Engine-out characterisation using speed–load mapping and reduced test

cycle for a light-duty diesel engine fuelled with biodiesel blends

(1)
Speed affecting emission

NOx
NO concentration is seen to increase with speed until a peak is reached, after which NO levels start to reduce.

Prior to the peak values, rising engine-out NO level with increasing engine speed is attributed to the increased in
NO production rate. Beyond the peak NO formation speed, any speed increase only shortens the available NO formation
window

As load increases, NO formation peaks at higher engine speed. This is predominantly caused by the extension of NO
formation window from the elevated in-cylinder temperature when more fuel is consumed at higher load.

Exhaust CO measurements are observed to increase with increasing speed and decreasing load, as shown in Fig. 2b. The
absolute time available for complete combustion is reduced as engine speed is increased. This results in higher
number of incomplete combustion cycles and the formation of CO instead of CO2. Lower engine load also increases the
tendency for incomplete combustion. It is postulated here that the local fuel–air mixture becomes too lean to sustain
complete combustion, which prohibits the conversion of CO into CO2.

Engine-out CO concentration is also closely correlated to the volumetric efficiency of the engine. The volumetric
efficiency is more of an inherent property of the engine related to its speed rather than the fuel type used. As
shown in Fig. 3b, volumetric efficiency decreases by approximately 2% for every 200 rev/min
reduction in engine speed. This is attributed to the shorter period available for the induction of air into the
combustion chamber. With the reduced trapped mass of air, mixture formation is adversely affected which leads to
incomplete combustion. Engine load also influences volumetric efficiency albeit less dominantly as compared to engine
speed. It is observed in this study that volumetric efficiency is lowered by not more than 2% for every 0.5 kW
increase in engine load. The overall increase in the engine temperature from the higher fuel mass burned per engine
cycle with increasing load results in greater heat transfer into the inducted air, reducing its density. This
inherently reduces the quantity of trapped mass in the combustion chamber, lowering the volumetric efficiency values

an increase in engine-out UHC concentration is typically associated with higher speed and lower load operations. As
engine speed increases, less time is available for complete evaporation and mixing of the fuel spray. This increases
the proportion of locally rich regions in the spray jet, which increased the possibility of partial fuel oxidation
and the emission of UHC. Also, the overall fuel–air ratio of the spray gradually becomes leaner as load decreases.
This results in greater proportion of locally overlean regions in the spray jet, deteriorating the combustion process
and causing an increase in the production of UHC

CO2 concentration increases with engine load as shown in Fig. 2d. This is due to the higher fuel mass consumed at
higher load, which inherently increases CO2 formation specifically in the high load regions of 2.0–2.5 kW. Engine
speed is observed to scale up CO2 level. However, CO2 decreases at speed above the maximum CO2 emission region as
lesser time is available for the conversion of CO into CO2. In the low load region of 0.5–1.0 kW, the effect of
engine speed is found to be insignificant on CO2 concentration. Here, engine speed acts as a secondary factor when
ample time is available for physical spray breakup, vaporisation and mixing
processes.

The peak pressures were observed to increase with increasing load and decreasing speed. Typically, peak pressure
increases by 2 bar for every 0.5 kW increase in load. As load increases, more fuel is consumed which inherently
increases the peak pressure. Conversely, peak pressure shows reducing trend at a rate of around 0.7 bar per 100
rev/min increase in engine speed. At high engine speed, the absolute time available for fuel oxidation near the top-
dead-centre position which promotes rapid increase in in-cylinder pressure and temperature is reduced.Thus, peak in-
cylinder pressure typically increases with increasing load and decreasing speed.
Influence of engine load and speed on regulated and unregulated
emissions of a diesel engine fueled with diesel fuel blended with
waste cooking oil biodiesel(2)

Increasing the engine speed would lead to an increase in fuel consumption and a decrease in brake thermal efficiency.
However, the brake thermal efficiency increases with increasing engine load, except that it drops slightly at the
highest engine load tested

At higher engine loads, the high in-cylinder gas temperature and the high exhaust gas temperature reduce the
formation of unburned HC with increasing engine load. HC emission also decreases with increasing engine speed, due to
the increase in in-cylinder gas temperature and exhaust gas temperature, as shown in Table 4, which enhance the
oxidation of HC.

Under higher engine load, more injected fuel leads to higher combustion temperature and hence there is an increase in
NOx emission.

Furthermore, Particulate Mass (PM) emission increases continuously with increasing engine load due to the increasing
amount of fuel being consumed and hence an increase in the overall equivalence ratio. PM emission also increases with
increasing engine speed due to the decreasing volumetric efficiency and the decreasing brake thermal efficiency. The
decrease in volumetric efficiency leads to a higher fuel–air ratio which favors the formation of soot particles.

Effects of exhaust gas recirculation at various loads on diesel engine

performance and exhaust particle size distribution using four blends
with a research octane number of 70 and diesel (3)
Definition of related parameters (1) Gross indicated mean effective pressure (IMEPg). Due to the layout
of the engine, the brake specific mean effective pressure (i.e. with respect to the power output at the
crankshaft) cannot be used. Therefore in this paper, the IMEP is calculated based on in-cylinder pressure
signal. To be able to evaluate the combustion performance at different intake pressures and exhaust
pressures, the IMEPg which excludes the gas exchange stroke is used to present engine load and
calculate the indicated emissions. (2) Ignition delay (ID). The crank angle where 10% and 50% of the heat
has been released is referred as CA10 and CA50 respectively. ID in this paper is defined as the crank
angle difference between start-of-injection (SOI) and CA10: ID = CA10-SOI (CAD). (3) Combustion
efficiency. Combustion efficiency is a measure of how efficiently fuel energy is converted into useful
energy. When calculating the combustion efficiency, only combustible species like HC and CO in the
exhaust are considered. This is a common practice. Possible effects of other components are ignored. (4)
EGR rate. In this study, the EGR rate is experimentally determined from the ratio of the CO2 mole
concentration in the intake gas to the CO2 mole concentration in the exhaust gas. (5) Premixed fraction
(PF). Premixed combustion phase is controlled by chemical kinetics and its combustion speed is faster
than diffusion combustion phase. The PF is introduced in the previous study [13]. It is defined as a ratio
of heat release from premixed combustion to the total heat release. Premixed- and diffusive- heat
release rates are normally not separated clearly, a Gaussian profile as presented in Eq. (1) is fitted to the
heat release rate to calculate the premixed heat release. The Gaussian profile is a mathematical
representation of the premixed reaction phase. Still it provides a convincing measure of the premixing
degree.
Computational study of biodiesel–diesel fuel blends on emission
characteristics for a light-duty diesel engine using OpenFOAM (4)

s. The mesh with a cell size of 2.0 (radial)

2.5 (axial)

2.0 (azimuthal) mm is used throughout the study because this resolution is found to produce similar
accuracy but with shorter computing time as compared to that from a finer resolution mesh. Further
details on the mesh configurations are reported by Ismail et al. [14,15].
[14] Ismail H, Ng HK, Gan S, Lucchini T, Onorati A. Development of a reduced biodiesel combustion
kinetics mechanism for CFD modelling of a light-duty diesel engine. Fuel 2013;106:388–400.
[15] Ismail H, Ng HK, Cheng X, Gan S, Lucchini T, D’Errico G. Development of thermophysical and
transport properties for the CFD simulations of incylinder biodiesel spray combustion. Energy Fuel
2012;26:4857–70.

Thermal NOx formation typically occurs in oxygen rich (lean combustion) region with high temperature,
which is commonly observed downstream of the flame front in the burnout gas zones [19]. Thermal NOx
mechanism involves the reactions of molecular nitrogen and atomic nitrogen with oxygen and oxygen
containing radicals.
[19] Heywood JB. Internal combustion engine fundamentals. New York: McGraw; 1988

thermal NOx is computed as the summation of NO and NO2 as discussed above [21]
[21] D’Errico G, Lucchini T, Atzler F, Rotondi R. Computational fluid dynamics simulation of diesel
engines with sophisticated injection strategies for incylinder pollutant controls. Energy Fuel
2012;26:4212–23.

An increase in NOx level at EVO is observed when the engine load is decreased as shown in Fig. 6, with
highest NOx emission recorded at low engine load for all the test fuels. At low load, the fuel injection
period is short where fuel delivery is mostly completed before the start of combustion (SOC). Therefore,
the combustion process is predominantly PMC as shown in Fig. 8, which burns more completely and
results in elevated local in-cylinder temperature. This leads to greater NOx formation for all the test
fuels at low load as compared to mid and high load condition. Using diesel and neat SME in Fig. 6a and d
as an illustration, these fuels give highest NOx emission at low load because they produce longer ID
period as evident in Fig. 8. Therefore, greater fraction of fuel mass is burnt during the PMC phase rather
than the MCC phase for both the neat SME and diesel fuels. As a result, significantly higher
concentration of NOx is generated.

Soot is mainly formed during the MCC phase in the rich combusting liquid core region of the spray jet
where the equivalence ratio is between 1.5 and 4 and the local temperature is between 1400 K and
2000 K [18]. At higher load, the MCC phase is longer due to the extended fuel injection period. This leads
to a longer residence time of the combustion products inside the rich combusting core region, which is
partly responsible for the greater soot formation rate at mid and high engine load conditions [19,30].
Therefore, fuels which exhibit dominant MCC phase tend to produce higher soot level [18,19,30].
[18] Ismail H, Ng HK, Gan S, Cheng X, Lucchini T, D’Errico G. Investigation of biodieseldiesel fuel blends
on combustion characteristics in a light-duty diesel engine using OpenFOAM. Energy Fuels 2013;27:208–
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[19] Heywood JB. Internal combustion engine fundamentals. New York: McGraw; 1988.
[30] Shayler PF, Ng HK. Simulation studies of the effect of fuel injection pattern on NO and soot
formation in diesel engines. SAE Technical Paper Series 2004-01- 0116; 2004.

Higher alcohol–biodiesel–diesel blends: An approach for improving the

performance, emission, and combustion of a light-duty diesel engine (5)

The BTE of an engine demonstrates how efficiently it converts the chemical energy into effective work.

CO can be produced into the engine cylinder via two processes, namely, via an excessively lean or an
excessively rich blend of air–fuel. In case of excessively lean blends, flame cannot continue through
blend and fuel pyrolysis with halfway oxidation results in CO formation. In case of an excessively rich
blend, the blend of fuel and air is inadequate. Regardless of the possibility that they blend, they do not
have much time to oxidize [51]. CO basically forms in rich air–fuel mixture regions as a result of the
inaccessibility of O2 to totally oxidize all CO proportion in the fuel.
[51] Tums SR. An introduction to combustion: concepts and applications. 2nd ed.; 2000.

3.3. Carbon Dioxide (CO2) emissions When adequate O2 is accessible, hydroxyl radical OH is one of the
principal oxidizing agents that convert CO into CO2 [54].
[54] http://nptel.ac.in/courses/112104033/pdf_lecture/lecture7.pdf

The most significant cause behind the emission of HC is the fuel trapping into the crevice volumes of the
combustion chamber in a diesel engine. Deficient fuel dissipation, generally over-lean or over-rich blend,
and liquid wall films for over spray impingement are additionally expressed as critical elements [56]
[56] Heywood JB. Internal combustion engine fundamentals. New York: McGrawHill; 1988.

Smoke intensity indicates the amount of soot content in the exhaust emission, which is formed during
fuel combustion when some organic compounds remain absorbed [56] and develop through the gas-to-
particle transformation process [59]. The incomplete combustion of HC fuel is mainly responsible to this
formation, and the composition of smoke basically relies on engine operating conditions and the types
of fuel [60]
[56] Heywood JB. Internal combustion engine fundamentals. New York: McGrawHill; 1988.
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hydrocarbons and particulate matter from premixed low temperature combustion of biodiesel. SAE
technical paper; 2011.
[60] Teoh Y, Masjuki H, Kalam M, Amalina M, How H. Impact of waste cooking oil biodiesel on
performance, exhaust emission and combustion characteristics in a light-duty diesel engine. SAE
technical paper; 2013.
Light-Duty Diesel Engine Modelling with Integrated Detailed Chemistry
in 3-D CFD Study (6)

Get picture on soot

A study on combined effect of high EGR rate and biodiesel on
combustion and emission performance of a diesel engine (7)
EGR system is an effective measure to reduce NOx emissions of diesel by lowering oxygen concentration
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However, it will bring some negative effects with conventional strategy, such as the increase of HC, CO
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