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An analytical methodology to efficiently evaluate design alternatives in the conversion of a Common Rail Diesel engine to either CNG dedicated or dual fuel engine has been presented in a previous investigation. The simulation of the dual fuel combustion was performed with a modified version of the KIVA3V code including a modified version of the Shell model and a modified Characteristic Time Combustion model. In the present investigation, this methodology has been validated at two levels. The capability of the simulation code in predicting the emissions trends when changing pilot specification, like injected amount, injection pressure and start of injection, and engine configuration parameters, like compression ratio and axial position of the diesel injector has been verified. The second validation was related to the capability of the proposed computer-aided procedure in finding optimal solutions in a reduced computational time.

The aim of this work is to study the combustion and gaseous emissions characteristics of a diesel engine dual-fueled with natural gas at different operating conditions (light to full load) for generator application. The electromechanical system was composed of a commercially available 18 liter, 6-cylinder diesel engine, coupled with the generator rated at 600 kWe at full-load. The flow of natural gas was electronically controlled using a throttle valve, and was inducted in the intake manifold before being introduced into the combustion chambers. Gaseous emissions of carbon monoxide (CO), hydrocarbons (HC) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) were measured under both diesel and dual fuel operations at different loads. This work also presents the effects of diesel oxidation catalyst to reduce HC and CO emissions under dual fuel operation. At each operating load, gas percentage was increased with corresponding decrease in diesel pilot while maintaining the same power output.

In this paper we describe the experimental apparatus used to validate concepts associated with a bimodal internal combustion engine for use in natural gas vehicles (NGV's). In one mode, all engine cylinders fire normally providing locomotion for the NGV. In the other mode, one cylinder of the engine is used to compress residential natural gas, in multiple stages, to a standard US compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicle storage tank pressure of 250 bar. In the refueling mode, while the single cylinder is compressing natural gas it is powered by natural gas combustion in the remaining engine cylinders. Here we describe the engine dynamometer testing used to validate the bimodal engine design described in a companion paper. More specifically, a base compression ignition engine is powered by an AC motor while pumping air into storage tanks while all relevant thermodynamic parameters are recorded.

The present study was aimed to run the diesel engine only with two renewable fuels in a dual fuel mode. The karanja methyl ester (KME) derived from karanja oil was used as an injected fuel, and the biogas obtained from the anaerobic digestion of pongamia pinnata (Karanja) de-oiled cakes, was used as a secondary fuel in a single cylinder, four stroke, air cooled, direct injection (DI) diesel engine. Four different flow rates of biogas, viz., 0.3 kg/h, 0.6 kg/h, 0.9 kg/h and 1.2 kg/h were inducted along with the air in the suction of the engine. The results of the experiment were compared with those of diesel and KME operations. Biogas inducted at a flow rate of 0.9 kg/h was found to be the best among all the flow rates, in terms of the performance and emission of the engine. The dual fuel operation showed a higher BSEC than that of diesel operation at full load. In dual fuel operation, about 22% of KME replacement was possible with the biogas flow rate of 0.9 kg/h at full load.

Nowadays, the world is facing severe energy crisis and environment problems. Development of hydrogen fuel vehicles is one of the best ways to solve these problems. Due to the difficulties of infrastructures, such as the hydrogen transport and storage, hydrogen fuel vehicles have not been widely used yet. As a result, Hydrogen-gasoline dual-fuel vehicle is a solution as a compromise. In this paper, three way catalytic converter (TWC) was used to reduce emissions of hydrogen-gasoline dual-fuel vehicles. On wide open throttle and load characteristics, the conversion efficiency of TWC in gasoline engine was measured. Then the TWC was connected to a hydrogen internal combustion engine. After switching the hydrogen and gasoline working mode, emission data was measured. Experiment results show that the efficiency of a traditional TWC can be maintained above 85%., while it works in a hydrogen-gasoline dual-fuel alternative working mode.

This article deals with application of a pre-chamber type ignition device in a heavy duty engine operated with natural gas. A particular pre-chamber ignition strategy called Avalanche Activated Combustion (originally ‘Lavinia Aktyvatsia Gorenia’ in Russian), commonly referred to as LAG-ignition process, has been studied by performing a parametric study of various pre- and main chamber mixture strength combinations. This strategy was first proposed in 1966 and has been mostly applied in light duty automotive engines. A majority of published data are results from developmental studies but the fundamental mechanism of the LAG-ignition process is unclear to date. To the best of authors' knowledge, the study presented in this article is the first generalized study to gain deeper understanding of the LAG-ignition process in heavy duty engines operating with natural gas as fuel for both chambers.

The development of today's drivetrains focusses on the reduction of vehicles' CO2-emissions. Therefore, a drivetrain for urban and commuter traffic is under development at the Institute of Internal Combustion Engines. The concept is based on a lean-burn air cooled two-cylinder natural gas engine, which is combined with a hydraulic hybrid system. On the one hand, lean-burn combustion leads to low nitrogen oxides emissions and high thermal efficiency. On the other hand, there are several challenges concerning inflammability, combustion stability and combustion duration. An approach to optimize the combustion process is the design of the piston bowl. The paper presents the engine concept at first. Afterwards, a description of design parameters for pistons of natural gas engines and a technical overview of piston bowls is given. Subsequent to the analysis of the different piston bowls, a new design approach is presented.

Biodiesel from Algae appears as an almost ideal solution to address the problem of decreasing availability of conventional fossil fuels, as well as to reduce the impact in terms of CO2 of internal combustion engines. In comparison to other biodiesels, algae do not compete for the land use with food cultures, and they have an excellent oil yield. Despite the significant amount of technical reports about the production process of algal biodiesel, detailed information about the application to current production engines is almost completely missing. The present paper describes the experimental campaign carried out on a current production 4-cylinder, 4-stroke naturally aspirated Diesel engine, running on standard Diesel oil and on a blend made up of 20% of oil manufactured by transesterification of Microalgae (B20). Performance and emission parameters have been measured over the whole engine operating range.

Corrosion inhibitors (CIs) have been used for years to protect the supply and distribution systems used for transportation of fuel from refineries. They are also used to buffer the potential organic acids present in an ethanol blended fuel to enhance storage stability. The impact of the types of inhibitors on spark-ignition engine fuel systems, specifically intake valve deposits, is known and presented in open literature. However, the relationship of the corrosion inhibitors to the powertrain intake valve deposit performance is not understood. This paper has two purposes: to present and discuss a survey of corrosion inhibitors and how they vary in concentration in the final blended fuel, specifically E85 (Ethanol Fuel Blends); and to show how variation in concentration of components of CIs and detergents impact intake valve deposit formation.

The objective of this paper is the evaluation of the effect of the fuel properties and the comparison of a PFI and GDI injection system on the performances and on particle emission in a Spark Ignition engine. Experimental investigation was carried out in a small single cylinder engine for two wheel vehicles. The engine displacement was 250 cc. It was equipped with a prototype GDI head and also with an injector in the intake manifold. This makes it possible to run the engine both in GDI and PFI configurations. The engine was fuelled with neat gasoline and ethanol, and ethanol/gasoline blends at 10% v/v, 50% v/v and 85% v/v. The engine was equipped of a quartz pressure transducer that was flush-mounted in the region between intake and exhaust valves. Tests were carried out at 3000 rpm and 4000 rpm full load and two different lambda conditions. These engine points were chosen as representative of urban driving conditions.

Although in the European Union in general no metal containing additives are used, in 2009 a limitation of manganese in gasoline fuel up to 6 mg manganese per liter was introduced in the revised Fuels Quality Directive. In this paper the influences and risks of metal-based additives on the aging of exhaust system components were detected, using the example of the currently allowed manganese content of 6 mg per liter. The legislative endurance test, the Standard Road Cycle (SRC) over the useful life period of 160,000 km conforming to EC Regulation 692/2008 was used. Investigations were carried out with two endurance tests with metal-free-fueled and metal-containing-fueled (reference fuel plus metallic additive) vehicles on a certified chassis dynamometer. The two identical vehicles were both equipped with a typical state of the art downsized DISI engine with Euro 5 application. Euro 5 reference fuel was used as base gasoline.

Due to tightening emission legislations, both within the US and Europe, including concerns regarding greenhouse gases, next-generation combustion strategies for internal combustion diesel engines that simultaneously reduce exhaust emissions while improving thermal efficiency have drawn increasing attention during recent years. In-cylinder combustion temperature plays a critical role in the formation of pollutants as well as in thermal efficiency of the propulsion system. One way to minimize both soot and NOx emissions is to limit the in-cylinder temperature during the combustion process by means of high levels of dilution via exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) combined with flexible fuel injection strategies. However, fuel chemistry plays a significant role in the ignition delay; hence, influencing the overall combustion characteristics and the resulting emissions.

Experimental evaluation of soot trapping and oxidation behaviors of various diesel particulate filters (DPF) has been traditionally hampered by several experimental difficulties, such as the deposition of soot particles with well-characterized and consistent properties, and the tracking of the soot oxidation rate in real time. In the present study, an integrated bench flow-reactor system with a soot generator has been developed and its capabilities were demonstrated with regards to: Consistently and controllably loading soot on DPF samples; Monitoring the exhaust gas composition by FTIR, including quantification of the soot oxidation rate using CO and CO2; Measuring soot oxidation characteristics of various DPF samples. Soot particles were produced from a laminar propane co-flow diffusion flame.

In this paper, a sectional soot model coupled to a tabulated combustion model is compared with measurements from an experimental engine database. The sectional soot model, based on the work of Vervisch-Klakjic (Ph.D. thesis, Ecole Centrale Paris, Paris, 2011) and Netzell et al. (P. Combust. Inst., 31(1):667-674, 2007), has been implemented into IFPC3D (Bohbot et al., Oil Gas Sci Technol, 64(3):309-335, 2009), a 3D RANS solver. It enables a complex modeling of soot particles evolution, in a 3D Diesel simulation. Five distinct source terms are applied to each soot section at any time and any location of the flow. The inputs of the soot model are provided by a tabulated combustion model derived from the Engine Approximated Diffusion Flame (EADF) one (Michel and Colin, Int. J. Engine Res., 2013) and specifically modified to include the minor species required by the soot model.

Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) is an effective method to reduce Nitrogen Oxide emissions. In recent years the trend of increasing EGR rate in-cylinders is an integral part of most improvements in combustion technology developments. The object of this work is to study the influence of EGR rate on the physical and chemical properties of soot particles. Soot from several operating points of a diesel engine run were collected on a high temperature filters. The pressure drop behavior during the soot loading was monitored then the soot permeability was calculated. Afterwards, the soot primary size was calculated from the obtained data and it showed good correspondence to the actual measurement. It is confirmed that all the soot primary sizes were around 22 nm in diameter. In contrast, the soot aggregate sizes and the soot concentrations were found to increase with increasing EGR rate. Subsequently, Oxidation tests were conducted to evaluate the reactivity of the soot.

The influence of size and concentration of carbon nanoparticle on the viscosity of an SAE 5W-30 lubricant oil has been investigated experimentally. Data were collected for oil samples drawn from sump of light duty automotive diesel engines. The average size of soot particles in the used oil samples was in the range of 180-320nm with concentrations ranging from 0 to 2 percentage by weight (wt. %.). A Brookfield DV-II Pro rotary viscometer was used to measure dynamic viscosity at low shear rates and temperatures of 40°C and 90°C. Nanoparticle concentration and particle size distribution were evaluated using Thermo-Gravimetric Analysis (TGA) and Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) respectively. The viscosity of suspensions of graphite powder in lubricant oil was also investigated for concentrations ranging from 0 to 2 wt. %. The results show that dynamic viscosity increases with increasing soot content and decreasing temperature.

Recently, there has been increasing interest in catalysts with smaller volume for a Urea Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) system especially for use in heavy duty vehicles. In this study, several new concepts were developed in order to improve the deNOx performance of the SCR catalysts over a wide range of operating temperatures and this resulted in a compact SCR system. First, the urea decomposition process in diesel exhaust gas was elucidated. Several kinds of urea decomposition catalysts were investigated and the material which showed the best performance in NH3 (ammonia) formation was used to improve the low temperature performance of Cu-zeolite catalysts. Second, the method of reducing the amount of NH3 slip was investigated. It is well known that the amount of ammonia slip after the Urea-SCR system must be under 10 ppm and therefore materials with lower NH3 slip are preferred.

The ammonia slip catalyst (ASC), typically composed of Pt oxidation catalyst overlaid with SCR catalyst, is employed for the mitigation of NH3 slip originating from SCR catalysts. Oxidation and SCR functionalities in an ASC can degrade through two key mechanisms i) irreversible degradation due to thermal aging and ii) reversible degradation caused by sulfur-oxides. The impact of thermal aging is well understood and it mainly degrades the SCR function of the ASC and increases the NH3 conversion to undesired products [1]. This paper describes the impact of sulfur-oxides on critical functions of ASC and on NH3 oxidation activity and selectivity towards N2, NOx and N2O. Furthermore impact of desulfation under selected conditions and its extent of ASC performance recovery is explained.

Improved Power Density through Use of Powder-Forged Helical Gears in Transmissions. With the continuing mileage improvement requirements, increasing power density is an important economic consideration in new vehicle design. This paper describes the power density improvement available through reduced grain size and inclusion levels that are typically found in wrought materials. The powder forged process is similar to tool steel manufacturing rather than wrought steel manufacturing in that powder is used to manufacture the gear resulting in smaller inclusions than typically found in wrought steel.

This article describes the friction torque caused by pushing vanes on a cam contour and its influence on a variation of pump driving torque in a balanced vane pump. In the vane pump, the friction torque of the vane is significant to discuss a variation in the driving torque as well as an improvement in the mechanical efficiency. In this work, the influence of the thickness of a vane and the number of vanes on the friction torque of the vane and their additional effect on the variation in the pump driving torque are theoretically and experimentally investigated. The friction torque of the vane occupies a large part of the total friction torque in the vane pump and strongly depends on the number of vanes existing in a suction area as well as the thickness of the vane. The variation in the pump driving torque is composed of the variation of the ideal torque and that of the friction torque of the vane.