Investigation of Alternative Combustion Crossing Stoichiometric Air Fuel Ratio for Clean Diesels 2007-01-1840

Alternative combustion crossing stoichiometric air fuel ratio was investigated to utilize a 4-way catalyst system with LNT (lean NO_x trap). The chemical mechanism of restricting soot formation reactions with low combustion temperature was combined with the physical mechanism of reducing smoke by lowering local equivalence ratio to enable low smoke rich and near rich combustion. A new combustion chamber for spatially and timely mixture formation phasing was developed to combine the two mechanisms and allow smooth EGR changing over a wide load range. Through this investigation, rich and near rich combustion to effectively utilize a 4-way catalyst system was realized. In addition, conditions suitable for LNT sulfur regeneration were realized from light to medium load.