New Combustion Concept for Ultra-Clean and High-Efficiency Small DI Diesel Engines

Nitrogen oxide (NOx) and particulate matter (PM) emissions of diesel vehicles are regarded as a source of air pollution, and there is a global trend to enforce more stringent regulations on these exhaust gas constituents in the early years of the 21st century. On the other hand, the excellent thermal efficiency of diesel engines is certainly a welcome attribute from the standpoints of conserving energy and curbing global warming. Recently, many research institutes around the world have been using high-efficiency direct-injection (DI) diesel engines to research emission control technologies. The authors have also been engaged in such research [1,2]. As a result of this work, we have developed a new combustion concept, called Modulated Kinetics (MK), that reduces NOx and smoke simultaneously due to low-temperature and premixed combustion characteristics, respectively, without increasing fuel consumption [3,4].

This paper describes the combustion and emission characteristics obtained when the MK combustion concept was applied to single-cylinder and multi-cylinder test engines. Combustion photographs and transient heat flux measurements were taken to investigate the characteristics of this new combustion process. The results indicate the possibility of obtaining high-efficiency, ultra-clean internal combustion engines for the 21st century.