• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.85-91
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• 2001

LPG has been well known as a clean alternative fuel for vehicles. As a fundamental study on liquid phase LPG injection (hereafter LPLI) system application to heavy-duty engine, engine output and combustion performance were investigated with various operating conditions using a single cylinder engine equipped with the LPLI system. Experimental results revealed that no problems were occurred in application of the LPG fuel to heavy-duty engine, and that volumetric efficiency and engine output, by 10% approximately, were increased with the LPLI system. It was resulted from the decrease of the intake manifold temperature through liquid phase LPG fuel injection. These results provided an advantage in the decrease of the exhaust gas temperature, in the control of knocking phenomena, spark timing and compression ratio. The LPLI engine could normally operated under $\lambda$=1.5 or EGR 30% condition. The optimized swirl ratio for the heavy duty LPG engine was found around R_s$ = 2.0.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.107-113
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• 2002

LPG has been well known as a clean alternative fuel for vehicles. Recently, several LPG engines for heavy duty vehicles have been developed, which can replace some diesel engines that are one of the main sources for air pollution in the urban area. Because cylinder bore of heavy duty LPG engine is larger than that of gasoline, the study of knock characteristics of LPG engine are needed. In this study, the knock characteristics were investigated with various engine speed, air excess ratios and LPG fuel compositions. Experimental results indicated that the Knock occurrence probability decreases with increasing engine speed and propane fraction of fuel. The Knock occurrence probability is highest at excess air ratio of 1 and decreases as the mixture strength became leaner.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.1-7
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• 2001

Recently, several LPG engines for heavy-duty vehicles have been developed, which can replace some diesel engines that are one of a main source for air pollution in urban area. As a preliminary study on the liquid phase LPG injection (hereafter LPLI) system applicable to a heavy duty LPG engine, the engine output and combustion performance were investigated with various combustion chambers and fuel compositions using a single cylinder engine equipped. Experimental results revealed that ellipse, double ellipse and nebula type combustion chamber made a more advantage in breaking swirl flow into small turbulence scale than bathtub type. Especially, performance of nebula type showed most highest efficiency and engine output under lean mixture conditions. An investigation fur various LPG fuel compositions was also carried out, and revealed that the case with 40% propane and 60% butane shows the lowest efficiency at stoichiometry, however, as the mixture became leaner its efficiency increased and became even higher for 100% propane case.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.46-53
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• 2001

To optimize the intake flow condition in the heavy-duty LPG SI engine, five different swirl ratios of intake port were investigated experimentally by oil spot method, LDV and single cylinder engine test. The flow characteristics near the piston surface were observed by oil spot method and magnitudes of swirl flow were measured quantatively by LDV method in the steady flow rig. The engine performances of various swirl flow were also tested with the heavy-duty LPG SI single cylinder engine. In the results, high swirl ratio, above $R_s$=2.3, was not suitable to develope a stable flame kernel and to produce high engine performance. Especially it was more serious under lean burn conditions, since turbulence intensity was smaller than bulk flow though those are increased together. These results were also confirmed by LDV measurement and oil spot method. On the contrary, low swirl ratio($R_s$=1.3) is not good to propagate a flame since the turbulence intensity and bulk flow are vanished during compression stroke and low swirl ratio has too weak initial energy for stable combustion. Therefore, the of optimized swirl ratio f3r the heavy-duty LPG engine in this work was found around $R_s$=2.0.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.59-65
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• 2004

The configuration of intake port and piston is a dominant factor of inlet air flow and mixture formation in an engine cylinder, resepectively. This study has analyzed intake port and piston characteristics for swirl flow of a heavy-duty LPG engine. As an available technology to optimize intake port, the steady flow rig test has been applied for measuring swirl ratio and mean flow coefficient. And we measured the mean velocity and turbulence intensity of swirl flow under motoring condition in transparent engine cylinder by backward scattering LDV system. From these results, the piston and cylinder head with a good evaluated swirl flow characteristics were developed and adapted fur a 11L heavy-duty engine using the liquid phase LPG injection (LPLI) system. The obtained results are expected to be a fundamental data for developing intake port and piston.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.92-98
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• 2003

An LPG engine for heavy-duty vehicles has been developed using liquid phase LPG injection (hereafter LPLi) system which has regarded as one of the next generation LPG fuel supply systems. In this wort to investigate the lean bum characteristics of heavy-duty LPLi engine, various injection timing (SOI, start of injection) and double ignition method were tested. The results showed that lean misfire limit of LPLi engine could be extended. by 0.2 $\lambda$ value, using the optimal SOI timing in LPLi system. Double ignition method test was carried out by installing the second spark plug and modified ignition circuit to ignite two spark plugs simultaneously. Double ignition resulted in the stable combustion under ultra lean bum condition, below $\lambda=1.7$, and extension of lean misfire limit compare to ordinary case. Therefore, LPLi engine with optimal SOI and double ignition method could be normally operated at around $\lambda=1.9$ and showed higher engine performance.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.26-33
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• 2007

The intake swirl motion, as one of dominant effects for an engine combustion. is very effective for turbulence enhancement during the compression process in the cylinder of 2-valve engine. Because the combustion flame speed is determined by the turbulence that is mainly generated from the mean flow of the charge air motion in intake port system. This paper describes the experimental results of swirl flow and combustion characteristics by using the oil spot method and back-scattering Laser Doppler velocimeter (LDV) in 2-valve single cylinder transparent LPG engine using the liquid phase LPG injection. For this. various intake port configurations were developed by using the flow box system and swirl ratios for different intake port configurations were determined by impulse swirl meter in a steady flow rig test. And the effects of intake swirl ratio on combustion characteristics in an LPG engine were analyzed with some analysis parameters that is swirl ratio. mean flow coefficient, swirl mean velocity fuel conversion efficiency. combustion duration and cyclic variations of indicated mean effective pressure(IMEP). As these research results, we found that the intake port configuration with swirl ratio of 2.0 that has a reasonable lean combustion stability is very suitable to an $11{\ell}$ heavy-duty LPG engine with liquid phase fuel injection system. It also has a better mean flow coefficient of 0.34 to develope a stable flame kernel and to produce high performance. This research expects to clarify major factor that effects on the design of intake port efficiently with the optimized swirl ratio for the heavy duty LPG engine.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.160-165
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• 2002

The heavy-duty LPG-fueled single cylinder engine was designed and developed as a fundamental equipment for analyzing combustion processes and emission performances. The cylinder head and the piston crown were modified to fire the LPG in the engine. The flywheel was also fabricated to minimize the vibration of the single cylinder engine. The size of bore and stroke of the tested engine are 130 mm and 140 mm, respectively. Compression ratios were varied 8 to 9 with different piston crown shapes. The developed single cylinder engine operates at 1,000 rpm for this work. The major conclusions of this work are; (1) the power of the developed engine was peaked at the condition of equivalence ratio 1.0 at three different compression ratios; (2) the power is slightly increased with the increase of compression ratio; (3) the optimum ignition timing is retarded with the increase of compression ratio ranged 2 to 10 crank angle.

• 한국가스학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2000.09a
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• pp.137-142
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• 2000

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.23-32
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• 2002

Combustion and flame propagation characteristics of the liquid phase LPG injection (LPLI) engine were investigated in a single cylinder optical engine. Lean bum operation is needed to reduce thermal stress of exhaust manifold and engine knock in a heavy duty LPG engine. An LPLI system has advantages on lean operation. Optimized engine design parameters such as swirl, injection timing and piston geometry can improve lean bum performance with LPLI system. In this study, the effects of piston geometry along with injection timing and swirl ratio on flame propagation characteristics were investigated. A series of bottom-view flame images were taken from direct visualization using an W intensified high-speed CCD camera. Concepts of flame area speed, In addition to flame propagation patterns and thermodynamic heat release analysis, was introduced to analyze the flame propagation characteristics. The results show the correlation between the flame propagation characteristics, which is related to engine performance of lean region, and engine design parameters such as swirl ratio, piston geometry and injection timing. Stronger swirl resulted in foster flame propagation under open valve injection. The flame speed was significantly affected by injection timing under open valve injection conditions; supposedly due to the charge stratification. Piston geometry affected flame propagation through squish effects.