SUBJECT: Ph.D. Proposal Presentation
   
BY: Conner Godbold
   
TIME: Friday, May 3, 2024, 2:30 p.m.
   
PLACE: MRDC Building, 3515
   
TITLE: Evaluation and impact of mixing phenomena & injection strategy on Ducted Fuel Injection
   
COMMITTEE: Dr. Adam Steinberg, Chair (ME)
Dr. Timothy Lieuwen (ME)
Dr. Ellen Muzumdar (ME)
Dr. Wenting Sun (AE)
Dr. Charles Mueller (Sandia National Laboratory)
 

SUMMARY

Ducted fuel injection is a novel strategy by which particulate matter formation can be suppressed in diesel engines while operating in a mixing-controlled compression ignition mode. DFI has been tested in numerous optically accessible combustion chambers, optically accessible engines, and iron blocks, and has proven capable of suppressing soot formation even at high load conditions. Numerical studies have pointed to jet-pumping and enhanced mixing leading to this soot mitigation, but experimental data showing quantitative validation of this is at best sparse. This thesis aims to experimentally evaluate the mixing fields of DFI for multiple configurations, elucidating the fluid mechanic phenomena which lead to soot suppression, while also evaluating how DFI performs with modern injection strategies.