High Load Operation Research Articles

高負荷運転時におけるディーゼル機関の高効率化に関する研究（第１報）:―二成分混合燃料が効率および排気特性に及ぼす影響―

高負荷運転時におけるディーゼル機関の高効率化に関する研究（第１報）:―二成分混合燃料が効率および排気特性に及ぼす影響―

Thermal efficiency improvement of PODE/Gasoline dual-fuel RCCI high load operation with EGR and air dilution

In recent years, polyoxymethylene dimethyl ethers (PODE) is used for reactivity gradient enlargement in direct injection engines due to its high Cetane Number (CN). In the current study, thermal efficiency improvement of PODE/Gasoline dual-fuel reactivity controlled compression ignition (RCCI) high load operation with exhausted gas recirculation (EGR) and air dilution is experimentally investigated, together with a zero-dimension (0-D) thermodynamic analysis. The experimental result shows that 15% gross indicated thermal efficiency (ITEg) improvement can be achieved through both air dilution and EGR dilution. Air dilution under fixed intake pressure shows significant effects on ITEg improvements. EGR dilution under fixed equivalence ratio (Φ) slightly reduces the ITEg. Further study with fixed the total charge heat capacity reveals that at lean conditions, the total charge heat capacity has greater influence on the combustion processes and ITEg than equivalence ratio. Comparing the experimental results with the thermodynamic modelling results, it indicates that combustion efficiency is an important factor that determines the ITEg with air/EGR dilution. Further analysis reveals that air dilution greatly improves the CO oxidation owing to the increased oxygen concentration, which obviously improves the combustion efficiency and ITEg.

Evaluation of variable compression ratio (VCR) and variable valve timing (VVT) strategies in a heavy-duty diesel engine with reactivity controlled compression ignition (RCCI) combustion under a wide load range

Variable compression ratio (VCR) and variable valve timing (VVT) are two effective strategies to adjust the effective compression ratio, which is beneficial for controlling the combustion process of advanced combustion modes. In this study, systematic evaluation of the two strategies was conducted based on reactivity controlled compression ignition (RCCI) engine in terms of combustion process control, fuel efficiency, and emission characteristics. By coupling an updated KIVA-3V code with the genetic algorithm, the combustion of a heavy-duty RCCI engine with VCR and VVT strategies was respectively optimized, aiming to simultaneously realize high fuel efficiency and low emissions. The optimal VCR and VVT strategies were compared under a wide load range. The results indicate that, at low and mid loads, high effective compression ratio, large premix ratio, and early fuel injection can be utilized to realize Euro 6 nitrogen oxides (NOx) limit with ultra-low soot emissions and low fuel consumption for both VCR and VVT strategies. The increase of load from low to mid narrows the optimal range of exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) rate for VVT strategy whereas the range for VCR strategy is still wide. At high load, compared to VVT strategy, a further decreased effective compression ratio can be utilized for VCR strategy, which allows early fuel injection, leading to the improvements of fuel efficiency and soot emissions. This suggests that the VCR strategy is more practical for high-load operation of RCCI combustion and the commercialization the RCCI engine in the future compared to VVT strategy.

Emission Factors Derived from 13 Euro 6b Light-Duty Vehicles Based on Laboratory and On-Road Measurements

Tailpipe emissions of a pool of 13 Euro 6b light-duty vehicles (eight diesel and five gasoline-powered) were measured over an extensive experimental campaign that included laboratory (chassis dynamometer), and on-road tests (using a portable emissions measurement system). The New European Driving Cycle (NEDC) and the Worldwide harmonised Light-duty vehicles Test Cycle (WLTC) were driven in the laboratory following standard and extended testing procedures (such as low temperatures, use of auxiliaries, modified speed trace). On-road tests were conducted in real traffic conditions, within and outside the boundary conditions of the regulated European Real-Driving Emissions (RDE) test. Nitrogen oxides (NOX), particle number (PN), carbon monoxide (CO), total hydrocarbons (HC), and carbon dioxide (CO2) emission factors were developed considering the whole cycles, their sub-cycles, and the first 300 s of each test to assess the cold start effect. Despite complying with the NEDC type approval NOX limit, diesel vehicles emitted, on average, over the WLTC and the RDE 2.1 and 6.7 times more than the standard limit, respectively. Diesel vehicles equipped with only a Lean NOX trap (LNT) averaged six and two times more emissions over the WLTC and the RDE, respectively, than diesel vehicles equipped with a selective catalytic reduction (SCR) catalyst. Gasoline vehicles with direct injection (GDI) emitted eight times more NOX than those with port fuel injection (PFI) on RDE tests. Large NOX emissions on the urban section were also recorded for GDIs (122 mg/km). Diesel particle filters were mounted on all diesel vehicles, resulting in low particle number emission (~1010 #/km) over all testing conditions including low temperature and high dynamicity. GDIs (~1012 #/km) and PFIs (~1011 #/km) had PN emissions that were, on average, two and one order of magnitude higher than for diesel vehicles, respectively, with significant contribution from the cold start. PFIs yielded high CO emission factors under high load operation reaching on average 2.2 g/km and 3.8 g/km on WLTC extra-high and RDE motorway, respectively. The average on-road CO2 emissions were ~33% and 41% higher than the declared CO2 emissions at type-approval for diesel and gasoline vehicles, respectively. The use of auxiliaries (AC and lights on) over the NEDC led to an increase of ~20% of CO2 emissions for both diesel and gasoline vehicles. Results for NOX, CO and CO2 were used to derive average on-road emission factors that are in good agreement with the emission factors proposed by the EMEP/EEA guidebook.

Investigations of the Friction Losses of Different Engine Concepts. Part 1: A Combined Approach for Applying Subassembly-Resolved Friction Loss Analysis on a Modern Passenger-Car Diesel Engine

This work presents the application of a combined approach to investigate the friction losses in a modern four-cylinder passenger-car diesel engine. The approach connects the results from engine friction measurements using the indication method and the results from journal-bearing simulations. The utilization of the method enables a subassembly-resolved friction loss analysis that yields the losses of the piston group, crankshaft journal bearings, and valve train (including the timing drive and crankshaft seals). The engine and engine subassembly friction losses are investigated over the full speed and load range, covering more than 120 engine operation points at different engine media supply temperatures ranging from 70 to 110 ∘ C. The subsequently decreasing lubricant viscosity due to higher engine media supply temperatures allow for the identification of friction reduction potentials as well as possible risks due to an onset of mixed lubrication. Furthermore, additional strip-tests have been conducted to determine the friction losses of the crankshaft radial lip seals, the timing drive, and the crankshaft journal bearings, thus enabling a verification of the calculated journal-bearing friction losses with measurement results. For the investigated diesel engine, a friction reduction potential of up to 21% could be determined when increasing the engine media supply temperature from 70 to 110 ∘ C, at engine speeds higher than n = 1500 rpm and part load operating conditions. At low engine speeds and high load operations, the friction loss reduction potential is considerably decreased and below 8%, indicating mixed lubrication regimes at the piston group and valve train.

Impact of injection settings on gaseous emissions and particle size distribution in the dual-mode dual-fuel concept

Reactivity controlled compression ignition concept has been highlighted among the low temperature combustion strategies. However, this combustion strategy presents some problems related to high levels of hydrocarbon and carbon monoxide emissions at low load and high-pressure rise rate at high load. Therefore, to diminish these limitations, the dual-mode dual-fuel concept has been presented as an excellent alternative. This concept uses two fuels of different reactivity and switches from a dual-fuel fully premixed strategy (based on the reactivity controlled compression ignition concept) during low load to a diffusive nature during high load operation. However, the success of dual-mode dual-fuel concept depends to a large extent on the low reactivity/high reactivity fuel ratio and the injection settings. In this study, parametric variations of injection pressure and injection timing were experimentally performed to analyze the effect over each combustion process that encompasses the dual-mode dual-fuel concept and its consequent impact on gaseous and particles emissions, including an analysis of particle size distribution. The experimental results confirm how the use of an adequate injection strategy is indispensable to obtain low exhaust emission and a balance between the different pollutants. In the fully premixed reactivity controlled compression ignition strategy, the particles concentrations were dominated by nucleation mode; however, the increase in injection pressure and the advance of the diesel main injection timing provided a simultaneous reduction of nitrogen oxide and solid particles (accumulation mode). During the highly premixed reactivity controlled compression ignition strategy, the accumulation-mode particles increased, and their concentrations were higher when the diesel main injection timing advanced and injection pressure decreased, as well as there was a slight increase in nitrogen oxide emissions. Finally, in the dual-fuel diffusion strategy, the concentrations of accumulation-mode particles were higher and there was a considerable increase of these particles with the advance of the diesel main injection timing and the reduction of the injection pressure, while the nitrogen oxide emissions decreased.

Thermal behaviour of medium-voltage underground cables under high-load operating conditions

The dynamic management of electric power distribution lines has become a topic of great interest at present. Knowledge of the ampacity of cables is fundamental to carrying out dynamic management. In this study, the ampacity of buried cables in different soil resistivities and depths was calculated. A small-scale model was built in the laboratory to simulate the operating conditions of a buried cable. With the experimental results, a numerical model based on the finite element method was validated to evaluate the ampacities calculated by two standards. A comparison was made between the ampacities calculated from the IEC 60287-1 and UNE 211435 standards and those obtained from the simulated model. In addition, a comparison was made regarding the steady-state temperatures obtained at each calculated ampacity. The results obtained from the simulated model design show that the ampacity calculation method of the IEC 60287-1 standard where drying-out of the soil occurs is the most accurate, and has the least risk of exceeding the maximum permissible cable temperature.

Effect of Valve Timing and Excess Air Ratio on Torque in Hydrogen-Fueled Internal Combustion Engine for UAV

In this study, in order to convert a 2.4 L reciprocating gasoline engine into a hydrogen engine an experimental device for supplying hydrogen fuel was installed. Additionally, an injector that is capable of supplying the hydrogen fuel was installed. The basic combustion characteristics, including torque, were investigated by driving the engine with a universal engine control unit. To achieve stable combustion and maximize output, the intake and exhaust valve opening times were changed and the excess air ratio of the mixture was controlled. The changes in the torque, excess air ratio, hydrogen fuel, and intake airflow rate, were compared under low engine speed and high load (wide open throttle) operating conditions without throttling. As the intake valve opening time advanced at a certain excess air ratio, the intake air amount and torque increased. When the opening time of the exhaust valve was retarded, the intake airflow rate and torque decreased. The torque and thermal efficiency decreased when the opening time of the intake and exhaust valve advanced excessively. The change of the mixture condition’s excess air ratio did not influence the tendency of the torque variation when the exhaust valve opening time and torque increased, and when the mixture became richer and the intake valve opening time was fixed. Under a condition that was more retarded than the 332 CAD condition, the torque decreased by about 2 Nm with the 5 CAD of intake valve opening time retards. The maximum torque of 138.1 Nm was obtained at an optimized intake and the exhaust valve opening time was 327 crank angle degree (CAD) and 161 CAD, respectively, when the excess air ratio was 1.14 and the backfire was suppressed. Backfire occurred because of the temperature increase in the combustion chamber rather than because of the change in the fuel distribution under the rich mixture condition, where the other combustion control factors were constantly fixed from a three-dimensional (3D) computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code simulation.

Influence of Sludge Retention Time on the Performance and Stability of Mesophilic Anaerobic Co-digestion of Food Waste with Waste Activated Sludge

Two parallel digestion systems of food waste (FW) and waste-activated sludge (WAS) were successfully initiated using a continuous stirred-tank reactor (CSTR), and the effect of different reduction extents of sludge retention time (SRT) on the co-digestion of FW and WAS was investigated. SRT Reduction extents longer than 8.3 d were not conducive to the stable operation of the co-digestion system when the organic load rate (OLR) was increased. The reduction extent of SRT should be reduced gradually from 5 d to 0.9 d to achieve high load and stable operation of the co-digestion of FW and WAS. After a long-term operation (approximately 282 d), the co-digestion reached stable operation at SRT of 9.1 d and OLR (calculated by COD) of (12.9±1.5) g·(L·d)-1. The corresponding methane production, methane yield (calculated by COD), pH, and volatile fatty acid (VFA, calculated by COD) were 3.94-4.25 L·(L·d)-1, 288-302 mL·g-1, 7.80-7.83, and 0.32-0.39 g·L-1, respectively. Additionly, the sludge characteristics of the co-digestion of FW and WAS under a high loading rate were also investigated. The results showed that the primary pathway of methane conversion was through acetic acid during the co-digestion of FW and WAS. Meanwhile, higher methanogenic activity of acetic acid, propionic acid, butyric acid, valeric acid, and coenzyme F420 concentration were also measured.

Flammability reduction in a pressurised water electrolyser based on a thin polymer electrolyte membrane through a Pt-alloy catalytic approach

Various Pt-based materials (unsupported Pt, PtRu, PtCo) were investigated as catalysts for recombining hydrogen and oxygen back into water. The recombination performance correlated well with the surface Pt metallic state. Alloying cobalt to platinum was observed to produce an electron transfer favouring the occurrence of a large fraction of the Pt metallic state on the catalyst surface. Unsupported PtCo showed both excellent recombination performance and dynamic behaviour. In a packed bed catalytic reactor, when hydrogen was fed at 4% vol. in the oxygen stream (flammability limit), 99.5% of the total H2 content was immediately converted to water in the presence of PtCo thus avoiding safety issues. The PtCo catalyst was thus integrated in the anode of the membrane-electrode assembly of a polymer electrolyte membrane electrolysis cell. This catalyst showed good capability to reduce the concentration of hydrogen in the oxygen stream under differential pressure operation (1–20 bar), in the presence of a thin (90 μm) Aquivion® membrane. The modified system showed lower hydrogen concentration in the oxygen flow than electrolysis cells based on state-of-the-art thick polymer electrolyte membranes and allowed to expand the minimum current density load down to 0.15 A cm−2. This was mainly due to the electrochemical oxidation of permeated H2 to protons that were transported back to the cathode. The electrolysis cell equipped with a dual layer PtCo/IrRuOx oxidation catalyst achieved a high operating current density (3 A cm−2) as requested to decrease the system capital costs, under high efficiency conditions (about 77% efficiency at 55 °C and 20 bar). Moreover, the electrolysis system showed reduced probability to reach the flammability limit under both high differential pressure (20 bar) and partial load operation (5%), as needed to properly address grid-balancing service.

Power-network aware VM migration heuristics for multi-tier web applications

Cloud computing has become an attractive and promising platform, offering on-demand resources for multi-tier web applications. However, an inappropriate and inefficient resource management practices may negatively affect the service level agreement (SLA) and the response time experienced by users, essentially for high load operating conditions. Furthermore, this may result in substantial amount of energy consumption in data centers, which consequently leads to a high operational cost. This paper proposes an effective power-network aware virtual machine (VM) migration heuristics to deal with high SLA violation (SLAV) and energy consumption. Our research consists of two parts. The first part introduces a network-aware VM migration algorithm. The algorithm considers steady-state traffic condition to minimize the negative effect of migration on other flows. The network gain (NG) is calculated for candidate VMs and the VM with the maximum NG is selected. The second part, extends the network-aware algorithm with energy-awareness capabilities. In addition to NG, power gain (PG) is calculated for each candidate VM and two lists are created for each congested link: NG list and PG list. The VM with the lowest sum of the rank is selected. An extensive simulation is done in CloudSim. The results show that the power-network aware algorithm can reduce the energy consumption without significant increase in SLAV. This research enables us to take a step further towards building low latency, energy-efficient and environment-friendly data centers running network intensive applications.

Flame transport in a heavy-duty diesel engine

A heavy-duty diesel engine has been constructed to provide full optical access to the piston bowl with a window forming the bottom of the “optical” piston. The engine is operated up to 1400 rpm, with peak firing pressure of up to 160 bar and IMEP levels of up to 20 bar. Fuel injection is accomplished with a common rail system and an externally driven high-pressure pump. Data were taken for cylinder pressure with synchronous recording of diesel flame ignition and combustion by means of a high-speed camera. The task of the project summarized in this paper was to evaluate flame and cylinder pressure data gained in this engine at part load and high-load operation. The focus of data evaluation was on identifying main flame transport mechanisms and relating them to simultaneously recorded rates of heat release.

A split injection of wet ethanol to enable thermally stratified compression ignition

Thermally stratified compression ignition is a new advanced, low-temperature combustion mode that aims to control the heat release process in a lean, premixed, compression ignition combustion mode by controlling the level of thermal stratification in the cylinder. Specifically, this work uses a mixture of 80% ethanol and 20% water by mass, referred to as “wet ethanol” herein, to increase thermal stratification via evaporative cooling of areas targeted by an injection event during the compression stroke. The experiments conducted aim to both fundamentally understand the effect that a late cycle injection of wet ethanol has on the heat release process, and to use that effect to explore the high-load limit of thermally stratified compression ignition with wet ethanol. At an equivalence ratio of 0.5, injecting just 8% of the fuel during the compression stroke was shown to reduce the peak heat release rate by a factor of 2, subsequently avoiding excessive pressure rise rates. Under pure homogeneous charge compression ignition using wet ethanol as the fuel, the load range was found to be 2.5–3.9 bar gross indicated mean effective pressure. Using a split injection of wet ethanol, the high-load limit was extended to 7.0 bar gross indicated mean effective pressure under naturally aspirated conditions. Finally, intake boost was used to achieve high-load operation with low NOx (oxides of nitrogen (NO or NO2)) emissions and was shown to further increase the high-load limit to 7.6 bar gross indicated mean effective pressure at an intake pressure of 1.43 bar. These results show the ability of a split injection of wet ethanol to successfully control the heat release process and expand the operable load range in low-temperature combustion.

The effect of diethyl ether addition on performance and emission of a reactivity controlled compression ignition engine fueled with ethanol and diesel

Reactivity controlled compression ignition has been introduced to implement controllable, clean, and high thermal efficiency without undermining the advantages of premixed combustion. However, simultaneous auto-ignition introduced by reactivity controlled combustion challenges the combustion under higher load operations. This experimental study incorporates a dual phase heat release concept with the purpose of improving the performance of reactivity controlled compression ignition engine. Different ratios of ethanol/diethyl-ether blends (from 0% to 40% diethyl ether and 70% premixed ratio) were applied to a light duty diesel engine at various combustion timings and engine loads. The diesel fuel was directly injected into the combustion chamber while ethanol/diethyl-ether blends were injected in the intake port. Engine performance and exhaust emissions were compared between the baseline operation and high blend ratios. An addition of 40% diethyl ether in the ethanol approximately resulted in 14% increase of the indicated mean effective pressure and 33% reduction in maximum pressure rise rate. The high reactivity of diethyl ether enhanced the oxidation of the hydrocarbons and resulted in lower hydrocarbon emissions. The higher volatility and better overall fuel-air mixing improved the combustion and reduced particle emission. Stable combustion was expanded at high load operating conditions due to double-stage heat release enhancement.

Improvement of combustion and emissions with exhaust gas recirculation in a natural gas-diesel dual-fuel premixed charge compression ignition engine at low load operations

Dual-fuel premixed charge compression ignition (DF-PCCI) combustion has been demonstrated as a promising solution for simultaneous reduction of nitrogen oxides (NOX) and particulate matter (PM) emissions in heavy-duty compression ignition engines. The use of natural gas (NG) as the low-reactivity fuel in DF-PCCI combustion can expand the limited range of high load operations owing to the lower reactivity of NG than that of gasoline. However, the lower reactivity of NG results in significant hydrocarbon (HC) and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions at the low load operations. In this study, the mixture formations with and without exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) in NG-diesel DF-PCCI combustion were assessed to reduce the HC and CO emissions as well as to improve the fuel economy at low load operations. Diesel injection timing and NG substitution ratio (SR), which is defined as the proportion of energy stored in NG with respect to the total energy amount, were changed to examine the effects of the mixture formation on the DF-PCCI combustion. The NG SR, which was required to maintain the combustion phasing at a constant crank angle degree (CAD), was increased as the diesel injection timing was retarded in the mixture formation without EGR. The introduction of EGR, in addition to the diesel injection timing and the NG SR, contributed to the favorable mixture formation for the low load operations. The NOX and PM emissions were lower than the EURO VI limitations in both the mixture formations with and without EGR. When the EGR rate of 50% was applied, the indicated thermal efficiency (ITE) increased compared to the case without EGR. The increased ITE was due to the improved combustion efficiency, the higher peak heat release rate (HRR), and the shorter combustion duration. The HC and CO emissions also decreased significantly with the EGR.

Improvement of high load performance in gasoline compression ignition engine with PODE and multiple-injection strategy

The effects of PODE and multiple fuel injection strategy on combustion and emission characteristics of a multiple-cylinder gasoline compression ignition (GCI) engine are investigated at high load (BMEP = 16 bar) operation condition with a fixed engine speed of 1660 r/min. Experimental results indicate that the sensitivity of soot emission to the variation of injection parameters is decreased by blending PODE with gasoline, mainly due to the enhanced soot oxidation through PODE’s high oxygen content. The main heat release of gasoline is more strongly affected by its pilot heat release compared to that of gasoline/PODE blends. Low PRRmax (maximum pressure rise rate) of about 4.5 bar/°CA can be obtained for gasoline with multiple-injection strategy, under which condition the advantage of gasoline/PODE blends only embodies in reducing soot emission, which is different from that with single injection strategy. The PHRRMI,max (maximum premixed heat release rate of main injection) and Kmain (heat release acceleration ratio of main injection) of gasoline show more sensitivity to the variation of EGR compared to that of PODE20 with pilot-main injection strategy, and the PHRRMI,max and PRRmax of gasoline increase more rapidly in contrast to that of gasoline/PODE blends as injection pressure increases. At higher injection pressure, the soot of all the fuels can be significantly decreased with penalty in PRRmax, especially for gasoline. It is seen that when PODE20 with triple-injection strategy, 1400 bar injection pressure and 30% EGR were employed under the operation condition with the engine speed of 1660 r/min and BMEP of 16 bar, the NOx of 1.3 g/kWh, soot of 0.007 g/kWh and BSFC of 199.67 g/kWh can be obtained while maintaining PRRmax of about 4.5 bar/°CA.

Experimental and Numerical Analyses of a Spark-Ignition Engine Firing with N-Butanol-Gasoline Blends at High Load Operation

In this paper, the potential of alcohol-gasoline blends as fuels for spark-ignition engines has been evaluated. The general purpose of the work is to verify the possibility of incrementing the bio-fuels penetration in the market of transportation fuels. As it is well known, bio-mass derived fuels, in fact, could significantly reduce the CO2 emissions of energy thermal systems.The behavior of a small, turbocharged spark-ignition engine, firing with gasoline-butanol blends, has been analyzed. Analyses have been carried out by means of both experimental tests and numerical simulations. In previous works, engine main performances have been illustrated and discussed. Here, experimental tests have been carried out in order to compare the engine knock resistance and the obtainable fuel conversion efficiency when the engine is fueled by pure gasoline or gasoline-butanol blends at high load operation. Furthermore, one dimensional numerical analyses have been utilized in order to compare the engine behavior, at different operating points, when it is firing with pure gasoline or pure butanol.In general, the obtained results seem to indicate that butanol (produced by bio-masses) is a viable alternative to fossil fuels in the way of CO2 emission reduction.

Effect of Charge Density on Spray Characteristics, Combustion Process, and Emissions of Heavy-Duty Diesel Engines

In-cylinder charge density at top dead center is an important parameter of diesel engines and is influenced by intake pressure, intake temperature, and compression ratio. The effects of charge density on fuel spray, combustion process, and emissions were investigated by using a constant volume bomb and a heavy-duty diesel engine. Spray development resistance increased with the increase of the charge density in the constant volume bomb. It was found that short spray penetration was accompanied by a large spray cone angle in the former stage with high charge density. However, the equivalence ratio was lowered and the degree of homogeneity of the mixture was increased in the later stage owing to the rapid interaction of fuel and gas at a high mixing rate. Combining the first law of thermodynamics and the second law of thermodynamics for analysis, as the charge density increased, the gross indicated thermal efficiency (ITEg) was improved. However, pumping loss had to be considered with higher charge density. Under this condition, the brake thermal efficiency (BTE) trend was increased initially and decreased subsequently. Under high-load operation (1200 r/min BMEP, 2.0 MPa), the minimum charge density value of 44.8 kg/m3 was found to be reasonable. This charge density was suitable for combustion and brought about minimum exhaust energy and trade-off emissions. Moreover, by analyzing two operation conditions in terms of the maximum BTE with the Miller and the conventional cycles, compression temperature and combustion temperature were reduced in the Miller cycle with the charge density 44.8 kg/m3. A high Cp/Cv could improve the cylinder exergy/power conversion process by its positive effect of increasing the specific heat ratio. Owing to the interaction between a high Cp/Cv and exergy loss to heat transfer, the condition with the minimal charge density could produce more piston work.

Numerical and experimental investigations on a dual fuel HCCI engine by using ethanol as primary fuel and diesel as secondary fuel for NOX reduction and better performance

ABSTRACTAchieving the new emission norms is a difficult task to today’s compression ignition (CI) engine without any exhaust gas after-treatment technologies. It is necessary to find the practical method which reduces the unsafe emission, with minor modifications of the CI engine. Dual fuel homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) engine has been recognised as one of the solutions to minimise the emissions and achieve higher performance. In the present study the dual fuel HCCI engine mode of operation carried out by supply of ethanol fuel-air mixture to the engine cylinder through the carburetor and diesel fuel is directly injected at the end of compression for the initiation of ignition. Dual fuel HCCI engine is one of the most promising engines suitable for alternative fuels and lower NOX emissions. An experimental investigation is carried out on dual fuel HCCI engine. Fuel consumption and exhaust emissions such as NOX, CO2, CO, HC are measured and compared with conventional CI engine. The results show that NOX emission tends to decrease at low and moderate loads of the engine, but at full load condition it is slightly higher. Further, thermal efficiency is calculated and compared in CI engine; it is observed that there is a slight improvement in thermal efficiency at high load operation. In the dual fuel HCCI engine mode, there is a provision to use of ethanol or any other alternate fuel for better energy efficiencies and low NOX emission.

Computational Study to Identify Feasible Operating Space for a Mixed Mode Combustion Strategy—A Pathway for Premixed Compression Ignition High Load Operation

A mixed mode combustion strategy with a premixed compression ignition (PCI) combustion event and a mixing controlled load extension injection was investigated in the current study. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling was used to perform a full factorial design of experiments (DOE) to study the effects of premixed fuel fraction, load extension injection timing, and exhaust gas recirculation (EGR). The goal of the study was to identify a feasible operating space and demonstrate a pathway to enable high-load operation with the mixed mode combustion strategy. The gross-indicated efficiency (GIE) increased with premix fraction, but the maximum premix fraction was constrained by pressure rise rate which confined the feasible operating space to a premix fuel mass range of 70–80%. Injecting part of the premixed fuel as a stratified injection relieved the pressure rise rate constraint considerably through in-cylinder equivalence ratio stratification. This allowed operation with premix fuel mass of 70% and higher and EGR rates less than 40% which resulted in improved GIE of the late cycle injection cases. It was also identified that by targeting the fuel from the stratified injection into the squish region, there is improved oxygen availability in the bowl for the load extension injection, which resulted in reduced soot emissions. This allowed the load extension injection to be brought closer to top dead center while meeting the soot constraint, which further improved the GIE. Finally, the results from the study were used to demonstrate high-load operation at 20 bar and 1300 rev/min.