Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition

Abstract
The Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition Engine, HCCI, has the potential to combine the best of the
Spark Ignition and Compression Ignition Engines. With high octane number fuel the engine operates with high
compression ratio and lean mixtures giing CI engine e!uialent fuel consumption or better. "ue to premixed
charge without rich or stoichiometric #ones, the production of soot and $%x can be aoided. This paper
presents some results from adanced laser diagnostics showing the fundamental behaior of the process from a
close to homogeneous combustion onset towards a er& stratified process at around '()*(+ heat released. The
need for actie combustion control is shown and
possible means of control are discussed. ,esults with multi)c&linder engines using negatie ale oerlap,
ariable compression ratio, fast inlet temperature control as well as dual fuel are gien.
INTRODUCTION
The internal combustion engine is the ke& to the modern societ&. Without he transportation performed b& the
millions of ehicles on road and at sea we would not hae reached the liing standard of toda&. We hae two
t&pes of internal combustion engines, the spark ignition, SI, and the compression ignition, CI. -oth hae their
merits. The SI engine is a rather simple
product and hence has a lower first cost. This engine t&pe can also be made er& clean as the three)wa& catal&st,
TWC, is effectie for exhaust after treatment. The problem with the SI engine is the poor part load
Efficienc& due to large losses during gas exchange and low combustion and thermo d&namical efficienc&. The
CI engine is much more fuel efficient and hence the natural choice in applications where fuel cost is more
important than first cost. The problem with the CI engine is the emissions of nitrogen oxides, $%x, and
particulates, ./. 0fter treatment to reduce $%x and particulates is expensie and still not generall& aailable in
the market. The obious ideal combination would be to find an engine t&pe with the high efficienc& of the CI
engine and the er& low emissions of the SI engine with TWC. %ne such candidate is named Homogeneous
Charge Compression Ignition, HCCI. The fuel efficienc& of HCCI has been compared to
that of normal SI operation b& Stockinger et al. 123. 4igure 2 shows that the& noted an improement of fuel
efficienc& from 2*+ to 5(+ at 2.* bar -/E.. This is an improement of 2((+ e!uialent to a reduction of fuel
consumption with *(+. /ore recentl& 6ang et al. presented a comparison between HCCI, denoted %7., and
normal SI and direct in8ected SI concepts, "ISI. He found a much higher fuel consumption benefit for HCCI
than for "ISI concepts. The ma8or benefit of HCCI compared to CI is the
low emissions of $%x and ./. The CI engine normall& has a trade)off between particulates and $%x. If the
engine operates at conditions with higher in)c&linder peak temperature, the oxidi#ation of soot will be good
but the thermal production of $% will increase. If on the other hand the engine is operated with lower
temperature $% can be suppressed but ./ will be high due to bad oxidation. 4igure 5 shows this trade)off and
also the allowed emissions in E9 and 9S toda& and in the near future. Clearl& the CI engine must use exhaust
after treatment of $%x and:or ./. In the CI engine, $% is formed in the er& hot #ones with close to
stoichiometric conditions and the soot is formed in the fuel rich spra& core. The in c&linder aerage air:fuel ratio
is alwa&s lean but the combustion process is not. This means that we hae a large potential to reduce emissions
of $%x and ./ b&
simpl& mixing fuel and air before combustion. In 4igure 5 the normal emission leel from an HCCI engine is
also displa&ed. The $%x is normall& less than 2:*(( of the CI leel and no ./ is generated b& combustion.
HCCI 4undamentals
THE HCCI .,I$CI.;E < HCCI means that the fuel and air should be efore combustion starts and that the
mixture is auto ignited due to the increase in temperature from the compression stroke. Thus HCCI is similar to
SI in the sense that both engines use a premixed charge and HCCI is similar to CI as both rel& on auto ignition
for combustion initiation. Howeer, the combustion process is totall& different for the three t&pes. 4igure =
shows the difference between >a? SI combustion and >b? HCCI. In the SI engine we hae three #ones, a burnt
#one, an unburned #one and between them a thin reaction #one where the chemistr& takes place. This reaction
#one propagates through the combustion chamber and thus we hae flame propagation. Een though the
reactions are fast in the reaction #one, the combustion process will take some time as the #one must propagate
from spark plug >#ero mass? to the far liner wall >mass wi ?. With the HCCI process the entire mass in the
c&linder will react at once. The right part of 4igure = shows HCCI, or as %nishi called it 0ctie Thermo)
0tmosphere Combustion, 0T0C. We see that the entire mass is actie but the reaction rate is low both locall&
and globall&. This means that the combustion process will take some time een if all the charge is actie. The
total amount of heat released, @, will be the same for both processes. It could be noted that the combustion
process can hae the same duration een though HCCI normall& has a faster burn rate. Initial tests in ;und on a
two stroke engine reealed the fundamental difference between these two t&pes of engines. 4igure * shows
normal flame propagation from two spark plugs at the rated speed of A((( rpm. We see two well defined flames
and a sharp border between burned and unburned #ones. 4igure B shows the same engine when HCCI
combustion was triggered b& using regular gasoline >,%$ A*? instead of iso)octane. The engine speed was
increased up to 2C((( rpm and a more
distributed chemluminescence image resulted.
,e!uirements 4or HCCI < The HCCI
combustion process puts two ma8or re!uirements on the conditions in the c&linderD >a? The temperature after
compression stroke should e!ual the autoignition temperature of the fuel:air mixture. >b? The mixture should be
diluted enough to gie reasonable burn rate. 4igure C shows the autoignition temperature for a few fuel as a
function of . The autoignition temperature has some correlation with the fuelsE resistance of knock in SI
engines and thus the octane number. 4or iso)octane, the autoignition temperature is
roughl& 2(((7. This means that the temperature in the c&linder should be 2((( 7 at the end of the compression
stroke where the reactions should start.
This temperature can be reached in two wa&s, either the temperature in the c&linder at the start of compression
is controlled or the increase in temperature due to compression i.e. compression ratio is controlled. It
could be interesting to note that the auto ignition temperature is a er& weak function of air:fuel ratio. The
change in autoignition temperature for iso)octane is onl& *(7 with a factor ' change in . 4igure C also shows
the normal rich and lean limits found with HCCI. With a too rich mixture the reactiit& of the charge is too high.
This means that the burn rate becomes
extremel& high with richer mixtures. If an HCCI engine is run too rich the entire charge can be consumed within
a fraction of a crank angle. This gies rise to extreme pressure rise rates and hence mechanical stress and noise.
With a high autoignition temperature like that of natural gas, it is also possible that formation of $%x can be the
load limiting factor. 4igure F shows the $% formation as a function of maximum temperature. Ger&
low emission leels are measured with ethanol. If the combustion starts at a higher temperature like with natural
gas, the temperature after combustion will also be higher for a gien amount of heat released. %n the lean side,
the temperature increase from the combustion is too low to hae complete combustion. .artial oxidation of fuel
to C% can occur at extremel& lean mixturesH Iaboe 2= has been tested. Howeer, the oxidation of C% to C%'
re!uires a temperature of 2=(()2*(( 7. 0s a summar&, HCCI is goerned b& three temperatures. We need to
reach the autoignition temperature to get things startedH the combustion should then increase the temperature to
at least 2=(( 7 to hae good combustion efficienc& but it should not be
increased to more that 2F(( 7 to preent $% formation.
HCCI Combustion .rocess In "etail
The aboe description of HCCI gies 8ust a rough idea about the re!uirements and conditions of the combustion
process. It is also of greatest interest to ac!uire detailed knowledge of the process. In order to get such
information, laser based diagnostics is of crucial importance.
I$H%/%JE$E%9S C%/-9STI%$
The first experiments with laser based diagnostics were performed to anal&#e the difference in combustion
between a perfectl& homogeneous fuel:air mixture and one with small gradients. ;aser induced fluorescence of
fuel tracer or %H was used to mark the combustion process. 4igure A shows the s&stem setup with a laser
generating a ertical laser sheet. 4igure 2( shows the fuel distribution for the two cases with an inhomogeneit&
of approximatel& *+ in the case of port fuel in8ection and homogeneit& within the detection limit for the case
with a mixing tank and fuel in8ection far upstream. 4igure 22 and 4igure 2' shows the fuel concentration with
half the heat released. We can from these images conclude that the combustion is far from homogeneous. There
are islands with much fuel remaining and close to them regions with er& little fuel left. 4igure 25 shows the
same behaior for the concentration of %H. Kones with much %H are close to #ones with no %H and the
gradients are steep. Each indiidual c&cle was also found to be uni!ue. The four c&cles displa&ed are randoml&
picked samples. $o preferred t&pe of structure could be detected.
Single C&cle Information
0 ma8or limitation with the information from 4igure 22 to 4igure 25 is that onl& one image can be captured
from each c&cle. "ue to the er& large c&cle to c&cle ariation in the process, it is impossible to extract
information on possible expansion of #ones with intense reactions i.e. flame propagation. To oercome this
problem a uni!ue laser s&stem was used. 4our indiidual lasers which can generate eight laser pulses were
combined with a framing camera using eight indiidual CC" chips. This s&stem was used in an
optical Scania engine with transparent liner and a window in the extended piston. The setup can be seen in
4igure 2=. The measured area was A*x ** mm thus enabling distinction between local and global effects.
4igure 2* shows a se!uence of fuel ;I4 images captured with (.* C0" time separations at 2'(( rpm. The
images are from '(+ to *(+ heat release. 4rom these and numerous similar mini)moies it was possible to
conclude that the combustion changed behaior during the process. In the initial phase a slow but stable
decrease in the fuel ;I4 signal was detected. This was
interpreted as a slow and rather homogeneous start of the process. 0t around '()5(+ heat released the fuel ;I4
image changed. Then een the smallest structures found before were amplified to gie an image with more
intense gradients. The gradients were found to be amplified een more as the process eoled and at approx.
*(+ heat release the structures found earlier
during the single shot experiments were clear. 4rom *(+ heat release and onwards the structures were stable
and the fuel signal disappeared not long after that. This single c&cle obseration of the process leads to a
phenomenological description of the HCCI combustion process.
The .henomenological /odel of HCCI
Combustion
The HCCI combustion process is assumed to start with a gradual decomposition of the fuel with
well distributed reactions. The reactions will
become significantl& exothermic when a critical temperature is approached. 0t this critical
condition the reaction rate will be er& sensitie to the temperature of the charge. Een the
smallest ariations in temperature
will thus influence the reaction rates. 0s we will hae random ariation in temperature in the
c&linder, some locations will hae more faorable conditions. In those locations, sometimes
denoted Lhot spotsM the reactions
thus will start a bit earlier. 0s the exothermic reactions start the temperature is increased and
thus reactions become een faster. We thus hae a local positie feedback in temperature.
Figure 16 shows an attempt to illustrate this. 0s the local positie feedback is fast, there will
not be sufficient time to distribute all the heat to the surrounding cold bulk. Thus we hae a
gradual amplification of small inhomogeneities generating the er& large structures seen in the
experiments. The si#e of the hot spots was found to be of the same order as the integral length
scale of turbulence in the c&linder. In
the Scania engine, this was =)B mm.
4lame propagationN
It could be argued that the Lhot)spotsM grow as a function of time and this growth Te could be translated to a
reaction #one propagation
or in other words flame front. Howeer, after stud&ing numerous indiidual c&cles it was concluded that the
concept of flame propagation in HCCI could not be supported. There will be a time lag between combustion
starting point at different #ones but new Lhot)spotsM show up randoml& and the structures seen in the images are
rather fixed i.e. do not moe from image to image. If we would use the term flame speed for a case where two
hot spots show up at exactl& the same time we would also hae a problem as the flame speed then would be
infinit&.
Gale Timing Eents 4or HCCI Engine
The ale timing eents for a HCCI engine making use of internal EJ, are differentD ,esiduals are trapped b&
closing the exhaust ales earl& >e.g. A( crank angle degrees before T"C?. 0s a result, the HCCI process
becomes a kind of six-stroke process with two extra strokes during which the combustion products in the
c&linder are first compressed and then expanded. 0fter this, the intake ales open, although this happens later
than for a SI engine.
Fig.7 Cylinder pressure as a function of crank angle degree for a SI engine. The intervals during which the intake and exhaust valves
are opened are shown. Note the interval during which both valves are open.
Fig. Cylinder pressure as a function of crank angle degree for a !CCI engine. The intervals during which the intake and exhaust
valves are opened are again shown. In this case" no valve overlap is present #it is often called the negative valve overlap$. The
nu%bers in the figure explain why it is so%eti%es referred to as a six&stroke process.
4igure F shows the following six eents that take place during the HCCI engine c&cleD
2. The compression stroke. 0uto)ignition will occur 8ust before ( C0", after which combustion takes
place.
'. The expansion stroke.
5. The interal during which the exhaust ales are open.
=. The exhaust ales were closed earl& >normall& the exhaust ales are closed 8ust after 5B( C0"D See
4ig.C for the SI c&cle.? and the residuals that were left in the c&linder are compressed until 5B( C0".
*. The residuals are expanded again from 5B( C0" until approximatel& =*( C0".
B. The intake ales are open to take in the fresh mixture of air and fuel.
THE $EE" 4%, C%$T,%;
4or better understanding of the combustion process, laser diagnostics is needed and this knowledge can be used
to optimi#e the s&stem. Howeer, the HCCI process is er& sensitie to disturbances. It can be sufficient to
change the inlet temperature 'OC to moe from a er& good operating point to a total misfire. This sensitiit&
makes the HCCI engine re!uire closed loop combustion control, C;CC. Closed loop control re!uires as alwa&s
a sensor, control algorithm and control means. The main parameter to control for HCCI is the combustion
timing i.e. when in the c&cle combustion
takes place. 4igure 2C shows the rate of heat release for a range of timings. With earl& phasing the rate of heat
release is higher and as it is phased later the burn rate goes down. With combustion before top dead center,
T"C, the temperature will be increased both b& the chemical reactions and the compression due to piston
motion. Thus for a gien auto ignition temperature, combustion onset before T"C will result in faster reactions.
With the conditions changed to gie combustion onset close to T"C, the temperature will not be increased b&
piston motion, the onl& temperature
drier would be the chemical reactions. This gies a more sensitie s&stem and the later the combustion phasing
the more sensitie the s&stem is. This is the underl&ing problem with HCCI combustion control. We want a late
combustion phasing to reduce burn rate and hence pressure rise rate and peak pressure but on the other hand we
can not accept too much ariations in
the combustion process. How late we can go depends on the !ualit& of the control s&stem. With a fast and
accurate control s&stem we can go later and hence reduce the noise and mechanical loads of the engine.
C%/-9STI%$ SE$S%,
The most accurate and reliable signal for combustion is the in)c&linder
pressure. With the standard heat release e!uation it is er& eas& to extract the combustion onset etc. The most
usable parameter for combustion phasing is the crank angle of *(+ of the heat released. 4igure 2F shows the
procedure to extract this *(+ heat released point denoted C0*(. The c&linder pressure is a er& stable and
robust signal but the cost of such sensors is still too high for production engines. %ne alternatie could be an ion
current measurement s&stem. The ion current can be measured b& appl&ing a oltage on the electrodes of a
normal spark plug. The techni!ue has been used b& S00- 0utomobile in production since 2AA5 for the
detection of knock and misfire in SI engines, but the application on HCCI is not straight forward. The signal
intensit& is er& sensitie to the temperature in c&linder and thus lean burn HCCI gie low signal. 4igure 2A
shows a t&pical ion current measurement
s&stem and 4igure '( shows the t&pical signal obtained in HCCI mode. The best representation of combustion
phasing was found b& extracting the crank angle which *(+ of the maximum amplitude was detected. This
gae good correlation to the crank angle of *(+ heat released, C0*( as shown in 4igure '2. Two indiidual
operating points are shown, one with relatiel& earl& timing and hence less c&cle to c&cle ariations and one
with late timing. 4or both cases, small phase difference was detected between the crank angle at *(+ of
maximum ion signal and C0*( but this can easil& be compensated b& the controller.
Control /eans
The HCCI combustion control can be considered as a balance in temperature. With low temperature at T"C the
combustion will be
late and with high temperature at T"C the combustion will start earl&. To control temperature, three ma8or
parameters can be used. Inlet temperature and compression ratio will directl& change the T"C temperature. The
third parameter is the amount of residual gas retained in the c&linder from the preious c&cle. 0 fourth possible
wa& of controlling the process is to change the re!uired autoignition temperature b& ad8usting the fuel !ualit&.
4igure '' shows possible combinations of inlet temperature, compression ratio
and fuel octane number for combustion onset at T"C for a 2.B liter single c&linder Golo Truck engine. The
figure shows that a higher octane fuel needs higher inlet temperature or higher compression ratio to reach
autoignition at T"C. 4igure '5 shows similar combinations but here the two fuels are regular gasoline and
diesel oil instead of the primar& reference fuels nheptane and iso)octane. 0 er& popular concept for achieing
HCCI in SI engines at part load is the use of negatie ale oerlap. With this concept the exhaust ales close
earl& and thus hot burnt gas is trapped in the c&linder. 0fter a short compression and expansion the inlet ale
is opened late. This t&pe of process often denoted Controlled 0utoignition, C0I, gies good performance but in
a limited operating range. 4igure '= shows the operating range of a B)c&linder 5 litre Golo Cars engine. 0
better wa& of controlling the process is b& appl&ing ariable compression ratio or fast inlet air temperature
control. With this concept it is possible to run at idle at all engine speeds between B(( and *((( rpm. /aximum
load is the same as for C0I but it can be maintained also for higher engine speeds. 4igure 'B shows the
operating range for a S00- 2.B liter *) c&linder ariable compression engine using fast thermal management as
shown in 4igure '*. It should be noted that the -/E. is presented in contrast to the I/E. for C0I in 4igure '=.
0 possible wa& of HCCI combustion control can also be the use of dual fuels. 9sing two fuel tanks could cause
some problems with costumer acceptance but it is possible to generate two fuels from one using a reformer.
Experiments with dual fuel in ;und hae
shown that it is a er& powerful control means. 4igure 'C shows the operating range possible with a Scania 2')
liter B)c&linder truck engine running on a mixture of ethanol and n)heptane.
Controller
In order to achiee the high loads reported for the S00- and Scania multi c&linder engines, it is absolutel&
necessar& to use closed loop control with a well tuned controller. To make the controller usable oer the entire
speed and load range, the gain of the controller must be changed in accordance with the change of gain of the
process. 4igure 'F shows the combustion phasing, C0*(, as a function of octane number for the Scania dual
fuel
engine at different operating conditions. With earl& combustion timing and conditions re!uiring low octane
number, the slope of the cures are low. This means that a large change of octane number is needed to change
the combustion timing one crank angle. Thus we should hae a large gain of the controller in these operating
conditions. If we then look at conditions with
high octane number and late combustion phasing, the re!uired change in octane number to change phasing a
crank angle is much less. With this higher gain of the process we must reduce the gain of the controllerH
otherwise the s&stem will become unstable. Tuning the gain of the controller to compensate for changes in the
process can be done b& using gain scheduling. With this it is possible achiee close to optimal performance
for all operating conditions. In fact it is een possible to operate an HCCI engine at unstable operating points
with the closed loop combustion control actie. 4igure 'A shows one such case.
Conclusion
The Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition, HCCI, combustion process is an interesting alternatie to the
conentional Spark Ignition and Compression Ignition processes. The potential benefit of HCCI is high with
simultaneous ultra low emissions of $%x and ./ and low fuel consumption. Thus it can combine the best
features of the SI >with TWC? and CI engines. To better understand the process, laser based techni!ues
must be used. Such measurements in ;und hae reealed that the combustion process is rather homogeneous in
the initial stage but it graduall& transfers into a highl& inhomogeneous process with steep gradients between
reacting and non)reacting #ones. The HCCI engine re!uires actie control of the combustion process. Such
closed loop combustion control has been demonstrated in a number of multic&linder HCCI engines in ;und.
9se of negatie oerlap is possible but often generates a limited operating range. The use of ariable
compression ratio is a er& powerful control means but can hae some problems to reach production for cost
reasons. 4ast Thermal /anagement can perhaps be the ke& technolog& to be used for HCCI combustion control.
The maximum engine speed for HCCI in ;und is
2C((( rpm and the maximum load is '(.= bar I/E.: 2B bar -/E.. This indicates that most interesting speeds
and loads can be reached with HCCI.