Knock Suppression Research Articles

Performance of anhydrous ethanol and gasoline blends on a SI engine: Decoupling evaporation enthalpy and knock resistance

Blending bioethanol with gasoline is recognized as a rapid solution for mitigating nonrenewable carbon dioxide emissions. This approach proves particularly meaningful in markets where the production of this biofuel aligns with sustainable practices. Understanding the alterations in the combustion process holds significance within these markets, contributing to informed decision-making and fostering environmentally conscious practices. In this context, it is widely known that highly ethanol blended fuels can provide benefits regarding suppression of knocking combustion in spark ignited engines if the quality of the base-fuel is not deteriorated to maintain octane ratings. However, the results of engine knocking investigations can be affected by two effects simultaneously. Firstly, ethanol has a beneficial effect on knock suppression due to its high enthalpy of evaporation compared to gasoline, which results in inner mixture cooling especially with direct injection. Secondly, ethanol can have beneficial effects on knock suppression by its decreased self-ignition tendency. This paper provides the set-up and results of an adapted engine testing procedure to diminish the effects of evaporation enthalpy during the knocking investigations of different highly ethanol blended fuels. The presented testing procedure at a single-cylinder research engine includes three technical steps: (1) the engine is equipped with a port fuel injection in stoichiometric operation for all tested fuels; (2) the engine is operated with constant speed of 1500 rpm and constant spark timing of 33° firing top dead center; (3) the engine is operated with fuel individual settings for the intake manifold gas pressure and intake manifold gas temperature. These parameters are adjusted to test all fuels with similar in-cylinder conditions at spark timing. The differing heating values of the fuels obviously result in differing engine loads. However, the presented testing procedure is aimed to achieve comparable in-cylinder conditions at spark timing without the effect of evaporation enthalpy. The novelty of the study lies in its adapted engine testing procedure that mitigates the cross-effects of fuel properties and operational conditions to isolate the true influences on knock occurrence. The paper provides a comprehensive description of the theoretical backgrounds, experimental set-up and post-processing procedures and also shows the results of the first measurement campaign.

Experimental study on knock suppression by direct water injection and direct ammonia-water injection based on low-flow injector under high load

Under the appropriate injection strategies, both direct water injection and direct ammonia-water injection can effectively suppress the knock, but the effect of the knock suppression is slightly different. In this paper, water and ammonia-water were respectively injected directly into the cylinder of a high performance port gasoline injection engine by modified low-flow direct injectors. The effects of direct injection timing and injection ratio on knock, combustion and emission were investigated. Both water and ammonia-water can effectively suppress knock in SI mode. Compared to water, ammonia-water exhibits a more prominent inhibitory effect on knock at lower DI ratios. However, when the ratio was further increased, the difference between the effects of ammonia-water and water on the inhibition of knockdown became less pronounced. Water and ammonia-water DI affect the knock through different mechanisms due to their unique chemical properties. While water predominantly influences the later combustion phases due to its rapid vaporization and high specific heat capacity. Ammonia-water primarily impacts the early combustion phase because of its complex combustion process and lower laminar flame speed.

Effect of injection timings and injection pressure on knock mitigation with a compression stroke injection of hydrous ethanol in spark ignition

Direct injection fuel systems provide precise control over the amount of fuel injected and can enable higher compression ratio operation and earlier combustion phasing under knock-limited operation, particularly for fuels with a high cooling potential like hydrous ethanol, a blend of 92% ethanol and 8% water. Moving a portion of the total fuel mass from an intake stroke injection to a compression stroke injection can provide a knock suppression benefit, which can enable more efficient operation. In this work, the influence of injection pressure on this split injection spark ignition strategy is examined. The effect of injection pressure on two intake stroke injections were characterized, with an injection pressure of 200 bar improving combustion efficiency by ∼3 percentage points and advancing knock-limited CA50 by 1 crank angle degree over an injection pressure of 30 bar. Then, a compression stroke injection was introduced and swept into the compression stroke while maintaining the two intake stroke injections. Direct injections at an injection pressure of 30 bar enabled a small knock intensity reduction of ∼20%, whereas an injection pressure of 200 bar enabled a larger reduction of ∼90% in knock intensity. The spark timing advance permitted by the reduction in knock intensity with a compression stroke injection timing of −80 degrees after top dead center was 0.3 and 2.0 degrees at an injection pressure of 30 and 200 bar, respectively. Then, the second intake stroke injection was varied at 200 bar to evaluate how the stratification profile prior to the compression stroke injection impacted its ability to reduce knock intensity. It was found that compression stroke injections with an early second intake stroke injection was effective at reducing knock intensity throughout the compression stroke. As the second intake stroke injection was retarded, the early compression stroke injections became less effective at suppressing knock.

Impacts of fuelling methods on knock-limited combustion and emissions of a dedicated hybrid spark-ignition engine

This study investigates the impact of various fuelling methods on knock-limited combustion efficiency and emissions in a high compression ratio, turbocharged spark-ignition gasoline engine designed for hybrid applications. Different injection strategies, including port fuel injection (PFI), direct injection (DI), two-stage DI, PFI with late DI, and PFI with in-cylinder targeted fuel injection (TFI), were evaluated. TFI, a novel method where fuel is injected towards knock-prone regions based on knock spatial distribution, was seen capable of advancing the knock-limited spark advance (KLSA) by up to 3.75°, and hence reducing fuel consumption by 18.78 g/kWh, demonstrating significant knock suppression. Furthermore, trade-off characteristics between fuel consumption and particulate emissions resulting from injection strategies were exhibited from the measured data. DI produces the optimal fuel consumption and the worst particulate emissions, while PFI shows the opposite. Importantly, TFI improves the trade-off, reducing fuel consumption and emissions simultaneously. The refined TFI achieved a 96.6 % reduction in particulate emissions compared to DI, matching PFI levels while improving engine thermal efficiency. These different combustion characteristics are attributed to the localized fuel–air mixing and charge cooling affected by injection strategies.

The interaction of charge motion and EGR on anti-knock performance and efficiency of a medium-duty gasoline engine: An experimental study

Due to the common operating characteristics of medium duty (MD) gasoline engines, achieving higher load at the expense of fuel efficiency is not an acceptable tradeoff. EGR dilution-stoichiometric combustion can suppress the knocking and improve the thermal efficiency, but has problems such as slow combustion rate and poor combustion stability, which have limitations in optimizing combustion for MD gasoline engines with strong swirl. The experimental investigations in this study focus on the interaction of charge motion and EGR on anti-knock performance and thermal efficiency under different load conditions, and verifies the potential to improve the thermal efficiency of inclined swirl combustion system. The results show that at low-medium load, the tumble-dominated inclined swirl scheme can enhance the effectiveness of EGR in knock suppression, thus reducing the introduction of EGR to avoid its adverse effects on the combustion duration. At medium-high load, although the above benefit wears off, it can enhance the anti-knock performance and thus advance the spark timing by increasing the EGR tolerance. The EGR ratio corresponding to the highest thermal efficiency increases with higher load. The difference in the in-cylinder flow field will affect the combustion rate in a high EGR dilution and high load condition. The scheme adopting the compound intake ports and inverse cuneiform-shaped combustion chamber can improve both EGR tolerance and initial combustion rate under high EGR dilution, with the most significant improvement in thermal efficiency, and the improvement range will increase along with the increase of load.

Effect of direct methanol injection based on low-flow injector on knock of gasoline engine under heavy load condition

Under appropriate strategies, direct methanol injection can suppress the knock effectively. In this paper, methanol was injected as an anti-knock agent by modified low-flow direct injectors into the cylinder of a high-load port injection gasoline engine. The effects of methanol injection timing and methanol ratio on knock suppression were investigated. The knock intensity (KI), knock probability, and auto-ignition timing were used as the primary basis for quantifying the knock. The results show that methanol injection timing has a significant impact on combustion. Maximum knock suppression can be achieved when methanol is injected near the bottom dead center. The too-early and too-late injections will affect the knock suppression. There was an apparent knock phenomenon when methanol was injected near the end of the compression stroke. When the ratio of methanol is meager, methanol will instead increase the intensity of the knock. As the methanol ratio rises, the knock is gradually and effectively suppressed. There is a specific methanol ratio beyond which higher methanol ratios do not significantly increase the knock suppression effect. When methanol was injected late in the compression stroke, low methanol ratios did not seriously increase the knock intensity, but high methanol ratios did not eliminate the knock either.

Progressive strategies to avoid and exploit knock limit for optimal performance and stoichiometric operation of a DI hydrogen engine with high CR at WOT conditions

Knock is one of the crucial challenges facing direct injection (DI) hydrogen engines. In this study, the rational optimization of operating parameters and the proposal of two progressive knock suppression strategies enable the DI hydrogen engine to achieve knock-free operation at wide-open throttle (WOT) and stoichiometric conditions, which may better control the test system’s complexity. The present work uses 0.5 bar knock intensity (KI) as the threshold for occurring knock. The test consists of three parts. In Part 1, KI exceeds 0.5 bar at 1.7 λ. Then, considering the suppression effect of the stratified mixture on knock, a strategy for cooperative control of λ and start of injection (SOI) is proposed in Part 2, which can lower λ to 1.4 within the allowable borderline knocking. However, this strategy fails at 70°CA BTDC SOI. Based on the above results, a strategy to synergistically adjust λ and intake variable valve timing is adopted in Part 3, which suppresses knock mainly by varying the airflow exchange process and effective compression ratio. Finally, the strategies presented in Part 2 and Part 3 allow the engine to control the KI to less than 0.5 bar at WOT and stoichiometric conditions, which ensures power performance.

Knock control in hydrogen-fueled argon power cycle engine with higher compression ratio by water port injection

Hydrogen-fueled Argon Power Cycle engine is a novel concept for high efficiency and zero emissions, which chooses high specific heat ratio argon‑oxygen mixture as working fluid. However, the low specific heat of argon also increases the in-cylinder temperature, causing severe knock, which limits the efficiency of the engine. A typical knock-limited compression ratio for a hydrogen port-injected Argon Power Cycle engine is about 5.5:1 if no specific method is used. This article presents experimental research on the effect of water port injection under 1000 r/min at a compression ratio of 9.6:1 with IMEP ranging from 0.1 to 0.6 MPa and argon ratios of 79%, 85%, and 90%. The net indicated thermal efficiency peaks at 53.50% without a water injection but the knock intensity reaches 3.4 MPa. With the water injection, 16 mg/cycle water is sufficient to eliminate knock and the maximum net indicated thermal efficiency slightly reduces to 52.41%. With the water increased to 51 mg/cycle, a maximum IMEP of 0.64 MPa is achieved with an argon ratio of 85%. Argon ratio shows a marginal effect on the peak net indicated thermal efficiency, but the diagram factor is lower with higher argon ratios. At peak net indicated thermal efficiency conditions of different argon ratios, the diagram factor of Argon Power Cycle engine ranges from 76% to 80%, while a typical diagram factor of an air-breathing hydrogen engine can reach 90%. Both argon‑oxygen and air-breaching hydrogen engines can currently achieve the indicated thermal efficiency of over 52%, but the Argon Power Cycle engine shows a greater potential for further efficiency improvement. This paper suggests that the water injection is a feasible method for the knock suppression of the Argon Power Cycle engine with a marginal negative effect on efficiencies.

Effects of ammonia addition on knock suppression and performance optimization of kerosene engine with a passive pre-chamber

The spark-ignition (SI) engine fueled kerosene faces the significant risk of knocking. Ammonia can be considered as a knock inhibitor to suppress the knock and optimize the performance of the kerosene engine, which also has excellent potential for reducing carbon emissions from internal combustion engines (ICE). In this paper, the effects of ammonia addition on the combustion characteristics, knock intensity, and performance of the kerosene engine with pre-chamber turbulent jet ignition (PTJI) were investigated experimentally. The results show that the knock intensity of the PTJI kerosene engine is reduced after adding ammonia and the knock tolerance is significantly broadened. The PTJI kerosene engine achieves full load operation at the compression ratio (CR) of 9 without knocking occurrence after blending ammonia, and the maximum increase of the indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP) and thermal efficiency is 2.95 bar and 12.6%, respectively. An advanced spark timing (ST) is obtained under ammonia addition conditions, resulting in higher in-cylinder pressure and superior combustion performance. The ignition delay ST-CA10 and combustion duration CA10-CA90 are prolonged as the ammonia ratio (ENH3) increases. An optimization operating strategy for the kerosene engine was proposed based on the CR, engine speed, supercharging, and ammonia addition. The best thermal efficiency of 26.88% with an IMEP of 8.25 bar is obtained at 1500 rpm, CR = 9, ENH3 = 20%, and a further improvement of engine power (IMEP > 12.0 bar) is achieved by supercharging.

Investigation of rapid flame front controlled knock combustion and its suppression in natural gas dual-fuel marine engine

In this study, a new-type knock mechanism for large-bore marine engines, which differs from the existing end-gas auto-ignition knock theory and detonation wave theory, is fully revealed, using a high time resolution dynamic pressure difference method. The results indicate that the disparate enhancement effects of the flame front on the high-pressure region and the low-pressure region result in an increasing pressure difference, eventually forming the knock. The distinctions between this knock and the conventional end-gas auto-ignition knock were examined. Subsequently, the different functions of swirl in the two knock mechanisms were investigated. The results illustrate that, increasing swirl in end-gas auto-ignition knock can accelerate the termination of flame surface propagation and reduce the end-gas temperature by shortening the end-gas heat accumulation, thereby decreasing the knock intensity. However, reducing swirl in the new-type knock can diminish the combustion intensity of the flame front, thereby reducing its enhancement of the pressure wave. Consequently, a reduction to one-fourth of the initial swirl level can reduce knock intensity by 91%. Particularly, a novel knock suppression method of positioning the jet flame in the opposite direction of the swirl is proposed, which can avoid the local rapid combustion to effectively eliminate knock while maintaining power.

Effects of Hydrogen Addition on Premixed Combustion of Kerosene in SI Engine

Spark ignition (SI) engines fueled with kerosene have broad application prospects in unmanned aviation vehicles. The knock phenomenon of kerosene in SI engines is a huge challenge, leading to a much lower power output than gasoline engines. In this context, the combustion characteristics of kerosene blending with hydrogen are analyzed numerically regarding the working conditions of an SI engine. First, the ignition delay time of a kerosene/hydrogen mixture is estimated for temperatures of 600–1000 K and pressures of 15–35 bar using the Tay mechanism. The effects of hydrogen addition are evaluated with a ratio of 0–0.4. The sensitivities of the main reactions that affect the ignition delay time are discussed. Then, the laminar flame speed is predicted using the HYCHEM-SK mechanism, and the effects of hydrogen addition on the net reaction rates of the main reactions are analyzed. The results indicate that the ignition delay time is shortened and the laminar flame speed is increased as the hydrogen addition ratio rises. Meanwhile, the ignition delay time decreases except for the NTC range, and the laminar flame speed increases evidently as the temperature rises. In addition, the ignition delay time decreases obviously as the pressure increases with a temperature greater than 750 K. However, the laminar flame speed declines at 600 K and 800 K, while an opposite trend exhibits at 1000 K as the pressure rises. The laminar flame speed increases by 23.85–24.82%, while the ignition delay time only decreases by 4.02–3.59% at 1000 K as the hydrogen addition ratio rises from 0 to 0.4, which will be beneficial for knock suppression.

Dynamic response of the performance and emissions of an LPG diesel dual-fuel engine with water injection

This paper evaluated the dynamic response of the compression ignition engine's performance parameters and emissions when water was injected into the intake manifold at different water ratios. This technique effectively decreased NOx emissions and mitigated knock intensity when the engine ran at dual fuel mode. With a WR = 143 %, NOx emissions were reduced by 52 % at 100 % diesel operation, whereas with a WR = 132 %, NOx emissions were reduced by 57 % at dual fuel mode operation. The knock intensity decreased from 1.52 V to 1.12 V using a water ratio of 133 % when the engine operated with a substitution of diesel by LPG of 50 % on a mass basis. The results also revealed that water injection increased HC emissions from 220 ± 1 ppm to 430 ± 1 ppm, whereas the Particle Matter (PM2.5) increased from 42.4 μg/kWh to 127.3 μg/kWh at 100 % diesel operation. When the engine operated at dual fuel mode PM2.5 increased from 42.4 μg/kWh to 84.3 μg/kWh. Finally, two First Order plus Dead Time models were deduced through the system identification technique to simulate the dynamic response of Knock Intensity when a step change of water ratio was made. These models play a key role in tuning system controllers for knock suppression.

Study of direct water injection on knock suppressing and engine performance of a gasoline engine

Turbocharger technology has become an essential method for the internal combustion engine to improve fuel economy. However, too high a boost pressure leads to too high a temperature in the combustion chamber at the end of the compression stroke, which can cause knocking or worsen abnormal combustion. Water injection technology plays a role in cooling the intake air and components in the cylinder, which can control the combustion process and suppress knock. This work focused on the influence of direct water injection (DWI) on knock suppression and efficiency improvement using a small turbocharged gasoline engine, investigating the fuel-saving potential of DWI and the optimal strategy of DWI for different engine operating conditions. Taking knock intensity (KI) as the evaluation index, KI decreases from 0.052 to 0.04 MPa, and knock limit spark angle (KLSA) increases with increasing water injection. This work shows that the DWI strategy plays a critical role in earlier spark timing, optimized combustion phase, and improved efficiency. Fuel consumption decreases by 11.55% with the optimal DWI strategy at an operating condition of 2000 rpm and a brake mean effective pressure (BMEP) of 1.3 MPa. Moreover, the optimal water injection timing is at −180°CA under various engine loads. Due to the stronger knock tendency under higher load conditions, the knock suppression is less effective for the same amount of water, so more water injection mass is necessary for higher efficiency.

Numerical simulation of the effects of the EGR ratio and ignition timing on a supercharged and high compression ratio hybrid gasoline engine

This paper explores the potential effects of the exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) ratio and ignition timing on knock suppression in a supercharged and high compression ratio (CR) hybrid gasoline engine, whereas previous knock studies have focused on conventional CRs and equivalence ratios. According to the simulation results, EGR can significantly reduce the knock intensity (KI). The high CR and EGR enable the realization of an indicated thermal efficiency of 47.46 %. Chemical modeling and solvers make free radical detection convenient. Therefore, this paper investigates the relationships between chemical kinetics and low-temperature reactions, preignition (PI) and spontaneous combustion of end mixtures (SCEM). The numerical results demonstrate that IC4H7 is an important indicator of low-temperature reactions. In the cases where SCEM and PI occur, H2O2 and CH2O substantially decompose and the masses of CH3, HCO, and CO start to decrease before the peak heat release rate (HRR) is attained. High CH2O concentration is an important indicator for high-temperature reactions, while high concentrations of CH3 and HCO can characterize the onset of SCEM or PI. The peak masses of IC4H7, HCO, and CH3 positively correlate with the KI value.

Research on the behavior of CO2 on hydrogen-fueled Wankel rotary engine performance

To prevent global warming, vigorously developing hydrogen energy has become one of research focuses of various countries and regions in recent years. Hydrogen-fueled engines have been proven to be a potential alternative to current fossil-fueled engines. Among various engines, Wankel rotary engine (WRE) is praised for its simple structure and excellent dynamic characteristics, which can greatly compensate for the low specific-volume heat value of hydrogen. However, hydrogen-fueled WRE suffers from low efficiency, high NOx emission and severe knock. For methanol-reforming hydrogen-fueled ICEs, CO2 as the by-product can be used as variant-cooled-EGR to improve ICEs performance and prevent abnormal combustion. Therefore, this work researches the behavior of CO2 on the hydrogen-fueled WRE. The work is conducted at 1500 r/min and wide-open throttle. The results show that CO2 has a significant influence on the heat release process of hydrogen-fueled WRE. Due to this influence, when the volume fraction of CO2 in intake (CO2%) is increased from 0 to 19.28%, the brake thermal efficiency can be improved by 8% with a 7% decline in power output. The NO emission has two orders of magnitude of reduction with increasing CO2% from 0 to 19.28%.. In addition, compared with cooled-EGR, CO2 has a better effect on knock suppression. If methanol-reforming to produce hydrogen becomes the mainstream of on-board hydrogen production in the future, the application of CO2 is of great significance.

Potential of high compression ratio combined with knock suppression strategy for improving thermal efficiency of spark ignition stoichiometric natural gas engine

Spark ignition (SI) stoichiometric natural gas (NG) engines could be used to replace diesel engines as power sources in vehicles to meet carbon-emission regulations, which are becoming increasingly stringent. However, the compression ratios (CRs) of SI stoichiometric NG engines are generally lower than those of diesel engines owing to knock limitations. Overcoming the limitations of knocking on CR is significant in improving thermal efficiency and reducing CO2 emissions. In this study, the occurrence and suppression of knock in a high-CR stoichiometric NG engine were studied through numerical simulation. The effects of three knock-suppression strategies, including the Miller cycle with late intake valve closing (IVC), exhaust gas recirculation (EGR), and increasing tumble ratio (TR), on the knock resistance and indicated thermal efficiency (ITE) at a high CR of 15 are discussed. The results show that the knock intensity (KI) increases exponentially to the super-knock level as the spark timing (ST) is advanced. When the CR is increased from 11.5 to 15, the ST needs to be retarded by 25 °CA to suppress the knock, so that the combustion phasing is significantly retarded. At a high CR of 15, by retarding the IVC angle or increasing the EGR rate, the KI is gradually decreased exponentially to below 0.2 MPa and the combustion phasing is retarded less, which allows for better anti-knock performance. An IVC retardation angle of 90 °CA and an EGR rate of 29% achieved maximum ITEs of 46.5% and 47.8%, respectively. At a high CR of 15, with an increase in TR, the KI first increased and then decreased; however, it failed to drop below 0.2 MPa, which delayed the ST, resulting in slight improvement in the ITE. This study provides an effective method to develop stoichiometric NG engines with high efficiencies and low carbon emissions.

Effects of Cooled Exhaust Gas Recirculation Combined With Prechamber Jet Ignition on the Combustion Characteristics in a Kerosene-Fueled Spark Ignition Engine

Abstract For security and logistical convenience, the single fuel forward policy hopes to use a single kerosene fuel to replace a variety of military fuels, especially the unsafe gasoline. However, the performance of kerosene-fueled spark ignition (SI) engines is severely restricted by knock, slow combustion rate, and poor combustion stability. This work innovatively applies cooled exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) combined with prechamber jet ignition (PJI) to a kerosene-fueled engine to suppress knock and improve performance. The results show that applying cooled EGR at a fixed throttle opening can suppress knock and improve fuel economy. However, the power decreased due to the decreased intake of energy. While applying EGR with constant fresh air mass flow makes the knock more prominent because of the microboosting effect caused by the increased throttle opening. This indicates that cooled EGR alone cannot improve the power output. Moreover, combustion instability was also caused due to the slower combustion rate. Therefore, PJI was introduced to compensate for the negative impact of EGR. As a result, a synergistic effect of cooled EGR and PJI was discovered, improving the IMEP by 5% and reducing the ISFC by 4.9% compared to the baseline. The PJI can shorten the combustion duration and improve the combustion stability because of the high kinetic energy jet and high turbulence flame. In addition, a novel two-stage heat release process which includes the unusual first-stage low-temperature heat release was discovered. Overall, EGR dominates the knock suppression, and PJI contributes to the combustion rate improvement.

Impact of ammonia addition on knock resistance and combustion performance in a gasoline engine with high compression ratio

Increasing the compression ratio of gasoline engines is a promising method to increase the engine's fuel economy. However, engine knock caused by auto-ignition is still a large obstacle to improving thermal efficiency and engine load for high compression ratio hybrid engines. Spark induced compression ignition (SICI) is an effective way to utilize auto-ignition to solve the aforementioned problems. Meanwhile, ammonia, a carbon-free fuel, with an outstanding antiknock property, has the great potential to be used in SICI mode. In this study, the effects of ammonia addition on knock suppression, combustion characteristics, thermal efficiency, and emission performance were investigated in a high compression ratio (15.5), four-valve, single-cylinder gasoline engine under SICI combustion mode. In experiments, gasoline was directly injected into the cylinder while ammonia was injected into the intake port. The results show that blending ammonia could resist engine knock and improve thermal efficiency. Within the knock limitation, the duration of flame propagation under ammonia blending conditions could be shortened and meanwhile, the auto-ignition becomes weakened compared with pure gasoline. Benefiting from combustion phase optimization, the thermal efficiency and engine load could be increased or maintained at optimal ammonia blending ratio. The maximum increase of thermal efficiency and engine load is 2.46% and 0.2 MPa respectively. Moreover, the increased engine load can extend the limit of the ammonia blending ratio. For nitrogen emissions, blending ammonia results in NOx emission deterioration due to the formation of fuel-type NOx. NOx emission has a weak dependence on the ammonia blending ratio, and the trend of NOx emission varied with spark timing is opposite to pure gasoline conditions, which is closely related to the pressure sensitivity of fuel-type NOx. Ammonia slip was also detected in the engine exhaust because of the incomplete combustion.

Cylinder-to-cylinder variation of knock and effects of mixture formation on knock tendency for a heavy-duty spark ignition methanol engine

The knock characteristics of a high-pressure port fuel injection heavy-duty SI engine fueled with pure methanol were investigated experimentally and numerically. This paper aims to provide the optimization direction of the injection strategy from the perspective of knock suppression and thermal efficiency improvement. Both experiment and simulation prove that injection during the intake stroke with high injection pressure can mitigate knock because the strong interaction between spray and intake flow helps to form the more homogeneous and lower temperature mixture which prolongs the ignition delay of end-gas. As the injection timing (αinj) varies from 320°CA to 480°CA, the combustion speed and thermal efficiency increase first and then decrease, while the knock tendency is the opposite. Take the combustion at αinj of 320°CA as a baseline, the faster combustion speed at αinj of 380°CA caused by the homogeneous mixture contributes to the higher thermal efficiency, while that of 480°CA caused by the higher temperature further enhances the knock tendency. There is a significant cylinder-to-cylinder variation of the knock tendency. The knock tendency of the cylinder with the less fresh air charge is lower because of the lower in-cylinder temperature and pressure.

Spark knock suppression in spark ignition engines with hydrogen addition under low and high engine speeds

The influence of hydrogen addition on spark knock characteristics is investigated under two engine speeds (2000 rpm and 4800 rpm) with experiments and chemical analyses to describe the effect of hydrogen addition on the high-speed knock as well as on the low-speed knock. The experimental results showed that the hydrogen addition of 15 HV% advances the knock limit by 3°CA at 2000 rpm, while by 1°CA at 4800 rpm, indicating that the knocking suppression effect weakens at higher engine speeds. The chemical kinetic analyses showed that hydrogen addition reduces the heat release rate under 900 K where the low temperature oxidation (LTO) appears, while it promotes the heat release rate above 900 K. These results suggest that the smaller effect of hydrogen addition at the higher engine speed is due to the smaller dependence of the LTO on the ignition process, with the shorter residence time below 900 K.