An investigation has been carried out to examine the influence of up to 300 MPa injection pressure on engine performance and emissions. Experiments were performed on a 4 cylinder, 4 valve / cylinder, 4.5 liter John Deere diesel engine using the Ricardo Twin Vortex Combustion System (TVCS). The study was conducted by varying the injection pressure, Start of Injection (SOI), Variable Geometry Turbine (VGT) vane position and a wide range of EGR rates covering engine out NOx levels between 0.3 g/kWh to 2.5 g/kWh. A structured Design of Experiment approach was used to set up the experiments, develop empirical models and predict the optimum results for a range of different scenarios. Substantial fuel consumption benefits were found at the lowest NOx levels using 300 MPa injection pressure. At higher NOx levels the impact was nonexistent.
In a separate investigation a Cambustion DMS-500 fast particle spectrometer, was used to sample and analyze the exhaust gas. The effect of the above engine variables on particle size distribution and total number was studied. Results indicate that increasing injection pressure has limited impact on the total particle number. The Air Fuel Ratio (AFR) however, appears to be a parameter that could be exploited for the control of particle number emissions.
