Beichuan Hong

I am a Ph.D. student in the Department of Engineering Design & Competence Center for Gas Exchange (CCGEx) at KTH, Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden. I work mainly with Dr. Andreas Cronhjort, Professor. Mihai Mihaescu, and Dr. Anders Christiansen Erlandsson. My current research is done in the KTH-CCGEx center and funded by Swedish Energy Agency (Energimyndigheten), KTH-CCGEx center and its industrial partners.

Research interests

My study is concentrated on thermal analyses and optimization applied to internal combustion engines operation, with special interests in gas exchange, fuels, and in-cylinder processes. Current work involves the following topics:

• Aerothermodynamic analysis on gas-exchange systems
• Exhaust pulses characterization based on fast measurement techniques
• Energy and exergy assessments of the combustion associated with alcohol fuels

CCGEx project

Our CCGEx ongoing project cooperated with industrial partners is "Exergy analysis for high-efficiency gas exchange systems". A magazine interview in 2020 about this project: exergy study takes a practical approach to dual-fuel engine performance.

The latest CCGEx project update poster in 2022.05:  beichuan_2022ccgex_poster03.pdf

Research activity

Combustion characterization and exhaust power assessment

RQ: Compared with gasoline, how do the different combustion patterns using bio-fuels affect the energy and exergy losses during combustion and the working potential of exhaust?

GT-Power engine simulation using a semi-predictive ethanol combustion model was established based on the SCRE data. Based on this GT simulation, a numerical study (2020.12 - 2021.03) was conducted to show the combustion exergy distribution with a special interest in the effect of diluted combustion on the exhaust system.

Related publication: Energy and exergy characteristics of an ethanol-fueled heavy-duty SI engine at high-load operation using lean-burn combustion

Meanwhile, based on a database using five alcohol fuels in a Volvo DISI engine. Our ongoing work is to investigate the flow exergy inside the exhaust of different fuels. The work involves the thermal analysis of the combustion process as well as turbocharging process and waste heat recovery system.

Pulsating flow measurement and exergy analysis

RQ: How to quantify exhaust pulsating flow enthalpy & exergy by using fast measurement techniques? In which approaches can we directly measure these flow variables in crank angle resolution?

Exergy analyses were separately conducted on two engine systems (a Scania truck engine and a Wärtsilä marine engine) to quantify the available energy losses of different components associated with the gas-exchange process. The results of the truck engine were reported as a CCGEx inner report in 2019, and the analysis of the marine engine was published in 2020 (ICEF 2020-2956).

Related publication: Quantification of Losses and Irreversibilities in a Marine Engine for Gas and Diesel Fuelled Operation Using an Exergy Analysis Approach

Further, a sensitivity-analysis-based method was applied to identify the significance of different flow parameters for the energy assessment of exhaust pulsation (2020). This study shows that the impacts of instantaneous flow velocity are not negligible for exhaust energy quantification.

Related publication: Numerical Analysis of Engine Exhaust Flow Parameters for Resolving Pre-Turbine Pulsating Flow Enthalpy and Exergy

Therefore, a Pitot-tube-based technique (2020) was employed to measure the velocity of exhaust pulsating flow. The modeling, design, and manufacture of suitable Pitot tubes for both truck and marine engines were finished in 2020. On-engine tests for measuring flow energy and exergy of exhaust pulsation were completed in 2021 for a Scania truck engine and in 2022 for a Wärtsilä marine engine.

Profession & Education

Before the Ph.D. study, I received both my bachelor and master degrees from Wuhan University of Technology, China in 2012 and 2015, respectively. My bachelor is in Energy & Power Systems with its Automation, and my master degree is in Combustion Engines and Emission Controlling. Then, I was employed as a research engineer for one year at the Cummins East Asia Research & Development Center (Cummins EA R&D).

My former major at KTH from 2016-to 2018 was Transport Science within the topic “Optimal Construction Operations” involving emission modeling for non-road vehicles, discrete event simulation platform, and path optimization for construction loading cycle. The project was funded by Volvo Construction Equipment (Construction Climate Challenge).

Related publication in Transport Science (2016-2018):

• Assessment of Emissions and Energy Consumption for Construction Machinery in Earthwork Activities by Incorporating Real-World Measurement and Discrete-Event Simulation
• Path planning for wheel loaders: A discrete optimization approach
• Path optimization for a wheel loader considering construction site terrain
• Modeling of Dynamic NOx Emission for Nonroad Machinery: A Study on Wheel Loader Using Engine Test Data and On-board Measurement
• Quantification of Emissions for Non-road Machinery in Earthwork: Modelling and Simulation Approaches