Search Results

Oxyfuel combustion and nitrogen-free combustion coupled with Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) techniques have been recently proposed as an efficient method to achieve carbon free emissions and to improve the combustion efficiency in diesel engines. In this study, a 3-D computational fluid dynamics model has been used to evaluate the influence of oxyfuel-HCCI combustion on engine operating conditions and combustion characteristics in a HSDI diesel engine. Investigations have conducted using four different diluent strategies based on the volume fraction of pure oxygen and a diluent gas (carbon dioxide). The first series of investigations has performed at a constant fuel injection rating at which 4.4 mg of fuel has injected per cycle. In the second part of analysis, the engine speed was maintained at 1500 rev/min while the engine loads were varied by changing the fuel injection rates in the range of 2.8 to 5.2 mg/cycle.

Due to the higher combustion efficiency and fewer exhaust emissions in comparison with other diesel combustion strategies, RCCI combustion attracted lots of attention. Using two fuels with different reactivities lead to lower fuel consumption and considerably less NOx and PM emissions. An investigation has been carried out in order to examine the simultaneous effects of diesel injection pressure and single injection timing on the emissions formation and engine performance in a heavy duty single-cylinder butanol-diesel reactivity controlled compression ignition (RCCI) diesel engine. A reduced chemical n-heptane-n-butanol-PAH mechanism which consists of 76 species and 349 reactions has been used to simulate the combustion process of the dual-fuel diesel engine.

The scope of this work is to investigate the simultaneous effects of injection pressure and Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) on mixture formation and engine performance in a High Speed Direct Injection (HSDI) diesel engine. For this, the computational results have been firstly compared to the measured data and a good agreement has been achieved in order to predict the in-cylinder pressure, heat release rate and the amount of NOx and soot emissions. Then, various injection pressures have been studied to explore its benefits to achieve the low exhaust emission at different EGR rates. The results show, while no EGR has been applied, decreasing the nozzle diameter causes the reduction of Indicate Specific Fuel Consumption (ISFC) with an increase in Indicated Mean Effective Pressure (IMEP). In addition, this strategy results to better air-fuel mixing, a faster combustion process, a considerable reduction of soot emissions but at the same time to a significant increase of NOx emission.

The simultaneous effects of pilot fuel quantity and pilot injection timing on engine performance and amount of pollutant emission have been computationally investigated in a High Speed Direct Injection (HSDI) diesel engine. In this study, a modified parameter called “Homogeneity Factor of in-cylinder charge (HF)” has been applied to analyze the air-fuel mixing and combustion processes. For this purpose, the simulated results has been firstly compared with the experimental data and a good agreement has been achieved for simulating the in-cylinder pressure and the amount of pollutant emissions. Then, nine different strategies based on two variables (the amount of fuel mass in pilot and main injection as well as the dwell between two injections) have been investigated. The results show that employing pilot injection results in higher in-cylinder temperature and shorter auto-ignition delay which causes a rapid increase in the rate of NOx formation in early stage of combustion process.

Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) is an effective pre-treatment technique, which has been widely used to decrease the amount of the oxides of nitrogen (NOx) emission from diesel engines. However, the use of high EGR rates leads to the reduction in oxygen availability in the burning regions of the combustion chamber which impairs the soot oxidation process. Consequently, higher soot generated by EGR leads to long-term usage problems inside the engines such as higher carbon deposits, lubricating oil degradation and enhanced engine wear. In this study, CFD modeling has been carried out to analyze the effects of high EGR rates in conjunction with optimum multiple injection strategies. A heavy-duty DI Diesel engine has been modeled to study the engine performance and emissions with various EGR rates (from 0% to 40%). The selected operating points have been achieved with the same injection profile including a main and post injection for all considered cases.

An improved parameter called “Homogeneity Factor (HF) of in-cylinder charge” has been introduced as a measure to quantify the quality of the air-fuel mixing process in diesel engines. For this purpose, a CFD simulation has been performed to evaluate the effects of Homogeneity Factor on different injection strategies and its correlation with pre mixing process in a common rail DI diesel engine. The results showed a higher Homogeneity Factor will result in higher rate of air-fuel mixing and more complete combustion process. However, the careful adjustment must be made for ideal reduction for both NOx and soot emissions. It was also found when the dwell delay between injection pulses becomes longer, it leaves more time for the air-fuel mixing and initial combustion process of first injection pulse and therefore, the increase of Homogeneity Factor takes place at a later stage and it can caused a reduction of NOx formation.

Effects of included spray angle with different injection strategies on combustion characteristics, performance and amount of pollutant emission have been computationally investigated in a common rail heavy-duty DI diesel engine. The CFD model was firstly validated with experimental data achieved from a Caterpillar 3401 diesel engine for a conventional part load condition at 1600 rev/min. Three different included spray angles (α = 145°, 105°, 90°) were studied in comparison with the traditional spray injection angle (α = 125°). The results show that spray targeting is very effective for controlling the in-cylinder mixture distributions especially when it accompanied with various injection strategies. It was found that 105° spray cone angle along with an optimized split pre- and post-Top Dead Center (TDC) injection strategy could significantly reduce NOx and soot emissions without much penalty of the fuel consumption, as compared to the wide spray angle.

An advanced turbulence modeling using Large Eddy Simulation (LES) has been employed for studying diesel engine flow and its effects on combustion process and amount of pollutant emissions in a DI Diesel engine. An improved version of the Extended Coherent Flame Model combustion model (ECFM-3Z) coupled with advanced models for NOx and soot formation has been applied for CFD simulation. The model performance was assessed by comparison of the calculation results with corresponding experimental data. Very good agreement of calculated and measured in-cylinder pressure, heat release rate as well as pollutant formation trends were obtained. The simulation results was further compared with those obtained by traditional Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes model (RANS) at three different mesh resolutions. It was concluded that sensivity of LES approach to geometric details is affected by increasing resolution as compared to existing RANS.

The mechanism of NOx and soot reduction using different pilot and multiple injection strategies has been computationally studied in a heavy duty DI Diesel engine. A designed set of advanced injection schemes with various variables and exhaust gas recirculation rate (up to 10%) have been analyzed. The CFD model was firstly calibrated against experimental data for a part load operation at 1600 rpm. The computational models used were found to predict the correct trends obtained in the experiment. The study demonstrated the potential and explained the mechanism of the combination of EGR and multiple injection to reduce both soot and NOx emissions together with improved fuel economy.

An investigation has been carried out to examine the influence of re-entrant combustion chamber geometry on mixture preparation, combustion process and engine performance in a high-speed direct injection (HSDI) four valves 2.0L Ford diesel engine by CFD modeling. The computed cylinder pressure, heat release rate and soot and NOx emissions were firstly compared with experimental data and good agreement between the predicted and experimental values was ensured the accuracy of the numerical predictions collected with the present work. Three ITs (Injection Timing) at 2.65° BTDC, 0.65° BTDC and 1.35° ATDC, all with 30 crank angle pilot separations were also considered to identify the optimum IT for achieving the minimum amount of pollutant emissions.

Effects of split injection with different EGR rate on combustion process and pollutant emissions in a DI diesel engine have been evaluated with CFD modeling. The model was validated with experimental data achieved from a Caterpillar 3401 DI diesel engine and 3D CFD simulation was carried out from intake valve closing (IVC) to exhaust valve opening (EVO). Totally 12 different injection strategies for which two injection pulses with different fuel amount for each pulse (up to 30% for the second pulse) and different separation between two pulses (up to 30° CA) were evaluated. Results show that adequate injection separation and enough fuel amount of the second pulse could form a separate 2nd stage of heat release which could reduce the peak combustion temperature and improve the oxidation of soot formed in the first heat release stage.