Gasoline Compression Ignition Research Articles

On convection vive in mixing-controlled combustion with thermal barrier coatings

Thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) could improve the efficiency of internal combustion engines by reducing heat losses. TBC modeling has demonstrated efficiency gains at all loads in compression ignition, including in gasoline compression ignition (GCI). However, after GCI testing of 13 coated pistons of various materials, thicknesses, and surface preparations in this work, a clear trend was observed: TBCs result in an efficiency gain at 6 bar IMEPn (low load) and an efficiency penalty at 15 bar IMEPn (high load). This can be explained by “convective vive”, which was originally presented by Woschni for engines with TBCs. Convection vive refers to a reduction in the quench distance of a reacting flame when the quenching surface temperature is elevated, resulting in an increased heat transfer coefficient and heat transfer rate despite the lower temperature difference between the gas and the wall. Although this work is unable to provide direct experimental evidence for convection vive, several experiments were performed to rule out alternate theories including differences in heat release rate, radiation heat transfer, combustion chamber deposits, and surface catalytic effects. Experiments also showed that at 6 bar IMEPn, injection pressure did not impact the performance of the TBC compared to the metal baseline, but at 15 bar IMEPn, the efficiency penalty increased with rail pressure. These results provide indirect evidence of convection vive: as the surface temperature of the TBC increases with load past a threshold, the quench distance decreases to the point where exothermic reactions can occur in the boundary layer, which raises the convective heat transfer coefficient. This implies that in mixing controlled combustion systems, the TBC should not be present on combustion chamber surfaces that experience high fuel-wall interaction during combustion.

Combining Gasoline Compression Ignition and Powertrain Hybridization for Long-Haul Applications

Gasoline compression ignition (GCI) combustion was demonstrated to be an effective combustion concept to achieve high brake thermal efficiency with low-reactivity fuels while offering improved NOx–soot trade-off. Nevertheless, future greenhouse gas regulations still challenge the heavy-duty transportation sector on both engine and vehicle basis. Hybridization is a possible solution in this scenario, allowing the avoidance of low-efficiency conditions and energy recovery during regenerative braking, improving overall vehicle efficiency. In this sense, this investigation proposes a detailed analysis to understand the optimum hybridization strategy to be used together with GCI to simultaneously harness low pollutant and CO2 emissions. For that, different hybrid architectures were defined in GT Drive (Mild hybrid 48 V P0 and P2 and full Hybrid P2 500 V) and submitted to 15 different use cases, constituted by five normative and real-driving conditions from the US, China, India, and Europe and three different payloads. Results showed that all hybridization strategies could provide fuel savings benefits to some extent. Nonetheless, usage profile is a dominant factor to be accounted for, benefiting specific hybrid powertrains. For instance, P0 and P2 48 V could provide similar savings as P2 500 V, where regenerative braking is limited. Nonetheless, P2 500 V is a superior powertrain if more demanding cycles are considered, allowing it to drive and recuperate energy without exceeding the Crate limitations of the battery.

Demonstration of 2027 Emissions Standards Compliance Using Heavy-Duty Gasoline Compression Ignition with P1 Hybridization

<div>Heavy-duty on-road engines are expected to conform to an ultralow NO<sub>x</sub> (ULNO<sub>x</sub>) standard of 0.027 g/kWh over the composite US heavy-duty transient federal test procedure (HD-FTP) cycle by 2031, a 90% reduction compared to 2010 emissions standards. Additionally, these engines are expected to conform to Phase 2 greenhouse gas regulations, which require tailpipe CO<sub>2</sub> emissions under 579 g/kWh. This study experimentally demonstrates the ability of high fuel stratification gasoline compression ignition (HFS-GCI) to satisfy these emissions standards. Steady-state and transient tests are conducted on a prototype multi-cylinder heavy-duty GCI engine based on a 2010-compliant Cummins ISX15 diesel engine with a urea-SCR aftertreatment system (ATS). Steady-state calibration exercises are undertaken to develop highly fuel-efficient GCI calibration maps at both cold-start and warmed up conditions. A P1 hybrid architecture is proposed to enable the use of an integrated starter generator (ISG) capable of spinning the engine up to idle speeds and an electrically heated ATS for fast heat-up and better thermal management. The combined solution is shown to satisfy the aforementioned ULNO<sub>x</sub> standard across the composite HD-FTP while decreasing the CO<sub>2</sub> emissions compared to the 2013 baseline values, cementing the credentials of low-cetane fuels as viable, near-term alternatives to diesel fuel in heavy-duty on-road engines.</div>

Investigation of injection parameters coupled with fuel reactivity on combustion and emissions in dual direct-injection GCI engine

Fuel injection parameters and fuel reactivity significantly affect engine performance, combustion, and emissions. The dual direct-injection strategy could compensate for the insufficient heat release rate to improve the gasoline compression ignition (GCI) mode with medium injection pressure for high loads. This research aims to couple injection parameters and fuel reactivity to optimize the combustion, emissions, and engine performance of the dual direct-injection GCI mode at high loads. The effect of research octane number (RON) of gasoline, injection timing, and injection pressure of dual injection system on combustion and emissions was investigated. Results show that the optimized dual direct-injection GCI mode can simultaneously achieve high thermal efficiency, low emissions, and low maximum pressure rise rate (MPRR) at high loads with the maximum indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP) of about 16 bar with indicated thermal efficiency (ITE) of 48.5%. Delaying the injection timing of injector-1 reduced the peak pressure (Ppeak), MPRR, and NOx emissions. Ppeak, CO, NOx, and indicated specific fuel consumption (ISFC) decreased compared to the dual-injector simultaneous injection case when the injection timing of injector-2 was retarded to between 5 and 10°CA ATDC. Increasing the injection pressure of injector-2 reduced CO, THC, ISFC, and particulate emissions. Lower RON gasoline obtains higher ITE while higher RON gasoline obtains lower particulate emissions.

Effects of fuel injection pressure and quantity on low octane gasoline sprays in a simulated high-pressure ambient environment of a gasoline compression ignition engine

Gasoline Compression Ignition technology using low-octane gasoline-like fuel can lead to very low NOx and Soot emissions and enhanced thermal efficiency than conventional diesel engines. The difference in test fuel properties is a significant reason for the difference in the fuel–air mixture formation in Gasoline Compression Ignition engines offering these advantages. In this study, microscopic and macroscopic spray characterisation of baseline diesel, 50 % v/v diesel blended with 50 % v/v gasoline (G50), and 20 % v/v diesel blended with 80 % v/v gasoline (G80) are conducted in a high-pressure ambient environment relevant to Gasoline Compression Ignition engines. The study was performed in a constant volume spray chamber in non-reacting conditions using Phase Doppler Interferometry and Diffused Backlit Illumination techniques. The test fuels were injected into a 30 bar ambient pressure environment at 400, 500, and 700-bar fuel injection pressures. The liquid spray penetration length of gasoline-diesel blends was slightly shorter than baseline diesel, but their spray cone angles and entrained air mass were significantly higher. The average axial droplet velocity was higher, and the Sauter Mean Diameter was lower for gasoline-diesel blends than baseline diesel 40 mm away from the injector nozzle exit, indicating superior mixture formation for the gasoline-diesel blends. The effect of droplet collision and injected fuel quantity on droplet size distribution was assessed in all test fuels. Droplet collisions increased the Sauter mean diameter of the spray at farther distances. Smaller fuel injection quantities decreased the Sauter mean diameter of the spray, increasing the probability of unburnt hydrocarbon emission producing ultra-lean regions in the engine combustion chamber.

Effect of Fuel Injection Strategies on Performance, Regulated and Unregulated Emissions of a Gasoline Compression Ignition Engine

Effect of Fuel Injection Strategies on Performance, Regulated and Unregulated Emissions of a Gasoline Compression Ignition Engine

Macroscopic and microscopic spray characterisation of Low-Octane blends for gasoline compression ignition engines

Gasoline compression ignition is an advanced combustion technology that controls harmful emissions from low-octane fuels used in compression ignition engines. Fuel’s physical properties and injection strategy influence the fuel–air mixture formation and combustion. High volatile fuel and fuel injection pressure improve the spray atomisation and fuel–air mixture formation. Gasoline-diesel blends are widely investigated for gasoline compression ignition engine applications. This study investigated microscopic and macroscopic spray characteristics of 70 % v/v gasoline and 30 % v/v diesel blend (G70), 80 % v/v gasoline and 20 % v/v diesel blend (G80), and baseline diesel injected at different fuel injection pressures. Parameters such as liquid fuel spray penetration length, spray cone angle, and droplet size and velocity distributions were assessed. The results of these parameters help determine the effect of the fuel injection parameters on combustion. It was found that though the liquid spray penetration length was not significantly different for the three test fuels, G70 exhibited a slightly lower liquid spray penetration length than the other two test fuels. Increasing the diesel fraction in the test blend reduced the spray cone angle and improved the axial dispersion of the fuel spray. The spray droplet diameter reduced with increasing gasoline fraction in the test blend and the fuel injection pressure. Sauter mean diameter decreased by up to 20 % for G80 than baseline diesel and up to 36 % with an increased fuel injection pressure from 300 to 700 bar. This study addressed a significant research gap in the spray characteristics of gasoline-diesel blends and provided a benchmark for simulation based model validation.

Experimental Study on Low-Temperature Oxidation Characteristics and Ignition Boundary Conditions of Gasoline/Hydrogenated Catalytic Biodiesel

Article Experimental Study on Low-Temperature Oxidation Characteristics and Ignition Boundary Conditions of Gasoline/Hydrogenated Catalytic Biodiesel Sicheng Lai 1, Wenjun Zhong 1,*, Tamilselvan Pachiannan 2,3, Zhixia He 1,2, and Qian Wang 1 1 School of Energy Power Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, China 2 Institute for Energy Research, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, China 3 School of Environment and Safety Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, China * Correspondence: wj_zhong@ujs.edu.cn     Received: 25 September 2023 Accepted: 8 December 2023 Published: 14 December 2023   Abstract: This study investigates the ignition characteristics of Hydrogenated Catalytic Biodiesel (HCB) with pure gasoline, and diesel. The experiment aims to enhance the ignition characteristics of gasoline fuel by blending it with high-reactivity HCB. It provides experimental data for the fuel blends and offers dependable support for gasoline compression ignition mode applications. To achieve this, the ignition characteristics of various fuels were studied on a variable compression ratio test bench. Experiments were conducted by varying the equivalence ratio and intake temperature of the fuel blends. By analyzing CO emissions and the maximum in-cylinder temperature, we investigated the low-temperature oxidation characteristics of the fuels. Simultaneously, we identified the critical compression ratio and critical temperature as indicators of the ignition boundaries. Finally, this study examined the heat release behavior of the fuels at low temperatures and discussed their combustion characteristics under high-temperature conditions through the heat release rate analysis. The study indicates that with the increase of HCB in the blend, the low-temperature oxidation characteristics are significantly enhanced. However, the ignition boundaries are lowered, and more pronounced secondary heat release combustion behavior is observed. When the blending ratio reaches 50% namely G50H50, it exhibits low-temperature oxidation characteristics and a secondary heat release rate similar to diesel. Their critical compression ratios are 6.8 and 6.5, and the critical temperatures are 838.74 K and 881.41 K respectively. Hence the G50H50 blend holds the potential to serve as a substitute for diesel fuel in compression ignition engines. The increase in intake temperature and equivalence ratio can also enhance low-temperature oxidation characteristics and lower the ignition boundaries. Simultaneously, they exert a certain influence on the peak and phase of the heat release rate.

Comparative evaluation of different operating parameters on performance, combustion, and emission characteristics in gasoline compression ignition (GCI) engine by using carbon neutrally biofuels

The stringent emission regulations and energy shortage put forward strict requirements for highly efficient and clean combustion for internal combustion engines. The gasoline compression ignition (GCI), which is a new advanced combustion concept, can obtain high efficiency and low emissions simultaneously without many modifications of standard diesel engines. However, little research has been carried out to synergistically optimize the operation parameters in a wide load range, especially fueled with the carbon neutrally biofuels. Therefore, in this paper, the effects of various operating parameters on engine performance, combustion, and emission characteristics of the gasoline compression ignition (GCI) strategy fueled with a blend of butanol and biodiesel were investigated. Specifically, the impact of butanol energy ratio, fuel direct injection timing, and exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) at the indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP) of 4, 8, and 14 bar and the butanol energy ratio of 60%, 70%, and 80% were examined. Result shown that the increase in butanol energy ratio decreased the fuel reactivity and worsen the combustion process, while the lower butanol energy was also disadvantage to the engine performance. The indicated thermal efficiency could achieve 48.5% when the butanol energy ratio was 70% at medium engine load. The earlier fuel injection timing was needed at low engine load, the EGR was necessary to inhibit the in-cylinder pressure rise at high engine load, in which the EGR rates of 20% at the IMEP of 8 bar and 30% at the IMEP of 14 bar could achieve the optimum engine performance, respectively. Meanwhile, the nitrogen oxides emissions shown a greatly decrease with the EGR rates increase, and it was less than 200 ppm at the IMEP of 14 bar when the EGR rates were 50%.

Modeling the impact of the fuel injection strategy on the combustion and performance characteristics of a heavy-duty GCI engine

Gasoline compression ignition (GCI) is a promising strategy to achieve high thermal efficiency and low emissions with limited modifications to the conventional diesel engine hardware. It is a partially premixed concept, which derives its superiority from higher volatility and longer ignition delay of gasoline-like fuels combined with higher compression ratio typical of diesel engines. The present study investigates the combustion process in a GCI engine operating with different injection strategies using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Simulations are carried out on a single cylinder of a multi cylinder heavy-duty compression ignition engine, which operates at a compression ratio of 17:1 and an engine speed of 1038 rev/min. Two different injection strategies viz., late injection (LI), and early pilot injection (EP) are investigated to understand their impact on combustion and performance of the engine. Renormalized group (RNG) k-ε model is used to describe in-cylinder turbulence and KH RT model is used to simulate the fuel spray breakup. The developed CFD methodology is validated against relevant experimental data under a wide range of operating conditions for each injection strategy. The developed CFD methodology was found to capture the engine combustion behavior quite well. Based on the validated CFD model, the differences in the progress of combustion event for the two injection strategies is highlighted. It was found that a larger pilot fuel mass fraction results in a steeper rise in the initial heat release rate which in turn influences the transition to mixing controlled combustion. In line with the experimental data, the study showed that the late pilot injection strategy with three injection pulses, results in higher performance compared to the other conditions.

Low Temperature Heat Release and ϕ-Sensitivity Characteristics of Iso-Octane/Air Mixtures

ABSTRACT Chemical energy release from high octane number fuels via low temperature heat release (LTHR) can help develop high-efficiency gasoline engines by promoting ultra-lean combustion in spark ignition engines and improving combustion control in gasoline compression ignition engines. A recently developed experimental technique that permits isolated LTHR investigations in motored engines was used to characterize the LTHR behavior of iso-octane/air mixtures ranging in strength from to at multiple inlet temperature conditions ( to °C). LTHR changes were studied by observing variations in exhaust CO emissions and exhaust temperature increase. Observed heat release results were explained using cylinder mixture pressure-temperature histories alongside supporting chemical kinetics modeling estimates of mixture reactivity in the form of chemical ignition delay (ID) time. The effects of fuel enrichment on iso-octane/air mixture reactivity were found to be non-uniform and dependent on mixtures’ thermal state trajectories in the LTHR ID peninsula. LTHR intensity measurements were used to discuss changes in mixture sensitivity at different engine inlet conditions. It was shown that by appropriately adjusting mixture thermal conditions via charge cooling from direct fuel injection and intake air heating, reactivity enhancements could be exploited maximally; and strong, positive, linear sensitivity of around 10 J per 0.1 increase in could be realized across a wide range of equivalence ratios from 0.05–1.2. It was also found that dominance of charge cooling effects at rich conditions resulted in negative and zero sensitivity regions.

A two-material thermal barrier coating spatially tailored for high-efficiency GCI combustion

Continued research into thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) for internal combustion engines has generated insights into the design of TBCs that can increase fuel conversion efficiency. In this work, two low thermal inertia TBCs (a commercially available Gen 1 material, Gadolinium Zirconate, and a proprietary Gen 2 material) were experimentally tested in gasoline compression ignition (GCI) on a light-duty single cylinder research engine. Compared to a metal baseline, a 250-micron thick Gen 1 coated piston produced an efficiency benefit of 0.4 percentage points (pp) at 6 and 10 bar net indicated mean effective pressure (IMEPn) and a 0.2 pp penalty at 15 bar IMEPn. The Gen 1 coating also showed an uHC and smoke penalty. An 80-micron thick Gen 2 coated piston showed an efficiency benefit of 0.9 pp at 6 bar IMEPn and 0.4 pp at 10 bar IMEPn, but an efficiency penalty of 0.5 pp at 15 bar IMEPn. The Gen 2 coating, which has a lower thermal inertia than the Gen 1 coating, displayed durability problems while the Gen 1 coating did not. A third piston was coated with a 120-micron thick Gen 2 coating everywhere except the high failure outer bowl region, which was coated with a 120-micron Gen 1 coating. This hybrid coating displayed good durability, an uHC emission penalty, a smoke benefit, an efficiency benefit of 0.1 pp at 6 bar IMEPn, an efficiency benefit of 0.4 pp at 10 bar IMEPn, and no change in efficiency at 15 bar IMEPn. These results indicate that a durable Gen 1/Gen 2 coating can provide an efficiency benefit to GCI combustion, and that further improvements on piston-spray interaction optimization and surface sealing of the TBC, as well as increasing the coated combustion chamber surface area (e.g. head and valves) can add further improve efficiency.

Unconventional gasoline spray injection events: Compared evolution of experimental data and numerical simulations

The current homologation standards in the automotive field impose the manufacturers to develop very efficient and clean engines. Low-Temperature Combustion engines have the potential to simultaneously reduce all the pollutants released while maintaining high efficiency. Among them, in Gasoline Compression Ignition (GCI) combustion technology, multiple injections allow to generate a tailored stratified charge which can auto ignite limiting the rough Pressure Rise Rate (PRR) and heat release rate typical of GCI. Therefore, the three-dimensional local distribution of the mixture becomes the key-point which the engine performance depends on. Due to emphasis on the multi-dimensional and local nature of the mixture formation phenomenon, three-dimensional CFD simulations are a promising and attractive method aiming at the design of the injection event features (timing, pattern, etc.). This paper deals with both experimental and CFD campaign on the evolution of a gasoline spray at ultra high-pressure multiple injection as well as high backpressure, typical of Gasoline Compression Ignition engines. The experimental tests have been conducted on a reference Diesel Common-Rail injector which shots in a constant-volume chamber. The hydraulic behaviour of the injector was characterized by means of the Bosch Tube principle whilst the Mie-scattering technique was used to capture the spray images. The numerical methodology is required to predict the Liquid Length Penetration and the jet morphology features (shape, area). Both experiments and simulations were conducted at different values of injection pressure (350, 500, 700 bar), back pressure (1–8 bar), energizing time (350, 600 µs), according to the operations of a real reference GCI test engine. Furthermore, a dedicated sub-model which takes into consideration the effect of the spray dynamics during the injection transient opening stage has been validated. The importance of this approach when dealing with short energizing time (e.g. 350 μs) is shown.Comparing both the experimental and numerical results, the model has proven to efficiently reproduce the spray penetration and morphology features, also under the hypothesis of injector ballistic phase operations, whose determination is crucial in the early development and sustainability of such combustion concept.

High-efficiency combustion of gasoline compression ignition (GCI) mode with medium-pressure injection of low-octane gasoline under wide engine load conditions

Gasoline Compression Ignition (GCI) mode with medium injection pressure has the potential to achieve high engine efficiency while keeping costs low. In this study, the combustion and emission characteristics of GCI mode with medium-pressure injection of low-octane gasoline were studied and compared to conventional diesel combustion (CDC) under wide engine loads. The results showed that under low to medium loads, GCI mode had improved particulate emissions and indicated thermal efficiency (ITE) compared to CDC mode. However, at high loads, the PM emissions were much higher than CDC mode, and the ITE decreased for IMEP increasing from 10 to 12 bar due to limited injection pressure. To address this, a dual direct injection GCI mode with medium injection pressure was proposed to improve combustion under high loads. With this strategy, NOx emissions were significantly reduced, and ITE was simultaneously improved for IMEP of 10 and 12 bar. Using low octane gasoline and dual direct injection, the ITE of GCI mode can reach or exceed 50% for IMEP from 4 to 12 bar. Compared to gasoline with a research octane number (RON) of 83, gasoline with an RON of approximately 72 had higher ITE under most tested conditions and is recommended as the fuel for GCI mode.

Co-optimization of operating parameters, fuel composition, and piston bowl geometry of gasoline compression ignition (GCI) engine at high loads

Focusing on the gasoline compression ignition (GCI) combustion mode, the operating parameters, fuel composition, and piston bowl geometry were collaboratively optimized at high loads to improve engine performance. A meliorative genetic algorithm coupled with a three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) program was adopted as the optimization tool. The optimal GCI combustion strategy is summarized based on the optimization results, and the key parameters affecting engine performance at high loads are further analyzed. The results show that the employment of the open-type piston bowl, high-reactivity fuel, and late start of injection (SOI) is desirable for GCI engines at high loads. Under this strategy, fuel burns in multiple stages, which can reduce the heat release rate and advance the combustion phase. The width of the piston bowl is the geometric parameter with the most notable impact on GCI combustion. Due to the weaker turbulent kinetic energy and the smaller surface area, the larger piston bowl width is conducive to diminishing the heat transfer losses of the engine and promoting the oxidation of unburned hydrocarbon (HC) emissions. Relative to the optimal case, the strategy with the open-type piston bowl, high-reactivity fuel, and early SOI can reduce fuel consumption but results in a higher in-cylinder pressure rise rate and increased ringing intensity (RI). On the contrary, the re-entrant type piston bowl, low-reactivity fuel, and late SOI can significantly reduce the pressure rise rate and RI while deteriorating thermal efficiency.

Zero Dimension Heat Release Modeling for Gasoline, Ethanol, Isobutanol and Diisobutylene Operating in Compression Ignition with Varying Injection Strategies

<div class="section abstract"><div class="htmlview paragraph">Gasoline compression ignition shows great potential in reducing NOx and soot emissions with competitive thermal efficiency by leveraging the properties of gasoline fuels and the high compression ratio of compression ignition engines operating air-dilute. Meanwhile, its control becomes challenging due to not only the properties of different gasoline-type fuels but also the impacts of injection strategies on the in-cylinder reactivity. As such, a computationally efficient zero-dimension combustion model can significantly reduce the cost of control development. In this study, a previously developed zero-dimension combustion model for gasoline compression ignition was extended to multiple gasoline-type fuel blends and a port fuel injection/direct fuel injection strategy. Tests were conducted on a 12.4-liter heavy-duty engine with five fuel blends. A modification was made to the functional ignition delay model to cover the significantly different ignition delay behavior between conventional and oxygenated fuel blends. The parameters in the model were calibrated with only gasoline data at a load of 14 bar brake mean effective pressure. The results showed that this physics-based model can be applied to the other four fuel blends at three different pilot injection strategies without recalibration. For all tests, the error of the maximum pressure is within 14 bar, and that of combustion phasing and indicated mean effective pressure is within 2 CAD and 1.1 bar, respectively. In addition, the model was validated with 7 bar BMEP data and had the same level of accuracy as the 14 bar cases.</div></div>

An investigation of the effect of chamber temperature on macroscopic spray characteristic under GCI engine conditions

Spray characteristics play an important role in the application of gasoline compression ignition (GCI) engines because it affects engine performance as well as engine design. In this study, the influence of temperature on the non-vaporizing spray process was evaluated through the experimental process on the constant volume chamber (CVC) with simulated conditions of the GCI engine. The experimental matrix was constructed by varying key factors, including chamber temperature, fuel injection pressure, and chamber gas density. The CVC with built-in heaters allows for temperature variations at 323 K, 398 K, and 423 K. To accommodate low load conditions, the fuel injection pressure is varied between 50 MPa and 110 MPa. Simultaneously, chosen variations of gas density, including two levels of chamber density are selected at 15 kg/m3 and 30 kg/m3 respectively. In addition, the injector angles are arranged at 90° (vertical) and 180° (horizontal) to create an overview of the spray characteristics for the case study of GCI engine conditions, viable for future studies using a constant-volume combustion chamber (CVCC), or even rapid compression engine machine (RCEM) in which the injector is commonly set horizontally. The gasoline blended with biodiesel by volume percentage consisting of 80% gasoline and 20% biodiesel was used as the main fuel in this study, namely the GB20 blend. The results of the spray characteristics collected through the images of the spray process based on the Schlieren optical method and the highspeed camera, consisting of the spray evolution and penetration length, spray penetration rate, spray area, as well as the spray cone angle are investigated. The difference in the spray process is denoted as the chamber temperature is increased. The spray penetrates to the chamber wall limit more quickly at elevated temperatures. The results were recorded as a decrease in impingement time by 12% and 9.5%, respectively, at the injection pressure of 50 MPa together with an ambient gas density value of 15 kg/m3. The cone angle of the spray tends to reduce by approximately around 3° to 10° in all experimental cases when the chamber temperature is high. However, when entering the post-phase at 450–600 μs, cone angle differences are negligible during the injection reaching the stable phase.

Theoretical study on the effect of low-temperature reforming on gasoline compression ignition (GCI) at low-load conditions

In this paper, the influence of reforming conditions on the reforming products of gasoline, as well as the effect of main reforming products on GCI combustion at low-load conditions has been studied by experiment and numerical simulation. The results show CO, H2 and CH4 are the major reforming products, and their production is improved by higher reforming temperature, oxygen concentration and reforming time. The production of CO and H2 is mainly determined by the dehydrogenation reaction between fuel molecules and OH, while the one between iC8H18 and O2 is essential for the CH4 generation. The combustion efficiency rises sharply with more CO addition, but increases first and then decreases with increased H2, while the peak value of 96.71% is achieved. Besides, higher combustion efficiency is obtained with more internal exhaust gas recirculation (i-EGR) used. The increased OH and H radicals can be attained by adding CH4, which further improves combustion efficiency.

Experimental Evaluation of Pilot and Main Injection Strategies on Gasoline Compression Ignition Engine—Part 1: Combustion Characteristics

<div>Climate change and stringent emission regulations have become major challenges for the automotive sector, prompting researchers to investigate advanced combustion technologies. Gasoline compression ignition (GCI) technology has emerged as a potential solution, delivering higher brake thermal efficiency with ultra-low nitrogen oxides (NOx) and particulate emissions. Combustion stability and controls are some of the significant challenges associated with GCI. This study investigates the combustion characteristics of a two-cylinder diesel engine in GCI mode. GCI experiments were performed using a low-octane fuel prepared by blending 80% (v/v) gasoline and 20% (v/v) diesel (G80). Baseline experiments were conducted in conventional diesel combustion (CDC) mode. These experiments investigated the effects of double pilot injection, first pilot fuel ratio, and the start of main fuel injection timing (10–8°CA before top dead center, bTDC). The results indicated that the GCI mode produced significantly lower (~10%) in-cylinder pressure than the CDC mode. Higher pilot fuel proportions exhibited a lower heat release rate (HRR) at low loads. Retarded main injection showed a lower heat release in the premixed combustion phase than the advanced main injection case at all loads. In addition, retarded main injection timing showed retarded start of combustion (SoC) and end of combustion (EoC). GCI mode exhibited higher cyclic variations than baseline CDC mode, which need to be addressed.</div>

Experimental Evaluation of Pilot and Main Injection Strategies on Gasoline Compression Ignition Engine—Part 2: Performance and Emissions Characteristics

<div>Internal combustion (IC) engines play an important role in the global economy by powering various transport applications. However, it is a leading cause of urban air pollution; therefore, new combustion strategies are being developed to control emissions. One promising advanced low-temperature combustion (LTC) technology is gasoline compression ignition (GCI). This experimental study assesses the performance of a two-cylinder engine, emissions, and exhaust particulate characteristics using G80 (80% v/v gasoline and 20% v/v diesel) blend operating in GCI mode vis-à-vis baseline conventional diesel combustion (CDC) mode using diesel. The effects of double pilot injection, Pilot-1 proportion (10–30%), and main injection timing were investigated on the GCI combustion. Experiments were performed at different engine loads (3, 4, and 5 bar brake mean effective pressure [BMEP]) at a constant engine speed (2000 rpm). GCI combustion showed higher brake thermal efficiency (BTE) than CDC mode at medium loads. Hydrocarbon (HC) and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions increased in GCI mode, but oxides of nitrogen (NOx) were reduced than the baseline CDC mode. High pilot ratio and late main injection timing tests showed higher HC and CO emissions in the GCI mode at low engine loads. The GCI mode engine emitted higher nucleation mode particles and nanoparticles than baseline CDC mode at high engine loads. Using a triple injection strategy, GCI engines simultaneously reduced NOx and particulate matter (PM) emissions, especially at high loads. Controlling these emissions in baseline CDC mode engines is otherwise quite challenging.</div>