Effects of Exhaust Gas Recirculation and Boost Pressure on Reactivity Controlled Compression Ignition Engine at High Load Operating Conditions

Reactivity controlled compression ignition (RCCI) at engine high load operating conditions is investigated in this study. The effects of exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) and boost pressure on RCCI combustion were studied by using a multidimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code. The model was first compared with a previous CFD model, which has been validated against steady-state experimental data of gasoline–diesel RCCI in a multicylinder light duty engine. An RCCI piston with a compression ratio of 15:1 was then proposed to improve the combustion and emissions at high load. The simulation results showed that 18 bar indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP) could be achieved with gasoline–diesel RCCI at an EGR rate of 35% and equivalence ratio of 0.96, while the peak pressure rise rate (PPRR) and engine combustion efficiency could both be controlled at reasonable levels. Simulations using both early and late direct-injection (DI) of diesel fuel showed that RCCI combustion at high load is very sensitive to variations of the EGR amount. Higher IMEP is obtained by using early diesel injection, and it is less sensitive to EGR variation compared to late diesel injection. Reduced unburned hydrocarbon (HC), carbon monoxide (CO), soot and slightly more nitrogen oxides (NO_x) emissions were seen for early diesel injection. HC, CO, and soot emissions were found to be more sensitive to EGR variation at late diesel injection timings. However, there was little difference in terms of peak pressure (PP), efficiencies, PPRR, and phasing under varying EGR rates. The effect of boost pressure on RCCI at high load operating conditions was also studied at different EGR rates. It was found that combustion and emissions were improved, and the sensitivity of the combustion and emission to EGR was reduced with higher boost pressures. In addition, cases with similar combustion phasing and reasonable PPRR were analyzed by using an experimentally validated GT-Power model. The results indicated that although higher IMEP was generated at higher boost pressures, the brake mean effective pressure (BMEP) was similar compared to that obtained with lower boost pressures due to higher pumping losses.