The internal combustion engine is one of the most influential inventions of the world economy. Conventional spark-ignition (SI) and diesel engines continue to show substantial improvements in efficiency, power, and degree of emission control. These improvements gain value due to global energy security demand and environmental awareness. My research covers wide and multi-disciplinary areas of internal combustion engines. This includes both (i) fundamental understanding of various in-cylinder processes (using optical engine diagnostics), and (ii) application of gaseous fuels (in particular) in both SI and diesel engines with emphasis on stationary application (including modern combustion strategies). My research group utilizes both experimental and modeling/simulation approaches to investigate engine and engine components for the improvement of fuel economy and reduction of exhaust emissions. With my background in electrical engineering, our group is, now, also involved in modeling of electric and hybrid powertrain systems and their components, including real time data acquisition of electric vehicles and performance analysis.
To enable these studies, our group has developed/ focused on following broad areas:
Developed a (patented) fuel flexible (gaseous) spark-ignition engine test facility which could be operated under desired composition of gaseous fuels for clean energy (with emphasis on stationary application) - This setup is used for the investigation of safe engine operating limits, where low operating load is limited by cycle-to-cycle combustion variations and high operating load is limited by engine knocking or pre-ignition.
Established a (patented) common-rail direct-inject diesel engine test facility with flexibility to control fuel injection timing, duration and number of injections - This setup is capable of operating the engine under diesel, dual-fuel and low temperature combustion modes with desired composition of gaseous fuel as the primary fuel.
Developed small-bore optical engines (both PFI and DI types) for two- and three-wheeler applications (in collaboration with our industrial partner) - These setups are used for conducting flow, fuel distribution and combustion studies for fundamental understanding of complex in-cylinder processes.
Developed a small-bore gasoline direct-injection engine for three-wheeler application.
It is also important to incorporate modeling and simulation efforts with experiments, hence we have developed in-house zero- and one-dimensional models of engine and engine components, and also use commercial code (i.e. CONVERGE CFD) for multi-dimensional numerical simulations.