In transport applications, reciprocating internal combustion engines still have important advantages in terms of endurance and refueling time and available infrastructure when compared against fuel cell or battery-based powertrains. Although conventional internal combustion engine configurations produce important amounts of greenhouse gases and pollutant emissions, oxyfuel combustion can be used to mitigate to a great extent such emissions, mainly producing NO x -free, CO 2 and H 2 O exhaust gases. However, the oxygen needed for the combustion, which is mixed with flue gases before entering the cylinder, has to be stored in an additional tank, which hinders the adoption of this technology. Fortunately, the latest developments in gas separation membranes are starting to produce extremely-high selectivity and high permeability oxygen-separation membranes. Using the waste heat of the exhaust gases to heat up a mixed ionic-electronic conducting membrane, and feeding it with pressurized air, it is possible to produce all the oxygen needed by the combustion process while keeping the whole system compact. This works presents a design of an oxy-fuel combustion engine with in-situ oxygen production. The numerical simulations show also that this concept keeps a competitive brake specific fuel consumption, while the high concentration of CO 2 in the exhaust gases facilitates the introduction of carbon sequestration technologies, leading to potentially carbon-neutral internal combustion engines.

For decades, alternative fuels have been studied to further engine efficiency and lower combustion emissions. Of these fuels, biodiesel, alcohols, and ethers have shown advantageous benefits of improved mixing capability or reduced combustion emissions. Ether fuels consist of a range of C-O-C chain lengths that offer various noteworthy fuel properties such as fuel oxygen content and cetane number. In this work, oxymethylene dimethyl ether (OME 3 ) and diesel are used as neat and blended fuels on a single-cylinder high compression ratio engine. Four test fuels are investigated in this work; baseline diesel, two diesel/OME 3 blends, and neat OME 3 fuel. Engine tests are conducted at an engine load of 6 bar and the intake oxygen concentration is modulated via EGR to realize the resulting engine performance, stability, and exhaust emissions among the test fuels. The results show that blending OME 3 fuels with diesel is an effective technique to reduce soot emissions with minimal effect on NOx emissions. Moreover, neat OME 3 was capable of emitting low NOx and soot emissions with a lower EGR amount than that of diesel-blends, mitigating negative combustion implication of EGR at high levels.

The conversion of biomass using fast pyrolysis has the potential to be significantly less expensive at scale compared to alternative methods such as fermentation and gasification. Selective upgrading of the products of fast pyrolysis through chemical catalysis produces compounds with lower oxygen content and lower acidity; however, identifying the specific catalytic pathways for producing viable fuels and fuel additives often requires a trial-and-error approach. Specifically, key properties of the compounds must be experimentally tested to evaluate the viability of the resultant compounds. The present work proposes predictive models constructed with artificial neural networks (ANNs) for cetane number (CN), yield sooting index (YSI), kinematic viscosity (KV), and cloud point (CP), with blind test set median absolute errors of 5.14 cetane units, 3.36 yield sooting index units, 0.07 millimeters squared per second, and 4.89 degrees Celsius, respectively. Furthermore, the cetane number, yield sooting index, kinematic viscosity, and cloud point were predicted for over three hundred expected products from the catalytic upgrading of pyrolysis oil. It was discovered that 130 of these compounds have predicted cetane numbers greater than 40, with four of these compounds possessing predicted yield sooting index values significantly less than that of diesel fuel and predicted viscosities and cloud points comparable to that of diesel fuel.

Conditional Source-term Estimation (CSE) is a combustion model based on the conditional moment hypothesis where transport equations for reactive species are conditionally averaged on conserved scalars. Major advantages of this strategy are the reduced spatial dependence of the conditional averages and negligible fluctuations around the conditional averages, which considerably simplify the reaction rate closure. Historically, simulations using CSE are limited to low carbon fuels (i.e. methane and hydrogen) where the reduced chemistry manifold can be constructed through techniques including intrinsic low dimensional manifolds and trajectory generated manifolds. However, the use of such strategies to create manifolds for diesel surrogates has proven problematic. In this study, the potential of a combination of an unsteady Flamelet Generated Manifold (FGM) and the Conditional Source-term Estimation approach to predict the ignition and flame propagation on an autoigniting n-dodecane spray flame is assessed. Simulations are performed on a single-hole injection of n-dodecane under a wide range of Engine Combustion Network’s “Spray A” conditions within a Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) framework. Results from parametric sweeps of ambient temperature and oxygen concentration are qualitatively validated against experimental data from the literature and compared against predictions from an industry standard well-stirred reactor model. The efficacy of the CSE-FGM RANS approach in predicting flame characteristics is evaluated and further compared with high fidelity CSE-FGM simulations using the Large Eddy Simulation (LES) turbulence model. Overall, it was found that the CSE-FGM RANS model was able to capture global flame properties — showing particular strength in predicting auto-ignition events in the low temperature region. The model was also able to satisfactorily capture details of the two-stage ignition process. The results were shown to be consistent with those of the CSE-FGM LES model, demonstrating the adaptability of the CSE-FGM approach to different turbulence modelling paradigms.

This paper discusses the results obtained from experiments conducted on a large-bore diesel engine when oxygen-enriched combustion air is used. An operating regime was identified in which particulates and NO x could be reduced simultaneously when the concentration of intake air oxygen, fueling rate, and injection timing were optimized. Additional benefits such as higher gross power, lower peak cylinder pressures, and lower brake-specific fuel consumption were also observed under these optimized operating parameters. With an optimal operating strategy (oxygen concentration, fueling rate, and timing), particulates were reduced by approximately 60% and NO x emissions were reduced by 15–20%. Gross power was increased by about 15–20% at base peak combustion pressure, and brake-specific fuel consumption was decreased by 2–10% with load. These results were obtained on a two-cylinder (EMD 567B) locomotive research diesel engine using oxygen from an external source. To utilize this technique in practice, an air separation membrane and associated auxiliary equipment could be connected to the engine’s intake air system (after the air filter) to supply the desired oxygen-enriched combustion air; this additional evaluation is beyond the scope of current study. Although operating the membrane causes a parasitic power drain, the increase in gross power could compensate for these losses, resulting in a potential net gain in power and lower emissions for diesel engines.

There is significant interest among researchers in finding economically sustainable alternatives to fossil-derived drop-in fuels and fuel additives. Fast pyrolysis, a method for converting biomass into liquid hydrocarbons with the potential for use as fuels or fuel additives, is a promising technology that can be two to three times less expensive at scale when compared to alternative approaches such as gasification and fermentation. However, many bio-oils directly derived from fast pyrolysis have a high oxygen content and high acidity, indicating poor performance in diesel engines when used as fuels or fuel additives. Thus, a combination of selective fast pyrolysis and chemical catalysis could produce tuned bioblendstocks that perform optimally in diesel engines. The variance in performance for derived compounds introduces a feedback loop in researching acceptable fuels and fuel additives, as various combustion properties for these compounds must be determined after pyrolysis and catalytic upgrading occurs. The present work aims to reduce this feedback loop by utilizing artificial neural networks trained with quantitative structure-property relationship values to preemptively screen pure component compounds that will be produced from fast pyrolysis and catalytic upgrading. The quantitative structure-property relationship values selected as inputs for models are discussed, the cetane number and sooting propensity of compounds derived from the catalytic upgrading of phenol are predicted, and the viability of these compounds as fuels and fuel additives is analyzed. The model constructed to predict cetane number has a test set prediction root-mean-squared error of 9.874 cetane units, and the model constructed to predict yield sooting index has a test set prediction root-mean-squared error of 13.478 yield sooting index units (on the unified scale).

Natural gas is traditionally considered as a promising fuel in comparison to gasoline due to the potential of lower emissions and significant domestic reserves. These emissions can be further diminished by using noble gases, such as argon, instead of nitrogen as the working fluid in internal combustion engines. Furthermore, the use of argon as the working fluid can increase the thermodynamic efficiency due to its higher specific heat ratio. In comparison to pre-mixed operation, the direct injection of natural gas enables the engine to reach higher compression ratios while avoiding knock. Using argon as the working fluid increases the in-cylinder temperature at top dead center and enables the compression ignition of natural gas. In this numerical study, the combustion quality and ignition behavior of methane injected into a mixture of oxygen and argon has been investigated using a three-dimensional transient model of a constant volume combustion chamber. A dynamic structure large eddy simulation model has been utilized to capture the behavior of the non-premixed turbulent gaseous jet. A reduced mechanism consists of 22-species and 104-reactions were coupled with the CFD solver. The simulation results show that the methane jet ignites at engine-relevant conditions when nitrogen is replaced by argon as the working fluid. Ignition delay times are compared across a variety of operating conditions to show how mixing affects jet development and flame characteristics.

Carbon capture has been deemed crucial by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change if the world is to achieve the ambitious goals stated in the Paris agreement. A deeper integration of renewable energy sources is also needed if we are to mitigate the large amount of greenhouse gas emitted as a result of increasing world fossil fuel energy consumption. These new power technologies bring an increased need for distributed fast dispatch power and energy storage that counteract their intermittent nature. A novel technological approach to provide fast dispatch emission free power is the use of the Argon Power Cycle, a technology that makes carbon capture an integral part of its functioning principle. The core concept behind this technology is a closed loop internal combustion engine cycle working with a monoatomic gas in concert with a membrane gas separation unit. By replacing the working fluid of internal combustion engines with a synthetic mixture of monoatomic gases and oxygen, the theoretical thermal efficiency can be increased up to 80%, more than 20% over conventional air cycles. Furthermore, the absence of nitrogen in the system prevents formation of nitrogen oxides, eliminating the need for expensive exhaust gas after-treatment and allowing for efficient use of renewable generated hydrogen fuel. In the case of hydrocarbon fuels, the closed loop nature of the cycle affords to boost the pressure and concentration of gases in the exhaust stream at no penalty to the cycle, providing the driving force to cost effective gas membrane separation of carbon dioxide. In this work we investigated the potential benefits of the Argon Power Cycle to improve upon current stationary power generation systems regarding efficiency, air pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions. A cooperative fuel research engine was used to carry out experiments and evaluate engine performance in relation to its air breathing counterpart. A 30% efficiency improvement was achieved and results showed a reduction on engine heat losses and an overall increase on the indicated mean effective pressure, despite the lesser oxygen content present in the working fluid. Greenhouse gas emissions were reduced as expected due to a substantial increase in efficiency and nitric oxides were eliminated as it was expected. Numerical simulation were carried out to predict the performance and energy penalty of a membrane separation unit. Energy penalties as low as 2% were obtained capturing 100% of the carbon dioxide generated.

Gasoline Direct Injection Homogeneous Charge Compression (GDI-HCCI) combustion is achieved by closing early the exhaust valves for trapping hot residual gases combined with direct fuel injection. The combustion is chemically controlled by multi-point auto-ignition which its main combustion phase can be controlled by direct injection timing of fuel. This work investigates the effect of single pulse injection timing on a supercharged GDI-HCCI combustion engine by using a four-stroke single cylinder engine with a side-mounted direct fuel injector. Injection of primary reference fuel PRF90 under the near-stoichiometric-boosted condition is studied. The fuel is injected during negative valve overlap (NVO) or recompression period for fuel reformation under low oxygen concentration and the injection is retarded to intake stroke for the homogeneous mixture. It is found that the early fuel injection in NVO period advances the combustion phasing compared with the retarded injection in the intake stroke. Noticeable slower combustion rate from intake stroke fuel injection is obtained compared with the NVO injection due to charge cooling effect. Zero-dimensional combustion simulations with multiple chemical reaction mechanisms are simulated to provide chemical understanding from the effect of fuel injection timing on intermediate species generations. The species such as C 2 H 4 , C 3 H 6 , CH 4 , and H 2 are found to be formed during the NVO injection period from the calculations. The effects of single pulse injection timings on combustion characteristics such pressure rise rate, combustion stability, and emissions are also discussed in this study.

Skip-firing (or cylinder de-activation) was assessed as a method of sampling CO 2 from directly in the cylinder at higher speeds than previously possible. CO 2 was directly sampled from one cylinder of a 1-litre 3-cylinder gasoline engine to determine the residual gas fraction using a fast response CO/CO 2 analyser. Acquisition of data for similar measurements is typically limited to engine speeds of below 1300 rpm to allow full resolution of the sample, through the analyser that has an 8 millisecond finite response time. In order to sample in-cylinder CO 2 at higher engine speeds a skip-firing method is developed. By shutting off ignition intermittently during engine operation, the residual CO 2 from the last firing cycle can be measured at significantly higher engine speeds. Comparison of residual gas fraction CO 2 at low speeds for normal and skip-fire operation shows good correlation. This suggests that skip-firing is a suitable method for directly measuring internal exhaust gas recirculation up to at least 3000 rpm. The measurements obtained may provide a useful tool for validating internal exhaust gas recirculation models and could be used to calculate combustion air-fuel ratio from the CO and CO 2 content of the burned gas. These are typically complicated parameters to predict due to the slow response time and sensitivity to hydrocarbons of wide-band oxygen sensors. A differing pattern of residual gas fraction change with increasing speed was seen between normal and skipfire operation.

Recent particulate regulations for gasoline passenger cars have prompted the utilization of Gasoline Particulate Filters (GPF’s) to mitigate particulate emissions. This study overviews a comprehensive experimental methodology for examination of essential GPF parameters: spatial exothermic temperature rise, particulate trapping efficiency, and the pressure rise versus particulate loading. A GDI vehicle equipped with a subfloor catalytically washcoated GPF downstream of the three-way catalyst was operated on a chassis dynamometer for data collection. Accelerated soot accumulation procedures were developed to expedite the testing while avoiding passive particulate regeneration based on both particulate concentration and size distributions. Soot concentrations pre and post GPF were used to measure the soot trapping efficiency and total soot accumulation. Fuel-cut coast events, common in real-world driving, were utilized to initiate worst case GPF regenerations, namely regenerations which produce maximum temperature rise due to the limited exhaust flow through the GPF. CO 2 measurements simultaneously measured before and after the GPF were examined to calculate the quantity of soot burned during each regeneration event. Thermocouples located inside the GPF were implemented to obtain the spatially disparate, transient temperature traces and analyzed to obtain insights on the soot distribution inside the GPF. The maximum exothermic temperature rise within the GPF was tracked for different soot loadings and regeneration temperatures to ensure GPF substrate and catalytic washcoat health. Most initial soot loadings required multiple ‘fuel-cut coast’ regenerations for complete soot oxidation of all trapped particulate mass. Additionally, externally supplied oxygen was utilized to obtain complete GPF regeneration in a single event. This purpose built system created O 2 availability while maintaining constant GPF temperatures, similar to actively commanding lean A/F ratios during vehicle operation. Emissions measurements indicated that this system successfully regenerated all GPF soot. However, due to magnitude disparity between exhaust flow and total exothermic heat released, the thermocouples inside the GPF recorded only minimal exothermic temperature rises, providing confidence that lean active regeneration strategies pose little threat to GPF health.

A novel decentralized control architecture is developed based on a feedback from the pressure difference across the engine which is responsible for the pumping losses and the Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) flow in diesel engines. The controller is supplemented with another feedback loop based on NO x emissions measurement. Aiming for simple design and tuning, the two control loops are designed and discussed; one manipulates the Variable Geometry Turbine (VGT) actuator and the other manipulates the EGR valve. An experimentally validated mean-value diesel engine model is used to analyze the best pairing of actuators and set points. Emphasis is given to the robustness of this pairing based on gain changes across the entire operating region, since swapping the pairing needs to be avoided. The VGT loop is designed to achieve fast cylinder air charge increase in response to a rapid pedal tip-in by a feedforward term based on the real-time derivative of the desired boost pressure. The EGR loop relies on a feedback measurement from a NO x sensor and a real-time estimation of cylinder oxygen ratio, χ cyl . The engine model is used for evaluating the designed controllers over the federal test procedure (FTP) for heavy duty vehicles. Results indicate that the control system meets all targets, namely fast air charge and χ cyl control during torque transients, robust NO x control during steady state operation and controlled pumping losses in all conditions.

Numerical study on the combustion chemical reaction of biodiesel fuel for the improvement of compression ignition combustion performance was studied in this work. The constant volume closed homogeneous reactor model was applied, at the same time, analysis conditions were set to 700∼900K of ambient temperature, and 15atm of ambient pressure. Also, the equivalence ratio was changed from 0.5 to 1.4 under the various mixing ratio, respectively. The results of analysis were compared in terms of ignition delay, combustion temperature, combustion pressure, NOx and CO emissions. Also, the total mass and the mass densities of the reactants were compared in the constant volume chamber. It was revealed that the value of ignition delay became shorter and combustion temperature and pressure were increased under the rich combustion conditions (Φ > 1.0). Furthermore, the CO emission was decreased under the lean combustion conditions (1.0 > Φ). Maximum value of NOx emission was observed when the equivalence ratio was 0.8 condition since the nitrogen and oxygen chemical reactions became actively than other cases.

The North American oil and gas industry has experienced a market pull for dual fuel (DF) engines that can run on any ratio of fuels ranging from 100% diesel to a high proportion of field gas relative to diesel, while also meeting the US Tier 4 Nonroad emissions standards. A DF engine must meet complex and at times competing requirements in terms of performance, fuel tolerance, and emissions. The challenges faced in designing a DF engine to meet all of the performance and emissions requirements require a detailed understanding of the trade-offs for each pollutant. This paper will focus on the details of NO x formation for high substitution DF engines. Experimental results have demonstrated that NO x emission trends (as a function of lambda) for DF engines differ from both traditional diesel engines and lean burn natural gas engines. For high energy substitution (>70%) conditions, NO x emissions are a function of the premixed gas lambda (λ ng ) and contain a local minimum, with NO x increasing as lambda is either leaned or rich-ened beyond the local minimum which occurs from approximately λ ng = 1.7–1.85. It is hypothesized that at richer conditions (λ ng < 1.7), NO x formed in the burning of gaseous fuel results in increased total NO x emissions. At leaner conditions (λ ng > 1.85) the NO x formed in the diesel post flame regions, as a result of increased oxygen availability, results in increased total NO x emissions. Between these two regions there are competing effects which result in relatively constant NO x .

Blending cellulosic biofuels with traditional petroleum-derived fuels results in transportation fuels with reduced carbon footprints. Many cellulosic fuels rely on processing methods that produce mixtures of oxygenates which must be upgraded before blending with traditional fuels. Complete oxygenate removal is energy-intensive and it is likely that such biofuel blends will necessarily contain some oxygen content to be economically viable. Previous work by our group indicated that diesel fuel blends with low levels (<4%-vol) of oxygenates resulted in minimal negative effects on short-term engine performance and emissions. However, little is known about the long-term effects of these compounds on engine durability issues such as the impact on fuel injection, in-cylinder carbon buildup, and engine oil degradation. In this study, four of the oxygenated components previously tested were blended at 4%-vol in diesel fuel and tested with a durability protocol devised for this work consisting of 200 hrs of testing in a stationary, single-cylinder, Yanmar diesel engine operating at constant load. Oil samples, injector spray patterns, and carbon buildup from the injector and cylinder surfaces were analyzed. It was found that, at the levels tested, these fuels had minimal impact on the overall engine operation, which is consistent with our previous findings.

Mixed mode combustion strategies have shown great potential to achieve high load operation but soot emissions were found to be problematic. A recent study investigating soot emissions in such strategies showed that delaying the load extension injection sufficiently late after the primary heat release makes the soot production dependent solely on the temperature field inside the combustion chamber and eliminates any dependence on mixing time and oxygen availability. The current study focuses on furthering this research to identify a feasible operating space to operate in and enable high load operation with this mixed mode combustion strategy. A PCI combustion event was achieved using a premixed charge of gasoline (early cycle injection) and a load extension injection of gasoline was added near top dead center. CFD modeling considering polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) chemistry up to pyrene was used to perform a full factorial design of experiments (DOE) to study the effects of premixed fuel fraction (fraction of total fuel that is premixed), load extension injection timing and exhaust gas recirculation (EGR). The early injection timings for EGR rates less than 40% showed a soot-NOx tradeoff which constrained operating with SOI timings before TDC. The late injection timings showed reductions in soot and NOx at the expense of gross indicated efficiency (GIE). GIE increased with increasing premixed fuel until the premixed fuel quantity reached 80% of the total fuel mass. Premixed fuel quantities higher than 80% resulted in an efficiency penalty due to increased wall heat transfer losses resulting from early combustion phasing. However, at premixed fuel quantities close to 80%, the peak pressure rise rate became the dominating constraint. This confined the feasible operating space to a premix fuel mass range of 70% to 80%. For this premix fuel mass range, the feasible operating space had two regions; one in the early SOI regime before TDC at EGR rates higher than 38% and the other in the late SOI regime (SOI > 15° ATDC) across the entire EGR space. The study was repeated by splitting the premixed fuel into an early cycle injection and a stratified injection with SOI timing of −70° ATDC. The ratio of fuel in the two injections was varied in the DOE. The results showed that adding a stratified injection increases the ignition delay due to in-cylinder equivalence ratio stratification and relaxes the pressure rise rate effect on the operating space. This allows operation at high premix fuel quantities of 70% and higher with EGR rates less than 40% which yields significant increase in GIE. 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 results in the reduction of soot emissions. This allows the load extension injection to be brought closer to TDC while meeting the soot constraint, which further improves the GIE. Finally, the results from the study were used to demonstrate high load operation at 20 bar and 1300 rpm.

Lean NOx Traps (LNTs) are often used to reduce NOx on smaller diesel passenger cars where urea-based Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) systems may be difficult to package. However, the performance of LNTs at temperatures above 400°C needs to be improved. The use of Rapidly Pulsed Reductants (RPR) is a process in which hydrocarbons are injected in rapid pulses ahead of the LNT in order to improve its performance at higher temperatures and space velocities. This approach was developed by Toyota and was originally called Di-Air (Diesel NOx aftertreatment by Adsorbed Intermediate Reductants) [1]. There is a vast parameter space that needs to be explored in order to maximize the NOx conversion at high temperatures and flow rates while minimizing the fuel penalty associated with the hydrocarbon injections. Four parameters were identified as important for RPR operation: (1) the flow field and reductant mixing uniformity; (2) the pulsing parameters including the pulse frequency, duty cycle, and rich magnitude; (3) the reductant type; and (4) the catalyst composition, including the type and loading of precious metal, the type and loading of NOx storage material, and the amount of oxygen storage capacity (OSC). In this study, RPR performance was assessed between 150°C and 650°C with several reductants including dodecane, propane, ethylene, propylene, H 2 , and CO. A novel injection and mixer system was designed that allowed for the investigation of previously unexplored areas of high frequency injections up to f = 100Hz. Under RPR conditions, H 2 , CO, dodecane, and C 2 H 4 provided approximately 80% NOx conversion at 500°C, but at 600°C the conversions were significantly lower, ranging from 40 to 55%. The NO x conversion with C 3 H 8 was low across the entire temperature range, with a maximum conversion of 25% near 300°C and essentially no conversion at 600°C. In contrast, C 3 H 6 provided greater than 90% NOx conversion over a broad range of temperature between 280°C and 630°C. Among the hydrocarbons, this suggested that the high temperature NO x conversion with RPR improves as the reactivity of the hydrocarbon increases.

Increasingly stringent fuel economy and CO 2 emission regulations provide a strong impetus for development of high efficiency engine technologies. Diesel engines dominate the heavy duty market and significant segments of the global light duty market due to their intrinsically higher thermal efficiency compared to spark ignited (SI) engine counterparts. Predictive simulation tools can significantly reduce the time and cost associated with optimization of engine injection strategies, and enable investigation over a broad operating space unconstrained by availability of prototype hardware. In comparison with 0-D/1-D and 3-D simulations, Quasi-D models offer a balance between predictiveness and computational effort, thus making them very suitable for enhancing the fidelity of engine system simulation tools. A most widely used approach for diesel engine applications is a multi-zone spray and combustion model pioneered by Hiroyasu and his group. It divides diesel spray into packets and tracks fuel evaporation, air entrainment, gas properties and ignition delay (induction time) individually during the injection and combustion event. However, original sub-models are not well suited for modern diesel engines, and the main objective of this work is to develop a multi-zonal simulation capable of capturing the impact of high-injection pressures and Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR). In particular, a new spray tip penetration sub-model is developed based on measurements obtained in a high-pressure, high-temperature constant volume combustion vessel for pressures as high as 1450 bar. Next, ignition delay correlation is modified to capture the effect of reduced oxygen concentration in engines with EGR, and an algorithm considering the chemical reaction rate of hydrocarbon-oxygen mixture improves prediction of the heat release rates. Spray and combustion predictions were validated with experiments on a single-cylinder diesel engine with common rail fuel injection, charge boosting, and EGR.

Acetone-butanol-ethanol mixture (ABE) is being studied as an alternative fuel because it not only preserves the advantages of oxygenated fuels, but also lowers the cost of fuel recovery for butanol during fermentation. The previous experimental study on spray and flame lift-off length for diesel with 20% addition of ABE mixture, shows a shorter and narrower spray and a much longer flame lift-off length compared to those of neat diesel, which leads to considerably less soot emission level of ABE20. In this study, a detailed mechanism capable of predicting the ignition delay for ABE as well as ABE-diesel blends is implemented to the KIVA-3V program to simulate the spray dynamics and lift-off length inside the constant volume chamber. The presented model is able to capture the trends with regard to ignition delay, combustion duration and peak pressure. The overall predictivity for ABE20 is better than that of D100. Spray penetration and the lift-off length for both fuels are simulated and the numerical definition for lift-off length is discussed. It is found that the threshold temperature to define lift-off length can be uniform under different ambient temperatures, but varies with respect to oxygen concentration. The simulations also agree with the measurements in predicting the lift-off length decreases as temperature and oxygen concentration increases. Finally, the simulation sooting tendency is presented to show that, due to the improved spray and combustion process of ABE-diesel blend, the soot emission level is much less than conventional diesel fuel.

Modern SI (spark ignition) engines are continuing to evolve for improved fuel economy by utilizing increased peak cylinder pressure, reduced section size piston rings, reduced cylinder bore surface finish, reduced lubricating oil viscosity, usage of alternative fuels, and with potentially increased fuel dilution. These changes all increase the potential for asperity contact between the top ring outer periphery and the cylinder wall, thereby creating a more challenging operational environment for the top ring. To evaluate the resistance of new advanced top ring coatings, a new aggressive test cycle promoting ring face fatigue and scuffing was developed. The test cycle has been shown to be successful in failing a production GNS (gas nitride steel) coating in 10 hrs of run time. This paper also presents relative performance data for different top ring face materials and ring features. The ring coatings evaluated include traditional coatings such as GNS and PVD (physical vapor deposition) coating as well as thermal spray coatings consisting of conventional plasma, HDAP (high density air plasma), and HVOF (high velocity oxygen fuel).