Influence of the diesel pilot injector configuration on ethanol combustion and performance of a heavy-duty direct injection engine

Thanks to its properties and production pathways, ethanol represents a valuable alternative to fossil fuels, with potential benefits in terms of CO2, NOx, and soot emission reduction. The resistance to autoignition of ethanol necessitates an ignition trigger in compression-ignition engines for heavy-duty applications, which in the current study is a diesel pilot injection. The simultaneous direct injection of pure ethanol as main fuel and diesel as pilot fuel through separate injectors is experimentally investigated in a heavy-duty single cylinder engine at a low and a high load point. The influence of the nozzle hole number and size of the diesel pilot injector on ethanol combustion and engine performance is evaluated based on an injection timing sweep using three diesel injector configurations. The tested configurations have the same geometric total nozzle area for one, two and four diesel sprays. The relative amount of ethanol injected is swept between 78 – 89% and 91 – 98% on an energy basis at low and high load, respectively. The results show that mixing-controlled combustion of ethanol is achieved with all tested diesel injector configurations and that the maximum combustion efficiency and variability levels are in line with conventional diesel combustion. The one-spray diesel injector is the most robust trigger for ethanol ignition, as it allows to limit combustion variability and to achieve higher combustion efficiencies compared to the other diesel injector configurations. However, the two- and four-spray diesel injectors lead to higher indicated efficiency levels. The observed difference in the ethanol ignition dynamics is evaluated and compared to conventional diesel combustion. The study broadens the knowledge on ethanol mixing-controlled combustion in heavy-duty engines at various operating conditions, providing the insight necessary for the optimization of the ethanol-diesel dual-injection system.

Rate Controlled Constrained-Equilibrium Simulation of Ethanol Combustion Using SVD Derived Constraints

In this study, the fully automatable Approximate Singular Value Decomposition of the Actual Degrees of Disequilibrium (ASVDADD) method is used for combustion modeling of ethanol. Due to the importance of ethanol as one of the most common type of biofuels, modeling its reaction kinetics and chemical composition evolution during combustion is necessary. The detailed kinetic mechanism (DKM) considered here is generated by authors using reaction mechanism generator (RMG) technique and it consists of 66 species and 1031 reactions. Tracking this number of species and chemical reactions in computational fluid dynamic (CFD) analysis of engineering problems is prohibitive. To alleviate this issue, Rate-Controlled Constrained-Equilibrium (RCCE) model reduction scheme for chemical kinetics is employed. It describes the evolution of a complex chemical system with acceptable accuracy with a number of rates controlling constraints on the associated constrained-equilibrium states of the system, much lower than the number of species in the underlying DKM. Successful approximation of the constrained equilibrium states requires accurate identification of the constraints. One promising procedure is the ASVDADD method that is capable of identifying the best constraints for a given range of thermodynamic conditions and a required level of approximation. ASVDADD is based on simple algebraic analysis of the results of the underlying DKM simulation and is focused on the behavior of the degrees of disequilibrium (DoD) of the individual chemical reactions. In this paper, ASVDADD is used to derive the RCCE constraints and ethanol combustion is modeled using both DKM and RCCE. Comparison of RCCE results with those of DKM shows the effectiveness of the ASVDADD derived constraints which demonstrates the potential of the RCCE method for combustion modeling of heavy and complex fuels.

PSIV-25 Development of an indirect calorimetry system to determine heat production in individual lactating sows

Determining total heat production (THP) in individual sows and litters can be difficult and often requires the use of multiple animals to generate data on a per room basis. These systems may be costly to construct precluding their use by many researchers. The study objective was to develop a low cost indirect calorimetry system to determine THP in individual lactating sows and litters. Six indirect calorimeters were constructed to house 1 sow and litter in a crate throughout farrowing and a 21-d lactation period. Chamber accuracies for O2 and CO2 were evaluated by ethanol combustion. One-week pre-farrowing, 6 pregnant multiparous sows (parity 2.9 ± 0.9; 218.3 ± 38.6 kg BW) were housed individually in each farrowing crate and maintained in thermoneutral conditions (20.9 ± 2.6°C and 43.7 ± 18.6% relative humidity) throughout lactation. On lactation d 4, 8, 14, and 18, indirect calorimetry was performed on all sows and their litters, as well as 2 piglets from a sentinel litter to determine THP. Sentinel piglet data were used to estimate THP for the sows independent of the litter. Sow + litter THP (kcal/h) increased (P = 0.01; 16.6%) on d 8 compared to d 4 and was greater (27.3%) on d 14 and d 18 compared to d 4 and d 8. Sow THP was greater (P = 0.01) on d 8 (401.19 ± 17.15 kcal/h) and d 14 (430.79 ± 12.42 kcal/h) compared to d 4 (346.16 ± 16.62 kcal/h), and was greater on d 14 compared to d 8 and on d 18 (386.16 ± 20.02 kcal/h) compared to d 14. In summary, this cost-effective system can allow researchers to accurately evaluate THP in individual lactating sows and their litters

PHYSICO-CHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF COMPOSITES ON THE BASE OF CERIA OBTAINED BY A CITRIC ACID METHOD

Composites with the formula nMOx–СеО2, where n is the mole part of copper or manganese oxide have been synthesized via citric acid aided route. Physico-chemical properties of materials obtained are investigated by XRD, low temperature desorption of nitrogen and by temperature-programmed reduction (TPR). It is defined that the composites with the n < 0.25 (for Cu) and < 0.75 (Mn) are the solid solutions obtained by the replacement of cerium ions in the structure of fluorite (СеО2) by copper or manganese ions. The existence of the separate phases of oxides such as CuO and Mn3O4 has been identified in the XRD patterns of composites with formula 0.25CuО–СеО2 and 0.75MnOx–СеО2. The parameters of cell and the particles size for all samples are calculated; decreasing these values occurs due to the solid solutions formation. Specific area of composites obtained is much bigger than specific area of individual oxides; the biggest values are determined for the samples containing the biggest part of copper or manganese oxide. According to TPR profiles of composites themaximal intensity of low temperature peak has the composite 0.25CuО–СеО2 that means the biggest part of the solid solution; so this material is the most active in CO and ethanol combustion. This fact can be explained by appearance of additional oxygen vacancies when ions Ce4+ are replacement by ions with the less oxidation state. The quantities of hydrogen used for reduction of samples with the copper oxide and samples with the manganese oxide with n < 0.5 are much bigger than the theoretical values; in this case the reduction of the part of ceria in the solid solution is happened. The composite 0.25MnOx–CeO2 is the most active in the ethanol combustion; full conversion to CO2 is finished at 205°С. The high activity of individual oxide MnOx and the composite 0.75MnOx–СеО2 in the reaction of toluene oxidation explains by the biggest part of Mn3+ ions in their structure among the all oxides investigated.