Methods for Characterization of the Diesel Combustion and Emission Formation Processes

In this thesis various aspects of the diesel engine fuel injection, combustion and emission formation processes have been evaluated. Several types of evaluation tools and methods have been applied. Fuel spray momentum was used to characterize injection rate and hole-to-hole variations in fuel injectors. Using both instantaneous fuel impulse rates and instantaneous mass flow measurements, spray velocity and nozzle flow parameters were evaluated. Several other hole-to-hole resolved injector characterization methods were used to characterize a set of fuel injectors subjected to long term testing. Fuel injector nozzle hole-to-hole variations were found to have a large influence on engine efficiency and emissions. The degree of hole-to-hole variations for an injector has been shown to correlate well with the performance deterioration of that injector. The formation and atomization of fuel sprays, ignition onset and the development of diffusion flames were studied using an optical engine. Flame temperature evaluations have been made using two different methods. NO-formation depends strongly on flame temperature. By applying a NO-formation evaluation method based on both heat release rate and flame and gas temperature it was possible to achieve a reasonable degree of correlation with measured exhaust emissions for very varying operating conditions. The prediction capability of the NO-formation evaluation method was utilized to evaluate spatially and temporally resolved NO-formation from flame temperature distributions. This made it possible to pinpoint areas with a high degree of NO-formation. It was found that small hot zones in the flames can be responsible for a large part of the total amount of NO that is produced, especially in combustion cases where no EGR is used to lower the flame temperature. By applying optical diagnostics methods the combustion and emission formation phenomena encountered during production engine transients were evaluated. The transient strategy of the engine involved reducing the EGR-rate to zero during the initial parts of the transient. Increased general flame temperature and the occurrence of small hot zones were found to explain the increase in NO-emissions during these transients.QC 2011053