Seeing Reduced Diesel Emissions

Abstract

This article highlights animated three-dimensional computer models that show how to control the biggest pollutants coming from diesel engines. Increasingly strict regulations have led engineers to search for new ways of controlling the polluting emissions from diesel engines without compromising fuel economy. The past experiments tended to yield the same disappointing results-nitrogen oxide emissions increased if soot emissions were reduced and vice versa. Using animated three-dimensional computer models, researchers at the University of Wisconsin's Engine Research Center (ERC) in Madison found that multiple high-pressure injections enabled soot and nitrogen oxide emissions to be reduced at the same time. The discovery of the new multiple-injection method is significant for diesel-engine design. The combustion models developed at the ERC are now being used at major engine and automotive companies. Because engineers now know how to reduce nitrogen oxide and soot simultaneously, they can apply this mechanism to improve injection-scheme designs.