Active Air Control System to Reduce Two-Stroke Cycle Engine Pollutant Emissions: Validation and Laboratory Testing Available to Purchase

This paper presents results from Phase 2 of the development of an Active Air Control (AAC) system to balance air flow into each cylinder of a turbocharged engine system, a PRCI-funded emissions reduction project. Imbalance in air flow creates a discontinuity in trapped equivalence ratio from cylinder to cylinder. Trapped equivalence ratio is directly proportional to NO_X production and a function of the fuel flow rate, air flow rate, and, in a two-stroke cycle engine, the scavenging efficiency. Only when these three characteristics are balanced cylinder to cylinder will the combustion and the NO_X production in each cylinder be equal. The engine NO_X production will be disproportionately high if even one cylinder operates less lean relative to the other cylinders. This paper reports on the testing of an AAC system on a two-cylinder air flow bench at the National Gas Machinery Laboratory at Kansas State University. The results from these tests were then used to further validate the comprehensive, variable geometry, multi-cylinder flow model referred to as the Charge Air Integrated Manifold Engine Numerical Simulation (CAIMENS). CAIMENS is a manifold flow model coupled with the T-RECS engine processor that uses an integrated set of fundamental principles to determine the crank angle-resolved pressure, temperature, burned and unburned mass fractions, and gas exchange rates for the cylinder. CAIMENS has been validated with data from the NGML multi-cylinder flow bench. This information has allowed the research team to (1) quantify the impact of air flow imbalance and (2) provide detailed information leading to the specification of the active air flow control system. The end point of this project is an AAC system that can, with some engineering effort, be applied to field engines.