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Combustion experiments were conducted with an optically accessible engine that allowed the entire bore area to be visualized for the purpose of making clear the characteristics that induce extremely rapid HCCI combustion and knocking accompanied by cylinder pressure oscillations. The HCCI combustion regime was investigated in detail by high-speed in-cylinder visualization of autoignition and combustion and emission spectroscopic measurements. The results revealed that increasing the equivalence ratio and advancing the ignition timing caused the maximum pressure rise rate and knocking intensity to increase. In moderate HCCI combustion, the autoignited flame was initially dispersed temporally and spatially in the cylinder and then gradually spread throughout the entire cylinder.

This study clarified the influence of hot gas jet on combustion enhancement effect for lean mixture in the plasma jet ignition. The hot gas jet was generated by the high temperature plasma and was ejected from igniter after plasma jet finished issuing. In combustion tests, propane-air mixture at equivalence ratio of 0.6 was used and the mixture was filled in the combustion chamber at atmosphere pressure and room temperature. For generation of the hot gas jet, the standard air was filled in chamber at same conditions and the hot gas jet was visualized by schlieren method in the absence of combustion. The combustion development processes were also visualized and the combustion pressure was measured. The discharge voltage, discharge current and the plasma luminescence were also measured. The plasma luminescence disappeared within 0.05 ms for any experimental conditions. When cavity depth was deep and orifice diameter was small, the maximum plasma luminescence height was short.

The flame propagation behavior of homogeneous hydrogen-air mixture under application of high-voltage uniform or non-uniform electric field was explored by using combustion vessel. When a uniform electric field was applied, two plate electrodes were attached to ceiling and bottom of combustion chamber and, to apply a non-uniform electric field, an electrode in ceiling was needle-shaped and an electrode in bottom was plate-shaped. The positive or negative polarity DC high voltage was applied for an electrode in ceiling. When a positive polarity non-uniform electric field was applied to the mixture at any equivalence ratios and the input voltage was higher than 12 kV, the flame propagation was enhanced in the downward direction. This is because the corona wind was generated from the tip of needle-shaped electrode to grounded electrode by the brush corona.

The coconut-oil methyl ester is made from coconut oil and methanol, and both cold start performance and ignition characteristics of coconut-oil methyl ester are experimentally investigated by using a diesel engine. In experiments, diesel fuel and coconut-oil methyl ester are used and the blended ratio of coconut-oil methyl ester to diesel fuel is changed. The test is conducted at full load and 3000 rpm. The diesel engine can be run stably with any mixing ratio of coconut-oil methyl ester, however the power is slightly reduced with increasing the mixing ratio of coconut-oil methyl ester. In the cold start condition, when the mixing ratio of coconut-oil methyl ester increases, the combustion chamber wall temperature rises early and the ignition timing is improved. Therefore, the coconut-oil methyl ester has superior compression ignition characteristics and reduces exhaust gas emissions, so that the coconut-oil methyl ester is good alternative fuel for diesel engines.

The application of emulsified fuel for diesel engines is expected to reduce NOx and soot simultaneously. The purpose of this study is to clarify the influence of water content in emulsified fuel and fuel injection timing on diesel engine performance. The engine performance of emulsified fuel was compared with the water injection method. In the water injection test, water was injected to intake manifold and diesel fuel was directly injected into combustion chamber. Two emulsified fuels of which mixing ratio of water and emulsifier to diesel fuel were 15 and 30 vol.% were tested. Engine performance and exhaust gas emission of water injection method were almost similar to those of diesel fuel, so that water presented in combustion chamber had almost no influence on engine performance. Therefore, it can be considered that the micro explosion of fuel droplet enhanced the fuel atomization and mixing of fuel and air.

This study investigated the influence of EGR and spark advance on knocking under high compression ratio, ultra-lean mixture and supercharged condition using premium gasoline as a test fuel. A high-compression ratio, supercharged single cylinder engine was used in this experiment. As a result, the period from ignition to autoignition was prolonged. In addition, knock intensity was drastically reduced. In other words, it is inferred that by combining an appropriate amount of EGR and spark advance, high efficiency operation avoiding knocking can be realized.

The purpose of this study is to elucidate flame propagation behavior of homogeneous propane-air mixture under application of non-uniform electric field. A needle-shaped electrode was attached to the ceiling and a plate electrode was set at bottom of combustion chamber, so that the electric field was applied in the direction of the chamber's vertical axis. A homogeneous propane-air mixture was supplied at equivalence ratio of 1.0 and was ignited by leaser induced breakdown under atmospheric pressure and room temperature. It was found that the flame front and plate electrode were repelled each other and a thin air layer was formed between the flame and plate electrode when a relatively low positive DC non-uniform electric field was applied to the needle-shaped electrode. It might be thought that the induced current was generated in the flame front, so that the flame front and plate electrode repelled each other.

A small 2-stroke engine can be an effective power source for an electric generator mounted on a series hybrid electric vehicle. In recent years, a technology referred to as pre-chamber jet combustion has attracted attention as a means of enhancing thermal efficiency by improving mixture ignitability. In this study, experiments were conducted to investigate differences in combustion behavior between the application of spark-ignited (SI) combustion and pre-chamber jet combustion to a small, two-stroke engine. The experimental equipment used was a two-stroke, single-cylinder, optically accessible engine with a displacement of 63.3 cm3. Differences between conventional SI combustion and pre-chamber jet combustion were examined by means of in-cylinder pressure analysis, in-cylinder combustion visualization and image processing software. The diameter of the connecting orifice of the pre-chamber was varied between two types.

Modern formulation in a wide variety of lubricants including engine oils and transmission fluids is designed to control friction through film-forming tribochemical reactions induced by the functional additives mixtures. Although many cases on the synergistic or antagonistic effects of additives on friction have been reported, their mechanisms are poorly understood. This study focused on the influences of metallic detergents on tribochemical reactions. We examined the mechanical properties of detergent-containing lubricants confined at a single-asperity contact and their contributions to tribochemical phenomena. We found that detergents enlarged the confinement space required for generating repulsive force and shear resistance. This means that these detergents provide steric effects under nanoconfinement at interfacial contacts.

This study examined the effects of fuel composition and intake pressure on two-stage high temperature heat release characteristics of a Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) engine. Light emission and absorption spectroscopic measurement techniques were used to investigate the combustion behavior in detail. Chemical kinetic simulations were also conducted to analyze the reaction mechanisms in detail. Blended fuels of dimethyl ether (DME) and methane were used in the experiments. It was found that the use of such fuel blends together with a suitable intake air flow rate corresponding to the total injected heat value gave rise to two-stage heat release behavior of the hot flame, which had the effect of moderating combustion. The results of the spectroscopic measurements and the chemical kinetic simulations revealed that the main reaction of the first stage of the hot flame heat release was one that produced CO from HCHO.

A Spark Ignition Engine has some kinds of problem to be solved over many years, one of them is abnormal combustion; Low-speed pre-ignition (LSPI) under low-speed, high-load driving conditions for vehicle, and pre-ignition under longterm operation without cleaning a combustion chamber for gas cogeneration. As a cause for abnormal combustion, engine oil droplets diluted by liquid fuel and peeled combustion deposits delivered from engine oil are proposed. In this study, experiments were conducted focusing on engine oil additives having different chemical structure and abnormal combustion behavior. A four-stroke side-valve single cylinder engine that allowed in-cylinder visualization of the combustion flame was used in the experiments. The experimental results showed that the influence of DTC additive on abnormal combustion is small and the zinc component contained in the DTP additives had the effect of advancing the autoignition timing.

The composition ratio of saturated and unsaturated fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) is depended on feedstock. Three FAMEs: soybean (SME), palm (PME) and coconut oil (CME) methyl esters were mixed to make fuels which have different composition ratio. The ignitability of fuel which mainly consisted of unsaturated FAME was inferior. Power was slightly reduced with increasing of mixing ratio of CME; however exhaust gas emissions were improved because CME contained a lot of oxygen atoms. Fuel which was equal mixture SME and CME indicated almost the same ignition characteristic as that of PME because they have same composition ratio.

Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) combustion has attracted widespread interest as a combustion system that offers the advantages of high efficiency and low exhaust emissions. However, it is difficult to control the ignition timing in an HCCI combustion system owing to the lack of a physical means of initiating ignition like the spark plug in a gasoline engine or fuel injection in a diesel engine. Moreover, because the mixture ignites simultaneously at multiple locations in the cylinder, it produces an enormous amount of heat in a short period of time, which causes greater engine noise, abnormal combustion and other problems in the high load region. The purpose of this study was to expand the region of stable HCCI engine operation by finding a solution to these issues of HCCI combustion.

Friction loss at the piston ring-cylinder liner interface in an internal combustion engine strongly affects the fuel economy of automobiles. However, the relationships between viscosity characteristics of engine oils and friction at ring-liner interface are not well understood. In this study, we experimentally measured ring-liner friction using a floating liner method with various formulations of engine oils. Two types of engine oils were tested: Non-Newtonian oils that contain polymer additive viscosity modifiers (VMs) and Newtonian VM-free oils. We first tested VM-free oils with different base oil viscosities and found that the dominant friction energy mechanism changed from hydrodynamic lubrication to mixed lubrication as engine oil viscosity or piston speed were decreased. Friction energy reached a minimum at this transition point.

Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) engines have attracted much attention and are being widely researched as engines characterized by low emissions and high efficiency. However, one issue of HCCI engines is their limited operating range because of the occurrence of rapid combustion at high loads and misfiring at low loads. It is known that knocking accompanied by in-cylinder pressure oscillations also occurs in HCCI engines at high loads, similar to knocking seen in spark-ignition engines. In this study, HCCI combustion accompanied by in-cylinder pressure oscillations was visualized by taking high-speed photographs of the entire bore area. In addition, the influence of internal exhaust gas circulation (EGR) on HCCI knocking was also investigated. The visualized combustion images revealed that rapid autoignition occurred in the end-gas region during the latter half of the HCCI combustion process when accompanied by in-cylinder pressure oscillations.

Technologies for further improving vehicle fuel economy have attracted widespread attention in recent years. However, one problem with some approaches is the occurrence of abnormal combustion such as low-speed pre-ignition (LSPI) that occurs under low-speed, high-load operating conditions. One proposed cause of LSPI is that oil droplets diluted by the fuel enter the combustion chamber and become a source of ignition. Another proposed cause is that deposits peel off and become a source of ignition. A four-stroke air-cooled single-cylinder engine was used in this study to investigate the influence of Ca-based additives having different properties on abnormal combustion by means of in-cylinder visualization and absorption spectroscopic measurements. The results obtained for neutral and basic Ca-based additives revealed that the former had an effect on advancing the time of autoignition.

One issue of downsized and supercharged engines is low-speed pre-ignition (LSPI) that occurs in the low-speed and high-load operating region. One proposed cause of LSPI is the influence of the engine oil and its additives. However, the effect of engine oil additives on pre-ignition and the mechanism involved are still not fully understood. This study investigated the influence of engine oil additives on abnormal combustion in a spark-ignition engine. A four-stroke air-cooled single-cylinder engine with a side valve arrangement was used in conducting combustion experiments. The research methods used were in-cylinder pressure analysis, in-cylinder visualization and absorption spectroscopic analysis. Engine oil additives were mixed individually at a fixed concentration into a primary reference fuel with an octane number of 50 and their effect on knocking was investigated.

In this study, the effect of autoignition behavior in the unburned end-gas region on pressure wave formation and knock intensity was investigated. A single-cylinder gasoline engine capable of high-speed observation of the end gas was used in the experiments. Visualization in the combustion chamber and spectroscopic measurement of light absorption by the end gas were carried out to analyze autoignition behavior in the unburned end-gas portion and the reaction history before autoignition. The process of autoignition and pressure wave growth was investigated by analyzing multipoint pressure histories. As a result, it was found that knocking intensity increases through interaction between autoignition and pressure waves.

To explore the measures that can be used to improve the fuel economy of internal combustion engines, we investigated how friction at the piston ring-cylinder liner interface is influenced by the boundary lubrication performance of engine oils. We formulated several engine oils with varying boundary lubrication performance and tested them for ring-liner friction by using a floating liner friction tester. We used friction modifiers (FMs) to modify the boundary lubrication performance of engine oils. We found that ring-liner friction is well correlated with the friction coefficients in boundary lubrication regimes when measured by a laboratory friction tester. We also found that the impact of the boundary lubrication performance of engine oils was emphasized in low viscosity engine oils. It makes it possible for improved boundary lubrication performance to inhibit or overcome the viscosity reduction-induced increase of friction energy.

Unresolved issues of Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) combustion include an extremely rapid pressure rise on the high load side and resultant knocking. Studies conducted to date have examined ways of expanding the region of stable HCCI combustion on the high load side such as by applying supercharging or recirculating exhaust gas (EGR). However, the effect of applying EGR gas to supercharged HCCI combustion and the mechanisms involved are not fully understood. In this study, the effect of EGR gas components on HCCI combustion was investigated by conducting experiments in which external EGR gas was applied to supercharged HCCI combustion and also experiments in which nitrogen (N2) and carbon dioxide (CO2) were individually injected into the intake air pipe to simulate EGR gas components. In addition, HCCI combustion reactions were analyzed by conducting chemical kinetic simulations under the same conditions as those of the experiments.