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This research numerically investigated the combustion process and exhaust emissions from a light-duty Gasoline Compression Ignition (GCI) engine operating at low load as well as medium load conditions using a commercial computational fluid dynamic (CFD) software Converge. The fuel injection strategies and thermal boundary conditions effects were examined to produce locally stratified and globally lean partially premixed compression ignition (PPCI) combustion. The effects of fuel injection pressure, number of injections, and the quantity of fuel injected in each pulse were examined and optimized for emissions and fuel consumption (FC) under the design constraints of 180 bar peak cylinder pressure (PCP) and 10 bar/° CA maximum pressure rise rate (MPRR).

A 3-D DNS (Three-Dimensional Direct Numerical Simulation) study with detailed chemical kinetic mechanism of methane has been performed to investigate the characteristics of turbulent premixed oxy-fuel combustion in the condition relevant to Spark Ignition (SI) engines. First, 1-D (one-dimensional) laminar freely propagating premixed flame is examined to show a consistent combustion temperature for different dilution cases, such that 73% H2O and 66% CO2 dilution ratios are adopted in the following 3-D DNS cases. Four 3-D DNS cases with various turbulence intensities are conducted. It is found that dilution agents can reduce the overall flame temperature but with an enhancement of density weighted flame speed. CO2 dilution case shows the lowest flame speed both in turbulent and laminar cases.

The range-extended electric vehicle (REEV) is a complex nonlinear system powered by internal combustion engine and electricity stored in battery. This research proposed a Multiple Operation Points (MOP) control strategy of REVV based on operation features of REEV and the universal characteristic curve of the engine. The switching logic rules of MOP strategy are designed for the desired transition of the operation mode, which makes the engine running at high efficiency region. A Genetic algorithm (GA) is adapted to search the optimal solution. The fuel consumption is defined as the target cost function. The demand power of engine is defined as optimal variable. The state of charge (SOC) and vehicle speed are selected as the state variables. The dynamic performance of vehicle and cycling life of battery is set as the constraints. The optimal switching parameters are obtained based on this control strategy. Finally, a dynamic simulation model of REEV is developed in Matlab/Simulink.

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model has been widely applied in internal combustion (IC) engine research. The integration of chemical kinetic model with CFD provides an opportunity for researchers to investigate the detailed chemical reactions for better understanding the combustion process of IC engines. However, the simulation using CFD has generally focused on the examination of primary parameters, such as temperature and species distributions. The detailed investigation on chemical reactions is limited. This paper presents the development of a post-processing tool capable of calculating the rate of production (ROP) of interested species with the known temperature, pressure, and concentration of each species in each cell simulated using CONVERGE-SAGE CFD model.

The nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) emissions of compression ignition diesel engines are usually relatively small, especially when operated at medium and high loads. Recent experimental investigations have suggested that adding hydrogen (H₂) into the intake air of a diesel engine leads to a substantial increase in NO₂ emissions. The increase in NO₂ fraction in the total NOx is more pronounced at lower engine load than at medium- and high-load operation, especially when a small amount of H₂ is added. However, the chemistry causing the increased NO₂ formation in H₂-diesel dual-fuel engines has not been fully explored. In the present work, kinetics of NO and NO₂ formation in a H₂-diesel dual-fuel engine are investigated using a CFD model integrated with a reduced hydrocarbon oxidation chemistry and an oxides of nitrogen (NOx) formation mechanism. A low-load and a medium-load operating condition are selected for numerical simulations.

Foaming of a thermoplastic polyolefin (TPO) is gaining interests because of its superior mechanical properties of foamed automotive parts, such as lightweight and high performance to weight ratio, etc. In this context, understanding of the thermophysical properties of PP/gas and TPO/gas mixtures is critically important. This paper will present the newly developed experimental technique to accurately measure the swelling of PP and TPO due to gas dissolution at elevated temperatures and pressures. Our technique measures the geometry of the pendent drop accurately from the captured images to obtain the volume swelling data. It determines the boundary location of the polymer/gas sample accurately by magnifying the sample drop locally along its edge before capturing the image. The automated high-precision XY stage is chosen as the platform to control the motion of the CCD camera.

The operation of S.I. engines on lean or diluents containing gaseous fuel-air mixtures is attractive in principle since it can provide improved fuel economy, reduced tendency to knock and low NOx emissions combined with a possible improvement to the operational life of the engine. However, the overall flame propagation rates then tend to drop sharply as the operational mixture is excessively leaned or diluted with CO2 or N2. The paper presents experimental data obtained in a single cylinder, variable compression ratio, S.I., CFR engine when operated on a number of gaseous fuels and some of their mixtures. A gradual leaning of the operating mixture can affect adversely in turn, emissions of CO and unburned fuel and cyclic variation. The extent of deterioration in these operating parameters is shown to correlate well with the corresponding values of the combustion period, a key combustion indicator. Similar effects were observed when adding diluents to stoichiometric CH4-air mixtures.

Carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO2) and unburned hydrocarbon (UHC) are present in the exhaust gases of S.I. engines operated on pure hydrogen. These carbon-bearing species result from the oxidation of the lubricating oil and can be considered conveniently as natural tracers for indicating the lubricating oil consumption by combustion. Accordingly, such a novel approach can be employed to examine factors that affect engine oil consumption without the need to resort to more complex approaches. This contribution presents experimental results of oil combustion in a variable compression ratio single cylinder CFR engine when fueled with pure hydrogen established by determining the concentrations of CO and CO2 in the exhaust gas. The effects of changes in key operating variables that include equivalence and compression ratios, spark timing and the onset of knock on oil combustion are examined.

Hydrogen is normally produced through the steam reforming of fossil fuels, notably natural gas or their partial oxidation in oxygenated air. The products of these processes would normally produce the H2 in the presence of a variety of concentrations of CO, CO2, H2O and N2. There is increasing interest in employing such mixtures whether on their own or in mixtures with traditional liquid or gaseous fuels in S.I. engine applications so as to improve the combustion process and engine performance. The combustion characteristics in S.I. engines of gas mixtures that contain H2 and CO need to be established to provide key operational information, such as the variations in the combustion duration and the knock limits. This paper presents experimental data obtained in a single cylinder, variable compression ratio, S.I., CFR engine when operated in turn on CH4, H2, CO and their binary mixtures.

An engine is described that operates exclusively on stoichiometric H2-O2 mixtures with significant amounts of excess hydrogen circulated to effect controlled combustion of excessively rich mixtures within the engine cylinder combined with exhaust water condensation and removal. A two-zone quasi-dimensional model for predicting the performance and the likelihood of the onset of knock developed earlier for CH4-H2-air operation has been extended suitably to predict the approximate performance of this H2-O2 engine arrangement. A detailed chemical kinetic scheme for the oxidation reactions of H2-O2 mixtures is adopted in the knock prediction of this model. A prior knowledge of the variation of the combustion period needed for this predictive model was estimated through processing corresponding data for H2-air mixtures. The limited experimental results reported by Furuhama, et al., were used to validate the corresponding predicted values.