Research on Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition Combustion of Intake Port Exhaust Gas Recirculation Based on Cam Drive Hydraulic Variable Valve Actuation Mechanism

The thermal efficiency of an efficient gasoline engine is only about 40% and it will produce a large number of harmful products. Curbing harmful emissions and enhancing thermal efficiency have always been the goals pursued and emission regulations are also being tightened gradually. As one of the main consumers of fossil fuels, automobile engines must further reduce fuel consumption and emissions to comply with the concept of low-carbon development, which will also help them compete with electric vehicles. Homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) combustion combined with variable valve actuation (VVA) technology is one of the important ways to improve engine emissions and economy. HCCI combustion based on VVA can only be realized at small and medium loads. The actual application on the entire vehicle needs to be combined with spark ignition (SI) combustion to achieve full working condition coverage. Therefore, HCCI combustion needs fast valve response characteristics; however, the valve lift and timing of the existing VVA mechanisms are mostly controlled separately, resulting in poor valve response. In order to solve this problem, the cam driven hydraulic variable valve actuation (CDH-VVA) mechanism was designed. The valve lift and timing can be adjusted at the same time and the switching of valve lift and timing can be completed in 1~2 cycles. A set of combustion mode switching data is selected to show the response characteristics of the CDH-VVA mechanism. When switching from spark ignition (SI) to HCCI, it switches to HCCI combustion after only one combustion cycle and it switches to stable HCCI combustion after two combustion cycles, which proves the fast response characteristics of the CDH-VVA mechanism. At the same time, the CDH-VVA mechanism can form the intake port exhaust gas recirculation (EGR), as one type of internal EGR. This paper studies the HCCI combustion characteristics of the CDH-VVA mechanism in order to optimize it in the future and enable it to realize more forms of HCCI combustion. At 1000 rpm, if the maximum lift of the exhaust valve (MLEV) is higher than 5.0 mm or lower than 1.5 mm, HCCI combustion cannot operate stably, the range of excess air coefficient (λ) is largest when the MLEV is 4.5 mm, ranging from 1.0~1.5. Then, as the MLEV decreases, the range of λ becomes smaller. When the MLEV drops to 1.5 mm, the range of λ shortens to 1.0~1.3. The maximum value of the MLEV remains the same at the three engine speeds (1000 rpm, 1200 rpm and 1400 rpm), which is 5.0 mm. The minimum value of the MLEV gradually climbs as the engine speed increase, 1000 rpm: 1.5 mm, 1200 rpm: 2.0 mm, 1400 rpm: 3.0 mm. With the increase of engine speed, the range of indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP) gradually declines, 3.53~6.31 bar (1000 rpm), 4.11~6.75 bar (1200 rpm), 5.02~6.09 bar (1400 rpm), which proves that the HCCI combustion loads of the intake port EGR are high and cannot be extended to low loads. The cyclic variation of HCCI combustion basically climbs with the decrease of the MLEV and slightly jumps with the increase of the engine speed. At 1000 rpm, when the MLEV is 5.0 mm, the cyclic variation range is 0.94%~1.5%. As the MLEV drops to 1.5 mm, the cyclic variation range rises to 3.5%~4.5%. Taking the maximum value of the MLEV as an example, the cyclic variation range of 1000 rpm is 0.94%~1.5%, 1200 rpm becomes 1.5%~2.3% and 1400 rpm rises to 2.0%~2.5%.

Design and Dynamic Analysis of an Innovative Axial Shift Valvetrain System (ASVS) for Variable Stroke Engine

A variable valvetrain system is the key part of the variable stroke engine (VSE), which could achieve higher power performance and low-speed torque. An innovative axial shift valvetrain system (ASVS) was put forward to meet the air-charging requirements of a 2/4-stroke engine and complete a changeover within one working cycle. Two sets of intake and exhaust cam profiles for both intake and exhaust sides in the 2/4-stoke mode were designed for 2/4-stoke modes. Furthermore, a simulation model based on ADAMS was established to evaluate the dynamic valve motion and the contact force at different engine speeds. The dynamic simulation results show that the valve motion characteristics meet the challenges at the target engine speed of 3000 r/min. In two-stroke mode, the maximum intake valve lift could achieve 7.3 mm within 78°CaA, and the maximum exhaust valve lift could achieve 7.5 within 82°CaA on the exhaust side. In four-stroke mode, the maximum intake valve lift can achieve 8.8 mm within 140°CaA, and the maximum exhaust valve lift can achieve 8.4 mm within 140°CaA. The valve seating speeds are less than 0.3 m/s in both modes, and the fullness coefficients are more than 0.5 and 0.6 in the 2-stroke and 4-stroke mode, respectively. At the engine speed of 3000 r/min, the contact force on each component is acceptable, and the stress between cam and roller can meet the material requirement.

Study on Influencing Factors and Laws of Fuel Injection Consistency of Common Rail Injector

In order to study the influence of parameters of common rail injector internal components on cycle injection consistency, its simulation model is established by AMESim, and the model is validated by the experimental injection rate data. The effects of solenoid valve spring preload, gag bit lift, fuel discharge hole diameter, fuel inlet hole diameter, needle valve lift, needle valve preload and nozzle diameter on the change of injection quantity under different operating conditions are studied by simulation method, and the impact weight of each parameter on fuel injection consistency is analyzed. The results show that the preload of solenoid valve, fuel discharge hole diameter, oil inlet hole diameter, needle valve lift and nozzle diameter are the main parameters affecting the consistency of cycle injection. The percentages of five parameters influencing on the consistency of cyclic injection are 8.68-16.84%, 11.41-23.68%, 17.2086-37.74%, 12.772-18.34% and 9.69-37.27% respectively.

Computational studies of the influence of variable valve timing on the performance of a gas engine with Miller’s thermodynamic cycle

Current development trends in the field of internal combustion engines aim at regulating all processes of the engine and individual units. A converted diesel to gas engine with Miller thermodynamic cycle is more energy efficient at partial loads than a gas engine with Otto thermodynamic cycle. The Miller cycle engine with variable valve timing and valve lift has been investigated to improve performance and energy efficiency across the load range. The aim of the work is to study the influence of the displacement of the valve timing phases of the intake and exhaust camshafts and the valve lift height on the performance of the gas engine with the Miller cycle. Computer modelling was based on data obtained from the full-scale experiment on the gas engine with the Miller thermodynamic cycle.

Simulation of Unsteady Flow Characteristics of the Reciprocating Pump Check Valve for High Pressure and High Flow Water Medium

The distribution efficiency of the check valve directly affects the performance of the reciprocating pump. The flow coefficient is an important evaluation criterion for the flow capacity of the valve port, and it is of great significance to the design of the valve structure and even the control of cavitation. The traditional design uses flow coefficient as a fixed value, however, the flow state and flow coefficient will change during valve movement. In this study, a three-dimensional transient computational fluid dynamic model for high-pressure and large-flow reciprocating pump valve is established. The dynamic grid simulation method of coupling for the valves and plunger is innovatively proposed, and experimental verification was carried out. The flow state and pressure characteristics for the suction valve under high outlet pressure are analyzed, and the change rule of the suction coefficient is found. The research results show that the initial pressure of the plunger cavity prolongs the negative pressure duration of the plunger cavity when the valve is opened and increases the risk of cavitation of the valve. During the process from valve opening to maximum lift, the suction coefficient first increases and then decreases, and finally remains between 0.5 and 0.6. When the valve lift is large, two-stage throttling occurs, and the flow state will change from cylindrical jet on the lower surface of the valve disk to annular jet, which is beneficial to improve the suction coefficient.

An Experimental Study on the Force Coefficient and the Discharge Coefficient of a Safety Valve in Air-water Mixture Flow

Due to the low number of experimental investigations on the sizing of safety valves in multiphase flow, a novel set of measurement data of an air-water mixture is reported. This paper presents an experimental study on three different geometries of safety valves, a poppet valve with jet angle θ = 120°, and two-disc valves with deflection angles θ = 0° and θ = 90°, respectively. Our test rig comprises a pipeline with 42.5 mm inner diameter, spray nozzles to supply the added water quality (water mass fraction) to the pressurized airflow up to 40 % mass fraction and an inlet pressure up to 6.6 bar(g). The time histories of force, valve lift, and pressures were recorded. We present correlation data for the force coefficient and the discharge coefficient. The widely used omega technique for the Homogenous Equilibrium Model (HEM) is employed to predict the theoretical mass flux. The results show that the poppet valve experiences less momentum force and lower mass flow rates compared to disc valves, while the disc valve with deflection angle θ = 90° presents the highest discharged flow rates among the tested geometries. Our most important finding is that up to 60 % relative valve lift and 40 % mass fraction, neither the force nor the discharge coefficient changes significantly compared to the pure-air case. Finally, we propose a new correlation with a single equation for the resultant force and the discharge coefficient as a function of the relative valve lift for all tested water mass fractions.

Unveiling the Flow Behavior Inside GDI Engine Cylinder Using High-Speed Time-Resolved Particle Image Velocimetry and CFD Simulation

RICARDO-VECTIS CFD simulation of the in-cylinder air flow was first validated with those of the experimental results from high-speed particle image velocimetry (PIV) measurements taking cognisant of the mid-cylinder tumble plane. Furthermore, high-speed fuel spray measurements were carried out simultaneously with the intake-generated tumble motion at high valve lift using high-speed time-resolved PIV to chronicle the spatial and time-based development of air/fuel mixture. The effect of injection pressure(32.5 and 35.0 MPa) and pressure variation across the air intake valves(150, 300 and 450 mmH2O) on the interaction process were investigated at valve lift 10 mm where the tumble vortex was fully developed and filled the whole cylinder under steady-state conditions. The PIV results illustrated that the intake generated-tumble motion had a substantial impact on the fuel spray distortion and dispersion inside the cylinder. During the onset of the injection process the tumble motion diverted the spray plume slightly towards the exhaust side before it followed completely the tumble vortex. The fuel spray plume required 7.2 ms, 6.2 ms and 5.9 ms to totally follow the in-cylinder air motion for pressure differences 150, 300 and 450 mmH2O, respectively. Despite, the spray momentum was the same for the same injection pressure, the magnitude of kinetic energy was different for different cases of pressure differences and subsequently the in-cylinder motion strength.

Variable Valve Timing (VVT) Modelling by Lotus Engine Simulation Software

Variable valve timing (VVT) is an advanced modern technique applied in internal combustion engines by altering the valve lift event timing. This work aims to contribute to the continuing industrial VVT development to improve engine efficiency, fuel consumption and performance. To observe the influence on the spark-ignition (SI) engine’s performance, four valve timing strategies are selected carefully by varying the intake and exhaust valve timing. Lotus Engine Simulation, a simulation engineering software, is adapted in this study. The engine characteristics used in this modelling are spark engine, multicylinder, four strokes, port injection fuel system and constant compression ratio. A comparison between a conventional standard exhaust/intake valve timing and three other different timing cases is carried out. Results reveal that the overlap case of 98° showed a good brake-specific fuel consumption by approximately 3% less than the conventional case. An improvement of 6.2% for volume efficiency and 2.9% in brake thermal efficiency is also reported.