Search Results

An investigation was made into two approaches to air-fuel mixture formation in direct injection SI engines in which charge stratification is controlled by swirl or tumble gas motions, respectively. Particle image velocimetry (PIV), laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) and air-fuel ratio measurement by infrared absorption were used to analyze fuel transport from the fuel injector to the spark plug and the fuel vaporization process. The results obtained were then compared with measured data as to combustion stability. As a result, the reason why the effects of injection timing on combustion stability were different between the two approaches was made clear from the standpoint of the mixture formation process.

Emissions remain a critical issue affecting engine design and operation, while energy conservation is becoming increasingly important. One approach to favorably address these issues is to achieve homogeneous charge combustion and stratified charge combustion at lower peak temperatures with a variable compression ratio, a variable intake temperature and a trapped rate of the EGR using NVO (negative valve overlap). This experiment was attempted to investigate the origins of these lower temperature auto-ignition phenomena with SCCI and CAI using gasoline fuel. In case of SCCI, the combustion and emission characteristics of gasoline-fueled stratified-charge compression ignition (SCCI) engine according to intake temperature and compression ratio was examined. We investigated the effects of relative air/fuel ratio, residual EGR rate and injection timing on the CAI combustion area.

The objective of this study is to investigate the initial flame propagation characteristics of turbulent flame in an engine cylinder through time-series analysis of radical emissions. A spark plug with optical fiber was developed in this study. The plug sensor is M12 type that makes it possible to mount in practical engine. The spark plug sensor can detect radical emissions in time-resolved spectra through time-series spectroscopic measurement. In this spectra, some kinds of radical emissions such as OH*(306nm), CH*(431nm) and C2*(517nm) based on principle of chemiluminescence are observed. In this study, the spark plug sensor was applied to both compression-expansion machine (CEM) and practical engine. As a result of CEM with bottom viewed high-speed camera, three kinds of spectra could be detected.

It is important to develop the technique for measuring the cycle-to-cycle variation of combustion in order to reduce the fuel consumption of the commercial spark ignition engine. In previous study, we had proposed using the spark plug as an ion probe to measure the appearance time of maximum pressure under the lean mixture conditions of the research engine. In this paper the combustion diagnostics for the commercial engine was performed using the spark plug as an ion probe. Under idling conditions the ion current often appeared during the exhaust process. This ion current is dominated by the flame contact area and the flame velocity. In this case there is good correlation between the characteristic value of the ion current and the indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP). Finally using the spark plug as an ion probe can detect the combustion quality under conditions with large cyclic variation.

A new technique for combustion diagnostics of a spark ignition engine was developed. In this method the ion sensor with the circular configuration was installed into the cylinder head gasket. This sensor is expected to be applied for production engine. The signal measured by the ion sensor was similar with that of cylinder pressure. The peak timing of ion current was consistent with the peak timing of pressure. There was a strong correlation between IMEP and the peak timing of ion current. This sensor is available to detect combustion quality in a spark ignition engine.

In order to reduce the exhaust emission and the fuel consumption in a spark ignition engine, the combustion diagnostics had been developed. However, there are few sensors which can detect the combustion quality for the individual cycle and cylinder in production engines. In previous study, the new technique using a gasket ion sensor for measuring the combustion quality has been proposed. In present study, the flame propagation pattern in a spark ignition engine was detected by using a gasket ion sensor with a circular electrode. The waveforms of ion current obtained from a circular ion sensor were compared with the flame propagation pattern obtained from multiple ion sensors. When the mixture was ignited in offset center of the cylinder, the flame propagation pattern was distorted from the spherical pattern. Then the waveforms of ion current from the circular ion sensor were varied from the waveform for a center ignition.

It is well known that the wavelet transform is a useful time-frequency analysis method for an unsteady signal and major attention has been focused on the selection of the mother wavelet (MW) because the MW plays an important role in the wavelet transform. In this study, we analyze the pressure signal in a spark-ignition engine and the vibration of the engine block measured by a knock sensor under the knocking conditions when knocking is caused. We then propose a new method of the knocking detection that utilizes the knocking signal measured with a knock sensor as a MW. We call this method the Instantaneous Correlation Method (ICM). The degree of similarity between the MW and the vibration of the engine block was judged and only the knocking signal from the vibration of the engine block was extracted. The results obtained here show that the method proposed in this study is useful for knocking detection even if the engine speed is very high of 6000rpm.

Bio-gas as an internal combustion (I.C.) engine fuel has many advantages such as cheaper fuel cost, low emission levels and especially the neutral recirculation loop of carbon dioxide, which is one of the principal factors in global warming. In this study, positive potentialities of bio-gas were investigated using a micro co-generation engine. The mixing ratio of methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2) was changed to simulate various types of bio-gases. Intake air and fuel flow rates were controlled to change the equivalence ratio. The engine load condition could be changed with the electric output power used. Base on the result, the higher CO2 content rate slowed down the engine speed in the same load condition and the combustion speed generally decreased under the same load condition with maintaining the engine speed. However thermal efficiency increased with lean burn conditions and NOX emission decreased with higher CO2 mixing rates.

The combustion and exhaust emissions characteristics of a supercharged dual-fuel natural gas engine with a single cylinder were analyzed. We focused on EGR (Exhaust Gas Recirculation) to achieve higher thermal efficiency and lower exhaust emissions. The combustion of diesel fuel (gas oil) as ignition sources was visualized using a high-speed video camera from the bottom of a quartz piston. The luminous intensity and flame decreased as the EGR rate increased. Furthermore, the ignition delay became longer due to the EGR. Characteristics of the combustion and exhaust emissions were investigated with changing EGR rates under supercharged conditions. The indicated mean effective pressure and thermal efficiency decreased with increasing EGR rate. In addition, NOx emissions decreased due to the EGR. In this study two-stage combustion was observed.

A single cylinder, supercharged dual fuel gas engine with micro-pilot fuel injection is operated using methane only and methane-hydrogen mixtures. Methane only experiments were performed at various equivalence ratios and equivalence ratio of 0.56 is decided as the optimum operating condition based on engine performance, exhaust emissions and operation stability. Methane-hydrogen experiments were performed at equivalence ratio of 0.56 and 2.6 kJ/cycle energy supply rate. Results show that indicated mean effective pressure is maintained regardless of hydrogen content of the gaseous fuel while thermal efficiency is improved and presence of hydrogen reduces cyclic variations. Increasing the fraction of hydrogen in the fuel mixture replaces hydrocarbon fuels and reduces carbon monoxide and hydrocarbon emissions.

A dual fuel engine fueled with methane from an inlet port and ignited with diesel fuel was prepared. This study focuses on the effects of early injection and exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) on the characteristics of combustion and exhaust emissions. The injection timing was changed between TDC and 50 degrees before the TDC. In the early injection timing, smoke was never seen and hydrocarbons were smaller compared with those at the normal injection timing. However, the combustion becomes too early to obtain an appropriate torque when the equivalence ratio increases. Then, moderate EGR was very effective to force the combustion to retard with lower NOx, higher thermal efficiency and almost the same hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide. The engine operated even under the condition of stoichiometric mixture.

Effects of injection parameters on combustion and emission characteristics of diesel PCCI engine operating on optical and test engine was investigated. PCCI combustion was achieved through slightly narrow included angle injector, low compression ratio coupled with exhaust gas recirculation. Analysis based on diesel spray evolution, combustion process visualization and analysis was carried out. Spray penetration was evaluated and related to the exhaust emissions. Advancing the injection timing and EGR extended the ignition delay, decreased NOx emissions and increased HC, smoke and CO emissions. Higher injection pressure led to low emissions of NOx, smoke, HC and comparable CO. Optimum spray targeting position for minimum emission was identified. Impingement on the piston surface led to deterioration of emissions and increased fuel consumption while spray targeting the upper edge of Derby hat wall showed improvement in emission and engine performance.

Experimental investigations of fuel breakup very close to nozzle of practical high-pressure swirl injector, which is used in gasoline direct injection (GDI) engine, were carried out. In GDI engines, fuel is directly injected into cylinder therefore the spray characteristics and mixture formation are of primary importance. In this research, visualizations of primary spray formation process were demonstrated using a high-speed video camera (maximum speed: 1Mfps) with a long-distance microscope. Initial state and development of the spray were discussed under the different injection pressure condition. During the injection period, the length and thickness of the liquid sheet, which is produced from the nozzle exit, were measured using Ar-ion laser sheet and high-speed camera. Primary spray structure and behavior of liquid sheet, especially surface wave of liquid sheet, at nozzle exit were discussed using obtained images.

In order to investigate the relation between ion current and combustion characteristics, the ion current signal from a spark plug as an ion probe, pressure history and flame development were measured in a homogeneous propane-air mixture in closed combustion chambers. The flame propagation was measured by Schlieren photography technique. When negative bias is applied to the central electrode of the spark plug, the ion current flows only due to an early flame kernel existing near the spark plug. When positive bias is applied to the central electrode, the ion current flows from the central electrode to the combustion chamber wall and to the ground electrode. Consequently, the ion current is dominated by the contact area between the flame and the combustion chamber wall. The appearance period of ion-current is related to the combustion duration. This method was applied to the combustion analysis of the spark ignition engine.

Non-intrusive measurement of transient unburned gas temperatures was developed with a fiber-optic heterodyne interferometry system. Using the value of the Gladstone-Dale constant for DME gas and combustion pressure we can calculate the in-cylinder temperature inside unburned and burned region. In this experimental study, it was performed to set up a fiber-optic heterodyne interferometry technique to measure the temperature before and behind the combustion region in a DME-HCCI engine. At first, measured temperature was almost the same as the temperature history assuming that the process that changes of the unburned and the burned are polytropic. In addition, we measured the temperature after combustion which of condition was burned gas with DME-HCCI combustion. The developed heterodyne interferometry used the spark-plug-in fiber-optic sensor has a good feasibility to measure the unburned and burned temperature history.

Hydrogen spark-ignition (SI) engines based on direct-injection (DI) promise significant advantages in terms of thermal efficiency and power output, as well as a means of overcoming problems related to knocking, backfiring, and pre-ignition. In a DI hydrogen engine, the fuel/air mixture is formed by injecting a jet of hydrogen into the air inside the combustion chamber. An Ar-ion laser beam was used as a light source to visualize the hydrogen jet in a constant-volume chamber. This allowed us to study the structure of the jet in addition to other physical processes resulting from hydrogen gas injection. Combustion experiments were conducted in a single-cylinder SI optical research engine equipped with a DI system to detect the early kernel growth assisted by the spark, as well as flame propagation. Various equivalence ratios and fuel injection timings were analyzed to identify the effects on combustion.

The purpose of this study was to characterize the air/fuel ratio (AFR) of turbulent premixed flames in a spark-ignition (SI) engine. We developed a spark plug sensor with an optical fiber to detect the chemiluminescence spectra, specifically the intensity of the spectral lines related to OH*, CH*, and C2* free radicals. The sensor was composed of a sapphire window and optical fiber and is applicable to automobile SI engines. Measurements of the chemiluminescence intensity from OH*, CH*, and C2* radicals were obtained in turbulent premixed flames with a propane-air mixture for different AFRs in a compression-expansion machine (CEM). The performance of the spark plug sensor was compared with a Cassegrain reflector using an intensified charge-coupled device. The results showed good agreement with measurements obtained using the Cassegrain reflector. The spark plug sensor was shown to be useful for measuring chemiluminescence of turbulent premixed flames in an SI engine.

This study measured the fuel concentration near a spark plug using a laser infrared absorption method. An IR spark plug sensor with a double-pass measurement length was developed. A He-Ne laser with a wavelength of 3.392 μm, which coincides with the absorption line of hydrocarbons, was used as the light source. In order to confirm the measurement accuracy, the concentrations of a methane-air mixture were measured in a compression-expansion engine. Then, the IR spark plug sensor was used for measurements in a 4-stroke spark-ignition engine fuelled with isooctane. The air/fuel ratio measured using this system clearly agreed with the mean air/fuel ratio.

This paper describes the development and application of a spark plug sensor using a 3.392 μm infrared absorption technique to quantify the instantaneous gasoline concentration near the spark plug. We developed an in situ laser infrared absorption method using a spark plug sensor and a 3.392 μm He-Ne laser as the light source; this wavelength coincides with the absorption line of hydrocarbons. First, we established a database of the molar absorption coefficients of premium gasoline at different pressures and temperatures, and determined that the coefficient decreased with increasing pressure above atmospheric pressure. We then demonstrated a procedure for measuring the gasoline concentration accurately using the infrared absorption technique. The history of the molar absorption coefficient of premium gasoline during the experiment was obtained from the established database using measured in-cylinder pressures and temperatures estimated by taking the residual gas into consideration.

This paper describes the development and application of a spark plug sensor using an infrared absorption technique to quantify the instantaneous residual gas concentration near the spark plug. The residual gas fraction inside engine cylinder is assumed to be proportional to CO2 concentration. The relationship between CO2 concentration and absorption strength of CO2 was determined for various pressures and temperatures in advance using a constant volume vessel with electric heating system. The spark plug sensor for in-situ CO2 concentration measurement was applied to a compression-expansion engine and also to a port injected motorcycle SI engine. It was possible to qualify the CO2 concentration inside residual gas during the compression stroke using the developed optical system with new spark plug sensor in compression-expansion machine.