Reciprocating Piston Engine Research Articles

Real-time FPGA-based laser absorption spectroscopy using on-chip machine learning for 10 kHz intra-cycle emissions sensing towards adaptive reciprocating engines

Fast emissions sensing is needed to enable rapid optimization on-the-fly for increasingly adaptive engine architectures to improve performance over a wide range of loads and to offer fuel flexibility towards a low-carbon energy future. In this work, a real-time laser absorption spectroscopy technique is developed for 10 kHz on-line measurements of engine exhaust gas temperature and carbon monoxide. Latency due to data reduction is significantly shortened through a machine learning approach to spectral analysis and minimization of post-processing complexity for implementation on a high-bandwidth field-programmable gate array (FPGA). The data reduction method is tested on cycle-resolved laser-absorption thermochemistry measurements in reciprocating piston engine exhaust. The sensor employs a quantum cascade laser to spectrally-resolve two fundamental rovibrational absorption lines of carbon monoxide near 4.9 μm at a rate of 10 kHz. The recorded signals are passed to an FPGA to infer CO concentration and gas temperature through either a pre-trained ridge regression or artificial neural network model. Models are constructed to limit complexity with the aim of minimizing resource utilization and latency on the FPGA. Experimental data are used to evaluate the prediction accuracy of the models, with the neural network achieving RMS errors in CO mole fraction and gas temperature of 0.0390% and 15.0 K, respectively, compared to spectral fitting of the absorption lineshapes. The data reduction latencies are measured through hardware-in-the-loop demonstration, achieving a 10 kHz throughput and 25 μs latency. Computational time of the end-to-end data reduction process on the FPGA is measured at 300 ns and 600 ns for the ridge regression and neural network, respectively. The data reduction methods presented in this work expand the utility of laser absorption spectroscopy for low-latency sensors that match the timescales of combustion and increase the potential for real-time sensing and control to minimize engine exhaust emissions and maximize performance.

Active torsional vibration suppression of hybrid electric vehicle drive system based on optimal harmonic current instruction calculation method

Torsional vibrations in the drive system of a hybrid electric vehicle powered by an engine are generated by cyclic torque fluctuations. These fluctuations stem from the combustion torque and the reciprocating inertial torque of the cylinder in the reciprocating piston engine. To address this issue, a real-time engine transient torque model that considers the thermodynamic characteristics of each component is established. A method was designed to identify the torsional vibration of a powertrain based on the engine torque, electric motor torque, and powertrain model. Building on this foundation, a method was proposed to calculate the optimal harmonic current instruction of the electric motor to mitigate torsional vibration in the Hybrid electric vehicles (HEV) powertrain. Furthermore, a proportional integral-resonance (PIR) controller was designed for the injection of an electric motor reference harmonic current. Finally, a method was proposed for suppressing the torsional vibration in HEV drive systems that incorporate active harmonic current injection. The simulation and test results indicate that the proposed method can effectively diminish the amplitudes of the drive system's 2nd, 4th, 6th, and 8th harmonic torque, ensuring stable operation of the powertrain.

A Comprehensive Review of the Free Piston Engine Generator and Its Control

Review A Comprehensive Review of the Free Piston Engine Generator and Its Control Patrick Brosnan 1, Guohong Tian 1, * , Umberto Montanaro 1, and Sam Cockerill 2 1 School of Mechanical Engineering Sciences, University of Surrey, Surrey GU2 7XH, UK 2 Libertine FPE Ltd., Sheffield S9 1DA, UK * Correspondence: g.tian@surrey.ac.uk; Tel.: +44-1483-300-800 Received: 2 February 2023 Accepted: 10 March 2023 Published: 23 March 2023 Abstract: The Free Piston Engine (FPE) is a unique machine with a higher thermal efficiency than its counterpart, the Conventional Reciprocating Piston Engine (CPE). The unique piston motion of the FPE is not constrained kinematically like the CPE with its connecting crankshaft and rotational inertial masses. Moreover, when directly coupled to the Linear Electric Machine (LEM) to harness electric energy production, the Free Piston Engine Generator’s (FPEG) characteristic motion, now being dynamically constrained, permits an extensive range of piston trajectory profiles to be exploited during operation. In addition, exploring varied piston trajectories during the development stages may be vital in reducing in-cylinder combustion emissions through strategies such as Low-Temperature Combustion (LTC) and Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI). This review paper will focus on the key motivations and drivers for continued FPEG development. It will also highlight and review its distinct advantages and challenges in being a viable solution as a future zero-carbon engine technology. Finally, FPE fundamentals, alongside its rich history, will be introduced, clearly presenting how academia and industry have described and controlled its intrinsic non-linear dynamics.

Assessment of the application of oxygen enrichment in the hydrogen-fueled Wankel rotary engine

Hydrogen-fueled Wankel rotary engines (WREs) with excellent dynamic and emission characteristics have the potential to become a substitute for current fossil-fueled reciprocating piston engines. Oxygen enrichment can be employed to solve the lower power of hydrogen-fueled internal combustion engines, however, it has not been applied in hydrogen-fueled WRE at present. Hence, the goal of this work is to experimentally assess the application of oxygen enrichment in the hydrogen-fueled WRE. This work is conducted at 1500 r/min, wide-open throttle and 2.0 excess air ratio. The work found that within the test range, oxygen enrichment can effectively improve the brake torque of hydrogen-fueled WRE, however, penalize the brake thermal efficiency and NO emission. When the oxygen fraction in air increases from 21% to 29.1%, the brake torque is increased by about 45% while the brake thermal efficiency is lowered by about 8.5% and NO emission deteriorates by three orders of magnitude. Oxygen enrichment can accelerate flame development and propagation process. Besides, as the oxygen-enriched level is increased, abnormal combustion, including knock, backfire and pre-ignition, began to occur and affected the normal operation of hydrogen-fueled WRE. In general, compared with the high oxygen-enriched level, which has severe penalties on performance except for power output, low oxygen-enriched level has higher application potential.

Increasing Safety in Ultralight Aviation with a Wankel-Based Series/Parallel Hybrid Electric Power System

The goal of this investigation is to propose a series/parallel hybrid electric power system for ultralight aviation designed to improve safety and, possibly, reduce fuel consumption. The power system consists of a Wankel engine, two electric machines, a battery, and a planetary gear set, all acquired from the automotive market. After a preliminary design based on takeoff power, the system is simulated over a typical flight mission and in case of engine failure for a first validation of the proposed powertrain. The investigation also shows a comparison in terms of performance and fuel consumption between the initial configuration (reciprocating piston engine), a non-hybrid Wankel arrangement, and the proposed hybrid electric configurations by using in-house simulation software. A heuristic energy management strategy is proposed as well. During a typical mission, the new powertrain works as a parallel hybrid during takeoff and climb, thus ensuring high performance and safety. During the cruise, the system behaves like a parallel hybrid with a continuously variable transmission that makes the engine work always at high efficiency. The battery is partially recharged during the descent by the extra power of the engine. The preliminary results reported in this work predict an improvement in fuel consumption by about 20% compared with the initial piston engine configuration and 28% compare with the non-hybrid Wankel powertrain, despite the larger takeoff weight.

A knock study of hydrogen-fueled Wankel rotary engine

Hydrogen-fueled Wankel rotary engine (HWER) is an excellent power device with superior power and emission performances. Besides, unlike hydrogen-fueled reciprocating piston engines, HWRE is less prone to backfire due to its structural advantages. However, limited by its long combustion chamber, knock, one of abnormal combustion in engines, still hinders the development of HWER. Hence, based on this consideration, the goal of this work is to investigate the knock of HWRE from different aspects, including ignition timing, spark plug number, spark plug location, excess air ratio and engine speed, to provide relevant information for the design of hydrogen-specific WRE. The results show that the knock intensity gradually increases as the ignition timing is advanced, the excess air ratio is decreased and the engine speed is increased, but the knock duration shows different variations. Adopting dual spark plugs tends to lead to stronger knock caused by unstable combustion of hydrogen, while only adopting leading spark plug tends to lead to the knock caused by auto-ignition. When dual spark plugs are used, the leading spark plug is more responsible for the knock caused by unstable combustion and the trailing spark plug is more responsible for the knock caused by auto-ignition.

Analyzing characteristics of knock in a hydrogen-fueled Wankel rotary engine

Hydrogen-fueled Wankel rotary engine (HWRE) as a promising power device overcomes some of the drawbacks of the hydrogen-fueled reciprocating engine. However, its elongated combustion chamber makes it prone to knock, and little research has been done in this area. Hence, to understand the knock characteristics of HWRE, the present work focus on parameters of HWRE knock at 2000r/min, an excess air ratio of 1.2 and an ignition timing of −7°CA ATDC. The main results are as follows: As with knock intensity, knock duration and maximum pressure rising rate also can characterize the knock of HWRE because of the logarithmic or linear relationship among three parameters. For the knock intensity, two parameters are needed to precisely characterize the HWRE knock, while only one parameter is needed for the knock duration and the maximum pressure rising rate. Considering the computing cost, the maximum pressure rising rate is better than others. The knock intensity has a significant influence on the timed sequence of peak knock pressure and peak in-cylinder pressure. Besides, the mechanism of backfire caused by the knock of HWRE is different from that of the hydrogen-fueled reciprocating piston engine, which results from the inter-cylinder flame leakage.

Comparison of combustion, emission and abnormal combustion of hydrogen-fueled Wankel rotary engine and reciprocating piston engine

Hydrogen-fueled Wankel rotary engine (HWRE) as an excellent power device deserves more in-depth study. The goal of this work is to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the pros and cons of HWRE and what should be done when developing a hydrogen-specific WRE by comparing HWRE with hydrogen-fueled reciprocating piston engine (HRPE), as well as some gasoline-fueled conditions, in terms of combustion, emissions and abnormal combustion. The results show that HWRE can achieve higher power per displacement compared to the RPE fueled by whether gasoline or hydrogen, as well as slightly low brake thermal efficiency and extremely poor NO emission. At 2500 r/min, the maximum power per displacement of HWRE is 1.66 and 1.23 times that of hydrogen and gasoline RPE, respectively, however, accompanying absolute reductions of 4.96% and 3.06% in maximum brake thermal efficiency. In addition, the characteristics and mechanisms of abnormal combustion in HWREs are different compared to HRPEs. In particular, in HWRE, the backfire can be eliminated by the improvement of the spark plug hole, while the knock problem is more prominent. Overall, HWREs have the potential to win a place in the future of zero-carbon engines, however, some works, such as improving thermal efficiency, reducing thermal load and preventing knock, need to be done for the development of hydrogen-specific WRE.

The oil film around a cylindrical micropore in a sliding contact visualized by fluorescence microscopy on a tribometer

This work presents the oil film near a single surface texture in an optically accessible sliding contact reproducing the piston-ring/cylinder-liner contact in an engine. A micropore – a cylindrical depression with vertical walls – was laser-textured into the surface of the quartz-glass liner. The oil film thickness is imaged quantitatively at high magnification via laser-induced fluorescence. The results show that the pore carries oil to the starved outlet, creating a downstream “oil tail”, whose morphology and volume are analyzed. Specifically, at low speed, the pore has a wider tail containing a higher oil volume than at high speeds. These suggest that in a reciprocating piston engine, porosity on the liner can yield advantageous tribological behavior in particular around the piston-motion reversal points.

A Novel Coaxial Balance Mechanism for Reciprocating Piston Engines

Vibration is an important issue faced by reciprocating piston engines, and is caused by reciprocating inertia forces of the piston set. To reduce the vibration without changing the main structure and size of the original engine, we proposed a novel coaxial balance mechanism design based on a compact unit body. By introducing a second-order balance mass, this mechanism can significantly increase the efficiency of vibration reduction. The proposed mechanism can effectively balance the first-order and second-order inertia forces with the potential of balancing high-order inertia forces. To accurately determine the second-order balance mass, a closed-form method was developed. Simulation results with a single-cylinder piston DK32 engine demonstrate the effectiveness and advantage of the proposed mechanism. At a crankshaft speed of 2350 r/min, compared with the first-order balance device, the average root mean square velocity of the test points on the engine’s cylinder was reduced by 97.31%, and the support reaction force was reduced by 96.54%.

A new method to determine the causes of deviation in cylinder pressure curves of motored reciprocating piston engines

Simulation calibration of modern engines to test bench measurements, mainly matching the indicated pressure curves in the combustion chamber, is a time consuming task that requires high user experience to manage a multitude of adjustment parameters. In the scope of this work an automated process for calibrating simulations at motored engine operating points is presented. This is achieved using characteristic pressure deviation curves, based on 1D simulations of a simplified base model. They incorporate the dimensionless deviation of the cylinder pressure originating from one parameter. A set of these curves is scaled and superposed to recreate the original pressure deviation between simulation and measurement. The scaling factor is used to quantify each parameter’s suggested adjustment value. This work presents the workflow of creating the characteristic pressure deviation curves, matching the deviation between measurement and simulation and determining the adjustment values. Further, the methodology is tested for interference of different parameters. A series of applications, ranging from 1D and 3D CFD simulation test cases to real world applications in different engines, concludes this work.

Effective Combustion of Glycerol in a Compression Ignition Engine Equipped with Double Direct Fuel Injection

The paper presents results from an investigation focused on toxicity content in the exhaust gases emitted by an internal combustion compression ignition engine fueled with glycerol-ethanol blends at ratio of 50/50% by volume. The innovative issue of this engine is the application of two high pressure injectors for injecting both glycerol-ethanol blend and diesel pilot fuel at high pressure (over 200 MPa). As known, glycerol is considered a byproduct from biodiesel production technologies, hence its cost is relatively low compared to other renewable alternative fuels which can be applied as fuels to the reciprocating piston engines. It was found that the toxic components UHC, NOx and CO were below the maximum allowed limits. Both NOx and smoke emissions were strongly reduced with increasing glycerol-ethanol fraction in the fuel. Summarizing, a fueling strategy such as that proposed in this paper makes it possible to effectively and environmentally friendly combust crude glycerol in compression ignition engines working in a heat and power cogeneration unit. Exhaust gas emission tests conducted in this case confirmed the usability of this technology to be implemented into practice.

By-products from thermal processing of rubber waste as fuel for the internal combustion piston engine

The article presents results of investigation on the combustion of a mixture of oil from pyrolysis of tires and basic fuel in an internal combustion reciprocating piston engine. The tested fuel consisted of: diesel oil and oil from pyrolysis of tires at amount of 10% by volume. The tests were carried out on a single-cylinder naturally aspirated compression-ignition engine. The engine is equipped with a common rail fuel injection system and an electronic control unit that allows changing injection timing. A comparative analysis of pressure-volume charts for the reference fuel, which was diesel, and for a mixture of diesel with the addition of 10% oil from tire pyrolysis was carried out during the study. Injector characteristics for the reference fuel and the mixture were determined. Engine efficiency for both fuels was determined. Unrepeatability of the engine work cycles for the diesel fuel and the tested mixture was calculated. Finally, the share of toxic exhaust components in exhaust gases was analyzed. It was found that pyrolisys oil from tires can be used as additive to regular diesel fuel at amount up to 10%, however, toxic exhaust gases emission was increased.

A Design of the Compression Chamber and Optimization of the Sealing of a Novel Rotary Internal Combustion Engine Using CFD

The current paper investigates two particular features of a novel rotary split engine. This internal combustion engine incorporates a number of positive advantages in comparison to conventional reciprocating piston engines. As a split engine, it is characterized by a significant difference between the expansion and compression ratios, the former being higher. The processes are decoupled and take place simultaneously, in different chambers and on the different sides of the rotating pistons. Initially, a brief description of the engine’s structure and operating principle is provided. Next, the configuration of the compression chamber and the sealing system are examined. The numerical study is conducted using CFD simulation models, with the relevant assumptions and boundary conditions. Two parameters of the compression chamber were studied, the intake port design (initial and optimized) and the sealing system size (short and long). The best option was found to be the combination of the optimized intake port design with the short seal, in order to keep the compression chamber as close as possible to the engine shaft. A more detailed study of the sealing system included different labyrinth geometries. It was found that the stepped labyrinth achieves the highest sealing efficiency.

Extended expansion linkage engine: a concept to increase the efficiency

In a broad-based survey, the reciprocating piston engine with extended expansion stroke was found to have the highest efficiency potential for passenger car propulsion. To confirm the predicted efficiency, three different prototype engines were built and measured on testbed. Measurements were complemented with thermodynamic simulations. Investigations focused on naturally aspirated and supercharged SI engines. It could be shown that a naturally aspirated SI engine with an expansion ratio gamma of 2 gains an efficiency improvement of 7 percentage points compared to a conventional crank train engine. It was also found that the extended expansion has no inherent effect to combustion, emission formation and wall heat transfer. Major effort was made to assess the Miller cycle as a thermodynamic alternative to the crank train with extended expansion. Measurements and simulations revealed that Miller suffers in a way from higher wall heat and gas exchange losses cutting a substantial share of the efficiency potential of an equivalent crank train solution.

A new closed-form method for inertia force and moment calculation in reciprocating piston engine design

The piston crank mechanism is an important component of a reciprocating piston engine. It is an inherent vibration system, and as such, the calculation of unbalance quantity is a critical procedure in balancing mechanism design, which is adopted to balance inertia loading. The traditional method usually applies a Taylor series expansion with the crank-conrod ratio, then a Fourier transform with the crank angle. The Taylor expansion generally ignores the influence on calculations resulting from the high order terms. However, the high order terms of the Taylor expansion will also contribute to the low order terms in the Fourier series. This will induce poor precision in the inertia loading calculation, especially in a high crank-conrod ratio engine. Thus, this paper proposes a new closed-form method, which only adopts a Fourier transformation for the calculation. The coefficients of the Fourier transformation terms contain the contributions of all order terms of the crank-conrod ratio. Therefore, we named it as a closed-form method. Compared with the traditional method, the closed-form method improves the numerical accuracy of the secondary reciprocating inertia force by 1.5%–4%, when the crank-conrod ratio varies from 0.25 to 0.4. Using this new closed-form method to design a balancing mechanism, the primary and secondary reciprocating inertia forces can be completely balanced. For an engine, where the primary and secondary inertia forces are balanced, the ratio of the residual inertia force to the total inertia force using the traditional method is 1.5%, while the ratio decreases to 0.5% using the closed-form method. The closed-form method is independent of engine configurations, including centric and eccentric engines, and single and multi-cylinder engines. Examples of applications using the proposed method are provided.

Thermal modeling of a novel rotary engine

Studies on rotary engines and their high operation efficiency, in comparison with reciprocating-piston engines, has encouraged further research on different types of these engines. This paper focuses on thermal analysis of a novel rotary engine with 24 combustion processes per rotation. This engine has only two moving parts, the vanes and the rotor. Two cams operate as stationary parts. The modeling, based on maximum power and full load operation, evaluates approximately the thermal behavior of the engine running with diesel fuel and a compression ratio (20:1). Initially, by presenting a thermodynamic model, pressure, temperature and convective heat transfer coefficient of combustion gases inside one cylinder of the engine are calculated; results obtained from the model are used as boundary conditions for adjacent control volumes and thereafter steady-state temperature distribution in the engine components are obtained using the commercial software Ansys. With regard to material limitation, the resulting temperature distribution shows that the cam needs an auxiliary cooling system, while the rotor and the vanes cool down using the lubrication oil of the engine. Finally, it is suggested that cooling such as air or water is needed for the cooling of the cam, as an auxiliary cooling system.

Modeling unmanned aerial vehicle jet ignition wankel engines with CAE/CFD

The paper presents some details of the CFD modeling of a novel design where jet ignition devices replace the traditional spark plugs for a faster and more complete combustion. The numerical simulations show how the pre-chamber jet ignition in a Wankel engine differs from reciprocating piston engine applications. The jets issuing from the jet ignition pre-chamber have many different speeds in the different directions as the pressure build-up at the trailing edge of the rotating chamber makes extremely fast the ignition of the chamber mixture in the direction of rotation. Conversely it prevents the jet ignition in the opposite direction. Careful positioning along the periphery and design of the connecting pipes and the prechamber volume with the help of CFD simulations permits to achieve extremely fast and complete combustion as impossible with spark plugs. The paper proposes results of CFD simulations of the combustion evolution within a jet ignited Wankel engine rotor, detailing challenges and opportunities of the application, as well as a first assessment of the impact the faster and more complete combustion permitted by jet ignition may have on the performances of Wankel engines for unmanned aerial vehicles applications.

Study of Virtual Design and simulation of Rotary Engine Based on Pro/E

At the present, due to intensified awareness of environmental protection and petroleum resources running low in the world, it is urgent to develop a engine of technical performance with manifold excellent. Aiming at the existing drawbacks of the reciprocating piston engines and the triangle rotor engine, A new kind of engine with simple, novel institution, special principle, low power consumption, low emission, low noise and low cost is designed, sometimes called Rotary engine for short. Through computer virtual simulation technology, the scientific rationality of collaborative work in different structures and the novelty of working principles are verified. It lay foundation for development of highly efficient energy-saving engine in the furture.

English

3 ABSTRACT: In a reciprocating piston engine, the connecting rod connects the piston to the crank or crankshaft. In modern automotive internal combustion engines, the connecting rods are most usually made of steel for production engines, but can be made of aluminum (for lightness and the ability to absorb high impact at the expense of durability) or titanium (for a combination of strength and lightness at the expense of affordability) for high performance engines, or of cast iron for applications such as motor scooters. The present work has been undertaken to replace the existing connecting rod made of forged steel which is broken for LML Freedom with the aluminum connecting rod. The spare parts of the motorcycle are not available as the production has stopped. In this thesis, the connecting rod is modeled in Pro/Engineer, forces are calculated, analysis is done on the connecting rod using materials aluminum 6061, aluminum 7075, aluminum 2014carbon fiber 280 gsm bidirectional, and Analysis is also done for the assembly of piston, connecting rod and crankshaft. The prototype of the connecting rod is made using direct machining for aluminum alloy and hand layup method for carbon fiber connecting rod.