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Two-dimensional pulse-laser Mie scattering visualization of the direct-injection gasoline fuel sprays and wall impingement processes was carried out inside a single-cylinder optically accessible engine under motoring condition. The injectors have been first characterized inside a pressurized chamber using identical technique, as well as high-speed microscopic visualization and phase Doppler measurement techniques. The effects of injector cone angle, location, and injection timings on the wall impingement processes were investigated. It was found that the fuel vaporization is not complete at the constant engine speed tested. Fuel spray droplets were observed to disperse wider in the motored engine when compared with an isothermal quiescent ambient conditions. The extent of wall-impingement varies significantly with the injector mounting position and spray cone angle; however, its effect can be reduced to some extent by optimizing the injection timing.

The direct injection spray-wall interactions were investigated experimentally using high-speed laser-sheet imaging, shadowgraphy, wetted footprints and phase Doppler interferometry techniques. A narrow-cone high-pressure swirl injector is used to inject iso-octane fuel onto a plate, at three different impact angles inside a pressurized chamber. Heated air and plate conditions were compared with unheated cases. Injection interval was also varied in the heated case to compare dry- and wet- wall impingement behaviors. High-speed macroscopic Mie-scattering images showed that presence of wall and air temperature has only minor effect on the bulk spray structure and penetration speed for the narrow-cone injector tested. The overall bulk motions of the spray plume and its spatial position at a given time are basically unaffected until a few millimeters before impacting the wall.

Selective catalytic reduction (SCR) has been demonstrated as one of the most promising technologies to reduce NOx emissions from heavy-duty diesel engines. To meet the Euro VI regulations, the SCR system should achieve high NOx reduction efficiency even at low temperature. In the SCR system, NH3 is usually supplied by the injection of urea water solution (UWS), therefore it is important to improve the evaporation and decomposition efficiency of UWS at low temperature and minimize urea deposits. In this study, the UWS spray, urea decomposition, and the UWS impingement on pipe wall at low temperature were investigated based on an engine test bench and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code. The decomposition of urea and deposits was analyzed using thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR).

Propagation-based and phase-enhanced x-ray imaging was developed as a unique metrology technique to visualize the internal structure of high-pressure fuel injection nozzles. We have visualized the microstructures inside 200-μm fuel injection nozzles in a 3-mm-thick steel housing using this novel technique. Furthermore, this new x-ray-based metrology technique has been used to directly study the highly transient needle motion in the nozzles in situ and in real-time, which is virtually impossible by any other means. The needle motion has been shown to have the most direct effect on the fuel jet structure and spray formation immediately outside of the nozzle. In addition, the spray cone-angle has been perfectly correlated with the numerically simulated fuel flow inside the nozzle due to the transient nature of the needle during the injection.

Utilization of direct injection systems is one of the most promising technologies for fuel economy improvement for SI engine powered passenger cars. Engine performance is essentially influenced by the characteristics of the injection equipment. This paper will present CFD analyses of a swirl type GDI injector carried out with the Multiphase Module of AVL's FIRE/SWIFT CFD code. The simulations considered three phases (liquid fuel, fuel vapor, air) and mesh movement. Thus the transient behavior of the injector can be observed. The flow phenomena known from measurement and shown by previous simulation work [2, 7, 10, 11] were reproduced. In particular the simulations shown in this paper could explain the cause for the outstanding atomization characteristics of the swirl type injector, which are caused by cavitation in the nozzle hole.

An experimental study was carried out to characterize the exhaust flow structure inside the closed-coupled catalytic converter, which is installed on a firing four-cylinder 12-valve passenger car gasoline engine. Simultaneous velocity and pressure measurements were taken using cycle-resolved Laser Doppler anemometer (LDA) technique and pressure transducer. A small fraction of titanium (IV) iso-propoxide was dissolved in gasoline to generate titanium dioxide during combustion as seeding particles for the LDA measurements. It was found that the velocity is highly fluctuating due to the pulsating nature of the engine exhaust flow, which strongly depends on the engine operating conditions and the measuring locations. The pressure oscillation is correlated with the transient exhaust flow characteristics. The main exhaust flow event from each cylinder can only be observed at the certain region in front of the monolith brick.

An experimental study was performed, using cycle-resolved laser Doppler velocimetry (LDV) technique, to characterize the exhaust flow structure inside a catalytic converter retro-fitted to a firing four-cylinder gasoline engine over different operating conditions. A small fraction of titanium (IV) isopropoxide was dissolved in gasoline to generate titanium dioxide during combustion as seeding particles for LDV measurements. It was found that in the front plane of the catalytic monolith, the velocity is highly fluctuating due to the pulsating nature of the engine exhaust flow, which strongly depends on the engine operating conditions. Under unloaded condition, four pairs of major peaks are clearly observed in the time history of the velocity, which correspond to the main exhaust events of each individual cylinder.

Cavitating flows inside a two-dimensional valve covered orifice (VCO) nozzle were simulated by using the Space-Time Conservation Element and Solution Element (CE/SE) method in conjunction with a homogeneous equilibrium cavitation model. As a validation for present model, cavitation over a NACA0015 hydrofoil was predicted and compared with previous simulation results as well as experimental observations. The model was then used to investigate the effects on internal cavitating flows of different nozzle design parameters, such as the hole size, hole aspect-ratio, hydro-erosion radius, and orifice inclination. Under different conditions, cavitating flows through fuel injectors generated hydraulic flip, supercavitation, full cavitation, and cyclical cavitation phenomena, which are commonly observed in experiments.

A global characterization of the spray distribution of various current and development types of automotive fuel injectors was obtained. Axial and radial measurement of droplet sizes, velocities and volume fluxes were made with a phase Doppler particle analyzer (PDPA) for a transient port injector spray in quiescent atmospheric conditions. Time-resolved measurements involving the time-of-arrival of each droplet associated with its size and velocity components were also acquired. Additionally, the liquid sprays emanating from various types of port fuel injectors were visualized, through planar laser induced fluorescence (PLIF) technique, at different time instants. Such detailed study provides an improved understanding of the temporal or unsteady behavior of port injector spray.

In this study, the particle emission characteristics of 10% alternative diesel fuel blends (Rapeseed Methyl Ester and Gas-to-Liquid) were investigated through the tests carried out on a light duty common-rail Euro 4 diesel engine. Under steady engine conditions, the study focused on particle number concentration and size distribution, to comply with the particle metrics of the European Emission Regulations (Regulation NO 715/2007, amended by 692/2008 and 595/2009). The non-volatile particle characteristics during the engine warming up were also investigated. They indicated that without any modification to the engine, adding selected alternative fuels, even at a low percentage, can result in a noticeable reduction of the total particle numbers; however, the number of nucleation mode particles can increase in certain cases.

Pilot injection has been used widely in diesel engines for its NOx and noise reducing characteristics. In this paper, its impacts to the particle emissions were studied using a light-duty common-rail Euro 4 diesel engine with different pilot injection strategies. Three steady-state engine modes were selected from the EU legislative diesel engine test cycle to represent low, medium and high engine speeds and loads. The quantities and injection timings of the pilot injection strategies were then varied. The particle number concentration and size distributions were investigated along with the smoke and regulated gas emissions such as the NOx trade-off. These results indicate how a pilot injection alongside a main injection can increase the particle size compared to a single main injection event. Furthermore, the split injection was closely related to the engine mode.

Simultaneous two-component measurements of gas velocity and multi-dimensional numerical simulation are employed to characterize the evolution of the in-cylinder turbulent flow structure in a re-entrant bowl-in-piston engine under motored operation. The evolution of the mean flow field, turbulence energy, turbulent length scales, and the various terms contributing to the production of the turbulence energy are correlated and compared, with the objectives of clarifying the physical mechanisms and flow structures that dominate the turbulence production and of identifying the source of discrepancies between the measured and simulated turbulence fields. Additionally, the applicability of the linear turbulent stress modeling hypothesis employed in the k-ε model is assessed using the experimental mean flow gradients, turbulence energy, and length scales.

Natural gas has been considered to be one of the most promising alternative fuels due to its lower NOx and soot emissions, less carbon footprint as well as attractive price. Furthermore, higher octane number makes it suitable for high compression ratio application compared with other gaseous fuels. For better economical and lower emissions, a turbocharged, four strokes, direct injection, high pressure common rail diesel engine has been converted into a diesel/natural gas dual-fuel engine. For dual-fuel engine operation, natural gas as the main fuel is sequentially injected into intake manifold, and a very small amount of diesel is directly injected into cylinder as the ignition source. In this paper, a dual-fuel electronic control unit (ECU) based on the PowerPC 32-bit microprocessor was developed. It cooperates with the original diesel ECU to control the fuel injection of the diesel/natural gas dual-fuel engine.

An experimental study was carried out to investigate the spray behavior inside engine intake ports. Production-type intake ports of four-valve gasoline engines were modified for the optical access at directions. The global spray formation process was visualized through laser Mie scattering technique. The spray breakup and atomization processes, spray targeting and fuel dispersing characteristics were investigated as a function of elapse time after fuel injection. The spray interaction with the port wall and port air flow were examined with different types of port fuel injectors including single-stream, multi-stream, and air-shrouded ones. The spray targeting and dispersing characteristics inside two different intake ports were examined. It was found that spray targeting and fuel dispersion inside the intake port are strongly dependent on the spray characteristics, as a result of different injector designs and injector installation positions.

Operation of flex fuel vehicles requires operation with a range of fuel properties. The significant differences in the heat of vaporization and energy density of E0-E100 fuels and the effect on spray development need to be fully comprehended when developing engine control strategies. Limited enthalpy for fuel vaporization needs to be accounted for when developing injection strategies for cold start, homogeneous and stratified operation. Spray imaging of multi-hole gasoline injectors with fuels ranging from E0 to E100 and environmental conditions that represent engine operating points from ambient cold start to hot conditions was performed in a spray chamber. Schlieren visualization technique was used to characterize the sprays and the results were compared with Laser Mie scattering and Back-lighting technique. Open chamber experiments were utilized to provide input and validation of a CFD model.

Late-injection low-temperature diesel combustion is found to further reduce NOx and soot simultaneously. The combustion phenomena and detail chemical kinetics are studied with high speed spray/combustion images and time-resolved spectroscopy analysis in a rapid compression machine (RCM) with a small bowl combustion chamber. High swirl and high EGR condition can be achieved in the RCM; variable injection pressure and injection timing is supplied by the high-pressure common-rail fuel injection system. Effect of small amount of premix hydrogen gas on diesel combustion is also studied in the RCM. A hydrogen injector is located in the upstream of air inlet for delivery small amount and premixed hydrogen gas into cylinder just before the compression stroke. The ignition delay is studied both from the pressure curves and the chemiluminescence images.

With increasing interest to reduce the dependency on gasoline and diesel, alternative energy source like compressed natural gas (CNG) is a viable option for internal combustion engines. Spark-ignited (SI) CNG engine is the simplest way to utilize CNG in engines, but direct injection (DI) Diesel-CNG dual-fuel engine is known to offer improvement in combustion efficiency and reduction in exhaust gases. Dual-fuel engine has characteristics similar to both SI engine and diesel engine which makes the combustion process more complex. This paper reports the computational fluid dynamics simulation of both DI dual-fuel compression ignition (CI) and SI CNG engines. In diesel-CNG dual-fuel engine simulations and comparison to experiments, attention was on ignition delay, transition from auto-ignition to flame propagation and heat released from the combustion of diesel and gaseous fuel, as well as relevant pollutants emissions.

Advanced exhaust after-treatment technology is required for heavy-duty diesel vehicles to achieve stringent Euro VI emission standards. Diesel particulate filter (DPF) is the most efficient system that is used to trap the particulate matter (PM), and particulate number (PN) emissions form diesel engines. The after-treatment system used in this study is catalyzed DPF (CDPF) downstream of diesel oxidation catalyst (DOC) with secondary fuel injection. Additional fuel is injected upstream of DOC to enhance exothermal heat which is needed to raise the CDPF temperature during the active regeneration process. The objective of this research is to numerically investigate soot loading and active regeneration of a CDPF on a heavy-duty diesel engine. In order to improve the active regeneration performance of CDPF, several factors are investigated in the study such as the effect of catalytic in filter wall, soot distribution form along filter wall, and soot loads.

Surrogates for JP-8 have been developed in the high temperature gas phase environment of gas turbines. In diesel engines, the fuel is introduced in the liquid phase where volatility plays a major role in the formation of the combustible mixture and autoignition reactions that occur at relatively lower temperatures. In this paper, the role of volatility on the combustion of JP-8 and five different surrogate fuels was investigated in the constant volume combustion chamber of the Ignition Quality Tester (IQT). IQT is used to determine the derived cetane number (DCN) of diesel engine fuels according to ASTM D6890. The surrogate fuels were formulated such that their DCNs matched that of JP-8, but with different volatilities. Tests were conducted to investigate the effect of volatility on the autoignition and combustion characteristics of the surrogates using a detailed analysis of the rate of heat release immediately after the start of injection.

A quantitative and time-resolved technique has been developed to probe the dense spray structure of direct-injection (DI) gasoline sprays in near-nozzle region. This technique uses the line-of-sight absorption of monochromatic x-rays from a synchrotron source to measure the fuel mass with time resolution better than 1 μs. The small scattering cross-section of fuel at x-rays regime allows direct measurements of spray structure that are difficult with most visible-light optical techniques. Appropriate models were developed to determine the fuel density as a function of time.