Search Results

Fleet managers need a tool to assist them in assessing their need to comply with EPAct and to provide them with the ability to obtain information that will allow them to make alternative fuel vehicle purchasing decisions. This paper will describe the Web-based tool that will inform a fleet manager, based on their geographic location, the type of fleet they own or operate, and the number and types of vehicles in their fleet, whether or not they need to meet the requirements of EPAct, and, if so, the percentage of new vehicle purchases needed to comply with the law. The tool provides detailed specifications on available OEM alternative fuel vehicles, including the purchase cost of the vehicles, fuel and fuel system characteristics, and incentives and rebates surrounding the purchase of each vehicle. The full set of federal, state, and local incentives is made available through the tool, as well as detailed access to refueling site and dealership locations.

The blue and white smoke (cold smoke) emitted from diesel engines during warm up at low temperatures and idling conditions contains pollutant gases which irritate eyes and nose, and reductions in this irritating, odorous gas have become important with the increasing numbers of DI diesel engine vehicles. To assess the blue and white smoke a qualitative assessment method is necessary, though, there are no simple and exact measuring methods. In this study a new assessment method using a digital camera and photo analysis system with a computer is introduced. With this method the luminance of the cold smoke is displayed as 8 bit data, and a quantitative evaluation is simple, when the influence of sunshine is corrected for the smoke luminance. This paper describes the correction method for the sunshine illumination and the technique for taking the photographs.

The objective of the work described here is to test the performance of closed-loop controlled, heavy-duty CNG engines in-use, on fuels of different methane content; and to compare their performance with similar diesel vehicles. Performance is measured in terms of pollutant emissions, fuel economy, and driveability. To achieve this objective, three buses powered by closed-loop controlled, dedicated natural gas engines were tested on the heavy-duty chassis dynamometer facility at the Colorado Institute for Fuels and High Altitude Engine Research (CIFER). Emissions of regulated pollutants (CO, NOx, PM, and THC or NMHC), as well as emissions of alde-hydes for some vehicles, are reported. Two fuels were employed: a high methane fuel (90%) and a low methane fuel (85%). It was found that the NOx, CO, and PM emissions for a given cycle and vehicle are essentially constant for different methane content fuels.

The objective of this project, which is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) through the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), is to provide a comprehensive comparison of heavy-duty trucks operating on alternative fuels and diesel fuel. Data collection from up to eight sites is planned. Currently, the project has four sites: Raley's in Sacramento, CA (Kenworth, Cummins L10-300G, liquefied natural gas - LNG); Pima Gro Systems, Inc. in Fontana, CA (White/GMC, Caterpillar 3176B Dual-Fuel, compressed natural gas - CNG); Waste Management in Washington, PA (Mack, Mack E7G, LNG); and United Parcel Service in Hartford, CT (Freightliner Custom Chassis, Cummins B5.9G, CNG). This paper summarizes current data collection and evaluation results from this project.

During 1998, the US Federal authority introduced a requirement for vehicles powered by heavy duty diesel engines that NOx emissions shall be less than 4 g/bhp.h. This represents a 20% reduction over current levels and has prompted significant further hardware changes. As a result of these increasingly tighter NOx emission constraints, soot loading of diesel engine lubricants - due to retarded fuel injection, is becoming an ever more significant issue in crankcase lubricant formulation. For this reason, increased understanding is required of the mechanism of soot particle aggregation and resultant aggregate morphology - together with the likely consequences for the performance of soot-laden lubricants, for viscosity increase, filter blocking, sludging and (directly or indirectly) - soot-induced wear. We describe here a combined experimental and simulation approach to screening formulated lubricants and characterising soot aggregate structures.

A model has been developed for estimating the oil vaporization rate from the cylinder liner of a reciprocating engine. The model uses input from an external cycle simulator and an external liner oil film thickness model. It allows for the change in oil composition and the change in oil film thickness due to vaporization. It also estimates how the passage of the compression and scraper rings combine with the vaporization to influence the steady-state composition of the oil layer in the upper ring pack. Computer model results are presented for a compression-ignition engine using a range of liner temperatures, several engine speeds, and two different oils. Vaporization is found to be highly dependent on liner temperature and steady-state oil composition. The steady-state oil composition near the top of the cylinder is found to be significantly different than the composition of the oil near the bottom of the cylinder.

Traction machines have been frequently used to study the rheological properties of lubricants in elasto-hydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) contacts. Fundamental properties are inferred from EHL traction measurements based on the average pressures and temperatures in the contact. This average approach leads to uncertainty in the accuracy of the results due to the highly nonlinear response of fluid rheological behavior to both pressure and temperature. A non-averaging method is developed in this paper to determine the elastic and plastic properties of traction fluids operating in EHL contacts at small slide-to-roll ratios. A precision line-contact traction rig is used to measure the EHL traction at a given oil temperature and Hertz pressure. By choosing a sensible pressure-property expression, the parameters of the expression can be determined through the initial slope and peak traction coefficient of the traction measurements.

Diesel soot interacts with the engine oil and leads to wear of engine parts. Engine oil additives play a crucial role in preventing wear by forming the anti-wear film between the wearing surfaces. The current study was aimed at investigating the interactions between engine soot and oil properties in order to develop high performance oils for diesel engines equipped with exhaust gas re-circulation (EGR). The effect of soot contaminated oil on wear of engine components was examined using a statistically designed experiment. To quantitatively analyze and simulate the extent of wear a three-body wear machine was designed and developed. The qualitative wear analysis was performed by examining the wear scars on an AISI 52100 stainless steel ball worn in the presence of oil test samples on a ball-on-flat disc setup. The three oil properties studied were base stock, dispersant level and zinc dithiophosphate level.

Performance and emissions of an LPG lean burn engine for heavy duty vehicles were measured. The piston cavity, swirl ratio, propane - butane fuel ratio, and EGR were varied to investigate their effects on combustion, and thus engine performance. Three piston cavities were tested: a circular flat-bottomed cavity with sloped walls (called the “bathtub” cavity), a round bottomed cavity (called the “dog dish” cavity), and a special high-turbulence cavity (called the “nebula” cavity). Compared to the bathtub and dog dish cavities, the nebula type cavity showed the best performance in terms of cyclic variation and combustion duration. It was capable of maintaining leaner combustion, thus resulting in the lowest NOx emissions. High swirl improved combustion by achieving a high thermal efficiency and low NOx emissions. In general, as the propane composition increased, cyclic variation fell, NOx emissions increased, and thermal efficiency was improved.

Synthetic diesel fuel can be made from a variety of feedstocks, including coal, natural gas and biomass. Synthetic diesel fuels can have very low sulfur and aromatic content, and excellent autoignition characteristics. Moreover, synthetic diesel fuels may also be economically competitive with California diesel fuel if produced in large volumes. Previous engine laboratory and field tests using a heavy-duty chassis dynamometer indicate that synthetic diesel fuel made using the Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) catalytic conversion process is a promising alternative fuel because it can be used in unmodified diesel engines, and can reduce exhaust emissions substantially. The objective of this study was a preliminary assessment of the emissions from older model transit operated on Mossgas synthetic diesel fuel. The study compared emissions from transit buses operating on Federal no. 2 Diesel fuel, Mossgas synthetic diesel (MGSD), and a 50/50 blend of the two fuels.

One of the most important handicaps when using the oil analysis technique for predictive maintenance, is the processing of the results. The oil analysis technique allows obtaining relevant information about the state of the lubricant, the engine and other auxiliary elements. However, it is necessary, to process this information and to define the references with which the numerical results obtained must be compared. In the system considered the different analyses performed on the oil sample have been divided into three different types: oil properties, oil contaminants and engine wear elements. Consequently, each type of result is evaluated in a different way. Finally, the evaluation process of the different analyses allows the system to qualify each analysis with a numerical value which will be used in an expert system.

The possibility of predicting engine bearing durability by elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) calculations was investigated with the aim of being able to improve durability efficiently without conducting numerous confirmation tests. This study focused on the connecting rod big-end bearing of an automotive engine. The mechanisms of wear and fatigue, which determine bearing durability, were estimated by comparing the results of EHL analysis and experimental data. This comparison showed the possibility of predicting the wear amount and the occurrence of fatigue by calculation.

The objective of the work presented here is to evaluate the potential of rape oil methyl ester (RME) to improve the combustion process in a high-speed direct injection (HSDI) Diesel engine equipped with high-pressure common-rail injection system. The study, based on the comparison of three different fuels (standard gas-oil, RME and 30% RME/gas-oil mixture), takes into account the main aspects that control Diesel combustion, from the injection rate characteristics to the spray behaviour characterised using an optical pressurised chamber. This global study of the whole injection-combustion process allows identifying some causes of the decrease in pollutant emissions observed when the engine operates with RME.

Four 1998 Mitsubishi Carismas, two equipped with direct injection and two with port fuel injection engines, were tested in 20,100 km intervals to determine the effect of mileage accumulation cycle, engine type, fuel and lubricant on vehicle deposits and emissions, acceleration and driveability performance. The program showed that engine fuel system deposits, including specifically those on intake valves, combustion chambers and injectors are formed in higher amounts in the GDI engine than the PFI engine. The fuel additive used reduced injector deposits and combustion chamber deposits in the GDI, but had no significant effect on intake valve deposits, which are affected by crankcase oil formulation. In GDI vehicles, deposited engines were found to have increased hydrocarbon and carbon monoxide emissions and poorer fuel economy and acceleration, but lower particulate emissions.

A combination of various different fuel additive qualities and lubricant qualities were evaluated in a Mitsubishi direct injection gasoline engined vehicle over a standardized road test route using a controlled driving regime. The evaluation was conducted using a matrix of a single base fuel combined with two inlet system detergent additives; one prepared using a synthetic fluidiser base and one a mineral oil fluidiser base. In addition a mineral and a synthetic based crank case lubricant were evaluated with clear base fuel only. Engine inlet and exhaust valve deposits and combustion chamber deposits were measured along with regulated emissions, fuel economy and injector fouling. Methods of measuring and evaluating deposit build up in the inlet and exhaust system and combustion chamber were constructed by developing existing Coordinating European Council (CEC) test methods and in house derived test methods and protocols.

Squish flow control is well known as a key technology for improving knock limit in spark ignition engines. However, to acquire a sufficient squish area in a four-valve engine is difficult. In order to achieve a maximum effect of knock suppression with a minimum squish area, we have developed, what we call, a Slant Squish Combustion Chamber for new engines. A slant squish compared with a conventional squish produces an effective reverse squish flow in the early expansion stroke, resulting in higher flow velocity and turbulence. Furthermore, flame propagation to squish area and end gas is accelerated. These improvements are considered to suppress the knock phenomenon. Consequently, with a slant squish, a high compression ratio, to achieve low fuel consumption and high engine performance is realized.

In this study it is tried to reduce NOx and particulate emissions simultaneously in a direct injection diesel engine based on the concept of two-stage combustion. At initial combustion stage, NOx emission is reduced with fuel rich combustion. At diffusion combustion stage, particulate emission is reduced with high turbulence combustion. The high squish combustion chamber with reduced throat diameter is used to realize two-stage combustion. This combustion chamber is designed to produce strong squish that causes high turbulence. When throat diameter of the high squish combustion chamber is reduced to some extent, simultaneous reduction of NOx and particulate emissions is achieved with less deterioration of fuel consumption at retarded injection timing. Further reduction of NOx emission is realized by reducing the cavity volume of the high squish combustion chamber. Analysis by endoscopic high speed photography and CFD calculation describes the experimental results.

Increasing concern about the impact of internal combustion engines on the environment has led to ever more stringent emission legislation, and the introduction of more sophisticated equipment to enable the requirements to be achieved. One way of improving the emissions from direct injection (DI) diesel engines is to use multi-stage fuel injection, and an investigation performed on such a system is reported in this paper. In this case, the multi-stage fuel injector caused an increase in the exhaust smoke at low load, and an in-cylinder photographic technique was used to examine why this occurred. A multi-stage fuel injector with a VCO nozzle was fitted to a small, high-speed, direct injection diesel engine fitted with a transparent piston for optical access. The combustion process was filmed using a high-speed 16 mm cine camera, and the fuel injection process was illuminated by a high power, copper-vapour laser.

A six-stroke DI diesel engine proposed by the authors had second compression and combustion processes which were added on a conventional four-stroke diesel engine. This engine had the first and second power strokes before the exhaust stroke. Numerical predictions and experiments previously carried out had shown that this six-stroke diesel engine could reduce NO exhaust emission. Further, the ignition delay of the second combustion process could be shortened by a high temperature effect in the second compression stroke. This advantage of short ignition delay could be utilized for an ignition improvement of a fuel with low cetane number. In the engine system reported here, a conventional diesel fuel was supplied as the fuel of first combustion process, and in the second combustion process, methanol was supplied.

Four 1998 Mitsubishi Carismas, two equipped with direct injection (GDI) and two with port fuel injection engines (PFI) were tested in a designed experiment to determine the effect of mileage accumulation cycle, engine type, fuel and lubricant type on engine wear and engine oil performance parameters. Fuel types were represented by an unadditised base fuel meeting EEC year 2000 specifications and the same base fuel plus synthetic deposit control additive packages. Crankcase oils were represented by two types (1) a 5W-30 API SJ/ILSAC GF-2 type engine oil and (2) a 10W-40 API SH/CF ACEA A3/ B3-96 engine oil. The program showed that specific selection of oil additive chemistry may reduce formation of intake valve deposits in GDI cars.. In general, G-DI engines produced more soot and more pentane insolubles and were found to be more prone to what appears to be soot induced wear than PFI engines.