Method for Determining Instantaneous Temperature at the Surface of Combustion Chamber Deposits in an HCCI Engine

Homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) combustion is widely regarded as an attractive option for future high efficiency gasoline engines. HCCI combustion permits operation with a highly dilute, well mixed charge, resulting in high thermal efficiency and extremely low NOx and soot emissions, two qualities essential for future propulsion system solutions. Because HCCI is a thermokinetically dominated process, full understanding of how combustion chamber boundary thermal conditions affect the combustion process are crucial. This includes the dynamics of the effective chamber wall surface temperature, as dictated by the formation of combustion chamber deposits (CCD). It has been demonstrated that, due to the combination of CCD thermal properties and the sensitivity of HCCI to wall temperature, the phasing of autoignition can vary significantly as CCD coverage in the chamber increases. In order to better characterize and quantify the influence of CCDs, a numerical methodology has been developed which permits calculation of the crank-angle resolved local temperature profile at the surface of a layer of combustion chamber deposits. This unique predictor-corrector methodology relies on experimental measurement of instantaneous temperature underneath the layer, i.e., at the metal-CCD interface, and known deposit layer thickness. A numerical method for validation of these calculations has also been devised. The resultant crank-angle resolved CCD surface temperature and heat flux profiles both on top and under the CCD layer provide valuable insight into the near wall phenomena, and shed light on the interplay between the dynamics of the heat transfer process and HCCI burn rates.