The Control Space for Knock Mitigation in Two-Stroke Engines for 10–25 kg Remotely Piloted Aircraft

2019 ◽  
Vol 141 (9) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph K. Ausserer ◽  
Marc D. Polanka ◽  
Paul J. Litke ◽  
Jacob A. Baranski

Interest is growing in converting commercially available, two-stroke spark-ignition engines from motor gasoline to low-anti-knock-index fuel such as diesel and Jet A, where knock-limited operation is a significant consideration. Previous efforts have examined the knock limits for small two-stroke engines and explored the effect of engine controls such as equivalence ratio, combustion phasing, and cooling on engine operation during knock-free operation on high octane number fuel. This work culminates the research begun in those efforts, investigating the degree of knock-mitigation achievable through varying equivalence ratio, combustion phasing, and engine cooling on three small (28, 55, and 85 cm3 displacement) commercially available two-stroke spark-ignition engines operating on a 20 octane number blend of iso-octane and n-heptane. Combustion phasing had the largest effect; a 10 deg retardation in the CA50 mass-fraction burned angle permitted an increase in throttle that yielded a 9–11% increase in power. Leaning the equivalence ratio from 1.05 to 0.8 resulted in a 10% increase in power; enriching the mixture from 1.05 to 1.35 yielded a 6–7% increase in power but at the cost of a 25% decrease in fuel-conversion efficiency. Varying the flow rate of cooling air over the engines had a minimal effect. The results indicate that the addition of aftermarket variable spark timing and electronic fuel-injection systems offer substantial advantages for converting small, commercially available two-stroke engines to run on low-anti-knock-index fuels.

2003 ◽  
Vol 125 (2) ◽  
pp. 500-504 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. A. Attar ◽  
G. A. Karim

The knock tendency in spark ignition engines of binary mixtures of hydrogen, ethane, propane and n-butane is examined in a CFR engine for a range of mixture composition, compression ratio, spark timing, and equivalence ratio. It is shown that changes in the knock characteristics of binary mixtures of hydrogen with methane are sufficiently different from those of the binary mixtures of the other gaseous fuels with methane that renders the use of the methane number of limited utility. However, binary mixtures of n-butane with methane may offer a better alternative. Small changes in the concentration of butane produce almost linearly significant changes in both the values of the knock limited compression ratio for fixed spark timing and the knock limited spark timing for a fixed compression ratio.


Author(s):  
İsmet Sezer ◽  
Atilla Bilgin

This study aims at the theoretical exergetic evaluation of spark ignition engine operation. For this purpose, a two-zone quasi-dimensional cycle model was installed, not considering the complex calculation of fluid motions. The cycle simulation consists of compression, combustion and expansion processes. The combustion phase is simulated as a turbulent flame propagation process. Intake and exhaust processes are also computed by a simple approximation method. The results of the model were compared with experimental data to demonstrate the validation of the model. Principles of the second law are applied to the model to perform the exergy (or availability) analysis. In the exergy analysis, the effects of various operational parameters, i.e. fuel–air equivalence ratio, engine speed and spark timing on exergetic terms have been investigated. The results of exergy analysis show that variations of operational parameters examined have considerably affected the exergy transfers, irreversibilities and efficiencies. For instance, an increase in equivalence ratio causes an increase in irreversibilities, while it decreases the first and also the second law efficiencies. The irreversibilities have minimum values for the specified engine speed and optimum spark timing, while the first and second law efficiencies reach a maximum at the same engine speed and optimum spark timing.


2015 ◽  
Vol 160 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-48
Author(s):  
Zbigniew STĘPIEŃ

The paper reports on both the processes of harmful deposits formation in spark ignition engines and their threats related to engine operation. The connection of a dynamic development of piston engines and fuel injection systems with increasing problems of deposits formation on various engine parts has been discussed at length. The effect of fuel composition, engine design and its operating parameters on the formation of a variety of engine deposits has been described. Possible causes of deposits formation have also been indicated. The paper confirms great importance of modern deposit control detergents and state-of-the-art technology of manufacturing of injection systems components in counteracting this detrimental phenomenon.


2019 ◽  
Vol 141 (11) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jinlong Liu ◽  
Hemanth Kumar Bommisetty ◽  
Cosmin Emil Dumitrescu

Heavy-duty compression-ignition (CI) engines converted to natural gas (NG) operation can reduce the dependence on petroleum-based fuels and curtail greenhouse gas emissions. Such an engine was converted to premixed NG spark-ignition (SI) operation through the addition of a gas injector in the intake manifold and of a spark plug in place of the diesel injector. Engine performance and combustion characteristics were investigated at several lean-burn operating conditions that changed fuel composition, spark timing, equivalence ratio, and engine speed. While the engine operation was stable, the reentrant bowl-in-piston (a characteristic of a CI engine) influenced the combustion event such as producing a significant late combustion, particularly for advanced spark timing. This was due to an important fraction of the fuel burning late in the squish region, which affected the end of combustion, the combustion duration, and the cycle-to-cycle variation. However, the lower cycle-to-cycle variation, stable combustion event, and the lack of knocking suggest a successful conversion of conventional diesel engines to NG SI operation using the approach described here.


2010 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 196-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vivien Delpech ◽  
Jerome Obiols ◽  
Dominique Soleri ◽  
Laurent Mispreuve ◽  
Eric Magere ◽  
...  

2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 168-178 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Frommater ◽  
Jens Neumann ◽  
Christian Hasse

In modern turbocharged direct-injection, spark-ignition engines, proper calibration of the engine control unit is essential to handle the increasing variability of actuators. The physically based simulation of engine processes such as mixture homogenization enables a model-based calibration of the engine control unit to identify an ideal set of actuator settings, for example, for efficient combustion with reduced exhaust emissions. In this work, a zero-dimensional phenomenological model for direct-injection, spark-ignition engines is presented that allows the equivalence ratio distribution function in the combustion chamber to be calculated and its development is tracked over time. The model considers the engine geometry, mixing time, charge motion and spray–charge interaction. Accompanying three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics, simulations are performed to obtain information on homogeneity at different operating conditions and to calibrate the model. The calibrated model matches the three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics reference both for the temporal homogeneity development and for the equivalence ratio distribution at the ignition time, respectively. When the model is validated outside the calibrated operating conditions, this shows satisfying results in terms of mixture homogeneity at the time of ignition. Additionally, only a slight modification of the calibration is shown to be required when transferring the model to a comparable engine. While the model is primarily aimed at target applications such as a direct-injection, spark-ignition soot emission model, its application to other issues, such as gaseous exhaust emissions, engine knock or cyclic fluctuations, is conceivable due to its general structure. The fast calculation enables mixture inhomogeneities to be estimated during driving cycle simulations.


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