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Time resolved exhaust port sampling results show that the gas mixture in the port at exhaust valve closing contains high concentrations of hydrocarbons. These hydrocarbons are mixed with hot in-cylinder gases during blowdown and can react either via gas phase kinetics in the exhaust port/runner system or subsequently on the exhaust catalyst before they are emitted. Studies were conducted on a single cylinder, four stroke engine in our laboratory to determine the interaction between the hot blowdown gases and the hydrocarbons which remain in the exhaust port. A preselected concentration and volume of hydrocarbon tracers (propane, propene, n-butane, and 1-butene) in either oxygen/nitrogen mixtures or pure nitrogen were injected into the exhaust port just behind the exhaust valve to control the initial conditions for any potential oxidation in the port.

An experimental study was carried out to characterize the exhaust flow structure inside the closed-coupled catalytic converter, which is installed on a firing four-cylinder 12-valve passenger car gasoline engine. Simultaneous velocity and pressure measurements were taken using cycle-resolved Laser Doppler anemometer (LDA) technique and pressure transducer. A small fraction of titanium (IV) iso-propoxide was dissolved in gasoline to generate titanium dioxide during combustion as seeding particles for the LDA measurements. It was found that the velocity is highly fluctuating due to the pulsating nature of the engine exhaust flow, which strongly depends on the engine operating conditions and the measuring locations. The pressure oscillation is correlated with the transient exhaust flow characteristics. The main exhaust flow event from each cylinder can only be observed at the certain region in front of the monolith brick.

The reduction of emissions of future SI engines is of prime importance for their development. Hence, investigations of the formation of unburned hydrocarbons in SI engines have been the subject of intensive research for many years. The scope of this work was to investigate several pistons with different top land geometry with respect to the potential of HC reduction. The observation of flame intrusion into the top land crevice was enabled by an optical fiber measurement technique. For this, six optical probes were inserted into the cylinder liner of a production four-cylinder SI engine. The emissions were detected with a conventional exhaust gas measuring system. The results of the investigation show reductions of about 30% in the HC emission. The flame intrusion depth and the frequency of intrusion are clearly dependent on the top land geometry.

A series of experimental studies has been conducted to make clear the characteristics of a new type of diesel sprays, which are injected from an elliptic nozzle. The spray counter has been visualized by Laser induced fluorescence method. An instrument based on the Laser Diffraction principle was used to detect the droplet size of the sprays and a LDV system was used to measure the air entrainment. The fuel was provided from an accumulator pressurized with nitrogen. Four elliptic nozzles with different aspect ratio of the hole from 1.43 to 4.5 were tested. The equivalent diameter of the hole was about 0.33 to 0.36 mm. The injection pressure was 10 MPa. For comparison, a circular spray was also measured. The results show that the spray angle of elliptic sprays is much larger than that of the circular spray while the SMD of elliptic sprays is smaller than that of the circular spray at same experimental condition.

In small high speed direct injection diesel engines the injected fuel spray impinges on the walls of the piston bowl. The mixture formation process is influenced considerably by the spray-wall interaction. Stringent exhaust gas emission regulations and growing demands for fuel economy are leading to the application of high-pressure fuel injection systems, e.g. common-rail. The trend towards downsized engines with smaller piston displacements leads to reduced distances between nozzle and wall. Higher injection pressures and smaller nozzle-wall distances both increase the significance of spray-wall interaction and near-wall mixture formation. In the present study the influence of governing parameters like injection pressure and wall temperature on the characteristics of the impinged spray was investigated.

The objective of this work was to investigate the effect of fuel properties on atomization and spray structure of a diesel engine fuel injector, based on PDA (Phase Doppler Anemometry) measurements. Few studies have addressed the question of how fuels affect droplet size and spray structure. Thus three diesel fuels were selected: two which broadly represent the range of base fuel properties seen in current European fuels and a third which contained a high treat rate of a detergent-type additive, which, being polar, may have some surface effects which could impact spray formation. This range of diesel fuels was injected into a high pressure and temperature wind tunnel, using a single hole Bosch injector. Phase Doppler Anemometry (PDA) was used to measure the diameter, velocity and arrival time of spray droplets passing through numerous radial and longitudinal positions in the spray.

A catalyst system, consisting of two different catalyst technologies within a single canister, was developed for MDV2 (Medium-Duty Vehicles, Class 2) to meet ULEV targets. The catalyst volume versus engine displacement is less than 50%. Three approaches taken: substrate study, PM loading study and new catalyst technology development are illustrated here. The most promising system features new catalyst technologies coated on high cell density substrates.

Results from an experimental study of flow distribution in a close-coupled catalytic converter (CCC) are presented. The experiments were carried out with a flow measurement system specially designed for this study under steady and transient flow conditions. Flow distribution at the exit of the first monolith was measured by a pitot tube. Numerical analysis was also performed for comparison. Experimental results showed that the flow uniformity index decreases as Reynolds number for the flow increases. For steady flow conditions, the flow through each exhaust pipe concentrates on a specific region of the monolith. The transient test results showed that the flow through each exhaust pipe, in the engine firing order, interacts with each other to make the flow distribution uniform. The numerical analysis results supported the experimental results, and helped explain the flow distribution in the CCC.

This paper presents a system concept of the On-Board Diagnostics system (OBD-II) in the Hyundai Accent. New-α and α-DOHC engine developed by Hyundai are installed in the Accent. The ECU (Engine Control Unit) developed by BOSCH is adopted for this vehicle. To comply with the OBD-II regulation mandated by CARB (California Air Resources Board), some monitoring algorithms originally developed by BOSCH were introduced and modified for the Hyundai Accent. Using modified algorithms, many kinds of test were carried out during more than four years. Through the demonstration test and various field tests, it was confirmed that the OBD-II system fulfilled the regulation and had good performance.

Individual hydrocarbon conversion efficiencies of engine-out emissions have been measured for four different catalyst formulations (Pd-only, trimetallic, Pd/Rh, and Pt/Rh) during stoichiometric and rich operation. The measurements were carried out as a function of fuel-air equivalence ratio (Φ) using a dynamometer-controlled 1993 Ford V8 engine and capillary gas chromatography. HC conversion efficiency was examined in terms of mass conversion efficiency and also using three new definitions of catalyst conversion efficiency. The efficiencies across the four catalysts show similar trends with Φ for almost all HC species. The catalyst efficiencies for alkanes, alkenes, and aromatic species decrease as Φ increases above stoichiometric: alkane efficiencies decrease faster than alkenes which in turn decrease faster than aromatics. All efficiencies fall to zero near Φ = 1.08 except those of MTBE and acetylene, which remain near 100%.

This paper reports on research works of helical inlet ports applied in direct injection diesel engines. It is widely recognised that swirl is transferred to air current before it leaves the valve, but according to these experiments reported here, air current moves directly into cylinder after leaving the valve and then a great deal of effective swirl or angular momentum is generated in cylinder. Experimental results in this paper are obtained mainly by means of a simple macroscopic trace visualisation technique, which will do well to future engine design and development.

Dimethyl Ether (DME) is a promising new alternative fuel for compression ignition DI engines. However, some problems arise from the poor lubricity of DME. Breakdown of the film bearing between needle and sleeve of the injector can lead to mechanical wear and leakage, a problem that is not mitigated easily. For example, the application of returning the leakage to fuel tank could raise a back pressure on the injection needle. This pressure can affect injection rate and consequently engine performance. In this study, fuels based on various DME to gas oil (diesel fuel) ratios were investigated, in part. Physical and chemical properties of DME and gas oil are shown to lead to mutual solubility at any ratio. Blended fuels have a higher lubricity compared with pure’ DME and a better injection spray compared with pure gas oil.

A novel way of using low-cetane-number petroleum gases in a compression ignition (CI) engine is introduced, by directly injecting blends of such fuels with dimethyl ether (DME), a high-cetane-number alternative fuel for low soot emissions. This method both extends advantages of DME and complements its deficiency. Although DME mixes with most hydrocarbon fuels in any ratio, in order to demonstrate the feasibility of the new method and facilitate the analysis, DME-propane blends were investigated in a direct injection CI engine. Some findings of the study are listed. In the engine operated by DME and propane blends, there was no need for significantly increasing the complexity of the fuel system than that employed in the use of neat DME. For the same reason, this method eliminates or minimizes cumbersome hardware necessary when the said gaseous fuels are separately introduced in CI engines.

The CFD model, based on the LANL KIVA-3 computer code, modified to account for the multi-step dimethyl ether, DME/air, oxidation chemistry, was developed and used to study the neat DME combustion dynamics in a constant volume at Diesel-like conditions and in the Volvo AH10A245DI Diesel engine. Constant volume simulations confirm high ignition quality of neat DME in air. The results of engine modeling illustrate that the injection schedule used for Diesel fuel is not optimal for DME. Surprisingly, the positive gain and peak pressure levels comparable with those for Diesel fuel were obtained using an early (∼ -20 ATDC) injection through a nozzle of a larger diameter at reduced injection pressures and velocities (∼150m/s) preventing too rapid spray atomization. At these conditions, combustion heat release has a specific two-stage character with a peak value placed behind the TDC.

The vapor phase of an evaporating spray from a heavy-duty Diesel common-rail injection system has been investigated with an optical diagnostic technique based on linear Raman scattering, which has been extended to the application in fuel sprays. One-dimensional spatially resolved Raman measurements of the air/fuel-ratio have been performed in the spray region with high local and temporal resolution in an injection chamber at an air pressure of 4.5 MPa and at a temperature of 450°C. The influence of different parameters, such as rail pressure, nozzle geometry and injection duration on the temporal evolution of the local air/fuel-ratio in the vapor phase has been studied quantitatively, and results from a selected spatial location are compared. Furthermore, the effect of physical/chemical fuel properties on the evaporation dynamics has been investigated by performing measurements with two different fuels.

The variation of the crankshaft's speed is influenced by the action of the cylinders and shall reflect the contribution of each cylinder to the total engine output. At the same time, the speed variation is influenced by the torsional stiffness of the cranks, the mass moments of inertia of the reciprocating mechanisms and the average speed and load of the engine. As the result, the variation of angular motion of the crankshaft is complex, each particular influence changing its importance as speed and load are modified. The diagnostic method presented in the paper is based on the analysis of the amplitudes and phases of the lowest harmonic orders of the measured speed and is capable to determine the average Indicated Mean Effective Pressure (IMEP), to detect nonuniformities in cylinder operation and to identify the faulty cylinder(s).

A statistical method is described which allows a very accurate determination of the correlation between pressure and volume. The basis of the method is the pressure measurement of an engine under motoring conditions and correcting the pressure diagram with respect to heat and blow-by losses. Computation of the polytropic exponent dependent on error of phase lag determines the correlation in the pressure volume diagram. Since the internal processes in an IC engine under motoring conditions differ significantly from the ones under firing conditions, some modifications in the heat and blow-by losses models are necessary in order to be successfully applied in the proposed method. A simple optimization approach has therefore been used to correct both models. Several pressure diagrams measured under engine motoring conditions and at the different engine speeds have been studied.

The state of Ohio established a project to demonstrate the use of ethanol flexible-fuel vehicles (FFV) in their fleet operations. This study includes ten FFVs and three gasoline vehicles operated by five state agencies. The two-year project included data collection on vehicle maintenance and fueling, cost of operation, and fleet management comments. The project also included emissions testing of two ethanol FFVs and two standard gasoline vehicles.

Dedicated natural gas engines suffer the disadvantages of limited vehicle range and relatively few refueling stations. A vehicle capable of operating on either gasoline or natural gas allows alternative fuel usage without sacrificing vehicle range and mobility. However, the bi-fuel engine must be made to provide equal performance on both fuels. Although bi-fuel conversions have existed for a number of years, historically natural gas performance is degraded relative to gasoline due to reduced volumetric efficiency and lower power density of CNG. Much of the performance losses associated with CNG can be overcome by increasing the compression ratio. However, in a bi-fuel application, high compression ratios can result in severe engine knock during gasoline operation. Variable intake valve timing, increased exhaust gas recirculation and retarded ignition timing were explored as a means of controlling knock during gasoline operation of a bi-fuel engine.

This paper describes an investigation into a method of starting a spark ignition IC engine in cold ambient conditions, that normally operates on methanol or ethanol. Hardware was designed and installed in two Volvo S70 vehicles which allowed the delivery of gasoline to the combustion chamber during starting. The engine management system was modified to control the gasoline delivery and to manage the transition from the gasoline start back to normal operation on methanol or ethanol.