Duk-Sang Kim

Characteristics of Exhaust Gas Temperature and Harmful Emission During Cold Start Transient Operation in an SI Engine

Stringent regulations of exhaust emission from vehicles become a major issue in automotive industries. In SI engines, it is one of the crucial factor to reduce exhaust emissions during cold start in order to meet stringent regulations such as SULEV or EURO-4, because SI engines emit a large portion of total harmful exhaust compounds when they are cold. At early stages of cold start in gasoline engines, exhaust gas temperature plays a key role to improve three way catalyst by virtue of fast warmup. Therefore, this study focused on the increase of exhaust gas temperature under controls of engine operating parameters such as spark ignition timing, valve overlap by virtue of intake VVT and catalyst heating function. Furthermore, effects on harmful emission due to these parameters are also investigated. Experiments showed that retarded spark ignition timings and increased valve overlap may be helpful to increase exhaust gas temperature. It was also found that was decreased with increased valve overlap. This study also showed that sudden changes in ISA and amount of fuel due to the deactivation of catalyst heating function cause temporal increase of harmful emissions.

LDV measurement, flow visualization and numerical analysis of flow distribution in a close-coupled catalytic converter

Results from an experimental study of flow distribution in a close-coupled catalytic converter (CCC) are presented. The experiments were carried out with a flow measurement system specially designed for this study under steady and transient flow conditions. A pitot tube was a tool for measuring flow distribution at the exit of the first monolith. The flow distribution of the CCC was also measured by LDV system and flow visualization. Results from numerical analysis are also presented. Experimental results showed that the flow uniformity index decreases as flow Reynolds number increases. In steady flow conditions, the flow through each exhaust pipe made some flow concentrations on a specific region of the CCC inlet. The transient test results showed that the flow through each exhaust pipe in the engine firing order, interacted with each other to ensure that the flow distribution was uniform. The results of numerical analysis were quali-tatively accepted with experimental results. They supported and helped explain the flow in the entry region of CCC.