Cold-start hydrocarbon emissions in port-injected gasoline engines

An analysis is made of the sources of the high engine-out hydrocarbon (HC) emissions during cold starting of port-injected gasoline engines. A cycle-by-cycle analysis of the different parameters, which affect engine-out HC emissions, is made during the startup process. The contribution of each cylinder of a four-stroke V6, 3.3 l production engine in the total HC emissions is investigated. The HC emissions were measured in the exhaust port using a fast response flame ionization detector (FID). The effect of the initial startup position of the piston and valves in the cycle on combustion and HC emissions is examined. The mass of fuel injected, burned and emitted was calculated for each of the first 120 cycles. Different approaches to reduce engine-out and tailpipe HC emissions during cold-start are discussed.     

基于循环控制的LPG电喷发动机冷起动初探

基于循环控制策略，利用单循环和多循环燃烧分析方法研究了LPG发动机的冷起动特性。试验在一台四冲程、水冷125mL单缸电控喷射点燃式发动机上进行。通过对冷起动循环的缸压和瞬时转速的实对测量和分析，研究了LPG首次喷射脉宽及着火循环的关系对冷起动着火特性的影响，特别对如何实现可控循环着火进行了基于单次起动喷射脉宽的单循环和多循环燃烧研究。试验结果表明：冷起动首次着火循环对整个起动过程的HC排放及着火稳定性起着至关重要的作用；起动喷射脉宽对冷起动着火特性的影响最大，合理控制起动喷射脉宽和喷射时刻，即可实现“即喷即着”的理想可控循环着火。LPG首次着火循环所需的混合气浓度约是稳定怠速时的2．2倍；单循环起动喷射脉宽起动与多循环起动脉宽起动相比，具有HC排放低和起动可靠性好的优点。在首次喷射之前空转几循环可以使发动机的首次着火循环序数提前，并能提高冷起动可靠性。     

Model-based development of low-level control strategies for transient operation of solid oxide fuel cell systems

The exploitation of an SOFC-system model to define and test control and energy management strategies is presented. Such a work is motivated by the increasing interest paid to SOFC technology by industries and governments due to its highly appealing potentialities in terms of energy savings, fuel flexibility, cogeneration, low-pollution and low-noise operation.The core part of the model is the SOFC stack, surrounded by a number of auxiliary devices, i.e. air compressor, regulating pressure valves, heat exchangers, pre-reformer and post-burner. Due to the slow thermal dynamics of SOFCs, a set of three lumped-capacity models describes the dynamic response of fuel cell and heat exchangers to any operation change.The dynamic model was used to develop low-level control strategies aimed at guaranteeing targeted performance while keeping stack temperature derivative within safe limits to reduce stack degradation due to thermal stresses. Control strategies for both cold-start and warmed-up operations were implemented by combining feedforward and feedback approaches. Particularly, the main cold-start control action relies on the precise regulation of methane flow towards anode and post-burner via by-pass valves; this strategy is combined with a cathode air-flow adjustment to have a tight control of both stack temperature gradient and warm-up time. Results are presented to show the potentialities of the proposed model-based approach to: (i) serve as a support to control strategies development and (ii) solve the trade-off between fast SOFC cold-start and avoidance of thermal-stress caused damages.     

Imaging of desaturation of the frozen gas diffusion layers by synchrotron X-ray radiography

The visualization of the thawing and desaturation process on an initially saturated, frozen gas diffusion layer (GDL) with a serpentine gas flow channel was performed based on synchrotron X-ray computed tomography images. High speed CT scanning during the experiments allowed the dynamic desaturation process to be quantified under the cold-start with air purging condition. The saturation profiles and the desaturation rates were studied over the entire GDL domain, through-plane, and in selected regions of interest for localized behavior. Sigracet 35AA and 35BA GDLs were selected for the experiments to study the effects of GDL hydrophobicity. Along with the real-time saturation profiles, the average desaturation rates for the entire GDL domain over the whole purging process were 0.000186 μL cm^?2 s^?1, 0.000470 μL cm^?2 s^?1, 0.000516 μL cm^?2 s^?1 and 0.000901 μL cm^?2 s^?1 with the superficial gas velocity of the purging air at 2.88 m/s, 4.26 m/s, 5.98 m/s and 9.02 m/s, respectively. In addition, the dynamic saturation contours and 3-D GDL geometry models were constructed to show the liquid water movement through a GDL. Although the GDL desaturation curves for each experiment share similar trends, the results show that different conditions including air flow rate, GDL geometric location, initial water saturation, and GDL boundary condition could cause heterogeneous desaturation behavior on both overall and localized GDL regions. These data provide valuable information for future modeling studies that involve the thawing process in the GDL, and could be used to optimize the cell design and develop cold-start protocols.     

Axiomatic design of the sandwich composite endplate for PEMFC in fuel cell vehicles

To fasten a fuel cell stack in a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC), two thick steel endplates have been used to maintain a proper contact pressure at the interfaces among gaskets, gas diffusion layer (GDL), membrane electrode assemblies (MEA), and bipolar plates. The proper contact pressure is required both to improve its energy efficiency by decreasing ohmic loss and to prevent leakage of fluid such as hydrogen, air, or coolant. Since the thick steel endplates are not only heavy, but also have high thermal conductivity and thermal inertia, which deteriorate the cold-start characteristics of fuel cell stack, a new development of the endplate with light weight and better thermal properties is necessary.     

基于动态社会行为和用户背景的协同推荐方法

针对传统协同过滤推荐算法推荐精度低及冷启动的问题,提出了一种基于动态社会行为和用户背景的协同推荐方法。作为用户标注行为的结果,变化的标签体现了用户行为的动态性。该方法首先根据动态社会化标签得出用户的动态兴趣偏好相似度,然后根据用户背景信息计算出用户相似度,最后计算基于时间权重的用户评分相似度,并集成上述3个相似度找出最近邻居集,以为目标用户提供更加准确的个性化推荐。实验结果证明,该方法不仅能较好地解决数据稀疏和冷启动的问题,还能有效提高推荐算法的精确度。     

基于信任和概率矩阵分解的协同推荐算法研究

为了解决推荐系统的冷启动和数据稀疏性问题,研究人员利用用户之间的信任关系,提出了多种基于信任的协同推荐算法,这些方法提高了推荐覆盖率,然而推荐精确度却有所降低。因此,本文综合考虑用户之间的信任关系和用户的潜在特征,提出了基于信任和概率矩阵分解的协同推荐算法,首先通过融入用户的相似性、影响力、专业性等知识,计算用户之间不对称的信任关系;然后结合概率矩阵分解模型进行评分预测;最后在数据集上进行实验测试评估,实验表明该算法可以有效提高推荐结果的精确度。     

Water transport during startup and shutdown of polymer electrolyte fuel cell stacks

A dynamic three-phase transport model is developed to analyze water uptake and transport in the membrane and catalyst layers of polymer electrolyte fuel cells during startup from subfreezing temperatures and subsequent shutdown. The initial membrane water content (λ, the number of water molecules per sulfonic acid site) is found to be an important parameter that determines whether a successful unassisted self-start is possible. For a given initial subfreezing temperature at startup, there is a critical λ (λ_h), above which self-start is not possible because the product water completely engulfs the catalyst layers with ice before the stack can warm-up to 0 °C. There is a second value of λ (λ_l), below which the stack can be self-started without forming ice. Between λ_l and λ_h, the stack can be self-started, but with intermediate formation of ice that melts as the stack warms up to 0 °C. Both λ_l and λ_h are functions of the initial stack temperature, cell voltage at startup, membrane thickness, catalyst loading, and stack heat capacity. If the stack is purged during the previous shutdown by flowing air in the cathode passages, then depending on the initial amount of water in the membrane and gas diffusion layers and the initial stack temperature, it may not be possible to dry the membrane to the critical λ for a subsequent successful startup. There is an optimum λ for robust and rapid startup and shutdown. Startup and shutdown time and energy may be unacceptable if the λ is much less than the optimum. Conversely, a robust startup from subfreezing temperatures cannot be assured if the λ is much higher than this optimum.