Internal Combustion Engine & Fuel Systems Research Group

Introduction

The Group's main focus is the study of:

fuels,
mixture preparation,
combustion,
and pollutant generation within spark ignition and diesel engines.

The Group has extensive equipment for carrying out work with test rigs and within intake ports, but a significant proportion of testing concentrates on the cylinder contents of optically-accessed research engines up to and after the point of ignition. Most standard laser diagnostic equipment is available, together with some specialist instrumentation techniques developed by the Group itself.

The facilities have been built up with support from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (hefce), the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the Wolfson Foundation and several industrial companies.

Fuel Systems Test Facility

Of particular note is the Fuel Systems Test Facility (FSTF) which, in its present form, was completed in 2004. It is based on an original design that was established in 1986.

The latest design consists of a suite of four rooms, comprising:

two test chambers,
a control room,
and a plant room.

The FSTF provides a safe environment for testing injectors and fuel systems under simulated engine conditions using flammable fuels.

The Facility is equipped with two liquid ring vacuum pumps, the larger unit being capable of drawing in excess of 195 litre/s of air. Enough to perform experiments at airflow rates representative of high-speed engine operating conditions i.e. wide-open throttle (WOT).

Engine test beds, instrumentation and CFD

The Group is particularly fortunate to have four state-of-the-art engine test cells dedicated to research.

Two of the test cells are double-ended, thus allowing two research engines to be installed within a single cell.
The ventilation and fire protection systems are rated for the testing of engines running on hydrogen and hydrogen fuel mixtures as well as all types of liquid hydrocarbon fuels.
The dynamometers are a mixture of eddy-current (with cranking motors) and regenerative electrical machines (capable of transient motoring and absorbing operation).
Two cells have computer control of the engine throttle and dynamometer enabling tests to be run to programmed cycles.
Both conventional and fast response gas analysis equipment is available together with appropriate data logging equipment.

Currently, the Group has the following selection of single-cylinder research engines:

two Ricardo Hydra units,
Ford(US)/Jaguar optically accessed engine,
Lotus Engineering single-cylinder engine,
Mahle Powertrain optically accessed engine,
and several designed and constructed within the department.

Specialist state-of-the-art optical diagnostics instrumentation available to the Group includes:

multi-component Laser/Phase Doppler Velocimetry system (LDV/PDV) for both velocity and droplet-size measurements;
'standard' (double-tube Nd-YAG) and state-of-the-art high-speed (Nd-YLF) Particle Image Velocimetry systems (PIV) for cycle-resolved and time-resolved flow measurements,
Laser Induced Fluorescence systems (LIF) based on Nd-YAG and tunable dye laser arrangements for both non-reacting and reacting flows.
Computation fluid dynamics (CFD) codes, like STAR-CD and KIVA, as well as codes developed within the Department, are used for various modelling studies of single and two-phase flows.

Research philosophy and contract research (including motor sport)

The Group's facilities are used for 3-year PhD research projects and research contracts supported by government agencies and industry.

They are also available for short-duration contract research work at a level that does not cause substantial disruption to existing PhD studies and research contracts.

An example of the contract research is the current and past work performed for Formula 1 motor sport teams on in-port and in-cylinder mixture preparation. These projects had to be performed to tight timescales and with complete confidentiality.

The group also support the Formula Student UCL entry with technical know-how on all aspects of the car building process as well on engine tuning.

Current research portfolio

The Group's research expertise in spark ignition and diesel engines is far reaching. The Group has led an extended series of projects on direct injection spark ignition engines, starting with some of the first intensive research work on this type of engine in the UK.

Another area where research has extended over a long period of time has been the study of the behaviour of liquid fuel on both port and direct injected engines using optical techniques and heat flux sensors.

Extensive studies on diesel engines focused on control of exhaust pollutants. Projects included the effects of combustion geometry, exhaust gas recirculation, and fuel composition on NOx and particulate formation.

Newer avenues of research include the following:

CCSPV (Combustion Concepts for Sustainable Premium Vehicles) the fundamental causes of cyclic variation (sponsored by Jaguar and Shell in conjunction with three UK universities);
HOTFIRE (Homogeneous and Throttleless for Fuel efficiency with Reduced Emissions) sponsored by Lotus Engineering and EPSRC linked with Siemens and Loughborough University;
Alternative/Bio Fuels for Future Gasoline & Diesel Engine Concepts;
Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) combustion using hydrogen;

Future plans

Future plans are to expand the expertise of the Group to include the use of in-house multi-processor parallel computing for intensive calculations, including Large-Eddy Simulation (LES) approaches. On the experimental side, it is planned to investigate the development of novel combinations of hybrid power trains.

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UCL MECHANICAL ENGINEERING