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In order to improve the ignition capacity and burning rate for spark-ignited engines, pre-chamber jet ignition is a promising technique to achieve fast premixed combustion and low pollutant emissions. However, few studies focus on the interaction between multiple reacting (i.e. flamelet) or reacted (i.e. radical) jets, its effect on ignition, exotherm and flow behaviors also remain to be revealed. This paper investigated two types of jet interaction under different pre-chamber structures, including the jet-crossing and unequal nozzle designs. Optical experiments under different conditions were conducted in a constant volume combustion chamber with CH4 as fuel, using simultaneous high speed schlieren and OH* chemiluminescence method. Meanwhile, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations with CH4 and NH3/CH4 blend fuels were carried out using Converge software to provide further insights of turbulent flow and ignition process.

During the engaging process of sleeve and teeth ring in mechanical transmissions, their rotational speed and position differences cause multiple engaging ways and trajectories, and casual impacts between them will delay the engaging process and cause a long power off time for a gear shift. In order to reveal the engaging mechanism of the sleeve and the teeth ring, it is essential to build a high-fidelity model to cover all of their engaging ways and capture their speed changes for an impact. In this work, our contribution is that their impact process is modeled as a precise, continuous and nonlinear damping model, and then a hybrid automaton model is built to connect the system dynamics in different mechanical coupling relationships.

Based on the third generation of hydraulic engine mounts (HEMs), which has three types of hydraulic mechanisms such as inertia track, decoupler and disturbing plate, the influences of the three different hydraulic mechanisms on the dynamic properties were studied experimentally. The working principles of the three hydraulic mechanisms and the relationship between the dynamic properties of the three generations of HEMs were revealed clearly, these experimental results will be helpful for HEM design selection. It was discovered experimentally that the frequency-dependent dynamic properties of HEM with inertia track or orifice have fixed points under different excitation displacement amplitudes. Based on the facts that the analytical results matched well with the experimental ones, a new parameter-identification-method for HEM is presented, which is clear in theory and is time- and cost-saving, the identified results were reliable.

This paper presents an investigation of drivability issue of engine start-stop. Hybrid vehicles provide excellent benefits regarding fuel efficiency and emission. However, vibration results from constant engine start and stop events generate drivability issues, thus compromising driving comfort. This paper has designed a high speed torque sensor to capture instantaneous torque at the engine shaft. Its consequences help to find out the most suitable index of vibration severity. This paper is organized in four sections. The first section introduces the powertrain to be studied. The second section introduces development of a specially designed torque sensor. The torque sensor is installed between the engine and ISG (Integrated Starter Generator), alongside with an encoder. The torque sensor is utilized to collect the instantaneous shaft torque on occasion of engine start. In the third section, this paper has performed two experiments.

At first, the dynamic electromagnetic characteristics of a pulsed solenoid valve is analyzed by experiments. The fast valve response is obtained by material modifications. Then, the intelligent solenoid driving method is discussed. The new techniques of the “active” PWM and the “d2i/dt2” detection are developed for feedback control of the solenoid holding current and the valve closure timing. Finally, the control and diagnosis method for the valve closure duration is investigated. A sensing mechanism utilizing momentary camshaft speed fluctuations of fuel injection pump is presented, which provides the basis for feedback control and diagnosis of the valve closure duration and diesel fuel injection process.

A plateau self-adapted turbocharging system based on variable geometry turbocharger (VGT) technology is proposed to solve the problem of diesel engine operating at plateau. The control strategy of the plateau self-adapted turbocharging system is studied using a GT-Power engine model. The control strategy is based on the optimization of the VGT nozzle vane position at various engine operating conditions and various altitudes. Simulation results show that by optimizing the matching and controlling the VGT, the performance of the engine matched with VGT can be improved significantly compared with the one matched with FGT (fixed geometry turbocharger) at various altitudes. Surge and overspeed phenomena of the turbocharger can also be avoided.

Presently, urban transportation highly depends on the fossil fuels, but its rapid fluctuating economic issues and environmental consequences impose the variegation of energy sources. Hydrogen enriched compressed natural gas (HCNG) engines offer the potential of higher brake thermal efficiency with low emissions, which also satisfies the strict pollutant emission standards. The two-zone turbulent entrainment quasi-dimensional combustion model is developed to predict the combustion process of spark-ignited hydrogen enriched compressed natural gas-fueled engines. The fundamentals of thermodynamic process, turbulent flame propagation model and other sub-models like laminar burning velocity, adiabatic temperature and ignition lag model are introduced for the better accuracy. The experiments have been conducted for three different fuels; pure CNG, 20% HCNG, and 40% HCNG blends under MAP of 105 kPa for various excess air ratios (λ) and ignition timing (θi).

This paper conducts simulation research on engine torque ripple suppression based on the engine torque observer by using a flywheel-ISG (integrated starter generator). Usually, engine torque can be suppressed by using a passive method such as by installing a flywheel or torsional damper. However, failure problems arise in hybrid system because of different mechanical characters of the engine and its co-axial ISG motor. On the prototype test bench, the flywheel of the engine has been removed and replaced by an ISG rotor, namely FISG (flywheel ISG). Besides, the crank and FISG rotor are directly connected, which means no dampers or clutches are installed. If the engine torque ripples can be suppressed by the same level as the flywheel and damper by FISG active torque compensation, the new system can be more compact and economical. Simulation efforts are made to verify its feasibility. Firstly, based on the experimental test bench, which is currently under construction.

Turbulent jet ignition (TJI) combustion using pre-chamber ignition can accelerate the combustion speed in the cylinder and has garnered growing interest in recent years. However, it is complicated for the optimization of the pre-chamber structure and combustion system. This study investigated the effects of the pre-chamber structure and the intake ports on the combustion characteristics of a gasoline engine through CFD simulation. Spark ignition (SI) combustion simulation was also conducted for comparison. The results showed that the design of the pre-chamber that causes the jet flame colliding with walls severely worsen the combustion, increasing the knocking intendency, and decrease the thermal efficiency. Compared with SI combustion mode, the TJI combustion mode has the higher heat transfer loss and lower unburned loss. The well-optimized pre-chamber can accelerate the flame propagation with knock suppression.

In order to realize the series-parallel switching control of hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) with dual-motor hybrid configuration, a method of unpowered interrupt switching based on the coordinated control of three power sources was proposed by analyzing the series-parallel driving mode of the dual-motor hybrid configuration. The series to parallel switching process is divided into three stages: speed regulation stage, clutch combination and power source switching. The distribution control of speed regulating torque is carried out in the speed regulating stage. The speed adjustment torque is preferentially allocated to the power source of the input shaft (engine and P1) to carry out the lifting torque. Due to the high speed adjustment accuracy and fast response of the P1 motor, the input shaft is preferentially allocated to P1 for speed adjustment, that is, the torque intervention of P1.

In order to realize the shift control of dual-motor hybrid electric vehicle (HEV), a non-power interruption shift control method based on three-power source coordination control was proposed by analyzing the shift process of dual-motor hybrid configuration. The shift control process was divided into three stages: oil-filling self-learning stage, torque exchange stage and inertia control stage. In the torque exchange stage, the characteristics of the speed stage and torque stage were analyzed, which was different from the traditional method's dependence on pressure sensor, longitudinal acceleration sensor and engine torque accuracy. A shift clutch gain self-learning strategy based on shift time and input shaft speed soaring problem was proposed.

In hybrid vehicles, the drive motor is directly connected to the drive train and the inherent drive train damping is low. When subjected to external disturbance, the low damping characteristics of the transmission system may cause torsional vibration, which will continue to oscillate the transmission system and affect the driving performance of the vehicle. In this paper, we propose a harmonic injection wheel control method based on motor speed to suppress oscillations and improve the driving performance of hybrid electric vehicles. The harmonic injection control method based on motor speed is based on Fourier transform to decompose sinusoidal harmonics based on specific order of motor speed. RLS algorithm is used to estimate the amplitude and phase, and PI control is used to calculate the compensation torque for the actual amplitude and target amplitude. Simulation and test results show that the proposed control strategy is effective in suppressing oscillations.

In order to solve the problems of the shuffle caused by internal and external excitation and the difficulty in obtaining the real-time accurate engine torque during the parallel mode operation of hybrid electric vehicles, a dynamic coordination control strategy for suppressing the jitter of hybrid electric vehicles based on the closed-loop control of engine speed was proposed. The engine torque filtering control method based on the slope limit was adopted to limit the rate of change of the engine torque and reduce the impact caused by the sudden change of the engine torque; the engine speed closed-loop control method was used to take the motor speed which is easy to be measured accurately in real time as the feedback control variable, which solved the problem of the real-time accurate estimation of the engine torque online. In parallel mode, the motor torque accounts for a small proportion because the torque distribution method gives priority to the engine.

In this paper, a hybrid combustion mode in four-stroke gasoline direct injection engines was studied. Switching cam profiles and injection strategies simultaneously was adopted to obtain a rapid and smooth switch between SI mode and HCCI mode. Based on the continuous pressure traces and corresponding emissions, HCCI steady operation, HCCI transient process (combustion phase adjustment, SI-HCCI, HCCI-SI, HCCI cold start) were studied. In HCCI mode, HCCI combustion phase can be adjusted rapidly by changing the split injection ratio. The HCCI control strategies had been demonstrated in a Chery GDI2.0 engine. The HCCI engine simulation results show that, oxygen and active radicals are stored due to negative valve overlap and split fuel injection under learn burn condition. This reduces the HCCI sensitivity on inlet boundary conditions, such as intake charge and intake temperature. The engine can be run from 1500rpm to 4000rpm in HCCI mode without spark ignition.

A conceptual approach to help understand and simulate droplet induced pre-ignition is presented. The complex phenomenon of oil-fuel droplet induced pre-ignition has been decomposed to its elementary processes. This approach helps identify the key fluid properties and engine parameters that affect the pre-ignition phenomenon, and could be used to control LSPI. Based on the conceptual model, a 3D CFD engine simulation has been developed which is able to realistically model all of the elementary processes involved in droplet induced pre-ignition. The simulation was successfully able to predict droplet induced pre-ignition at conditions where the phenomenon has been experimentally observed. The simulation has been able to help explain the observation of pre-ignition advancement relative to injection timing as experimentally observed in a previous study [6].

A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) guided design optimization was conducted for the piston bowl geometry for a heavy-duty diesel engine. The optimization goal was to minimize engine-out NOx emissions without sacrificing engine peak power and thermal efficiency. The CFD model was validated with experiments and the combustion system optimization was conducted under three selected operating conditions representing low speed, maximum torque, and rated power. A hundred piston bowl shapes were generated, of which 32 shapes with 3 spray angles for each shape were numerically analyzed and one optimized design of piston bowl geometry with spray angle was selected. On average, the optimized combustion system decreased nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions by 17% and soot emissions by 41% without compromising maximum engine power and fuel economy.

An imperceptible engine start is critical to the acceptance of hybrid vehicles. This paper focusses on an optimal control problem that tries to reduce vibration during engine start. Efforts are made to obtain the optimal speed trajectory that could cause minimum vibration during engine start. In the first section, the target diesel powertrain is introduced. A four cylinder diesel engine is coaxially paralleled with an ISG motor. The ISG motor serves as the engine starter and engine flywheel. Its dynamic model is established using crank-link dynamics. Secondly, an index is brought out to evaluate the severity of vibration. The cylinder pressure variation is the main cause of engine torque ripple, which in turn results in engine speed fluctuation. The square of the angular acceleration is chosen as the index of vibration. The index shows a positive relation of cylinder pressure in terms of amplitude.

Ammonia shows promise as an alternative fuel for internal combustion engines (ICEs) in reducing CO2 emissions due to its carbon-free nature and well-established infrastructure. However, certain drawbacks, such as the high ignition energy, the narrow flammability range, and the extremely low laminar flame speed, limit its widespread application. The dual fuel (DF) mode is an appealing approach to enhance ammonia combustion. The combustion characteristics of ammonia-diesel dual fuel mode and ammonia-PODE3 dual fuel mode were experimentally studied using a full-view optical engine and the high-speed photography method. The ammonia energy ratio (ERa) was varied from 40% to 60%, and the main injection energy ratio (ERInj1) and the main injection time (SOI1) were also varied in ammonia-PODE3 mode.

Both ammonia and hydrogen, as zero-carbon fuels for internal combustion engines, are received growing attention. However, ammonia faces a challenge of low flame propagation velocity. Through injecting hydrogen into active pre-chamber, its jet flame ignition can accelerate the flame propagation velocity of ammonia. The influence of different pre-chamber structures on engine combustion characteristics is significant. In this paper, numerical studies were conducted to assess the impact of various pre-chamber structures and hydrogen injection strategy on the combustion characteristics of ammonia/hydrogen engines while maintaining the equivalent ratio of 1.0. The results indicate that the jet angle significantly affects the position of jet flame and the followed main combustion. The in-cylinder combustion pressure peaks at jet angle of 150°. Meanwhile, the combustion duration of 150° is shortened by 74.3% compared with that of 60°.

2, 5-Dimethylfuran (DMF) has been receiving increasing interest as a potential alternative fuel to fossil fuels, owing to the recent development of new production technology. However, the influence of DMF properties on the in-cylinder fuel spray and its evaporation, subsequent combustion processes as well as emission formation in current gasoline direct injection (GDI) engines is still not well understood, due to the lack of comprehensive understanding of its physical and chemical characteristics. To better understand the spray characteristics of DMF and its application to the IC engine, the fuel sprays of DMF and gasoline were investigated by experimental and computational methods. The shadowgraph and Phase Doppler Particle Analyzer (PDPA) techniques were used for measuring spray penetration, droplet velocity and size distribution of both fuels.