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For the purposes of environmental protection, regulations of particulate matter are becoming more stringent year by year. Accordingly, engine systems have been improved and particulate emissions are much lower compared to those of previous engine systems. The automotive industry generally uses a gravimetric method to quantify particulate emissions. It is becoming increasingly difficult to quantify particulate emissions using a conventional gravimetric balance because the amount of particulates continues to decline. In order to overcome this problem, a new method has been developed that uses gas analyzers to measure potentially as much as several micrograms of particulates. Furthermore, with this method, it is possible to simultaneously analyze volatile organic fraction (VOF), soot, and sulfates. The particles collected by a quartz filter are placed in a furnace at a specific temperature, and VOF and sulfates are vaporized in an inert atmosphere.

One of the most effective means of improving the thermal efficiency and the specific fuel consumption in spark ignition engines is the increase of the compression ratio. However, there is a limit to it because of the generation of knocking combustion due to the rise of temperature and pressure in the unburnt mixture. Also in turbo charged spark ignition engines, the ignition timing cannot be advanced until MBT in order to avoid the knocking phenomena. Generally speaking, it is very difficult to investigate the phenomena in an actual engine, because there are many restriction and the phenomena are too complex and too fast. According-ly, it is advantageous to reveal the phenomena fundamentally, including the autoignition process of the end-gas by using simplified model equipment. Therefore, a rapid compression and expansion machine (RCEM) with a pan-cake combustion chamber was designed and developed for the experiments presented here.

A new hydrogen analyzer using a magnetic sector mass spectrometer (MS) has been developed to perform continuous analysis of hydrogen gas concentrations in exhaust gas. This method is insensitive to substances other than hydrogen gas ions and so is not easily affected by the presence of other molecules. In addition, this analyzer has a fast response compared to conventional hydrogen analyzers, which employ other measurement principles. The T90 response time is about 1 second. The minimum sensitivity is few tens of ppm. Because of these characteristics, the sector MS method has significant potential for analyzing hydrogen concentrations in exhaust gas continuously. In this study, the authors performed continuous emissions measurement of several kinds of gasoline engine vehicle in a chassis test cell using the hydrogen gas analyzer in combination with other gas analyzers.

Fuel design approach has been proposed as the control technique of spray and combustion processes in diesel engine to improve thermal efficiency and reduce exhaust emissions. In order to kwow if this approach is capable of controlling spray flame structure and interaction between the flame and a combustion chamber wall, the present study investigated ignition and flame characteristics of dual-component fuels, while varying mixing fraction, fuel temperature and ambient conditions. Those characteristics were evaluated through chemiluminescence photography and luminous flame photography. OH radical images and visible luminous flame images were analyzed to reveal flame shape aspect ratio and its fractal dimension.

This paper presents an atomization mechanism of a spray injected into the low-pressure field, as the subject of injection system in a suction manifold of gasoline engine. Pure liquid fuel, which is n-Pentane or n-Hexane is injected into quiescent gaseous atmosphere at room-temperature and low- pressure through pintle type electronic control injector. Fuel sprays are observed by taking photographs for variation of the back pressure and the changes in spray characteristics with the back pressure below atmospheric pressure are examined in detail. In particular, in the case of the back pressure below the saturated vapor pressure of fuel, the atomization mechanism is discussed from a viewpoint of flash boiling phenomena, those are bubble growth rate and so on.

We propose a new concept on simultaneous reduction of NO and soot emissions in Diesel engine exhaust by the diesel fuel oil (n-Tridecane) with liquefied CO2 dissolved. The CO2 dissolved fuel is expected to undergo flash boiling or gas separation when being injected into the combustion chamber and improve spray atomization and mixing process both of which are primary factors to govern soot formation. Also the internal EGR effect caused by CO2 injected with the fuel is expected to NO formation. In order to assess this concept, combustion experiments were carried out using a rapid compression and expansion machine. Thus, flame characteristics and heat release rate were analyzed for the combustion process of diesel fuel and CO2 mixed fuel. And, it is revealed that the diesel fuel-liquefied CO2 mixed fuel can successfully reduce NO emission in a diesel combustion system.

There is a concept that the increase in the temperature of charge in a combustion chamber and the shield of heat transferred through a chamber wall can facilitate the oxidation of soot and reduce the discharge of soot from the engine. In the experiments presented here in, an IDI diesel engine was used to inspect the concept. The engine was installed a bigger sized cylindrical swirl chamber which was equipped with two flat quarts windows, in order to observe the combustion phenomena and to apply the optical measurement. The experiments were carried out using two types of divided chambers, that is, the swirl chamber made of ceramics and that made of steel, to examine the the effects mentioned above.

A transient gas jet seems to be a model of a diesel spray because it has no vaporization process. Recently, CNG is utilized in a diesel engine. In the case of diesel engine, sprays or jets have the free state in some cases, and they are impinging surely on the piston surface in the other cases. The 2-D image of acetylene gas with tracer particles was taken by high-speed photography. In both jets, the outer shape was measured on the images and the characteristics of the internal flow was obtained by particle image velocimetry. Then, the physical models of these jets were constructed by use of experimental results.

CNG is one of the future fuel for a CI engine. Recently, the general tendency is the use of the high pressure injection system over 100 MPa in a CI engine for the near future severe regulation. Combustion phenomenon in a CI engine with such injection system is like a transient gas diffusion flame. The flow in a gas diffusion flame was investigated by the particle image velocimetry on its 2-D images, the relative soot concentration, the temperature and the relative CO2 concentration was detected in the experiments. And the model of transient gas diffusion flame was constructed by use of experimental data.

It is unavoidable that a DI diesel engine exhausts a blue and white smoke at starting, especially in the cold atmosphere. In the experiments presented here, a small DI diesel engine started under the conditions of coolant and suction air whose minimum temperatures were 255 K and 268 K, respectively. The flame was photographed by high-speed photography, the temperature of flame and the soot concentration were measured by two-color method, and CO2 concentration was detected by luminous method. The engine cannot be started over several cycles when the coolant temperature is 255 K and suction air temperature is 268 K. As the temperature of coolant and suction air are decreasing, the maxima of the cylinder pressure, the flame temperature, the soot concentration and CO2 concentration are decreasing. Luminous small dots or small lumps of flame become scattered in the piston cavity.

Particulate matter (PM) emission from vehicles is one of the biggest issues in terms of environmental protection and influence to human body. Thus, a variety of measurement technologies have been develop so far. Currently, a gravimetric method is most commonly used in the automotive industry, partially because it is specified in the regulations. This method uses a combination of a dilution tunnel and a filter that collects the PM from the diluted sample gas with subsequent weighting by a micro balance. However, since this technique is a batch measurement, it is impossible to determine at what point of the emissions test the Soot, SOF (Soluble Organic Fraction), and the total PM are emitted. Thus the demand for real-time PM measurement under transient test conditions has increased.

A diesel engine operating in premixed charge compression ignition (PCCI) mode promises the reduction of engine-out emissions of NOx and particulate matter. A serious issue for PCCI operation with the early injection timing during the compression stroke is the difficulty of controlling the mixture formation process. In this study, a mixed fuel consisting of high volatility fuel and high ignitability one is applied in order to develop a control technique for the mixture preparation. In particular, we focuses on a flash boiling phenomenon of mixed fuel. For pure substance, the quality of flashing spray is dominated by the degree of superheat. In contrast, that of mixed fuel is affected much by low boiling point fuel.

This paper confirms a structure for the soot formation process inside a burning diesel jet plume of oxygenated fuels. An explanation of how the soot formation process changes by the use of oxygenated fuel in comparison with that for using a conventional diesel fuel, and why oxygenated fuel drastically suppresses the soot formation has been derived from the chemical kinetic analysis. A detailed chemical kinetic mechanism, which is combined with various proposed chemical kinetic models including normal paraffinic hydrocarbon oxidation, oxygenated hydrocarbon oxidation, and poly-aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) formation, was developed in present study. The calculated results are presented to elucidate the influence of fuel mixture composition and fuel structure, especially relating to oxygenated fuels, on PAH formation. The analysis also provides a new insight into the initial soot formation process in terms of the temperature range of PAH formation.

This work investigates the soot formation process in diesel jet flame using a detailed kinetic soot model implemented into the KIVA-3V multidimensional CFD code and 2D imaging by use of time-resolved laser induced incandescence (LII). The numerical model is based on the KIVA code which is modified to use CHEMKIN as the chemistry solver using Message Passing Interface (MPI). This allows for the chemical reactions to be simulated in parallel on multiple CPUs. The detailed soot model used is based on the method of moments, which begins with fuel pyrolysis, followed by the formation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, their growth and coagulation into spherical particles, and finally, surface growth and oxidation of the particles. The model can describe the spatial and temporal characteristics of soot formation processes such as soot precursors distributions, nucleation rate and surface reaction rate.

Fuel cell is one of the promising candidates for low emission and high efficiency power plant for the next generation vehicles. Currently, general discussions are focused on from where and how to supply hydrogen to the fuel cell stack in a vehicle. Two major concepts are presented; (1) storing pure hydrogen on-board and (2) use of hydrocarbon as a fuel in combination with on-board fuel reformer system to extract hydrogen. Although the reformer idea seems to be rather complicated than the pure hydrogen, the fuel reformer system is very much demanded, due to the energy density of liquid fossil fuel and availability of fuel supply infrastructure. In the development of the fuel reformer system, gas composition measurements are required to achieve (1) efficient hydrogen extraction, (2) low carbon monoxide concentration to protect PEM stack, and (3) low emission.

Investigation of operating parameters have been carried out for an FTIR system dedicated for emission analysis. Discussions are focused on the key parameters, such as spectral resolution, gas cell dimensions, quantification algorithm, and sample gas treatment. The spectral resolution has to be determined so that the scan rate is high enough to make transient analysis, the minimum detection limit is low enough to carry out high sensitivity measurement, and no cross sensitivity can be recognized. A trade-off relationship between the response and the sensitivity exists for the gas cell design. Small volume of the cell is desirable when gas replacement is considered. On the other hand, the sensitivity can be increased by enlarging the cell volume to obtain long optical path. Both quantification algorithm and the sample gas treatment have to be well arranged to obtain accurate concentration values of the gas compounds sampled from the tailpipe.

Distribution of injected fuel droplets, total hydrocarbon concentration and soot concentration in the combustion chamber of a diesel engine with a swirl chamber have been measured microscopically with regard to the time and the space by means of optical method. As a result of this study, effect of the swirl flow on atomized droplet distribution, relation between the droplets and hydrocarbon concentration, and relation between the change in concentration gradient of hydrocarbon with the time and the velocity of the swirl flow, and effect of non-luminous flame on the time of heat release rate raising period have been obtained. And from spatial distributions of hydrocarbon concentration, soot concentration, and local temperature in the combustion chamber at each time, the locational characteristics of soot generation are clarified. Further, effects of hydrocarbon and local temperature on soot generation have been considered.

Some papers on the combustion in a diesel engine have been already presented to discuss the effect of the additive called ADOIL TAC. A bottom view DI diesel engine driven at 980rpm with no load was used in the experiment presented here, in order to make clear this effect. JIS second class light diesel fuel oil was injected through a hole nozzle at the normal test run. The additive was intermixed 0.01 vol. % in this fuel oil, in the experiments to compare with the normal combustion. The flame was taken by direct high-speed photography. Profiles of flame temperature and KL were detected on the film by image processing, applying the two-color method. Soot was visualized by high-speed laser shadowgraphy, and the heat release rate was calculated using the cylinder pressure diagram. Discussion on the effect of the additive on the combustion phenomena was made by using all the data.

Research on alternative fuels is necessary to reduce CO2 emissions. Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) of light fuel physically improves spray and combustion characteristics. Fatty Acid Methyl Ester (FAME) is an oxygenated fuel and its combustion characteristics are chemically improved, although its spray characteristics such as penetration and atomization are deteriorated. The purpose of this study is to understand the effects of blending HVO, which has carbon neutral (CN) characteristics, with FAME, which also has CN characteristics, on spray and combustion characteristics, and to further improve emission such as THC and Smoke. This report presents the effect of the combination of improved spray characteristics and oxygenated fuel on emissions. Spray characteristics such as penetration, spray angle and spray volume were investigated by shadowgraph photography.

Fuel design concept has been proposed for low emission and combustion control in engine systems. In this concept, the multicomponent fuels, which are mixed with a high volatility fuel (gasoline or gaseous fuel components) and a low volatility fuel (gas oil or fuel oil components), are used for artificial control of fuel properties. In addition, these multicomponent fuels can easily lead to flash boiling which promote atomization and vaporization in the spray process. In order to understand atomization and vaporization process of multicomponent fuels in detail, the model for flash boiling spray of multicomponent fuel have been constructed and implemented into KIVA3V rel.2. This model considers the detailed physical properties and evaporation process of multicomponent fuel and the bubble nucleation, growth and disruption in a nozzle orifice and injected fuel droplets.