IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/appene/v268y2020ics0306261920305638.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Combustion and energy balance analysis of an unthrottled gasoline engine equipped with innovative variable valvetrain

Author

Listed:
  • Zhou, Xianjie
  • Chen, Zheng
  • Zou, Peng
  • Liu, Jingping
  • Duan, Xiongbo
  • Qin, Tao
  • Zhang, Shiheng
  • Shen, Dazi

Abstract

Continuous variable valve lift is an effective technology to achieve the unthrottled load control on gasoline engines. However, the technology also introduces some new problems which limit the further improvement of engine performance. In this study, a gasoline engine is modified to be an unthrottled engine by removing the throttle and replacing the conventional valvetrain with an innovative continuous variable valvetrain. Based on the engine, the benefits and drawbacks of the unthrottled operation with early intake valve closure strategy are experimentally and numerically investigated at low load. The results indicate that the unthrottled load control with the strategy can improve the gross mechanical efficiency, but the gross indicated thermal efficiency decreases due to poor combustion. Specifically, a 9.8% improvement in fuel efficiency of the test engine is achieved at a brake mean effective pressure of 100 kPa and 2000 r/min. By comparison, the inefficient combustion under the early intake valve closure is mainly caused by the weak turbulence and low gas temperature at the spark timing, which need to be moderately enhanced to further improve engine performance. All these conclusions could provide a significant reference for the development of more efficient engines.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhou, Xianjie & Chen, Zheng & Zou, Peng & Liu, Jingping & Duan, Xiongbo & Qin, Tao & Zhang, Shiheng & Shen, Dazi, 2020. "Combustion and energy balance analysis of an unthrottled gasoline engine equipped with innovative variable valvetrain," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 268(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:268:y:2020:i:c:s0306261920305638
    DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2020.115051
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261920305638
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.apenergy.2020.115051?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kalghatgi, Gautam, 2018. "Is it really the end of internal combustion engines and petroleum in transport?," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 225(C), pages 965-974.
    2. Teodosio, Luigi & Pirrello, Dino & Berni, Fabio & De Bellis, Vincenzo & Lanzafame, Rosario & D'Adamo, Alessandro, 2018. "Impact of intake valve strategies on fuel consumption and knock tendency of a spark ignition engine," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 216(C), pages 91-104.
    3. Darzi, Mahdi & Johnson, Derek & Ulishney, Chris & Clark, Nigel, 2018. "Low pressure direct injection strategies effect on a small SI natural gas two-stroke engine’s energy distribution and emissions," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 230(C), pages 1585-1602.
    4. Li, Yangtao & Khajepour, Amir & Devaud, Cécile & Liu, Kaimin, 2017. "Power and fuel economy optimizations of gasoline engines using hydraulic variable valve actuation system," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 206(C), pages 577-593.
    5. Tsokolis, D. & Tsiakmakis, S. & Dimaratos, A. & Fontaras, G. & Pistikopoulos, P. & Ciuffo, B. & Samaras, Z., 2016. "Fuel consumption and CO2 emissions of passenger cars over the New Worldwide Harmonized Test Protocol," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 1152-1165.
    6. Yang, Jie & Dong, Xue & Wu, Qiang & Xu, Min, 2019. "Effects of enhanced tumble ratios on the in-cylinder performance of a gasoline direct injection optical engine," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 236(C), pages 137-146.
    7. Huang, Haozhong & Zhou, Chengzhong & Liu, Qingsheng & Wang, Qingxin & Wang, Xueqiang, 2016. "An experimental study on the combustion and emission characteristics of a diesel engine under low temperature combustion of diesel/gasoline/n-butanol blends," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 170(C), pages 219-231.
    8. Zhao, Jinxing, 2017. "Research and application of over-expansion cycle (Atkinson and Miller) engines – A review," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 185(P1), pages 300-319.
    9. Hunicz, Jacek & Mikulski, Maciej, 2018. "Investigation of the thermal effects of fuel injection into retained residuals in HCCI engine," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 228(C), pages 1966-1984.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Fridrichová, K. & Drápal, L. & Vopařil, J. & Dlugoš, J., 2021. "Overview of the potential and limitations of cylinder deactivation," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    2. Meng, Xianglong & Xie, Fangxi & Li, Xiaona & Han, Linghai & Duan, Jiaquan & Gong, Yanfeng & Zhou, You, 2024. "Study on the effects of intake valve timing and lift on the combustion and emission performance of ethanol, N-butanol, and gasoline engine under stoichiometric combustion and lean burn conditions," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 300(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Li, Yangtao & Khajepour, Amir & Devaud, Cécile, 2018. "Realization of variable Otto-Atkinson cycle using variable timing hydraulic actuated valve train for performance and efficiency improvements in unthrottled gasoline engines," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 222(C), pages 199-215.
    2. Liu, Chang & Zhang, Zhiyuan & Ren, Peirong & Wei, Yidi & Jia, Boru & Zuo, Zhengxing & Wang, Wei & Feng, Huihua, 2024. "Application of semi-direct fuel injection system to free piston engine generator for better performance: Simulation approach with validation results," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 298(C).
    3. Rocha, Déborah Domingos da & de Castro Radicchi, Fábio & Lopes, Gustavo Santos & Brunocilla, Marcello Francisco & Gomes, Paulo César de Ferreira & Santos, Nathalia Duarte Souza Alvarenga & Malaquias, , 2021. "Study of the water injection control parameters on combustion performance of a spark-ignition engine," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 217(C).
    4. Michał Głogowski & Przemysław Kubiak & Szymon Szufa & Piotr Piersa & Łukasz Adrian & Mateusz Krukowski, 2021. "The Use of the Fourier Series to Analyze the Shaping of Thermodynamic Processes in Heat Engines," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-23, April.
    5. Jana Hoffmann & Walter Vera-Tudela & Niklas Mirsch & Dario Wüthrich & Bruno Schneider & Marco Günther & Stefan Pischinger & Daniel A. Weiss & Kai Herrmann, 2023. "Investigation of Flow Fields Emanating from Two Parallel Inlet Valves Using LES, PIV, and POD," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(19), pages 1-29, September.
    6. Huang, Yuhan & Surawski, Nic C. & Zhuang, Yuan & Zhou, John L. & Hong, Guang, 2021. "Dual injection: An effective and efficient technology to use renewable fuels in spark ignition engines," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    7. Yang, Jie & Dong, Xue & Wu, Qiang & Xu, Min, 2019. "Effects of enhanced tumble ratios on the in-cylinder performance of a gasoline direct injection optical engine," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 236(C), pages 137-146.
    8. Teodosio, Luigi & Pirrello, Dino & Berni, Fabio & De Bellis, Vincenzo & Lanzafame, Rosario & D'Adamo, Alessandro, 2018. "Impact of intake valve strategies on fuel consumption and knock tendency of a spark ignition engine," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 216(C), pages 91-104.
    9. Guo, Chendong & Zuo, Zhengxing & Feng, Huihua & Jia, Boru & Roskilly, Tony, 2020. "Review of recent advances of free-piston internal combustion engine linear generator," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 269(C).
    10. Kale, Aneesh Vijay & Krishnasamy, Anand, 2023. "Experimental study of homogeneous charge compression ignition combustion in a light-duty diesel engine fueled with isopropanol–gasoline blends," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 264(C).
    11. Liu, Junheng & Sun, Ping & Huang, He & Meng, Jian & Yao, Xiaohua, 2017. "Experimental investigation on performance, combustion and emission characteristics of a common-rail diesel engine fueled with polyoxymethylene dimethyl ethers-diesel blends," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 202(C), pages 527-536.
    12. Osorio, Julian D. & Rivera-Alvarez, Alejandro, 2018. "Efficiency enhancement of spark-ignition engines using a Continuous Variable Valve Timing system for load control," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 161(C), pages 649-662.
    13. Khoa, Nguyen Xuan & Lim, Ocktaeck, 2019. "The effects of combustion duration on residual gas, effective release energy, engine power and engine emissions characteristics of the motorcycle engine," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 248(C), pages 54-63.
    14. Mikulski, Maciej & Balakrishnan, Praveen Ramanujam & Hunicz, Jacek, 2019. "Natural gas-diesel reactivity controlled compression ignition with negative valve overlap and in-cylinder fuel reforming," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 254(C).
    15. Ma, Zetai & Xie, Wenping & Xiang, Hanchun & Zhang, Kun & Yang, Mingyang & Deng, Kangyao, 2023. "Thermodynamic analysis of power recovery of marine diesel engine under high exhaust backpressure by additional electrically driven compressor," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 266(C).
    16. Luo, Pan & Gao, Kai & Hu, Lin & Chen, Bin & Zhang, Yuanjian, 2024. "Adaptive hybrid cooling strategy to mitigate battery thermal runaway considering natural convection in phase change material," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 361(C).
    17. Betgeri, Vikram & Bhardwaj, Om Parkash & Pischinger, Stefan, 2023. "Investigation of the drop-in capabilities of a renewable 1-Octanol based E-fuel for heavy-duty engine applications," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 282(C).
    18. Lapuerta, Magín & Hernández, Juan José & Fernández-Rodríguez, David & Cova-Bonillo, Alexis, 2017. "Autoignition of blends of n-butanol and ethanol with diesel or biodiesel fuels in a constant-volume combustion chamber," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 613-621.
    19. Yin, Lianhao & Lundgren, Marcus & Wang, Zhenkan & Stamatoglou, Panagiota & Richter, Mattias & Andersson, Öivind & Tunestål, Per, 2019. "High efficient internal combustion engine using partially premixed combustion with multiple injections," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 233, pages 516-523.
    20. Pachiannan, Tamilselvan & Zhong, Wenjun & Rajkumar, Sundararajan & He, Zhixia & Leng, Xianying & Wang, Qian, 2019. "A literature review of fuel effects on performance and emission characteristics of low-temperature combustion strategies," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 251(C), pages 1-1.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:268:y:2020:i:c:s0306261920305638. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.