MMAE Seminar - Dr. Majid Naghshineh and Dr. William de Ojeda - Enabling Technology for DME Applications in Power Generation and Transportation
Armour College of Engineering's Mechanical, Materials & Aerospace Engineering Department will welcome Dr. Majid Naghshineh, Director of Business Development, and Dr. William de Ojeda, Engineering Director, WM International Engineering LLC, on Wednesday, November 30th, to present their lecture, Enabling Technology for DME Applications in Power Generation and Transportation.
Abstract
Presentation describes the combustion and performance of Dimethyl Ether (DME) fuel via combustion vessel and engine tests. DME fuel is a potential substitute of Diesel, as it displays similar ignition characteristics due to its high Cetane number. The fuel possess a number of challenges owing to its vapor pressure, being a liquified gas at 5-10 bar over normal operating temperatures, lower lubricity and higher compressibility, and lower energy density. The fuel however is oxygenated and can lead to nearly soot-free combustion and overall rather clean emissions. WM International has worked on fuel injection systems that can overcome these challenges, specifically seeking to design components that can operate at same injection pressures of its Diesel counterparts. The drive for these technologies is to improve on the very high engine efficiencies of the Diesel power plant.
Engine tests confirmed combustion vessel (CV) results showed better than Diesel efficiencies and lowered emissions, owing to the higher reactivity of DME over Diesel, as noted in higher rise rates of the heat release at same combustion phasing. Engine design and operation have been accompanied by an effort to understand the fundamental physics of combustion. Engine CFD simulations investigated combustion and emission characteristics. These simulations were done with LES and RANS model. LES was critical to study ignition processes which are highly dependent on mixture formation impacted from turbulent fuel-air mixing. Ambient conditions (temperature, oxygen concentration), injection duration and injection pressure were varied to characterize the spray and combustion of DME. Effect of injection pressure on flame propagation, flame instability, flame recession, and formaldehyde formation were investigated through heat release rate (HRR), natural flame luminosity images, and CH2O PLIF.
Biographies
Majid Naghshineh, Ph.D. is currently the Director of Business Development at WM International Engineering. His mission is to identify and develop new opportunities in advanced technologies related to engine, vehicle, and power train, and closely collaborates with corporate technology transfer and federal divisions. For the last 20 years, He held leadership positions at Navistar International as well as C.E. Niehoff providing technical and operational direction for global teams in product design and development, advanced technologies and manufacturing. Majid offers expertise in engine, vehicle, product validation, NVH, diesel generators, electrical power generation systems, Hybrid vehicles, and heavy duty power train for commercial and military markets and holds numerous patents in electrical machines design. Majid obtained his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Imperial College, London, U.K., and his B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Mechanical engineering from Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran. Dr. Naghshineh has extensively collaborated with research centers and universities facilitating opportunities and assistance to young engineers as to how to be prepared for industrial, he seats on the industry advisory boards of NIU, UIC, and NU, and has taught mechanical engineering courses at IIT.
William de Ojeda, PhD, PE, is Engineering Director of WM International. He is responsible for the development of specialized fuel injection and controls systems including the design lead of a high pressure DME fuel supply system in support of the project entitled "Ignition and Combustion Characteristics of Transportation Fuels under Lean Burn Conditions for Advanced Combustion Engines", a DOE/NSF sponsored program under award NSF-CBET-1258720 lead by MTU and in collaboration with Argonne National Laboratory and Navistar. Dr. de Ojeda was a Product Manager within the Advanced Combustion and Controls Group at Navistar's Powertrain Division for 8 years. He led several DOE sponsored programs to demonstrate advanced combustion concepts, high engine efficiency programs, and alternative fuel programs. These included the "Low Temp Combustion Demonstrator for High Efficiency Clean Combustion", DE-FC26- 05NT42413, 2006-2010, and the "Development and Demonstration of a Fuel-Efficient Class 8 Tractor & Trailer", DE-EE0003303, 2010-2013 (2005-2013). Prior to this he served as lead engineer in engine deployment and led programs in the areas of engine controls, fuel injection and air systems (1997-2005). He holds over fifteen patents and is author of over twenty journal and technical papers. William De Ojeda obtained his Ph.D. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology, and his M.Sc. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from University of Virginia, and his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from The Cooper Union.