Thermal Barrier for Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition Application

Stringent emissions regulations set forth by the Environmental Protection Agency has forced the automotive industry in the United States to seek a low cost and reliable solution to meet these regulations. Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) is one of the potential answers to the problem. The HCCI combustion process combines the benefits of the two main Internal Combustion Engines (ICE) technologies, Spark Ignition (SI) and Compression Ignition Direct Injected (CIDI). The HCCI combustion process is building on the advantages of each technology while avoiding the disadvantages.

One of the hurdles preventing the successful application of an HCCI engine to the main automotive market is how to supply the required heat, needed for establishing HCCI in an engine. In this researcha Thermal Barrier Coating (TBC) is designed to harness the energy normally wasted by the engine through the engine's exhaust and cooling systems. The captured energy was used as the heat source necessary to initiate HCCI combustion. This was achieved by modifying a Nissan gasoline engine by increasing the compression ratio from 10.3:1 to 13.5:1 along with coating the cylinder head fire deck, valve heads and crown of the pistons with TBC.Moreover, a practical control system has been tuned for the engine to establish HCCI combustion mode.