Thrust Area 4: Autoignition and Combustion Characteristics of Alternate Fuels in Advanced Diesel Engines and Control Strategies for Prompt Cold Start

Autoignition and Combustion Characteristics of Alternate Fuels in Advanced Diesel Engines and Control Strategies for Prompt Cold Start

Principal Investigator
Naeim A. Henein (Wayne State U.)

Industry
Lurun Zhong (FEV)

Government
Peter Schihl, Laura Hoogterp (TARDEC)

Students
Rafik Rofael, Vinay Nagaraju, Nathan Sova (Wayne State U.)

This project's objective is to determine the autoignition and combustion characteristics of alternate fuels, such as JP8 and Biodiesel blends, and develop control strategies to enable existing and future military diesel engine to start promptly without the emission of white clouds of smoke under the severe environmental conditions in the field.

We aim to:

Reduce cold start problems in military and commercial engines when alternate fuels, such as JP8 and biodiesel, are used in place of the conventional diesel fuel. Such problems include difficulty or failure of starting, hesitation and emission of white smoke. White smoke is a quite undesirable signature in military field applications.
Improve the operation and reduce fuel consumption and exhaust emissions of diesel engines in HEV applications that require frequent stops and starts.
Develop electronic control strategies to achieve the above goals, using the existing ECU (Engine control unit) without additional cost.