Studies of Visualized Diesohol Combustion Phenomena in IDI Engine

* Kanit Wattanavichien and Akihiko Azetsu

*1

Internal Combustion Engine Research Lab., Faculty of Engineering, Chulalongkorn University Phaya-Thai Road, Patumwan, Bangkok 10330, Thailand

Key Words: Diesohol, diesel, combustion visualization, endoscope, swirl chamber

ABSTRACT
A diesohol fuel (10% bioethanol, 89% Thailand diesel fuel and 1% additive) may be used as an alternative fuel in a compression ignition engine. However, higher compressibility, lower energy content, and lower cetane number of the diesohol tend to increase the ignition delay and reduce engine efficiency. In this study, to get more knowledge on the diesohol combustion characteristics, an experimental study of luminous combustion in a swirl chamber of an IDI engine was performed to compare the combustion phenomena between diesel and diesohol. Two-color method was applied to obtain spatially and temporally resolved two dimentional distributions of flame temperatures and soot in flame. The imaging system used for this study was based on a wide angle endoscope that is mounted in the cylinder head of the combustion chamber. The experiments were carried out on a commercial 2.5 litre IDI engine. Through systematic experiments, it was explored the effect of ethanol in diesohol blend. Observed diesohol fuel sprays have shown either longer spray tip penetration length or wider spray angle than the reference diesel. Images of spray combustion shown in figure 1 indicate that the period of diesohol combustion phenomena occurred more retard with respect to TDC than diesel. As its consequence, together with the lower heat of combustion, the predicted combustion flame temperature and soot in flame density distribution, shown in figure 2 and 3, are lower than the reference diesel. Observation in swirl chamber shows detail of the complex inflammation and combustion processes.

Fig. 1 Images of spray combustion in the pre-chamber for reference diesel and diesohol at 2000 rev/min, 30 Nm. The crank angles at which the images were acquired are written on the top of the images.

*1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tokai University, Shonan Campus, Japan.

Fig. 2 Flame temperature images of spray combustion in the pre-chamber for reference diesel and diesohol at 2000 rev/min, 30 Nm. The crank angles at which the images were acquired are written on the top of the images.

Fig. 3 Soot in flame distribution images in the pre-chamber for reference diesel and diesohol at 2000 rev/min, 30 Nm. The crank angles at which the images were acquired are written on the top of the images.

INTRODUCTION
Ethanol can be used as an alternative fuel in IC engine. Ethanol has been used to fuel engines since the birth of the auto industry. Henry Ford powered one of his first cars, the quadricycle, with ethanol. He believed that a renewable fuel would better serve either the needs of automobile drivers of the future or the local economy [14]. Nowadays, there are many of attempts using ethanol in compression ignition (CI) engine. Some past studies have considered numerous methods of introducing ethanol into CI engines, some works focused on the development of blends of diesel fuel and ethanol [2,3]. The blend between diesel and ethanol (is called diesohol) has been considered by the Thai government as one of candidate alternative fuels for diesel substitution. The use of ethanol blend with diesel fuel in a compression ignition engine has some potential on exhaust black smoke reduction. However, lower energy content of ethanol with higher heat of vaporization and lower cetane rating of the blend tend to increase ignition delay and reduce engine efficiency. In order to carry out

a proper use of this fuel in CI engine, it is necessary to understand the effects of this fuel on engine combustion process. To obtain a proper knowledge of diesohol combustion phenomena in an indirect injection ((IDI) combustion chamber, the interactions between different phenomena (e.g. turbulent flow, spray, combustion) and naturally the geometry of the combustion chamber must be taken into account. Therefore, it has increasingly relied more on fundamental knowledge of local aspects requiring a direct optical observation, in addition to the normally used indicating methods. This allows a precise investigation of the problem as it provides all variables at all points of the geometry [4,5,6,7,8,9,10] The main purpose of this research is aimed to compare the engines spray flame combustion of an OEM indirect injection diesel engine fuelled with diesohol (10% ethanol, 89% Diesel fuel and 1% additive) and diesel fuel. The experiments were carried out by means of endoscopic visualizing technique, to investigate engine combustion phenomena of diesohol in an IDI engine.

EXPERIMENTAL APPARATUS
TEST ENGINE The engine under study is a commercial IDI, water cooled four cylinders, in-line, natural aspirated engine. The specification of engine used for the experiment is shown in Table 1. Table 1 Specification of test engine. Test Engine WL 81 Engine Type Swirl Pre-chamber Displacement 2499cm3 Bore 93 mm Stroke 92 mm Compression ratio 21.6 Injection pump Rotary distributor type Injector starting pressure 11.4 12.1 MPa

roughly 10% less aromatics simply by dilution. While ethanol has correspondingly poor cetane value for CI engines, the addition of ethanol to diesel fuel will degrade the cetane number of the resulting diesohol blend. The flash point of diesohol is controlled by low flash point of the ethanol. The flashpoint of diesohol is lower than that of diesel fuel and lower than the minimum flash point accepted by the Thailand diesel fuel specification. The lower flash point of the diesohol affects the shipping and storage classification. The precautions should be used in handling and transporting the fuel.

EXPERIMENTAL SETUP The engine was connected to an AVL alpha-40 eddy-current dynamometer. Direct photography was taken with an AVL Engine Visioscope. The system FUELS consists of a PixelFly VGA Color CCD camera (resolution 640x480 pixel), an AVL control unit, AVL Diesohol, the blend between 10% by volume ethanol 364 C crank angle encoder, an optical linkage to the (anhydrous alcohol 99.5%), 89% reference diesel and 1% camera and the endoscope. The optical access for the additive was used for this study. The characteristics of endoscope to the swirl chamber of the fourth cylinder test fuels are shown in Table 2. was prepared through the cooling system of the cylinder Many properties of the diesohol fuel can be head. The visioscope software controls the triggering of attributed directly to the dilution effect of the ethanol on the digital camera within a crank angle tolerance of the diesel fuel. The lower density and lower viscosity of 0.1CA. The endoscope has a viewing angle of 30 ethanol compared to diesel fuel result in slight reductions forwarded view. To capture the spray images, the light of these properties in the resulting diesohol blends. Similarly, ethanol has lower energy content than diesel source unit with optical fiber (40 mJ/flash with 20 s fuel and the resulting diesohol blends have roughly 5% duration at frequency of 10 Hz.) was used. less energy per volume than diesel fuel. Ethanol does not The schematic arrangement of experimental set up is contain aromatics, thus the diesohol blend contains shown in Fig. 4. TABLE 2 Fuel properties for standard diesel and diesohol Properties Cetane number Cetane Index Distillation IBP 10 % recovered 50 % recovered 90 % recovered End point Specific Gravity @ 15.6/15.6 oC API gravity @ 15.6/15.6 oC Viscosity @ 40 oC Lubricity by HFRR Pour point Cloud point Oxidation stability Sulfer content Flash point Copper strip corrosion number carbon residue Ash, %wt. Total Acid Number Water content Lower heating value Unit Test Method ASTM D613 ASTM D976 ASTM D86
o o

Reference Diesel 57.8 54.8 174.4 216.5 285.6 351.6 373.4 0.8378 37.4 3.227 545 -3 3.6 0.63 0.042 71 1a < 0.001 < 0.001 0.02 0.0074 45,920

Diesohol 49.7 53.0 335.2 0.8233 2.574 426 -6 12 1a 0.001 0.001 44,202

C C o C o C o C ASTM D1298 ASTM D4052 ASTM D445 CEC F-06-A-96 ASTM D97 ASTM D2599 ASTM D2274 ASTM D4294 ASTM D93 ASTM D130 ASTM D4530 ASTM D482 ASTM D974 ASTM D4928

CST m o C o C mg/100 ml. %wt. o C Number %wt.

%wt. J/g

AVL 513 Visioscope System CCD Camera Endoscope Crank Angle Encoder Eddy Current Dynamometer 40 kW Gear Box In-cylinder Pressure Transducer Screen Display Amp. Engine Ford WL 81 2.5 ltr.
FIP

Light Unit

Cycle-to-cycle variability will be taken in consideration with images ensemble average technique from 7 repetitions of each image out of a total consecutive operating cycle of 707 cycles. Thus, a representative combustion cycle was simulated.

Crank Angle Encoder for Visioscope

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

The observed image is adjusted to cover at most 70% of the total pre-chambers view, thus each spray image must be calibrated to locate the origin. Throughout this work, ignition will refer to the first appearance of luminous combustion, although it is recognized that any prior pre-flame reactions that occur without luminous emissions will not be detected by the present imaging system, and flame will denote the luminous combustion regions. The luminous flame images will be shown as a sequence from the ignition through the end of combustion, although each image is from different cycle. SPRAY FORMATION The spray contour (spray angle and penetration length) was analyzed using the color separation technique around the liquid fuel spray and flame, as shown in Fig. 5 [10]. The diesohol has approximate 1 of injection timing delay compared with diesel. However, the late diesohol injection occurred during the higher ambient pressure and temperature, difference in ignition delay between diesel and diesohol could not significantly be observed [11]. Its injection timing delay is probably due to the lower isentropic bulk modulus and lower viscosity of ethanol compare with diesel that cause in slightly reductions of these properties in the resulting blend [12]. The images of spray formation at selected operating points of reference diesel and diesohol are shown in Fig. 6, respectively. It was found at low to medium engine speeds that, using standard injection pump and standard injector, the observed diesohol spray has either longer
Idle
DIESEL DIESOHOL

Fuel line Pressure Transducer Amp.

Combustion Analyzer

Fig.4 Schematic arrangement of experimental system. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE The experiments were carried out at constant speed, steady state conditions at selected high probability operating points along ECE 15 driving cycle, as shown in Table 3. Speed, torque, fuel consumption, engine operating pressure and temperature for both fuels were recorded during each test. Images of simultaneous complex spray, inflammation and combustion processes, during the range between 10 CA to 40 CA, in the swirl chamber, were taken. Illuminating the spray through the light source window was performed for the spray investigation. For the study on spray combustion process, the images were taken without illuminating source. Test Point No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Table 3 Engine operating points Speed Torque Statistical (rev/min) (Nm.) Frequency (%) Idle Speed 39.49 1000 20 2.05 2000 30 7.69 2250 10 4.10 2250 20 1.02 2500 40 3.59 2750 20 12.31 2750 40 6.15

2000 rpm, 30 Nm.

DIESEL DIESOHOL

2750 rpm, 20 Nm.

DIESEL DIESOHOL

Fig. 5 The base image with contours around the liquid fuel spray (blue) and the flame (yellow), derived by using the color separation method. [10]

10 CA ATDC

8 CA ATDC

6 CA ATDC

4 CA ATDC

2 CA ATDC

Fig. 6 Images of spray formation in pre-chamber for reference diesel and diesohol at selected operating points.

ATDC

0 CA

40

Reference Diesel Diesohol

35 30

40 35

Reference Diesel

Diesohol

Penetration (mm)

25 20 15 10 5 0 -12 -10 -8 -6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
SOI Diesel SOI Diesohol EOI Diesel SOC DieselSOC Diesohol EOI Diesohol

Spray Angle (deg.)

30 25 20 15 10 5 0 -12 -10 -8 -6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18

Degree Crank Angle

Degree Crank Angle

Fig. 7 Development of spray tip penetration for reference diesel and diesohol at 2000 rev/min, 30 Nm. spray tip penetration length or wider spray angle than that of reference diesel. The lower of ambient temperature surrounding injected spray core from complex interaction among many properties and the lower cetane number of the diesohol can attribute to the delay of the sprays premixed combustion. The more the ignition delay, the longer the spray traveling length. The lower viscosity of diesohol also causes the better spray atomization, wider spray angle, longer penetration tip [1]. Moreover, the boiling point of ethanol is below the lowest boiling fraction of normal diesel fuel. Turbulence caused by the high vapor pressure from the early boiling of ethanol in diesohol, especially in the spray core, may contribute to the wider spray angle. The development of spray tip penetration and spray angle with respect to crank angle at the same selected operating point are shown in Fig. 7 and 8, respectively. It was found from the comparison of the observed maximum values of spray formation between reference diesel and diesohol shown in Table 4 that the observed maximum spray penetration of diesohol is longer than reference diesel in low to medium engine speed range. The higher the engine load, the longer the maximum spray penetration. The difference in maximum observed spray angle tends to reduce with increasing speed. Table 4 Maximum values of spray penetration and spray angle for reference diesel and diesohol Max. Penetration Max. Spray Angle (mm) (degree) Test Points Diesel Diesohol Diesel Diesohol Idle 23.2 26.9 26 24 1000 rpm, 20 Nm. 25.8 27.5 23 24 2000 rpm, 30 Nm. 28.7 31.7 29 34 2250 rpm, 10 Nm. 28.6 30.3 32 32 2250 rpm, 20 Nm. 30.9 30.8 29 34 2500 rpm, 40 Nm. 29.8 32.1 33 36 2750 rpm, 20 Nm. 27.1 31.8 40 38 2750 rpm, 40 Nm. 36.3 30.6 34 32 SPRAY COMBUSTION Summarizing the results of these sections, as shown in Fig. 9, can be noted that the visible combustion course in a swirl chamber occurs without any starting aids. The visible inflammation appears above the fuel jet at about the fourth quadrant. From there the flame engulfs the whole swirl chamber very quick. This process needs some delay times. It was found that diesohol has shown late ignition timings than diesel. After this late ignition,

Fig. 8 Development of spray angle for reference diesel and diesohol, at 2000 rev/min, 30 Nm. the burning area rotates under the influence of the swirl. This motion can be observed for nearly all the flame duration after complex luminous inflammation occurred. The late start of luminous combustion results in the late end of diesohol flame combustion. It should be noted that the flames in front of the fuel spray are cooled by the fuel evaporation resulting in lower flame radiation intensity. The diesohol is more sensitive than diesel in this regard. The comparison of the observed first appearance, end and visible period of luminous flame in the pre-chamber between reference diesel and diesohol are shown in Table 5. It was found that the observed first appearance of luminous diesohol flame occurred more retard with respect to the TDC than that of the reference diesel. The ignition for both fuels tends to start faster with increasing
Idle
DIESEL DIESOHOL

2000 rpm, 30 Nm.

DIESEL DIESOHOL

2750 rpm, 20 Nm.

DIESEL DIESOHOL

35 CA TDC

30 CA TDC

25 CA TDC

20 CA TDC

15 CA TDC

10 CA DC

5 CA ATDC

0 CA ATDC

Fig. 9 Images of spray combustion in the pre-chamber for reference diesel and diesohol at selected operating points.

Idle
DIESEL DIESOHOL

2000 rpm, 30 Nm.

DIESEL DIESOHOL

2750 rpm, 20 Nm.

DIESEL DIESOHOL

Fig. 10 Images of flame probability distribution in the pre-chamber for reference diesel and diesohol at selected operating points. speed. Moreover, the higher the engine load, the sooner the first visible combustion flame. The end of diesohol luminous flame also appears more delay with respect to TDC than that of the reference diesel. However, the difference in luminous flame period between reference diesel and diesohol could not significantly be observed. This may due to the benefit of oxygen content in the diesohol fuel. First Appearance of Luminous Flame (CA) Diesel Idle 1000rpm, 20 Nm. 1000 rpm, 30 Nm. 2000 rpm, 30 Nm. 2000 rpm, 50 Nm. 2250 rpm, 10 Nm. 2250 rpm, 20 Nm. 2500 rpm, 40 Nm. 2750 rpm, 20 Nm. 2750 rpm, 40 Nm. 2.5 2 1 0.5 0 0.5 0.5 1 2 0.5 Diesohol 4.5 3.5 2.5 3 2 3.5 2.5 3 4 3.5

The flame probability distribution, as shown in Fig. 10, is obtained from superimposing the flame areas of the repetitions in the record. As it was found that the diesohol combustion flame areas with the 75-100% probability density distribution are less than that of diesel, thus, the higher combustion variation of diesohol with respect to the flame position may be expected. The appearance of luminous combustion flame comes from the radiation of soot particles occurred in the fuel mixture oxidation zone. Fig. 11 (a), (b) and (c) show the combustion images of spatial flame temperature and prediction images of soot in flames density distribution at selected operating points of diesel and diesohol in a swirl chamber. The combustion flame temperature can be calculated from the three spectral intensities used for the three colors information in every pixel. This feature can also be used to predict the soot in flame distribution. In this work, temperature and soot in flame distribution were derived from the software Thermovision from AVL List GmbH [13]. With this software, the temperatures of radiating soot particles and prediction images of soot in flames density distribution were calculated in the flame images using the two-color method. In the temperature images, purple blue green yellow red white denotes the temperatures ranging from 1800 to 3000 K. In the soot in flames distribution images, the same color scale denotes soot in flame densities ranging from thin to dense soot. The difference in combustion is quite obvious when looking at the images of flame temperature. The Fig. 11 confirmed that engine with diesohol fuel has different combustion characteristics compared with the reference diesel. Diesohol has slow burning rate compared with diesel. With the diesohol, regions with high temperature either start or end later than that of diesel. It is also noted that soot in flame density in diesohol combustion flame tends to be lower than diesel. At engine idle condition, shown in Fig. 11 (a), the diesohol combustion has lower flame temperature but higher predicted soot in flames density distribution compared with the reference diesel. End of Luminous Flame (CA) Diesel 26.5 33.5 35 31.5 32 26 28 28 29 28.5 Diesohol 29.5 32 38.5 34 36.5 27.5 28.5 29 33 29.5 Luminous Flame Period (CA) Diesel 24 31.5 34 31 32 25.5 27.5 27 27 28 Diesohol 25 28.5 36 31 34.5 24 26 26 29 26

10 CA 15 CA 20 CA 25 CA 30 CA 35 CA

Table 5 The comparison of the first appearance, end and luminous flame period between reference diesel and diesohol. Test Point

TDC

TDC

TDC

TDC

TDC

TDC

ATDC

5 CA

0 CA ATDC

Flame Temperature Diesel

Flame Temperature Diesohol

Soot in Fames Density Distribution Diesel

Soot in Flames Density Distribution Diesohol

Flame Temperature Diesel

Flame Temperature Diesohol

Soot in Fames Density Distribution Diesel

Soot in Flames Density Distribution Diesohol

0 CA

5 CA

10 CA

15 CA

20 CA

25 CA

30 CA

Fig. 11 (a) Images of spatial flame temperature and prediction Fig. 11 (b) Images of spatial flame temperature and images of soot in flames density distribution for diesel and prediction images of soot in flames density distribution for diesohol at engine idle condition. diesel and diesohol at 2000 rev./min., 30 Nm. At engine speed of 2000 rev./min. and load 30 Nm., shown in Fig. 11 (b), the diesohol combustion has higher flame areas above 2400K but the predicted soot in flames density distribution of diesohol is slightly lower than diesel. While at engine speed of 2750 rev./min. and load 20 Nm., as shown in Fig. 11 (c), the flame temperature images of diesohol has slightly lower combustion temperature during the beginning but higher temperature distribution during the late combustion phase. However, lower predicted soot in flames density distribution of diesohol than that of diesel can be observed. These may due to the combination effects of the lower energy content per volume, lower cetane value, higher heat of vaporisation as well as the benefit of oxygen content in the diesohol fuel.

35 CA

35 CA

30 CA

25 CA

20 CA

15 CA

10 CA

5 CA

0 CA

CONCLUSIONS
There are some differences between the conventional diesel combustion and diesohol combustion. Visualized images show the effects of ethanol in diesohol blend. About 1 degree injection timing delay of diesohol compared with the injection timing of reference diesel have been observed. Observed diesohol fuel sprays have shown either longer spray tip penetration length or wider spray angle than the reference diesel. Images of spray combustion indicate that the period of diesohol combustion phenomena occurred more retard with respect to TDC than diesel. As its consequence, together with the lower heat of combustion, the predicted combustion flame temperature and soot density distribution, using two-colour method, are lower than the

Flame Temperature Diesel

Flame Temperature Diesohol

Soot in Fames Density Distribution Diesel

Soot in Flames Density Distribution Diesohol

0 CA

would like to express their gratitude to Dr. Dennis Schuetzle, Dr. Weijain Han, International Research and Technology, Ford Motor Co. Ltd., USA, for their continuous support of this project. The research efforts of Ms. Pannarapee Singh and Mr. Pisut Dhanabordeepat are also gratefully appreciated.

REFERENCES
BOOKS: [1] Sher, E., Handbook of Air Pollution from Internal Combustion Engines: Pollutant formation and Control. Academic Press., 1998. SYMPOSIUM PROCEEDINGS: [2] Holmer, E., Berg, P.S., and Bertilsson, B.I., The Utilization of Alternative Fuels in a Diesel Engine Using Different Methods, SAE 800544, 1980. [3] Marek, N. and Evanoff, J., Pre-Commercialization of E diesel Fuels In Off-Road Applications, Paper 42740, Air Waste Management Association, 2002. [4] Ricart, L. M., Xin, J., Bower, G. R. and Reitz, R. D., In-Cylinder Measurement and Modeling of Liquid Fuel Spray Penetration in a Heavy-Duty Diesel Engine, SAE 971591, 1997. [5] Chmela, F. G. and Orthaber, G. C., Rate of Heat Release Prediction for Direct Injection Diesel Engines Based on Purely Mixing Controlled Combustion, SAE 1999-01-0186, 1999. [6] Winklhofer, E., Diesel Combustion a Hierarchy of Simple Effects?, ERCOFTAC Bulletin No. 38, 1998. [7] Flynn, P. F., Durrett, R. P., Hunter, G. L., zur Loye, A. O., Akinyemi, O. C., Dec, J. E. and Westbrook, C. K., Diesel Combustion: An Integrated View Combining Laser Diagnostics, Chemical Kinetics, And Empirical Validation, SAE 1999-01-0509, 1999. [8] Hinrich Mohr and Werner Hentschel, Influence of the Starting Aid Position on Airflow, Spray Formation and Combustion in a Production IDI-Diesel Engine by High-Speed Filming via Endoscopes, SAE 941921,1994. [9] M. Zellat, Th. Rolland and F. Poplow, Three Dimensional Modeling of Combustion and Soot Formation in an Indirect Injection Diesel Engine, SAE 900254, 1990. [10] Anders Larsson, Optical Studies in a DI Diesel Engine,SAE 1999-01-3650, 1999. [11] Wattanavichien, K., Singh, P. and Dhanabordeepat, P., Combustion Phenomena of Diesohol in IDI Engine, Proceedings of International Conference on Fluid and Thermal Energy Conversion 2003. INTERNAL REPORT: [12] Tat, M.E. and Van Gerpen, J.H., Measurement of Biodiesel Speed and Its Impact on Injection Timing, Final Report, NREL, Feb. 2003. [13] AVL List GmbH, Spectral Flame Temperature Measurement Using the Two Colour Method, Operating Instructions, 1998. OTHERS: [14] Ethanol Information Centre, "Henry Ford and Ethanol Fuels" Canadian Renewable Fuels Association (www.greenfuels.org/ethahist)

35 CA

30 CA

25 CA

20 CA

15 CA

10 CA

5 CA

Fig. 11 (c) Images of spatial flame temperature and prediction images of soot in flames density distribution for diesel and diesohol at 2750 rev./min., 20 Nm. reference diesel. However, the optimised use of diesohol as an alternative fuel in a diesel engine required some further investigations. These include either improvement of diesohol properties, e.g. ignition quality, etc., or engine calibration, e.g. injection timing optimization, etc.

Acknowledgements The work described was under TJTTP equipment grant of Chulalongkorn University and AUN-SEEDNET research grant. The authors are greatly appreciated to the support for this research project by the Ford Motor Co .Ltd., Auto Alliance (Thailand) Co. Ltd., Lubrizol Corporation and BRS Intertrade Co. Ltd.. The authors