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The calculation of the Nitrogen Oxide (NO) formation emitted from diesel engines usually involve direct integration of a set of nitrogen chemistry elementary reactions that involve formation and destruction of NO. The primary hydrocarbon chemistry is usually simplified as long as the main species and heat release are predicted correctly. The result of the integration is the net NO formation rate evaluated using the local concentrations and thermodynamic parameters. In the present work a method for calculating NO emissions from diesel engines is proposed that takes into consideration the effect of residence time as a measure of turbulence effects on chemistry. This is based on the assumption that for mixing-limited conditions the turbulent eddy turn-over time can be taken as a characteristic reaction residence time. The proposed procedure depends on a detailed investigation of the primary hydrocarbon combustion chemistry decoupled from the flow-field prediction.

This oil category was driven by two new cooled exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) engine tests operating with 15% EGR, with used oil soot levels at the end of the test ranging from 6 to 9%. These tests are the Mack T-10 and Cummins M11 EGR, which address ring, cylinder liner, bearing, and valve train wear; filter plugging, and sludge. In addition to these two new EGR tests, there is a Caterpillar single-cylinder test without EGR which measures piston deposits and oil consumption control using an articulated piston. This test is called the Caterpillar 1R and is included in the existing Global DHD-1 specification. In total, the API CI-4 category includes eight fired-engine tests and seven bench tests covering all the engine oil parameters. The new bench tests include a seal compatibility test for fresh oils and a low temperature pumpability test for used oils containing 5% soot. This paper provides a review of the all the tests, matrix results, and limits for this new oil category.

This paper reports on DaimlerChrysler's participation in the Ad Hoc Diesel Fuels Test Program. This program was initiated by the U.S. Department of Energy and included major U.S. auto makers, major U.S. oil companies, and the Department of Energy. The purpose of this program was to identify diesel fuels and fuel properties that could facilitate the successful use of compression ignition engines in passenger cars and light-duty trucks in the United States at Tier 2 and LEV II tailpipe emissions standards. This portion of the program focused on minimizing engine-out particulates and NOx by using selected fuels, (not a matrix of fuel properties,) in steady state dynamometer tests on a modern, direct injection, common rail diesel engine.

Heavy fuel engines have typically been limited to large, heavy compression ignition engines. However, with the push by the US military to use a common fuel (JP5/JP8/diesel) there is a need to develop small, lightweight, high performance engines that are also capable of operating on heavy fuel. Recent advancements in air assisted direct injection technologies have improved fuel atomization to the level necessary to overcome the poor physical properties of heavy fuel. This has permitted the operation of small two-stroke engines which retain the advantage of a lightweight design with high power output. This paper discusses the process of benchmarking a two-stroke heavy fuel spark ignited engine with an integrated air-assist direct injection system. The setup and commissioning phases of the testing are outlined, including specific techniques for quantifying scavenging, burn rate, and heat release characteristics with the objective of validating a 1-D performance simulation model.

International has developed a new generation 6.0L V8 DI diesel engine for the Ford F-Series full size pick-up trucks. This new engine features a number of state-of-the-art technologies designed to meet the US 2004 heavy-duty engine emission legislation and other requirements from the customers. A set of combustion development strategies was created. They were, the use of cooled Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) to inhibit NOx formation, a centrally located nozzle and an optimized combustion bowl to improve fuel distribution and reduce soot formation, the use of increased injection pressure to enhance air/fuel mixing and increase soot oxidation rate, and a Variable Geometry Turbocharger (VGT) to provide sufficient air/fuel ratio over a broad speed range. The combustion development took full advantage of the “virtual lab” tools.

In the United States, most school buses are powered by diesel engines. Some have advocated replacing diesel school buses with natural gas school buses, but little research has been conducted to understand the emissions from school bus engines. This work provides a detailed characterization of exhaust emissions from school buses using a diesel engine meeting 1998 emission standards, a low emitting diesel engine with an advanced engine calibration and a catalyzed particulate filter, and a natural gas engine without catalyst. All three bus configurations were tested over the same cycle, test weight, and road load settings. Twenty-one of the 41 “toxic air contaminants” (TACs) listed by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) as being present in diesel exhaust were not found in the exhaust of any of the three bus configurations, even though special sampling provisions were utilized to detect low levels of TACs.

The Fischer-Tropsch (FT) process can be used to synthesize diesel fuels from a variety of energy sources, including coal, natural gas and biomass. Diesel fuels produced from the FT process are essentially sulfur-free, have very low aromatic content, and have excellent ignition characteristics. Because of these favorable attributes, FT diesel fuels may offer environmental benefits over transportation fuels derived from crude oil. Previous tests have shown that FT diesel fuel can be used in unmodified engines and have been shown to lower regulated emissions. Whereas exhaust emissions reductions from these previous studies have been impressive, this paper demonstrates that far greater exhaust emissions reductions are possible if the diesel engine is optimized to exploit the properties of the FT fuels. A Power Stroke 7.3 liter turbocharged diesel engine has been modified for use with FT diesel.

A droplet deformation and rotation model (DDR) has been developed and implemented in the KIVA II CFD code for better describing characteristics of liquid fuel sprays in diesel engines, including the distribution of sprays in combustion chamber space and the spray/wall impingement. The DDR model accounts for the effects of both the droplet's frontal area and its drag coefficient as a function of its deformation and rotation on droplet drag and droplet breakup. Therefore, the DDR model can be used for calculating the fuel droplet's drag and breakup in the process of combustion in diesel engines. This makes it possible to model the highly distorted droplet's frontal area variation and its effect on the drag coefficient in sprays. The new version of the KIVA II code with the DDR model has been tested for a case of the spray/wall impingement and a case of the combustion process in a diesel engine.

The Ethanol-Boosted Direct Injection (EBDI) demonstrator engine is a collaborative project led by Ricardo targeted at reducing the fuel consumption of a spark-ignited engine. This paper describes the design challenges to upgrade an existing engine architecture and the synergistic use of a combination of technologies that allows a significant reduction in fuel consumption and CO₂ emissions. Features include an extremely reduced displacement for the target vehicle, 180 bar cylinder pressure capability, cooled exhaust gas recirculation, advanced boosting concepts and direct injection. Precise harmonization of these individual technologies and control algorithms provide optimized operation on gasoline of varying octane and ethanol content.

Commercial vehicles carry more than 10 billion tons of goods - approximately 70 percent of all freight shipped and travel over 450 billion miles each year in the United States. These vehicles are the exclusive mode of delivery in over 75 percent of U.S. communities. Such utilization and dependency demand commercial vehicles be reliable, durable, and cost effective. The heart of these commercial vehicles (Classes 3-8) is the diesel engine. The widespread use of the diesel engine can be attributed to its reliability, durability, and cost effectiveness. However, the 2007 and 2010 EPA emissions regulations are creating significant challenges for diesel-powered commercial vehicles. Engine and vehicle manufacturers must strike a balance between emissions, performance, and affordability. A consequence of the evolution of the diesel engine to meet the increasingly stringent emissions regulations is that more effort to accommodate the associated changes is driven to the vehicle manufacturers.

In this paper, a model-based linear estimator and a non-linear control law for an Fe-zeolite urea-selective catalytic reduction (SCR) catalyst for heavy duty diesel engine applications is presented. The novel aspect of this work is that the relevant species, NO, NO2 and NH3 are estimated and controlled independently. The ability to target NH3 slip is important not only to minimize urea consumption, but also to reduce this unregulated emission. Being able to discriminate between NO and NO2 is important for two reasons. First, recent Fe-zeolite catalyst studies suggest that NOx reduction is highly favored by the NO 2 based reactions. Second, NO2 is more toxic than NO to both the environment and human health. The estimator and control law are based on a 4-state model of the urea-SCR plant. A linearized version of the model is used for state estimation while the full nonlinear model is used for control design.

Customer feedback indicated that there was a difference in noise levels and frequency content between nominally identical diesel engines manufactured in two different plants. A test program was created to determine whether this perceived difference was real. This program opened the opportunity to investigate several levels of variability in SAE J-1074 noise measurements. From the data, estimates of confidence intervals were developed to predict true mean noise levels in the presence of back-to-back, install-test-remove, and sample-to-sample test variability. The data from this project can be used to estimate the number of tests required in order to achieve a given level of accuracy in estimating the true mean noise level of an engine or of an engine population. The results can also be used to design a test program that will provide a given level of confidence in determining whether there is a statistically significant difference between two engine populations.

This paper presents a review on the fatigue mechanisms in automotive valve springs manufactured on high-strength steel, as well as in other similar parts, like as helical suspension spring. The review was conducted with a phenomenological focus to support new developments in material for use in Otto and Diesel engines. Mechanical fatigue is a common process of damage that occurs in components subjected to cyclic loads, but in the particular case of valve springs, this problem is controlled through the project restriction, usually with the limitation of higher levels prescription of shear stress. In an attempt to increase this limit, allowing greater efforts at the elastic region the Material Engineering designs materials with higher toughness and the Manufacturing Engineering plays in the prevention or defects minimization, often inherent to the material.

An investigation has been carried out to examine the influence of up to 300 MPa injection pressure on engine performance and emissions. Experiments were performed on a 4 cylinder, 4 valve / cylinder, 4.5 liter John Deere diesel engine using the Ricardo Twin Vortex Combustion System (TVCS). The study was conducted by varying the injection pressure, Start of Injection (SOI), Variable Geometry Turbine (VGT) vane position and a wide range of EGR rates covering engine out NOx levels between 0.3 g/kWh to 2.5 g/kWh. A structured Design of Experiment approach was used to set up the experiments, develop empirical models and predict the optimum results for a range of different scenarios. Substantial fuel consumption benefits were found at the lowest NOx levels using 300 MPa injection pressure. At higher NOx levels the impact was nonexistent. In a separate investigation a Cambustion DMS-500 fast particle spectrometer, was used to sample and analyze the exhaust gas.