Effects of EGR and Boost Pressure on Reactivity Controlled Compression Ignition (RCCI) Engine at High Load Operating Conditions

Author(s):  
Yifeng Wu ◽  
Rolf D. Reitz

Reactivity Controlled Compression Ignition (RCCI) at engine high load operating conditions is investigated in this study. The effects of EGR and boost pressure on RCCI combustion were studied by using a multi-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code. The model was first compared with a previous CFD model, which has been validated against steady-state experimental data of gasoline-diesel RCCI in a multi-cylinder light duty engine. An RCCI piston with a compression ratio of 15:1 was then proposed to improve the combustion and emissions at high load. The simulation results showed that 18 bar indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP) could be achieved with gasoline-diesel RCCI at an EGR rate of 35 % and equivalence ratio of 0.96, while the peak pressure rise rate (PPRR) and engine combustion efficiency could both be controlled at reasonable levels. Simulations using both early and late direct-injection (DI) of diesel fuel showed that RCCI combustion at high load is very sensitive to variations of the exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) amount. Higher IMEP is obtained by using early diesel injection, and it is less sensitive to EGR variation compared to late diesel injection. Reduced unburned hydrocarbon (HC), carbon monoxide (CO), soot and slightly more nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions were seen for early diesel injection. HC, CO and soot emissions were found to be more sensitive to EGR variation at late diesel injection timings. However, there was little difference in terms of peak pressure, efficiencies, PPRR and phasing under varying EGR rates. The effect of boost pressure on RCCI at high load operating conditions was also studied at different EGR rates. It was found that combustion and emissions were improved, and the sensitivity of the combustion and emission to EGR was reduced with higher boost pressures. In addition, cases with similar combustion phasing and reasonable PPRR were analyzed by using an experimentally validated GT-Power model. The results indicated that although higher IMEP was generated at higher boost pressures, the brake mean effective pressure (BMEP) was similar compared to that obtained with lower boost pressures due to higher pumping losses.

2015 ◽  
Vol 137 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yifeng Wu ◽  
Rolf D. Reitz

Reactivity controlled compression ignition (RCCI) at engine high load operating conditions is investigated in this study. The effects of exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) and boost pressure on RCCI combustion were studied by using a multidimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code. The model was first compared with a previous CFD model, which has been validated against steady-state experimental data of gasoline–diesel RCCI in a multicylinder light duty engine. An RCCI piston with a compression ratio of 15:1 was then proposed to improve the combustion and emissions at high load. The simulation results showed that 18 bar indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP) could be achieved with gasoline–diesel RCCI at an EGR rate of 35% and equivalence ratio of 0.96, while the peak pressure rise rate (PPRR) and engine combustion efficiency could both be controlled at reasonable levels. Simulations using both early and late direct-injection (DI) of diesel fuel showed that RCCI combustion at high load is very sensitive to variations of the EGR amount. Higher IMEP is obtained by using early diesel injection, and it is less sensitive to EGR variation compared to late diesel injection. Reduced unburned hydrocarbon (HC), carbon monoxide (CO), soot and slightly more nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions were seen for early diesel injection. HC, CO, and soot emissions were found to be more sensitive to EGR variation at late diesel injection timings. However, there was little difference in terms of peak pressure (PP), efficiencies, PPRR, and phasing under varying EGR rates. The effect of boost pressure on RCCI at high load operating conditions was also studied at different EGR rates. It was found that combustion and emissions were improved, and the sensitivity of the combustion and emission to EGR was reduced with higher boost pressures. In addition, cases with similar combustion phasing and reasonable PPRR were analyzed by using an experimentally validated GT-Power model. The results indicated that although higher IMEP was generated at higher boost pressures, the brake mean effective pressure (BMEP) was similar compared to that obtained with lower boost pressures due to higher pumping losses.


2020 ◽  
pp. 146808742096121
Author(s):  
Bahram Jafari ◽  
Mahdi Seddiq ◽  
Seyyed Mostafa Mirsalim

The present paper aims to assess the impacts of diesel injection timing and two bowl geometries including re-entrant and wide-shallow combustion chambers on the combustion characteristics, emissions formation, and fuel consumption in a reactivity controlled compression ignition diesel engine under low and high load (five and nine bar indicating mean effective pressure) conditions. The results revealed that diesel injection at −60 CA ATDC under low load conditions significantly decreased soot and NOx emissions simultaneously for both piston bowl geometries. The use of the wide-shallow chamber decreased the period of the ignition delay and increased the engine operable load range as a result of more stable combustion under high-load conditions compared to the re-entrant chamber. Moreover, at all diesel injection timings, the indicated specific fuel consumption was decreased by nearly 4.8 and 6.6% under low and high load conditions, respectively when the wide-shallow combustion chamber was used since the heat transfer loss was lower than that of the re-entrant chamber. However, NOx emission under high load conditions at the center of the combustion chamber and more soot emission in the exhaust gas are two disadvantages of the wide-shallow chamber versus the re-entrant combustion chamber.


Author(s):  
David T. Klos ◽  
Sage L. Kokjohn

This paper uses detailed computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling with the kiva-chemkin code to investigate the influence of injection timing, combustion phasing, and operating conditions on combustion instability. Using detailed CFD simulations, a large design of experiments (DOE) is performed with small perturbations in the intake and fueling conditions. A response surface model (RSM) is then fit to the DOE results to predict cycle-to-cycle combustion instability. Injection timing had significant tradeoffs between engine efficiency, emissions, and combustion instability. Near top dead center (TDC) injection timing can significantly reduce combustion instability, but the emissions and efficiency drop close to conventional diesel combustion levels. The fuel split between the two direct injection (DI) injections has very little effect on combustion instability. Increasing exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) rate, while making adjustments to maintain combustion phasing, can significantly reduce peak pressure rise rate (PPRR) variation until the engine is on the verge of misfiring. Combustion phasing has a very large impact on combustion instability. More advanced phasing is much more stable, but produces high PPRRs, higher NOx levels, and can be less efficient due to increased heat transfer losses. The results of this study identify operating parameters that can significantly improve the combustion stability of dual-fuel reactivity-controlled compression ignition (RCCI) engines.


Author(s):  
Ashwin Salvi ◽  
Reed Hanson ◽  
Rodrigo Zermeno ◽  
Gerhard Regner ◽  
Mark Sellnau ◽  
...  

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.


Author(s):  
Khanh Cung ◽  
Toby Rockstroh ◽  
Stephen Ciatti ◽  
William Cannella ◽  
S. Scott Goldsborough

Unlike homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) that has the complexity in controlling the start of combustion event, partially premixed combustion (PPC) provides the flexibility of defining the ignition timing and combustion phasing with respect to the time of injection. In PPC, the stratification of the charge can be influenced by a variety of methods such as number of injections (single or multiple injections), injection pressure, injection timing (early to near TDC injection), intake boost pressure, or combination of several factors. The current study investigates the effect of these factors when testing two gasoline-like fuels of different reactivity (defined by Research Octane Number or RON) in a 1.9-L inline 4-cylinder diesel engine. From the collection of engine data, a full factorial analysis was created in order to identify the factors that most influence the outcomes such as the location of ignition, combustion phasing, combustion stability, and emissions. Furthermore, the interaction effect of combinations of two factors or more was discussed with the implication of fuel reactivity under current operating conditions. The analysis was done at both low (1000 RPM) and high speed (2000 RPM). It was found that the boost pressure and air/fuel ratio have strong impact on ignition and combustion phasing. Finally, injection-timing sweeps were conducted whereby the ignition (CA10) of the two fuels with significantly different reactivity were matched by controlling the boost pressure while maintaining a constant lambda (air/fuel equivalence ratio).


Author(s):  
Marko Jeftić ◽  
Ming Zheng

Enhanced premixed combustion of neat butanol in a compression ignition engine can have challenges with regards to the peak pressure rise rate and the peak in-cylinder pressure. It was proposed to utilize a butanol post injection to reduce the peak pressure rise rate and the peak in-cylinder pressure while maintaining a constant engine load. Post injection timing and duration sweeps were carried out with neat n-butanol in a compression ignition engine. The post injection timing sweep results indicated that the use of an early butanol post injection reduced the peak pressure rise rate and the peak in-cylinder pressure and it was observed that there was an optimal post injection timing range for the maximum reduction of these parameters. The results also showed that an early post injection of butanol increased the nitrogen oxide emissions and an FTIR analysis revealed that late post injections increased the emissions of unburned butanol. The post injection duration sweep indicated that the peak pressure rise rate was significantly reduced by increasing the post injection duration at constant load conditions. There was also a reduction in the peak in-cylinder pressure. Measurements with a hydrogen mass spectrometer showed that there was an increased presence of hydrogen in the exhaust gas when the post injection duration was increased but the total yield of hydrogen was relatively low. It was observed that the coefficient of variation for the indicated mean effective pressure was significantly increased and that the indicated thermal efficiency was reduced when the post injection duration was increased. The results also showed that there were increased nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide, and total hydrocarbon emissions for larger post injections. Although the use of a post injection resulted in emission and thermal efficiency penalties at medium load conditions, the results demonstrated that the post injection strategy successfully reduced the peak pressure rise rate and this characteristic can be potentially useful for higher load applications where the peak pressure rise rate is of greater concern.


Author(s):  
Hu Tiegang ◽  
Liu Shenghua ◽  
Zhou Longbao ◽  
Zhu Chi

Dimethyl ether (DME) is a kind of fuel with high cetane number and low evaporating temperature, which is suitable for a homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) engine. The combustion and emission characteristics of an HCCI engine fuelled with DME were investigated on a modified single-cylinder engine. The experimental results indicate that the HCCI engine combustion is a two-stage heat release process. The engine load or air-fuel ratio has significant effects on the maximum cylinder pressure and its position, the shape of the pressure rise rate and the heat release rate. The engine speed has little effect. A DME HCCI engine is smoke free, with zero NOx and low hydrocarbon and CO emissions under the operating conditions of 0.25–0.30 MPa brake mean effective pressure.


Author(s):  
Liu Shenghua ◽  
Wang Ziyan ◽  
Ren Jiang

A natural gas and diesel dual-fuel turbocharged compression ignition (CI) engine is developed to reduce emissions of a heavy-duty diesel engine. The compressed natural gas (CNG) pressure regulator is specially designed to feed back the boost pressure to simplify the fuel metering system. The natural gas bypass improves the engine response to acceleration. The modes of diesel injection are set according to the engine operating conditions. The application of honeycomb mixers changes the flowrate shape of natural gas and reduces hydrocarbon (HC) emission under low-load and lowspeed conditions. The cylinder pressures of a CI engine fuelled with diesel and dual fuel are analysed. The introduction of natural gas makes the ignition delay change with engine load. Under the same operating conditions, the emissions of smoke and NOx from the dual-fuel engine are both reduced. The HC and CO emissions for the dual-fuel engine remain within the range of regulation.


2014 ◽  
Vol 137 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Wei Fang ◽  
Junhua Fang ◽  
David B. Kittelson ◽  
William F. Northrop

Dual-fuel reactivity-controlled compression ignition (RCCI) combustion using port injection of a less reactive fuel and early-cycle direct injection (DI) of a more reactive fuel has been shown to yield both high thermal efficiency and low NOX and soot emissions over a wide engine operating range. Conventional and alternative fuels such as gasoline, natural gas, and E85 as the lower reactivity fuel in RCCI have been studied by many researchers; however, published experimental investigations of hydrous ethanol use in RCCI are scarce. Making greater use of hydrous ethanol in internal combustion engines has the potential to dramatically improve the economics and life cycle carbon dioxide emissions of using bioethanol. In this work, an experimental investigation was conducted using 150 proof hydrous ethanol as the low reactivity fuel and commercially available diesel as the high reactivity fuel in an RCCI combustion mode at various load conditions. A modified single-cylinder diesel engine was used for the experiments. Based on previous studies on RCCI combustion by other researchers, early-cycle split-injection strategy of diesel fuel was used to create an in-cylinder fuel reactivity distribution to maintain high thermal efficiency and low NOX and soot emissions. At each load condition, timing and mass fraction of the first diesel injection was held constant, while timing of the second diesel injection was swept over a range where stable combustion could be maintained. Since hydrous ethanol is highly resistant to auto-ignition and has large heat of vaporization, intake air heating was needed to obtain stable operations of the engine. The study shows that 150 proof hydrous ethanol can be used as the low reactivity fuel in RCCI through 8.6 bar indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP) and with ethanol energy fraction up to 75% while achieving simultaneously low levels of NOX and soot emissions. With increasing engine load, less intake heating is needed and exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) is required to maintain low NOX emissions.


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