• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.193-200
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• 2007

Natural gas is one of the most promising alternatives to gasoline and diesel fuels because of its lower harmful emissions, including $CO_2$, and high thermal efficiency. In particular, natural gas is seen as an alternative fuel for heavy-duty Diesel Engines because of the lower resulting emissions of PM, $CO_2$ and $NO_x$. Almost all CNG vehicles use the PFI-type Engine. However, PFI-type CNG Engines have a lower brake horse power, because of reduced volumetric efficiency and lower burning speed. This is a result of gaseous charge and the time losses increase as compared with the DI-type. This study was conducted to investigate the effect of injection conditions (early injection mode, late injection mode) on the combustion phenomena and performances in the or CNG Engine. A DI Diesel Engine with the same specifications used in a previous study was modified to a DI CNG Engine, and injection pressure was constantly kept at 60bar by a two-stage pressure-reducing type regulator. In this study, excess air ratios were varied from 1.0 to the lean limit, at the load conditions 50% throttle open rate and 1700rpm. The combustion characteristics of the or CNG Engine - such as in-cylinder pressure, indicated thermal efficiency, cycle-by-cycle variation, combustion duration and emissions - were investigated. Through this method, it was possible to verify that the combustion duration, the lean limit and the emissions were improved by control of injection timing and the stratified mixture conditions. And combustion duration is affected by not only excess air ratio, injection timing and position of piston but gas flow condition.