Injection Strategy in Natural Gas–Diesel Dual-Fuel Premixed Charge Compression Ignition Combustion under Low Load Conditions

Dual-fuel premixed charge compression ignition (DF-PCCI) combustion has been proven to be a viable alternative to conventional diesel combustion in heavy-duty compression ignition engines due to its low nitrogen oxides (NOx) and particulate matter (PM) emissions. When natural gas (NG) is applied to a DF-PCCI engine, its low reactivity reduces the maximum pressure rise rate under high loads. However, the NG–diesel DF-PCCI engine suffers from low combustion efficiency under low loads. In this study, an injection strategy of fuel supply (NG and diesel) in a DF-PCCI engine was investigated in order to reduce both the fuel consumption and hydrocarbon (HC) and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions under low load conditions. A variation in the NG substitution and diesel start of energizing (SOE) was found to effectively control the formation of the fuel–air mixture. A double injection strategy of diesel was implemented to adjust the local reactivity of the mixture. Retardation of the diesel pilot SOE and a low fraction of the diesel pilot injection quantity were favorable for reducing the combustion loss. The introduction of exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) improved the fuel economy and reduced the NOx and PM emissions below Euro VI regulations by retarding the combustion phasing. The combination of an NG substitution of 40%, the double injection strategy of diesel, and a moderate EGR rate effectively improved the combustion efficiency and indicated efficiency, and reduced the HC and CO emissions under low load conditions.

An Experimental Investigation on Low Load Combustion Stability and Cold-Firing Capacity of a Gasoline Compression Ignition Engine

Gasoline compression ignition (GCI) is one of the most promising combustion concepts to maintain low pollutant emissions and high efficiency. However, low load combustion stability and firing in cold-start operations are two major challenges for GCI combustion. Strategies including negative valve overlap (NVO), advanced injection strategies, fuel reforming, and intake preheating have been proposed in order to solve these difficulties;however, the cold start is still an obstacle. The objective of this work is to study effective methods to achieve GCI engine cold start-up. This work combines NVO, in-cylinder fuel reforming, and intake preheating to achieve quick firing under cold-start conditions and the subsequent warmup conditions. The results show that start of injection (SOI) during the intake stroke yields the best fuel economy, and injection during the compression stroke has the potential to extend the low load limit. Furthermore, SOI during the NVO period grants the ability to operate under engine conditions with cold intake air and coolant. With highly reactive products made by in-cylinder fuel reforming and fast heat accumulation in the combustion chamber, the NVO injection strategy is highly appropriate for GCI firing. An additional assisted technical method, such as intake preheating, is required to ignite the first firing cycle for a cold-start process. With the combination of NVO, in-cylinder fuel reforming, and intake preheating, the GCI engine successfully started within five combustion cycles in the experiment. After the firing process, the engine could stably operate without further intake preheating;thus, this method is appropriate for engine cold-start and warm-up.

EFFECTS OF COOLED EXTERNAL EXHAUST GAS RECIRCULATION ON DIESEL HOMOGENEOUS CHARGE COMPRESSION IGNITION ENGINE

The effects of cooled external exhaust gas recirculation （EGR） on the combustion and emission performance of diesel fuel homogeneous charge compression ignition （HCCI） are studied. Homogeneous mixture is formed by injecting fuel in-cylinder in the negative valve overlap （NVO） period. So, the HCCI combustion which has low NOx and smoke emission is achieved. Cooled external EGR can delay the start of combustion effectively, which is very useful for high cetane fuel （diesel） HCCI, because these fuels can easily self-ignition, which makes the start of combustion more early. External EGR can avoid the knock combustion of HCCI at high load which means that the EGR can expand the high load limit. HCCI maintains low smoke emission at various EGR rate and various load compared with conventional diesel engine because there is no fuel-rich area in cylinder.

Experimental Study on Dimethyl Ether Combustion Process in Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition Mode

Experimental study on homogeneous charge compression ignition （HCCI） combustion process was carried out on a single-cylinder direct injection diesel engine fueled with dimethyl ether（DME）. The influence of inert gas CO2 on the ignition and combustion process was investigated. The research results indicate that because of the high cetane number of DME, the stable HCCI operating range is quite narrow while the engine has a high compression ratio. The HCCI operating range can be largely extended when the inert gas is inducted into the charging air. HCCI combustion of DME presents remarkable characteristic of two-stage combustion process. As the concentration of inert gas increases, the ignition timing of the first combustion stage delays, the peak heat release rate decreases, and the combustion duration extends. Inducting inert gas into charging air cannot make the combustion and heat release of DME occur at a perfect crank angle position. Therefore,to obtain HCCI operation for the fuel with high cetane number,other methods such as reducing engine compression ratio should be adopted. Emission results show that under HCCI operation, a nearly zero NOx emission can be obtained with no smoke emissions. But the HC and CO emissions are high, and both rise with the increase of the concentration of inert gases.

Effects of I-EGR and Pre-Injection on Performance of Gasoline Compression Ignition(GCI)at Low-Load Condition

Gasoline compression ignition(GCI)has been considered as a promising combustion concept to yield ultralow NOX and soot emissions while maintaining high thermal efficiency.However,how to improve the low-load performance becomes an urgent issue to be solved.In this paper,a GCI engine model was built to investigate the effects of internal EGR(i-EGR)and pre-injection on in-cylinder temperature,spatial concentration of mixture and OH radical,combustion and emission characteristics,and the control strategy for improving the combustion performance was further explored.The results showed an obvious expansion of the zone with an equivalence ratio between 0.8∼1.2 is realized by higher pre-injection ratios,and the s decreases with the increase of pre-injection ratio,but increases with the increase of i-EGR ratio.The high overlap among the equivalentmixture zone,the hightemperature zone,and the OH radical-rich zone can be achieved by higher i-EGR ratio coupled with higher preinjection ratio.By increasing the pre-injection ratio,the combustion efficiency increases first and then decreases,also achieves the peak value with a pre-injection ratio of 60%and is unaffected by i-EGR.The emissions of CO,HC,NOX,and soot can also be reduced to low levels by the combination of higher i-EGR ratios and a pre-injection ratio of 60%.

Study on Performance and Emission Characteristics of a Compression Ignition Engine Fueled with Diesel-2 Ethoxy Ethyl Acetate Blends

Diesel engines are the major contributors of various types of air polluting gases like carbon monoxide, oxides of nitrogen, smoke, etc. Improvement of fuel properties is essential for suppression of Diesel pollutant emissions along with the optimization of design factors and after treatment equipment. Studies conducted in the past have shown that a significant reduction were obtained in the emissions using oxygenates. This paper investigates the performance and emission characteristics of a direct injection Diesel engine fueled with 2 Ethoxy Ethyl Acetate (EEA) blends. Different fuel blends which contain 5%, 10% and 15% of EEA were prepared and the effect of these blends on performance and emissions were studied on a single cylinder direct injection Diesel engine. The blends were tested under different load conditions and the result showed that EEA blended fuels improves the performance of the engine and reduce the emission level significantly.

Experimental Investigation of the Effect of Mixed Additives on Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition Combustion

The experimental investigation of homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) process is carried out on a 4-cylinder diesel engine. One of the cylinders is modified for HCCI combustion with mixed additives. The influence of mixed additives on the HCCI combustion process is investigated. The experimental results indicate that the mixed additives are better than the single additives for HCCI fuel, causing ignition and heat release to be advanced and the peak of heat release rate to increase under the condition of different engine speeds and steady HCCI combustion. Moreover, with the increase in engine speed, the influence of mixed additives on HCCI combustion is more obvious. In addition, the mixed additives are beneficial to improve HCCI engine misfire at a high engine speed and make the engine operate stable.

Effect of Hydrogen Addition on Methane HCCI Engine Ignition Timing and Emissions Using a Multi-zone Model

Ignition timing control is of great importance in homogeneous charge compression ignition engines. The effect of hydrogen addition on methane combustion was investigated using a CHEMKIN multi-zone model. Results show that hydrogen addition advances ignition tim- ing and enhances peak pressure and temperature. A brief analysis of chemical kinetics of methane blending hydrogen is also performed in order to investigate the scope of its appli- cation, and the analysis suggests that OH radical plays an important role in the oxidation. Hydrogen addition increases NOx while decreasing HC and CO emissions. Exhaust gas recir- culation （EGR） also advances ignition timing; however, its effects on emissions are generally the opposite. By adjusting the hydrogen addition and EGR rate, the ignition timing can be regulated with a low emission level. Investigation into zones suggests that NOx is mostly formed in core zones while HC and CO mostly originate in the crevice and the quench layer.

Interactions Between Surface Reactions and Gas-phase Reactions in Catalytic Combustion and Their Influence on Ignition of HCCI Engine

The catalytic combustion of methane in a mierochannel whose surface was coated with platinum（Pt） catalyst was studied by numerical-simulation. The effects of gas-phase reactions on the whole catalytic combustion process were analyzed at a high inlet pressure. A sensitivity analysis of the detailed mechanisms of the surface reaction of methane on Pt revealed that the most sensitive reactions affecting the heterogeneous ignition are oxygen adsorption/desorption and methane adsorption, and the most sensitive reactions affecting the homogeneous ignition are OH and H2O adsorption/desorption. The combustion process of the homogeneous charge compression ignition（HCCI） engine whose piston face was coated with Pt catalyst was simulated. The effects of catalysis and the most sensitive reactions on the ignition timing and the concentration of the main intermediate species during the HCCI engine combustion are discussed. The results show that the ignition timing of the HCCI engine can be increased by catalysis, and the most sensitive reactions affecting the ignition timing of the HCCI engine are OH and H2O adsorption/desorption.

Development of a High Power Programmable Precise Time-Delay Trigger/Ignition System for MFCG

High-power precise delay trigger/ignition system is a programmable pulse generator developed for experiment controlling in explosively driven magnetic flux compression generators. Precise delay pulses are generated by the digital circuit, after being magnified and sharpened through multistage isolated amplifiers and rising edge sharpening device, high-voltage steep delay pulses with precision less than μs level are obtained. This system has been used in our compact magnetic flux compression generator experiments in place of the traditional primaeord delay device.

Effect of equalising ignition delay on combustion and soot emission characteristics of model fuel blends

This paper examines the effect of equalizing ignition delay in a compression ignition engine.Two sets of tests were conducted,i.e.a set of constant injection timing tests with start of fuel injection at 10°crank angle degree(CAD)before top dead center(BTDC)and a set of constant ignition timing tests while also keeping the 10℃AD BTDC injection and adding ignition improver(2-ethylhexylnitrate-,2-EHN)to the fuel mixtures.Soot particles were characterized using DMS-500 instrument in terms of mass,size,and number.The experimental results showed that adding 2-EHN to the model fuel blends reduced the soot surface area,soot mass concentration and soot mean size.Replacing 20 vol%of a C 7-heptane with 20 vol%methyl-decanoate(an oxygenated C 11 molecule)did not affect the ignition delay or rate of fuel air premixing,the peak in-cylinder pressure or heat release rates.Toluene addition(0−22.5 vol%)to heptane increased the mean size of the soot particles generated by only 3%while also resulted in a slight increase in the peak cylinder pressure and peak heat release rates.Blending toluene and methyl-decanoate into heptane without adding 2-EHN increased the premix phase fraction by at least 13%.However,by adding 2-EHN(4×10^(−4)−1.5×10^(−3)),the premixed phase fraction decreased by at least 11%.

Numerical study on the compression ignition of a porous medium engine

Homogeneous and stable combustion can be realized in a porous medium (PM) engine where a chemically inert PM is mounted in the combustion chamber. To understand the mechanism of the PM engine, we simulated the working process of a PM engine fueled with natural gas (CH4) using an improved version of KIVA-3V and investigated the effects of the initial PM temperature, the PM structure as well as the fuel injection timing on the compression ignition of the engine. The im- proved version of KIVA-3V was verified by simulating the experiment of Zhdanok et al. for the superadiabatic combustion of CH4-air mixtures under filtration in a packed bed. The numerical results are in good agreement with experimental data for the speed of combustion wave. Computational results for the PM engine show that the initial PM temperature is the key factor in guaranteeing the onset of com- pression ignition of the PM engine at a given compression ratio. The PM structure affects greatly both convective heat transfer between the gas and solid phase in the PM and the dispersion effect of the PM. Pore diameter of the PM is a crucial factor in determining the realization of combustion in the PM engine. Over-late fuel injec- tion timing (near TDC) cannot assure a compression ignition of the PM engine.

Towards low emissions and high thermal efficiency of gasoline compression ignition engine under high loads by modulating the fuel reactivity and injection strategy

Gasoline compression ignition(GCI) is a practicable way to obtain low emissions and high thermal efficiency of gasoline-like fuels in internal combustion engines. In this paper, the research octane number(RON) and injection strategy were coordinated to optimize the GCI engine performance and emissions under high loads. The direct injection and port injection were used to achieve two injection strategies: direct injection(DI) and port injection plus direct injection(PIDI), and the primary reference fuels(PRF) with the RON of 60, 70, 80 and 90 were used. The results show that using lower RON fuels under high loads, DI mode can achieve higher efficiency, while PIDI mode can achieve lower combustion noise at an expense of slightly lower fuel economy. When the DI mode is converted to PIDI mode with a pre-injection ratio of 30%, using PRF70 under 12 bar and the exhaust gas recirculation(EGR) rate of 40%, the gross indicated thermal efficiency and the maximum pressure rise rate are reduced by 1% and by 2 bar/°CA, respectively, while the particle emissions also decrease significantly, thus achieving low emissions and high efficiency. However, under the same load and EGR rate, DI mode produces less regulated and unregulated emissions than PIDI mode. In addition, the effect of fuel RON was obvious, the lower RON fuels exhibit obvious three-stage heat release in PIDI mode, however, PRF90 with higher RON only exhibits two-stage heat release, and the peak value of the firststage heat release rate is also lower than those of other fuels.

Numerical Investigation of the Effect of Hydrogen Enrichment on an Opposed-Piston Compression Ignition Diesel Engine

High power-to-weight and fuel efficiency are bounded with opposed-piston compression ignition(OPCI)engine,which makes it ideal in certain applications.In the present study,a dynamic three-dimensional CFD model was established to numerically investigate the combustion process and emission formation of a model OPCI engine with hydrogen enrichment.The simulation results indicated that a small amount of hydrogen was efficient to improve the indicated power owing to the increased in-cylinder pressure.Hydrogen tended to increase the ignition delay of diesel fuel due to both dilution and chemical effect.The burning rate of diesel fuel was apparently accelerated when mixing with hydrogen and premixed combustion became dominated.Nox increased sharply while soot was sufficiently suppressed due to the increase of in-cylinder temperature.Preliminary modifications on diesel injection strategy including injection timing and injection pressure were conducted.It was notable that excessive delayed injection timing could reduce Nox emission but deteriorate the indicated power which was mainly attributed to the evident decline of hydrogen combustion efficiency.This side effect could be mitigated by increasing the diesel injection pressure.Appropriate delay of injection coupled with high injection pressure was suggested to deal with trade-offs among Nox,soot and engine power.

Autoignition of butanol isomers/n-heptane blend fuels on a rapid compression machine in N_2/O_2/Ar mixtures

Ignition delay times of butanol isomers/n-heptane mixture were measured using a rapid compression machine at compressed pressures of 15,20 and 30 bar,in the compressed temperature range of 650–830 K and equivalence ratio of 1.0.Sensitivity analysis and reaction fluxes analysis were performed using a detailed mechanism of blend fuels so as to evaluate the impact of n-heptane addition and temperature variation on the ignition and combustion process.Over the experimental conditions in this study,the blend fuels displays apparent low and high temperature reactions and a negative-temperature-coefficient(NTC)behavior.With increasing butanol isomers mole fraction in the mixtures,the ignition delay times increase.It is worth noting that the suppression to n-heptane ignition from tert-butanol is very limited.The ignition delay time of 40/60 tert-butanol/n-heptane mixture is smaller than other three kinds of blends.With the increasing of tert-butanol mole fraction,the increasing range of its ignition delay time is very large.Moreover,compressed pressure has a limited effect on the ignition of blend mixture at low temperature but certain influence at medium temperature arrange.Tert-butanol/n-heptane mixture is not sensitive to the pressure.The chemical analysis indicates that butanol isomers also present the NTC behavior because of the low temperature reactivity radicals pool produced by n-heptane.Reaction fluxes analysis shows that the n-heptane addition has little impact on the reaction path.Sensitivity analysis shows that for the pure n-butanol,2-butanol and iso-butanol fuel,H-abstraction from the?-carbon plays the dominant role in the reactions having the inhibiting effect on the low-temperature branching,while the H-abstraction from the?-carbon can promote the ignition;for tert-butanol/n-heptane mixtures,reaction R16.H2O2(+M)<=>OH+OH(+M)plays the leading role.For n-butanol/n-heptane,iso-butanol/n-heptane mixtures,the major promoting reactions include some H-abstraction from n-heptane and OH branching reactions,the influence of H-abstraction from?-carbon is weaken;For 2-butanol/n-heptane,tert-butanol/n-heptane mixtures,R16 plays an absolutely dominant role,while the major inhibiting reactions add some elementary reactions of small radicals.

Measuring the Adiabatic Ignition Delay of n-Pentane Mixture using Rapid Compression Machine

Recent combustion research has focused on low temperature combustion to meet engine emission regulations and to advance the development of low temperature homogenous compression ignition engines.Autoignition studies in this temperature regime are primarily performed by Rapid Compression Machines(RCMs)which are sensitive to the heat transfer characteristics of the experimental device.RCMs are widely used to measure autoignition data such as ignition delay and species concentration.Measured ignition delays from RCMs are typically reported at an adiabatic condition;however,this assumption may produce a systematic error in ignition delay measurement as heat transfer is observed to reduce the pressure and temperature during the autoignition process,e.g.,a longer ignition delay has a greater pressure and temperature drops.RCMs are custom built and have unique design characteristics that affect the heat transfer during the autoignition process.In addition,depending on the diluent composition(e.g.,helium versus nitrogen or argon),different heat transfer characteristics are expected.As a result,autoignition results at similar conditions may vary from facility to facility or depending on the used diluent.The dependency of the measured data on the used facility or diluent may produce uncertainty in the data which impact the development of high-fidelity combustion mechanisms.In this work,a new method is developed and utilized to eliminate heat transfer from the ignition delay data.To evaluate the new method,the autoignition of n-pentane mixtures in the low temperature regime were investigated using an RCM.To vary the heat transfer,the compression ratio of the RCM was changed and the ignition delays were measured at similar pressure and temperature conditions.The tests were performed at an equivalence ratio of approximately one and nitrogen and argon as diluents.By applying the new method,the effect of heat transfer on the ignition delays were eliminated successfully and ignition delays at adiabatic condition were determined.A detailed kinetic model of n-pentane was used to simulate the measured adiabatic ignition delay,which agreed well with the experimental data.

Multi-dimensional Modeling of the Application of Catalytic Combustion to Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition Engine

The detailed surface reaction mechanism of methane on rhodium catalyst was analyzed. Comparisons between numerical simulation and experiments showed a basic agreement. The combustion process of homogeneous charge compression ignition （HCCI） engine whose piston surface has been coated with catalyst （rhodium and platinum） was numerically investigated. A multi-dimensional model with detailed chemical kinetics was built. The effects of catalytic combustion on the ignition timing, the temperature and CO concentration fields, and HC, CO and NOx emissions of the HCCI engine were discussed. The results showed the ignition timing of the HCCI engine was advanced and the emissions of HC and CO were decreased by the catalysis.

Experimental study of n-heptane ignition delay with carbon dioxide addition in a rapid compression machine under low-temperature conditions

The ignition delay of n-heptane homogeneous charge compression ignition(HCCI) combustion under high levels of carbon dioxide addition was quantitatively measured at elevated pressure from low to intermediate temperatures in a rapid compression machine.The experiments were conducted in the compressed temperature range 613-750 K.Both the compression ratio and fuel/air equivalence ratio were varied to investigate their effects on the ignition delay of n-heptane.Carbon dioxide was subsequently added to study the influence of the carbon dioxide level on the ignition delay of n-heptane under low-temperature conditions.It was found that carbon dioxide had different effects on the two-stages of ignition delay of n-heptane under low-temperature conditions:the concentration of carbon dioxide had little effect on the first-stage ignition time;a certain concentration of carbon dioxide accelerated the first-stage ignition but had a significantly larger impact on the second-stage ignition delay,thus increasing the overall ignition delay time.The results also showed that the first-stage ignition delay of n-heptane is only a function of temperature under low-temperature conditions.The mass of n-heptane in the combustible mixture,the equivalence ratio,and the pressure at the top dead center had little effect on the first-stage ignition time of n-heptane.

Gasoline-diesel dual fuel intelligent charge compression ignition(ICCI)combustion:Conceptual model and comparison with other advanced combustion modes

The internal combustion engines can remain the advantage over competitor technologies for automotive driven,especially the engine efficiency,exceeded 50%while maintaining ultra-low emissions.In this paper,a novel combustion mode characterized by dual high-pressure common-rail direct injection systems,denoted as intelligent charge compression ignition(ICCI)combustion,is proposed to realize high efficiency and clean combustion in wide engine operating ranges.Specifically,commercial gasoline and diesel,which are considered to be complementary in physical and chemical properties,are directly injected into the cylinder by the two independent injection systems,respectively.Through this unique design,the in-cylinder air-fuel mixtures can be flexibly adjusted by regulating injection timing and duration of different fuels,consequently obtaining suitable combustion phase and heat release rate.The ICCI mode can widely run from indicated mean effective pressure 2 bar to 16 bar with an utterly controllable cylinder pressure rising rate,around 50%indicated thermal efficiency and low NOxemissions.A series of experiments were carried out to compare the combustion and emissions of ICCI with other combustion modes(including conventional diesel combustion,reactivity-controlled compression ignition,partially premixed combustion,and gasoline compression ignition).The results show that at the medium engine loads,ICCI mode can reach much high indicated thermal efficiency,especially up to 52%along with extremely low NOxemissions.Prospectively,ICCI mode can realize real-time adjustments of in-cylinder mixture stratification and instantaneous combustion mode switch in one cycle at any operating conditions,and has an excellent commercial application prospect for energy conservation and environmental improvement.

Experimental investigation on combustion and emission characteristics of reactivity controlled compression ignition engine powered with iso-propanol/biodiesel blends

Recently, reactivity controlled compression ignition (RCCI) has been proposed inorder to achieve a higher thermal efficiency with lower emissions than conventional combustion. In RCCI mode, as the fuel types and their combinations affects the reactivity stratificationinside cylinder, thus combustion control, in present study, iso-propanol was evaluated as lowreactivity fuel (LRF) when petroleum diesel, commercial biodiesel and their blends were highreactivity fuels. It is of great importance that iso-propanol and biodiesel be used together inRCCI mode, as they significantly affect the in-cylinder stratification due to their high octane/cetane number. Therefore, the reactivity controlled compression ignition (RCCI) combustioncharacteristics was investigated in a diesel research engine using iso-propanol, petroleumdiesel, biodiesel and their blends as fuels. Tests were conducted on varying loadings (from20% to 60% of max torque) and premixed ratios of LRF (Rp Z 0, 0.15, 0.30, 0.45, and0.60) at a constant engine speed of 2400 rpm. Results, which were compared with conventionaldiesel combustion (CDC), showed that, as the premixed ratio (Rp) of low-reactivity fuel (isopropanol) increased, ignition delay (ID) period prolonged while combustion duration (CD) and rate of pressure rise (RoPR) reduced assisted to reduce NO emissions and smoke opacity in theexhaust. NO and smoke opacity reduced simultaneously for biodiesel-propanol combinationsup to 40% under 20% load and 0.60 premixed ratio of LRF compared to CDC. Propanol premixed ratio of 0.30 at 60% load was found to be optimum concerning lowest emissions. In conventional mode, HC emissions reduced by up to 52% when biodiesel and its blends with dieselfuel are used, whereas they increased significantly in RCCI mode. According to overall results,it is concluded that RCCI performed better than CDC at entire load.