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Steady and transient tests in a downsizing Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) in-line 4 cylinders 2.0 liter engine were carried out to investigate characteristics of turbocharger with Titanium aluminide (TiAl) turbine wheel. The density of TiAl material is lower than Inconel 718 (Inconel) which is raw material for conventional turbine wheel. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of light rotational inertia of turbine wheel on engine performance. Performance of TiAl turbine wheel turbocharger itself was also compared to that of Inconel turbine wheel turbocharger. Except for the turbine wheels, all experimental conditions were matched to be the same load and engine speed conditions. The compressor total-to-total pressure ratio of TiAl turbocharger was higher under part load condition due to higher turbocharger speed of TiAl turbocharger, which was led by lower rotational inertia of TiAl turbine wheel, while the engine performance was not much improved.

Adaptive valve timing control is one of the promising techniques to accomplish the optimized mixture formation and combustion depending on the load and speed, which is needed to meet the future challenges of reducing fuel consumption and exhaust emissions. The behavior and the effect of adaptive valve timing control system has been investigated by computer simulation, which simulates the gas dynamics in engines. These programs are typically one-dimensional including complex flow features as ‘special’ boundaries. A code adopting 2-step Lax-Wendroff method with artificial damping terms called FCT(Flux Corrected Transport), was developed to investigate the influence of operational and design parameters on the performance of engines. The effects of adaptive valve timing control system on volumetric efficiency or engine torque, and pumping loss were investigated. It increased low end torque by about 6%, and reduced pumping loss drastically at low load, high engine speed conditions.

This paper describes the results of a DOE (design of experiment) applied to an exhaust heat exchanger to lower the exhaust gas temperature mainly under high load conditions. The heat exchanger was installed between the exhaust manifold and the inlet of the close-coupled catalytic converter (CCC) to avoid thermal aging. The DOE evaluates the influence of the selected eight design parameters of the heat exchanger geometry on the performance of the exhaust gas cooling system, and the interaction between these parameters. To maximize the heat transfer between exhaust gas and coolant, fins were implemented at the inner surface of the heat exchanger. The design parameters consist of the fin geometry (length, thickness, arrangement, number of fin), coolant direction, exchanger wall thickness, and the length of the heat exchanger. The acceptable range of each design parameter is discussed by analyzing the DOE results.

An experimental study was conducted to investigate the impact of injection parameters on the combustion and emission characteristics in a compression ignition engine fuelled with neat waste cooking oil (WCO) biodiesel. A single-cylinder diesel engine equipped with common-rail system was used in this research. The test was performed over two engine loads at an engine speed of 800 r/min. Injection timing was varied from −25 to 0 crank angle degree (CAD) after top dead center (aTDC) at two different injection pressures (80 and 160 MPa). Based on in-cylinder pressure, heat release rate was calculated to analyze the combustion characteristics. Carbon monoxide (CO), hydrocarbon (HC), nitrogen oxide (NOx) and smoke were measured to examine the emission characteristics. The results showed that the indicated specific fuel consumption (ISFC) of WCO biodiesel was higher than that of diesel. The ISFC was increased as the injection timing was advanced and injection pressure was increased.

The use of hydrogen as a possible fuel for internal combustion (IC) engines can help build a society with a clean transportation framework. Diluting the in-cylinder mixture can improve the efficiency of the engines. To prove the validity of lean burn in hydrogen IC engines, three different combustion modes are investigated in this study. The engine experiments are conducted in a spray-guided direct-injection (DI) spark-ignition engine with 10 MPa of hydrogen DI. When lean burn is applied to a hydrogen IC engine, the characteristics of pumping and heat transfer loss improve. The improvement in heat transfer loss is more significant than the reduction in negative pumping work for the indicated thermal efficiency. Among the three combustion modes, stratified charge combustion (SCC) develops the maximum indicated mean effective pressure. However, this mode deteriorates the combustion stability slightly. The nitrogen oxide emission is reduced when the excess air ratio is increased.

Low Temperature Combustion (LTC) is known to be feasible only in lower load ranges so in real world application of LTC, engine operation mode should frequently change back and forth between LTC mode in lower loads and conventional mode in higher loads. In this research, effect of injection strategy on smoothness and emissions during mode transition in a single cylinder heavy duty diesel engine is studied. The Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) line was controlled by a servo-valve capable of opening or closing the EGR loop within only one engine cycle. Ten cycles after the EGR valve closure were taken as the transition period during which injection timing and quantity were shifted in various ways (i.e. injection strategies) and the effect on Indicated Mean Effective Pressure (IMEP) stability and emissions was studied.

The compression ignition combustion fuelled with hydrogen and dimethyl-ether was investigated. Exhaust gas recirculation was applied to reduce noise and nitrogen oxide (NOx) emission. When dimethyl-ether was injected earlier, combustion showed two-stage ignitions known as low temperature reaction and high temperature reaction. With advanced dimethyl-ether injection, combustion temperature and in-cylinder pressure rise were lowered which resulted in high carbon monoxide and hydrocarbon emissions. However, NOx emission was decreased due to relatively low combustion temperature. The engine combustion showed only high temperature reaction when dimethyl-ether was injected near top dead center. When exhaust gas recirculation gas was added, the in-cylinder pressure and heat release rate were decreased. However, it retarded combustion phase resulting in higher indicated mean effective pressure.

To meet stringent emission standards, a considerable amount of development work is necessary to ensure suitable efficiency and durability of catalyst systems. The main challenge is to reduce the engine cold-start emissions. Close-coupled catalyst (CCC) provides fast light-off time by utilizing the energy in the exhaust gas. However, if some malfunction occurred during engine operation and the catalyst temperature exceeds 1050°C, the catalytic converter becomes deactivated and shows poor conversion efficiency. Close-coupled catalyst temperature was investigated under various engine operating conditions. All of the experiments were conducted with a 1.0L SI engine at 1500-4000 rpm. The engine was operated at no load to full load conditions. Exhaust gas temperature and catalyst temperature were measured as a function of lambda value (0.8-1.2), ignition timing (BTDC 30°-ATDC 30°) and misfire rates (0-28%).

Transient tests in a 2.0 liter in-line 4 cylinder downsizing gasoline direct injection engine were conducted under various transient conditions in order to investigate effects of lower rotational inertia of titanium aluminide alloy (TiAl) turbine wheel on engine and turbocharger performances. As a representative result, fast boost pressure build up was achieved in case of TiAl turbocharger compared to Inconel turbocharger. This result was mainly due to lower rotational inertia of TiAl turbine wheel. Engine torque build up response was also improved with TiAl turbocharger even though engine torque response gap between both turbochargers was slightly reduced due to retarded combustion phase. In addition, with advanced ignition timing, fuel consumption became less than that of Inconel turbocharger with similar engine torque response.

Most internal combustion engine makers have adopted after-treatment systems, such as selective catalytic reduction (SCR), diesel particulate filter (DPF), and diesel oxidation catalyst (DOC), to meet emission regulations. However, as the emission regulations become stricter, the size of the after-treatment systems become larger. This aggravates the price competitiveness of engine systems and causes fuel efficiency to deteriorate due to the increased exhaust pressure. Dual-fuel premixed charge compression ignition (DF-PCCI) combustion, which is one of the advanced combustion technologies, makes it possible to reduce nitrogen oxides (NOx) and particulate matter (PM) during the combustion process, while keeping the combustion phase controllability as a conventional diesel combustion (CDC). However, DF-PCCI combustion produces high amounts of hydrocarbon (HC) and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions due to the bulk quenching phenomenon under low load conditions as a huddle of commercialization.

The effects of hydrogen ratio and exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) on combustion and emissions in a hydrogen/diesel dual-fuel premixed charge compression ignition (PCCI) engine were investigated. The control of combustion phasing could be improved using hydrogen enrichment and EGR due to the retarded combustion phasing with a higher hydrogen ratio. The indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP) was increased with a higher hydrogen ratio because the hydrogen enrichment intensified the high temperature reactions and thus decreased the combustion duration. Hydrocarbon (HC) and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions were reduced significantly in a hydrogen/diesel dual-fuel PCCI mode with a similar NOx emissions level as that of the diesel PCCI mode.

Diesel fuel injection system is the most important part of the direct-injection diesel engine and, in recent years, it has become one of the critical technologies for emission control with the help of electronically controlled fuel injection. Common rail injection system has great flexibility in injection timing, pressure and multi-injections. Many studies and applications have reported the advantages of using common rail system to meet the strict emission regulation and to improve engine performance for diesel engines. The main objective of this study is to investigate the effect of pilot-, post- and multiple-fuel injection strategies on engine performance and emissions. The study was carried out on a single cylinder optical direct injection diesel engine equipped with a high pressure common rail fuel injection system. Spray and combustion evolutions were visualized through a high speed charge-coupled device (CCD) camera.

In this study, single and double post injections were applied to diesel premixed charge compression ignition (PCCI) combustion to overcome the drawbacks those are high level of hydrocarbons (HC) and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions in a single-cylinder direct-injection diesel engine. The operating conditions including engine speed and total injection quantity were 1200 rpm and 12 mg/cycle, which are the representative of low engine speed and low load. The main injection timing of diesel PCCI combustion was set to 28 crank angle degree before top dead center (CAD BTDC). This main injection timing showed 32% lower level of nitric oxides (NOx) level and 8 CAD longer ignition delay than those of conventional diesel combustion. However, the levels of HC and CO were 2.7 and 3 times higher than those of conventional diesel combustion due to over-lean mixture and wall wetting of fuel.

Exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) and lean burn utilize the diluents into the engine cylinder to control combustion leading to enhanced fuel economy and reduced emissions. However, the occurrence of excessive cyclic variation with high diluent rates, brings about an undesirable combustion instability within the engine cylinder resulting in the deterioration of both engine performance and emissions. Proper stratification of mixture and diluents could improve the combustion stability under high diluent environment. EGR stratification within the cylinder was made by adopting a fast-response solenoid valve in the midst of EGR line and controlling its timing and duty. With EGR in both homogeneous mode and stratified mode, in-cylinder pressure and emissions were measured. The thermodynamic heat release analysis showed that the burning duration was decreased in case of stratified EGR. It was found that the stratification of EGR hardly affected the emissions.

The combustion and exhaust emission characteristics of a DME fueled HCCI engine were investigated. Different fuel injection strategies were tested under various injection quantities and timings with exhaust gas recirculation (EGR). The combustion phase in HCCI was changed by an in-cylinder direct injection and EGR, due to changes in the in-cylinder temperature and mixture homogeneity. The gross indicated mean effective pressure (IMEPgross) increased and the hydrocarbon (HC) and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions decreased as the equivalence ratio was augmented. The IMEPgross with direct injection was greater than with the port injection due to retarded ignition timing resulting from latent heat of direct injected DME fuel. It was because that most of burn duration was completed before top dead center owing to higher ignitability for DME with high cetane number. However, HC and CO emissions were similar for both injection locations.

Premixed compression ignition (PCI) combustion was implemented using advanced injection strategy and exhaust gas recirculation in a direct-injection single-cylinder diesel engine. The injection timing swept experiment using a baseline injector, which had an injection angle of 146° and 8 nozzle holes, obtained three types of combustion regime: conventional diesel combustion for an injection timing of 10° CA (crank angle) BTDC (before top dead center), PCI combustion for an injection timing of 40° CA BTDC and homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) combustion for an injection timing of 80° CA BTDC. PCI combustion can be verified by burn duration analysis. The burn duration, which was defined as the period from 10% to 90% of the accumulated heat release, was very short in PCI combustion but not in the others. PCI combustion with an injection timing of 40° CA BTDC was achieved in a range of an exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) rate from 0% to around 40%.

To meet the target of the CO2 regulations, it is mandatory to replace high-carbon fossil fuels with low-carbon fuels. Diesel/Natural Gas (NG) reactivity-controlled compression ignition (RCCI) can reduce CO2 emission, which stratifies two types of fuels with different reactivity. And also, RCCI produces less NOx and particulate matter emissions by reducing the in-cylinder temperature. However, RCCI must still be enhanced in terms of the thermal and combustion efficiencies at low and medium loads. In this work, a modified piston geometry was applied to improve the RCCI combustion. The piston geometry was designed to minimize heat loss and reduce flame quenching in an RCCI engine. Experiments were conducted using a single-cylinder engine with a displacement volume of 1,000 cc. Diesel was directly injected into the cylinder, and NG was fed through the intake port.

The effect of pilot injection and exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) on premixed charge compression ignition (PCCI) combustion was investigated in a single-cylinder direct-injection diesel engine with low engine speed and low load. The injection timing of PCCI combustion was fixed at 25 ~ 30 crank angle degree before top dead center (°CA BTDC) based on the ignition delay and power output. The level of oxides of nitrogen (NOx) emissions of PCCI combustion was 68% lower than that of conventional diesel combustion owing to the reduction of near-stoichiometric region which is well known as the main source of NOx formation. However, the indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP), hydrocarbon (HC), particulate matter (PM) and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions deteriorated compared with conventional diesel combustion because of early injection, advanced combustion phase and lowered combustion temperature. EGR has been applied to PCCI combustion.

This paper investigated the influence of the injector nozzle geometry on fuel consumption and exhaust emission characteristics of a light-duty diesel engine with 250 MPa injection. The engine used for the experiment was the 0.4L single-cylinder compression ignition engine. The diesel fuel injection equipment was operated under 250MPa injection pressure. Three injectors with nozzle hole number of 8 to 10 were compared. As the nozzle number of the injector increased, the orifice diameter decreased 105 μm to 95 μm. The ignition delay was shorter with larger nozzle number and smaller orifice diameter. Without EGR, the particulate matter(PM) emission was lower with larger nozzle hole number. This result shows that the atomization of the fuel was improved with the smaller orifice diameter and the fuel spray area was kept same with larger nozzle number. However, the NOx-PM trade-offs of three injectors were similar at higher EGR rate and higher injection pressure.

Mode transition between low temperature combustion and conventional combustion was investigated in a direct injection diesel engine. Low temperature diesel combustion was realized by means of high exhaust gas recirculation rate (69~73%) and early injection timing (-28~ -16 crank angle degree after top dead center) compared with those (20% exhaust gas recirculation rate and -8 crank angle degree after top dead center) of conventional combustion. Tests were carried out at different engine speeds and injection pressures. Exhaust gas recirculation rate was changed transiently by controlling each throttle angle for fresh air and exhaust gas recirculation to implement mode transition. Various durations for throttle transition were applied to investigate the effect of speed change of exhaust gas recirculation rate on the characteristics of mode transition.