The Estimation of Nitrogen Oxides Reduction Potential Through Enhanced Heat Release Analysis

Author(s):  
Tongyang Gao ◽  
Shui Yu ◽  
Kelvin Xie ◽  
Marko Jeftic ◽  
Meiping Wang ◽  
...  

An enhanced heat release analysis method is proposed to investigate the NOx emission reduction potential in diesel low temperature combustion and the combustion of premixed ethanol ignited by diesel injections. The heat release analysis from the in-cylinder pressure is a commonly applied diagnostic tool to gain insights in various aspects of combustion, such as start of combustion, ignition delay, combustion phasing, and combustion duration. However, these parameters are more qualitative than quantitative when they are correlated to engine efficiency and emissions. The results are often inconsistent at different engine operating conditions, such as different intake pressure levels, EGR rates and engine loads. In this work, the authors proposed a new parameter named as peak of combustion acceleration, which is the maximum of the first derivative of the heat release rate over an engine cycle. It was observed that the peak of combustion acceleration had a close correlation with the emissions of smoke and NOx at different engine loads and in the combustion of both diesel LTC and premixed ethanol ignited by diesel injections. With the test engine platform, the NOx emission reduced to lower than 50 ppm when the peak of combustion acceleration was less than 25 for diesel LTC and 35 for premixed ethanol ignited by diesel injections. The detailed cylinder pressure sampling and treatment processes were described in this paper. The impact of cycle to cycle variation in the cylinder pressure on the calculation of the peak of combustion acceleration was discussed. The peak of combustion acceleration and the corresponding engine crank angle from each individual engine cycle were calculated and the statistic performance of these parameters was evaluated. The comparison indicated an acceptable consistency between the results from individual engine cycle and from the averaged engine cycles. The proposed peak of combustion acceleration can be potentially integrated in the engine control as an indication of the NOx reduction potential.

Author(s):  
Elliott A. Ortiz-Soto ◽  
Jiri Vavra ◽  
Aristotelis Babajimopoulos

Increased residual levels in Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) engines employing valve strategies such as recompression or negative valve overlap (NVO) imply that accurate estimation of residual gas fraction (RGF) is critical for cylinder pressure heat release analysis. The objective of the present work was to evaluate three residual estimation methods and assess their suitability under naturally aspirated and boosted HCCI operating conditions: i) the Simple State Equation method employs the Ideal Gas Law at exhaust valve closing (EVC); ii) the Mirsky method assumes isentropic exhaust process; and iii) the Fitzgerald method models in-cylinder temperature from exhaust valve opening (EVO) to EVC by accounting for heat loss during the exhaust process and uses measured exhaust temperature for calibration. Simulations with a calibrated and validated “virtual engine” were performed for representative HCCI operating conditions of engine speed, fuel-air equivalence ratio, NVO and intake pressure (boosting). The State Equation method always overestimated RGF by more than 10%. The Mirsky method was most robust, with average errors between 3–5%. The Fitzgerald method performed consistently better, ranging from no error to 5%, where increased boosting caused the largest discrepancies. A sensitivity study was also performed and determined that the Mirsky method was most robust to possible pressure and temperature measurement errors.


Author(s):  
Elliott A. Ortiz-Soto ◽  
Jiri Vavra ◽  
Aristotelis Babajimopoulos

Increased residual levels in homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) engines employing valve strategies such as recompression or negative valve overlap (NVO) imply that accurate estimation of residual gas fraction (RGF) is critical for cylinder pressure heat release analysis. The objective of the present work was to evaluate three residual estimation methods and assess their suitability under naturally aspirated and boosted HCCI operating conditions: (i) the simple state equation method employs the ideal gas law at exhaust valve closing (EVC); (ii) the Mirsky method assumes isentropic exhaust process; and (iii) the Fitzgerald method models in-cylinder temperature from exhaust valve opening (EVO) to EVC by accounting for heat loss during the exhaust process and uses measured exhaust temperature for calibration. Simulations with a calibrated and validated “virtual engine” were performed for representative HCCI operating conditions of engine speed, fuel-air equivalence ratio, NVO and intake pressure (boosting). The state equation method always overestimated RGF by more than 10%. The Mirsky method was most robust, with average errors between 3–5%. The Fitzgerald method performed consistently better, ranging from no error to 5%, where increased boosting caused the largest discrepancies. A sensitivity study was also performed and determined that the Mirsky method was most robust to possible pressure and temperature measurement errors.


Author(s):  
Seung Hyup Ryu ◽  
Ki Doo Kim ◽  
Wook Hyeon Yoon ◽  
Ji Soo Ha

Accurate heat release analysis based on the cylinder pressure trace is important for evaluating combustion process of diesel engines. However, traditional single-zone heat release models (SZM) have significant limitations due mainly to their simplified assumptions of uniform charge and homogeneity while neglecting local temperature distribution inside cylinder during combustion process. In this study, a heat release analysis based on single-zone model has been evaluated by comparison with computational analysis result using Fire-code, which is based on multi-dimensional model (MDM). The limitations of the single-zone assumption have been estimated. To overcome these limitations, an improved model that includes the effects of spatial non-uniformity has been applied. From this improved single-zone heat release model (Improved-SZM), two effective values of specific heats ratios, denoted by γV and γH in this study, have been introduced. These values are formulated as the function of charge temperature changing rate and overall equivalence ratio by matching the results of the single-zone analysis to those of computational analysis using Fire-code about medium speed marine diesel engine. Also, it is applied that each equation of γV and γH has respectively different slopes according to several meaningful regions such as the start of injection, the end of injection, the maximum cylinder temperature, and the exhaust valve open. This calculation method based on improved single-zone model gives a good agreement with Fire-code results over the whole range of operating conditions.


Author(s):  
Eduardo Barrientos ◽  
Ivan Bortel ◽  
Michal Takats ◽  
Jiri Vavra

Engine induced swirl improves mixing of fuel and air and at optimal values accelerates burn, improves the combustion stability and can decrease particulate matter (PM). However, swirl increases convective heat loss and cylinder charge loss and could increase nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions. High intensity of swirl could impede flame development and increases emissions of total hydrocarbons (THC) and carbon monoxide (CO). Therefore, careful and smart selection of optimal swirl values is paramount in order to obtain beneficial impact on combustion and emissions performance. This study is conducted on a 0.5L single cylinder research engine with common rail (CR) diesel injection system, with parameters corresponding to modern engines of passenger cars. The engine has three separate ports in the cylinder head. The change of swirl ratio is defined by closing appropriate ports. There are three levels of swirl ratio under study — 1.7, 2.9 and 4.5, corresponding to low, medium and high swirl levels respectively. This study highlights the influence of intake induced swirl on combustion parameters and emissions. Assessed combustion parameters are, among others, heat release rate, cylinder pressure rise and indicated mean effective pressure. Assessed emissions are standard gaseous emissions and smoke, with emphasis on PM emissions. An engine speed of 1500 rpm was selected, which well represents common driving conditions of this engine size. Various common rail pressures are used at ambient inlet manifold pressure (without boost pressure) and at 1 bar boosted pressure mode. It is found that when the swirl level is increased, the faster heat release during the premixed combustion and during early diffusion-controlled combustion causes a quick increase in both in-cylinder pressure and temperature, thus promoting the formation of NOx. However, since swirl enhances mixing and potentially produces a leaning effect, PM formation is reduced in general. However, maximum peak temperature is lower for high swirl ratio and boosted modes due to the increase of heat transfer into cylinder walls. Furthermore, it is necessary to find optimal values of common rail pressures and swirl ratio. Too much mixing allows increase on PM, THC and CO emissions without decrease on NOx emissions in general. Common rail injection system provides enough energy to achieve good mixing during all the injection time in the cases of supercharged modes and high common rail pressure modes. Positive influence of swirl ratio is found at lower boost pressures, lower revolution levels and at lower engine loads. The results obtained here help providing a better understanding on the swirl effects on diesel engine combustion and exhaust emissions over a range of engine operating conditions, with the ultimate goal of finding optimal values of swirl operation.


2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (suppl. 3) ◽  
pp. 597-615 ◽  
Author(s):  
Srdjan Belosevic ◽  
Ivan Tomanovic ◽  
Nenad Crnomarkovic ◽  
Aleksandar Milicevic

A cost-effective reduction of NOx emission from utility boilers firing pulverized coal can be achieved by means of combustion modifications in the furnace. It is also essential to provide the pulverized coal diffusion flame control. Mathematical modeling is regularly used for analysis and optimization of complex turbulent reactive flows and mutually dependent processes in coal combustion furnaces. In the numerical study, predictions were performed by an in-house developed comprehensive three-dimensional differential model of flow, combustion and heat/mass transfer with submodel of the fuel- and thermal-NO formation/ destruction reactions. Influence of various operating conditions in the case-study utility boiler tangentially fired furnace, such as distribution of both the fuel and the combustion air over the burners and tiers, fuel-bound nitrogen content and grinding fineness of coal were investigated individually and in combination. Mechanisms of NO formation and depletion were found to be strongly affected by flow, temperature and gas mixture components concentration fields. Proper modifications of combustion process can provide more than 30% of the NOx emission abatement, approaching the corresponding emission limits, with simultaneous control of the flame geometry and position within the furnace. This kind of complex numerical experiments provides conditions for improvements of the power plant furnaces exploitation, with respect to high efficiency, operation flexibility and low emission.


2000 ◽  
Vol 123 (4) ◽  
pp. 810-816 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Carl ◽  
T. Behrendt ◽  
C. Fleing ◽  
M. Frodermann ◽  
J. Heinze ◽  
...  

Results of an ongoing collaboration between the engine manufacturer MTU and the German aerospace research center DLR on the NOx reduction potential of conventional combustors are reported. A program comprising optical sector combustor measurements at 1, 6, and 15 bars and CFD calculations is carried out. The aims are to gather information in the combustor at realistic operating conditions, to understand the differences between the sector flow field and data from tubular combustors, to verify the used CFD, and to discover the benefits and limitations of the applied optical diagnostics. Selected results of measurements and calculations of the isothermal flow and of measurements at 6 bars and 700 K at a rich-lean and overall lean AFR are reported. The used measurement techniques were LDA, PDA, Mie scattering on kerosene, quantitative light scattering, OH* chemiluminescence, and LIF on OH. The measurements were able to confirm the intended quick and homogeneous mixing of the three staggered rows of secondary air jets.


1993 ◽  
Vol 115 (4) ◽  
pp. 761-768 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Assanis ◽  
E. Karvounis ◽  
R. Sekar ◽  
W. Marr

A heat release correlation for oxygen-enriched diesel combustion is being developed through heat release analysis of cylinder pressure data from a single-cylinder diesel engine operating under various levels of oxygen enrichment. Results show that standard combustion correlations available in the literature do not accurately describe oxygen-enriched diesel combustion. A novel functional form is therefore proposed, which is shown to reproduce measured heat release profiles closely, under different operating conditions and levels of oxygen enrichment. The mathematical complexity of the associated curve-fitting problem is maintained at the same level of difficulty as for standard correlations. When the novel correlation is incorporated into a computer simulation of diesel engine operation with oxygen enrichment, the latter predicts pressure traces in excellent agreement with measured pressure data. This demonstrates the potential of the proposed combustion simulation to guide the application of oxygen-enriched technology successfully to a variety of multicylinder diesel systems.


Author(s):  
Ming Zheng ◽  
Graham T. Reader ◽  
Yuyu Tan ◽  
Meiping Wang

Previous work indicates that the lowered combustion temperature in diesel engines is capable of reducing nitrogen oxides and soot simultaneously, which can be implemented by the heavy use of exhaust gas recirculation or the homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) type of combustion. However, the fuel efficiency of the low temperature combustion cycles is commonly compromised with high levels of hydrocarbon and carbon monoxide emissions. Additionally, in cases of diesel HCCI cycles, the combustion process may even occur before the piston completes the compression stroke, which may cause excessive efficiency reduction and combustion roughness. Adaptive control strategies are applied to precisely navigate and stabilize the engine cycles and to better phase and complete the combustion process. The impact of heat release phasing, duration, shaping, and splitting on the thermal efficiency has also been analyzed with zero-dimensional engine cycle simulations. The correlations between the cylinder pressure and the heat release curves have been characterized to facilitate model based control. The empirical set-up and cases of applications are provided.


Author(s):  
Ming Zheng ◽  
Usman Asad ◽  
Xiaoye Han ◽  
Meiping Wang ◽  
Graham T. Reader

Thermal efficiency and NOx emission comparisons are made between the homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) and the conventional diesel cycles on a number of common-rail diesel engine platforms of high compression ratios with conventional diesel fuel and dimethyl ether as a surrogate fuel. The empirical studies have been conducted under independently controlled exhaust gas recirculation (EGR), intake boost, and exhaust backpressure. The energy relevance of the combustible substances such as carbon monoxide and hydrocarbon species in the engine exhaust has been evaluated quantitatively. However, the impact of the hydrocarbons produced during the HCCI cycles on the attainment of ultra low levels of NOx is less understood and it is unclear if the hydrocarbon species are a precursor to the ultra low NOx and also contribute in part to the NOx reduction. Therefore, the chemical impact of the hydrocarbon species on the NOx emission under low temperature combustion cycles has been examined with crank-angle resolved in-cylinder sampling techniques and fast-response emission analyzers. This paper intends to identify the major impacts of the hydrocarbons on the fuel efficiency and emissions of diesel HCCI cycles.


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