Combustion Improvement for Reducing Exhaust Emissionsin a DI Diesel Engine

This article investigates the improvement of operation characteristics and emissions reduction by means of creating an air-cell inside the piston body, exhaust gases re-circulating and insulating combustion chamber in a direct injection diesel engine simultaneously. The engine considered is a caterpillar 3401 which was modeled with an air-cell included as part of the piston geometry. This air-cell demonstrates that air injection in late combustion period can be effective in a significant reduction of Soot emission while cold EGR can be effective in reduction of NOx emission. Also for increasing of performance parameters, combustion chamber with air-cell is insulated. The analyses are carried out at part (75% of full load) and full load conditions at the same engine speed 1600 rpm. The predicted results for mean in-cylinder pressure and emissions are compared to the corresponding experimental results and show good agreements. The obtained results indicate that creating the air-cell has a slight effect on improvement of performance parameters and it has significantly effect on Soot reduction. The air-cell decreases the Soot pollutant as a factor of two at both part and full load conditions. Also, the adding 5% of cold EGR in inlet air can decreases NOx by about half and insulating the engine increases the power and IMEP by about 7.7% and 8.5% and decreases the ISFC by about 7.5% at part load and increases power and IMEP by 8.5%, 8.5% and decreases ISFC by 8% at full load condition, respectively. Using this method, it was possible to control emissions formation and increase performance parameters simultaneously.