• International Journal of Automotive Technology
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2001

This paper presents further investigation into the effect of over-expansion cycle in a spark-ignition engine. On the basis of the results obtained in previous studies, several combinations of late-closing (LC) of intake valve and expansion ratio were tested using a single-cylinder production engine. A large volume of intake capacity was inserted into the intake manifold to simulate multi-cylinder engines. With the large capacity volume, LC can decrease the pumping loss and then increase the mechanical efficiency. Increasing the expansion ratio from 11 to 23.9 with LC application can produce about 13% improvement of thermal efficiency which was suggested to be caused by the increased cycle efficiency. The decrease of compression ratio from 11 to 5.5 gives little effect on the thermal efficiency if the expansion ratio could be kept constant. Thus, the expansion ratio is revealed to be a determining factor for cycle efficiency, while compression ratio is no more important, which suggests the usefulness of controlling the intake charge with intake valve closure timing. These were successfully explained by simple thermodynamic calculation and thus the mechanism could be verified by the estimation.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.170-177
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• 2006

Hydrogen can extend the lean misfire limit to a large extent when it is mixed with conventional fuels for a spark ignition engine. In this study, hydrogen-enriched gaseous fuels by reforming process were simulated according to their proportions of $H_2$, CO, $CO_2$ and $N_2$ gases. Pure hydrogen and two different hydrogen-enriched gaseous mixtures(A-, B-composition) were tested for their basic effects on the engine performances and emissions in a single cylinder research engine. A- and B-composition showed different results from 100% $H_2$ addition because air/fuel mixtures were more diluted by their additions. Even though the energy fraction of reformed gases was increased, combustion stabilities and lean misfire limits were not sensitively improved. It means that combustion augmentation by $H_2$ addition was offset by the charge dilution of $N_2$ and $CO_2$. In addition, the low flammability of CO gas deteriorated thermal efficiencies. CO emission was drastically increased with B-composition which included higher CO component. However, $NO_x$ was reduced as energy fraction($X_e$) rised except for the case of 100% $H_2$ addition at $\lambda=1.2$ and was, for A-composition, lowered to a factor of ten when compared with that of $H_2$ addition. HC emissions were largely influenced by $COV_{imep}$ due to misfire and partial burns.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.34 no.12
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• pp.1043-1050
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• 2010

Fuel stratification and thermal stratification occur in the HCCI combustion chamber on a microscopic scale. They affect the ignition and combustion processes. In this study, the effect of the inhomogeneity in the mixture gas on the HCCI combustion process was investigated. Two-dimensional chemiluminescence images were captured using a framing camera to evaluate the flame structure. DME was used as the test fuel. First, the effect of inhomogeneity in the fuel distribution in the premixture was investigated for the four-stroke optically accessible engine. Then, by comparing the combustion of the homogeneous mixture in the rapid compression machine, which does not contain any residual gas, with the combustion in the four-stroke engine, the effect of inhomogeneity in temperature due to the residual gas was analyzed. The results showed that a time lag appears spatially in combustion under inhomogeneous conditions in the four-stroke engine. The spatial variation in the combustion without the residual gas in the rapid compression machine is less than that in the combustion in the four-stroke engine.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.32-38
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• 2006

Currently, due to the serious world-wide air pollution by substances emitted from vehicles, emission control is enforced more firmly and it is expected that the regulation requirements for emission will become more severe. A new concept combustion technology that can reduce the NOx and PM in relation to combustion is urgently required. Due to such social requirement, technologically advanced countries are making efforts to develop an environment-friendly vehicle engine at the nation-wide level in order to respond to the reinforced emission control. As a core combustion technology among new combustion technologies for the next generation engine, the homogenous charge compression ignition(HCCI) is expanding its application range by adopting multiple combustion mode, catalyst, direct fuel injection and partially premixed combustion. This study used a 2-staged injection method in order to apply the HCCI combustion method without significantly altering engine specifications in the aspect of multiple combustion mode and practicality by referring to the results of studies on the HCCI engine. In addition, this study confirmed the possibility of securing optimum fuel economy emission reduction in the IMEP 8bar range(which could not be achieved with existing partially premixed combustion) through forced charging, exhaust gas recirculation(EGR), compression ratio change and application of DOC catalyst.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.560-566
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• 2015

HCCI (Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition) hydrogen engine has relatively narrower operation range caused by knock occurrence due to the rapid pressure rising by using higher compression ratio. In this study, EGR as one of the countermeasure methods is considered to extend operation range of HCCI hydrogen engine. Also, the effects of hydrogen EGR are compared with the effects of EGR using hydrocarbon fuel. Hydrocarbon EGR is carried out by adding carbon dioxide to exhaust gas of HCCI hydrogen engine. As the results, EGR has positive effects on a HCCI hydrogen engine in reducing rate of pressure rise as same as the other engines used hydrocarbon fuels. However, the effects of hydrogen EGR are better than those of hydrocarbon EGR in decreasing minimum compression ratio and rate of pressure rise. When applying EGR to HCCI hydrogen engine by 20% rate, the rate of pressure rise decreases by 58% and it results in about 48% increase of the operation range in terms of supply energy.

• International Journal of Automotive Technology
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.395-402
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• 2007

Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) shows great potential for low $NO_x$ emission but is hampered by the problem of no direct method to control the combustion process. Therefore, HCCI combustion becomes unstable easily, especially at lower and higher engine load. This paper presents a method to achieve diesel-fueled HCCI combustion, which involves directly injecting diesel fuel into the cylinder before the piston arrives at top dead center in the exhaust stroke and adjusting the valve overlap duration to trap more high temperature residual gas in the cylinder. The combustion stability of diesel-fueled HCCI combustion and the effects of engine load, speed, and valve overlap on it are the main points of investigation. The results show that: diesel-fueled HCCI combustion has two-stage heat release rate (low temperature and high temperature heat release) and very low $NO_x$ emission, combustion stability of the HCCI engine is worse at lower load because of misfire and at higher load because of knock, the increase in engine speed aids combustion stability at lower load because the heat loss is reduced, and increasing negative valve overlap can increase in-cylinder temperature which aids combustion stability at lower load but harms it at higher load.

• International Journal of Automotive Technology
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• v.6 no.6
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• pp.579-584
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• 2005

Unsteady state free natural gas jets injected from several types of injectors were numerically simulated. Simulations showed good agreements with the schlieren experimental results. Moreover, injections of natural gas in intake manifolds of a single-valve engine and a double-valve engine were predicted as well. Predictions revealed that large volumetric injections of natural gas in intake manifolds led to strong impingement of natural gas with the intake valves, which as a result, gave rise to pronounced backward reflection of natural gas towards the inlets of intake manifolds, together with significant increase in pressure in intake manifold. Based on our simulations, we speculated that for engines with short intake manifolds, reflections of the mixture of natural gas and air were likely to approach the inlets of intake manifolds and subsequently be inbreathed into other cylinders, resulting in non-uniform mixture distributions between the cylinders. For engines with long intake manifolds, inasmuch as the degrees of intake interferences between the cylinders were not identical in light of the ignition sequences, non-uniform intake charge distributions between the cylinders would occur.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.143-150
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• 2008

EGR(exhaust gas recirculation) is an attractive means of improving the fuel economy of spark ignition engines, as it offers the benefits of charge dilution (lower pumping and cooling losses) while allowing stoichiometric fuelling to be retained for applications using the three-way catalysts. However, the occurrence of excessive cyclic variation with high EGR normally prevents substantial fuel economy improvements from being achieved in practice. Therefore, the optimum EGR rate in Gasoline-Hybrid engine should be carefully determined in order to achieve low fuel consumption and low exhaust emission. In this study, 2 liters gasoline engine with E-EGR system was used to investigate the effects of EGR on fuel economy, combustion stability, engine performance and exhaust emissions. EGR tolerance with load variation was found to be more sensitive than with rpm variation. With optimal EGR rates, the fuel consumption was improved by 5.5% while a combustion stability was guaranteed.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.344-351
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• 2009

A multi-zone model was used to predict the operating range of homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) engine, the boundaries of the operating range were determined by knock (presented by ring intensity), misfire (presented by sensitivity of indicated mean effective pressure to the initial temperature). A HCCI engine fueled with Di-Methyl Ether (DME) was simulated under different initial temperature and equivalence ratios, and the operating range was well produced by the model. Furthermore, the model was applied to develop the operating range for thermal stratification in the preceding condition of initial temperature and equivalence ratios. The computations were conducted using Senkin application of the CHEMKINII kinetics rate code.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.83-90
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• 2014

The main purpose of the study is to investigate the ideal manner and ratio to inject gasoline and DME simultaneously into intake port, and moreover to confirm the characteristics of combustion and emission of engine. Experimental conditions are 1200 rpm, compression ratio 8.5, intake air temperature (383 K). Internal cylinder pressure was collected to confirm the characteristics of combustion in order to calculate the heat release rate in the cylinder. In addition, HORIBA (MEXA 7100) which was possible analyzing emissions (NOx, CO, HC) was used. Vanguard gasoline engine (23HP386447) was used in this experiment. The result show that fuel design (DME-Gasoline) leads to the decrease of low temperature heat release, which is a benefit for higher-load on the HCCI engine. Also, IMEP and the indicated thermal efficiency increase with combustion-phasing retard, and these observations can be explained by considering the control of low temperature oxidation of DME.