency for low-pass filtering the pressure signal. Knowing this, one can isolate the knock event from noise more accurately.

An experimental study is presented in which the use of neat dimethyl ether (DME) in a small non-turbo-charged diesel engine is demonstrated. It was found that with only minor fuel system modifications, DME gave very satisfactory combustion, performance and emissions. Engine operation with thermal efficiency equivalent to diesel fuel was achieved with much lower NOx emissions and with extremely low smoke and less engine noise. Additional NO, reductions were obtained by the use of EGR, without visible smoke and without deterioration in thermal efficiency, A limited durability study showed that the diesel fuel injection pump could operate on DME for more than 500 hours. A comparison of pure and technical grade DME was conducted.

A novel base metal-palladium catalytic coating was applied on commercial silicon carbide wall flow diesel filters and tested in an engine test bench. This catalytic coating limits the NO2 formation and even removes NO2 within a wide temperature range. Soot combustion, HC conversion and CO conversion properties are comparable to current platinum-based coatings, but at a lower cost. This paper compares the results from engine bench tests of present commercial solutions as regards NO2-, HC-, CO-removal and soot combustion with the novel coating. Furthermore, emission test results from base metal-palladium coated diesel particulate filters installed on operating taxis and related test cycle data are presented. A significant reduction in NO2 emission compared to present technology is measured.

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of diesel engine conditions on the mutagenic activity of the exhaust. Special emphasis was put on investigation of the influence of nitrogen oxides content. Experiments with a diesel engine have been carried out in the laboratory and the emissions of carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx) and particulate matter (PM) have been measured at different engine conditions. The particulate matter was extracted in order to obtain the soluble organic fraction (SOF), and this fraction was analyzed for mutagenic activity in the Salmonella/microsome assay (AMES test). It was found that the mutagenic activity evidently depended on the PAH content (PAH = Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons) of the exhaust gas rather than the NOx content. However, the percentage of the direct mutagenic activity of the total mutagenic activity increased as the NOx content in the exhaust gas increased.

A computational, three-dimensional approach to investigate the behavior of diesel soot particles in the micro-channels of wall-flow Diesel Particulate Filters is presented. The KIVA3V CFD code, already extended to solve the 2D conservation equations for porous media materials [1], has been enhanced to solve in 2-D and 3-D the governing equations for reacting and compressible flows through porous media in non axes-symmetric geometries. With respect to previous work [1], a different mathematical approach has been followed in the implementation of the numerical solver for porous media, in order to achieve a faster convergency as source terms were added to the governing equations. The Darcy pressure drop has been included in the Navier-Stokes equations and the energy equation has been extended to account for the thermal exchange between the gas flow and the porous wall.

The new generation of electronic Diesel fuel injection systems with special solenoid valves presents a complicated mechanical/electrical system. It involves a combination of mechanical motion, hydraulic pressure wave propagation, and the transient magnetic and electrical processes which interact with other. In this paper, the coupled dynamic behavior of the new system is studied based on a research type electronic pump-pipe-injector system developed by authors. A general physical model is established, which includes other structure types such as the electronic unit injector and the electronic distributor pump system. Traditional mathematical models for conventional mechanical injection system or conventional solenoid valves, alone or simply connected, are not suitable for the new type of injection system. Therefore, a new comprehensive mathematical model is formulated.

3-D Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations have been performed to study particulate formation in a Spark-Ignition (SI) engine under premixed conditions. A semi-detailed soot model and a chemical kinetic model, including poly-aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) formation, were coupled with a spark ignition model and the G equation flame propagation model for SI engine simulations and for predictions of soot mass and particulate number density. The simulation results for in-cylinder pressure and particle size distribution (PSDs) are compared to available experimental studies of equivalence ratio effects during premixed operation. Good predictions are observed with regard to cylinder pressure, combustion phasing and engine load. Qualitative agreements of in-cylinder particle distributions were also obtained and the results are helpful to understand particulate formation processes.

The performance of a structural design significantly depends upon the assumptions made on input load. In order to estimate the input load, during the design and development stage of the suspension assembly of a BAJA car, designers and analysts invest immense amount of time and effort to formulate the mathematical model of the design. These theoretical formulations may include idealization errors which can affect the performance of the car as a final product. Due to the errors associated with the assumption of design load, several components might have more weight or may have less strength than needed. This discrepancy between the assumed input load (lab or theoretical studies) and the actual load from the environment can be eliminated by performing a real life testing process using load recovery methodology. Commercial load cells exist in industry to give engineers insight to understanding the complex real world loading of their structures.

Sector mesh modeling is the dominant computational approach for combustion system design optimization. The aim of this work is to quantify the errors descending from the sector mesh approach through three geometric modeling approaches to an optical diesel engine. A full engine geometry mesh is created, including valves and intake and exhaust ports and runners, and a full-cycle flow simulation is performed until fired TDC. Next, an axisymmetric sector cylinder mesh is initialized with homogeneous bulk in-cylinder initial conditions initialized from the full-cycle simulation. Finally, a 360-degree azimuthal mesh of the cylinder is initialized with flow and thermodynamics fields at IVC mapped from the full engine geometry using a conservative interpolation approach. A study of the in-cylinder flow features until TDC showed that the geometric features on the cylinder head (valve tilt and protrusion into the combustion chamber, valve recesses) have a large impact on flow complexity.

In this reported work, 2-dimsensional computational fluid dynamics studies of n-heptane combustion and soot formation processes in the Sandia constant-volume vessel are carried out. The key interest here is to elucidate how the chemical kinetics affects the combustion and soot formation events. Numerical computation is performed using OpenFOAM and chemistry coordinate mapping (CCM) approach is used to expedite the calculation. Three n-heptane kinetic mechanisms with different chemistry sizes and comprehensiveness in oxidation pathways and soot precursor formation are adopted. The three examined chemical models use acetylene (C2H2), benzene ring (A1) and pyrene (A4) as soot precursor. They are henceforth addressed as nhepC2H2, nhepA1 and nhepA4, respectively for brevity. Here, a multistep soot model is coupled with the spray combustion solver to simulate the soot formation/oxidation processes.

The higher cylinder peak pressure and pressure rise rate of modern diesel and gasoline fueled engines tend to increase combustion noise while customers demand lower noise. The multiple degrees of freedom in engine control and calibration mean there is more scope to influence combustion noise but this must first be measured before it can be balanced with other attributes. An efficient means to realize this is to calculate combustion noise from the in-cylinder pressure measurements that are routinely acquired as part of the engine development process. This publication reviews the techniques required to ensure accurate and precise combustion noise measurements. First, the dynamic range must be maximized by using an analogue to digital converter with sufficient number of bits and selecting an appropriate range in the test equipment.