The effect of direct water injection on the combustion stability of a downsized boost engine under high compression ratios and load conditions

Homogeneous charge compression ignition is a part-load combustion method, which can significantly reduce oxides of nitrogen (NO x) emissions compared to current lean-burn spark ignition engines. The challenge with homogeneous charge compression ignition combustion is the high cyclic variation due to the lack of direct ignition control. A fully variable electromagnetic valve train provides the internal exhaust gas recirculation through negative valve overlap which is required to obtain the necessary thermal energy to enable homogeneous charge compression ignition. This also increases the cyclic coupling as residual gas and unburnt fuel is transferred between cycles through exhaust gas recirculation. To improve combustion stability, an experimentally validated feed-forward water injection controller is presented. Utilizing the low latency and rapid calculation rate of a field programmable gate array, a real-time calculation of residual fuel mass is implemented on a prototyping engine controller. Using this field programmable gate array–based calculation, it is possible to calculate the amount of fuel and the required control interaction during an engine cycle. This controller prevents early rapid combustion following a late combustion cycle using direct water injection to cool the cylinder charge and counter the additional thermal energy from any residual fuel that is transferred between cycles. By cooling the trapped cylinder mass, the upcoming combustion phasing can be delayed to the desired setpoint. The controller was tested at several operating points and showed an improvement in the combustion stability as shown by a reduction in the standard deviation of combustion phasing and indicated mean effective pressure.

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Effects of direct water injection and injector configurations on performance and emission characteristics of a gasoline direct injection engine: A computational fluid dynamics analysis

International Journal of Engine Research ◽

10.1177/1468087419890418 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 21 (8) ◽

pp. 1520-1540 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Ankit A Raut ◽

J M Mallikarjuna

Keyword(s):

Fluid Dynamics ◽

Computational Fluid Dynamics ◽

Direct Injection ◽

Water Injection ◽

Gasoline Direct Injection ◽

Water Evaporation ◽

Emission Characteristics ◽

Performance And Emission ◽

Gasoline Direct Injection Engine ◽

Direct Water Injection

In-cylinder water injection is a promising approach for reducing NOx and soot emissions from internal combustion engines. It allows one to use a higher compression ratio by reducing engine knock; hence, higher fuel economy and power output can be achieved. However, water injection can also affect engine combustion and emission characteristics if water injection and injector parameters are not properly set. Majority of the previous studies on the water injection are done through experiments. Therefore, subtle aspects of water injection such as in-cylinder interaction of water sprays, spatial distribution of water vapor, and effect on flame propagation are not clearly understood and rarely reported in literature due to experimental limitations. Thus, in the present article, a computational fluid dynamics investigation is carried out to analyze the effects of direct water injection under various injector configurations on water evaporation, combustion, performance, and emission characteristics of a gasoline direct injection engine. The emphasis is given to analyze in-cylinder water spray interactions, flame propagation, water spray droplet size distribution, and water vapor spatial distribution inside the engine cylinder. For the study, the water-to-fuel ratio is varied from 0 to 1. Various water injector configurations using nozzle hole diameters of 0.14, 0.179, and 0.205 mm, along with nozzle holes of 4, 5, 6, and 7, are considered for comparison in addition to the case of no_water. Computational fluid dynamics models used in this study are validated with the available data in literature. From the results, it is found that the emission and performance characteristics of the engine are highly dependent on water evaporation characteristics. Also, the water-to-fuel ratio of 0.6 with 6 number of nozzle holes and the nozzle diameter of 0.14 mm results in the highest indicated mean effective pressure and the lowest NOx, soot, and CO emissions compared to other cases considered.

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Initial Results on a New Light-Duty 2.7L Opposed-Piston Gasoline Compression Ignition Multi-Cylinder Engine

Volume 1: Large Bore Engines; Fuels; Advanced Combustion ◽

10.1115/icef2018-9610 ◽

2018 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Ashwin Salvi ◽

Reed Hanson ◽

Rodrigo Zermeno ◽

Gerhard Regner ◽

Mark Sellnau ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Pressure Rise ◽

High Load ◽

Combustion Stability ◽

Residual Fraction ◽

Compression Ignition ◽

Cylinder Pressure ◽

Peak Cylinder Pressure ◽

Low Load ◽

Initial Results ◽

Load Conditions

Gasoline compression ignition (GCI) is a cost-effective approach to achieving diesel-like efficiencies with low emissions. Traditional challenges with GCI arise at low-load conditions due to low charge temperatures causing combustion instability and at high-load conditions due to peak cylinder pressure and noise limitations. The fundamental architecture of the two-stroke Achates Power Opposed-Piston Engine (OP Engine) enables GCI by decoupling piston motion from cylinder scavenging, allowing for flexible and independent control of cylinder residual fraction and temperature leading to improved low load combustion. In addition, the high peak cylinder pressure and noise challenges at high-load operation are mitigated by the lower BMEP operation and faster heat release for the same pressure rise rate of the OP Engine. These advantages further solidify the performance benefits of the OP Engine and demonstrate the near-term feasibility of advanced combustion technologies, enabled by the opposed-piston architecture. This paper presents initial results from a steady state testing on a brand new 2.7L OP GCI multi-cylinder engine. A part of the recipe for successful GCI operation calls for high compression ratio, leading to higher combustion stability at low-loads, higher efficiencies, and lower cycle HC+NOx emissions. In addition, initial results on catalyst light-off mode with GCI are also presented. The OP Engine’s architectural advantages enable faster and earlier catalyst light-off while producing low emissions, which further improves cycle emissions and fuel consumption over conventional engines.

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