Abstract Spark-assisted compression ignition (SACI) is a low temperature combustion mode that can offer thermal efficiency improvements and lower nitrogen oxide emissions compared to conventional spark-ignited combustion. However, the SACI operating range is often limited due to excessive pressure rise rates driven by rapid heat release rates. Well-controlled experiments were performed to investigate the SACI operating limits under previously unexplored boosted, stoichiometric, EGR dilute conditions, where low temperature combustion engines promise high thermodynamic efficiencies. At higher intake boost, the SACI high load limit shifted towards lower fuel-to-charge equivalence ratio mixtures, creating a larger gap between the conventional spark-ignition EGR dilution limit and the boosted SACI operating limits. Combustion phasing retard was very effective at reducing maximum pressure rise rate levels until the stability limit, primarily due to slower end-gas burn rates. Gross fuel conversion efficiency improvements up to 10% were observed by using intake boost for either load expansion or dilution extension. Changes in engine speed necessitated changes in unburned gas temperature to match autoignition timing, but were shown to have negligible impact on the heat release profile on a crank angle basis. Lower engine speeds were favorable for load expansion, as time-based peak pressure rise rates scaled with engine speed.

Abstract The plumes of a gasoline spray collapse into a single entity under the influence of ambient pressure, ambient temperature and injection duration. Previous work by the author studied experimentally [1] and numerically [2] the phenomenon of spray collapse. It was observed that the entrained air from every single plume, accumulatively creates a recirculation zone in the middle of the spray. The recirculation zone of high velocity, creates a low pressure region, which causes the collapse of the spray. In this paper, the influence of the number of plumes in the spray, is investigated numerically. The plume angle and ambient conditions matched Spray G, but the number of plumes was varied from two to eight. The effect of the plume number on the spray collapse was investigated numerically. It was evident that increased number of plumes in the spray promotes spray collapse.

Abstract Turbocharged engines are the standard architecture for designing efficient spark ignition and compression ignition reciprocating internal combustion engines (ICE). Turbochargers characterization and modeling are basic tasks for the analysis and prediction of the whole engine system performance and this information is needed in quite early stages of the engine design. Turbocharger characteristics (efficiency, pressure ratio, mass flow rates...) traditionally rely in maps of pseudo non-dimensional variables called reduced variables. These maps must be used by reciprocating ICE designer and modeler not only for benchmarking of the turbocharger, but for a multiplicity of purposes, i.e: assessing engine back-pressure, boost pressure, load transient response, after-treatment inlet temperature, intercooler inlet temperature, low pressure EGR temperature, ... Maps of reduced variables are measured in gas-stands with steady flow but non-standardized fluids conditioning; neither temperatures nor flows. In concrete: turbine inlet gas temperature; lubrication-oil flow and temperature; water-cooling flow and turbo-machinery external heat transfer are non-standardized variables which have a big impact in assessing said multiplicity of purposes. Moreover, adiabatic efficiency, heat losses and friction losses are important data, hidden in the maps of reduced variables, which depend on the testing conditions as much as on the auxiliary fluids temperature and flow rate. In this work it is proposed a methodology to standardize turbochargers testing based in measuring the maps twice: in close to adiabatic and in diathermal conditions. Along the paper it is discussed with special detail the impact of the procedure followed to achieve said quasi-adiabatic conditions in both the energy balance of the turbocharger and the testing complexity. As a conclusion, the paper proposes a methodology which combines quasi-adiabatic tests (cold and hot gas flow) with diathermal tests (hot gas flow) in order to extract from a turbocharger gas-stand all information needed by engine designers interested in controlling or 1D-modelling the ICE. The methodology is completed with a guide for calibrating said control-oriented turbocharger models in order to separate aerodynamic efficiency (adiabatic) from heat transfer losses and from friction losses in the analysis of the turbocharger performance. The outsourced calibration of the turbocharger model allows avoiding uncertainties in the global ICE model calibration, what is very interesting for turbochargers benchmarking at early ICE-turbo matching stages or for global system analysis at early control design stages.

Abstract In the present work, a central fuel property hypothesis (CFPH), which states that fuel properties are sufficient to provide an indication of a fuel’s performance irrespective of its chemical composition, was numerically investigated. In particular, the objective of the study was to determine whether Research Octane Number (RON) and Motor Octane Number (MON), as fuel properties, are sufficient to describe a fuel’s knock-limited performance under boosted spark-ignition (SI) conditions within the framework of CFPH. To this end, four TPRF-bioblendstock surrogates having different compositions but matched RON (= 98) and MON (= 90), were first generated using a non-linear regression model based on artificial neural network (ANN). Three unconventional bioblendstocks were included in the analysis: Di-isobutylene (DIB), Isobutanol and Anisole. Skeletal reaction mechanisms were generated for the TPRF-DIB, TPRF-isobutanol and TPRF-anisole blends from a detailed kinetic mechanism. Thereafter, numerical simulations were performed for the fuel surrogates using the skeletal mechanisms and a virtual cooperative fuel research (CFR) engine model, under a representative boosted operating condition. In the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model, the G-equation approach was employed to track the turbulent flame front and the well-stirred reactor model combined with multi-zone binning strategy was used to capture auto-ignition in the end-gas. In addition, laminar flame speed was tabulated for each blend as a function of pressure, temperature and equivalence ratio a priori, and the lookup tables were used to prescribe laminar flame speed as an input to the G-equation model. Parametric spark timing sweeps were performed for each fuel blend to determine the corresponding knock-limited spark advance (KLSA) and 50% burn point (CA50) at the respective KLSA timing. It was observed that despite same RON, MON and engine operating conditions, the TPRF-Anisole blend exhibited markedly different knock-limited performance from the other three blends. This deviation from the octane index (OI) expectation was shown to be caused by differences in laminar flame speed (LFS). However, it was found that relatively large fuel-specific differences in LFS (> 20%) would have to be present to cause any appreciable deviation from the OI framework. Otherwise, RON and MON would still be robust enough to predict a fuel’s knock-limited performance.

Abstract Natural gas (NG) is an alternative combustible fuel for the transportation sectors due to its clean combustion, small carbon footprint, and, with recent breakthroughs in drilling technologies, increased availability and low cost. Currently, NG is better suited for spark-ignited (SI), as a gasoline replacement in conventional SI engines or as a diesel replacement in diesel engines converted to SI operation. However, the knowledge on the fundamentals of NG flame propagation at conditions representative of modern engines (e.g., at higher compression ratios and/or lean mixtures) is limited. Flame propagation inside an engine can be achieved by replacing the original piston with a see-through one. This study visualized flame activities inside the combustion chamber of an optically-accessible heavy-duty diesel engine retrofitted to NG SI operation to increase the understanding of combustion processes inside such converted engines. Recordings of flame luminosity throughout the combustion period at lean-burn operating conditions indicated that the fully-developed turbulent flame formed from several smaller-scale kernels. These small kernels varied with shapes and locations due to different flow motion around the spark location (including the effect of spark electrodes on the local flow separation), different local temperature, or different energy released in these regions. In addition, the turbulent flame was heavily wrinkled during propagation, despite it was grown from a relatively-circular kernel. Moreover, the intake swirl accelerated the flame propagation process while rotating the turbulent flame during its development. Furthermore, the flame propagation speed reduced dramatically when entering the squish region, while the direction from which the flame first touched the bowl edge changed with individual cycles. The results can help the CFD community to better develop RANS and/or LES simulations of such engines under lean-burn operating conditions.

Abstract Dual fuel diesel-methane low temperature combustion (LTC) has been investigated by various research groups, showing high potential for emissions reduction (especially oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and particulate matter (PM)) without adversely affecting fuel conversion efficiency in comparison with conventional diesel combustion. However, when operated at low load conditions, dual fuel LTC typically exhibit poor combustion efficiencies. This behavior is mainly due to low bulk gas temperatures under lean conditions, resulting in unacceptably high carbon monoxide (CO) and unburned hydrocarbon (UHC) emissions. A feasible and rather innovative solution may be to split the pilot injection of liquid fuel into two injection pulses, with the second pilot injection supporting the methane combustion once the process is initiated by the first one. In this work, diesel-methane dual fuel LTC is investigated numerically in a single-cylinder heavy-duty engine operating at 5 bar brake mean effective pressure (BMEP) at 85% and 75% percentage of energy substitution (PES) by methane (taken as a natural gas surrogate). A multidimensional model is first validated in comparison with experimental data obtained on the same single-cylinder engine for early single pilot diesel injection at 310 CAD and 500 bar rail pressure. With the single pilot injection case as baseline, the effects of multiple pilot injections and different rail pressures on combustion emissions are investigated, again showing good agreement with experimental data. Apparent heat release rate and cylinder pressure histories as well as combustion efficiency trends are correctly captured by the numerical model. Results prove that higher rail pressures yield reductions of HC and CO by 90% and 75%, respectively, at the expense of NOx emissions, which increase by ∼30% from baseline. Furthermore, it is shown that post-injection during the expansion stroke does not support the stable development of the combustion front as the combustion process is confined close to the diesel spray core.

Abstract Gas exchange processes in two-stroke internal combustion engines, i.e. scavenging, remove exhaust gases from the combustion chamber and prepare the fuel-oxidizer mixture that undergoes combustion. A non-negligible fraction of the mixture trapped in the cylinder at the conclusion of scavenging is composed of residual gases from the previous cycle. This can cause significant changes to the combustion characteristics of the mixture by changing its composition and temperature, i.e. its thermodynamic state. Thus, it is vital to have accurate knowledge of the thermodynamic state of the post-scavenging mixture to be able to reliably predict and control engine performance, efficiency and emissions. Several simple-scavenging models can be found in the literature that — based on a variety of idealized interaction modes between incoming and cylinder gases — calculate the state of the trapped mixture. In this study, boundary conditions extracted from a validated 1-D predictive model of a single-cylinder two-stroke engine are used to gauge the performance of four simple scavenging models. It is discovered that the assumption of thermal homogeneity of the incoming and exiting gases is a major source of inaccuracy. A new non-isothermal multi-stage single-zone scavenging model is thus, proposed to address some of the shortcomings of the four models. The proposed model assumes that gas-exchange in cross-scavenged two-stroke engines takes place in three stages; an isentropic blowdown stage, followed by perfect-displacement and perfect-mixing stages. Significant improvements in the trapped mixture state estimates were observed as a result.

Abstract Engine development is centered on developing a solution for best performance while meeting emissions and operational requirements. This will lead to a tradeoff between engine efficiency and emissions across a wide range of load and ambient operating points. Proper airflow to the engine through turbocharger matching is critical to ensure efficient operation and to meet emissions. This study addresses the challenges of turbocharger matching for vehicle advanced emissions control using a North American freight locomotive application as an example. The airflow trends in moving across the various operating points will be shown along with the impact on both the turbocharger and engine performance. First, the airflow trends across the locomotive load set points will be discussed along with the performance and emissions tradeoffs to meet required airflows. Results on the impact on turbocharger performance such as speed will be shown along with the engine efficiency and emissions implications. Next, the ambient operating requirements for a locomotive will be reviewed and the impact on turbocharger matching. Locomotives operate in a wide range of ambient conditions, including altitudes up to 3,050 meters and across ambient air temperatures ranging from −40 °C to well over 38 °C (including higher temperature operation). This thermal swing provides stress on the turbocharger to efficiently deliver the necessary airflow across all conditions. Trends in turbocharger performance will be reviewed and discussed across this range of ambient conditions. In addition, challenges unique to locomotive applications, such as unventilated tunnel operation and vibrational loading, will be reviewed. Finally, potential for advanced technologies such as variable geometry turbines and their applicability to locomotive operation will be discussed.

Abstract The injection characteristics of neat ethanol and pure iso-octane are studied under different ambient pressure and temperature conditions. Injection under flash-boiling conditions can enhance liquid atomization and evaporation, providing the possibility of improvement in the fuel/air mixing. These super-heated conditions often introduce phenomena that are not taken into account in the standard modeling of sprays for engine applications. The present work proposes a numerical investigation of the behavior of Engine Combustion Network’s 8-hole spray-G injector, starting at the subcooled nominal condition and reducing the ambient pressure at constant low temperature to reach the flare flash-boiling condition. To initialize the properties of the injected fuel, the flow in the nozzle is simulated with a Eulerian approach, handling the two phases with a mixture model and the phase change, due to cavitation and flash boiling, with the Homogenous Relaxation Model. A map of the mixture’s kinematic and thermal behavior is obtained at the interface between the injector and the chamber to initialize the Lagrangian simulations. A literature-based vaporization model is implemented to obtain the proper description of the characteristic features of a multi-hole spray under super-heated conditions, like plume-plume interaction. The numerical representation of the spray is validated in terms of penetration and radial spreading on DBI images, reproducing the light attenuation profiles caused by the presence of the liquid spray. Simulations show that coupled nozzle flow and spray calculations capture the spray morphology and shape better compared to calculations performed without considering the nozzle flow simulation details, especially under flare flash conditions.

Abstract In this work, an external air and EGR emulation facility has been designed that can replicate a wide range of boosting and EGR delivery systems to a multi-cylinder engine platform. The facility works by removing the incumbent air path and replacing it with externally boosted fresh air that is conditioned using a transient flow and temperature controller. The facility also recycles the actual exhaust gases from the engine whilst removing the constraints of required pressure differences to drive this flow. The resulting system is able to control the boundary conditions of intake air flow - pressure and temperature, engine back-pressure and EGR flow rate independently. Three testing approaches have been described that allow to obtain valuable data across a wide range of the engine map (based on an example of a 1.0L direct injection gasoline engine) also beyond its typical hardware related limits. The facility is designed to be used as part of an engine design optimisation process. The facility generates data of the engine combustion system independently of the associated air path subsystems and excites the boundary conditions beyond those that would be expected from a specific air path design. The data is then used to populate 1D engine models which can be confidently used to predict the performance of a specific air path hardware combination and control strategy.

Abstract Increasingly restrictive limits on Oxides of Nitrogen - NOx levels and desire for low methane emissions from gas engines are driving the change from lean-burn to stoichiometric combustion strategies on heavy-duty on-highway natural gas engines in order to take advantage of inexpensive and effective three-way catalyst technology. The change to stoichiometric combustion has led to increased tendency for engine knock due to higher in-cylinder temperatures. To suppress engine knock, Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) rates from 10 to 30% are used. While high EGR rates nominally improve Brake Thermal Efficiency (BTE) and reduce exhaust gas temperatures, they also slow down combustion. However, by deploying a controlled spark triggered homogeneous charge volumetric ignition, very short burn durations can be achieved without the destructive effects of engine knocking towards high efficiency gas engines. In the interest of achieving 45% BTE in spark ignited an on-highway class 8 truck engines fueled on natural gas and to meet EURO 6 and future California emissions standards of 0.02 gm/kw-hr NOx, Controlled Auto-Ignition (CAI) is herein demonstrated on a 15 liter truck engine. CAI is enabled by (a) having a combustion device capable of exceptionally good combustion stability in the presence of high EGR rates (COV of IMEP < 0.75 %), (b) cylinder pressure based combustion feedback, and (c) fast closed loop combustion control (using a Woodward RT-CDC control system). This system enables significant reduction in burn duration by controlling a two phase combustion event. The first phase is normal spark ignited propagating flame, which then triggers the second phase which is volumetric auto-ignition. The location and percentage of fuel that burns in the volumetric auto-ignition event is controlled relative to that which occurs via the conventional spark ignited flame propagation process by use of high speed combustion in the loop feedback control. Auto-ignition mass fraction burned (MFB) ratios of 25–50% have been achieved yielding higher heat release rates at the end of combustion than at the center of combustion with the result being a shortening of the combustion burn duration from a nominal 20–30 degrees to a near optimal 10–15 degrees even with EGR rates as high as 25%. A novel and patent pending burn duration control strategy is employed to stably maintain this knock-free combustion strategy even with compression ratio as high as 14:1. The benefits are significant increase in Brake Thermal Efficiency and substantial reduction in engine out methane emissions without sacrifice of transient responsiveness.

Abstract Spray combustion in compression ignition (CI) engines is a complex physical-chemical phenomenon. The differences in key fuel properties between gasoline range fuels and diesel, including the distillation temperature ranges and fuel reactivity, affect spray formation and combustion. To understand the impact of these fuel effects, this study aims at a thorough computational investigation involving variations in both the fuel physical and chemical properties. Physical properties include latent heat of vaporization, specific heat capacity, density, vapor pressure, viscosity, and surface tension. These properties were individually perturbed between gasoline and diesel. Chemical properties were represented by different fuel reactivity, including PRF0 and PRF60. The model was validated against diesel and RON60 gasoline spray experiments performed in a constant-volume combustion chamber. The physical and chemical properties were modeled separately to isolate the effect of a single parameter that is often difficult to single out in experimental investigations. Sprays under non-reacting and reacting conditions were then simulated to understand the physical processes that lead to ignition and thus the fuel reactivity effects on the subsequent processes. The investigation covered low to high temperature combustion and different exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) levels. Simulation results suggested that the chemical property dominated the ignition process, whereas the physical properties had more influence on the atomization and vaporization process. Also, there was a complex interaction between physical and chemical parameters on spray ignition depending on the operating conditions, which provide insights on tailoring fuel properties for different CI applications.

Abstract In addition to a further reduction in fuel consumption and emissions, the current focus of internal combustion engine development is on system integration of the engine and its components to ensure perfect engine operation and high engine performance over the entire service life of the engine. Extensive sensor application allows acquisition, storage and intelligent processing of numerous engine parameters in digital engine control systems. Intelligent software platforms are increasingly being used to fully exploit the data generated by sensor systems and ensure optimal engine operation. This paper deals with new concepts for measuring physical quantities that are characteristic of sliding bearings. It describes the development of a flexible and multifunctional sensor technology for real-time measuring of temperature and pressure as well as the signal transfer and data acquisition from moving parts to outside the engine. The sensor technology required for such a system must meet the challenges of defining a quickly responding method that captures the measured variable as close to the bearing surface as possible in order to detect bearing failures in advance. The system must be able to withstand the high temperatures and mechanical loads inside the engine. In addition, fast wireless data transfer of signals acquired from moving components such as conrod bearings is necessary. A highly flexible sensor package based on thin-film technology was developed to meet these requirements. The sensor is integrated into the bearing shell and has the potential to be employed in series application. A robust telemetry unit able to withstand harsh environmental conditions such as high temperature and extremely high centrifugal forces was developed that transfers the measured data to engine ECU or other external devices. At the same time, transmission rate, distances and power demand are subject to stringent requirements. To create a comparative basis for further verification of bearings with thin film sensor technology and to gain insight into the temperature distribution in the bearing gap, measurements with conventional sensor technology that assesses temperatures directly inside the lubrication gap were undertaken on a bearing test rig as well as on a multicylinder heavy duty diesel truck engine. The results of these investigations also provide a fundamental understanding of the temperature distribution in the bearing gap for crankshaft as well as for conrod bearings. The results of ongoing investigations will include a validation of the new temperature measurement method based on thin film technology under real engine conditions.

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.

Supporting chemical kinetics model development with robust experimental results is the job of shock-tube, rapid compression machine, and other apparatus operators. A key limitation of many of these systems is difficulty with preparation of a fuel vapor-air mixture for heavy liquid fuels. Previous work has suggested that the Cetane Ignition Delay (CID) 510 system is capable of providing data useful for kinetics validation. Specifically, this constant-volume combustion chamber (1) can be characterized by a single bulk temperature, and (2) uses a high-pressure diesel injector to generate rapid fuel-air mixing and thus create a homogeneous mixture well before ignition. In this study, initial experiments found relatively good agreement between experiments and kinetic models for n -heptane and poor agreement for iso-octane under nominally the same ignition delay ranges for ambient conditions under which the mixture is determined to be effectively homogeneous. After excluding potential non-kinetic fuel properties as causes, further experiments highlight the high pressure sensitivity of the negative temperature coefficient (NTC) behavior. While this challenge is well known to kinetic mechanism developers, the data set included in this work ( n -heptane at 5 bar and iso-octane at 5–20 bar, each for various equivalence ratios) can be added to those used for validation. The results and system characterization presented demonstrate that this combustion system is capable of capturing kinetic effects decoupled from the spray process for these primary reference fuels. Future work can leverage this capability to provide kinetics validation data for most heavy, exotic, or otherwise difficult to test liquid fuels.

Ultra-lean burn with high turbulence has high potential for improving thermal efficiency and reducing NO x emissions in spark-ignition engines. Formation of initial flame kernel in high-turbulence flow by advanced ignition technologies is crucial for successful implementation of the ultra-lean burn concept. In this study, a four-coil ignition system is designed to enable temporally flexible discharge, including the single strike, multi-strike and continuous discharge with the discharge energy range from 100 to 300 mJ. The performance of the different discharge strategies on igniting the lean methane-air mixture is evaluated in an optically accessible constant volume vessel. The initial mixture pressure of 3.0 MPa and temperature of 388 K are set to simulate typical conditions near TDC (top dead center) of turbocharged large-bore natural gas engines. Both the flow and quiescent conditions around the spark plug are taken into account with and without gas flows in the vessel. The flame kernel formation and developing processes are captured by using the Schlieren imaging technique with a high-speed CMOS video camera, while evolution of both the voltage and current in the circuit are well monitored by the high-voltage probe and current clamp. With the continuous discharge ignition, the lean limit is remarkably extended in the case of the flow condition, while it is changed only slightly under the quiescent condition, compared with the other strategies. Analysis of the current and voltage waveforms shows that the continuous discharge strategy can enable a steadier and longer discharging period than the other strategies, regardless of conditions with and without gas flow. Besides, the continuous discharge strategy can accelerate the initial flame propagation compared with the other strategies. Once the flame kernel is successfully established, an increase in the discharge energy of single strike has no obvious effects on the flame development, but it is necessary for maintaining the lean limit. Although, in principle, the multi-strike discharge strategy can increase the ignition energy released to the mixture, the current waveform is prone to be interrupted with the discharge channel strongly distorted by the gas flow under the high-pressure condition. The flame propagation speed of the ultra-lean mixture is rather slow under the high ambient pressure quiescent condition compared with the high ambient pressure flow condition. Enhancement of turbulent flow in the mixture is very crucial for realizing the highly efficient and stable combustion of the lean mixture.

An optimal combustion phasing leads to a high combustion efficiency and low carbon emissions in diesel engines. With the increasing complexity of diesel engines, model-based control of combustion phasing is becoming indispensable, but precise prediction of combustion phasing is required for such strategies. Since cylinder-to-cylinder variations in combustion can be more significant with advanced combustion techniques, this work focuses on developing a control-oriented combustion phasing model that can be leveraged to provide cylinder-specific estimates. The pressure and temperature of the intake gas reaching each cylinder are predicted by a semi-empirical model and the coefficients of this intake pressure and temperature model are varied from cylinder-to-cylinder. A knock integral model is leveraged to estimate the SOC (start of combustion) and the burn duration is predicted as a function of EGR fraction, equivalence ratio of fuel and residual gas fraction in a burn duration model. After that, a Wiebe function is utilized to estimate CA50 (crank angle at 50% mass of fuel has burned). This cylinder-specific combustion phasing prediction model is calibrated and validated across a variety of operating conditions. A large range of EGR fraction and fuel equivalence ratio were tested in these simulations including EGR levels from 0 to 50%, and equivalence ratios from 0.5 to 0.9. The results show that the combustion phasing prediction model can estimate CA50 with an uncertainty of ±0.5 crank angle degree in all six cylinders. The impact of measurement errors on the accuracy of the prediction model is also discussed in this paper.

In order to establish a pathway to evaluate chemical kinetic mechanisms (detailed or reduced) in a real engine environment, a GT Power model of the well-studied Cooperative Fuels Research (CFR) engine was developed and validated against experimental data for primary reference fuel blends between 60 and 100 under RON conditions. The CFR engine model utilizes a predictive turbulent flame propagation sub-model, and implements a chemical kinetic solver to solve the end-gas chemistry. The validation processes were performed simultaneously for thermodynamic and chemical kinetic parameters to match IVC conditions, burn rate, and knock prediction. A recently published kinetic mechanism was implemented in GT-Power, and was found to over-predict the low temperature heat release for iso-octane and PRF blends, leading to advanced knock onset phasing compared to experiments. Three reaction rates in the iso-octane and n-heptane pathways were tuned in the kinetic mechanism in order to match experimental knock-point values, yielding excellent agreement in terms of the knock onset phasing, burn rate, and the thermodynamic conditions compared to experiments. This developed model provides the initial/boundary conditions of the CFR engine under RON conditions, including IVC temperature and pressure, MFB profile, residual fraction and composition. The conditions were then correlated as a function of CFR engine compression ratio, and implemented in a 0-D SI engine model in Chemkin Pro in order to demonstrate an application of the current work. The Chemkin Pro and GT-Power simulations provided nearly identical results despite significant differences in heat transfer models and chemical kinetic solvers. This work provides the necessary framework by which robust chemical kinetic mechanisms can be developed, evaluated, and tuned, based on the knocking tendencies in a real engine environment for PRF blends.

One of the pending issues regarding Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) engines is high load operation limit constrained by excessive pressure rise rates (PRRs). The present study investigates various measures to reduce combustion harness in a residual-affected HCCI engine. At the same time, the impact of those measures on efficiency and emissions is assessed. Experimental research was performed on a single cylinder engine equipped with a fully-flexible valvetrain mechanism and direct gasoline injection. The HCCI combustion mode with exhaust gas trapping was realized using negative valve overlap and fuel reforming, achieved via the injection of a portion of fuel during exhaust re-compression. Three measures are investigated for the PRR control under the same reference operating conditions, namely: (i) variable intake and exhaust valve timing, (ii) boost pressure adjustment and (iii) split fuel injection to control the amount of fuel injected for reforming. Variable exhaust valve timing enabled control of the amount of trapped residuals, and thus of the compression temperature. The reduction in the amount of trapped residuals, at elevated engine load, delays auto-ignition, which results in a simultaneous reduction of pressure rise rates and nitrogen oxides emissions. The effects of intake valve timing are much more complex, because they include the variability in the amount of intake air, the thermodynamic compression ratio as well as the in-cylinder fluid flow. It was found, however, that both early and late intake valve openings delay auto-ignition and prolong combustion. Additionally, the reduction of the amount of fuel injected during exhaust re-compression further delays combustion and reduces combustion rates. Intake pressure reduction has by far the largest effect on peak pressure reduction yet is connected with excessive NO x emissions. The research successfully identifies air-path and injection techniques, which allow for the control of combustion rates and emissions under elevated load regime, thus shorting the gap towards the real-world application of HCCI concepts.

Gasoline compression ignition (GCI) is a cost-effective approach to achieving diesel-like efficiencies with low emissions. Traditional challenges with GCI arise at low-load conditions due to low charge temperatures causing combustion instability and at high-load conditions due to peak cylinder pressure and noise limitations. The fundamental architecture of the two-stroke Achates Power Opposed-Piston Engine (OP Engine) enables GCI by decoupling piston motion from cylinder scavenging, allowing for flexible and independent control of cylinder residual fraction and temperature leading to improved low load combustion. In addition, the high peak cylinder pressure and noise challenges at high-load operation are mitigated by the lower BMEP operation and faster heat release for the same pressure rise rate of the OP Engine. These advantages further solidify the performance benefits of the OP Engine and demonstrate the near-term feasibility of advanced combustion technologies, enabled by the opposed-piston architecture. This paper presents initial results from a steady state testing on a brand new 2.7L OP GCI multi-cylinder engine. A part of the recipe for successful GCI operation calls for high compression ratio, leading to higher combustion stability at low-loads, higher efficiencies, and lower cycle HC+NO x emissions. In addition, initial results on catalyst light-off mode with GCI are also presented. The OP Engine’s architectural advantages enable faster and earlier catalyst light-off while producing low emissions, which further improves cycle emissions and fuel consumption over conventional engines.