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Time-resolved and local ambient gas entrainment processes in intermittent gas jets with a range of injection conditions were evaluated by a LIFA (Laser-Induced Fluorescence of Ambient gas) technique. The gas injection conditions tested were: mean discharge velocity, um; mean discharge turbulence intensity, u′m; kinematic viscosity of the gas jet, ν; specific gravity of the gas jet, ρj; and of the ambient gas, ρa. Experimental results showed that the entrainment of jets are enhanced with higher eddy kinematic viscosity, νt, measured by a hot wire anemometer. In conclusion, the mean jet concentration was approximated with only one parameter, (ρj/ρa)D2/[(ν+νt)Δt].

Direct injection of various ignition suppressors, including water, methanol, ethanol, 1-propanol, hydrogen, and methane, was implemented to control ignition timing and expand the operating range in an HCCI engine with induced DME as the main fuel. Ultra-low NOx and smoke-less combustion was realized over a wide operating range. The reaction suppressors reduced the rate of low-temperature oxidation and consequently delayed the onset of high-temperature oxidation. Analysis of the chemical kinetics showed a reduction of OH radical in the premixed charge with the suppressors. Among the ignition suppressors, alcohols had a greater impact on OH radical reduction resulting in stronger ignition suppression. Although water injection caused a greater lowering of the temperature, which also suppressed ignition, the strong chemical effect of radical reduction with methanol injection resulted in the larger impact on suppression of oxidation reaction rates.

Light naphtha, which exhibits two-stage ignition, was induced from the intake manifold for ignition enhancement and a low ignitability fuel or water, which does not exhibit low temperature oxidation, was directly injected early in the compression stroke for ignition suppression in an HCCI engine. Their quantitative balance was flexibly controlled to optimize ignition timing according to operating condition. Ultra-low NOx and smokeless combustion without knocking or misfiring was realized over a wide operating range. Alcohols inhibit low temperature oxidation more strongly than other oxygenated or unoxygenated hydrocarbons, water, and hydrogen. Chemical kinetic modeling for methanol showed a reduction of OH radical concentration before the onset of low temperature oxidation, and this may be the main mechanism by which alcohols inhibit low temperature oxidation.

The effects of several fuel property variables on the emissions from a D.I. diesel engine were individually analyzed. The results showed that the smoke and dry soot increased with increased kinematic viscosity, shorter ignition lag, and higher aromatic content, especially at high equivalence ratios. Over the whole range of equivalence ratios, SOF depended on and increased with only ignition lag. The NOx improved slightly with increased kinematic viscosity, higher ignitability, and decreased aromatic content. The unburnt HC also improved with decreased kinematic viscosity and higher ignitability. The distribution shape of distillation curves had little influence on the emissions.

An interest in measuring ion current in Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) engines arises when one wants to use a cheaper probe for feedback of the combustion timing than expensive piezo electric pressure transducers. However the location of the ion current probe, in this case a spark plug, is of importance for both signal strength and the crank angle position where the signal is obtained. Different fuels will probably affect the ion current in both signal strength and timing and this is the main interest of this investigation. The measurements were performed on a Scania D12 engine in single cylinder operation and ion current was measured at 7 locations simultaneously. By arranging this setup there was a possibility to investigate if the ion current signals from the different spark plug locations would correlate with the fact that, for this particular engine, the combustion starts at the walls and propagates towards the centre of the combustion chamber.

The HCCI engine offers the potential of low NOx emissions combined with diesel engine like high efficiency, however HCCI operation is restricted to low engine speeds and torques constrained by narrow noise (HCCI knocking) and misfiring limits. Gasoline like fuel vaporizes and mixes with air, but the mixture may auto-ignite at the same time, leading to heavy HCCI knocking. Retarding the CA50 (the crank angle of the 50% burn) is well known as a method to slow the maximum pressure rise rate and reduce HCCI knocking. The CA50 can be controlled by the fuel composition, for example, di-methyl ether (DME), which is easily synthesized from natural gas, has strong low temperature heat release (LTHR) characteristics and ethanol generates strong LTHR inhibitor effects. The utilization of DME-ethanol binary blended fuels has the potential to broaden the HCCI engine load-speed range.

Ignition and combustion control of HCCI (Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition) in DI (Direct Injection) Diesel Engine were examined. In this study, double injection technique was used by Common Rail injection system. The first injection was used as an early injection for fuel diffusion and to advance the changing of fuel to lower hydrocarbons (i.e. low temperature reaction). The second injection was used as an ignition trigger for all the fuel. It was found that the ignition of the premixed gas could be controlled by the second injection when the early injection was maintaining low temperature reaction. It was found that as the boost pressure increased, ignition timing advanced slightly and the rate of pressure increase markedly decreased. The rate of pressure increase is one of the factors concerning operation limit in this combustion. Therefore, the VNT (Variable Nozzle Turbo-charger) was applied to the production engine to allow boost pressure control.

Port injection of ethanol addition as an ignition inhibitor was implemented to control ignition timing and expand the operating range in DME fueled HCCI combustion. The ethanol reduced the rate of low-temperature oxidation and consequently delayed the onset of the high-temperature reaction with ultra-low NOx over a wide operating range. Along with the ethanol addition, changes in intake temperature, overall equivalence ratio, and engine speed are investigated and shown to be effective in HCCI combustion control and to enable an extension of operation range. A chemical reaction analysis was performed to elucidate details of the ignition inhibition on low-temperature oxidation of DME-HCCI combustion.

A homogeneous-charge compression-ignition (HCCI) engine system that was fuelled with dimethyl ether (DME) and methanol-reformed gas (MRG) has been proposed in the previous research. Adjusting the proportion of DME and MRG can effectively control the ignition timing of the engine. In the system, both fuels are to be produced from methanol in onboard reformers utilizing the engine exhaust gas heat. While hydrogen contained in MRG has the main role of the ignition control, hydrogen increases with carbon dioxide in the methanol reforming. This paper investigates the influence of carbon dioxide on HCCI combustion engine with the ignition control by hydrogen. Both thermal and chemical effects of carbon dioxide are analyzed.

Smokeless and ultra low NOx combustion without knocking in a dual-fuel diesel engine with induced LPG as the main fuel was established with a uniquely developed piston cavity divided by a lip in the sidewall. A small quantity of diesel fuel was directly injected at early compression stroke into the lower part of the cavity as an ignition source for this confined area, and this suppressed explosively rapid combustion just after ignition and spark-knock like combustion at later stage. A combination of the divided cavity, EGR, and intake air throttling was effective to simultaneously eliminate knocking, and reduce THC and NOx significantly.

The chemical composition of marketed gasoline varies depending on the crude oil, refinery processes of oil refineries, and season. The combustion characteristics of HCCI engines are very sensitive to the fuel composition, and a fuel standard for HCCI is needed for HCCI vehicles to be commercially viable. In this paper, the effects of the structure of the fuel components on auto-ignition characteristics and HCCI engine performance were investigated. The engine employed in the experiments is a research, single cylinder HCCI engine with a compression ratio of 14.7. The intake manifold was equipped with a heater attachment allowing control of the intake air temperature up to 150 °C at 2000 rpm. Thirteen kinds of hydrocarbons, 4 kinds of paraffins, 3kinds of naphthenes, and 6 kinds of aromatics, were chosen for the investigation, and 20vol% of each of the pure hydrocarbons was blended with the 80 vol% of PFR50 fuel.

The UNIBUS (Uniform Bulky Combustion System) based on the HCCI (Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition) concept uses an early injection quantity, timing, boost pressure, EGR, etc. for ignition control [1]. To further expand the operation range from the present level, the effects of the atmospheric conditions on ignition and combustion were calculated using CHEMKIN in the present study. When controlling the start timing of the high temperature reaction to suppress the early ignition, it is more effective to apply EGR than boost pressure. If fuel quantity is increased to expand load, it is possible to suppress a sharp cylinder pressure rising rate by increasing the boost pressure. Furthermore, it has become apparent that the cause of this is an increase in heat capacity.

Simultaneous OH- and formaldehyde planar-LIF measurements have been performed in an optical engine using two laser sources working on 283 and 355 nm, respectively. The engine used for the measurements was a car Diesel engine converted to single-cylinder operation and modified for optical access. The fuel, n-heptane, was injected by a direct injection common rail system and the engine was also fitted with an EGR system. The engine was operated in both HCCI mode and Diesel mode. Due to the low load, the Diesel mode resulted in low-temperature Diesel combustion and because of limitations in maximum pressure and maximum rate of pressure increase of the optical engine, the Diesel mode was run at a higher EGR percentage than the HCCI mode to slow down the combustion. A third mode, pilot combustion, was also investigated. This pilot combustion is created by an injection at 30 CAD before TDC followed by a second injection just before TDC.

Simultaneous OH- and formaldehyde planar-LIF measurements have been performed in an optical engine using two laser sources working on 283 and 355 nm, respectively. The measurements were performed in a light duty Diesel engine, using n-heptane as fuel, converted to single-cylinder operation and modified for optical access. It was also equipped with a direct injection common rail system as well as an EGR system. The engine was operated in both HCCI mode, using a single fuel injection, and UNIBUS (Uniform Bulky Combustion System) mode, using two injections of fuel with one of the injections at 50 CAD before TDC and the other one just before TDC. The OH and formaldehyde LIF images were compared with the heat-release calculated from the pressure-traces. Analyses of the emissions, for example NOx and HC, were also performed for the different operating conditions.

The structure of HCCI (homogeneous charge compression ignition) combustion flames was quantitatively analyzed by measuring the two-dimensional gas temperature distribution using phosphor thermometry. It was found from the relation between a turbulent Reynolds number and Karlovitz number that, when compared with the flame propagation in an S.I. engine, HCCI combustion has a wider flame structure with respect to the turbulence scale. As a result of our experimentation for the influence of low temperature reaction (LTR) using two types of fuel, it was also confirmed that different types of fuel produce different histories of flame kernel structure.

A phosphor thermometry, for measurements of two-dimensional gas-phase temperature was examined in turbulent combustion in an engine. The reasonable temperature deviation and the agreement with calculated data within 5% precision were achieved by single-shot images in the ignition process of compression ignition engine. Focusing on the local flame kernel, the flame structure could be quantitatively given by the temperature. It became evident that the HCCI flame kernels had 1-3 mm diameter and the isolated island structures. Subsequently, the HTR zone consisted of the combined flame kernels near TDC.