L52360 NOx Reduction Through Improved Precombustion Chamber Design

several objectives were Several objectives were completed. First, a literature review was performed to assess the current technological state of prechambers. This includes state of the art design, reliability surveys, and proven prechamber design criteria. This is an enabling tool for developing new prechamber concepts for year 2 of the project. The prioritized concepts are (in order): - Improved prechamber geometry - apply high speed engine prechamber design and scale up for large bore engines. - Adiabatic prechamber - traditional prechamber will ceramic lining to reduce heat transfer to the prechamber cooling jacket - Natural Gas Reforming - reform prechamber natural gas (roughly 3% of total engine fueling) into CO and hydrogen for low emission, high flame speed ignition. - Micro Prechamber Geometry - non-fueled and fueled micro prechambers for igniting lean engine mixtures with low NOx contribution on engine out emissions (2 concepts). - Develop diagnostic tools to evaluate the performance of prechamber concepts. The tools developed were combustion visualization utilizing high speed cameras, heat release analysis, and spectroscopy.