To reduce greenhouse gas emissions, a direct injection (DI) system was introduced to increase performance and reduce exhaust emissions in a downsized engine compared with a port fuel injection (PFI) system when fossil fuel conditions are the same. How...
To reduce greenhouse gas emissions, a direct injection (DI) system was introduced to increase performance and reduce exhaust emissions in a downsized engine compared with a port fuel injection (PFI) system when fossil fuel conditions are the same. However, the DI system emits more ultrafine particles than the PFI system, which has led to regulations and research to reduce particulate emissions. This study focuses on the injection characteristics including entrained lubricant and spray interaction, dual-fuel system, oxygenated fuels, and nozzle hole layout that affect particulate formation factors on combustion characteristics and exhaust emissions in a DISI engine under various engine operating conditions. An instrumented combustion single-cylinder DISI engine was used to measure the combustion characteristics and gaseous exhaust emissions, and single- and two-cylinder optical DISI engines were used to capture the spray and flame images.
To identify the effect of entrained lubricant and spray interaction, fuel blends composed of lubricant and gasoline in different ratios were used and experimented with various injection pressures and timings. The combustion characteristics and gaseous exhaust emissions indicated that the lubricant did not influence the combustion performance and mixture homogeneity but had an impact on the unburned fuels. The spray behavior and flame image showed that the lubricant did not influence the spray but influenced the wall film formation during the injection period, which is a major factor affecting particulate matter generation. Particulate emissions indicated that the lubricant included in the wall film significantly affected PN emissions depending on the injection conditions. Additionally, the influence of the lubricant on the wall film affects the overall particle size and its distribution.
The effect of utilizing methane was identified by injecting methane using a PFI injector and injecting gasoline using a DI injector at different injection ratios, which were conducted with various injection pressures and timings. Combustion characteristics showed that at G70M30, an increase in the intake pressure and spray momentum from gasoline injection compensated for the slow flame propagation speed of methane, leading to an increase in IMEP; however, a further increase in the methane ratio resulted in the dominance of the burning velocity of methane, reducing IMEP. The gaseous emissions indicated that the addition of methane increased the mixture homogeneity, lowered the combustion temperature, and reduced the carbon-hydrogen ratio. An increase in the methane ratio decreased the wall film caused by gasoline injection and increased mixture homogeneity, resulting in a reduction in PN emissions. However, gasoline injection is still required to aid air/fuel mixture formation by facilitating in-cylinder flow, which results in lower PN emissions compared to methane PFI injection.
To observe the effect of oxygenated fuel, methanol was blended with gasoline at different ratios and investigated at various injection pressures and timings. The combustion results showed that methanol’s fast burning velocity, high latent heat of evaporation, and oxygen content increased the combustion speed at early injection timing, combustion completeness, and reduction of compression work at late injection timing, all leading to an increase in IMEP under all injection conditions. The gaseous exhaust emissions indicated that blending methanol could lower the carbon mass fraction, enhance mixture homogeneity, and lower the combustion temperature under all injection conditions. The lower boiling point and oxygen content of methanol reduced the wall film, enhanced the mixture homogeneity, and stimulated soot oxidation, leading to a reduction in PN emissions at lower injection pressure; however, the difference in PN emissions between fuel blends was reduced owing to better atomization and increased in-cylinder flow at high injection pressures.
Particulate emission reduction targeted multi-hole DI injectors with one injector having a part of the injector nozzle enlarged and positioned at the middle of the nozzle holes, and another injector with a partially enlarged nozzle hole at the bottom were used and compared by changing one of the engine operating parameters, including engine speed, air-fuel ratio, and injection timing. Changing the engine speed and air-fuel ratio did not affect the combustion characteristics and gaseous exhaust emissions because the early injection timing did not affect the in-cylinder flow and mixture homogeneity. PN emissions decreased as the nozzle hole was partially enlarged and positioned at the bottom due to the spray from the enlarged nozzle hole, hindering the in-cylinder flow moving towards the exhaust side cylinder liner, which causes the spray to move in that direction. However, when the injection timing was retarded, the enlarged nozzle hole reduced spray momentum and kept the spray from reaching the exhaust side cylinder wall, but hindered the in-cylinder flow, resulting in a reduction in the combustion performance and an increase in the gaseous exhaust emissions.
In conclusion, the lubricant-gasoline blend combustion and exhaust emission results showed that the physical properties of the lubricant affected wall film formation, causing a substantial amount of PN emissions, even with a small amount. Methane PFI-gasoline DI experiment showed that dual fuel system alleviated particulate formation factors which reduced exhaust emissions while minimizing engine performance degradation through increase in intake air flow rate. The methanol-gasoline blend experiment indicated that the physical and chemical properties of methanol can not only reduce PN emissions, but also increase engine performance and reduce exhaust emissions. The nozzle hole layout experiment showed that nozzle hole size and position can reduce PN emissions under various engine operating conditions but can affect combustion characteristics and exhaust emissions owing to the spray pattern affecting the in-cylinder flow. Therefore, combustion characteristics and exhaust emissions are important because they aid in analyzing the effect on particulate formation factors and engine performance, which is a crucial factor for downsized DISI engines.