• Journal of ILASS-Korea
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.31-37
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• 2010

The aim of this work is to investigate the spray and combustion characteristics of dimethyl-ether (DME) at various injection conditions. The spray characteristics such as spray tip penetration and spray cone angle were experimentally studied from the spray images which obtained from the spray visualization system. Combustion and emissions characteristics were numerically investigated by using KIVA-3V code coupled with Chemkin chemistry solver. From these results, it revealed that DME spray had a shorter spray tip penetration and wider spray cone angle than that of diesel spray due to the low density, low surface tension, and fast evaporation characteristics. At the constant heating value condition, DME fuel showed higher peak combustion pressure and earlier ignition timing, because of high cetane number and superior evaporation characteristics. In addition, the combustion of DME exhausted more $NO_x$ emission and lower HC emission due to the active combustion reaction in the combustion chamber. The result shows that DME had a little soot emission due to its molecular structure characteristics with no direct connection between carbons.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.138-145
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• 2003

There are high expectations for DME(Dimethyl Ether) as a new alternative fuel for diesel engine. Compared with the conventional diesel engine, nearly zero soot emission and high thermal efficiency have been reported from DME fuelled CI engines. However, higher NOx emission is one of the disadvantages from DME Engines. In the present study, cooled EGR(Exhaust Gas Recirculation) was applied to DME engine modified from conventional Dl diesel engine, and effects of EGR were examined under various EGR temperature. Finally, it was concluded that the cooled EGR is an effective solution to reduce NOx emission from DME engine.

• Journal of ILASS-Korea
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.171-177
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• 2012

To understand oxygenated fuel characteristics including spray penetration length and spray angle at a real engine ambient pressure condition, DME was injected into a high pressure chamber by a piezo injector common rail system. The piezo injector common rail system was able to apply steady injection pressure, rapid response, and accurate injection quantity. Injection and ambient pressure were varied to confirm a relation with spray form. Using a direct photographing technique, development process of DME spray was captured. DME injection quantity was enlarged linearly as increasing of the injection pressure. In the high pressure chamber, when the injection pressure was enlarged the penetration length and velocity were increased due to a big momentum of fuel particle at the same ambient pressure. When ambient pressure was increased, the DME spray penetration length and velocity were decreased since the high ambient density of nitrogen was acted as a resistance. Although the ambient pressure and injection pressure were varied, each case of spray angle was almost same since the spray angle had a connection of the injector nozzle geometry.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Combustion
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.33-39
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• 2007

The present study is mainly motivated to investigate the vaporization, auto-ignition and combustion processes in high-pressure engine conditions. In order to realistically simulate the dimethyl ether (DME) spray dynamics and vaporization characteristics in high-pressure and high-temperature environment, the high-pressure vaporization model is utilized. The interaction between chemistry and turbulence is treated by employing the Representative Interaction Flamelet (RIF) model. The detailed chemistry of 336 elementary steps and 78 chemical species is used for the DME/air reaction. Numerical results indicate that the RIF approach, together with the high-pressure vaporization model, successfully predicts the essential feature of ignition and spray combustion processes.

• Journal of ILASS-Korea
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.16-25
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• 2005

The present study is mainly motivated to investigate the vaporization, auto-ignition and combustion processes in high-pressure engine conditions. In order to realistically simulate the dimethyl ether (DME) spray dynamics and vaporization characteristics in high-pressure and high-temperature environment, the high-pressure vaporization model is utilized. The interaction between chemistry and turbulence is treated by employing the Representative Interaction Flamelet(RIF) model. The detailed chemistry of 336 elementary steps and 78 chemical species is used for the DME/air reaction. Numerical results indicate that the RIF approach, together with the high-pressure vaporization model, successfully predicts the essential feature of ignition and spray combustion processes.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.83-88
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• 2003

Measurements on the combustion characteristics of dimethyl ether(DME:$CH_3$O$CH_3$) as compared with LPC in constant volume combustion chamber have been conducted. The DME is a good alternative fuel having oxygen component in fuel. To elucidate the combustion characteristics of dimethyl ether as a fuel, the combustion pressures, combustion durations, and pollutants(NOx, $CO_2$, CO) are measured with equivalence ratios(Ø), and initial Pressures of fuel-air mixture. In the case of DME, the NOx concentration peaks in leu flame Ø = 0.85~0.9, and $CO_2$ concentration peaks at Ø=1.1, while the CO concentration abruptly rises at the condition of fuel-rich mixtures.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.90-97
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• 2012

It is investigated of the DME spray characteristics about varied ambient pressure and fuel injection pressure using the common rail fuel injection system when the nozzle holes diameter is varied. The common rail fuel injection system and fuel cooling system is used since DME has compressibility and vaporization in atmospheric temperature. The fuel injection quantity and spray characteristics were measured. The spray was analyzed of spray shape, penetration length, and spray angle at the six nozzle holes. The 2 types injector were used, the one was 0.166 mm diameter the other one was 0.250 mm diameter. The ambient pressure which is based on gage pressure was 0 MPa, 2.5 MPa, and 5 MPa. The fuel injection pressure was varied by 5 MPa from 35 MPa to 70 MPa. When using the converted injector, compared to using the common injector, the DME injection quantity was increased 127 % but it didn't have the same heat release. Both of the common and converted injector had symmetric spray shapes. In case of converted injector, there were asymmetrical spray shapes until 1.2 ms, but after 1.2 ms the spray shape was symmetrical. Compared with the common and converted injector, the converted injector had shorter penetration length and wider spray angle than the common injector.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.147-156
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• 2008

As the management of fuel efficiency becomes globally reinforced in attempts to find an environment-friendly vehicle that will operate against global warming, the interest in and the demand for the type of vehicle with a high-efficiency diesel engine using light oil. However, it also emits a greater amount of PM (particulate matter) and NOx than emissions from vehicles using other types of fuels. Therefore, the DME (Dimethyl Ether), an oxygen containing fuel draws attention as an alternative fuel for light oil that can be used for diesel engines since it generates very little smoke. But to develop and compare performance of an electric controlled common-rail DME engine, engine tests requires optimized injection conditions at required engine RPM and engine torque. These injection conditions cannot be set freely and the data configuration through the experimentally repeated application requires much time as well as a significant amount of errors and effort. The object of this study is to configure the basic injection map using the results of the DME engine experiments performed so far. For this, in this study, the functionalization of the required equations were performed along with the basic review of the factors that had influence on the data map. Through this, the information on the injection pressure, injection amount, injection duration, injection timing, etc. under certain operation condition could be obtained.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.41-45
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• 2010

The physical properties of DME(Dimethyl Ether) are very similar to LPG and well-mixed. As cetane number of DME is similar to diesel fuel that can replace diesel fuel and alternative energy. DME is a clean energy source that can be manufactured from various raw materials such as natural gas, CBM(Coal Bed Methane) and biomass. DME has no carbon-carbon bond in its molecular structure and its combustion essentially generates no soot as well as no SOx. The development of DME process in KOGAS have 4 section. First, syngas section can be manufactured various syngas ratio. This completes the tri-reforming process for the synthesis gas ratio of approximately 4.0 to 1.0 range can be adjusted. Second, $CO_2$ is removed from the $CO_2$ removal section of about 92~99%, so the maximum concentration of $CO_2$ entering the DME synthesis reactor should not exceed 8%. Third, in the DME synthesis section, if the temperature of DME reactor increases, the activity of DME catalyst increased. but for the long-term activity is desirable to maintain the proper temperature. Finally, the purity of DME in the DME purification section is over 99.6%.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.32 no.11
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• pp.841-848
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• 2008

DME(Di-methyl Ether) has been expected to be one of the promising alternative fuels for compression ignition engines due to its low emission characteristics for particulate matter. However, its physical properties such as density, bulk modulus and viscosity are not comparable to those of conventional diesel fuel. Especially, problems caused by low lubricity and high compressibility need to be understood more thoroughly, when a DME fuel is used for compression ignition engine, especially with mechanical fuel supply system. In this study, measurement and calculation of DME's bulk modulus were carried out over the range of temperatures from $-3^{\circ}C$ to $53^{\circ}C$, and pressures from 50 bar to 250 bar using an experimental apparatus built in this work. The results show that DME is prone to be compressed more easily compared to diesel fuel. A comparison of bulk modulus with butane and propane were also made in this work.