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Ethanol is an attractive oxygenate increasingly used for blending with petroleum-derived gasoline yielding beneficial combustion and emissions behavior for a range of internal combustion engine schemes, including stoichiometric spark-ignition and low temperature combustion (LTC). As such, it is important to fundamentally understand the autoignition behavior of gasoline/ethanol blends. This work utilizes a rapid compression machine (RCM) and a homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) engine to experimentally quantify changes in fuel reactivity, through ignition delay times and preliminary heat release, for blends of 0 to 30% vol./vol. into a full boiling range research gasoline (FACE-F). Diluted/stoichiometric and undiluted/fuel-lean conditions are explored covering a wide range of compressed temperatures and pressures relevant to conventional and advanced, gasoline combustion engines. Detailed chemical kinetic modeling is undertaken using a recently updated gasoline surrogate model in conjunction with a five-component surrogate to model the RCM experiments and provide chemical insight into the perturbative effects of ethanol on the autoignition process. The diluted/stoichiometric RCM measurements reveal that within the low-temperature regime ethanol retards first-stage and main ignition delay times, and suppresses both the rates and extents of low-temperature heat release (LTHR), while within the intermediate-temperature regime ethanol only causes slight changes. Good agreement of ignition delay time and preliminary heat release prediction is found between model and experimental results. Sensitivity and flux analyses further show that ethanol blending effects are dominated by the competition between the H-atom abstraction from ethanol and other fuel components by OH radical at low temperatures, and by HO2 radical at intermediate temperatures. These findings are consistent across both fuel loading conditions explored in this study. In addition, when HCCI engine experiments are mapped onto undiluted/lean RCM measurements under a constant combustion phasing scenario, good correspondence between the two apparatuses is observed for LTHR and start of high-temperature heat release. The current study highlights the importance of characterizing LTHR in predicting fuel behaviors in high-boost/low-temperature engines, and demonstrates that RCM experiments can provide an alternative, and more-efficient avenue for such characterization.

Mid-level ethanol/gasoline blends can provide knock resistance benefits for stoichiometric spark-ignition engine operation, but previous studies have identified challenges associated with spray impingement and wall wetting, leading to excessive particulate matter emissions. At the same time, stratified-charge spark-ignition operation can provide increased thermal efficiency, but care has to be exercised to avoid excessive in-cylinder soot formation. In support of the use of mid-level ethanol/gasoline blends in advanced spark-ignition engines, this study presents spray and fuel-film measurements in a direct-injection spark-ignition engine operated with a 30 vol.%/70 vol.% ethanol/gasoline blend (E30). Crank-angle resolved fuel-film measurements at the piston surface are conducted using two different implementations of the refractive index matching technique. A small-angle refractive index matching implementation allows quantification of the wetted area, while a large-angle refractive index matching implementation enables semi-quantitative measurements of fuel-film thickness and volume, in addition to fuel-film area. The fuel-film measurements show that both the amount of fuel deposited on the piston and the shape of the fuel-film patterns are strongly influenced by the injection timing, duration, intake pressure, and coolant temperature. For combinations of high in-cylinder gas density and long injection duration, merging of the individual spray plumes, commonly referred to as spray collapse, can cause a dramatic change to the shape and thickness of the wall fuel films. Overall, the study provides guidance to engine designers aiming at minimizing wall wetting through tailored combinations of injection timings and durations.

A late-injection strategy is typically adopted in stratified-charge direct injection spark ignition (DISI) engines to improve combustion stability for lean operation, but this may induce wall wetting on the piston surface and result in high soot emissions. E30 fuel, i.e., gasoline with 30% ethanol, is a potential alternative fuel that can offer a high Research Octane Number. However, the relatively high ethanol content increases the heat of vaporization, potentially exacerbating wall-wetting issues in DISI engines. In this study, the Refractive Index Matching (RIM) technique is used to measure fuel wall films in the piston bowl. The RIM implementation uses a novel LED illumination, integrated in the piston assembly and providing side illumination of the piston-bowl window. This RIM diagnostics in combination with high-speed imaging was used to investigate the impact of coolant temperature on the characteristics of wall wetting and combustion in an optical DISI engine fueled with E30. The experiments reveal that the smoke emissions increase drastically from 0.068 FSN to 1.14 FSN when the coolant temperature is reduced from 90 °C to 45 °C. Consistent with this finding, natural flame luminosity imaging reveals elevated soot incandescence with a reduction of the coolant temperature, indicative of pool fires. The RIM diagnostics show that a lower coolant temperature also leads to increased fuel film thickness, area, and volume, explaining the onset of pool fires and smoke.

This study investigates the ability of Particulate Matter Index (PMI) to describe the sooting behavior of various gasoline formulations in a stratified-charge (SC) spark-ignition engine. The engine was operated at 2000 rpm with an intake pressure of 130 kPa where soot formation is known to primarily occur in the bulk gases. Exhaust soot emissions were measured for nine test fuels at various exhaust gas recirculation levels. A comparison between measured soot levels and PMI shows that PMI is a relatively poor predictor of the sooting tendency of the tested fuels under lean SC combustion. Among the fuels, three fuels, namely the di-isobutylene blend, High Olefin, and E30 fuels exhibit measured soot behavior opposite of that predicted by PMI. Optical diagnostics were utilized to further investigate the in-cylinder phenomena for these three fuels. Analysis of natural luminosity and diffused back-illumination extinction imaging suggests that fuel-induced differences in the amount of soot formed are responsible for a majority of the discrepancy in measured versus predicted sooting tendency. Fuel-induced differences in soot oxidation and spray development seem to play minor roles. Because the combustion and air-fuel mixing processes for lean SC combustion are different from conventional stoichiometric operation it is hypothesized that the PMI correlation needs to be modified to account for differences in stoichiometric air-fuel ratio and level of oxygenation between fuels. Furthermore, the role of fuel volatility in PMI possibly needs to be de-emphasized for SC operation with fuel injection into compression-heated gases.

The direct injection spark ignition (DISI) engine has received considerable attention due to its potential to increase the power density of traditional spark ignition engines while significantly improving fuel economy through lean, unthrottled combustion. However, the market introduction of DISI engines operated in a lean combustion mode is inhibited by their unsatisfactory emissions, especially during cold start conditions that make proper mixture formation more challenging. Ethanol-blended gasoline, now a widely used fuel, makes the cold start of a DISI engine more difficult, leading to higher HC and soot emissions because of the high latent heat of vaporization of ethanol relative to gasoline. This work investigated the impact of coolant temperature on the characteristics of combustion and emissions in a stratified-charge DISI engine fueled with an E30 fuel (i.e. 30% ethanol in gasoline), while the coolant temperature was alternated between four levels (45, 60, 75, and 90 °C) to simulate different conditions throughout the warm-up process. The experiments showed that the coolant temperature affected the post-spark inflammation time, as well as the speed, intensity, and stability of the combustion process in the engine. When the coolant temperature rose, the engine produced more NOX and less CO, PM and HC. In addition, high-speed direct photography was used to obtain crank-angle resolved images of fuel sprays and flames in the cylinder. As the coolant temperature rose, the liquid spray lengths became shorter, reducing the possibility of wall wetting, and reduced irradiance from soot particles also indicated less non-premixed combustion. The in-cylinder imaging results are consistent with the observed combustion and emission characteristics and shed light on the underlying processes. Some potential solutions to the emissions challenges faced here could be either raising in-cylinder temperatures by using trapped residuals or modifying the injection schedule, for example by increasing the number of injections or to inject later in the cycle into a higher-density environment.

This paper presents a newly developed quasi- dimensional multi-zone dual fuel combustion model, which has been integrated within the commercial engine system simulation framework. Model is based on the modified Multi-Zone Combustion Model and Fractal Combustion Model. Modified Multi-Zone Combustion Model handles the part of the combustion process that is governed by the mixing-controlled combustion, while the modified Fractal Combustion Model handles the part that is governed by the flame propagation through the combustion chamber. The developed quasi-dimensional dual fuel combustion model features phenomenological description of spray processes, i.e. liquid spray break-up, fresh charge entrainment, droplet heat-up and evaporation process. In order to capture the chemical effects on the ignition delay, special ignition delay table has been made. Additionally, to capture the effect of entrained methane on the chemical reaction rate, special table that features chemical reaction time scale has also been made. The start of flame propagation is calculated through the newly developed sub- model based on knock integral calculation. The existing k-ε turbulence model has been extended to account for the effect of diesel pilot injection on the increase of in-cylinder turbulence level. Since in the conventional dual fuel combustion process multiple flames propagate through the combustion chamber, multiple flame propagation model has been developed. This model can describe arbitrary number of flames that propagate through the combustion chamber. The validation data for the developed quasi-dimensional dual fuel combustion model have been acquired on a 2.0 liter Diesel engine, which has been modified to operate in the conventional dual fuel combustion mode. The presented model has been validated at different loads and diesel substitution ratios, and there is a good fit between the measured and cycle-simulation data.

Advanced combustion engine (ACE) research is typically carried out on single-cylinder research engines. These engines are designed to tightly control fueling and conditions at intake valve closure (IVC) and to precisely measure in-cylinder conditions and emissions. However, to be able to measure and control engine operation so precisely, these research engines typically do not feature intake and exhaust tracts that resemble those in production engines, specifically in regards to turbomachinery, heat exchangers, and exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) systems. For this reason, these research engines are effective for understanding in-cylinder combustion parameters such as heat release rate, burn duration, combustion efficiency, pollutant formation, and exhaust valve opening (EVO) conditions. This paper applies high fidelity simulations to determine the feasibility of achieving a chosen single cylinder engine operating point on a production type homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) engine, using a partial fuel stratification (PFS) strategy. To accomplish this, a Converge 3 dimensional (3D) – computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model of the experimental combustion chamber and intake and exhaust runners was created to simulate the experimental engine. This model was used to simulate an operating point achieved experimentally, as well as to determine the sensitivity of the operating point to variations in intake pressure, intake temperature, injection timing, injected mass, and EGR fraction. The results from these simulations were fed into a 1-dimensional engine simulation created in AVL Boost, featuring production-type intake and exhaust systems, including turbomachinery and heat exchangers necessary to create the required IVC conditions. This full engine simulation was used to assess the cycle efficiency of the engine at the experimental operating condition, and to assess whether changes to this operating point in intake temperature, intake pressure, direct injection timing, or fueling are beneficial to the cycle efficiency and engine-out emissions. In addition, the sensitivity of promising engine operating points to injection timing and injection mass are determined to evaluate the potential stability of these operating points.

Ethanol is used as a gasoline blending component in numerous countries throughout the world. In the present work, the Chemkin Pro package was used to study the chemical kinetic behavior of E30 (a blended fuel containing 30% ethanol and 70% gasoline on volume basis). The effects of chemical kinetics and adiabatic flame temperature on the laminar flame propagation speed at different initial temperatures were studied and the relative importance of the thermal and chemical effects of ethanol at different initial temperatures was investigated. With increasing initial temperature, the rate of main branching reactions (R1:O2 + H ⇔ O + OH and R29: CO + OH ⇔ CO2 + H) increases much more than that of the main termination reactions (R13:H20 + M ⇔ H + OH + M, R15:O2 + H(+M) ⇔ HO2(+M)). The laminar flame propagation speed shows a linear relationship with the sum of the peak concentrations of H and OH. The chemical effect of ethanol was far greater than its thermal effect which was characterized by adiabatic flame temperature. In addition, the cellular instabilities of the E30-Air flame were studied. As the initial pressure and equivalence ratio change, the dominant instability shifts between hydrodynamic and diffusional-thermal. The theoretical critical Peclet number (Pecr) decreases with increased equivalence ratio and is insensitive to the initial temperature and pressure; these trends are consistent with the experimental findings. Furthermore, β ( Le eff - 1 ) Pe ( σ - 1 ) Q2 is the dominant parameter affecting Pecr with varying equivalence ratio.

Flash-boiling in Direct Injection Spark Ignition (DISI) engines is very common. Flash-boiling atomization is one of the most effective ways to generate fully developed atomization and homogeneous mixtures. However, despite the positive effects of flash-boiling, this phenomenon may also lead to negative effects such as longer spray penetration, piston wall wetting, and increased soot emissions, due to increased interactions among the spray plumes which can result in spray collapse and the aforementioned problems. In this study, high-speed direct photography and Refractive Index Matching (RIM) were utilized to investigate the characteristics of n-hexane sprays and impingement using a constant volume vessel. Under low-pressure conditions, flash-boiling drives the collapsed spray to a quick impingement and small spray area. Through the volume distribution of the liquid fuel film acquired by RIM and the spray outline derived from the morphology of images, it was again confirmed that the spray collapse took place not only at a high degree of superheating, but also under conditions of high ambient pressure without flash-boiling. The spray collapse under high pressure conditions is characterized by a late-phase impingement and large spray-swept area. Varying fuel-film behavior was observed following spray-impingement. Under high-density conditions with spray collapse, the fuel film evaporated slowly after the injection, but the higher ambient pressures reduced the total impingement. At low-density conditions with flash-boiling, the resultant fuel-films evaporated more quickly, and reduced ambient pressures reduced the total fuel-film volumes, although flash-boiling could not completely inhibit spray impingement.

Ethanol is regarded as one of the most promising alternative renewable fuels and as well as an oxygenate blending component in gasoline fuels, with widespread usage in many countries around the world. Laminar flame speeds can have strong influence on the stability and operability of Spark-Ignition combustion in certain operating regimes, and so the effects of different initial conditions on laminar combustion characteristics of E30 (gasoline blended with ethanol of 30% liquid volume) were analyzed in a constant-volume combustion vessel using the high-speed Schlieren method. This work presents results for equivalence ratios of 0.7–1.4, dilution ratios of 0%, 5%, 10%, and at different initial temperatures (408, 453 and 498 K) and initial pressures (1, 2 and 3 bar). It can be concluded that the laminar burning velocity has a positive correlation with initial temperature, but negative correlation with initial pressure and dilution ratio. The laminar burning velocity always reaches its maximum value at an equivalence ratio of 1.1 and does not change with varying initial conditions' the adiabatic flame temperature displays a similar variation with the initial conditions. The flame instability of E30-air mixture is enhanced as the initial pressure increases. Flame stability at lean and rich mixtures are exactly opposite at different initial temperature and dilution ratio. The laminar burning velocity was significantly promoted relative to gasoline and E10 by the addition of higher volume fractions of ethanol, highlighting one of the benefits of ethanol’s use as a blending component in gasoline fuels.

This study shows fuel film measurements in a spark-ignited direct injection engine using refractive index matching (RIM). The RIM technique is applied to measure the fuel impingement of a high research octane number gasoline fuel with 30 vol% ethanol content at two intake pressures and coolant temperatures. Measurements are conducted for an alkylate fuel at one operating case, as well. It is shown that the fuel volume on the piston surface increases for lower intake pressure and lower coolant temperature and that the alkylate fuel shows very little spray impingement. The fuel films can be linked to increased soot emissions. A detailed description of the calibration technique is provided and measurement uncertainties are discussed. The dependency of the RIM signal on refractive index changes is measured. The RIM technique provides quantitative film thickness measurements up to 0.9 µm in this engine. For thicker films, semi-quantitative results of film thickness can be utilized to study the distribution of impinged fuel.

This work identifies classes of cool flame intermediates from n-heptane low-temperature oxidation in a jet-stirred reactor (JSR) and a motored cooperative fuel research (CFR) engine. The sampled species from the JSR oxidation of a mixture of n-heptane/O2/Ar (0.01/0.11/0.88) were analyzed using a synchrotron vacuum ultraviolet radiation photoionization (SVUV-PI) time-of-flight molecular-beam mass spectrometer (MBMS) and an atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI) Orbitrap mass spectrometer (OTMS). The OTMS was also used to analyze the sampled species from a CFR engine exhaust. Approximately 70 intermediates were detected by the SVUV-PI-MBMS, and their assigned molecular formulae are in good agreement with those detected by the APCI-OTMS, which has ultra-high mass resolving power and provides an accurate elemental C/H/O composition of the intermediate species. Furthermore, the results show that the species formed during the partial oxidation of n-heptane in the CFR engine are very similar to those produced in an ideal reactor, i.e., a JSR. The products can be classified by species with molecular formulae of C7H14Ox (x = 0–5), C7H12Ox (x = 0–4), C7H10Ox (x = 0–4), CnH2n (n = 2–6), CnH2n−2 (n = 4–6), CnH2n+2O (n = 1–4), CnH2nO (n = 1–6), CnH2n−2O (n = 2–6), CnH2n−4O (n = 4–6), CnH2n+2O2 (n = 0–4, 7), CnH2nO2 (n = 1–6), CnH2n−2O2 (n = 2–6), CnH2n−4O2 (n = 4–6), and CnH2nO3 (n = 3–6). The identified intermediate species include alkenes, dienes, aldehyde/keto compounds, olefinic aldehyde/keto compounds, diones, cyclic ethers, peroxides, acids, and alcohols/ethers. Reaction pathways forming these intermediates are proposed and discussed herein. These experimental results are important in the development of more accurate kinetic models for n-heptane and longer-chain alkanes.

Autoignition in HCCI engines is known to be controlled by the combustion kinetics of the in- cylinder fuel/air mixture which is highly influenced by the amount of low-temperature and intermediate-temperature heat release (LTHR and ITHR) that occurs. At lower intake pressures (typically 1.8 bar absolute) gasoline behaves as a two-stage heat release fuel. Furthermore, ethanol blending strongly affects heat release characteristics, and this warrants further investigation. This paper experimentally investigates the conditions under which gasoline transitions from a single-stage heat release fuel to a two-stage heat release fuel as intake pressure is increased. Experiments were performed in single-cylinder HCCI engine fueled with two research-grade gasolines, FACE A and FACE C. These gasolines were tested neat, with 10% and 20% (by volume) ethanol addition. In addition, these results were compared to results previously obtained for PRF 85, and new results for PRF 84 with 10% and 20% ethanol addition. Moreover, the engine experiments were supported by rapid compression machine (RCM) ignition delay data for the same fuels. The engine experiments revealed that there were minimal differences between the heat release profiles of the two gasolines, FACE A and FACE C, which was confirmed by the RCM experiments that showed similar ignition delay data for the two FACE fuels and PRF 84. On the other hand, with ethanol addition to these gasolines and PRF 84, the occurrence of LTHR shifted to higher intake pressures compared to ethanol-free cases, precisely from 1.4 bar intake pressure for neat fuel to 2.2 bar with 20% ethanol. Consequently, the intake temperatures required to achieve constant combustion phasing for all mixtures were drastically altered. Simulations using a detailed chemical kinetic model were utilized to understand the effects of ethanol blending on the ignition characteristics of PRF 84. The addition of ethanol was found to act as a radical sink where it inhibits the radical pool formation during the low (

This paper describes a numerical study that analyzed the influence of combustion products (CP) concentration on the combustion characteristics (combustion timing and combustion duration) of a biogas fueled homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) engine and the possibility of reducing the high intake temperature requirement necessary for igniting biogas in a HCCI engine by using internal exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) enabled by negative valve overlap (NVO). An engine model created in AVL Boost, and validated against experimental engine data, was used in this study. The results show, somewhat counter-intuitively, that when CP concentrations are increased the required intake temperature for maintaining the same combustion timing must be increased. When greater NVO is used to increase the in-cylinder CP concentration, the in-cylinder temperature does increase, but the chemical dilution influence of CP almost entirely counteracts this thermal effect. Additionally, it has been observed that with larger fractions of CP some instability of combustion in the calculation was obtained which indicates that the increase of internal EGR might produce some combustion instability.

The use of highly reactive fuel as an ignition promoter enables operation of biogas fueled homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) engine at low intake temperatures with practical control of combustion phasing. In order to gain some insight into this operation mode the influence of addition of n-heptane on combustion, performance, emissions and control of combustion phasing of a biogas fueled HCCI engine is experimentally researched and presented in this paper. Additionally, the performance analysis of the practical engine solution for such operation is estimated by using the numerical simulation of entire engine. The results showed that the introduction of highly reactive fuel results with a significant change in operating conditions and with a change in optimum combustion phasing. The addition of n-heptane resulted in lower nitrogen oxides and increased carbon monoxide emissions, while the unburned hydrocarbons emissions were strongly influenced by combustion phasing and at optimal conditions are lowered compared to pure biogas operation. The results also showed a practical operation range for strategies that use equivalence ratio as a control of load. Simulation results showed that the difference in performance between pure biogas and n-heptane/biogas operation is even greater when the practical engine solution is taken into account.

This paper follows a cycle-simulation method for creating an engine performance map for an ethanol fueled boosted HCCI engine using a 1-dimensional engine model. Based on experimentally determined limits, the study defined operating conditions for the engine and performed a limited parameter sweep to determine the best efficiency case for each condition. The map is created using a 6-Zone HCCI combustion model coupled with a detailed chemical kinetic reaction mechanism for ethanol, and validated against engine data collected from a 1.9L 4-Cylinder VW TDI engine modified to operate in HCCI mode. The engine was mapped between engine speeds of 900 and 3000 rpm, 1 and 3 bar intake pressure, and 0.2 and 0.4 equivalence ratio, resulting in loads between idle and 14.0 bar BMEP. Analysis of a number of trends for this specific engine map are presented, such as efficiency trends, effects of combustion phasing, intake temperature, engine load, engine speed, and operating strategy. The study found that, in general, delayed combustion timing, intermediate engine speed and high intake pressure yields optimal efficiency. Additionally, the map revealed a positive correlation between efficiency and equivalence ratio at engine speeds above 2100 rpm.

This study examines intermediate temperature heat release (ITHR) in homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) engines using blends of ethanol and n-heptane. Experiments were performed over the range of 0–50% n-heptane liquid volume fractions, at equivalence ratios 0.4 and 0.5, and intake pressures from 1.4 bar to 2.2 bar. ITHR was induced in the mixtures containing predominantly ethanol through the addition of small amounts of n-heptane. After a critical threshold, additional n-heptane content yielded low temperature heat release (LTHR). A method for quantifying the amount of heat released during ITHR was developed by examining the second derivative of heat release, and this method was then used to identify trends in the engine data. The combustion process inside the engine was modeled using a single-zone HCCI model, and good qualitative agreement of pre-ignition pressure rise and heat release rate was found between experimental and modeling results using a detailed n-heptane/ethanol chemical kinetic model. The simulation results were used to identify the dominant reaction pathways contributing to ITHR, as well as to verify the chemical basis behind the quantification of the amount of ITHR in the experimental analysis. The dominant reaction pathways contributing to ITHR were found to be H-atom abstraction from n-heptane by OH and the addition of fuel radicals to O2.

This study explores optimal operating conditions for power generation from wet ethanol in a HCCI engine using exhaust gas heat recovery. Wet ethanol is a difficult fuel to ignite as it requires high compressed gas temperatures to achieve ignition causing the requirement for substantial intake charge heating. A heat exchanger is retrofitted to a HCCI engine in this study to recover excess heat from the exhaust gases to provide the energy input for intake charge heating. This study builds on prior experimental research by focusing on optimal operating conditions for wet ethanol in HCCI with exhaust gas heat recovery. Operating points include intake pressures of 1.8 and 2.0 bar absolute, equivalence ratios of 0.50 and 0.55, combustion timings from just before TDC to misfire, and fuel mixtures from 70% to 100% ethanol (with water being the balance). The results suggest that the best operating conditions for the HCCI engine and heat exchanger system in terms of high power output, low ringing, and low nitrogen oxide emissions occur with high intake pressures, high equivalence ratios and highly delayed combustion timing. With a 2 bar absolute intake pressure, an equivalence ratio of 0.55, and a combustion timing near 8 CAD ATDC, 70% ethanol produced a power output of nearly 7.25 bar gross IMEP with low ringing and low nitrogen oxide emissions. This operating point was sustained by using heat transfer from hot exhaust gases into the intake charge, and thus no external heat addition was required – a substantial improvement over prior studies.