This paper investigates the physical and chemical ignition delay (ID) periods in the constant volume combustion cflamber of the Ignition Quality Tester (IQT). IQT was used to determine the derived cetane number (DCN) according to ASTM D6890-10a standards. The fuels tested were ultra low sulfur diesel (ULSD),, and two synthetic fuels ofSasol IPK and F-T SPK (S-8). A comparison was made between the DCN and cetane number (CN) determined according to ASTM-D613 standards. Tests were conducted under steady state conditions at a constant pressure of 21 bars and various air temperatures ranging from 778 K to 848 K. The rate of heat release (RHR) was calculated from the measured pressure trace, and a detailed analysis of the RHR trace was made particularly for the auto-ignition process. Tests were conducted to determine the physical and chemical delay periods by comparing results obtained from two tests. In the first test, the fuel was injected into air according to ASTM standards. In the second test, the fuel was injected into nitrogen. The point at which the two resultant pressure traces separated was considered to be the end of the physical delay period. The effects of the charge temperature on the total ID as defined in ASTM D6890-10a standards, as well as on the physical and chemical delays, were determined. It was noticed that the physical delay represented a significant part of the total ID over all the air temperatures covered in this investigation. Arrhenius plots were developed to determine the apparent activation energy for each fuel using dijferent IDs. The first was based on the total ID measured according to ASTM standards. The second was the chemical delay determined in this investigation. The activation energy calculated from the total ID showed higher values for lower CN fuels except Sasol IPK. The activation energy calculated from the chemical delay period showed consistency in the increase of the activation energy with the drop in CN including Sasol IPK. The difference between the two findings could be explained by examining the sensitivity of the physical delay period of different fuels to the change in air temperature.
Surrogates for JP-8 have been developed in the high temperature gas phase environment of gas turbines. In diesel engines, the fuel is introduced in the liquid phase where volatility plays a major role in the formation of the combustible mixture and autoignition reactions that occur at relatively lower temperatures. In this paper, the role of volatility on the combustion of JP-8 and five different surrogate fuels was investigated in the constant volume combustion chamber of the Ignition Quality Tester (IQT). IQT is used to determine the derived cetane number (DCN) according to ASTM D6890. The surrogate fuels were formulated such that their DCNs matched that of JP-8, but with different volatilities. Tests were conducted to investigate the effect of volatility on the autoignition and combustion characteristics of the surrogates using a detailed analysis of the rate of heat release immediately after the start of injection. In addition, the effect of volatility on the spray dynamics was investigated by Schlieren imaging in an optical accessible rapid compression machine (RCM), and the imaging data supported the conclusion made in the IQT tests. Furthermore, apparent activation energies of JP-8 and surrogate fuels were determined based on the chemical delay periods, which could be considered as a new parameter for developing surrogate fuel.
Diesel engines have to meet stringent emissions standards without penalties in performance and fuel economy. This necessitated the use of elaborate after treatment devices to reduce the tail pipe emissions. In order to decrease the demand on the after treatment devices, there is a need to reduce the emissions in the formation stage during combustion. This requires a precise control of the phasing of the combustion process. Currently, diesel engines are controlled by pre-set open loop schedules that require extensive, time consuming and costly laboratory tests and calibration tasks to meet the production target goals which are stricter than the emission standards. Such goals are set as a safe guard against the deterioration during engine life cycle. This paper presents an incremental fuzzy logic controller that adjusts the combustion phasing as per desired targets to meet production goals over the engine life period. An ion current/ glow plug sensor and its circuit are used to produce a signal indicative of different combustion parameters. Signal conditioning and filtering are applied to improve the quality of ion current. The algorithm developed in this paper optimizes the ion current feed back to increase its reliability for stable engine control while maintaining fast controller response, and high accuracy. Experiments are carried out on a four cylinder, turbo-charged, 4.5L heavy duty diesel engine equipped with a common rail injection system and an open ECU. The response of the controller is evaluated from experimental data obtained by running the engine under different steady, and transient operating conditions. The results demonstrate the ability of the closed-loop control system in achieving the desired combustion phasing.
This paper investigates the effect of a cetane improver on the autoignition characteristics of Sasol IPK in the combustion chamber of the Ignition Quality Tester (IQT). The fuel tested was Sasol IPK with a Derived Cetane Number (DCN) of 31, treated with different percentages of Lubrizol 8090 cetane improver ranging from 0.1% to 0.4%. Tests were conducted under steady state conditions at a constant charging pressure of 21 bar. The charge air temperature before fuel injection varied from 778 to 848 K. Accordingly, all the tests were conducted under a constant charge density. The rate of heat release was calculated and analyzed in details, particularly during the autoignition period.In addition, the physical and chemical delay periods were determined by comparing the results of two tests. The first was conducted with fuel injection into air according to ASTM standards where combustion occurred. In the second test, the fuel was injected into the chamber charged with nitrogen. The physical delay is defined as the period of time from start of injection (SOI) to point of inflection (POI), and the chemical delay is defined as the period of time from POI to start of combustion (SOC). Both the physical and chemical delay periods were determined under different charge temperatures. The cetane improver was found to have an effect only on the chemical ID period. In addition, the effect of the cetane improver on the apparent activation energy of the global combustion reactions was determined. The results showed a linear drop in the apparent activation energy with the increase in the percentage of the cetane improver. Moreover, the low temperature (LT) regimes were investigated and found to be presented in base fuel, as well as cetane improver treated fuels.
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