The process of shock-induced ignition has been investigated both computa- tionally and experimentally, with particular emphasis on the concept of radical farming. The first component of the investigation contained Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) calculations of an ignition delay study, a 2D pre-mixed flow over flat plate at a constant angle to the freestream, and through a generic 2D scramjet model. The focal point of the investigation however examined the complex 3D flow through a generic scramjet model. Five experimental test conditions were ex- amined over flow enthalpies from 3.4 MJ/kg to 6.4 MJ/kg. All test conditions simulated flight at 21000 metres ([symbol=almost equal to] 70000 ft), while the equivalent flight Mach number varied from approximately 8.5 at the lowest enthalpy, to approximately Mach 12 at the highest enthalpy condition. The presence of H2 fuel injected in the intake caused a separated region to form on the lower surface of the model at the entrance to the combustor. A fraction of the total mass of fuel was entrained in this separated region, providing long residence times, hence increased time for the chemical reactions that lead to ignition to occur. In addition, extremely high temperatures were found to exist between each fuel jet. Both fuel and air are present in these regions, therefore the chance of ignition in these regions is high. Streamlines passing through the recirculation zone ignited within this zone, while streamlines passing between the fuel jets ignited soon after entry into the combustor. The first instance of a pressure rise from combustion was observed on the centreline of the model where the reflected bow shock around the fuel jets crossed the centreline of the combus- tor. Upstream of this location the static pressure of the flow was too low for the chemical reactions that release heat to occur. The comparison between the experimental and computational results was lim- ited due to inaccuracies in modelling the thermal state of the gas in the CFD calculations. The gas was modelled as being in a state of thermal equilibrium at all times, which incorrectly models the freestream flow from the nozzle of the shock tunnel, and also the flow downstream of oblique shock wave within the scramjet model. As a result combustion occurs sooner in the CFD calculations than in the experimental result.

<p>This masters thesis investigates the possibility to estimate the ethanol content in the fuel using ion currents. Flexible fuel cars can be run on gasoline-ethanol blends with an ethanol content from0 to 85 percentage. It is important for the engine control system to have information about the fuel. In todays cars the measurements of the fuel blend are done by a sensor. If it is possible to do this with ion currents this can be used to detect if the sensor is broken, and then estimate the ethanol content until the sensor gets fixed. The benefit</p><p>of using ion currents is that the signal is measured directly from the spark plug and therefore no extra hardware is needed. To be able to see how the ethanol ratio affects the ion currents, the dependencies of the operating point have been investigated. This has been done by a literature review and by measurements in a Saab 9-3. Engine speed, load, ignition timing, lambda and spark plugs effects on the ion currents are especially studied. A black box model for the ion currents dependence on operating point is developed. This model describes the engine speed, load and ignition timing dependencies well, but it can not be used to estimate the ethanol ratio.</p>

With the depletion of petroleum based fuels and the corresponding concerns of national energy security issues, natural gas as an alternative fuel in IC engine applications has become an attractive option. Natural gas requires minimum mixture preparation, and is chemically stable, both of which make it a suitable fuel for homogeneous charged compression ignition (HCCI) engines. Compared to petroleum based fuels, natural gas produces less green-house emissions. However, natural gas is hard to auto-ignite and therefore requires a higher compression ratio, some amount of intake heating, or some type of pre-ignition. In addition, natural gas usually has large differences in fuel composition from field to field, which adds more uncertainties for engine applications. The current study determines the auto-ignition characteristics, engine performance, and nitric oxides emissions as functions of major operating parameters for a natural gas fueled HCCI engine, and determines differences relative to gasoline fueled HCCI engines which have been studied for many years. These tasks have been done using both zero- and multi-dimensional engine simulations. By zero-dimensional simulation, the effects of varying equivalence ratios, engine speeds, compression ratio, EGR level, intake pressure and fuel compositions are determined and analyzed in detail. To be able to account for the in-cylinder inhomogeneous effect on the HCCI combustion, multi-zone models coupled with cold-flow CFD simulations are employed in addition to the single-zone model. The effects of non-homogeneous temperature and equivalence ratio stratification on the ignition timing, combustion phasing, and emissions formation have been studied and discussed. Finally, the preliminary two-dimensional axial-symmetric CFD simulations have been conducted to study the in-cylinder temperature and the species distributions, which provide better visualization of the natural gas auto-ignition process.

This doctoral thesis is about controlling the combustion timing of the combustion concept Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition, HCCI, by means of variable valve timings. The HCCI research usually is regarded to have started in Japan during the later part of the 1970´s. The world of HCCI has since grown and HCCI is of today researched worldwide. Of particular interest from a Swedish point of view is that Lund Institute of Technology has emerged as one of the world leading HCCI laboratories. The idea with HCCI is to combine the Otto and Diesel engine. As in an Otto engine the charge is premixed but as in a Diesel engine the operation is unthrottled and the compression heat causes the ignition. The combustion that follows the ignition takes place homogeneously and overall lean. The result is ultra low NOx and particulate emissions combined with high total efficiency. A difficulty with the HCCI-concept is that it only works in a narrow area and that there is no direct way to control the Start Of Combustion, SOC. Out of this follows that timing/phasing of the combustion is one of the main difficulties with HCCI combustion concepts. This is particularly emphasized during transient operation and calls for feedback control of the combustion timing. This work investigates one method, the variable valve timing, to achieve feedback control of the combustion phasing. From the work it can be concluded that the variable valve timing can control the combustion phasing during engine transients. In order to improve the performance a non-linear compensation from ignition delay to valve timings has been suggested, incorporated in a control structure and tested in engine test. The engine test has been performed in a single cylinder engine based on a Scania truck engine. The speed range from 500 to 1750 rpm and the load range 1.26 and 10.5 bar of netIMEP has been covered with fair transient performance. / QC 20100629

Autoignition of non-premixed methane-air mixtures is investigated using first-order Conditional Moment closure (CMC). In CMC, scalar quantities are conditionally averaged with respect to a conserved scalar, usually the mixture fraction. The conditional fluctuations are often of small order, allowing the chemical source term to be modeled as a function of the conditional species concentrations and the conditional enthalpy (temperature). The first-order CMC derivation leaves many terms unclosed such as the conditional scalar dissipation rate, velocity and turbulent fluxes, and the probability density function. Submodels for these quantities are discussed and validated against Direct Numerical Simulations (DNS). The CMC and the turbulent velocity and mixing fields calculations are decoupled based on the frozen mixing assumption, and the CMC equations are cross-stream averaged across the flow following the shear flow approximation. Finite differences are used to discretize the equations, and a two-step fractional method is implemented to treat separately the stiff chemical source term. The stiff ODE solver LSODE is used to solve the resulting system of equations. The recently developed detailed chemical kinetics mechanism UBC-Mech 1.0 is employed throughout this study, and preexisting mechanisms are visited. Several ignition criteria are also investigated. Homogeneous and inhomogeneous CMC calculations are performed in order to investigate the role of physical transport in autoignition. Furthermore, the results of the perfectly homogeneous reactor calculations are presented and the critical value of the scalar dissipation rate for ignition is determined. The results are compared to the shock tube experimental data of Sullivan et al. The current results show good agreement with the experiments in terms of both ignition delay and ignition kernel location, and the trends obtained in the experiments are successfully reproduced. The results were shown to be sensitive to the scalar dissipation model, the chemical kinetics, and the ignition criterion.

This Degree Project has been done at Växjö University, department of bioenergy technology and discusses the released thermal power in wood pellets. The purpose of the project is to investigate if two new types of wood biofuels (pellets) are more or less reactive than the pellets previously investigated at Växjö University. To measure the released thermal power, an isothermal calorimeter with eight channels has been used. To see how the microbial activity is influenced, the pellets have been stored under various conditions with focus on temperature and metal.

Bioenergi är en stor industri i Sverige och står för en betydande del av energiomsättningen. Bioenergi i form av flis förvaras runt om i landet på hög i väntan på förbränning. Då högarna läggs upp startar olika processer som värmer upp stacken, ofta till temperaturer på 50°C under det första dygnet. En vanlig ansats i litteraturen är att denna temperaturstegring beror på aerob nedbrytning. Arbetet ämnar undersöka om denna uppvärmning endast beror av mikrobiella aktiviteter. Hypotesen prövas genom kalorimetriska mätningar av effekt från prover av flis och simulering av första dygnets temperaturutveckling i ett program som programmeras under arbetes gång. I modellen så betraktas för enkelhets skulle flisstacken som en avlång figur med rektangulärt tvärsnitt. Figuren delas sedan in i lämpligt stora beräkningsceller. Problemet löses genom att iterativt räkna fram ett strömningsfält. Strömningsfältet och effekterna som räknas ut hålls sedan konstanta under ett tidssteg, 5-15min. Den magasinerade värmeenergin används sedan för att räkna fram en ny temperatur som så ger ett nytt strömningsfält och nya effekter. I modellen användes enbart explicita metoder eftersom de är snabbare och mycket enklare att programmera. Ett flertal experiment i kalorimeter genomfördes med olika prover av flis och torv. Prover med barkflis gav högst utslag. Den högsta effekten som uppmättes var 2,16W/kg TS. Då effekter av denna storleksordning användes som inre effektgenerering i programmet gav detta inte en temperatur ökning motsvarande sådana som uppmätts i verkligheten. Detta tyder på att mer än aerob nedbrytning krävs för att ge en temperatur på över 50°C. / Bioenergy is a major industry in Sweden and accounts for a significant part of the energy production. Bioenergy in the form of wood chips is stored in piles across the country awaiting combustion. When the piles are acumulated, various processes that heat the stack begin, often to temperatures of 50 °C during the first day. A common approach in the literature is that this temperature rise is due to the aerobic decomposition. This paper will investigate whether the microbial activity is the fundamental cause for warming. The hypothesis is tested by calorimetric measurements of power from the samples of wood chips and simulation of the first day's temperature development in a programme that was desinated. For simplicity the model considers an oblong wood chip pile with rectangular cross-section. The pile is then subdivided into appropriately sized calculation cells. The problem is solved by calculating a flow field iteratively. The flow field and the effects that are calculated is then static during one time step for approximately 5-15 minutes. The produced heat energy is then used to calculate a new temperature, which renders a new flow field and new powers. The model uses only explicit methods because they are faster and much easier to programme. Several calorimetric experiments were carried out with various samples of wood chips and peat. Samples of bark chips achieved the highest result. The highest power measured was 2.16 W / kg DM. When the effects of this magnitude were used as internal power source in the programme the temperature did not increase corresponding to those measured in reality. This suggests that more than aerobic decomposition is needed to reach a temperature above 50°C.

This masters thesis investigates the possibility to estimate the ethanol content in the fuel using ion currents. Flexible fuel cars can be run on gasoline-ethanol blends with an ethanol content from0 to 85 percentage. It is important for the engine control system to have information about the fuel. In todays cars the measurements of the fuel blend are done by a sensor. If it is possible to do this with ion currents this can be used to detect if the sensor is broken, and then estimate the ethanol content until the sensor gets fixed. The benefit of using ion currents is that the signal is measured directly from the spark plug and therefore no extra hardware is needed. To be able to see how the ethanol ratio affects the ion currents, the dependencies of the operating point have been investigated. This has been done by a literature review and by measurements in a Saab 9-3. Engine speed, load, ignition timing, lambda and spark plugs effects on the ion currents are especially studied. A black box model for the ion currents dependence on operating point is developed. This model describes the engine speed, load and ignition timing dependencies well, but it can not be used to estimate the ethanol ratio.

Autoignition of non-premixed methane-air mixtures is investigated using first-order Conditional Moment closure (CMC). In CMC, scalar quantities are conditionally averaged with respect to a conserved scalar, usually the mixture fraction. The conditional fluctuations are often of small order, allowing the chemical source term to be modeled as a function of the conditional species concentrations and the conditional enthalpy (temperature). The first-order CMC derivation leaves many terms unclosed such as the conditional scalar dissipation rate, velocity and turbulent fluxes, and the probability density function. Submodels for these quantities are discussed and validated against Direct Numerical Simulations (DNS). The CMC and the turbulent velocity and mixing fields calculations are decoupled based on the frozen mixing assumption, and the CMC equations are cross-stream averaged across the flow following the shear flow approximation. Finite differences are used to discretize the equations, and a two-step fractional method is implemented to treat separately the stiff chemical source term. The stiff ODE solver LSODE is used to solve the resulting system of equations. The recently developed detailed chemical kinetics mechanism UBC-Mech 1.0 is employed throughout this study, and preexisting mechanisms are visited. Several ignition criteria are also investigated. Homogeneous and inhomogeneous CMC calculations are performed in order to investigate the role of physical transport in autoignition. Furthermore, the results of the perfectly homogeneous reactor calculations are presented and the critical value of the scalar dissipation rate for ignition is determined. The results are compared to the shock tube experimental data of Sullivan et al. The current results show good agreement with the experiments in terms of both ignition delay and ignition kernel location, and the trends obtained in the experiments are successfully reproduced. The results were shown to be sensitive to the scalar dissipation model, the chemical kinetics, and the ignition criterion.

Internal combustion engines have dealt with increasingly restricted emissions requirements. After-treatment devices are successful in bringing emissions into compliance, but in-cylinder combustion control can reduce their burden by reducing engine out emissions. For example, oxides of nitrogen (NOx) are diesel combustion exhaust species that are notoriously difficult to remove by after-treatment. In-cylinder conditions can be controlled for low levels of NOx, but this produces high levels of soot potentially leading to increased particulate matter (PM). The simultaneous reduction of NOx and PM can be realized through a combustion process known as low temperature combustion (LTC). In this study, the typical definition of LTC as the defeat of the inverse relationship between soot and NOx is not applicable as a return to the soot-NOx tradeoff is observed with increasing exhaust gas recirculation (EGR). It is postulated that this effect is the result of an increase in the hot ignition equivalence ratio, moving the combustion event into a slightly higher soot formation region. This is important because a simple emissions based definition of LTC is no longer helpful. In this study, the manifestation of LTC in the calculated heat release profile is investigated. The conditions classified as LTC undergo a two-stage ignition process. Two-stage ignition is characterized by an initial cool-flame reaction followed by typical hot ignition. In traditional combustion conditions, the ignition is fast enough that a cool-flame is not observed. By controlling initial conditions (pressure, temperature, and composition), the creation and duration of the cool-flame event is predictable. Further, the effect that injection timing and the exhaust gas recirculation level have on the controlling factors of the cool-flame reaction is well correlated to the duration of the cool-flame event. These two results allow the postulation that the presence of a sufficiently long cool-flame reaction indicates a combustion event that can be classified as low temperature combustion. A potential method for identifying low temperature combustion events using only the rate of heat release profile is theorized. This study employed high levels of EGR and late injection timing to realize the LTC mode of ordinary petroleum diesel fuel. Under these conditions, and based on a 90 percent reduction in nitric oxide and no increase in smoke output relative to the chosen baseline condition, a two part criteria is developed that identifies the LTC classified conditions. The criteria are as follow: the combustion event of conventional petroleum diesel fuel must show a two-stage ignition process; the first stage (cool-flame reaction) must consume at least 2 percent of the normalized fuel energy before the hot ignition commences.