Fuel 90 (2011) 18841891

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Fuel
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/fuel

Effect of EGR and injection timing on combustion and emission characteristics

of split injection strategy DI-diesel engine fueled with biodiesel
Donghui Qi a,, Michael Leick b, Yu Liu c, Chia-fon F. Lee b
a
Key Laboratory of Automotive Transportation Safety Technology Ministry of Communication, Changan University, Xian 710064, China
b
Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering, The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
c
School of Automotive Engineering, Jilin University, Changchun 130012, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In this study, the effect of injection timing and EGR rate on the combustion and emissions of a Ford Lion
Received 3 September 2010 V6 split injection strategy direct injection diesel engine has been experimentally investigated by using
Received in revised form 22 December 2010 neat biodiesel produced from soybean oil. The results showed that, with the increasing of EGR rate,
Accepted 10 January 2011
the brake specic fuel combustion (BSFC) and soot emission were slightly increased, and nitrogen oxide
Available online 25 January 2011
(NOx) emission was evidently decreased. Under higher EGR rate, the peak pressure was slightly lower,
and the peak heat release rate kept almost identical at lower engine load, and was higher at higher engine
Keywords:
load. With the main injection timing retarded, BSFC was slightly increased, NOx emission was evidently
Biodiesel
Exhaust gas recirculation
decreased, and soot emission hardly varied. The second peak pressure was evidently decreased and the
Split injection strategy heat release rate was slightly increased.
Combustion 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Emission

1. Introduction
Today, air pollutants emitted from diesel vehicles, such as NOx
and particulate matter (PM), have created serious air pollution
problems in major cities around the world. Regulations and control
measures aimed at lowering exhaust emissions from truck and bus
diesel engines have been adopted in an effort to improve air quality
in cities. However, the degree of improvement seems to be not very
satisfactory, mostly because of the difculties in removing NOx and
the compromise between PM and NOx emissions.
Over the past years, the investigations on diesel engines have ex-
panded in the area of alternative fuels, among which biodiesel repre-
sents a very promising fuel. Pure biodiesel is a fuel composed of
mono-alkyl esters of long chain fatty acids derived from vegetable
oils or animal fats. Biodiesel is a sulfur-free, nontoxic, biodegradable,
oxygenated, and renewable fuel and can be used in standard diesel
engines with little or no engine or fuel system modications. In com-
parison to diesel fuel, biodiesel has comparable energy density and
cetane number, little sulfur and much oxygen [15]. However, high
viscosity, high molecular weight, low volatility, etc. of biodiesel may
in some cases lead to problems such as severe engine deposits, injec-
tor cooking, and piston ring sticking [69]. In general, biodiesel pro-
vides comparable fuel efciency and horsepower. Using biodiesel
instead of diesel fuel reduces emissions such as the overall life cycle
Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 29 82334464; fax: +86 29 82334476.
E-mail address: donghuiqi@gmail.com (D. Qi).
of carbon dioxide (CO2), PM, carbon monoxide (CO), sulfur oxides
(SOx), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and unburned hydrocar-
bons (HC). However, despite its potential benets of lowering these
pollutants, experiments indicated that the NOx emission will be in-
creased with the use of biodiesel [1017].
The above comparisons between diesel and biodiesel were
based on the original setting of an engine using diesel fuel. The for-
mulation of fuel composition can improve the biodiesel combus-
tion performance and exhaust emissions. However, the results
showed that it was difcult to acquire NOx emission neutral while
improving other pollutant emissions simply by fuel reformulation
[1822]. Therefore, modication of engine parameters may be fea-
sible to optimize the engine emissions due to the difference in
chemical composition and combustion characteristics between
diesel and biodiesel. These were related, for example, to the injec-
tion strategies, or to exhaust gas recirculation (EGR). Recently, a
split injection strategy has been proposed as a means to reduce
NOx emissions, and this allows the injection to be retarded to re-
duce NOx emissions without a signicant penalty in soot levels.
Kim et al. [23] studied the effect of split injection on exhaust emis-
sions, soot particulates, and engine performance using an electri-
cally controlled direct injection diesel engine fueled with neat
biodiesel derived from soybean. The results showed that split
injection reduces NOx emissions signicantly without a signicant
increase in soot emissions. Decreasing soot, median particle diam-
eter, and particle number concentration were seen in accordance
with retarded injection timing for split injection. Zhang and

0016-2361/$ - see front matter 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.fuel.2011.01.016
 D. Qi et al. / Fuel 90 (2011) 18841891 1885

Nomenclature

ATDC after top dead center k coefcient of light absorption of the smoke
BMEP brake mean effective pressure NOx nitrogen oxide
BSFC brake specic fuel consumption PM particulate matter
CO carbon monoxide SOx sulfur oxides
CO2 carbon oxides TDC top dead center
DI direct injection VOCs volatile organic compounds
ECM electronic control module
EGR exhaust gas recirculation
HC hydrocarbon

Boehman [24] studied the impact of biodiesel on NOx emissions in
a 2.5 L common rail DI-diesel engine with different fuel injection
strategies. They found that retarding injection timing under single
injection conditions was the more effective approach to reduce the
NOx emissions than using pilot injection with retarded main injec-
tion in terms of NOx and fuel consumption tradeoff. Under the low
engine load condition, the pilot injection strategy led to substan-
tially reduced NOx emissions. Others have studied the effects of
combining biodiesel and EGR. The general conclusion from these
studies was that combining EGR and biodiesel was an effective
way to decrease NOx and/or PM. The majority of these studies have
been performed on relatively small diesel engines. Tsolakis et al.
[25] found that the use of biodiesel fuel could decrease the smoke
and NOx from a single-cylinder engine equipped with EGR under
certain engine conditions when compared to diesel. The retarda-
tion of the injection timing could result in further reduction of
NOx at a cost of small increases of smoke and fuel consumption.
Prandeep and Sharma [26] varied EGR levels and engine load on
a single-cylinder engine and found that biodiesel produced more
smoke at lower loads and less smoke at higher loads when com-
pared to diesel fuel. Agarwal et al. [27] tested a two-cylinder en-
gine equipped with EGR and biodiesel fuel and found that the
15% EGR and 20% biodiesel blend was the optimum combination.
Saleh [28] studied the effect of EGR on the NOx emissions of two-
cylinder, naturally aspirated direct injection diesel engine fueled
with jojoba methyl ester. They concluded that EGR is an effective
technique for reducing NOx emissions with JME fuel especially in
light-duty diesel engines. For all operating conditions, a better
trade-off between HC, CO and NOx emissions can be attained with-
in a limited EGR rate of 515% with very little economy penalty.
The work in this paper was a continuation of our experimental
and numerical investigations of the inuence of neat biodiesel
from soybean oil on the characteristics of a diesel engine [29].
Attention was focused on the determination of the injection timing
and EGR rate for biodiesel with the aim to reduce all engine harm-
ful emissions, especially NOx and PM.
2. Experimental section
piezoelectric injectors that had six nozzles each. Depending on
the performance and emission requirements, the injection pres-
sure can vary from 0.22 to 1.650 MPa. The number of injections
can vary from 1 to 6 for every engine cycle, namely two pilot injec-
tions, two main injections, and two post injections. For all the stud-
ies done here, there were one pilot injection and one main
injection involved. It is known that biodiesel is incompatible with
materials such as rubber and brass, and a long-term usage of
incompatible materials in a biodiesel engine will result in material
degradation or corrosion. The fuel system was built to become full
biodiesel compatibility, as all the fuel lines and ttings were care-
fully chosen to be fully biodiesel compatible. Table 2 shows the
main properties of diesel and biodiesel.
To determine the desired engine parameters, the engine comes
with an Electronic Control Module (ECM), which controls the entire
basic engine operating parameters such as the injection timings,
injected fuel mass and EGR using Fords congurations. However,
those parameters can be recongured by using ETAS INCA soft-
ware, which is used for the development and calibration of the
control and diagnostic parameters in the ECM. With INCA, data
acquisition and real-time recording of many engine operating con-
ditions present in the ECM can be realized. In other words, the
internal calibrations of the ECM can be changed depending on
the experimental setup. When starting the ECM, the engine runs
with the default calibrations supplied by Ford. After the connection
is established between INCA and ECM, the calibrations can be
Table 1
The specications of test engine.
Engine type Ford Lion 6-cylinder 4-stroke direct injection
Bore (mm) 81
Stroke (mm) 88
Connecting rod length (mm) 160
Compression ratio 17.3:1
Total engine displacement (l) 2.7
Induction system Variable geometry turbocharger
Fuel injection system Common rail (up to 1.65 MPa)
Fuel injection type Piezoelectric with six nozzles
EGR Water-cooled EGR pumps

2.1. Engine and data acquisition

The engine used in this study was Ford Lion V6 diesel engine. Table 2
The engine specications can be found in Table 1. Although the en- Main properties of diesel and biodiesel.

gine was equipped with a variable geometry turbocharger, the tur- Properties Diesel Biodiesel
bocharger was not used. Instead, an independent air supply system Specic gravity (kg/l) 0.85 0.88
was set up to simulate turbocharger conditions to provide intake Lower heating value (MJ kg 1) 41.90 38.37
air to the engine at a more precisely controlled pressure and tem- Viscosity (cS t @40 C) 2.03.0 4.11
perature. The injection system of the engine was a common-rail Cetane number 4347 47.1
Stoichiometric airfuel ratio (kg/kg) 14.6 12.6
system, which was capable of supplying a fuel pressure up to
Sulfur (ppm) 7.015.0 <3
1.65 MPa at high engine load and speed using highly accurate
1886 D. Qi et al. / Fuel 90 (2011) 18841891

Computer #1 Computer #2

PCI-MIO-16E-4 ETAS INCA

PC-AO-2DC
Multi-purpose ES580 interface
Analog output board
input/output board card

Air pressure control Air heater

Engine ECM
valve temperature control

SCXI-1000
Signal conditioning chassis

SCXI-1120
SCXI-1100 SCXI-1180
8-channel isolated Accelerator pedal
32-channel Signal feedthrough
amplifier and position signal
multiplexer module module
multiplexer module

SCXI-1303
Terminal block with
Shaft Encoder
CJC sensor quarter-degree &
TDC signals

Steady-state In-cylinder pressure Dynamometer

Thermocouples
pressure transducer transducers speed & torque

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of engine data acquisition and control system.

modied. In this study, the injection timing and EGR were varied.
Fig. 1 shows the schematic diagram of engine data acquisition
and control system.
National Instruments LabView version 8.6 was used as the data
acquisition and timing software. The engine temperatures and
pressures were monitored with a multifunction data acquisition
board. The necessary timing was controlled by 16 up/down
32-bit counter/timers. An optical shaft encoder was mounted to
the crank shaft at the front of the engine to determine the engine
timing and locate the top dead center (TDC) of the piston for cylin-
der #6. The shaft encoder was capable of providing a resolution of
0.25 crank angle degree and therefore able to output 2880 pulses
for every engine cycle. An AVL pressure transducer was used to
measure the in-cylinder pressure for cylinder #6. It had a bore of
3 mm and tted into the glow plug hole through the use of a glow
plug adaptor. The glow plug heating system was therefore disabled
although the rest of the glow plugs were still in the engine. The
pressure transducer was connected to a Kistler charge amplier
to amplier its signal, which was then passed to the data acquisi-
tion board for future processing. The cylinder pressure data were
recorded for 50 consecutive cycles and then averaged in order to
eliminate the effect of cycle-to-cycle variations. On the basis of
the in-cylinder pressure data, a zero dimensional, single-zone
model was used to calculate the heat release rate and in-cylinder
temperature, as described by Heywood [30].
2.2. NOx and smoke analyzer
A MEXA-720 NOx analyzer from Horiba was used to measure
the NOx concentration from the exhaust pipe. A NOx sensor was in-
stalled in the exhaust pipe and connected to the signal analyzer for
NOx concentration readings. The analyzer was calibrated according
to the operation manual before emission measurement. The smoke
meter was operated by manually pumping in the exhaust through
a short copper tube connected to the main exhaust pipe. A clean l-
ter paper was placed in the smoke meter, and smoke would be col-
lected on the paper when the exhaust gas entered the smoke meter
due to pumping. During an experiment, the smoke meter was
pumped for fty times for each case. The lter paper was then con-
verted to a digital image for future processing. It was noted that the
emission tests were performed on the raw exhaust gas coming
from the exhaust ports of the engine. No exhaust after treatment
system was ever used.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Test conditions
Since the gas mixture in the engine cylinder has a longer
residence time with high combustion temperatures under low speed
and high load conditions and low speed and low load conditions
 D. Qi et al. / Fuel 90 (2011) 18841891 1887

represent the typical road-load conditions for automotive diesel 400

engines, it is expected that the effect of EGR and injection timing of
350
biodiesel on NOx emissions will be more signicant under these con-

BSFC (g/kWh)
ditions. Therefore, test conditions of 1500 r/min and 0.3 MPa of 300
BMEP and 1500 r/min and 0.6 MPa of BMEP were selected as the
engine operating conditions. The impact of biodiesel on engine per- 250 0.3MPa,49%EGR
0.3MPa,54%EGR
formance, emissions and combustion under various EGR rate and 200 0.6MPa,38%EGR
injection timing conditions was studied. Due to the mechanical de- 0.6MPa,43%EGR
lay for the solenoid valve in the fuel injector to respond to the trigger- 150
-6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6
ing signal sent from the ECM, there was always a delay of the actual
Main Injection Timing (CAD ATDC)
fuel injection timing compared to the injection timing calibration
value stored in the ECM. The indicated injection timings that repre- Fig. 2. BSFC under different main injection timing and EGR rate conditions.
sent the injection timing calibration values were used in this study.
Detailed engine test conditions are given in Table 3.
450
400 0.3MPa,49%EGR
0.3MPa,54%EGR
3.2. Performance and emissions characteristics 350 0.6MPa,38%EGR
0.6MPa,43%EGR

NOx (ppm)
300
Fig. 2 shows the BSFC of biodiesel with main injection timing 250
under two EGR rate conditions. It can be seen that the BSFC is 200
slightly increased with the retarded main injection timing. It is 150
likely that the turbulence effect of the main injection is reduced 100
when it is phased later in the cycle, which would explain the in- 50
0
crease in BSFC observed for the later phased main injections [31]. -6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6
It also can be seen that the BSFC is slightly increased with higher Main Injection Timing (CAD ATDC)
EGR rate under different main injection timings. Since EGR in a die-
sel engine displaces a unit of fresh air with an equal unit of burned Fig. 3. NOx emissions under different main injection timing and EGR rate
exhaust products, it not only alters the A/F ratio, but causes a dilu- conditions.

tion effect. By reducing the oxygen concentration, the mixing time

between the direct injected fuel and the fresh oxygen increases and
2000
reduces the burn rate once diffusion combustion starts, therefore,
In-cylinder temperature (K)

1800 0.6MPa, 43%EGR

making stable combustion more difcult to achieve, and indicating
1600
a speed and power output decrease and BSFC increase [28]. Fur-
1400
thermore, at high engine load the temperature of the mixture of
1200
EGR and fresh air increases and the cylinder trapped mass de- -4 CAD ATDC
1000
creases, which has a detrimental effect on the volumetric efciency -2 CAD ATDC
800
[32]. So this may result in an increase in BSFC. 0 CAD ATDC
600
Fig. 3 shows the NOx emission of biodiesel with the main injec- 2 CAD ATDC
400
tion timing under two EGR rate conditions. It illustrates a universal 4 CAD ATDC
200
rule that NOx always decreases with retarding main injection tim-
0
ing. The main reason is that it reduces combustion temperature in -20 -10 0 10 20 30 40 50 60
the cylinder, and moreover, it reduces residence time of high-tem- Crank angle (CAD)
perature-burned gas in the combustion chamber where NOx ac-
tively forms. The setting of the latest retarded main injection Fig. 4. In-cylinder temperatures under different main injection timing conditions.

timing has the lowest average cylinder temperature (seen in

Fig. 4) and, therefore, the least NOx emission. Fig. 3 also indicates
that, with the increase of the EGR rate by 5%, the NOx emission is used for high reduction efciency of NOx (about 50%) without obvi-
decreased by about 50% under different main injection timings. It ous increase of BSFC (less than 2%).
may be suggested that the EGR results in a temperature drop in Fig. 6 shows the soot emission of biodiesel with main injection
the burning zone due to a dilution effect, thermal, and chemical ef- timings under two EGR rate conditions. The split injection strategy
fects. The EGR dilutes the oxygen concentration of the intake uid. exhibits less sensitivity for soot emission to main injection timing;
Concurrently, the EGR increases the specic heat capacity of the furthermore, retarding main injection timing slightly reduces soot
working uid, thereby reducing the combustion temperature (seen emissions at low engine load. The trend of soot emissions with the
in Fig. 5). Furthermore, the endothermic dissociation of the EGR EGR rate are observed for biodiesel. It can be seen that the soot
constituents such as H2O may contribute to the reduction in com- emission is slightly increased with higher EGR rate at high engine
bustion temperatures [32]. Thus, a 5% EGR rate increasing can be loads. At high load, the heat capacity increases as the concentra-
tions of CO2 and H2O are substantially higher. Both these molecules
have higher heat capacities than air, with the higher heat capacity
Table 3 of the mixture, more energy is required to pre-heat the incoming
Engine operating condition (1500 r/min).
mixture, thus lowering the ame temperature and deterioration
BMEP EGR rate (%) Split injection in diffusion combustion [33].
0.3 MPa 49 Pilot SOI: 14 (ATDC)
54 Main SOI: 4, 2, 0, 2, 4 (ATDC)
3.3. Combustion characteristics
0.6 MPa 38 Pilot SOI: 16 (ATDC)
43 Main SOI: 4, 2, 0, 2, 4 (ATDC)
The in-cylinder pressures of biodiesel under two EGR rate
conditions are shown in Fig. 7. As seen in this gure, when the
1888 D. Qi et al. / Fuel 90 (2011) 18841891

2000 engine load, the two peak pressures are slightly decreased with
In-cylinder temperature (K)

1800 Pme=0.6MPa higher EGR rate, and the corresponding crank angles are nearly
1600 in the same position of crank angle.
1400 Fig. 8 gives the heat release rate of biodiesel under two EGR rate
1200
conditions. It can be seen that the whole combustion process is
1000
composed of pilot heat release and main heat release. At lower en-
800
600 gine load, the pilot heat release is hardly varied, but the main heat
400 38% EGR 43% EGR release is slightly retarded. At higher engine load, the peak of pilot
200 heat release is lower, but that of main heat release is higher with
0 higher EGR rate. For the small amount of fuel injected during pilot
-20 -10 0 10 20 30 40 50 60
injection, there is sufcient oxygen available in the cylinder even at
Crank angle (CAD) high EGR rate conditions. Hence, oxygen availability is not a limit-
Fig. 5. In-cylinder temperatures under different EGR rate conditions. ing factor for the pilot combustion. As the EGR rate is increased, the
intake gas temperature increases and the cylinder trapped mass
decreases, which increase the bulk cylinder gas temperature. Hav-
200 ing a higher bulk cylinder gas temperature can enhance the vapor-
180 0.3MPa,49%EGR ization of the injected fuel and form a larger amount of premixed
160 0.3MPa,54%EGR combustible mixture before the rst stage of combustion. But the
140 0.6MPa,38%EGR
chemical reaction rate also slows down a little bit with the higher
Soot (a.u.)

120 0.6MPa,43%EGR
100 EGR rate. The above two effects compensate one another. When
80 the EGR rate increases a second effect is more pronounced. Thus,
60 the pilot heat release slightly decreases as the EGR rate is increased
40 at high engine load. At high engine load, the continuous decrease in
20
oxygen availability in the cylinder with the increase of the EGR rate
0
-6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6 deteriorates the main combustion process, which prolongs the
Main Injection Timing (CAD ATDC) ignition delay and the premixed portion of main combustion starts
to rise signicantly. So the peak of main heat release is increased
Fig. 6. Soot emissions under different main injection timing and EGR rate
with higher EGR rate.
conditions.
Fig. 9 shows the curves of mass fraction burned under two EGR
rate conditions. It can be seen that the whole combustion phase is
6 retarded with the EGR rate increasing. Table 4 gives the crank angle
corresponding to certain percent of mass fraction burned. The dif-
In-cylinder pressure (MPa)

(a) Pme=0.3MPa
5 ference of the crank angles between two EGR rate for 10% and 50%
mass fraction burned are one or two crank angles, while that of 90%
4
are three or four crank angles. This means that the former half of
3

2 49% EGR 0.08

54% EGR
0.07 (a) Pme=0.3MPa 49% EGR
Heat release rate (kJ/CAD)

1
0.06 54% EGR
0
-60 -40 -20 0 20 40 60 0.05
Crank angle (CAD) 0.04
0.03
6
0.02
(b) Pme=0.6MPa
In-cylinder pressure (MPa)

5 0.01
0
4
-0.01
-20 0 20 40 60
3
Crank angle (CAD)
2 38% EGR
43% EGR 0.07
1 38% EGR
0.06 (b) Pme=0.6MPa
Heat release rate (kJ/CAD)

0 43% EGR
0.05
-60 -40 -20 0 20 40 60
Crank angle (CAD) 0.04

0.03
Fig. 7. In-cylinder pressures under different EGR rate conditions.
0.02

0.01
injection is divided into two events, distinctive double peaks of in-
0
cylinder pressure are found, the rst peak corresponds to the pilot
injection, and the second peak reects the main injection. At lower -0.01
-20 -10 0 10 20 30 40 50 60
engine load, the rst peak pressure keeps almost the same with the
Crank angle (CAD)
EGR rate, but the second peak pressure is decreased and the corre-
sponding crank angle is retarded with higher EGR rate. At higher Fig. 8. Heat release rate under different EGR rate conditions.
 D. Qi et al. / Fuel 90 (2011) 18841891 1889

1.2 7
(a) Pme=0.3MPa (a) 0.6MPa, 38%EGR
1 6

In-cylinder pressure (MPa)

Mass fraction burned

0.8 5 -4 CAD ATDC

-2 CAD ATDC
0.6 4
0 CAD ATDC
3 2 CAD ATDC
0.4
4 CAD ATDC
0.2 Biodiesel (49% EGR) 2

0 Biodiesel (54% EGR) 1

-0.2 0
-20 0 20 40 60 -90 -60 -30 0 30 60 90
Crank angle (CAD) Crank angle (CAD)

1.2 7
(b) Pme=0.6MPa (b) 0.6MPa, 43% EGR
1 6

In-cylinder pressure (MPa)

Mass fraction burned

0.8 5 -4 CAD ATDC

-2 CAD ATDC
0.6 4 0 CAD ATDC
2 CAD ATDC
0.4 3 4 CAD ATDC
Biodiesel (38% EGR)
0.2 2
Biodiesel (43% EGR)
0 1

-0.2 0
-20 -10 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 -90 -60 -30 0 30 60 90
Crank angle (CAD) Crank angle (CAD)

Fig. 9. Mass fraction burned under different EGR rate conditions. Fig. 10. In-cylinder pressures under different main injection timing conditions.

which is the time for fuel vaporization and mixing. As a result,

Table 4
Crank angle corresponding to certain percent mass fraction burned under two EGR
rates.
Pme (MPa) EGR rate (%) Crank angle for certain percent mass
fraction burned (ATDC)
10% 50%
0.3 49 10 14
54 11 15
0.6 38 8 14
43 9 16
combustion duration is almost the same for different EGR rates, but
the later half is longer for higher EGR rate.
Fig. 10 shows the in-cylinder pressure of biodiesel under varied
main injection timings at high engine load. The ndings are gener-
ally the same as at low engine load. It can be observed that the rst
peak pressures maintain similar values, and the second peak pres-
sure is reduced with the retarded main injection timing. The main
reason is that, due to the identical start of pilot injection timing,
the rst peak pressure and its corresponding crank angle keep al-
most the same. With the start of main injection timing retarded,
the main combustion process is thus shifted away from TDC in
the expanding stroke, which results in some efciency loss (or high
BSFC, as illustrated in Fig. 2) and the lower peak pressure.
Fig. 11 show the heat release rate of biodiesel under varied
main injection timings. It indicates that the peaks of the heat re-
lease rate are signicantly affected by main injection timing. The
ignition delay of the pilot combustion is increased, and the start
of main combustion is retarded with the main injection timing.
The peak heat release rate of pilot combustion is increased with re-
tarded main injection timing. This caused a longer ignition delay,
the retarded main injection may cause the formation of a more
homogeneous mixture. Fuel quantity during pilot injection is
small, making the mixture too lean to burn in some regions of
the combustion chamber. This lean and homogeneous mixture
causes a lower peak heat release rate, longer burn duration of pilot
90% combustion, and a lower in-cylinder pressure and temperature at
31 the start of main combustion, which cause the longer ignition de-
34 lay of main combustion.
29 The peak heat release rate of main combustion is increased
33 when the main injection timing is retarded. Remaining fuelair
mixture from pilot combustion may be increased with retarded
main injection timing. Less fuel from pilot injection is burned be-
cause of the lower in-cylinder temperature. Residual fuel from pi-
lot combustion is burned during main combustion, increasing the
peak heat release rate of main combustion.
Fig. 12 shows the curves of mass fraction burned under different
main injection timing conditions for two EGR rates. Table 5 gives
the crank angle corresponding to certain percent of mass fraction
burned. It can be seen that the crank angles corresponding to dif-
ferent percent mass fraction burned move backwards with the
main injection timing being retarded. The former half of combus-
tion duration is almost the same for different main injection timing
conditions, but the later half is longer when the main injection tim-
ing is retarded after 2 ATDC.
4. Conclusions
In this study, the combustion and exhaust emissions of a Ford
Lion V6 split injection strategy direct injection diesel engine were
measured for biodiesel at the different EGR rates and main injec-
tion timings. From the current study, the following conclusions
can be drawn.
1890 D. Qi et al. / Fuel 90 (2011) 18841891

0.07 Table 5
Heat release rate (kJ/CAD)

(a) 0.6MPa,38%EGR Crank angle corresponding to certain percent mass fraction burned under different
0.06 -4 CAD ATDC
main injection timings.
-2 CAD ATDC
0.05
0 CAD ATDC EGR rate (%) Main injection timing (ATDC) Crank angle for certain
0.04 2 CAD ATDC percent mass fraction burned
0.03 4 CAD ATDC (ATDC)

0.02 10% 50% 90%

0.01 38 4 4 11 27
2 6 13 29
0
0 8 14 29
-0.01 2 10 16 33
-20 -10 0 10 20 30 40 50 60
4 15 22 40
Crank angle (CAD)
43 4 5 12 29
2 7 13 30
0.09 0 9 16 33
0.08
Heat release rate (kJ/CAD)

(b) 0.6MPa, 43%EGR -4 CAD ATDC 2 10 17 35

0.07 -2 CAD ATDC 4 13 19 39
0.06 0 CAD ATDC
0.05 2 CAD ATDC
0.04 4 CAD ATDC
0.03 With the main injection timing retarded, the BSFC was slightly
0.02 increased, NOx emission was decreased. The split injection strategy
0.01 exhibited less sensitivity for soot emission. The rst peak pressure
0 kept identically, the second peak pressure was evidently decreased
-0.01 and the two peak heat release rates were slightly increased.
-20 -10 0 10 20 30 40 50 60
In general, higher EGR rate and retarded main injection timing
Crank angle (CAD)
are effective methods to reduce NOx emission for split injection
Fig. 11. Heat release rate under different main injection timing conditions. strategy DI-diesel engine fueled with biodiesel without more pen-
alties of soot emission and BSFC.

Acknowledgements
1.2
(a) 0.6MPa,38%EGR
1 The authors wish to express their deep thanks to the Special Fund
Mass fraction burned

for Basic Scientic Research of Central Colleges, Changan University,

0.8 No. CHD2010JC020 and the colleagues in the Engine and Fluid Lab. of
-4 CAD ATDC the University of Illinois at Urbana and Champaign for their help on
0.6
-2 CAD ATDC the engine test.
0.4 0 CAD ATDC
2 CAD ATDC
0.2 4 CAD ATDC References

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