• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.7-12
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• 2013

As emission regulation for vehicle has been reinforced, many researches carried out for HCNG(hydrogen-natural gas blends) fuel to the conventional compressed natural gas (CNG) engine. However, abnormal combustion such as backfire, pre-ignition or knocking can be caused due to high combustion speed of hydrogen and it can result in over heating of engine or reduction of thermal efficiency and power output. In the present study, improvement of combustion performance was observed with HCNG fuel since it can extend a flammability limit. Knocking characteristics for CNG and HCNG fuel were investigated. Feasibility of HCNG fuel was evaluated by checking the knock margin according to excess air ratio. The operation of engine with HCNG was stable at minimum advance for best torque(MBT) spark timing and knock phenomena were not detected. However, it is necessary to prepare higher knock tendency since possibility of knock is higher with HCNG fuel.

• International Journal of Automotive Technology
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• v.7 no.5
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• pp.585-593
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• 2006

The effect of the shape of the side wall on vaporization and fuel mixture were investigated for the impinging spray of a direct injection(DI) gasoline engine under a variety of conditions using the LIEF technique. The characteristics of the impinging spray were investigated under various configurations of piston cavities. To simulate the effect of piston cavity configurations and injection timing in an actual DI gasoline engine, the parameters were horizontal distance from the spray axis to side wall and vertical distance from nozzle tip to impingement plate. Prior to investigating the side wall effect, experiments on free and impinging sprays for flat plates were conducted and these results were compared with those of the side wall impinging spray. For each condition, the impingement plate was located at three different vertical distances(Z=46.7, 58.4, and 70 mm) below the injector tip and the rectangular side wall was installed at three different radial distances(R=15, 20, and 25 mm) from the spray axis. Radial propagation velocity from spray axis along impinging plate became higher with increasing ambient temperature. When the ambient pressure was increased, propagation speed reduced. High ambient pressures tended to prevent the impinging spray from the propagating radially and kept the fuel concentration higher near the spray axis. Regardless of ambient pressure and temperature fully developed vortices were generated near the side wall with nearly identical distributions, however there were discrepancies in the early development process. A relationship between the impingement distance(Z) and the distance from the side wall to the spray axis(R) was demonstrated in this study when R=20 and 25 mm and Z=46.7 and 58.4 mm. Fuel recirculation was achieved by adequate side wall distance. Fuel mixture stratification, an adequate piston cavity with a shorter impingement distance from the injector tip to the piston head should be required in the central direct injection system.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.37-47
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• 2002

Recently gasoline direct injection method has been applied to gasoline engine to reduce fuel consumption rate by controlling fuel air mixture on lean condition by means of stratified charging, and to reduce simultaneously. Pollutant emissions especially NOx and CO by lowering the combustion temperature. But difficulty of controling local fuel air ratio at ignition area in flammability limit unavoidably appeared, because it is merely controlled by injection timing with spatial and temporal distribution of fuel mixture. In this study, the authors devised a uniquely shaped combustion chamber so called three-chamber GDI engine, intended to keep the more reliable fuel air ratio at ignition area. The combustion chamber is divided into three regions. The first region is in the rich combustion division, where the fuel is injected from the fuel injection valve and ignited by the spark plug. The second region is in the lean combustion division, where the combustion gas from the rich combustion division flows out and burns on lean condition. And the last region is in the main combustion division ie in the cylinder, where the gas from the above two combustion divisions mixed together and completes the combustion during expansion stroke. They found that the stable range of operation of three-chamber GDI engine on low-load condition exists in the lean area of average equivalence ratio. And they also found that the reformed engine reveals less specific fuel consumption and less pollutant emissions compared with conventional carburettor type gasoline engine.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.156-165
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• 2014

This paper is the first investigation on the effect of flow control methods on the part load performance in a spark ignition engine. For comparison of the methods, two control devices, port throttling and masking, were applied to a conventional engine without any design change of the intake port. Steady flow evaluation shows that steady flow rates per unit opening area and swirl ratio are very low compared with the port throttling and saturated from mid-stage valve lift, however, swirl increases slightly as the lift is higher in case of 1/4 masking control. In the part load performance, the effect of simple port throttling on lean misfire limit expansion is limited and insufficient; on the other hand a masking improves the limit considerably without any port modification for increasing swirl. Also the results show that the intake flow control improves the combustion with following two mechanisms: stratification induced by the combination of the flow pattern and the fuel injection timing attribute to ignition ability and the intensified flow ensure fast burn. In addition fuel consumption reduces under the flow controls and the reduction rate is different according to the operation conditions and control methods. At the Stoichiometric and/or low speed and low load the throttling method is more advantageous; however vice versa at lean and high load condition. Finally, the throttling is more efficient for HC reduction than masking, on the other side the NOx emissions increase under the masking and decrease under the port throttling compared with conventional port scheme.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.15-20
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• 2011

Although CNG is able to meet the current emission standards, it is expected to be impossible to satisfy the requirements of the next EURO-6 emission regulation without an additional after-treatment device. Hydrogen is known to be a gaseous fuel which features the wide flammability limit and the fast reactivity. A certain amount of hydrogen addition to CNG is able to extend the lean combustion range and produce lesser amounts of harmful emissions. In this research, the combustion and emission characteristics of HCNG(mixture of Hydrogen and CNG) fuel were experimented in an 11-liter heavy duty lean burn engine varying hydrogen contents, air-to-fuel ratio and spark timing. The optimization of this HCNG engine for a city bus was performed through the evaluations of oxidation catalyst characteristics.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.63-68
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• 2011

As an effective utilization of biomass, organic wastes and coal, attention has been made to use syngas to a reciprocating engine to generate power. However, significant component variation of syngas depending upon origin and gasification conditions, and its lower heating value than that of LPG and CNG can create difficulties in stable engine operation. Thus it is necessary to address these issues in order to successfully develop power generation engines. As a primary step to resolve these problems, effects of H2 content variation in syngas on engine performance and emission characteristics were discussed in this study. The results show that as H2 % in syngas increases, more stable combustion was achieved with retarded MBT spark timing and engine efficiency becomes maximum with syngas of 10% H2. In addition, NOx emission increased while THC emission decreased as H2 % rises in the syngas.

• International Journal of Automotive Technology
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.437-444
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• 2007

This paper experimentally investigates the effects of oxygen-enriched air (OEA) on the running behaviors of an LPG SI engine during both start/warm-up (SW) and hot idling (HI) stages. The experiments were performed on an air-cooled, single-cylinder, 4-stroke, LPG SI engine with an electronic fuel injection system and an electrically-heated oxygen sensor. OEA containing 23% and 25% oxygen (by volume) was supplied for the experiments. The throttle position was fixed at that of idle condition. A fueling strategy was used as following: the fuel injection pulse width (FIPW) in the first cycle of injection was set 5.05 ms, and 2.6 ms in the subsequent cycles till the achieving of closed-loop control. In closed-loop mode, the FIPW was adjusted by the ECU in terms of the oxygen sensor feedback. Instantaneous engine speed, cylinder pressure, engine-out time-resolved HC, CO and NOx emissions and excess air coefficient (EAC) were measured and compared to the intake air baseline (ambient air, 21% oxygen). The results show that during SW stage, with the increase in the oxygen concentration in the intake air, the EAC of the mixture is much closer to the stoichiometric one and more oxygen is made available for oxidation, which results in evidently-improved combustion. The ignition in the first firing cycle starts earlier and peak pressure and maximum heat release rate both notably increase. The maximum engine speed is elevated and HC and CO emissions are reduced considerably. The percent reductions in HC emissions are about 48% and 68% in CO emissions about 52% and 78%; with 23% and 25% OEA, respectively, compared to ambient air. During HI stage, with OEA, the fuel amount per cycle increases due to closed-loop control, the engine speed rises, and speed stability is improved. The HC emissions notably decrease: about 60% and 80% with 23% and 25% OEA, respectively, compared to ambient air. The CO emissions remain at the same low level as with ambient air. During both SW and HI stages, intake air oxygen enrichment causes the delay of spark timing and the increased NOx emissions.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.14-20
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• 2012

Biogas can be obtained from biogenic materials through an anaerobic digestion process. Since biogas has low calorific value and its composition significantly varies, appropriate combustion strategies need to be established to obtain stable combustion in engine applications. In this study, efforts have been made to investigate the effects of inert gas composition variations on engine performance and emissions. Results show that the MBT spark timing was advanced and $NO_x$ was reduced as the inert gas in the biogas rose. Moreover, $NO_x$ emission drop in $CO_2$ diluted biogas was more significant than that of $N_2$ due to higher heat capacity of $CO_2$, while THC emissions showed the opposite tendency. Thermal efficiency was increased in $N_2$ case with elevation of $N_2$ due to the decreased heat loss and PMEP. However, there is no difference in $CO_2$ case because of deteriorated flame propagation speed.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.50-56
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• 2011

A preliminary experimental study of new concept air hybrid engine, which stores compressed air in the tank during braking and re-use it to propel vehicle during crusing or acceleration, was carried out in this study. A single cylinder engine was modified to realize the concept of air hybrid engine. Independent variable valve lift system was adopted in one of the exhaust valves to store the compressed air into the air tank during compression period. An air injector module was installed in the place of spark plug, and the stored compressed air was supplied during the expansion period to realize air motoring mode. For air compression mode, the tank with volume of 30 liter could be charged up to more than 13 bar. By utilizing this stored compressed air, motoring work of 0.41 bar of IMEP(Indicated mean effective pressure) at maximum can be generated at the 800rpm conditions, which is higher than the case of normal idle condition by 1.1 bar of IMEP.