The recent pollution norms have brought a strong emphasis on the reduction of diesel engine emissions. Low temperature combustion technology such as premixed compression ignition (PCI) has the capability to significantly and simultaneously reduce nitric oxides (NOx) and particulate matter (PM), thus meeting these specific pollution norms. There has been, however, observed loss in fuel conversion efficiency in some cases. This study analyzes how energy transfer and brake fuel conversion efficiency alter with (or are affected by) injection timings and exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) rate. The study is conducted for PCI combustion for four injection timings of 9°, 12°, 15° and 18° before top dead center (BTDC) and for four exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) rates of 39%, 40%, 41% and 42%. The data is collected from the experimental apparatus located in General Motors Collaborative Research Laboratory at the University of Michigan. The heat release is calculated to obtain various in-cylinder energy transfers. The brake fuel conversion efficiency decreases with an increase in EGR. The decrease in the brake fuel conversion efficiency is due to the decrease in work output. This decrease is due to an increase in the pumping work and an increase in friction and decrease in gross indicated work. The decrease in the combustion efficiency is because of the increased formation of unburnt products due to increased ignition delay caused by the application of EGR and decreasing air-fuel (A/F) ratio. A definite trend is not obtained for the contribution of heat transfer to the total energy distribution. However the total heat transfer decreases with retardation of injection timing because of decreasing combustion temperature. As the injection timing is retarded, the brake fuel conversion efficiency is found to decrease. This decrease is because of a decrease in net work output. This is because the time available for utilization of the energy released is less because of late combustion. The total heat transfer decreases with retardation of injection timing because of decreasing combustion temperature. The contribution of heat transfer to the total energy distribution decreases with increase in EGR.

The recent pollution norms have brought a strong emphasis on the reduction of diesel engine emissions. Low temperature combustion technology such as premixed compression ignition (PCI) has the capability to significantly and simultaneously reduce nitric oxides (NOx) and particulate matter (PM), thus meeting these specific pollution norms. There has been, however, observed loss in fuel conversion efficiency in some cases. This study analyzes how energy transfer and brake fuel conversion efficiency alter with (or are affected by) injection timings and exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) rate. The study is conducted for PCI combustion for four injection timings of 9°, 12°, 15° and 18° before top dead center (BTDC) and for four exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) rates of 39%, 40%, 41% and 42%. The data is collected from the experimental apparatus located in General Motors Collaborative Research Laboratory at the University of Michigan. The heat release is calculated to obtain various in-cylinder energy transfers. The brake fuel conversion efficiency decreases with an increase in EGR. The decrease in the brake fuel conversion efficiency is due to the decrease in work output. This decrease is due to an increase in the pumping work and an increase in friction and decrease in gross indicated work. The decrease in the combustion efficiency is because of the increased formation of unburnt products due to increased ignition delay caused by the application of EGR and decreasing air-fuel (A/F) ratio. A definite trend is not obtained for the contribution of heat transfer to the total energy distribution. However the total heat transfer decreases with retardation of injection timing because of decreasing combustion temperature. As the injection timing is retarded, the brake fuel conversion efficiency is found to decrease. This decrease is because of a decrease in net work output. This is because the time available for utilization of the energy released is less because of late combustion. The total heat transfer decreases with retardation of injection timing because of decreasing combustion temperature. The contribution of heat transfer to the total energy distribution decreases with increase in EGR.

Societal concerns on combustion-based fuel consumption are ever-increasing. With respect to internal combustion engines, this translates to a need to increase brake fuel conversion efficiency (BFCE). Diesel engines are a relatively efficient internal combustion engine to consider for numerous applications, but associated actions to mitigate certain exhaust emissions have generally deteriorated engine efficiency. Conventionally, diesel engine emission control has centered on in-cylinder techniques. Although these continue to hold promise, the industry trend is presently favoring the use of after-treatment devices which create new opportunities to improve the diesel engine's brake fuel conversion efficiency. This study focuses on injection timing effects on the combustion processes, engine efficiency, and the engine system's responses. The engine in the study is a medium duty diesel engine (capable of meeting US EPA Tier III off road emission standards) equipped with common rail direct fuel injection, variable geometry turbo charging, and interfaced with a custom built engine controller. The study found that injection timing greatly affected BFCE by changing the combustion phasing. BFCE would increase up to a maximum then begin to decrease as phasing became less favorable. Combustion phasing would change from being mostly mixing controlled combustion to premixed combustion as injection timing would advance allowing more time for fuel to mix during the ignition delay. Combustion phasing, in turn, would influence many other engine parameters. As injection timing is advanced, in-cylinder temperatures and pressures amplify, and intake and exhaust manifold pressures deteriorate. Rate of heat release and rate of heat transfer increase when injection timing is advanced. Turbocharger speed falls with the advancing injection timing. Torque, however, rose to a maximum then fell off again even though engine speed and fueling rate were held constant between different injection timings. Interestingly, the coefficient of heat transfer changes from a two peak curve to a smooth one peak curve as the injection timing is advanced further. The major conclusion of the study is that injection advance both positively and negatively influences the diesel engine's response which contributes to the brake fuel conversion efficiency.

This study was concerned with the performance of biofuels in diesel engines. Generally, the basic combustion and emission characteristics of Rapeseed Oil (RSO) and Soya Oil (SO) result in a lower in-cylinder pressure peak than diesel. This led to the reduction of Nitrogen Oxides (NOx) emissions and to relatively high soot emissions. Further measurements of RSO were done in order to investigate the influence of injection pressure, injection timing and Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) on combustion and emission characteristics. A high soot emission from RSO was reduced by increased injection pressure. Moreover, injection timing also had to be varied in order to reduce the soot emissions from RSO. The retarded injection timing (3 deg bTDC) and increased injection pressure (1200 bar) for the blend of 30% RSO resulted in a reduction of soot emission to the same level as from diesel fuel. Further investigation regarding the soot emissions was done for Rapeseed Methyl Ester (RME) under turbocharged engine operation. The application of the boost pressure resulted in stable engine operation at a late injection timing of 5 deg aTDC. A simultaneous reduction of soot and NOx emissions has been achieved for RME at an injection timing of TDC and high EGR percentage (40 – 50 %). The soot particles size distribution under different engine operating conditions for RME and diesel has also been investigated. Moreover, the characteristic of Electrostatic Mobility Spectrometer (EMS) and the design of primary dilution system have been provided in order to understand the influence of the dilution process and to obtain more real results. Generally, RME showed less particles concentration in the nucleation mode when compared to diesel. Moreover, high EGR caused a shift of the particles from the nucleation mode by agglomeration into the accumulation mode for both fuels. The effect of injection pressure could only be seen in the accumulation mode, where high injection pressure slightly reduced the concentration number. The soot emission was effectively reduced by the usage of the diesel particulate filter (DPF). For this purpose, the soot particles size distributions before and after the DPF have been measured at different engine speeds and loads. At low engine torque, the soot was effectively filtered while the operation under high engine loads resulted in low soot particle concentration especially in the nucleation mode, after the DPF.

Yes / Dual-fuel HCCI engines allow a relatively small quantity of diesel fuel to be used to ignite a variety of fuels such as natural gas or methane in HCCI mode. The gaseous fuel is mixed with the incoming air, and diesel fuel is sprayed into the cylinder by direct injection. Mathematical modelling is used to investigate the effects of parameters such as premixed ratio (fuel ratio) and pilot fuel injection timing on combustion of a dual-fuel HCCI engines. A CFD package is used with AVL FIRE software to simulate dual-fuel HCCI combustion in detail. The results establish a suitable range of premixed ratio and liquid fuel injection timing for low levels of NOx, CO and HC emissions along with a reliable and efficient combustion. Dual-fuel HCCI mode can increase NOx emission with lower premixed ratios in comparison to normal HCCI engines, but it is shown that the NOx emission reduces above a certain level of the premixed ratio. Due to the requirement of homogenous mixing of liquid fuel with air, the liquid fuel injection is earlier than for diesel engines. It is shown that, with careful control of parameters, dual-fuel HCCI engines have lower emissions in comparison with conventional engines.