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The long-term goal of this work is to develop a conceptual model for multiple injections of diesel jets. The current work contributes to that effort by performing a detailed modeling investigation into mechanisms that are predicted to control 1st and 2nd stage ignition in single-pulse diesel (n-dodecane) jets under different conditions. One condition produces a jet with negative ignition dwell that is dominated by mixing-controlled heat release, and the other, a jet with positive ignition dwell and dominated by premixed heat release. During 1st stage ignition, fuel is predicted to burn similarly under both conditions; far upstream, gases at the radial-edge of the jet, where gas temperatures are hotter, partially react and reactions continue as gases flow downstream. Once beyond the point of complete fuel evaporation, near-axis gases are no longer cooled by the evaporation process and 1st stage ignition transitions to 2nd stage ignition.

An experimental investigation of non-intrusive combustion sensing was performed using a tri-axial accelerometer mounted to the engine block of a small-bore high-speed 4-cylinder compression-ignition direct-injection (CIDI) engine. This study investigates potential techniques to extract combustion features from accelerometer signals to be used for cycle-to-cycle engine control. Selection of accelerometer location and vibration axis were performed by analyzing vibration signals for three different locations along the block for all three of the accelerometer axes. A magnitude squared coherence (MSC) statistical analysis was used to select the best location and axis. Based on previous work from the literature, the vibration signal filtering was optimized, and the filtered vibration signals were analyzed. It was found that the vibration signals correlate well with the second derivative of pressure during the initial stages of combustion.

Simultaneous measurements of the radial and the tangential components of velocity are obtained in a high-speed, direct-injection diesel engine typical of automotive applications. Results are presented for engine operation with fuel injection, but without combustion, for three different swirl ratios and four injection pressures. With the mean and fluctuating velocities, the r-θ plane shear stress and the mean flow gradients are obtained. Longitudinal and transverse length scales are also estimated via Taylor's hypothesis. The flow is shown to be sufficiently homogeneous and stationary to obtain meaningful length scale estimates. Concurrently, the flow and injection processes are simulated with KIVA-3V employing a RNG k-ε turbulence model. The measured turbulent kinetic energy k, r-θ plane mean strain rates ( 〈Srθ〉, 〈Srr〉, and 〈Sθθ〉 ), deviatoric turbulent stresses , and the r-θ plane turbulence production terms are compared directly to the simulated results.

This paper presents experimental results of the reduction of both particulate and NOx emitted from direct injection diesel engines by a two stage combustion process. The primary combustion is made very rich to reduce NOx and then the particulate is oxidized by strong turbulence generated during the secondary combustion. The rich mixture is formed by low pressure fuel injection and a small cavity combustion chamber configuration. The strong turbulence is generated by a jet of burned gas from an auxiliary chamber installed at the cylinder head. The results showed that NOx was reduced significantly while maintaining fuel consumption and particulate emissions. An investigation was also carried out on the particulate reduction process in the combustion chamber with the turbulence by gas sampling and in-cylinder observation with an optical fiber scope and a high speed camera.

Copper ion-exchanged ZSM-5 zeolite catalyst, which reduces nitrogen oxides (NOx) in the presence of oxygen and hydrocarbons, was applied to actual diesel engine exhaust. Copper ion-exchanged ZSM-5 zeolite effectively reduced NOx by 25% in normal engine operation, and by 80% when hydrocarbons in the exhaust were increased. Water in the exhaust gas decreased the NOx reduction efficiency, but oxygen and sulfur appeared to have only a small effect. Maximum NOx reduction was observed at 400°C irrespective of hydrocarbon species, and did not decrease with space velocity up to values of 20,000 1/h. THE PURPOSE of this paper is to evaluate the possibilities and problems in catalytic reduction of NOx in actual diesel engine exhaust. Here, a copper ion-exchanged ZSM-5 zeolite (Cu-Z) catalyst was applied to diesel engine exhaust to examine the dependency of the NOx reduction efficiency on temperature and space velocity. The effects of oxygen, water and hydrocarbons were also examined.

The focus of the present study was to characterize Reactivity Controlled Compression Ignition (RCCI) using a single-fuel approach of gasoline and gasoline mixed with a commercially available cetane improver on a multi-cylinder engine. RCCI was achieved by port-injecting a certification grade 96 research octane gasoline and direct-injecting the same gasoline mixed with various levels of a cetane improver, 2-ethylhexyl nitrate (EHN). The EHN volume percentages investigated in the direct-injected fuel were 10, 5, and 2.5%. The combustion phasing controllability and emissions of the different fueling combinations were characterized at 2300 rpm and 4.2 bar brake mean effective pressure over a variety of parametric investigations including direct injection timing, premixed gasoline percentage, and intake temperature. Comparisons were made to gasoline/diesel RCCI operation on the same engine platform at nominally the same operating condition.

Silent, clean, and efficient combustion was realized with emulsified blends of aqueous ethanol and diesel fuel in a DI diesel with pilot injection and cooled EGR. The pilot injection sufficiently suppressed the rapid combustion to acceptable levels. The thermal efficiency with the emulsified fuel improved as the heat release with the pilot injection was retarded to near top dead center, due to poor ignitability and also due to a reduction in afterburning. With the emulsified fuel containing 40 vol% ethanol and 10 vol% water (E40W10), the smokeless operation range can be considerably extended even under low fuel injection pressure or low intake oxygen content conditions.

When fuel is vaporized and mixed well with air in the cylinder of premixed diesel engines, the mixture auto-ignites in one burst resulting in strong combustion noise, and combustion noise reduction is necessary to achieve high load premixed diesel engine operation. In this paper, an engine noise analysis was conducted by engine tests and simulations. The engine employed in the experiments was a supercharged single cylinder DI diesel engine with a high pressure common rail fuel injection system. The engine noise was sampled by two microphones and the sampled engine noise was averaged and analyzed by an FFT sound analyzer. The engine was equipped with a pressure transducer and the combustion noise was calculated from the power spectrum of the FFT analysis of the in-cylinder pressure wave data from the cross power spectrum of the sound pressure of the engine noise.

This paper presents a theoretical and experimental study on the possibility of combustion similarity in differently sized diesel engines. Combustion similarity means that the flow pattern and flame distribution develop similarly in differently sized engines. The study contributes to an understanding and correlating of data which are presently limited to specific engine designs. The theoretical consideration shows the possibility of combustion similarity, and the similarity conditions were identified. To verify the theory, a comparison of experimental data from real engines was performed; and a comparison of results of a three dimensional computer simulation for different engine sizes was also attempted. The results showed good agreement with the theoretical predictions. THE PURPOSE of this research is to determine the possibility of the existence of combustion similarity in differently sized diesel engines, and to propose conditions for realizing model experiments.

Combustion and exhaust gas emissions of alcohol and vegetable oil blends including a 20% ethanol + 40% 1-butanol + 40% vegetable oil blend and a 50% 1-butanol + 50% vegetable oil blend were examined in a single cylinder, four-stroke cycle, 0.83L direct injection diesel engine, with a supercharger and a common rail fuel injection system. A 50% diesel oil + 50% vegetable oil blend and regular unblended diesel fuel were used as reference fuels. The boost pressure was kept constant at 160 kPa (absolute pressure), and the cooled low pressure loop EGR was realized by mixing with a part of the exhaust gas. Pilot injection is effective to suppress rapid combustion due to the lower ignitability of the alcohol and vegetable oil blends. The effects of reductions in the intake oxygen concentration with cooled EGR and changes in the fuel injection pressure were investigated for the blended fuels.

Cylinder liners exert a major influence on engine performance, reliability, durability and maintenance. Various combinations of nonmetallic reinforcements and coatings have been used to improve the tribological performance of sleeves or surfaces used in compressors and internal combustion engines in four stroke, two stroke and rotary configurations. In this paper we report the use of a hybrid composite containing silicon carbide and graphite in an aluminum alloy matrix to improve the performance of various small engines and compressors. Material properties of the base material, as well as comparative dynamometer testing, are presented.

Fuel spray atomization and breakup processes within a direct-injection spark-ignition (DISI) engine and outside the engine were modeled using a modified KIVA-3V code with improved spray models. The structures of the predicted sprays were qualitatively compared with planar images. The considered sprays were created by a prototype pressure-swirl injector and the planar images were obtained by laser sheet imaging in an optical DISI engine. In the out-of-engine case, the spray was injected into atmospheric air, and was modeled in a two dimensional bomb. In the engine case, the injection started from 270° ATDC, and full 3-D computations in the same engine were performed. In both cases, two liquid injection pressure conditions were applied, that is, 3.40 MPa and 6.12 MPa. The model gives good prediction of the tip penetration, and external spray shape, but the internal structure prediction has relatively lower accuracy, especially near the spray axis.

While Low Temperature Combustion (LTC) strategies such as Reactivity Controlled Compression Ignition (RCCI) exhibit high thermal efficiency and produce low NOx and soot emissions, low load operation is still a significant challenge due to high unburnt hydrocarbon (UHC) and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions, which occur as a result of poor combustion efficiencies at these operating points. Furthermore, the exhaust gas temperatures are insufficient to light-off the Diesel Oxidation Catalyst (DOC), thereby resulting in poor UHC and CO conversion efficiencies by the aftertreatment system. To achieve exhaust gas temperature values sufficient for DOC light-off, combustion can be appropriately phased by changing the ratio of gasoline to diesel in the cylinder, or by burning additional fuel injected during the expansion stroke through post-injection.

Changes in exhaust gas emissions during starting in a DI diesel engine were investigated. The THC after starting increased until around the 50th cycle when the fuel deposited on the combustion chamber showed the maximum, and THC then decreased to reach a steady value after about 1000 cycles when the piston wall temperature became constant. The NOx showed an initial higher peak just after starting, and increased to a steady value after about 1000 cycles. Exhaust odor had a strong correlation with THC, and at the early stage odor was stronger than would be expected from the THC concentration. The THC increased with increased fuel injection amounts, decreased cranking speeds, and fuels with higher viscosity, higher 90% distillation temperature, and lower ignitability.

Reductions in combustion noise are necessary in high load diesel engine operation and multiple fuel injections can achieve this with the resulting reductions in the maximum rate of pressure rise. In 2014, Dr. Fuyuto reported the phenomenon that the combustion noise produced in the first combustion can be reduced by the combustion noise of the second fuel injection, and this has been named “Noise Cancelling Spike Combustion (NCS combustion)”. To investigate more details of NCS combustion, the effects of timings and heating values of the first and second heat releases on the reduction of overall combustion noise are investigated in this paper. The engine employed in the research here is a supercharged, single cylinder DI diesel engine with a high pressure common rail fuel injection system.

Dual fuel combustion with premixed ethanol as the main fuel and direct injection of diesel fuel as an ignition source poses problems including large unburned emissions and excessively rapid combustion. In this report the influence of compression ratios, injection timings of diesel fuel, and intake oxygen concentrations was systematically investigated in a modern diesel engine. The combustion process was classified into three stages: the first rapid combustion of diesel fuel and the ethanol mixture entrained into the diesel fuel spray; the second mild combustion with flame propagation of the ethanol mixture; and the third rapid combustion with auto-ignition of the unburned ethanol mixture without knocking. The third stage combustion occurs occasionally at several operating conditions and has been termed as PREMIER (premixed mixture ignition in the end-gas region) combustion.

This paper investigates the effect of E85 on load expansion and FTP modal point emissions indices under reactivity controlled compression ignition (RCCI) operation on a light-duty multi-cylinder diesel engine. A General Motors (GM) 1.9L four-cylinder diesel engine with the stock compression ratio of 17.5:1, common rail diesel injection system, high-pressure exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) system and variable geometry turbocharger was modified to allow for port fuel injection with gasoline or E85. Controlling the fuel reactivity in-cylinder by the adjustment of the ratio of premixed low-reactivity fuel (gasoline or E85) to direct injected high reactivity fuel (diesel fuel) has been shown to extend the operating range of high-efficiency clean combustion (HECC) compared to the use of a single fuel alone as in homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) or premixed charge compression ignition (PCCI).

The past efforts to develop aluminum alloy engine parts were focused on the formulation of chemical composition rather than the heat treatment conditions of aluminum alloys. Only a few studies have been made on optimizing heat treatment conditions. This paper deals with the effects of artificial aging on two aluminum alloys, A356 and A319, which have been often used for engine cylinder heads. The aluminum alloys were artificially aged under several different conditions after T6 heat treatment. The alloys were tested for such mechanical properties as pure tension, cyclic loading resistance and thermo-mechanical fatigue failure. The microstructure was observed by TEM to see the effects on microstructure in terms of mechanical properties.

Large-eddy simulation (LES) is a useful approach for the simulation of turbulent flow and combustion processes in internal combustion engines. This study employs the ANSYS Forte CFD package and explores several key and fundamental components of LES, namely, the subgrid-scale (SGS) turbulence models, the numerical schemes used to discretize the transport equations, and the computational mesh. The SGS turbulence models considered include the classic Smagorinsky model and a dynamic structure model. Two numerical schemes for momentum convection, quasi-second-order upwind (QSOU) and central difference (CD), were evaluated. The effects of different computational mesh sizes controlled by both fixed mesh refinement and a solution-adaptive mesh-refinement approach were studied and compared. The LES models are evaluated and validated against several flow configurations that are critical to engine flows, in particular, to fuel injection processes.

Dual fuel combustion with premixed natural gas as the main fuel and diesel fuel as the ignition source was investigated in a 0.83 L, single cylinder, DI diesel engine. At low loads, increasing the equivalence ratio of natural gas to around 0.5 with intake throttling makes it possible to reduce the THC and CO emissions as well as to improve the thermal efficiency. At high loads, increasing the boost pressure moderates the combustion, but increases the THC and CO emissions, resulting in deterioration of the thermal efficiency. The EGR is essential to suppress the rapid combustion. As misfiring occurs with a compression ratio of 14.5 and there is excessively rapid combustion with 18.5 compression ratio, 16.5 is a suitable compression ratio.