Homogeneous charge compression ignition of LPG and gasoline using variable valve timing in an engine

The combustion characteristics and exhaust emissions in an engine were investigated under homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) operation fueled with liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and gasoline with regard to variable valve timing (VVT) and the addition of di-methyl ether (DME). LPG is a low carbon, high octane number fuel. These two features lead to lower carbon dioxide (CO₂) emission and later combustion in an LPG HCCI engine as compared to a gasoline HCCI engine. To investigate the advantages and disadvantages of the LPG HCCI engine, experimental results for the LPG HCCI engine are compared with those for the gasoline HCCI engine. LPG was injected at an intake port as the main fuel in a liquid phase using a liquefied injection system, while a small amount of DME was also injected directly into the cylinder during the intake stroke as an ignition promoter. Different intake valve timings and fuel injection amount were tested in order to identify their effects on exhaust emissions and combustion characteristics. Combustion pressure, heat release rate, and indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP) were investigated to characterize the combustion performance. The optimal intake valve open (IVO) timing for the maximum IMEP was retarded as the λ_TOTAL was decreased. The start of combustion was affected by the IVO timing and the mixture strength (λ_TOTAL) due to the volumetric efficiency and latent heat of vaporization. At rich operating conditions, the θ_90-20 of the LPG HCCI engine was longer than that of the gasoline HCCI engine. Hydrocarbon (HC) and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions were increased as the IVO timing was retarded. However, CO₂ was decreased as the IVO timing was retarded. CO₂ emission of the LPG HCCI engine was lower than that of the gasoline HCCI engine. However, CO and HC emissions of the LPG HCCI engine were higher than those of the gasoline HCCI engine.     

Performance analysis of in-network caching for content-centric networking

With the explosion of multimedia content, Internet bandwidth is wasted by repeated downloads of popular content. Recently, Content-Centric Networking (CCN), or the so-called Information-Centric Networking (ICN), has been proposed for efficient content delivery. In this paper, we investigate the performance of in-network caching for Named Data Networking (NDN), which is a promising CCN proposal. First, we examine the inefficiency of LRU (Least Recently Used) which is a basic cache replacement policy in NDN. Then we formulate the optimal content assignment for two in-network caching policies. One is Single-Path Caching, which allows a request to be served from routers only along the path between a requester and a content source. The other is Network-Wide Caching, which enables a request to be served from any router holding the requested content in a network. For both policies, we use a Mixed Integer Program to optimize the content assignment models by considering the link cost, cache size, and content popularity. We also consider the impact of link capacity and routing issues on the optimal content assignment. Our evaluation and analysis present the performance bounds of in-network caching on NDN in terms of the practical constraints, such as the link cost, link capacity, and cache size.     

A study on the rapid bulk combustion of premixture using the radical seeding

The objective of this study is the rapid bulk combustion of mixture in a constant volume chamber with a tiny sub-chamber. Some narrow passage holes were arranged to induce simultaneous multi-point ignition in the main chamber by jet of burned and unburned gases including radicals from the sub-chamber, and the equivalence ratios of pre-mixture in the main chamber and the sub-chamber were the same. The principal factors of the Radical Induced Auto-Ignition (RIAl) method are the diameter of the passage holes and the volume of sub-chamber. The relationship between the sub-chamber and diameter of passage hole was represented by the ratios of sub-chamber volume to passage hole volume. The ratios are non-dimensional coefficients for sub-chamber characteristics. As a result, the RIAI method reduced the combustion period, which expanded the lean limit in comparison with SI method.     

An analysis on structure of impinging and free diesel spray with exciplex fluorescence method in high temperature and pressure field

Because an injected spray development process consists of impinging and free spray in the diesel engine, it is needed to analyze the impinging spray and free spray, simultaneously, in order to study the diesel spray behavior. To dominate combustion characteristics in diesel engine is interaction between injected fuel and ambient gas, that is, process of mixture formation. Also it is very important to analyze liquid and vapor phases of injected fuel on the investigation of mixing process, respectively and simultaneously. Therefore, in this study, the behavior characteristics of the liquid phase and the vapor phase of diesel spray was studied by using exciplex fluorescence method in high temperature and injection pressure field. Finally, it can be confirmed that the distribution of vapor concentration is more uniform in the case of the high injection than in that of the low injection pressure.     

A study of the mixture formation process of a diesel spray under phase change

The purpose of this study was to analyze the structure and to clarify the mixture formation process within evaporative diesel spray. Liquid fuel was injected from a single-hole nozzle (l/d=1.0mm/0.2mm) into a constant-volume vessel under high pressure and temperature in order to visualize the spray phenomena. An exciplex fluorescence method was applied to the evaporative fuel spray to measure and investigate both the liquid and the vapor phase of the injected spray. The region of interest in this experiment was downstream towards the end of the spray. For accurate investigation, images of the liquid and vapor phase regions were recorded with a 35mm still camera and CCD camera, respectively. For the case of the evaporative fuel spray, the images showed that within the region of liquid phase very small droplets could be found outside of the spray and larger droplets at the spray’s tip. This can be explained through the droplet classification defined byStokes number (stk) (Chung et al., 1990). From the 2-dimensional analysis results of the heterogeneous distribution of the inner spray, a 3-dimensional analysis was attempted by using the offset incidence of the laser beam from the spray’s center axis. Finally, in order to quantify the mixture’s state change within the vapor phase region of the injected spray, images analysis were carried out based on the entropy of statistical thermodynamics.     

The use of partitioning bioreactors for the treatment of high‐concentration benzene solutions

Aqueous solutions containing high concentrations (circa 1000 mg/L) of benzene can be treated biologically through the intervention of organic 'sponges'. In reality these sponges are immiscible and biocompatible organic solvents that can be added in very low volumes, and act to draw benzene out of the aqueous phase, reducing levels appropriate for biological treatment. As the organisms consume benzene, the sponges release additional substrate to maintain an equilibrium relationship between the two phases, and this rate is determined by the metabolic activity of the cells. We have used 1‐actadsene as the organic sponge, and Klebsiella sp. as the degradative organism to consume 1000 mg/L of benzene in 12 h. By draining the aqueous phase to 10% of its original volume (and letting it serve as an inoculum), additional benzene solutions, at 1000 mg/L, can be reintroduced to the system, and the action of the sponge used a second, and subsequent times, to control benzene levels and benzene delivery to the organisms.