Advancing Diesel Injection Timing Research Articles

Advancing RCCI engine performance via optimal acetylene premix ratios and advanced diesel injection timing: An experimental investigation

AbstractReactivity controlled compression ignition (RCCI) stands out as an innovative combustion strategy, effectively reconciling stringent emission regulations with precise combustion management and optimal engine performance. In this research, the influence of injection timing of diesel, acting as highly reactive fuel (HRF), alongside variable premix ratios of acetylene, a low reactive fuel (LRF), operating within the RCCI framework has been investigated. In a first‐of‐its‐kind attempt, with a thorough experimental design, the present investigation encompasses a progressive advancement of HRF injection timing, extending up to 110° CA bTDC with 20° CA increments, coupled with LRF integration at premix ratios of up to 70%. Optimal operational conditions materialize at an HRF injection timing advancement of 90° CA bTDC, complemented by a 40% LRF contribution. This configuration yields substantial gains, including a 28.2% upsurge in the cylinder pressure and an 18.6% elevation in the cylinder temperature compared to conventional diesel (CDC) operations. Additionally, the combustion process exhibits an advanced start of combustion (SoC) relative to the CDC baseline, with an 8.53% decline in heat release rate, at 40% LRF enrichment. Under optimal circumstances, moderate hydrocarbon (HC) emissions are noted, while smoke emissions experience a noteworthy reduction of 55.9%, all the while upholding overall output performance. A remarkable 69.8% peak increase in brake thermal efficiency is attained, underscoring the merits of judiciously advancing HRF injection timing and extending LRF utilization within the RCCI paradigm. Thus, the study underscores the synergistic potential between augmented HRF injection timing and controlled LRF integration, offering a promising avenue for elevating the RCCI approach.

Optimizations of energy fraction and injection strategy in the ammonia-diesel dual-fuel engine

Fuel consumption and emissions are growing concerns, driving the need for cleaner alternative fuels in engine research. Ammonia is a competitive alternative fuel. To enhance the effective utilization and provide a new direction for the marine application of ammonia, an ammonia-diesel dual-fuel engine model with the pre-combustion chamber structure was designed. Numerical simulations were carried out in this paper, considering variations in diesel energy fraction, ammonia injection timing, diesel injection pressure, and diesel injection timing. The findings indicate that an appropriate amount of pilot diesel accelerates jet flame formation, improving combustion efficiency. Advancing ammonia injection timing improves mixture homogeneity but increases ammonia slip, while delaying ammonia injection timing leads to mixture stratification. Locally rich areas in the mixture improve combustion efficiency. The timing and pressure of diesel injection significantly impact both combustion efficiency and emissions. Advancing diesel injection timing improves power output but increases NOX emissions. Increasing diesel injection pressure improves combustion efficiency, but excessive pressure leads to deterioration. Overall, this study provides valuable insights into the potential use of ammonia as a sustainable fuel for marine low-speed engines, selecting the optimal energy fraction and injection strategy to achieve efficient and environmentally friendly combustion.

Co-optimization of injection parameters and injector layouts for a methanol/diesel direct dual-fuel stratification (DDFS) engine

Direct dual fuel stratification (DDFS) is a promising combustion mode to achieve satisfactory engine performance with the effective control of ignition and combustion processes. In this study, a DDFS engine fueled with methanol and diesel was investigated at low loads based on a four-stroke light-duty naturally aspirated engine. Both injection parameters and injector layouts of the two fuels were co-optimized by the fast nondominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II). The results show that the fractions, injection timings, spray half-included angles, and injector positions of the two fuels all showed significant influences on engine performance. Finally, the high methanol fraction, advanced diesel injection timing, methanol injection timing near the top dead center, and large spray half-included angle of methanol were adopted in the optimal case to achieve both low EISFC and NOx simultaneously. Meanwhile, a centrally-mounted methanol injector was beneficial to shorten combustion duration, and the diesel injector can be arranged in a semicircle area with a radius of approximately 1.14 cm to provide the sufficiently high temperature for the complete combustion of methanol.

Effects of piston shape and nozzle specifications on part-load operation of natural gas–diesel dual-fuel RCCI engine and its application to high load extension

• Effects of piston shape and multi-angle nozzle were evaluated for DF RCCI operation. • Enhanced air utilization w/multi-angle nozzle reduced combustion and HT losses. • The highest GIE of RCCI improved as 51.8 % by hardware modifications. • Intake air amount could be increased by lowering CR (from 17 to 15) at the maximum load. • The maximum load of RCCI could be extended from 81 (reference) to 101 kW of BP. In this study, the effects of modifications of both the piston shape and injector nozzle are experimentally investigated for high load extension of a natural gas–diesel dual-fuel reactivity-controlled compression ignition (RCCI) engine. First, a bathtub shape with a reduced compression ratio is applied to the modified piston which was reported to improve the flame propagation in squish volume, the cooling loss, and the air induction rate under the same limit of in-cylinder pressure from previous studies. In addition, a multiangle two-layer injector is used to extend the maximum load, which has been proven to be effective for unburned hydrocarbon emissions and gross indicated efficiency in part-load operation in our previous study. The experiments are conducted under both 1200 rpm part-load operation (approximately 1950 J/cylinder per cycle of fuel input energy) and 1800 rpm maximum load operation. The objectives are to comprehensively evaluate the effects of the modifications on natural gas–diesel RCCI operation and verify the effects of all load conditions. The experimental results reveal that the changes in the piston—reduction in the compression ratio and a bathtub piston shape—are effective for both NOx and smoke emissions as the diesel injection timing is advanced. Although the multi-hole double layer (combined narrow and wide injection) has less effect on emissions compared to that of the change in piston, it affects the mixing process inside the cylinder, thus retarding the combustion phasing, prolonging the combustion duration, and eventually reducing the cooling loss. Both modifications are highly effective for advanced diesel injection timing corresponding to RCCI operation, which extends high-load operation from 80.9 to 101 kW of brake power, relatively 24.8 % increase, by adopting both the piston and injector modifications. Based on the modifications, the mass fraction of natural gas is suggested to be approximately 80 %. A higher fraction causes the variation in the maximum in-cylinder pressure to be extremely sensitive to allow robust operation. In contrast, if it is lower, the amounts of both NOx and smoke emissions exceed the emission standard levels (0.4 g/kWh and 15 mg/kWh for NOx and smoke emissions, respectively, corresponding to Stage-V of non-road engine operation).

On the Variation of the Effect of Natural Gas Fraction on Dual-Fuel Combustion of Diesel Engine Under Low-to-High Load Conditions

Natural gas-diesel dual fuel (NDDF) engine has the potential to significantly reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) and particulate matter (PM) emissions, while retaining diesel engine’s high efficiency and reliability. The operation and performance of NDDF engine depend on natural gas energy fraction (%NG), which ranges from low %NG, where diesel fuel provides most of the combustion energy, to high %NG where diesel fuel is used only to initiate combustion. Although pertaining published studies demonstrated that the effect of %NG on the combustion performance and emissions of NDDF engine depend upon the engine load, none of these studies discussed the reasons behind this dependence. The present study attempts to shed light on this issue by experimentally and numerically investigating the effect of different %NGs on NDDF engine under different load conditions. Both experimental and numerical results revealed that the peak pressure rise rate (PPRR) first increases and then drops with increasing %NG under all load conditions. The calculated local equivalence ratio and charge temperature contours showed that increasing %NG to a certain limit increases local equivalence ratio inside the ignition kernel which implies that more premixed natural gas – air mixture participates in reactions during the premixed combustion stage. This results in an increased flame temperature and higher PPRR right after ignition. However, increasing %NG beyond this range decreases local equivalence ratio inside the ignition kernel which leads to lower PPRR. Increasing %NG retards the combustion phasing at low to medium load conditions. However, increasing %NG generally advances the combustion phasing under medium to high load conditions due to the fact that the flame propagation speed of natural gas – air mixture increases with %NG at medium to high load conditions. Methane emissions grow with increasing %NG under all examined engine load conditions. However, this growth becomes much smaller under medium to high engine load conditions. Increasing %NG significantly increases GHG emissions under lower load conditions. However, using advanced diesel injection timing decreases GHG emissions of NDDF engine under lower load conditions. Increasing %NG decreases GHG emissions by 6 to 11% under medium to high load conditions.

Influence of fuel injection pressure and injection timing on nanoparticle emission in light-duty gasoline/diesel RCCI engine

This work investigates the influence of fuel injection events on the nanoparticle emission characteristics of light-duty gasoline-diesel RCCI engine. The formation of nanoparticle emissions strongly depends on fuel injection events. The present study experimentally investigates the influence of diesel injection pressure, injection timing, and port-injected gasoline mass on the nanoparticles emitted from the gasoline-diesel RCCI engine. For this purpose, the engine is tested at different engine speeds and a fixed load of 1.5 bar BMEP without exhaust gas recirculation. The particle-size and number distribution (PSD) and total particle number (total PN) concentration are measured using a differential mobility spectrometer. The results depict that at higher diesel injection pressure (IP) operation, the peak of the NMP increases while the AMP peak decreases for neat diesel operation as well as RCCI engine. Nucleation, as well as accumulation mode particles, increases with advanced diesel injection timing in RCCI combustion. An increase in port fuel injected mass also leads to an increase in the total particle concentration and total unburned hydrocarbon (THC) emissions.

Exploring the high load potential of diesel–methanol dual-fuel operation with Miller cycle, exhaust gas recirculation, and intake air cooling on a heavy-duty diesel engine

Legislations concerning emissions from heavy-duty diesel engines are becoming increasingly stringent. This requires conventional diesel combustion to be compliant using costly and sophisticated aftertreatment systems. Preferably, diesel–methanol dual-fuel is one of the suitable alternative combustion modes as it can potentially reduce the formation of nitrogen oxide and soot emissions which characterised the diesel mixing-controlled combustion. This is primarily due to the high latent heat of vaporisation and oxygen content of the methanol fuel. At high engine loads, however, the potential of diesel–methanol dual-fuel operation is constrained by the excessive combustion pressure rise rate and peak in-cylinder pressure, which limits both the engine efficiency and the percentage of methanol that can be used. For the first time, experimental studies were conducted to explore advanced combustion control strategies such as Miller cycle, exhaust gas recirculation, and intake air cooling for improving upon high load diesel–methanol dual-fuel combustion. Experiments were carried out at 1200 r/min and 18 bar indicated mean effective pressure on a single-cylinder heavy-duty diesel engine, which equipped with a high pressure common rail diesel injection, a methanol port fuel injection, and a variable valve actuation system on the intake camshaft. Results showed that the methanol energy fraction of a conventional diesel–methanol dual-fuel operation with a baseline intake valve closing timing was limited to 28%. This was due to the high combustion temperature at a high load which advanced the ignition timing of the premixed charge, resulting in high levels of pressure rise rate. The application of lower effective compression ratio and intake air temperature ( Tint) effectively decreased the compression temperature, which successfully delayed the ignition timing of the premixed charge. This allowed for a more advanced diesel injection timing to achieve improvement in the thermal efficiency and potentially enabled a higher methanol substitution ratio. Although the introduction of exhaust gas recirculation demonstrated very slight impact on the ignition timing of the premixed charge, a higher net indicated efficiency was observed due to a relatively lower local combustion temperature which reduced heat transfer loss. Moreover, the optimised diesel–methanol dual-fuel operation allowed a higher methanol energy fraction of 40% to be used at an effective compression ratio of 14.3 and Tint of 305 K and achieved the highest net indicated efficiency of 47.4%, improving by 3.7% and 2.6%, respectively, when compared to the optimised conventional diesel combustion (45.7%) and conventional diesel–methanol dual-fuel (46.2%). This improvement was accompanied with a reduction of 37% in nitrogen oxide emissions and little impact on soot emissions in comparison with the conventional diesel combustion.

The exhausted gas recirculation improved brake thermal efficiency and combustion characteristics under different intake throttling conditions of a diesel/natural gas dual fuel engine at low loads

Previous studies have shown that the introduction of EGR into diesel pilot-ignited natural gas engine can increase brake thermal efficiency (BTE) and emissions. And intake throttling can also increase BTE and reduce THC and CO emissions as shown in previous studies. However, diesel/natural gas dual fuel engines are usually modified from pure diesel engines without throttling valve. To increase BTE and reduce emissions, a detailed study on EGR coupled with intake throttling was conducted on a 6-cylinder turbocharged intercooler diesel/natural gas dual fuel heavy-duty engine at low load operations. The experiments kept the total fuel quantity, gas injection strategy and diesel injection strategy unchanged. The time-sequenced characteristic and the heat release rate (HRR)-imbalanced characteristic were discussed. The results show that the BTE increased and brake specific THC, NOx and CO decreased as EGR rate increased without intake throttling, CA10 and CA50 shows a slightly delayed trend which are similar to previous studies. EGR with intake throttling (throttling opening degree (TOD) = 30.11%) will continue to increase BTE and reduce emissions as EGR rate increased. While, the BTE increases first and then decreases, NOx still shows a significant decrease trend, THC first falling slightly and then rising slightly, CO first falls slightly and then significantly up as EGR rate increased with further intake throttling (TOD = 25.1%). When TOD is 25.1% and EGR rate is 13.39%, the engine can achieve highest BTE of 31.88%. THC and CO are lower, but NOx is slightly higher at this condition compared with EGR without intake throttling condition. In addition, the BTE can be further improved to 34.75% by advanced diesel injection timing with EGR and intake throttling. In summary, EGR with proper intake throttling can improve the BTE and reduce emissions at a relatively low level on diesel/natural gas dual fuel engine at low load. These provide research guidance for the practical application of diesel/natural gas dual fuel engine.

Effect of diesel injection timing on the combustion of natural gas/diesel dual-fuel engine at low-high load and low-high speed conditions

Past research has shown that advancing diesel injection timing is a promising approach to decrease the unburned methane and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of natural gas/diesel dual-fuel engines at lower engine loads. However, this benefit may not persist under medium to high load-low speed conditions. To explore this, the present paper uses experiments and detailed computational fluid dynamic (CFD) modeling to investigate the impacts of diesel injection timing on the combustion and emissions performance of a heavy-duty natural gas/diesel dual-fuel engine under four different engine load-speed conditions. The results showed that advancing diesel injection timing increases the peak pressure, thermal efficiency, and NOx emissions for all examined engine load-speed conditions. Advancing diesel injection timing also significantly decreases the unburned methane and CO2-equivalent (GHG) emissions of the dual-fuel engine under low load-low speed and medium load-high speed conditions. The concentration of OH and CH4 revealed that the central part of the combustion chamber is the main source of the unburned methane emissions under low load-low speed and medium load-high speed conditions, and advancing diesel injection timing significantly improves the combustion of natural gas-air mixture in this region. However, advancing diesel injection timing slightly increases the unburned methane emissions trapped in the crevice volume. However, this slight increase in the unburned methane emissions in the crevice volume is much lower than its significant decrease in the central region of the combustion chamber. At medium to high load-low speed conditions, there is almost no unburned methane in the central part of the combustion chamber, and the crevice region is considered as the main source of unburned methane emissions. As a result, advancing diesel injection timing does not improve the combustion of natural gas-air mixture in the central part of the combustion chamber but slightly increases the unburned methane trapped in the crevice region. This is the main reason that advancing diesel injection timing slightly increases the unburned methane emissions under medium to high load-low speed conditions. Overall, advancing diesel injection timing significantly increases thermal efficiency and decreases the unburned methane and GHG emissions under low load-low speed and medium load-high speed conditions. It improves the thermal efficiency under medium to high load-low speed conditions, but comes at the expense of increased methane and unchanged GHG emissions.

Combustion Performance and Unburned Hydrocarbon Emissions of a Natural Gas–Diesel Dual Fuel Engine at a Low Load Condition

The combustion of natural gas reduces fuel cost and generates less emissions of carbon dioxide and particulate matter (PM) than diesel and gasoline. Replacing diesel by natural gas in internal combustion engines is of great interest for transportation and stationary power generation. Dual fuel combustion is an efficient way to burn natural gas in internal combustion engines. In natural gas–diesel dual fuel engines, unburned hydrocarbon emissions increase with increasing natural gas fraction. Many studies have been conducted to improve the performance of natural gas–diesel dual fuel engines and reported the performance of combustion and emissions of regulated pollutants and total unburned hydrocarbon at various engine operating strategies. However, little has been reported on the emissions of different unburned hydrocarbon components. In this paper, an experimental investigation was conducted to investigate the combustion performance and emissions of various unburned hydrocarbon components, including methane, ethane, ethylene, acetylene, propylene, formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, and benzaldehyde, at a low engine load condition. The operating conditions, such as engine speed, load, intake temperature, and pressure, were well controlled during the experiment. The combustion and emissions performance of pure diesel and natural gas–diesel dual fuel combustion were compared. The effect of diesel injection timing was analyzed. The results show that appropriately advancing diesel injection timing to form a homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI)-like combustion is beneficial to natural gas–diesel dual fuel combustion at low load conditions. The emissions of different unburned hydrocarbon components changed in dual fuel combustion, with emissions of some unburned hydrocarbon components being primarily due to the combustion of natural gas, while those of others being more related to diesel combustion.

An experimental and numerical study on diesel injection split of a natural gas/diesel dual-fuel engine at a low engine load

Natural gas/diesel dual-fuel combustion is currently one of the most promising LTC strategies for the next generation of heavy-duty engines. While this concept is not new and it has been deliberated lengthily in the past two decades, several uncertainties still exist. A major shortcoming of this concept is associated with its low thermal efficiency and high level of unburned methane and CO emissions under low engine load conditions. The present paper reports an experimental and numerical study on the effect of different injection strategies (single and two pulses injection of pilot diesel fuel) on the combustion performance and emissions of a heavy duty natural gas/diesel dual-fuel engine at 25% engine load. The results of single diesel injection mode showed that advancing diesel injection timing from 10 to 30 °BTDC reduced unburned methane and CO emissions by 62% and 61% and increased thermal efficiency by 6%; however, NOx emissions increased by 74%. In order to achieve NOx – CH4 and NOx – CO trade-off and increased thermal efficiency at low load conditions, the effect of split injection strategy was experimentally and numerically examined. The results of split injection mode revealed that split injection strategy considerably increases the in-cylinder peak pressure compared to that of single injection (10 °BTDC). The results showed also that the heat release produced by the first injection of diesel fuel considerably increased the in-cylinder charge temperature before the start of the second injection. The flame zone of the split injection mode is markedly higher than that of the single injection due to larger heat release produced during the first injection which promotes the combustion of the second one. When the first injection timing is close to the second injection timing, the MPRR of split injection mode is higher than that of single injection (10 °BTDC). However, further advancing of the first injection timing continuously decreased the MPRR. OH radical analysis showed that for advanced first injection timings (38–50 °BTDC), the overall growth rate of OH radical becomes slower and its distribution is narrower as indicated by the wider non-reactive blue zones compared with those observed at a late first injection timing in the initial stages of combustion. However, OH radicals gradually grow during last stages of combustion in the expansion stroke, indicating that a more premixed combustion takes place in these cases. For very advanced first injection timing of 55 °BTDC, the OH distribution is similar to that of the single injection mode with lower OH intensity at initial stages of combustion and they barely grow during the late expansion stroke. At this condition, the ignition of premixed mixture is mainly controlled by the second diesel fuel injection. The trade-off between NOx – CH4 and NOx – CO is achieved when applying split injection. Compared to single injection (10 °BTDC), the first injection timing of 50 °BTDC decreased unburned methane and CO emissions by 60% and 63%, respectively, and increased the thermal efficiency by 8.9%. However, NOx emissions were maintained at the same level as single injection mode (10 °BTDC).

An experimental and numerical study of the effect of diesel injection timing on natural gas/diesel dual-fuel combustion at low load

Natural gas/diesel dual-fuel combustion compression ignition engine has the potential to reduce NOx and soot emissions. However, this combustion mode still suffers from low thermal efficiency and high level of unburned methane and CO emissions at low load conditions. The present paper reports the results of an experimental and numerical study on the effect of diesel injection timings (ranging from 10 to 50 °BTDC) on the combustion performance and emissions of a heavy duty natural gas/diesel dual-fuel engine at 25% engine load. Both experimental and numerical results revealed that advancing the injection timing up to 30 °BTDC increases the maximum in-cylinder pressure. However, with further advancing the injection timing up to 50 °BTDC, the maximum in-cylinder pressure decreases which is mainly due to the lower in-cylinder temperature before SOC. Moreover, the analysis of OH spatial distribution shows that, at very advanced diesel injection timings, the non-reactive zones are much narrower than later injection timings during the last stages of combustion, indicating a more predominant premixed combustion mode. At retarded diesel injection timings, the consumption of premixed fuel in the outer part of the charge is likely to be a significant challenge for dual-fuel combustion engine at low engine load conditions. However, with advancing the diesel injection timing, the OH radical becomes more uniform throughout the combustion chamber, which confirms that high temperature combustion reactions can occur in the central part of the charge. Diesel injection timing of 30 °BTDC appears to be the conversion point of all conventional dual-fuel combustion modes. Further advancing diesel injection timing beyond this point (30 °BTDC) results in noticeable reduction in NOx and unburned methane emissions, while CO emissions exhibit only slight drop. However, at very advanced diesel injection timings of 46 and 50 °BTDC, NOx and unburned methane emissions continue to drop, whereas CO emissions tend to increase. The results showed also that the highest indicated thermal efficiency is achieved at these very advanced diesel injection timings of 46 and 50 °BTDC. Finally, the results revealed that, by advancing diesel injection timing from 10 °BTDC to 50 °BTDC, NOx, unburned methane, and CO emissions are reduced, respectively, by 65.8%, 83%, and 60% while thermal efficiency is increased by 7.5%.

A novel combustion evaluation method based on in-cylinder pressure traces for diesel/natural gas dual fuel engines

To better understand the combustion process of the dual fuel engines, a novel evaluation method based on the in-cylinder pressure traces was proposed in this study. Two evaluation parameters, the in-cylinder pressure standard deviation and the coefficient of variation, were calculated from the measured in-cylinder pressure traces at every crank angle. The profile of in-cylinder pressure standard deviation shows that there is an obvious jump representing the overall combustion process. The effect of diesel injection timing shows that, by advancing diesel injection timing, the start of jump shows an initial advancing and then retarding trend. The profiles of in-cylinder pressure standard deviation or coefficient of variation show the change of combustion process as the pilot diesel injection timing is advanced. When the pilot diesel injection timing is later than 30°CA BTDC, there is a rapid rise and a higher main peak in the profiles of in-cylinder pressure standard deviation with the injection timing advancing. As the diesel injection timing is further advanced, the initial rapid rise shows an increasing trend while the main peak shows a weakening trend; and both of them finally overlap together when the diesel injection timing is earlier than 40°CA BTDC.

Effects of diesel injection parameters on the rapid combustion and emissions of an HD common-rail diesel engine fueled with diesel-methanol dual-fuel

The diesel-methanol dual-fuel (DMDF) combustion mode is performed on a 6-cylinder, heavy duty (HD), common-rail diesel engine. In DMDF mode, the methanol is premixed with air in the intake pipe and afterwards ignited by the direct-injected diesel in cylinder. This study is aimed to investigate the effects of diesel injection parameters on the rapid combustion and emissions of the DMDF engine. The experimental results show that the diesel injection parameters affect rapid combustion fraction (α) greatly, which increases as the diesel injection pressure rises while decreases as the diesel injection timing advanced or diesel injection quantity increases. The roar-combustion level of the DMDF engine is mainly controlled by the heat release rate (HRR) of rapid combustion phase. Both increasing the diesel injection pressure and advancing the diesel injection timing are beneficial to intensify roar-combustion level, but it can be weakened by increasing diesel injection quantity. Compared with original diesel combustion mode (D mode), NOx and smoke emissions in DMDF mode are all reduced, while CO and HC emissions increased obviously. Smoke emission can be further reduced by coupling the high diesel injection pressure and the advanced diesel injection timing. However, NOx emission may be increased in this case.

A parametric study for enabling reactivity controlled compression ignition (RCCI) operation in diesel engines at various engine loads

Reactivity controlled compression ignition (RCCI) is demonstrated as a promising combustion strategy to achieve high efficiency and clean combustion. In this work, an extensive experimental investigations are performed focusing on investigating the effect of operational parameters (intake pressure, exhaust gas recirculation rate, gasoline proportion, diesel injection timing, etc.) on the combustion performance and emission characteristics at various engine loads. Then, the key limiting factors for extension of the upper and lower limits of RCCI operations are analyzed. Results suggest that ultra-low NOx and soot emissions as well as high thermal efficiency can be achieved simultaneously with gasoline/diesel dual-fuel RCCI regime at moderate-to-high loads, while diesel low temperature combustion (LTC) with single-shot fuel injection can be more suitable for low-load operations. Moreover, to extend the RCCI operating range to lower loads, the proportion of diesel injection should be raised to increase the global reactivity of the in-cylinder charge. While increasing EGR rate and gasoline proportion as well as advancing diesel injection timing can lower the global reactivity of the cylinder charge and avoid premature combustion, excessive pressure rise rate and high peak in-cylinder pressure, thereby in favor of extending RCCI operation to higher loads. However, ultra-high EGR rate or too early fuel injection can lead to unstable combustion, making combustion phasing control extremely difficult.

Emission, efficiency, and influence in a diesel n-butanol dual-injection engine

In this work, a dual-injection combustion mode for diesel n-butanol dual-fuel, combined direct injection (DI) of diesel with port fuel injection (PFI) of n-butanol, was introduced. Effects of n-butanol fraction, EGR rate and injection timing on this mode were studied on a modified single-cylinder diesel engine at the speed of 1400r/min and the IMEP of 1.0MPa. The results indicate that with increased EGR rate, NOx emissions reduce, but smoke emissions increase. As n-butanol fraction is increased, smoke emissions decrease with a small increase in NOx. However, higher HC and CO emissions, higher indicated specific fuel consumption (ISFC) and lower indicated thermal efficiency (ITE) have to be paid with increased n-butanol fraction, especially at high EGR condition. Advancing diesel injection timing suitably has the capacity of mitigating those costs and further decreasing smoke emissions with a small penalty in NOx emissions. Coupling of large butanol fraction, high EGR rate, and advanced injection suitably contributes to a better balance between emissions and efficiency in the diesel n-butanol dual-injection engine.

Dual-Fuel Diesel Engine Combustion With Hydrogen, Gasoline, and Ethanol as Fumigants: Effect of Diesel Injection Timing

Premixed compression ignition (CI) combustion has attracted increasing research effort recently due to its potential to achieve both high thermal efficiency and low emissions. Dual-fuel strategies for enabling premixed CI have been a focus using a low-reactivity fumigant and direct diesel injection to control ignition. Alternative fuels like hydrogen and ethanol have been used as fumigants in the past but typically with diesel injection systems that did not allow the same degree of control or mixing enabled by modern common rail systems. In this work, we experimentally investigated hydrogen, ethanol, and gasoline as fumigants and examined three levels of fumigant energy fraction (FEF) using gasoline over a large, direct diesel injection timing range with a single-cylinder diesel engine. It was found that the operable diesel injection timing range at constant FEF was dependent on the fumigant's propensity for autoignition. Peak indicated gross cycle efficiency occurred with advanced diesel injection timing and aligned well with combustion phasing near top dead center (TDC), as we found in an earlier work. The use of hydrogen as a fumigant resulted in very low hydrocarbon (HC) emissions compared with ethanol and gasoline, establishing that they mainly result from incomplete combustion of the fumigated fuel. Hydrogen emissions were independent of diesel injection timing, and HC emissions were strongly linked to combustion phasing, giving further indication that squish and crevice flows are responsible for partially burned species from fumigation combustion.

Ethanol utilisation in a diesel engine using dual-fuelling technology

Renewable feedstocks and high octane rating make ethanol a promising alternative fuel. In contrast to the conventional approach of applying ethanol-gasoline blends in spark-ignition engines, this study investigates the potential of ethanol fuelling in a diesel engine to achieve higher efficiency. Experiments are performed using a single-cylinder version of a common-rail diesel engine that is widely used in passenger cars. A dual-fuelling technology is implemented such that ethanol is introduced into the intake manifold using a port-fuel injector while diesel is injected directly into the cylinder. The main focus is the effect of ethanol energy fraction and diesel injection timing on engine efficiency and tailpipe emissions. While these two parameters are varied, in-cylinder pressure measurement and subsequent analysis of indicated mean effective pressure, apparent heat release rate, ignition delay, combustion phasing, and burn duration are performed. From the ethanol energy variation tests at fixed diesel injection timing, it is found that increased ethanol energy fraction increases the engine efficiency until the operation is limited by misfiring associated with over-retarded combustion phasing. By energy fraction, up to 60% of diesel is replaced by ethanol, which achieves 10% efficiency gain compared with diesel-only operation. Detailed analysis of the results reveals that the decreased burn duration is the primary cause for the efficiency gain, i.e. the fast burning of ethanol improves the combustion. However, the burn duration appears to increase with advancing the diesel injection timing at a fixed ethanol energy ratio despite the fact that the highest indicated mean effective pressure of 1020kPa is measured when the diesel injection timing is set at eight crank angle degrees before top dead centre, the most advanced diesel injection timing of this study. This is due to optimised combustion phasing such that the main heat release occurs near top dead centre, which outperforms the increased burn duration. Therefore, both burn duration and combustion phasing should be considered to explain trends in the indicated mean effective pressure or efficiency of dual-fuel combustion engines. The tailpipe emissions suggest that unburnt hydrocarbon, carbon monoxide and NOx emissions increase with increasing ethanol fraction, which raises a question on the advantages of utilising ethanol in a diesel engine. However, negligible smoke emissions are measured at ethanol energy ratio of 20% or higher suggesting that optimisation of these emissions would be much easier compared with conventional diesel combustion.