The Effect of an Active Thermal Coating on Efficiency and Emissions from a High Speed Direct Injection Diesel Engine

This study looked into the application of active thermal coatings on the surfaces of the combustion chamber as a method of improving the thermal efficiency of internal combustion engines. The active thermal coating was applied to a production aluminium piston and its performance was compared against a reference aluminium piston on a single-cylinder diesel engine. The two pistons were tested over a wide range of speed/load conditions and the effects of EGR and combustion phasing on engine performance and tailpipe emissions were also investigated. A detailed energy balance approach was employed to study the thermal behaviour of the active thermal coating. In general, improvements in indicated specific fuel consumption were not statistically significant for the coated piston over the whole test matrix. Mean exhaust temperature showed a marginal increase with the coated piston of up to 6 °C. However, the normalised exhaust enthalpy showed a reduction (apart from the higher speed/load conditions when no EGR was applied). Energy transfer to the coolant was reduced by as much as 1.5 percentage points, in agreement with the expected reduction in piston heat transfer, across all operating conditions. Finally, soot emissions were increased with the coated piston, with the biggest differences between the coated and non-coated pistons observed at the lower speed/load conditions.