Performance and Emissions of an LPG Lean-Burn Engine for Heavy Duty Vehicles

1999-01-1513

05/03/1999

Event
International Fuels & Lubricants Meeting & Exposition
Authors Abstract
Content
Performance and emissions of an LPG lean burn engine for heavy duty vehicles were measured. The piston cavity, swirl ratio, propane - butane fuel ratio, and EGR were varied to investigate their effects on combustion, and thus engine performance. Three piston cavities were tested: a circular flat-bottomed cavity with sloped walls (called the “bathtub” cavity), a round bottomed cavity (called the “dog dish” cavity), and a special high-turbulence cavity (called the “nebula” cavity). Compared to the bathtub and dog dish cavities, the nebula type cavity showed the best performance in terms of cyclic variation and combustion duration. It was capable of maintaining leaner combustion, thus resulting in the lowest NOx emissions. High swirl improved combustion by achieving a high thermal efficiency and low NOx emissions. In general, as the propane composition increased, cyclic variation fell, NOx emissions increased, and thermal efficiency was improved. The thermal efficiency and cyclic variation were improved by EGR at λ = 1.4, compared to lean burn (λ = 1.5) without EGR.
Meta TagsDetails
DOI
https://doi.org/10.4271/1999-01-1513
Pages
13
Citation
Goto, S., Lee, D., Shakal, J., Harayama, N. et al., "Performance and Emissions of an LPG Lean-Burn Engine for Heavy Duty Vehicles," SAE Technical Paper 1999-01-1513, 1999, https://doi.org/10.4271/1999-01-1513.
Additional Details
Publisher
Published
May 3, 1999
Product Code
1999-01-1513
Content Type
Technical Paper
Language
English