EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON THE INJECTION CHARACTERISTICS OF HYDROTREATED VEGETABLE OIL IN A DIESEL ENGINE COMMON RAIL SYSTEM

The diesel combustion is primarily controlled by the fuel injection process. The start of injection therefore has a significant effect in the engine, which relates large amount of injected fuel at the beginning of injection to produces a strong burst of combustion with a high local temperature and high NOx formation. This paper investigated the impact of Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) and blends of 10%, 20%, 30%, 50%, 80% by mass of HVO with commercial diesel fuel (mixed 7% FAME-B7) to injection process under the Zeuch’s method and compared to that of B7. The focus was on the injection flow rate in the variation of injection pressures, back pressures, and energizing times. The experimental results indicated that injection delay was inversely correlated to HVO fraction in the blend as well as injection pressure. At different injection pressures, HVO revealed a slightly lower injection rate than diesel that resulted in smaller injection quantity. Discharge coefficient was recognized larger with HVO and its blends. At 0.5ms of energizing time, injection rate profile displayed the incompletely opening of needle. Insignificant difference in injection rate was observed as increasing of back pressure.

ANALYSIS OF THE TEMPERATURE FIELD IN A MOLD CAVITY FOR POLYMER INJECTION PROCESS

A common situation in the design of injection molds is to achieve an efficient performance in terms of heat transfer, this will allow a higher production rate with better finished parts [1]. One of the most important factors in the design is the cooling time: about 80% of the processing time is determined by it [2]. Seeking to contribute with the increase of productivity, this work presents results of simulations through the finite volume method (MVF) of the injection molding process; those results are compared with an analysis of design of experiments (DOE) with different injection conditions, revealing the study variables that are fundamental to improve the process. Thus, a statistical analysis and a computer simulation analysis are presented to identify the variables inherent to the process and recommend their values.

Effect of the Glass Fiber Content of a Polybutylene Terephthalate Reinforced Composite Structure on Physical and Mechanical Characteristics

This work presents the influences of glass fiber content on the mechanical and physical characteristics of polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) reinforced with glass fibers (GF). For the mechanical characterization of the composites depending on the GF reinforcement rate, tensile tests are carried out. The results show that increasing the GF content in the polymer matrix leads to an increase in the stiffness of the composite but also to an increase in its brittleness. Scanning Electron Microscope analysis is performed, highlighting the multi-scale dependency on types of damage and macroscopic behavior of the composites. Furthermore, flammability tests were performed. They permit certifying the flame retardancy capacity of the electrical composite part. Additionally, fluidity tests are carried out to identify the flow behavior of the melted composite during the polymer injection process. Finally, the cracking resistance is assessed by riveting tests performed on the considered electrical parts produced from composites with different GF reinforcement. The riveting test stems directly from the manufacturing process. Therefore, its results accurately reflect the fragility of the material used.

Impact of the thickness of the wall of optical lenses on the production process stability

The article compares the stability of the production process of plastic optical lenses produced by the injection molding process. Moreover, it evaluates the effects caused by using very thick walls and very thin walls in plastic optical lenses. The injection process are divided into three fundamental stages. The first is the injection of plastic into the mold itself (filling). During this phase, 95–99% of the cavity volume is filled. The second phase is the so-called after-pressure, where the remaining cavity spaces are filled, and the part reaches dimensional stability. The last stage is called cooling. During the final phase, the element is solidified and becomes dimensionally stable in lower temperatures. In the current work, the authors compare the lenses that differ only in the maximum wall thickness. In the experiments, the conditions of changing pressure and injection speed were simulated. During injection, slight changes in the injection parameters may occur due to the random external influences. Those influences include the change in ambient air temperature, voltage fluctuations in the electrical system, machine vibrations, imperfect homogeneity of the material used, etc. The common process parameters that the organization uses by default were used as a basis. The after-pressure and injection pressure were changed to 102%, 105%, 98%, and 95% in the experiments. The results evaluate the proportion of non-conforming products (scrap) that appertain to each change in the parameters of production. The research proves the dependence between the thickness of the lens wall and the stability of the process. Although a higher total waste is expected for thick-walled lenses, the knowledge of the stability of the process in the production of lenses has not yet been recorded though it is a significant indicator for the production planning. It is known that a lower process stability is expected based on the design for these types of elements, and the researrchers were able to take measures to eliminate this risk and thus reduce the total waste and other negative impacts on production. Modifications to the mold can also achieve some improvement in this condition. The first step is to expand the cross-section of the inlet channel gate. The pressure is transmitted to the cavity through this cross-section. Its enlargement ensures a more even distribution of the pressure in the entire volume of the part. Another way to facilitate production is to guarantee optimal cooling of the cavity. It can be achieved by placing the cavity away from the hot runner system so that the cooling can be evenly distributed around each side of the part. The last way to solve the problem of collapse is to create a counter-deformation in the mold. That is to enlarge the cavity so that the lens sinks into the desired shape. These measures may include preventive debugging of the mold for multiple presses in case the press needs to be changed and preferably placing such elements on newer injection molding machines where parameters are less likely to fluctuate and avoiding moving such molds to presses for which they have not been debugged unless necessary. The work aims to prove the dependence between the thickness of the optical lens and the stability of the injection process. While waste percentage, cycle time, and other parameters are considered and quantified at the design stage of the optical lens, process stability has not yet been quantified. Proving the dependence between the above-mentioned phenomena will allow predicting the process stability of new lens designs more precisely.

The Importance of Microemulsion for the Surfactant Injection Process in Enhanced Oil Recovery

Microemulsion is the main parameter that determines the performance of a surfactant injection system. According to Myers, there are four main mechanisms in the enhanced oil recovery (EOR) surfactant injection process, namely interface tension between oil and surfactant, emulsification, decreased interfacial tension and wettability. In the EOR process, the three-phase regions can be classified as type I, upper-phase emulsion, type II, lower-phase emulsion and type III, middle-phase microemulsion. In the middle-phase emulsion, some of the surfactant grains blend with part of the oil phase so that the interfacial tension in the area is reduced. The decrease in interface tension results in the oil being more mobile to produce. Thus, microemulsion is an important parameter in the enhanced oil recovery process.

Novel CO2/N2 Foam Concept and Optimization Scheme for Improving CO2-foam EOR Process

Nitrogen and Carbon dioxide are the most common gases utilized in enhanced oil recovery (EOR) techniques. Most of the gas injection process suffers from the gravity override and viscous fingering resulting in lower oil recovery. Foam is introduced in enhanced oil recovery (EOR) to mitigate these problems encountered during gas flooding. When it comes to the CO2-gas injection the CO2-becomes supercritical at a typical reservoir condition giving it difficulty to form CO2-foam at reservoir condition. The CO2-foam has a common problem to become weaker above its supercritical conditions of 1100 psi and 31°C. As a result, the advantages of using CO2 foam are diminished due to the weakness of CO2-foam at supercritical conditions and results in a lower recovery. However, CO2-foam can be generated by replacing a portion of CO2 with N2 gas. It lacks the understating of mixture properties and its effect on EOR. This study evaluates the performance of CO2/N2 foam at supercritical conditions for EOR. It aims to improve recovery under supercritical conditions by using N2/CO2 mixture foam and optimize the foam quality and CO2/N2 ratio. The results from the experiments showed that the CO2/N2 foam flooding recovered an additional oil of Original Initial Oil in Place (OIIP) indicating that foam flooding succeeded in producing more oil than pure CO2-foam injection processes. Also, the results of foam flooding at different foam quality and CO2/N2 ratio significantly affected the performance and recovery of the process. Hence it is necessary to optimize the CO2/N2 foam parameters flooding process which is affected by the parameters such as foam quality and CO2/N2 ratio. The study also shows an experimental approach for optimizing CO2/N2 foam parameters. The concept of adding N2 to CO2 is a novel way of generating CO2 foam at supercritical conditions. Although investigators are trying different ways to generate the strong and stable CO2- foam, adding N2 to CO2 can be considered to be the easiest way for foam generation as CO2 is always having some impurities in the form of other gases and N2 can be considered as one of such gas helps in generating the foam.

An Experimental Approach and A Signal Processing Method with the Common Rail Injection System of a Diesel Engine

This paper presents a method and results, which studies influences of the fuel flow mode on the pressure oscillation in the volumes of the accumulator fuel system. The fuel is supplied through nozzle holes into a constant volume chamber, which is installed a jet for fuel discharge into the low-pressure line. Results show that the increase in the base pressure value of the fuel accumulator leads to the rise in the slope of the leading edge of the differential characteristics and the maximum dQ/dt value changes closer to the beginning moment of the fuel injection process. At the same time, the control pressure value is a significant parameter that greatly influences the shape of the injection characteristic. In addition, when using the drain orifices with different diameters, received values and differential characteristics vary during the fuel supply process. The differential characteristics of the study are the basis for implementing fuel injection control solutions.

Numerical Optimization of WAG Injection in a Sandstone Field using a Coupled Surface and Subsurface Model

Gas injection is one of the most commonly used enhanced oil recovery (EOR) methods. However, there are multiple problems associated with gas injection including gravity override, viscous fingering, and channeling. These problems are due to an adverse mobility ratio and cause early breakthrough of the gas resulting, in poor recovery efficiency. A Water Alternating Gas (WAG) injection process is recommended to resolve these problems through better mobility control of gas, leading to better project economics. However, poor WAG design and lack of understanding of the different factors that control its performance might result in unfavorable oil recovery. Therefore, this study provides more insight into improving WAG oil recovery by optimizing different surface and subsurface WAG parameters using a coupled surface and subsurface simulator. Moreover, the work investigates the effects of hysteresis on WAG performance. This case study investigates a field named Volve, which is a decommissioned sandstone field in the North Sea. Experimental design of factors influencing WAG performance on this base case was studied. Sensitivity analysis was performed on different surface and subsurface WAG parameters including WAG ratio, time to start WAG, total gas slug size, cycle slug size, and tubing diameter. A full two-level factorial design was used for the sensitivity study. The significant parameters of interest were further optimized numerically to maximize oil recovery. The results showed that the total slug size is the most important parameter, followed by time to start WAG, and then cycle slug size. WAG ratio appeared in some of the interaction terms while tubing diameter effect was found to be negligible. The study also showed that phase hysteresis has little to no effect on oil recovery. Based on the optimization, it is recommended to perform waterflooding followed by tertiary WAG injection for maximizing oil recovery from the Volve field. Furthermore, miscible WAG injection resulted in an incremental oil recovery between 5 to 11% OOIP compared to conventional waterflooding. WAG optimization is case-dependent and hence, the findings of this study hold only for the studied case, but the workflow should be applicable to any reservoir. Unlike most previous work, this study investigates WAG optimization considering both surface and subsurface parameters using a coupled model.