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Si presentano in questo articolo i risultati di una sperimentazione volta a valutare la possibilità di effettuare una combustione HCCI (Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition) stabile mediante l’impiego di miscele di gas naturale (GN) e benzina. La combustione HCCI ha ottime prerogative di basso impatto ambientale, ma la sua realizzazione pone qualche problema di stabilità al variare delle condizioni di carico richieste al motore: lo studio condotto mostra come l’impiego di miscele di GN e benzina, la cui composizione permette di variarne la resistenza all’autoaccensione, consente di ampliare il campo di funzionamento stabile della combustione HCCI. In the last decade the HCCI combustion has been widely studied for its good prerogative of low pollutant emissions and high efficiency. Its main drawback is represented by the running instability related to the engine load variation. The results exposed in this experimental study show how the use of natural gas-gasoline mixtures, whose auto-ignition characteristic may be easily varied by changing the proportion between the two fuels, allows to obtain stable HCCI combustions in a wide range of engine load.

A new thermal process for the inactivation of microorganisms in beverages has been studied and is presented in this paper. The treatment, not yet studied in the scientific literature, mainly consists of a thermal shock characterized by temperature increases up to 30°C/s, with final temperatures up to 65°C. This study presents the first experimental results obtained by the application of the new thermal treatment, with different combinations of the process parameters (rate of temperature rise, final temperature and holding time), on separate suspensions of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Listeria innocua and Candida albicans. The required rapid temperature increase has been performed by means of a properly designed test bench. The treatment proved to be effective against all the microorganisms tested, obtaining a load reduction greater than 5 Log units. Compared with the commonly employed thermal treatments for microorganisms inactivation, this new process is characterized by a very interesting combination of a short duration (few seconds) and a low final temperature, which makes it particularly attractive for the application in the beverage industry.

In order to reduce fuel cost and CO2 emissions, modern spark ignition (SI) engines need to lower as much as possible fuel consumption. A crucial factor for efficiency improvement is represented by the combustion phase, which in an SI engine is controlled acting on the spark advance. This fundamental engine parameter is currently controlled in an open-loop by means of maps stored in the electronic control unit (ECU) memory: such kind of control, however, does not allow running the engine always at its best performance, since optimal combustion phase depends on many variables, like ambient conditions, fuel quality, engine aging, and wear, etc. A better choice would be represented by a closed-loop spark timing control, which may be pursued by means of combustion phase indicators, i.e., parameters mostly derived from in-cylinder pressure analysis that assume fixed reference values when the combustion phase is optimal. As documented in literature (Pestana, 1989, “Engine Control Methods Using Combustion Pressure Feedback,” SAE Paper No. 890758; BERU Pressure Sensor Glow Plug (PSG) for Diesel Engines, http://beru.federalmogul.com; Sensata CPOS SERIES—Cylinder Pressure Only Sensors, http://www.sensata.com/download/cpos.pdf; Malaczynski et al., 2013, “Ion-Sense-Based Real-Time Combustion Sensing for Closed-Loop Engine Control,” SAE Int. J. Eng., 6(1), pp. 267–277; Yoshihisa et al., 1988, “MBT Control Through Individual Cylinder Pressure Detection,” SAE Paper 881779; Powell, 1993, “Engine Control Using Cylinder Pressure: Past, Present, and Future,” J. Dyn. Syst., Meas. Control, 115, pp. 343–350; Muller et al., 2000, “Combustion Pressure Based Engine Management System,” SAE Paper 2000-01-0928; Yoon et al., 2000, “Closed-Loop Control of Spark Advance and Air-Fuel Ratio in SI Engines Using Cylinder Pressure,” SAE Paper 2000-01-0933; Eriksson, 1999, “Spark Advance Modeling and Control,” Dissertation N° 580, Linkoping Studies in Science and Technology, Linköping, Sweden; Samir et al., 2011, “Neural Networks and Fuzzy Logic-Based Spark Advance Control of SI Engines,” Expert Syst. Appl., 38, pp. 6916–6925; Cook et al., 1947, “Spark-Timing Control Based on Correlation of Maximum-Economy Spark Timing, Flame-Front Travel, and Cylinder Pressure Rise,” NACA Technical Note 1217; Bargende, 1995, “Most Optimal Location of 50% Mass Fraction Burned and Automatic Knock Detection,” MTZ, 10(56), pp. 632–638.), the use of combustion phase indicators allows the determination of the best spark advance, apart from any variable or boundary condition. The implementation of a feedback spark timing control, based on the use of these combustion phase indicators, would ensure the minimum fuel consumption in every possible condition. Despite the presence of many literature references on the use combustion phase indicators, there is no evidence of any experimental comparison on the performance obtainable, in terms of both control accuracy and transient response, by the use of such indicators in a spark timing feedback control. The author, hence, carried out a proper experimental campaign comparing the performances of a proportional-integral spark timing control based on the use of five different in-cylinder pressure derived indicators. The experiments were carried out on a bench test, equipped with a series production four cylinder spark ignition engine and an eddy current dynamometer, using two data acquisition (DAQ) systems for data acquisition and spark timing control. Pressure sampling was performed by means of a flush mounted piezoelectric pressure transducer with the resolution of one crank angle degree. The feedback control was compared to the conventional map based control in terms of response time, control stability, and control accuracy in three different kinds of tests: steady-state, step response, and transient operation. All the combustion phase indicators proved to be suitable for proportional-integral feedback spark advance control, allowing fast and reliable control even in transient operations.

In questo articolo sono descritte le attività di ricerca e sviluppo di una micro-turbina idraulica inserita all’interno di un macchinario che opera un nuovo processo di abbattimento della carica batterica applicabile nell’industria dell’imbottigliamento delle bevande. Peculiarità della turbina progettata è la geometria della palettatura della girante, dritta ed a sviluppo puramente assiale, che ne rende estremamente economica la realizzazione. Lo scambio di energia avviene grazie al moto vorticoso impresso al fluido (swirl) mediante opportuno posizionamento dei condotti di adduzione. Lo studio della turbina è stato condotto mediante classico approccio unidimensionale, mentre il dimensionamento è stato effettuato con l’ausilio di simulazioni CFD. Ultimata la progettazione, la turbina è stata realizzata e si è avviata una campagna di prove sperimentali su un banco di flussaggio appositamente allestito che ha consentito di verificare il soddisfacimento delle specifiche progettuali.