INITIAL RESULTS ON A NEW LIGHT-DUTY 2.7L OPPOSED-PISTON GASOLINE COMPRESSION IGNITION MULTI-CYLINDER ENGINE

Gasoline compression ignition (GCI) is a cost-effective approach to achieving diesel-like efficiencies with low emissions. 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 emonstrate 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 designed for light-duty truck applications. Successful GCI operation calls for high compression ratio, leading to higher combustion stability at low-loads, higher efficiencies, and lower cycle HC+NOX emissions. Initial results show a cycle average brake thermal efficiency of 31.7%, which is already greater than 11% conventional engines, after only ten weeks of testing. Emissions results suggest that Tier 3 Bin 160 levels can be achieved using a traditional diesel after-treatment system. Combustion noise was well controlled at or below the USCAR limits. In addition, initial results on catalyst light-off mode with GCI are also presented.

Effects of methane ratio on MPDF (micro-pilot dual-fuel) combustion characteristic in a heavy-duty single cylinder engine

In this study, the characteristics of micro-pilot dual-fuel combustion with respect to the fuel mixture ratio in a single cylinder dual-fuel engine have been investigated. In order to analyze the characteristics of micro-pilot dual-fuel combustion, a metal engine and an optical single cylinder dual-fuel engine were used. The fuel mixture ratio was varied for experimental purposes; the diesel was directly injected into combustion chamber and the methane gas was supplied via intake port. The present study reports that increasing the methane mixture ratio from 0 to 97.67% changes the diesel combustion to pre-mixed combustion. As a result, the peak cylinder pressure was increased from 184 to 198 bar, and the rate of heat release was greatly advanced. In the MPDF condition, the nitrogen oxides emissions were reduced by about 90%p, and the fuel conversion efficiency increased about 5%p because of the low combustion temperature of pre-mixed combustion. However, for the same reason, the hydrocarbon emissions were increased about 95%p. The fastest combustion speed was found form the results of methane mixture ratio between 40 and 80%. In the condition of diesel combustion and micro-pilot dual-fuel combustion, the combustion periods of middle and initial were increased, respectively, resulting in the low combustion speed. The standard deviation of peak cylinder pressure, which represents the combustion variation, was correlated with initial combustion period. While the condition of methane gas mixture ratio between 40 and 80% shows the lowest combustion variation, the highest combustion variation was occurred by MPDF condition. Through the optical engine experiment, it can be found that the cycle to cycle combustion variation is ascribed to the turbulent flow and the variation of ignition position. The combustion images show that the unpredictable characteristics of the ignition position and slow flame propagation speed caused the combustion variation in micro-pilot dual-fuel combustion.

Predicting the Combustion Phasing of a Natural Gas Spark Ignition Engine Using the K-Nearest Neighbors Algorithm

Location of the peak cylinder pressure and the crank angle associated with half of the energy releases during the combustion process are generally used to define the engine combustion phasing and control the engine efficiency. To accelerate the optimization of a natural gas spark ignition internal combustion engine, this study proposes a black box modeling approach that will reduce the experimental or computational time needed to estimate the high efficient operating conditions at a particular engine speed and load via combustion phasing information. Specifically, a k-nearest neighbors (KNN) algorithm applied key engine operating variables such as the spark timing, air-fuel ratio, and engine speed as inputs to predict combustion phasing parameters such as the crank angles associated with peak cylinder pressure and 50% energy release. After training the correlative model, the selected engine variables produced acceptable errors for most operating conditions investigated. The results showed that the KNN algorithm predicted much better the location of the peak pressure than the location of the 50% energy release, as evidenced by the larger R2 values and smaller prediction errors. In addition, the regression model built in this study produced larger errors in the sparse-distributed region. Therefore, a more uniformly distributed training dataset is suggested for KNN algorithm, at least for the situations investigated in this research.

Method for Estimating Compression Ratio and Heat Transfer Multiplier Using GT-Power and Experimental Pressure Traces

Crank-angle resolved cylinder pressure data is valuable for characterizing engine performance and various techniques have been developed for post-processing the pressure traces to understand the rate of heat release and its overall impact on engine performance. However, many of these techniques rely on accurate knowledge of the compression ratio, which may not be well-known because of uncertainties in component dimensions for new and rebuilt engines. Additionally, uncertainties in cylinder pressure referencing and top dead center (TDC) offset can lead to variation in the calculation of these parameters. A method was developed to estimate the compression ratio and heat transfer sensitivity for large bore diesel engines using GT-Power and experimental cylinder pressure traces. An injector cutout method was used on a 228.6mm bore 16-cylinder engine to record motoring cylinder pressure traces for an individual cylinder. The cylinder pressure traces were pegged thermodynamically by matching the slope of a 40-deg window of the compression trace with that of a GT-power simulation of a similar condition. Once the cylinder pressure was properly referenced, it was found that the compression ratio of the cylinder could be estimated by matching the slope of the compression trace over a larger crank angle window. Additionally, it is shown that the location of peak cylinder pressure is dependent on heat transfer and if the location of peak cylinder pressure relative to top dead center is accurately known, then the heat transfer coefficients in GT-Power can be estimated. For an engine where the exact compression ratio may not be known due to variations in hardware dimensions (for both new and rebuilt engines), this method provides a simple path to estimating compression ratio. Furthermore, by measuring the exact location of TDC and comparing that to the location of peak cylinder pressure, heat transfer can be estimated.

The Influence of Cycle-to-Cycle Hydrocarbon Emissions on Cyclic NO:NO2 Ratio From a HSDI Diesel Engine

Knowledge of the NO:NO2 ratio emitted from a diesel engine is particularly important for ensuring the highest performance of SCR NOx aftertreatment systems. As real driving emissions from vehicles increase in importance, the need to understand the NO:NO2 ratio emitted from a diesel engine during transient operation similarly increases. Previous work by the authors identified significant differences in NO:NO2 ratio throughout the exhaust period of a single engine cycle, with proportionally more NO2 being emitted during the blowdown period compared to the rest of the exhaust stroke. At the time it was not known what caused this effect. In this study, crank-angle resolved NO and NO2 measurements using fast response CLD (for NO) and a new fast LIF instrument (for NO2) have been taken from a single cylinder high-speed light duty diesel engine at three different speed and load points including a point with and without EGR. In addition, crank-angle resolved unburned hydrocarbon (UHC) measurements have been taken simultaneously using a fast FID. The NOx emitted per cycle and the peak cylinder pressure of that cycle have showed high correlation coefficients (R2 < 0.97 at all test points) in this work. In addition, a variation of the NO:NO2 ratio through the engine’s exhaust stroke is also observed indicative of in-cylinder stratification of NO and NO2. A new link between the NO:NO2 ratio and the UHC emissions from an individual engine cycle is observed — the results show that where there are higher levels of UHC emissions in the first part of the exhaust stroke (blowdown), perhaps caused by injector dribble or release from crevices, the proportion of NO2 emitted from that cycle is increased. This effect is observed and analysed across all test points and with and without EGR. The performance of the new fast LIF analyser has also been evaluated, in comparison with the previous state-of-the-art and standard “slow” emissions measurement apparatus showing a reduction in the noise of the measurement by an order of magnitude.

Experimental Study on Combustion and Performance of a Natural Gas-Diesel Dual-Fuel Engine at Different Pilot Diesel Injection Timing

The pilot diesel injection timing (θ) significantly affects the combustion and performance of dual-fuel (DF) engines. In order to optimize the θ of a natural gas-diesel DF engine, the influence of θ on combustion, cyclic variation, and performance of a diesel engine fueled with natural gas piloted by diesel under full load at 1200 rpm was investigated. The results indicate that, with the advance in θ, the cylinder pressure, rate of pressure rise (ROPR), and heat release rate (HRR) increase first and then decrease. The mean value of peak cylinder pressure (pmax) rises and the standard deviation increases first and then decreases. The distribution of the crank angle of peak cylinder pressure (φ(pmax)) scatters and approaches the top dead center. The coefficient of variation (COV) in pmax decreases first and then increases while the COV in φ(pmax) obviously increases. The brake power increases first and then decreases while the brake specific fuel consumption (b.s.f.c.) reduces first and then rises. The CO2 and NOx emissions rise first and then reduce while smoke emission decreases first and then increases, but the CO and HC rise.

Experimental Investigation of Diesel Engine Performance, Combustion and Emissions Using a Novel Series of Dioctyl Phthalate (DOP) Biofuels Derived from Microalgae

Physico-chemical properties of microalgae biodiesel depend on the microalgae species and oil extraction method. Dioctyl phthalate (DOP) is a clear, colourless and viscous liquid as a plasticizer. It is used in the processing of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) resin and polymers. A new potential biofuel, hydrothermally liquefied microalgae bio-oil can contain nearly 11% (by mass) of DOP. This study investigated the feasibility of using up to 20% DOP blended in 80% diesel fuel (v/v) in an existing diesel engine, and assessed the performance and exhaust emissions. Despite reasonable differences in density, viscosity, surface tension, and boiling point, blends of DOP and diesel fuel were found to be entirely miscible and no separation was observed at any stage during prolonged miscibility tests. The engine test study found a slight decrease in peak cylinder pressure, brake, and indicated mean effective pressure, indicated power, brake power, and indicated and brake thermal efficiency with DOP blended fuels, where the specific fuel consumption increased. This is due to the presence of 16.4% oxygen in neat DOP, responsible for the relatively lower heating value, compared to that of diesel. The emission tests revealed a slight increase in nitrogen oxides (NOx) and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions from DOP blended fuels. However, particulate matter (PM) emissions were lower from DOP blended fuels, although some inconsistency in particle number (PN) was present among different engine loads.

Cycle-to-Cycle NO and NOx Emissions From a HSDI Diesel Engine

Engine-out NOx emissions from diesel engines continue to be a major topic of research interest. While substantial understanding has been obtained of engine-out (i.e., before any aftertreatment) NOx formation and reduction techniques, not least exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) which is now well established and fitted to production vehicles, much less data are available on cycle resolved NOx emissions. In this work, crank-angle resolved NO and NOx measurements have been taken from a high-speed light duty diesel engine at test conditions both with and without EGR. These have been combined with 1D data of exhaust flow, and this used to form a mass average of NO and NOx emissions per cycle. These results have been compared with combustion data and other emissions. The results show that there is a very strong correlation (R2 > 0.95) between the NOx emitted per cycle and the peak cylinder pressure of that cycle. In addition, the crank-angle resolved NO and NOx measurements also reveal that there is a difference in NO : NO2 ratio (where NO2 is assumed to be the difference between NO and NOx) during the exhaust period, with proportionally more NO2 being emitted during the blowdown period compared to the rest of the exhaust stroke.

A Comparative Assessment of Operating Characteristics of a Diesel Engine Using 20% Proportion of Different Biodiesel Diesel Blend

The objective of the present work is to find out the viable substitute fuel for diesel and control of pollutants from compression ignition engines. Therefore, in this present investigation an attempt has been made to study the effect of 20% proportion of five different biodiesel diesel blend in diesel engine. The 20% proportion of biodiesel such as Jatropha, Pongamia, Mahua, Annona and Nerium and 80% of diesel and it is denoted as J20, P20, M20, A20 and N20 are used in the present investigation. The experimental results showed that the brake thermal efficiency of the different biodiesel blend is slightly lower when compared to neat diesel fuel. However, N20 blend, have shown improvement in performance and reduction in exhaust emissions than that of other biodiesel diesel blends. From, the experimental work, it is found that biodiesel can be used up to 20% and 80% of diesel engine without any major modification. The conducted experiments were conducted on a four cylinder four stroke DI and turbo charged diesel engine using biodiesel blends of waste oil, rapeseed oil, and corn oil with normal diesel. The peak cylinder pressure of the engine running with bio diesel was slightly higher than that of diesel. The experiments were conducted on a four cylinder four stroke diesel engine using bio diesel made from corn oil.

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

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.