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Proceedings of the Combustion Institute 32 (2009) 27852792

Combustion
Institute
www.elsevier.com/locate/proci

Bio-diesel eects on combustion processes in an HSDI

diesel engine using advanced injection strategies
Tiegang Fang a,*, Chia-fon F. Lee b
a

Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, North Carolina State University,

3182 Broughton Hall, 2601 Stinson Drive-Campus Box 7910, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA
b
Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA

Abstract
An optically accessible single-cylinder high-speed direct-injection (HSDI) diesel engine was used to
investigate the combustion process using dierent fuels including European low sulfur diesel and bio-diesel
fuels with advanced multiple injection strategies. Inuences of injection timings and fuel types on combustion characteristics and emissions were studied under similar loads. In-cylinder pressure was measured and
used for heat release analysis. High-speed combustion videos were captured for all the studied cases using
the same frame rate. NOx emissions were measured in the exhaust pipe. Dierent combustion modes
including conventional diesel combustion and low-temperature combustion were observed and conrmed
from the heat release rates and the combustion images. Natural luminosity was found consistently lower
for bio-diesel than the European low sulfur diesel fuel for all the cases. However, for NOx emissions, under
conventional combustion cases such as cases 2 and 3, it was found that bio-diesel leads to increased NOx
emissions. Under a certain injection strategy with retarded main injections like case 4 and 5, it is possible to
have up to 34% lower NOx emissions for B100 than B0 for case 4 with low-temperature combustion mode.
Simultaneous reduction of NOx and natural luminosity was achieved for advanced low-temperature combustion mode. It is hypothesized based on the results that the lower soot generation for bio-diesel fuel is
believed due to a lower soot formation rate and a higher soot oxidation rate. The NOx increase problem for
bio-diesel fuel can be amended by employing advanced injection strategies with low-temperature combustion modes.
2009 The Combustion Institute. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Diesel combustion; Advanced injection strategy; Natural luminosity; Bio-diesel; Low-temperature combustion

1. Introduction
Due to limited fossil fuels in the world, nding
alternative fuels and reducing the fuel consumption of current internal combustion engines
become more and more important. Meanwhile,
*

Corresponding author. Fax: +1 919 515 7968.

E-mail address: tfang2@ncsu.edu (T. Fang).

worldwide environmental concerns make the

emission regulations more stringent. Exhaust
emissions like oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and particulate matter (PM) must be reduced for diesel
engines to meet future emission standards.
Multiple-injection strategies have been
reported for simultaneous reduction of NOx
and PM in large-bore DI diesel engines [13]
and small-bore HSDI diesel engines [46]. Nehmer and Reitz [1] showed that pulsed injections

1540-7489/$ - see front matter 2009 The Combustion Institute. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.proci.2008.07.031

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T. Fang, C.F. Lee / Proceedings of the Combustion Institute 32 (2009) 27852792

might provide a method to reduce both PM and

NOx. The eectiveness of double, triple, and
rate shaped injection strategies to simultaneously
reduce NOx and PM was evaluated [2]. Numerical simulations were conducted to explore the
mechanism of soot and NOx reduction for multiple injection strategies [3]. Reduced soot emissions are due to the fact that the soot
producing rich region is not replenished when
the injection pulse is terminated and restarted.
Zhang [4] investigated the eect of a pilot injection on NOx, soot emissions, and combustion
noise in a small diesel engine. By optimizing
the EGR rate, pilot timing and quantity, main
timing, and dwell between the main and pilot
injections, simultaneous reduction of NOx and
PM was obtained in an HSDI diesel engine
[5]. Another study on pilot injection was done
by Tanaka et al. [6]. It was shown that simultaneous reduction of combustion noise and emissions was possible by minimizing the pilot fuel
quantity and advancing the pilot injection
timing.
Homogeneous charge compression-ignition
(HCCI) combustion has been shown to be eective for NOx and PM reduction. Early investigations on this combustion mode [7,8] showed that
it was a new combustion mode dierent from
traditional spark-ignition (SI) and compressionignition (CI) combustion. The studies in fourstroke SI-engines were done by Najt and Foster
[9] and Thring [10]. HCCI combustion in diesel
engines was reported much later than SIengines. Because of the exibility of the multiple
injection strategies in controlling the mixing and
combustion processes, they were also employed
in DI diesel engines for HCCI combustion.
Hashizume et al. [11] proposed MULtiple stage
DIesel Combustion (MULDIC) for higher load
operating conditions with low soot emissions.
A multi-pulse HCCI combustion study was done
by Su et al. [12]. For very early injection, hydrocarbon (HC) increased. Hasegawa and Yanagihara [13] employed two injections in their
UNIform BUlky combustion System (UNIBUS). The ignition of the premixed gas could
be controlled by the second injection when the
early injection maintained a low-temperature
reaction. A dual mode operation was used in
a narrow-angle direct-injection (NADITM) concept [14]. The engine was operated in HCCI
combustion under partial loads and in conventional diesel combustion at full-load conditions.
HCCI combustion in a small-bore HSDI diesel
engine was investigated by using early multiple
short injection pulses during the compression
stroke [15]. Results showed dramatic NOx and
smoke reductions, while HC and CO substantially increased. A two-stage premixed charge
compression ignition (PCCI) combustion was
studied by Kook and Bae [16]. A large fuel frac-

tion was injected very early before TDC. A second injection with a small amount of fuel was
injected near the compression TDC to ignite
all the airfuel mixtures.
Agricultural fat and oils, in raw or chemically
modied forms, have the potential to supplant a
signicant proportion of petroleum-based fuels.
Bio-diesel is of particular interest because it significantly reduces PM, HC and CO emissions. The
engine testing from three dierent engines, a Cummins N-14 engine, a Cummins B5.9 engine, and a
DDC Series 50 engine showed average reductions
of 84.4% in HC, 40.5% in CO, and 38.0% in PM
emissions [17]. In addition to its reduced emissions
of PM, HC and CO, bio-diesel contributes less to
global warming than fossil fuels due to its closed
carbon cycle. Bio-diesel is also the only alternative
fuel that has passed the EPA-required Tier I and
Tier II Health Eects testing requirements of the
Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990. Moreover,
bio-diesel is particularly attractive because it is a
renewable fuel that can be replenished through
the growth of plants or production of livestock.
Bio-diesel has been criticized for its higher
brake specic NOx emissions comparing to diesel
fuels [18]. Many studies and measurements of
NOx emissions from diesel engines fueled with
bio-diesel have been published [1926] and most
of them were focused on conventional diesel combustion. Low-temperature combustion has its
unique advantage to reduce NOx [27]. The lowtemperature combustion mode of bio-diesels has
also been reported recently [2835]. Advanced
injection strategy was used to implement better
emissions of bio-diesel for HSDI diesel engines
[28,34]. Simultaneous reduction of NOx and soot
emission was achieved for bio-dieseldiesel blend
with high-eciency clean combustion (HECC) in
a diesel engine [29]. Zheng et al. [30] investigated
low-temperature combustion mode for bio-diesel
with high EGR rate. The results showed that it
was possible to achieve NOx and soot reductions
for low-temperature combustion modes with biodiesel. Bio-diesel HCCI combustion was investigated in a diesel engine by fueling in the intake
port [31] and numerical simulation was used to
study the detailed reaction in the engine cylinder.
Both conventional and PCCI combustion modes
were numerically investigated for bio-diesel to
study the eects of fuel properties [32]. HCCI
combustion was experimentally studied in a small
HSDI diesel engine using early and late injection
strategies [33,35]. Low-temperature combustion
modes were implemented by employing high
EGR rate and/or later injection timing. However,
most of the above mentioned studies were in metal
engines with no detailed information about the
combustion ame inside the engine cylinder. Incylinder visualization of the combustion process
is important in understanding the mixing, combustion, and the soot generation processes. There-

T. Fang, C.F. Lee / Proceedings of the Combustion Institute 32 (2009) 27852792

fore, the objective of this work is to investigate the

eects of dierent fuels and injection strategies on
combustion processes in an optical engine with
realistic piston geometry using advanced injection
strategy. The mechanism controlling soot and
NOx emissions will be analyzed and discussed.

Side
Side
Window

2787

Quartz
Piston

2. Optical engine facility and visualization

technique
A complete description of the optical engine
design can be found in a previous publication
[36], so only a brief introduction of the setup will
be provided here. Ford Motor Company provided
a single-cylinder equivalent of the 1.2-l, 4-cylinder
Ford Direct-Injection Aluminum Through-bolt
Assembly (DIATA) engine for conversion into
an optical engine. Typical engine specications
are listed in Table 1. Optical access to the combustion chamber is attained from the side window or
from the fused silica piston. The fused silica piston
mimics all the features of the metal piston. A schematic of the design for optical access is shown in
Fig. 1 and the pictures of the optical piston and
metal piston are illustrated in Fig. 2. The engine
is equipped with a Bosch common-rail electronic
injection system, capable of injection pressures
up to 135 MPa. A Valve-Covered-Orice (VCO)
injector with six 0.124 mm holes was used. The
injector body was tted with a needle lift sensor
monitoring the needle motion throughout injection. A Phantom V7.1 high-speed camera was
used to capture the natural luminosity. An
MEXA-720 NOx analyzer from Horiba was used
to measure the diluted NOx concentration from
the exhaust pipe. This non-sampling NOx analyzer provided a faster response with a NOx sensor. The sensor had a response time of about
0.7 s. The optical engine was operated in an injection pattern of 3 injection cycles followed by 10

Fig. 1. Assembly cross-section of optical engine design

with drop-liner raised.

Fig. 2. Optical piston top (left) and metal piston (right).

motoring cycles for a certain time. The analyzer

was calibrated according to the operation manual
before emission measurement. The nal NOx
emission values were corrected based on the
duty-cycle of the operation pattern. Natural luminosity was employed to visualize combustion processes. The natural luminosity comes from
chemiluminescence and soot luminosity. In hydrocarbon ames, chemiluminescence is typically seen
in the visible and near ultraviolet from the OH,
CH, and C2 radicals [37]. Soot luminosity is thermal radiation from soot particles within the combustion ame with a broadband emission
spectrum. The perceived intensity depends on
the soot concentration and temperature [3840].

Table 1
Specications for the optical engine
Bore
Stroke
Displacement/cylinder
Compression ratio
Swirl ratio
Valves/cylinder
Intake valve diameter
Exhaust valve diameter
Maximum valve lift
Intake valve opening
Intake valve closing
Exhaust valve opening
Exhaust valve closing

70 mm
78 mm
300 cc
19.5:1
2.5
4
24 mm
21 mm
7.30/7.67 mm (intake/exhaust)
13 CAD ATDC
(at 1 mm valve lift)
20 CAD ABDC
(at 1 mm valve lift)
33 CAD BBDC
(at 1 mm valve lift)
18 CAD BTDC
(at 1 mm valve lift)

3. Engine operating conditions

Dierent combustion modes with multipleinjection strategies were studied for pure diesel
and soybean bio-diesel fuels. The injection strategies included a small rst injection with an early
pre-TDC timing and a main injection at or after
TDC. The rst injection fuel quantity was xed
at 1.5 mm3 for both fuels. The injection timing
was changed to achieve dierent combustion
modes. The rst injection timing changed from
40 CAD to 20 CAD ATDC by a step of 10
CAD. The main injection timings were chosen at
TDC and 10 CAD ATDC. There are ve conditions for each fuel. The operating conditions are
tabulated in Table 2. The combustion videos were

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T. Fang, C.F. Lee / Proceedings of the Combustion Institute 32 (2009) 27852792

Table 2
Engine operating conditions
Fuel type

Case
number

B0
B0
B0
B0
B0

1
2
3
4
5

B100
B100
B100
B100
B100

1
2
3
4
5

First injection fuel

quantity (mm3)

Main SOI
(CAD ATDC)

Main injection fuel

quantity (mm3)

IMEP (bar)

40
30
20
30
20

1.5
1.5
1.5
1.5
1.5

0
0
0
10
10

6.8
6.3
6.6
7.3
7.0

3.98
3.98
3.99
3.98
4.00

40
30
20
30
20

1.5
1.5
1.5
1.5
1.5

0
0
0
10
10

8.8
8.5
8.5
8.9
8.7

4.00
4.08
4.07
3.93
4.02

First injection
SOI (CAD ATDC)

The pressure traces are shown in Fig. 3

grouped by the two fuels. For comparison, the
motoring pressure is also plotted. The in-cylinder
pressure shows quite dierent features for dierent injection timings. However, the fuel eects
on the in-cylinder pressure are not so obvious.
For dierent injection strategies, the in-cylinder
pressures are quite similar and closely follow the
motoring pressure before 20 CAD ATDC. Then
with heat release from the rst injection, the pressure starts to deviate from the motoring curves.
Some pressure drop due to fuel evaporation can
be seen for the cases with rst injection timing at
20 CAD ATDC. The heat release rate from
the rst injection at 40 CAD ATDC is small
leading to a small increase in the TDC pressure
compared with the motoring pressure. The cases
with an injection timing at 30 CAD ATDC have
higher TDC pressure than those with rst injec-

tion timing of 40 CAD ATDC due to more heat

release from the rst injection. This is due to the
fact that the airfuel mixture is too lean to combust completely for the rst injection of case 1.
But for cases 3 and 5 with a rst injection timing
at 20 CAD ATDC, a signicantly higher heat
release is seen than cases 1, 2, and 4. This results
in higher ambient temperature and pressure near
TDC for cases 3 and 5. Due to the dierence in
the heat release rate of the rst injection, the ignition delay of the main injection is greatly dierent.
At the same main injection timing, an early rst
injection leads to longer ignition delay and more
rapid pressure rise. By delaying the main injection
timing, the ignition delay is elongated for cases 4
and 5 compared with cases 2 and 3. A lower pressure rise rate is seen for the retarded main injection cases. No obvious dierence is found for
the two fuels. The ignition delay and peak pressures are quite similar for the same injection
strategy.
The computed heat release rate curves are
shown in Fig. 4. The injection strategy greatly
inuences the heat release pattern and the combustion mode. The ambient temperature at the
main injection timing is lower for case 1, which
leads to a longer ignition delay for the main injection. As a consequence, a premixed combustion
mode is observed. By retarding the rst injection

Fig. 3. In-cylinder pressure.

Fig. 4. Heat release rate.

taken with the high-speed digital camera. For

each case, ve movies were taken and a typical
set of images will be presented. The engine was
operated in a skip-re mode with one injection
cycle followed by 12 ushing cycles when taking
in-cylinder pressure and combustion videos.
4. In-cylinder pressure and heat release results

T. Fang, C.F. Lee / Proceedings of the Combustion Institute 32 (2009) 27852792

timing, more heat is released from the rst injection and the ambient temperature becomes higher.
The ignition delay becomes shorter for later rst
injection. Relatively high heat release rate peaks
are seen for the rst injections of cases 3 and 5.
When the ignition delay becomes shorter, the
combustion mode becomes more diusion combustion dominated. This diusion combustion
mode is apparently observed for case 3 with a
small portion of premixed combustion and a large
portion of mixing controlled combustion. The
heat release rate peak is much smaller than that
of case 1. The combustion mode of case 2 is
between case 1 and case 3. For case 5, there is
more premixed combustion compared with case
3, but the heat release rate has a long tail indicating slow diusion combustion after the premixed
combustion phase. With a retarded main injection
for case 4, the ignition delay is greatly elongated.
The heat release rate shows a single peak premixed combustion mode. Again, the fuel eects
on heat release rate curves are hardly seen.
5. Natural luminosity and NOx emissions
The combustion process was visualized by
using the high-speed camera with a three-dimensional imaging setup [4042]. The frame rate is
12,000 frames/s with an exposure time of 2 ls at
a resolution of 512  256. The Spatially Integrated Natural Luminosity (SINL) was obtained
by summing up the pixel values of the bottomview combustion images.
The SINL is shown in Fig. 5. Each trace is an
average of ve sets of data. The data are grouped
by fuel type in two subplots. For a certain fuel, a
large dierence is observed for diering injection
strategies. For B0, the highest natural luminosity
is seen for case 3. Signicantly lower natural luminosity is seen for case 4 with moderately early rst
injection and retarded main injection timings. But
for case 5, although it has a retarded main injection, the natural luminosity is comparable to that
of case 3. SINL for cases 1 and 2 are between

Fig. 5. Spatially integrated natural luminosity (SINL).

2789

those of case 4 and case 5. High natural luminosity would imply high temperature and/or high
soot concentration in the combustion ame. For
B100, the natural luminosity is lower than B0.
The inuence of injection strategies on the natural
luminosity is similar to B0. The main dierence
between B100 and B0 is the ame existence time
duration. A shorter time is seen for B100 than
B0 indicating a faster combustion process.
The natural luminosity variation rate was calculated to nd the natural luminosity increase rate
or the decrease rate. The variation rate is obtained
by calculating the time derivative of the natural
luminosity with time. The decrease rate is the
absolute values of the negative natural luminosity
variation rate. A larger increase rate indicates faster early combustion. A larger decrease rate
implies faster soot oxidation and/or combustion
gas temperature decreasing process. The peak
values of the natural luminosity (NL), natural
luminosity increasing rate (NLIR), and natural
luminosity decreasing rate (NLDR) are plotted
in Fig. 6 to illustrate the inuence of injection
strategies and fuels. The peak NL increases with
retarding the rst injection timing and decreases
with retarding the main injection timing. But the
peaks are comparable for case 3 and case 5 and
it is believed due to strong soot formation in both
cases. For B100, the peak NL values are less than
B0. The lower peak NLIR for B100 might be
attributed to a lower soot formation rate for
bio-diesel. The peak NLDR is higher for B100
for cases 13, which might imply a faster soot oxidation process for bio-diesel in the late combustion cycle if the in-cylinder gas temperature is
close for B0 and B100. A close or slightly lower
peak NLDR is seen for B100 than B0 for cases
4 and 5. This lower NLDR might be attributed
to the lower soot concentration in B100 than B0
leading to a lower soot oxidation rate [43]. Based
on the observations, it is hypothesized that bio-

Fig. 6. Peak values for natural luminosity (NL), NL

increase rate (NLIR), and NL decrease rate (NLDR).

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T. Fang, C.F. Lee / Proceedings of the Combustion Institute 32 (2009) 27852792

diesel might have a lower soot formation rate during the early combustion stage and a higher soot
oxidation rate during the late cycle crank angles.
These two factors could determine the lower soot
emissions for bio-diesel in the exhaust compared
to petro-diesel. Retarding the main injection timing could reduce soot formation. But it could also
reduce soot oxidation rate due to a lower combustion temperature. The NOx emissions are shown
in Fig. 7. Case 1 has similar NOx emissions for
B0 and B100 with B100 slightly smaller than B0,
but the dierence is within the error bar. But for
cases 2 and 3, NOx emissions are higher for
B100 than B0, which is consistent with the previous results with conventional diesel combustion
[17,1926]. For cases 4 and 5, B100 has less NOx
emissions than B0 for injection strategies with
retarded main injections.
In order to compare the natural luminosity of
dierent injection strategies and fuels, a number,
called natural luminosity parameter (NLP) thereafter, was dened as the ratio of mean natural
luminosity to the total heat released. A small
value showed lower temperature and/or lower
sooting combustion. In addition, to compare the
NOx emissions, a NOx parameter (NP) was
dened as the NOx emissions divided by the
released heat for the combustion process. The unit
for the NOx parameter is ppm/J. A smaller NP
value indicates lower NOx emissions. The NLP
and NP data are plotted in the NPNLP plane
in Fig. 8. Case 4 oers the best performance with
the data points closest to the origin. The performance of case 3 is most non-preferable with high
NOx and natural luminosity. For cases 1, 2, and 5,
there are some tradeo between the natural luminosity and NOx emissions. It is not easy to achieve
simultaneous reduction of natural luminosity and
NOx emission for these conditions. But compared
with case 3, the natural luminosity and NOx emissions are reduced simultaneously for cases 1, 2,
and 5. The fuel eects are not as important as
injection strategies. The fuel blends can be used
to ne-tune the emission data points in the NP

Fig. 8. Natural luminosity parameter (NLP) and NOx.

Parameter (NP) in NPNLP plane.

NLP plane to obtain better combustion

performance.
Based on the above discussion, it is expected
that a multiple-injection strategy can greatly
change the emission behavior for dierent fuels
under similar load conditions. There is not a certain trend for the bio-diesel eects on the NOx
emissions compared with petro-diesel. This is
quite dierent from the single-injection strategy
cases with conventional and late injection timings
[17,1926], where NOx emissions increase with
increasing bio-diesel content. A multiple-injection
strategy could change the NOx emission behavior.
Under a certain injection strategy with retarded
main injections, it is possible to have lower NOx
emissions for bio-diesel. Bio-diesel generally
reduces soot generation compared with petro-diesel. Simultaneous reduction of soot and NOx
emissions is possible by using a multiple-injection
strategy with a longer dwell time between the two
injections. However, due to the oxygen content in
B100, its energy density is lower than B0 and the
fuel consumption increases when using bio-diesel
as shown by the injected fuel quantities in Table 2.
6. Combustion ame images

Fig. 7. NOx emissions in ppm.

Combustion images of both fuels for case 3 are

shown in Fig. 9 to illustrate the eect of bio-diesel
on a typical diusion ame combustion mode.
The combustion is poor in terms of soot emissions
with a signicantly high soot concentration
formed in the ame. Ignition delay is very short
for the main injection of case 3, namely about
1.5 CAD after the liquid fuel comes out of the
nozzle. Ignition occurs at 2.75 CA ATDC for both
fuels. At the end of injection, namely at about 8.00
CAD ATDC, strong luminous ames ll in the
squish region and the near wall region in the bowl.
The jet structure corresponding to the six spray
jets is obviously observed. The longer spray-ame

T. Fang, C.F. Lee / Proceedings of the Combustion Institute 32 (2009) 27852792

2791

B0

B0: -20, 0

B100

B100: -20, 0

Case 1, -40, 0
20.00 ATDC

-7.00

3.50

5.75

8.00

B0: -20, 0

B100: -20, 0

14.00

20.00

26.00

38.00

20.00

26.00

38.00

B100: - 30, 10

18.50

Fig. 9. Combustion images for case 3 of B0 and B100,

and case 4 of B100. All times shown are CAD ATDC.

overlap greatly inhibits the airfuel mixing and

could increase the soot formation during the early
combustion stage. The liquid penetration is quite
short for both fuels. Comparing the combustion
images at 14, 20, 26 and 38 CAD ATDC, it is
apparent that B100 has a higher ame burnt-out
rate than B0. Due to the high soot concentration
in the conventional combustion ame, it takes
longer to burn out during late cycle crank angles.
Based on these results, the combustion process for
the bio-diesel are not only determined by the mixing rate but also inuenced by the oxygen availability in the combustion ame. When the
mixing rate is limited, the role of the oxygen content becomes more evident.
With retarded main injection for case 4, the
combustion ame is dierent from case 3 as seen
also in Fig. 9. Due to a lower ambient temperature, ignition occurs near the end of injection
between 17.00 and 17.75 CAD ATDC. The difference of the early ame in case 4 from case 3
is that the early ame develops more slowly with
a weak natural luminosity. This lower temperature ame elongates the airfuel mixing time
without soot formation. A weak and more uniform combustion ame is observed in case 4.
The combustion is similar to HCCI combustion
mode. The natural luminosity is signicantly
lower than case 3.

Case 2, -30, 0
23.00 ATDC

Case 3, -20, 0
29.00 ATDC

Case 4, -30, 10
32.00 ATDC

Case 5, -20, 10
38.00 ATDC

Fig. 10. Typical combustion images for cases 15 (from

left to right) for both fuels. All times shown are CAD
ATDC.

From the combustion images, it is found that

besides fuel eects injection strategies greatly
inuence the combustion mode. Some typical
ame images with high luminosity are shown
in Fig. 10 for the ten cases. The images further
conrm the observations in the SINL results.
Lower natural luminosity is seen for bio-diesel
than B0. Increasing the gap between the two
injections reduces natural luminosity. Conventional combustion modes, namely cases 2 and
3, have higher natural luminosity than the lowtemperature combustion mode in cases 1, 4,
and 5. There are two important factors controlling the combustion process. One is the mixing
process, which dominantly determines the combustion mode transition from premixed combustion to diusion ame combustion. The mixing
process is greatly inuenced by injection parameters. The other is the oxygen content in the
fuel. Higher oxygen content could help reduce
soot formation and increase soot oxidation.
Therefore, soot emissions are expected to be
lower for bio-diesel.
7. Conclusions
In this paper, the eects of European low sulfur diesel and bio-diesel on the combustion process were experimentally investigated in a smallbore HSDI diesel engine using advanced multiple
injection strategies. Five injection strategies were
studied showing the injection timing inuences
on the combustion modes. Less luminous ame
was observed for bio-diesel than the diesel fuel.
Compared with conventional combustion mode,
low-temperature premixed combustion modes
resulted in lower natural luminosity. For conventional-like mode, namely cases 2 and 3, higher
NOx emission was seen for B100 than B0. However, for cases 4 and 5 with retarded main injection, B100 led to lower NOx emissions. For a
certain type of fuel, retarding injection timing
resulted in signicant reduction in NOx emissions.
A multiple-injection strategy can change the emission behavior for dierent fuels under similar load

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T. Fang, C.F. Lee / Proceedings of the Combustion Institute 32 (2009) 27852792

conditions. Fuel eects can be used to ne-tune

the combustion performance. There is no certain
trend obtained for the eects of bio-diesel on the
NOx emissions. This is quite dierent from the
single-injection strategy cases with conventional
combustion, where NOx emissions increase for
bio-diesel. Under a certain injection strategy with
retarded main injections, it is possible to have up
to 34% lower NOx emissions for B100 than B0 for
case 4 with low-temperature combustion mode.
The natural luminosity is always lower for B100.
Simultaneous reduction of soot and NOx emissions is possible by using a multiple-injection
strategy with a longer dwell time between the
two injections. The lower soot generation for
bio-diesel is hypothesized due to a lower soot formation rate and a higher soot oxidation rate. The
NOx increase problem for bio-diesel can be
amended by employing advanced injection strategies with low-temperature combustion modes.

Acknowledgements
This work was supported in part by the
Department of Energy Grant No. DE-FC2605NT42634, by Department of Energy GATE
Centers of Excellence Grant No. DE-FG2605NT42622, and by the Ford Motor Company
under University Research Program. We also
thank Paul Miles of Sandia National Laboratories, Evangelos Karvounis and Werner Willems
of Ford for their assistance on the design of the
optical engine and on the setup of the
experiments.

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