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Combined Ash and Soot Monitoring in Gasoline Particulate Filters with a Radio-Frequency-Based Sensor
(2022)
In recent years, it turned out that primarily the number of ultrafine particles and not their mass is relevant in terms of harmful health effects. Therefore, exhaust emission standards are constantly being tightened with regard to the particulate number. To meet the emission limits, particulate filters have become necessary for gasoline engines. Similar to diesel applications, gasoline particulate filters (GPFs) can be monitored via differential pressure measurement or via a radio-frequency approach (RF-sensor). The latter is based on the influence of the soot conductivity on the electromagnetic field. To control the GPF, ash detection is of crucial importance besides the soot load monitoring. With the differential pressure system, this is only possible with high uncertainties due to the low pressure increase caused by ash. The RF-sensor, however, has already demonstrated its potential for ash detection in diesel applications. In order to verify the applicability of the system for GPFs, filters were loaded via a method for fast ash loading. Thereby, it was shown that by evaluating resonant modes – especially the resonant frequency – the ash loading can easily be measured as long as the filter is soot-unloaded. In contrast, soot loading can be determined independently from this by considering a frequency-averaged transmission signal between the antennas of the RF-sensor. Using a setup for radio-frequency material characterization, the dielectric parameters of the generated ash were also measured. In comparison with the properties of the synthetic soot PrintexU, ash showed significantly lower dielectric losses. Thus, the evaluation of the loss-dependent quality factor, which is only possible at low soot loadings, allows a precise conclusion whether the filter is completely soot-free. Furthermore, using synthetic soot loading, it could be shown that soot detection via the averaged transmission signal is not affected by ash. In summary, it could be shown that with the RF-sensor, ash and soot can be simultaneously detected.
Non-road sectors, such as agriculture and construction machinery, require high energy densities and flexibility in use, which is why diesel engines are mainly used. The use of climate-neutral fuels, produced from renewable energies, such as Oxymethylene Ether (OME) as a diesel substitute, can significantly reduce CO2 and pollutant emissions in these sectors. In addition to CO2 neutrality, OME also offers improved combustion characteristics compared to diesel fuel, eliminating the soot–NOx trade-off and thus enabling new opportunities in engine design and calibration. In this paper, the combustion of pure OME on a close-to-production, single-cylinder non-road diesel engine with a pump–line–nozzle injection system is analyzed. A variation of the center of combustion at constant power output was performed for diesel and OME at different operating points. Two injectors were investigated with OME. A study on ignition delay and a detailed thermodynamic analysis was carried out. In addition, the exhaust emissions CO, NOx, VOC, as well as particulate-matter, -number and -size distributions were measured. With OME, a significantly shorter ignition delay as well as a shortened combustion duration could be observed, despite a longer injection duration. In addition, the maximum injection pressure increases. VOC and CO emissions are reduced. Particulate matter was reduced by more than 99% and particle number (>10 nm) was reduced by multiple orders of magnitude. The median of the particle size distribution shifts from 60 to 85 nm (diesel) into a diameter range of sub 23 nm (OME). A significant reduction of NOx emissions with OME enables new degrees of freedom in engine calibration and an efficiency advantage without hardware adaption.
In recent years, particulate filters have become mandatory in almost all gasoline-powered vehicles to comply with emission standards regarding particulate number. In contrast to diesel applications, monitoring gasoline particulate filters (GPFs) by differential pressure sensors is challenging due to lower soot masses to be deposited in the GPFs. A different approach to determine the soot loading of GPFs is a radio frequency-based sensor (RF sensor). To facilitate sensor development, in previous work, a simulation model was created to determine the RF signal at arbitrary engine operating points. To ensure accuracy, the exact dielectric properties of the soot need to be known. This work has shown how small samples of soot-loaded filter are sufficient to determine the dielectric properties of soot itself using the microwave cavity perturbation method. For this purpose, mixing rules were determined through simulation and measurement, allowing the air and substrate fraction of the sample to be considered. Due to the different geometry of filter substrates compared to crushed soot samples, a different mixing rule had to be derived to calculate the effective filter properties required for the simulation model. The accuracy of the determined mixing rules and the underlying simulation model could be verified by comparative measurements on an engine test bench.
Pure rapeseed oil fuel (R100) according to standard DIN 51605 is a greenhouse gas saving option for the mobility sector. With its high energy density close to diesel fuel, R100 is suitable to operate non-road mobile machinery with a high power demand and long operating time, where electric drives reach their limits. Advantages are indicated for its use in environmentally sensitive areas like agriculture since R100 is highly biodegradable and non-toxic. However, R100 is characterised by differing physical and chemical properties compared to diesel. The objective of the research is to investigate the differences in the ignition and combustion behaviour of R100 compared to diesel fuel (DF). For this purpose, a constant volume combustion chamber is used, which is equipped with a modern solenoid injector for engines of non-road mobile machinery. The researched injector shows a different hydraulic behaviour when using R100 compared to DF in that the injected fuel mass is lower with R100 than with DF. In combination with the 14 % by mass lower calorific value, less energy output is determined with R100. When varying the injection pressure, the impact on the ignition delay and combustion behaviour is much higher for R100 than for DF. Specifically, an increase of the injection pressure supports mixture preparation and thus partially compensates the differing physical properties of R100.
The results of ignition delay measurements and net heat release analysis are as follows: At low load conditions with low injection pressure as well as a low combustion chamber temperature and pressure, R100 ignites later and shows a further delayed combustion compared to diesel. The opposite is observed for medium and high load conditions, where R100 ignites faster and without delayed combustion in comparison to DF. Thus, an adjustment of the heat release of R100 at the same level as for DF is possible by modifying the injection strategy.
The research shows that for an optimised combustion of R100 the injection settings must be adjusted for every operation point separately. The results indicate how the injection parameters should be adjusted for different load conditions to realise a high-quality engine calibration for R100.