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Understanding of Controlled Autoignition Combustion in a Four-Stroke Gasoline Engine

journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-08, 00:06 authored by H Zhao, Z Peng, N Ladommatos
Controlled autoignition (CAI) combustion has recently emerged as a viable alternative combustion process to the conventional spark ignition or compression ignition process for internal combustion engines, owing to its potential for high efficiency and extremely low NOx and particulate emissions. Since CAI combustion is a process dominated by chemical kinetics of the fuel-air mixture, an engine simulation model with detailed chemical kinetics has been developed and applied to a four-stroke gasoline engine fuelled with isooctane. After calibration and validation, the engine simulation model was used to study the effects of the intake temperature, exhaust gas recirculation (EGR), the air-fuel ratio, the compression ratio and the engine speed on CAI combustion in a four-stroke gasoline engine. The characteristics of CAI combustion investigated include the autoignition timing, the partial burning and knocking combustion and NO emission. Results show that CAI combustion could be achieved within a limited speed and load range. The lower end of the CAI combustion range was affected by partial burning, and the higher end of its operation was limited by knocking combustion. Among the engine parameters investigated, the intake charge temperature and EGR had the greatest effect on the CAI combustion process. The effect of EGR was further analysed in terms of its thermal (increase in heat capacity), dilution, chemical and charge heating effects by means of a series of simulation studies. It was found that the charge heating effect caused advanced ignition timing, faster heat release rate and moderate reduction in the CAI combustion duration. The thermal effect (increased heat capacity) retarded ignition, extended combustion duration and slowed down heat release rate. The dilution effect also resulted in longer combustion duration and slower burning but it did not affect the ignition timing. The chemical effect was found to accelerate the combustion process when the percentage of EGR was large.

History

Publication status

  • Published

Journal

Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part D: Journal of Automobile Engineering

ISSN

0954-4070

Issue

12

Volume

215

Page range

1297-1310

Pages

14.0

Department affiliated with

  • Engineering and Design Publications

Notes

Ten citations just with a search in the Scopus system. Modelling work demonstrated in this paper was one of the earliest numerical simulations for this kind of combustion. The work has contributed to the success of the World's first CAI/HCCI combustion operation on a 4-stroke production gasoline engine without external heating. This paper describes a numerical simulation study on CAI (Controlled Auto-Ignition)- a very new IC engine combustion solution that has emerged as a possible alternative combustion process to the conventional SI or CI process, owing to its potential for high efficiency and extremely low emissions.

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2012-02-06

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