Analysis of the particulate emissions and combustion performance of a direct injection spark ignition engine using hydrogen and gasoline mixtures

Three different fractions (2%, 5%, and 10% of stoichiometric, or 2.38%, 5.92%, and 11.73% by energy fraction) of hydrogen were aspirated into a gasoline direct injection engine under two different load conditions. The base fuel was 65% iso-octane, and 35% toluene by volume fraction. Ignition sweeps were conducted for each operation point. The pressure traces were recorded for further analysis, and the particulate emission size distributions were measured using a Cambustion DMS500. The results indicated a more stable and faster combustion as more hydrogen was blended. Meanwhile, a substantial reduction in particulate emissions was found at the low load condition (more than 95% reduction either in terms of number concentration or mass concentration when blending 10% hydrogen). Some variation in the results occurred at the high load condition, but the particulate emissions were reduced in most cases, especially for nucleation mode particulate matter. Retarding the ignition timing generally reduced the particulate emissions. An engine model was constructed using the Ricardo WAVE package to assist in understanding the data. The simulation reported a higher residual gas fraction at low load, which explained the higher level of cycle-by-cycle variation at the low load

Numerical study on the effects of multiple-injection coupled with EGR on combustion and NOx emissions in a marine diesel engine

In this work, the potential of multi-injection strategies coupled with EGR to improve the trade-off relationship of NOx-BSFC (Brake specific fuel consumption) is carefully studied by multi-dimensional simulation using CONVERGE in a low-speed two-stroke diesel engine. The present study reveals that by introducing high EGR rate, the reduction of NOx emissions, the peak heat release rate and the peak pressure can be observed. But the effective fuel consumption rate is increased. We investigate the effects of various multiple-injection strategies on the engine performance, that is, single pilot-injection, single post-injection, single pilot-injection combined with single post-injection, and double pilot-injections, coupled with 39% EGR. The results show that low BSFC can be effectively achieved by a single pilot-injection strategy of small interval and large quantity. However, with a comprehensive consideration of low NOx emissions and BSFC, a strategy of 25 °CA pilot-main interval and 20% quantity should be chosen to obtain the best performance. The analysis of post-injection reveals that it is beneficial to reducing NOx emissions, but BSFC can be deteriorated. Moreover, it can be concluded that it is possible to achieve low NOx emissions and fuel consumption simultaneously by using the pilot-injection combined with post-injection. It also can be found that NOx emissions are deteriorated remarkably when using double pilot-injections

Effects of the turbulence model and the spray model on predictions of the n-heptane jet fuel–air mixing and the ignition characteristics with a reduced chemistry mechanism

Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes simulations with an improved spray model and a realistic chemistry mechanism are performed for turbulent spray flames under diesel-like conditions in a constant-volume chamber. Comprehensive numerical analyses including two turbulence models (the renormalisation group k–ε model and the standard two-equation k–ε model) with different model coefficients are made. The distribution of the fuel mixture fractions is a very important factor affecting the combustion process. In this study, we also use the entrainment gas-jet model, modifications of the the spray model coefficient and two turbulence models to investigate extensively the influence of the gas-jet theory model on the fuel–air mixture process. First, a non-reacting case is validated by comparing the liquid-phase penetration and the vapour-phase penetration and also the mixture fractions at different axis positions. Second, approriate methods are confirmed according to accurate mixture fraction distributions to validate the combustion process. Because of the large number of species and reactions, the calculation of chemically reacting flows is unaffordable, particularly for three-dimensional simulations. Hence, the dynamic adaptive chemistry method for efficient chemistry calculations is extended in this work to reduce the computational cost of the spray combustion process when a reduced chemistry mechanism is used. The results show that, in the evaporation case, the gas-jet theory model can be used to obtain a relatively accurate fuel vapour penetration length with different influential factors and that improved numerical methods can effectively reduce the mesh dependence for the spray evaporation process. It is demonstrated that the Schmidt number Sc and the turbulence models significantly influence the mixture fraction distribution. Very good agreement with available experimental data is found concerning the ignition delay time and the flame lift-off length for different oxygen concentrations owing to the accurate fuel mixture fraction

Effects of applying EGR with split injection strategy on combustion performance and knock resistance in a spark assisted compression ignition (SACI) engine

Spark assisted compression ignition (SACI) is a proven method for extending the load range and controlling the combustion phase of homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) while maintaining high thermal efficiency. However, the occurrence of abnormal combustion, such as knock, limits the improvement of efficiency in SACI combustion. In this study, the effects of a coupling strategy, which combines internal/external exhaust gas recirculation (i & e-EGR) and split injection, on knock suppression in SACI mode were investigated in a high-compression-ratio, single-cylinder gasoline engine with a fully variable valve system. During the experiment, the mass of intake air remained constant while e-EGR was added. The results show that the coupling strategy combines the advantages of e-EGR and split injection, providing an effective method for resisting knock and improving engine efficiency. The results also demonstrate that applying e-EGR to SACI combustion significantly decreases the knock intensity by effectively reducing the in-cylinder temperature. In addition, the effect of split injection on knock suppression is related to the initial in-cylinder temperature and fuel stratification. With high initial in-cylinder temperature, the relationship between knock probability and split injection timing is non-monotonic. However, with low initial in-cylinder temperature, the capacity of resisting knock monotonically increases with the delay of secondary injection timing

Turbulent flame propagation with pressure oscillation in the end gas region of confined combustion chamber equipped with different perforated plates

Experiments were conducted in a newly designed constant volume combustion chamber with a perforated plate by varying the initial conditions. Hydrogen-air mixtures were used and the turbulent flame, shock wave, and the processes of flame-shock interactions were tracked via high-speed Schlieren photography. The effects of hole size and porosities on flame and shock wave propagation, intensity of the shock wave and pressure oscillation in closed combustion chamber were analyzed in detail. The effect of interactions between the turbulent flame and reflected shock or acoustic wave on the turbulent flame propagation was comprehensively studied during the present experiment. The results demonstrated that flame front propagation velocity and pressure oscillation strongly depend on the hole size and porosities of the perforated plate. The flame front propagation velocity in the end gas region increases as hole size increases and porosity decreases. The flame front propagation intensity in the end region of a confined space is strongly relevant to two competing effects: the initial turbulent formation and turbulent flame development. The experimental results indicated that an oscillating flame is associated with both the reflected shock wave and the acoustic wave. Meanwhile, different turbulent flame propagations and combustion modes were observed

Experimental study on laminar flame characteristics of methane-PRF95 dual fuel under lean burn conditions

The effects of methane addition to PRF95 (primary reference fuel with 95% volume of iso-octane and 5% volume of n-heptane) on the fundamental combustion parameters are experimentally investigated in a cylindrical combustion vessel using classical schlieren technique. In this study, methane is added with three energy fractions of 25%, 50% and 75% to PRF95. The laminar flame propagation, Markstein length and flame instability of dual fuels under different initial pressures and with different equivalence ratios, especially under lean burn condition, are well studied. Spherical flames are experimentally investigated at the initial temperature of 373 K and under the pressures of 2.5 bar, 5 bar and 10 bar. The equivalence ratios vary with 0.8, 1.0 and 1.2. The stretched flame speeds are determined by outwardly spherical flame method. The results show that at low initial pressures, the addition of methane to PRF95 increases the stretched flame speeds with lean equivalence ratios while decreases it in rich region. Laminar flame of methane-PRF95 mixtures burn faster than those of pure methane and PRF95 with equivalence ratio of 0.8 over the whole range of the initial pressures investigated, and this trend is more obvious at low pressure. Comparing the data of 25% methane dual fuel (DF25) with that of base fuels with the equivalence ratio of 0.8 and under the initial pressure of 2.5 bar, it can be seen that the flame speed of DF25 is 57% faster than that of methane and 22% faster than that of PRF95. These results provide important theoretical references to lean burn SI engine with methane-gasoline dual fuels under lean burn conditions

Experimental analysis of super-knock occurrence based on a spark ignition engine with high compression ratio

The super-knock phenomenon is a major obstacle for further improving the power density in SI engines. The objective of this paper is to experimentally investigating the mechanism involved in the occurrence of super-knock. In this work, a high compression ratio (CR = 13) coupled with advanced spark timings were employed to achieving intense or critical thermal-dynamic conditions to easily inducing the super-knock. The results show that super-knock can originate from spark ignition, which is different from previous results regarding pre-ignition. Changing the spark timing super-knock can be induced with very high pressure oscillation at the present high compression ratio. The high compression ratio could generate sufficiently high thermal-dynamic conditions to inducing the abnormal combustion. In this research, four combustion phenomena were observed. The present work indicates that there is a nonlinear relationship between knock intensity and knocking onset in terms of pressure profiles at different cycles. The super-knock or knock phenomena were dominantly induced by spark ignition, which were controlled by the pre-ignition after several cycles. Finally, the analysis of the mechanism of super-knock with severe pressure oscillation was employed based on the thermal explosion theory and cavity resonances. There are two possible auto-ignition combustion modes that can induce the intense pressure oscillation

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Genome-Wide Identification of Chromatin Transitional Regions Reveals Diverse Mechanisms Defining the Boundary of Facultative Heterochromatin

<div><p>Due to the self-propagating nature of the heterochromatic modification H3K27me3, chromatin barrier activities are required to demarcate the boundary and prevent it from encroaching into euchromatic regions. Studies in <i>Drosophila</i> and vertebrate systems have revealed several important chromatin barrier elements and their respective binding factors. However, epigenomic data indicate that the binding of these factors are not exclusive to chromatin boundaries. To gain a comprehensive understanding of facultative heterochromatin boundaries, we developed a two-tiered method to identify the Chromatin Transitional Region (CTR), i.e. the nucleosomal region that shows the greatest transition rate of the H3K27me3 modification as revealed by ChIP-Seq. This approach was applied to identify CTRs in <i>Drosophila</i> S2 cells and human HeLa cells. Although many insulator proteins have been characterized in <i>Drosophila</i>, less than half of the CTRs in S2 cells are associated with known insulator proteins, indicating unknown mechanisms remain to be characterized. Our analysis also revealed that the peak binding of insulator proteins are usually 1–2 nucleosomes away from the CTR. Comparison of CTR-associated insulator protein binding sites vs. those in heterochromatic region revealed that boundary-associated binding sites are distinctively flanked by nucleosome destabilizing sequences, which correlates with significant decreased nucleosome density and increased binding intensities of co-factors. Interestingly, several subgroups of boundaries have enhanced H3.3 incorporation but reduced nucleosome turnover rate. Our genome-wide study reveals that diverse mechanisms are employed to define the boundaries of facultative heterochromatin. In both <i>Drosophila</i> and mammalian systems, only a small fraction of insulator protein binding sites co-localize with H3K27me3 boundaries. However, boundary-associated insulator binding sites are distinctively flanked by nucleosome destabilizing sequences, which correlates with significantly decreased nucleosome density and increased binding of co-factors.</p></div

Contrasting patterns of H3.3 enrichment and nucleosome turnover rate associated with subgroups of CTRs in <i>Drosophila</i> S2 cell line.

<p>(A) Composite plot for all CTRs. H3.3 (low salt) incorporation is enriched on the euchromatic side of CTRs (red arrow), while nucleosome turnover rate (CATCH-IT) is drops down sharply at the same region (green arrow). (B) H3.3 enrichment and CATCH-IT measurements of nucleosome turnover rate moves to the same direction for GAF (both CTR-associated and others). In contrast, for CTR-associated dCTCF binding sites, the enrichment of H3.3 is accompanied by decreased turnover rate. (C) Plots of H3.3 enrichment (red), nucleosome turnover rate (green, measured with CATCH-IT), and nucleosome density (purple) for each subgroup of the CTRs (for group F only those co-localized with GAF were included). Note the contrasting pattern between H3.3 enrichment and CATCH-IT profile in subgroups A, B, C, G, but not in subgroups D and E.</p