Automotive Science and Engineering

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The HCCI combustion process is initiated due to auto-ignition of fuel/air mixture which is dominated by chemical kinetics and therefore fuel composition has a significant effect on engine operation and a detailed reaction mechanism is essential to analysis HCCI combustion. A single zone-model permits to have a detailed chemical kinetics modeling for practical fuels. In this study a single-zone thermodynamic model with detail chemical mechanism is developed to investigate the effect of hydrogen addition to natural gas in a homogeneous charge compression ignition combustion and to analyze the performance and emissions of the HCCI engine. The effect of five different percentage of hydrogen added to natural gas ranging from 0 to 40 on HCCI combustion is investigated in this study. The results indicate that by increasing hydrogen portion in intake mixture, start of combustion advances and maximum temperature increase, but increasing in maximum pressure is negligible. Carbon’s included emissions such as Co, Co2 and unburned hydrocarbons decreases by increasing of hydrogen, and also, specific fuel consumption decreases. The result shows that hydrogen improves combustion characteristics of natural gas in an HCCI engine and leads to better performance and less emissions.

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A newly developed heavy duty diesel engine in dual fuel mode of operation has been studied in detail. The main fuel would be natural gas and diesel oil as pilot injection. The importance and effects of mixture preparation and formation through ports, valves and in cylinder flow field with different swirl ratio and tumble on diesel combustion phenomena is an accepted feature which has been studied using a developed CFD model together with a KIVA3-V2 code. This analysis is capable to investigate engine geometry, valves lift, and valves timing turbo charging, and its effects on dynamic flow field with variable dual fuel ratio on power and emission levels output. This complete open cycle study of a dual fuel engine has been carried out originally and for the first time and by considering complete grid consisted of four moving valves, two intake ports, two exhaust ports, and the port runners. It is found that important complex flow structures are developed during the intake stroke. While many of these structures decay during the compression stroke, swirl and tumble can survive. The effect of increased swirl ratio at the end of the compression stroke for the D87 engine with a piston bowl is clearly observed in this study. This is important for aiding in good fuel spray atomization. The formation, development, and break-up of tumble flow are seen, contributing to an increase in turbulent kinetic energy at the end of the compression stroke. The complete engine flow field, i.e. the inlet jet, and formation of swirl in the intake ports, is also clearly shown in the study. Results of these simulations assist in the improved understanding of the intake process and its influence on mixture formation and flow field in a dual fuel engine.

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Homogenous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) engines hold promise of high fuel efficiency and low emission levels for future green vehicles. But in contrast to gasoline and diesel engines, HCCI engines suffer from lack of having direct means to initiate combustion. A combustion timing controller with robust tracking performance is the key requirement to leverage HCCI application in production vehicles. In this paper, a two-state control-oriented model is developed to predict HCCI combustion timing for a range of engine operation. The experimental validation of the model confirms the accuracy of the model for HCCI control applications. An optimal integral state feedback controller is designed to control the combustion timing by modulating the ratio of two fuels. Optimization methods are used in order to determine the controller’s parameters. The results demonstrate the designed controller can reach optimal combustion timing within about two engine cycles, while showing good robustness to physical disturbances.

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Porous media has interesting features in compared with free flame combustion due to the extended of the lean flammability limits and lower emissions. Advanced new generation of internal combustion (IC) engines are expected to have far better emissions levels both gaseous and particulate matter, at the same time having far lower fuel consumption on a wide range of operating condition. These criteria could be improved having a homogeneous combustion process in an engine. Present work considers simulation of direct fuel injection in an IC engine equipped with a chemically inert porous medium (PM), having cylindrical geometry that is installed in cylinder head to homogenize and stabilize the combustion process. A numerical study of a 3D model, PM engine is carried out using a modified version of the KIVA-3V code. Since there is not any published material for PM-engines in literature, the numerical results for combustion waves propagation within PM are compared with experimental data available in the literature for a lean mixture of air and methane under filtration in packed bed, the accuracy of results are very promising. For PM-engine simulation the methane fuel is injected directly through a hot PM which is mounted in cylinder head. Therefore volumetric combustion occurs as a result within PM and in-cylinder. The effects of injection timing on mixture formation, pressure and temperature distribution in both phases of PM and incylinder fluid together with combustion emissions such as CO and NO are studied in detail for an important part of the cycle.