Modern Direct Injection Diesel Engines Research Articles

Oxidation-induced variations in the physical and fragmentation characteristics of exhaust soot from DMC-diesel blend: Effect of NO presence in the air atmosphere

This study investigated the changes in physical properties (including morphology, primary particle diameter, fractal dimension, and nanostructure) and fragmentation characteristics of exhaust soot from a modern direct injection diesel engine fueled with diesel (D100) and its blend with 7 vol% of dimethyl carbonate (DMC7) during oxidation processes in air and air-NO atmospheres. Soot particles (D100 soot and DMC7 soot) with specific oxidation degrees (0%, 20%, 50%, and 80%) were produced using a thermogravimetric analyzer, then applied to a high-resolution transmission electron microscopy to generate images. The results exhibited that the morphology for D100 soot and DMC7 soot transformed similarly through oxidation, experiencing an increase in fractal dimension, and a decrease in primary particle diameter, while the introduction of NO to the air accelerated these transformations. Additionally, the nanostructure of both soot particles was gradually ordered through oxidation, as evidenced by longer fringe length, narrower separation distance, and lower tortuosity, while DMC7 soot showed lower order degree compared to D100 soot. Interestingly, the ordering processes of soot nanostructure were decelerated as NO was involved in the oxidation process. Furthermore, the aggregate fragmentation rate for both soot particles declined over the oxidation process, while the possibility for primary particle fragmentation increased overall. Moreover, DMC7 soot exhibited significantly lower aggregate fragmentation rate and higher possibility for primary particle fragmentation than D100 soot at the same oxidation stage. This suggests that DMC7 soot is more susceptible to internal oxidation compared to D100 soot. Furthermore, the presence of NO in the air promoted aggregate fragmentation, while reducing the possibility of primary particle fragmentation.

Physical properties of exhaust soot from dimethyl carbonate-diesel blends: Characterizations and impact on soot oxidation behavior

This study presents the physical properties and oxidation reactivity of exhaust soot from a modern direct injection diesel engine fueled with dimethyl carbonate (DMC)-diesel blends and discusses the relationship between physical properties and oxidation reactivity of soot. The soot morphology, size, fractal dimension and nanostructure were analyzed by transmission electron microscopy and Raman scattering spectrometry. The thermogravimetric analysis was carried out to characterize soot oxidation reactivity in the form of apparent activation energy. The results showed that soot aggregates from DMC/diesel blended fuels exhibited fewer and smaller primary particles as well as small-sized clusters than the diesel soot aggregates. Soot primary particles presented shorter fringe length, wider separation distance and greater tortuosity with increasing DMC blending amount, while the degree of graphitization for soot presented an increasing trend. It was also found that soot from DMC/diesel blends, or low loading operation had higher oxidation reactivity than those from pure diesel or heavy loading operation. Among the physical properties, fractal dimension and primary particle size appeared to be insignificant than the nanostructure for governing the soot oxidation reactivity. Further analysis showed the separation distance was more correlated with soot oxidation characteristics than fringe length and tortuosity. These results illustrated that the use of DMC blended diesel fuel affects the physical properties of soot, enhances soot particle oxidation reactivity, which will be significant for improving the regeneration efficiency of after-treatment device.

Effects of injection pressure and impingement distance on flat-wall impinging spray flame and its heat flux under diesel engine-like condition

Heat loss is one of the main causes of energy losses in modern direct injection diesel engines. This heat loss of the engine occurs during combustion, mainly due to the heat transfer between the impinging spray flame and the piston cavity wall. It is of more critical in small size engines. In order to decrease heat transfer, we need to examine the phenomenon of heat transfer through the combustion chamber walls more fully. To achieve this, we investigated the effects of flame impingement on transient heat flux to the wall. By using a constant volume vessel with a fixed impingement wall, the surface heat flux of the wall at the locations of spray flame impingement was measured with three thin film thermocouple heat flux sensors. The combined effect of impingement distance and injection pressure on the heat transfer was investigated parametrically. The results showed that an increase of injection pressure with longer impinging distance led to an increase in the heat transfer coefficient, which had a dominant effect on local heat flux compared with local temperature distribution. Moreover, we confirmed that the relation between Nusselt number and Reynolds number is a useful measure for describing the heat transfer phenomena in diesel combustion.

Combustion and emissions characteristics of date pit methyl ester in a single cylinder direct injection diesel engine

Current biofuels for diesel engines are largely derived from food crops and there is significant concern, recognised by legislation, that such fuels do not result in net reductions of greenhouse gas emissions when considering the entirety of the production to usage lifecycle. A potential alternative approach is to utilise the lipid content of organic waste streams arising from food crop cultivation for the manufacture of sustainable diesel fuels. This paper therefore presents experimental studies carried out on a modern direct injection diesel engine supplied with a biodiesel (fatty acid methyl esters) produced from waste date pits to determine the combustion and emissions characteristics of an alternative fuel produced from a food residue. Date pit methyl esters were tested relative to both rapeseed and soybean methyl esters, unblended and as blends with a reference fossil diesel, alongside reference fossil diesel and a commercially available fossil diesel from Oman, at constant injection timing and constant ignition timing at a constant engine speed of 1200 rpm. Gas chromatograph analysis of the methyl esters fatty acid composition found a significantly shorter mean alkyl moiety chain length and lower number of double bonds in the case of the date pit esters than either the rapeseed or soybean biodiesel. All of the methyl esters exhibited a similar duration of ignition delay less than that displayed by a reference fossil diesel, but with a higher premixed burn fraction and peak heat release rate in the case of date pit methyl esters relative to those of rapeseed and soybean. Exhaust emissions of NOx were found to be lowest for the unblended date pit methyl esters, suggesting a greater influence of adiabatic flame temperature on rates of thermal NOx production than global in-cylinder temperatures in the case of the unblended methyl esters. Relative to the reference fossil diesel and Oman diesel, all of the methyl esters tested resulted in low particulate matter emissions.

A physics-based model for real-time prediction of ignition delays of multi-pulse fuel injections in direct-injection diesel engines

Real-time prediction of in-cylinder combustion parameters is very important for robust combustion control in any internal combustion engine. Very little information is available in the literature for modeling the ignition delay period of multiple injections that occur in modern direct-injection diesel engines. Knowledge of the ignition delay period in diesel engines with multiple injections is of primary interest due to its impact on pressure rise during subsequent combustion, combustion noise and pollutant formation. In this work, a physics-based ignition delay prediction methodology has been proposed by suitably simplifying an approach available in the literature. The time taken by the fuel-spray tip to reach the liquid length is considered as the physical delay period of any particular injection pulse. An equation has been developed for predicting the saturation temperature at this location based on the temperature and pressure at the start of injection. Thus, iterative procedures are avoided, which makes the methodology suitable for real-time engine control. The chemical delay was modeled by assuming a global reaction mechanism while using the Arrhenius-type equation. Experiments were conducted on a fully instrumented state-of-the-art common-rail diesel engine test facility for providing inputs to develop the methodology. The thermodynamic condition before the main injection was obtained by modeling the pilot combustion phase using the Wiebe function. Thus, the ignition delays of both pilot and main injections could be predicted based on rail pressure, injection timing, injection duration, manifold pressure and temperature which are normally used as inputs to the engine control unit. When the methodology was applied to predict the ignition delays in three different common-rail diesel engines, the ignition delays of pilot and main combustion phases could be predicted within an error band of ±25, ±50 and ±80 µs, respectively, without further tuning. This method can hence be used in real-time engine controllers and hardware-in-the-loop systems.

Improvements in thermal efficiency of premixed diesel combustion with optimization of combustion-related parameters and fuel volatilities

The influence of combustion-related parameters and fuel volatility on the premixed diesel combustion was experimentally investigated in a modern direct injection diesel engine, and the evaporation process of the fuel spray in the combustion chamber was analyzed with computational fluid dynamics simulation. By optimizing the fuel injection timing and the intake oxygen content, ultralow NOx and smokeless premixed diesel combustion with high thermal efficiency and acceptable levels of CO and total hydrocarbon emissions is possible with both diesel fuel and normal heptane. The optimum fuel injection timing for the indicated thermal efficiency is obtained when the fuel spray does not enter the squish area, maintaining the 50% heat release crank angle at around top dead center. The indicated thermal efficiencies reach the maximum at around 12% intake oxygen concentration. The indicated thermal efficiency in the premixed diesel combustion with normal heptane is slightly higher than with diesel fuel and is very similar to the conventional diesel combustion in a wide indicated mean effective pressure range of below 0.8 MPa. The indicated thermal efficiency decreases when advancing injection timings mainly due to the deterioration in the combustion efficiency when the fuel is injected to the outside of the piston cavity. The degree of decrease in the indicated thermal efficiency with advancing injection timings is more significant with diesel fuel than with normal heptane due to the wall wetting.

Engine Process Behaviour and Exhaust Emissions Alternative Fuels Compared with Diesel Fuel

Against the background of increasing discussions about the emission of greenhouse gases and limited fossil energy resources this contribution describes the potential of modern direct-injection diesel engines operated on 1st and 2nd generation alternative fuels. Focussing on demanding emission goals, the exhaust emissions and especially comparative mutagenicity research of the soluble organic particulate fraction are at the centre of this paper prepared by the University of Rostock.

Experimental Study of Diesel Fuel Effects on Direct Injection (DI) Diesel Engine Performance and Pollutant Emissions

An experimental investigation was conducted to specify the effect of diesel fuel composition and its physical and chemical properties on direct injection (DI) diesel engine performance characteristics and pollutant emissions. Engine tests were made on a single-cylinder naturally aspirated DI diesel engine (Lister LV1), which is located at the laboratory of the authors, at various operating conditions using seven conventional diesel fuels. The test fuels indicate variable hydrocarbon composition and physical and chemical properties, and they were prepared under a European Union research program aiming to identify future fuel formulations for use in modern DI diesel engines. Emphasis was given to the examination of the effect of diesel fuel density, viscosity, and compressibility factor on the fuel injection system, engine combustion characteristics, and diesel-emitted pollutants. Having observed that many diesel fuel parameters are strongly interrelated, we carried out a multivariable statistical analysis to determine the fuel property pairs that are statistically independent. Using experimental findings for pollutant emissions and independent fuel property pairs, a linear multiple regression analysis was conducted to identify potential correlations between diesel-emitted pollutant emissions and the fuel parameters. The sensitivity analysis revealed that soot emissions depend upon fuel viscosity, cetane number, and fuel volatility, whereas NO, CO, and HC emissions mainly depend upon fuel aromatic content. The evaluation of experimental results showed that reductions of soot, NO, and CO emissions can be attained with the reduction of the distillation temperature and the increase of paraffinics/napthenics ratio, which mainly provide the reduction of fuel viscosity and, secondarily, the decrease of the density and increase of the compressibility factor.

Modelling of ignition mechanisms and pollutant formation in direct-injection diesel engines with multiple injections

Multiple injections are an important aspect in modern direct-injection diesel engine development. The representative interactive flamelet (RIF) model, which was successfully used previously for simulations of diesel engine combustion, was recently extended to model multiple injections. In this paper this new RIF model is applied to model ignition and combustion with a pilot and a main injection with various dwell times, start of injection timings, and loads. Special emphasis is placed on the ignition of the main injection. It is shown that, for the investigated cases, the main injection does not auto-ignite but it is ignited by a strained premixed flame that propagates from the pilot injection to the mixture field of the main injection. The structure of that flame and the influence of the scalar dissipation rate on the propagation speed are investigated in detail. In addition to pressure curves, modelling results for NOx and soot emissions are compared with experimental data, showing good agreement.

A two mixture fraction flamelet model applied to split injections in a DI Diesel engine

The laminar flamelet equations, which were originally derived for a two-feed system with one fuel and one oxidizer stream, are extended for a three-feed system with two fuel and one oxidizer streams. Both fuel streams are associated with one separate mixture fraction. Using a three-scale asymptotic analysis, two-dimensional flamelet equations are derived, which can describe the transfer of heat and mass between two mixture fields in flamelet space. The representative interactive flamelet model which was previously used successfully for the simulation of Diesel engine combustion cases, is extended to accommodate the two-dimensional flamelet equations and multiple mixture fractions. This new model is applied to a split injection case with a pilot and a main injection representing the two fuel streams. The three-dimensional mixture field in the engine is analyzed using a multi-dimensional β-PDF, and an interaction coefficient is defined to describe the degree of merging of the mixture fields. Depending on the coefficient, different phases of combustion and interaction between the mixture fields resulting from the different injections are identified. Results using the two-dimensional flamelet model are compared to experimental data for a modern direct-injection Diesel engine equipped with a Common-Rail injection system. Possible simplified models are introduced, and their performance is compared to the full model.

Accurate prediction of the rate of heat release in a modern direct injection diesel engine

An accurate model for the heat release rate in a modern direct injection (DI) diesel engine is newly evolved from the known mixing controlled combustion model. The combustion rate could be precisely described by relating the mixing rate to the turbulent energy created at the exit of the nozzle as a function of the injection velocity and by considering the dissipation of energy in free air and along the wall. The complete absence of tuning constants distinguishes the model from the other zero-dimensional or pseudomultidimensional models, at the same time retaining the simplicity. Successful prediction of the history of heat release in engines widely varying in bores, rated speeds and types of aspirations, at all operating conditions, validated the model.