With increasingly stringent emission regulations, the cold start emissions have become more important than ever. Using a low compression ratio is a feasible way to improve a heavy-duty engine’s efficiency and emissions. However, cold start performance restricts the development of this technology, especially at high altitudes. In response, we conducted a study of the emissions of a heavy-duty low-compression-ratio diesel engine during start-up process at different altitudes. A plateau simulation system controlled the inlet and exhaust pressure to create altitude environments of 0 m, 1000 m, 2000 m, 3000 m, 3750 m and 4500 m. The gas, particulate and volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions were analyzed with speed and cycle during the start-up process. The results indicated that cold start performance and combustion characteristics became worse as altitudes increased. The gas and particulate emissions of carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO2), total hydrocarbon (THC) and nitrous oxide (NO_X) almost all increased as the engine speed and altitude increased, and was much higher than in idle conditions. The PN and PM emissions in each particle diameter also increased as the altitude increased, which was the same as the nucleation mode and the accumulation mode particles. VOC emissions were also measured, which increased during the start-up process as altitudes increased.

Soot particles in engine exhaust seriously pollute the atmosphere and endanger human health. For soot oxidation, Pt and Pd precious metal catalysts are widely used and are effective. In this paper, the catalytic characteristics of catalysts with different Pt/Pd mass ratios for soot combustion were studied through X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller analysis, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, the temperature-programmed oxidation reaction, and thermogravimetry. Besides, the adsorption characteristics of soot and O₂ on the catalyst surface were explored by density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The research results showed that the activity of catalysts for soot oxidation from strong to weak is Pt/Pd = 10:1, Pt/Pd = 5:1, Pt/Pd = 1:0, and Pt/Pd = 1:1. XPS results showed that the concentration of oxygen vacancies in the catalyst is the highest when the Pt/Pd ratio is 10:1. The specific surface area of the catalyst increases first and then decreases with the increase of Pd content. When the Pt/Pd ratio is 10:1, the specific surface area and pore volume of the catalyst reach the maximum. The following are the DFT calculation results. With the increase of Pd content, the adsorption energy of particles on the catalyst surface decreases first and then increases. When the Pt/Pd ratio is 10:1, the adsorption of C on the catalyst surface is the strongest, and the adsorption of O₂ is also strong. In addition, this surface has a strong ability to donate electrons. The theoretical simulation results are consistent with the activity test results. The research results have a guiding significance for optimizing the Pt/Pd ratio and improving the soot oxidation performance of the catalyst.

The elementary research of spray and combustion is of great significance to the development of compactness of modern diesel engines. In this paper, three injectors with different nozzle orifice diameters (0.23 mm, 0.27 mm and 0.31 mm) were used to study the diesel spray, ignition and flame-wall impingement visualization experiment. This paper studied the influence of different nozzle sizes on the trends of spray, ignition and flame diffusion under the flame-wall impinging combustion and used the flame luminosity to characterize the soot generation in combustion. By analyzing the quantitative data, such as spray penetration, ignition delay, flame area and flame luminosity systematically, it was shown that the smaller nozzle benefitted diesel combustion to some extent. The 0.23 mm nozzle injector in these experiments had the best fuel-air mixing effect under 800 K. The length of the spray liquid under the 0.23 mm nozzle condition was 19% and 23% shorter than that of 0.27 and 0.31 mm, respectively. Smaller orifice size of the nozzle can help to reach the gas ignition conditions more effectively. Without liquid fuel impingement, the simple flame-wall impingement will not change the trend of the nozzle influence on combustion. The total amount of accumulated soot according to the approximate luminosity spatial integral calculation in the combustion process was reduced by 37% and 43% under 0.27 mm and 0.23 mm nozzles, respectively, which is favorable for the clean combustion of diesel engines.