An Investigation of Optimal Combustion Duration in Turbocharged Gasoline Engines
Received: 15 April 2025 | Revised: 14 May 2025 | Accepted: 25 May 2025 | Online: 2 August 2025
Corresponding author: Trinh Dac Phong
Abstract
This study analyzed the influence of combustion duration on the output power, fuel efficiency, and emission levels of a turbocharged gasoline engine with the aim of identifying the optimal duration for enhancing engine performance while minimizing environmental impact. The simulation was conducted using the AVL-Boost software, where various combustion durations were tested to evaluate their effects on key engine parameters, including torque, power output, Indicated Mean Effective Pressure (IMEP), Brake Mean Effective Pressure (BMEP), and pollutant emissions such as CO, NOx, and hydrocarbons. The results indicated that a combustion duration between 50° and 60° Crank Angle (CA) yielded optimal performance. Within this range, the torque values varied from 52.4 to 54.19 Nm, the power output reached 6.81 kW, and the IMEP and BMEP were recorded at 3.5137–3.5131 bar and 3.4137–3.4131 bar, respectively. Moreover, both fuel consumption and residual gas fraction were significantly reduced. Specifically, the lowest fuel consumption was observed at 50° CA (33.9577 g/Wh) and 60° CA (33.909 g/Wh), whereas the residual gas fraction decreased progressively from 0.3761 at 50° CA to 0.3743 at 70° CA. Regarding emissions, the lowest concentrations of hydrocarbons and NOx were achieved at 50° CA recorded at 1.7212 and 4.0987 g/kWh, respectively. However, CO emissions peaked at the same CA, reaching 0.003725 g/kWh. Despite the slight increase in CO, 50° CA is still considered the optimal combustion duration, as it delivers the highest engine performance while maintaining the lowest total emission levels.
Keywords:
turbocharged gasoline engine, combustion duration, engine performance, emissionsReferences
M. M. Tunio, M. R. Luhur, Z. M. Ali, and U. Daher, "Performance and Emission Analysis of a Diesel Engine Using Linseed Biodiesel Blends," Engineering, Technology & Applied Science Research, vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 2958–2962, Jun. 2018. DOI: https://doi.org/10.48084/etasr.2028
N. X. Khoa and O. T. Lim, "The effects of bore-stroke ratio on effective release energy, residual gas, peak pressure rise and combustion duration of a V-twin engine," Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology, vol. 34, no. 6, pp. 2657–2666, Jun. 2020. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-020-0539-z
N. X. Khoa, Y. Putrasari, D. N. Vu, N. H. X. Duy, and O. Lim, "The Effect of Control Strategies on the Gasoline Compression Ignition (GCI) Engine: Injection Strategy, Exhaust Residual Gas Strategy, Biodiesel Addition Strategy, and Oxygen Content Strategy," in Gasoline Compression Ignition Technology: Future Prospects, G. Kalghatgi, A. K. Agarwal, H. Goyal, and M. B. Houidi, Eds. Singapore: Springer Nature, 2022, pp. 27–71. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-8735-8_3
N. X. Khoa and O. Lim, "The effects of combustion duration on residual gas, effective release energy, engine power and engine emissions characteristics of the motorcycle engine," Applied Energy, vol. 248, pp. 54–63, Aug. 2019. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2019.04.075
N. X. Khoa and O. Lim, "Influence of Combustion Duration on the Performance and Emission Characteristics of a Spark-Ignition Engine Fueled with Pure Methanol and Ethanol," ACS Omega, vol. 7, no. 17, pp. 14505–14515, May 2022. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.1c05759
W. Zhao, J. Yan, S. Gao, T. H. Lee, and X. Li, "The combustion and emission characteristics of a common-rail diesel engine fueled with diesel and higher alcohols blends with a high blend ratio," Energy, vol. 261, Dec. 2022, Art. no. 124972. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2022.124972
C. Yin, H. Pan, Z. Zhang, H. Zhu, and K. Shen, "Effect of EGR Combined with Intense Tumble Flow on a Well-Calibrated Commercial Turbocharged GDI Engine," International Journal of Automotive Technology, vol. 22, no. 5, pp. 1347–1361, Oct. 2021. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12239-021-0117-0
D. Lou, Y. Tang, C. Wang, L. Fang, and Y. Zhang, "Study of Diesel Spray Impinging Ignition and Combustion Characteristics Under Variable Ambient Densities Based on the Visualization Experiment," Journal of Energy Resources Technology, vol. 144, no. 10, Mar. 2022, Art. no. 102303. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4053950
N. T. Nghia, N. X. Khoa, W. Cho, and O. Lim, "A Study the Effect of Biodiesel Blends and the Injection Timing on Performance and Emissions of Common Rail Diesel Engines," Energies, vol. 15, no. 1, Jan. 2022, Art. no. 242. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/en15010242
N. X. Khoa, N. T. Nghia, V. H. Quan, and N. A. Ngoc, "The Effects of EGR and Oxygen Content on the GCI Engine Performance Under Two-Injection Modes and Fueled Biodiesel Blends," Arabian Journal for Science and Engineering, vol. 49, no. 8, pp. 10859–10866, Aug. 2024. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13369-023-08477-2
Downloads
How to Cite
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Trinh Dac Phong, Doan Cong Thanh, Trinh Duy Hung
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain the copyright and grant the journal the right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) after its publication in ETASR with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
