7 Search Results

A multiyear power system R&D program was completed with the objective of developing an off-road hybrid heavy duty diesel engine with front end accessory drive-integrated energy storage. This system was validated to deliver 10.5–25.6% reduction in fuel consumption over current Tier 4 Final-based 18L diesel engines, over various off-road machine application cycles. The power system consisted of a downsized heavy-duty diesel 13L engine containing advanced combustion technologies, capable of elevated peak cylinder pressures and thermal efficiencies, thermal barrier coatings, exhaust waste heat recovery via SuperTurbo™ turbocompounding, and hybrid energy assisting and recovery through both mechanical and electrical systems. Following themore » concept definition, design, and analysis phases of the program, the final phase focused on building and validating the performance and efficiency in laboratory tests. While aspects of the system such as start/stop and reduced off-road cooling package energy losses were only analytically evaluated, the main 13L concept engine with full hybrid system was successfully built and tested in steady-state and in transient certification and real-world application cycles. Extensive simulations in Caterpillar's DYNASTY™ software environment utilized the validation test data to assess performance more fully and confidently over varied cycles and strategies. An average fuel consumption reduction of 17.9% was realized, and the majority (~13%) of the benefit stemmed from the core concept 13L engine. In conclusion, a total cost of ownership analysis provides context to commercial viability and where adoption focus should be placed.« less

Engine particulate filters have been widely applied across the world to control engine exhaust particulate matter (or particulate number) emissions. With increasing vehicle mileage, ash accumulation deteriorates vehicle fuel economy and complicates on-board control. Extending filter service life with ash loading has significant economic and environmental impacts. Many studies have been conducted in characterizing ash accumulation and evaluating its impacts on filter performance. However, comprehensive reviews covering all the key issues in the field are rather rare. This paper reviews the extensive prior research on filter ash, and not only summarizes the experimental observations but also elucidates the fundamental mechanisms.more » The review covers the areas of ash origin, accumulation, transport, evolution, and artificial acceleration methods. The previously reported data of ash properties is compiled and analyzed. Furthermore, the advantages and disadvantages of ash acceleration approaches are also discussed in detail. Based on the cumulative understanding, a few potential ways to improve ash management are discussed in this paper. In summary, the present work systematically reviews the previous observations and understanding of ash aging in particulate filters and identifies areas that need further research, which can be useful guidance for future studies.« less

Here, a sensor was developed for simultaneous measurements of carbon monoxide (CO) and carbon dioxide (CO₂) fluctuations in internal combustion engine exhaust gases. This sensor utilizes low-cost and compact light-emitting diodes (LEDs) that emit in the 3–5 µm wavelength range. An affordable, fast response sensor that can measure these gases has a broad application that can lead to more efficient, fuel-flexible engines and regulation of harmful emissions. Light emission from LEDs is spectrally broader and more spatially divergent when compared to that of lasers, which presented many design challenges. Optical design studies addressed some of the non-ideal characteristics of themore » LED emissions. Measurements of CO and CO₂ were conducted using their fundamental absorption bands centered at 4.7 µm and 4.3 µm, respectively, while a 3.6 µm reference LED was used to account for scattering losses (due to soot, window deposits, etc.) common to the three measurement LEDs. Instrument validation and calibration was performed using a laboratory flow cell and bottled-gas mixtures. The sensor was able to detect CO₂ and CO concentration changes as small as 30 ppm and 400 ppm, respectively. Because of the many control and monitor species with infra-red absorption features, which can be measured using the strategy described, this work demonstrates proof of concept for a wider range of fast (250 Hz) and low-cost sensors for gas measurement and process monitoring.« less

One effective method of reducing NO_x emissions while improving efficiency is exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) in internal combustion engines. But, insufficient mixing between fresh air and exhaust gas can lead to cycle-to-cycle and cylinder-to-cylinder nonuniform charge gas mixtures of a multi-cylinder engine, which can in turn reduce engine performance and efficiency. Furthermore, a sensor packaged into a compact probe was designed, built and applied to measure spatiotemporal EGR distributions in the intake manifold of an operating engine. The probe promotes the development of more efficient and higher-performance engines by resolving high-speed in situ CO₂ concentration at various locations in themore » intake manifold. Our study employed mid-infrared light sources tuned to an absorption band of CO₂ near 4.3 μm, an industry standard species for determining EGR fraction. The calibrated probe was used to map spatial EGR distributions in an intake manifold with high accuracy and monitor cycle-resolved cylinder-specific EGR fluctuations at a rate of up to 1 kHz.« less

Spark-ignited internal combustion engines have evolved considerably in recent years in response to increasingly stringent regulations for emissions and fuel-economy. One new advanced engine strategy utilizes high levels of exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) to reduce combustion temperatures, thereby increasing thermodynamic efficiency and reducing nitrogen oxide emissions. While this strategy can be highly effective, it also poses major control and design challenges due to the large combustion oscillations that develop at sufficiently high EGR levels. Previous research has documented that combustion instabilities can propagate between successive engine cycles in individual cylinders via self-generated feedback of reactive species and thermal energy inmore » the retained residual exhaust gases. In this work, we use symbolic analysis to characterize multi-cylinder combustion oscillations in an experimental engine operating with external EGR. At low levels of EGR, intra-cylinder oscillations are clearly visible and appear to be associated with brief, intermittent coupling among cylinders. As EGR is increased further, a point is reached where all four cylinders lock almost completely in phase and alternate simultaneously between two distinct bi-stable combustion states. From a practical perspective, it is important to understand the causes of this phenomenon and develop diagnostics that might be applied to ameliorate its effects. We demonstrate here that two approaches for symbolizing the engine combustion measurements can provide useful probes for characterizing these instabilities.« less

In an effort aimed at predicting the combustion behavior of a new fuel in a conventional diesel engine, cetane (n-hexadecane) fuel was used in a military engine across the entire speed–load operating range. The ignition delay was characterized for this fuel at each operating condition. A chemical ignition delay was also predicted across the speed–load range using a detailed chemical kinetic mechanism with a constant pressure reactor model. At each operating condition, the measured in-cylinder pressure and predicted temperature at the start of injection were applied to the detailed n-hexadecane kinetic mechanism, and the chemical ignition delay was predicted withoutmore » any kinetic mechanism calibration. The modeling results show that fuel–air parcels developed from the diesel spray with an equivalence ratio of 4 are the first to ignite. The chemical ignition delay results also showed decreasing igntion delays with increasing engine load and speed, just as the experimental data revealed. At lower engine speeds and loads, the kinetic modeling results show the characteristic two-stage negative temperature coefficient behavior of hydrocarbon fuels. However, at high engine speeds and loads, the reactions do not display negative temperature coefficient behavior, as the reactions proceed directly into high-temperature pathways due to higher temperatures and pressure at injection. A moderate difference between the total and chemical ignition delays was then characterized as a phyical delay period that scales inversely with engine speed. This physical delay time is representative of the diesel spray development time and is seen to become a minority fraction of the total igntion delay at higher engine speeds. In addition, the approach used in this study suggests that the ignition delay and thus start of combustion may be predicted with reasonable accuracy using kinetic modeling to determine the chemical igntion delay. Then, in conjunction with the physical delay time (experimental or modeling based), a new fuel’s acceptability in a conventional engine could be assessed by determining that the total ignition delay is not too short or too long.« less