Robert W. Carling Director, Transportation Energy Center

Sandia National Laboratories, Livermore, CA

Don’t Forget the Combustion Engine

Today’s presentation

• A little about Sandia

• Then the Combustion Research Facility

• Engine combustion research

• Transportation systems analysis

• Livermore Valley Open Campus

• The future

Sandia National Laboratories

• “Exceptional service in the national interest”

• Largest national lab

– ~12,000 employees

– ~$2.5 B/yr

• Missions

– Nuclear weapons engineering

– Defense systems

– Homeland security

– Energy

• Locations

– Albuquerque, NM

– Livermore, CA

– Also Texas, Hawaii, DC

Livermore, California

1970 1980 1990 2000 2007 2010 1950 1960

Sandia is established as a

nuclear weapons engineering

laboratory with deep science

and engineering

competencies

Energy crisis of the 1970s

spawns the beginning of

significant energy work

SunCatcher™

partnership

with Stirling

Energy

Systems

Distributed Energy Technology

Laboratory (DETL) established to

integrate emerging energy

technologies into new and existing

electricity infrastructure

DOE’s Tech Transfer

Initiative was

established by

Congress in 1991

Combustions Research

Facility results

influence Cummins’

newest diesel engine

Sunshine to

Petrol Pilot Test

Consortium for

Advanced Simulation of

Light Water Reactors

(CASL)

Energy Policy Act

of 2005

Pool fire tests of

LNG conducted

Joint BioEnergy

Institute

established

CRF opens to

researchers

Combustion

Research

Computation and

Visualization

(CRCV) opens

Sandia has a 40-year history in Energy

Strategic

Petroleum Reserve

– characterization

of salt domes to

host oil storage

caverns

NRC cask

certification &

core melt

studies

conducted

Power grid

reliability

study

Solar Tower

opens

Vertical axis

wind turbine

development

FEATURED ANALYSIS, November/December 2008

http://sciencewatch.com/ana/fea/08novdecFea/

Energy & Fuels:

Institutions Ranked by Citations

Rank Institution Citations

1998-2008

1 Sandia National Labs 4,147

2 Natl. Renewable Energy Lab 3,773

3 CSIC (Spain) 3,678

4 Chinese Academy of Sciences 3,541

5 Indian Institutes of

Technology

3,166

“…Among institutions ranked by total

citations, none surpasses Sandia

National Laboratories, with more than

4,100 citations to its 395 papers”

Approximately ½ of these citations are linked to the CRF.

Sandia & CRF Leadership in Energy & Fuels Research

Combustion Research Facility

• 90,000-square-foot office and laboratory facility

• Highly specialized lab building designed to accommodate :

– Laser-based diagnostics

– Combustible and toxic gas handling

– Computer-controlled safety system

• Computational building houses 5000 cores high-performance computer

A DOE/Basic Energy Sciences collaborative research facility dedicated

to energy science and technology for the twenty-first century

Basic

Research

Applied

Research

Industrial

Application

Connecting Research, Innovation, and Application

• Keys to CRF’s success:

– Common scientific purpose

– Collocation and collaboration

– Strong ties to application

– Full spectrum of basic to applied

Balance Discovery, Use-Inspired, and Applied Research

Fuel concentrationFuel concentration

Liquid fuelLiquid fuel

Soot (red) & OH (green)Soot (red) & OH (green)

Liquid fuel & OHLiquid fuel & OH

InIn--cylinder air motion & cylinder air motion &

Unburned hydrocarbonsUnburned hydrocarbons

Fuel concentrationFuel concentration

Liquid fuelLiquid fuel

Soot (red) & OH (green)Soot (red) & OH (green)

Liquid fuel & OHLiquid fuel & OH

InIn--cylinder air motion & cylinder air motion &

Unburned hydrocarbonsUnburned hydrocarbons

Applied

Energy

Science

~$30M/yr

BES Program: Fundamental Science is the Cornerstone of the CRF

Reacting Flows

Combustion Chemistry and Diagnostics

• Mission: Provide the combustion and emission science base

needed by industry to develop high-efficiency, clean engines for

future fuels.

• Integral part of DOE/industry advanced engine and fuels

programs.

• Sponsor is DOE Office of Vehicle Technologies

• Strong collaborations with industry, universities,

and other national labs.

• 25 staff, technologists and post docs; plus visitors

Engine Combustion Research Connects to Needs in Industry

• Advanced combustion strategies for enabling high-efficiency engines – SI, Diesel, and Low-Temperature Combustion (HCCI, PCCI, …)

Working with industry to develop the science- base for next-generation engines for future fuels.

• Next generation computational tools – massively parallel machines

Time varying,

3 million cell grids

• Future fuels – adv. Petroleum – bio-fuel – gas-to-liquid – oil sand and shale – natural gas & H2

Research is conducted under a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) led by Sandia

Diesel LTC fuel-air distribution measurements clarify the mixing processes critical to operation

Motivation: – Dominant sources of UHC and CO at light-load from LTC

combustion include crevices and over-lean mixture formation

– First-of-kind, quantitative fuel-air distribution measurements in light-duty engines required to understand and verify UHC and CO sources, and provide model validation data for challenging swirl and wall interaction conditions

Results on sources of UHC and CO: – Substantial over-lean mixture exists in the upper-central regions

of the bowl and clearance volume

– Despite MBT timing, fuel penetrates to near the cylinder walls and will be forced into the ring-land crevice during high temperature heat release

– Fuel-rich mixtures persist within the squish volume with< > < 2

Newly developed conceptual model for diesel LTC combustion describes in-cylinder processes

Motivation:

– 1997: Conventional diesel conceptual model (left) is foundation of understanding for industry

– 2013: Need new conceptual model to aid development of low-temperature combustion (LTC)

Impact of new LTC conceptual model:

– Describes LTC operating condition effects on spray, mixing, combustion, efficiency, emissions

– Supported by years of optical data and simulations in heavy-duty (left) and light-duty (right)

Planar-imaging thermometry shows the source of thermal stratification critical to HCCI operation

End view of laser sheet

Raw Image

Exhaust Valve Intake Valve Blank

Injector

T-map

Binary Image

Identified Cold Pockets

Almost all cold “pockets” are turbulent structures attached to firedeck or piston top.

Prob. (%)

600 rpm

1500 rpm

Probability of cold structures increases with decreased speed.

Motivation:

● Natural thermal stratification (TS) in an HCCI engine enables much higher loads

● Increasing TS has a high potential to extend the high-load limit and/or increase efficiency.

● An understanding of TS is required to realize potential

Method:

● Establish side-view technique to obtain thermal images of bulk gas & boundary layer simultaneously.

Accomplishments:

● TS occurs as cold regions dispersed intermittently throughout the otherwise-hot bulk-gas.

– Develops progressively during latter part of compression stroke.

● TS is turbulent in nature no evidence of flows transporting cold wall-gas into central region.

● TS results from turbulent structures of cold gas extending from the walls into the bulk gas.

● Amount of TS varies with operating conditions.

6

The Engine Combustion Network (ECN) (http://www.ca.sandia.gov/ECN/) provides an open forum for collaboration among experimental and computational researchers. The ECN:

– Has an internet library of well-documented experiments appropriate for model validation and the advancement of understanding.

– Provides a framework for collaborative comparisons of measured and modeled results.

– Identifies priorities for further experimental and computational research.

Developed and led by Sandia National Laboratories – close collaboration with IFP.

Progress: – Operational and receiving very positive feedback.

– Bosch donated 10 diesel fuel injectors to be used by selected ECN collaborators.

– First standardized set of fuel injection conditions established – Spray A

A collaboration and web database to leverage research on DI engine fuel sprays and combustion

Leveraging international fundamental spray combustion

research to speed progress

Scenarios Forums Trade-offs

Architectures

We focus on

understanding context

to inform decisions

Production

SRWC

Herbaceous EC

Forest Residues

Ag Residues

Corn

Biofuels Pipeline

Rail

Truck

Distribution

BioThermal

Thermochemical

Biochemical

Conversion

On-farm Storage

Logistics

Solid Biomass

Intermediates

Cellulosic EtOH

Grain EtOH

Biofuels

Biofuels Deployment Model

GREET

Production

SRWC

Herbaceous EC

Forest Residues

Ag Residues

Corn

Biofuels Pipeline

Rail

Truck

Distribution

BioThermal

Thermochemical

Biochemical

Conversion

On-farm Storage

Logistics

Solid Biomass

Intermediates

Cellulosic EtOH

Grain EtOH

Biofuels

Biofuels Deployment Model

GREET

Production

SRWC

Herbaceous EC

Forest Residues

Ag Residues

Corn

Biofuels Pipeline

Rail

Truck

Distribution

BioThermal

Thermochemical

Biochemical

Conversion

BioThermal

Thermochemical

Biochemical

Conversion

On-farm Storage

Logistics

Solid Biomass

Intermediates

Cellulosic EtOH

Grain EtOH

Biofuels

Biofuels Deployment Model

GREET

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

Ve

hic

les in

Fle

et

(M)

Total

PHEVHFCV

Biochem

Biother

mal

Thermo

chem

Forest

Residue

SRWC Ag

Residue Herba-

ceous

Biomass

Syngas

Ethanol

Gasification

Catalysts

Biomass

Syngas

Ethanol

Gasification

Microorganisms

Biomass

Sugars

Ethanol

Enzymes

Microorganisms

Simulations

We apply a variety of approaches to

analyze transportation energy options

Livermore Valley Open Campus

LVOC is modeled after research and development campuses found at major industrial research parks and other U.S. Department of Energy laboratories

LVOC is designed to enhance and accelerate scientific and engineering collaborations and partnerships with industry and academia

LVOC Objectives:

– Enhance the two laboratories’ national security missions

– Stay at the forefront of the science, technology, and engineering fields

– Ensure a quality future workforce

Developing Future Vision of Combustion Research with DOE

• PreSICE (Predictive Simulation for Internal Combustion Engines)

• DOE vision for accelerating ICE design and enhancing performance

– Greater efficiency (>50% improvement)

– Meeting stricter emissions more cheaply

– Reduce time to market (>30% shorter)

• ICE focus driven by DOE interests

• Workshop with report March 2011 – Invitation only – 63 participants.

– Significant industrial participation (Cummins, GM, Ford, Chrysler, Cat, GE ...)

• Identified two focus areas

– Sprays

– Stochastic in-cylinder behavior

Come work with us!