A Numerical Investigation of Combustion and Mixture Formation in a Compressed Natural Gas DISI Engine With Centrally Mounted Single-Hole Injector

2013 ◽  
Vol 135 (9) ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Yadollahi ◽  
M. Boroomand
Keyword(s):  
Natural Gas ◽  
Internal Combustion Engines ◽  
Gasoline Engine ◽  
Direct Injection ◽  
Combustion Process ◽  
Spark Ignition ◽  
Computational Effort ◽  
Single Hole ◽  
Piston Head ◽  
Spark Plug

Direct injection of natural gas into the cylinder of spark ignition (SI) engines has shown a great potential to achieve the best fuel economy and reduced emission levels. Since the technology is rather new, in-cylinder flow phenomena have not been completely investigated. In this study, a numerical model has been developed in AVL FIRE software to perform an investigation of natural gas direct injection into the cylinder of spark ignition internal combustion engines. In this regard, two main parts have been taken into consideration aiming to convert a multipoint port fuel injection (MPFI) gasoline engine to a direct injection natural gas (NG) engine. In the first part of the study, multidimensional simulations of transient injection process, mixing, and flow field have been performed. Using the moving mesh capability, the validated model has been applied to methane injection into the cylinder of a direct injection engine. Five different piston head shapes have been taken into consideration in the investigations. An inwardly opening single-hole injector has been adapted to all cases. The injector location has been set to be centrally mounted. The effects of combustion chamber geometry have been studied on the mixing of air-fuel inside the cylinder via the quantitative and qualitative representation of results. In the second part, an investigation of the combustion process has been performed on the selected geometry. The spark plug location and ignition timing have been studied as two of the most important variables. Simulation of transient injection was found to be a challenging task because of required computational effort and numerical instabilities. Injection results showed that the narrow bowl piston head geometry is the most suited geometry for NG direct injection (DI) application. A near center position has been shown to be the best spark plug location based on the combustion studies. It has been shown that advanced ignitions timings of up to 50 degrees crank angle ( °CA) should be used in order to obtain better combustion performance.

scholarly journals Numerical investigation of natural gas direct injection properties and mixture formation in a spark ignition engine

2014 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-52
Author(s):  
Bijan Yadollahi ◽  
Masoud Boroomand
Keyword(s):  
Numerical Model ◽  
Natural Gas ◽  
Internal Combustion Engines ◽  
Gasoline Engine ◽  
Direct Injection ◽  
Spark Ignition ◽  
Computational Effort ◽  
Spark Ignition Engine ◽  
Validity Of Results ◽  
Injection Process

In this study, a numerical model has been developed in AVL FIRE software to perform investigation of Direct Natural Gas Injection into the cylinder of Spark Ignition Internal Combustion Engines. In this regard two main parts have been taken into consideration, aiming to convert an MPFI gasoline engine to direct injection NG engine. In the first part of study multi-dimensional numerical simulation of transient injection process, mixing and flow field have been performed via three different validation cases in order to assure the numerical model validity of results. Adaption of such a modeling was found to be a challenging task because of required computational effort and numerical instabilities. In all cases present results were found to have excellent agreement with experimental and numerical results from literature. In the second part, using the moving mesh capability the validated model has been applied to methane Injection into the cylinder of a Direct Injection engine. Five different piston head shapes along with two injector types have been taken into consideration in investigations. A centrally mounted injector location has been adapted to all cases. The effects of injection parameters, combustion chamber geometry, injector type and engine RPM have been studied on mixing of air-fuel inside cylinder. Based on the results, suitable geometrical configuration for a NG DI Engine has been discussed.

Improved Thermodynamic Model for Lean Natural Gas Spark Ignition in a Diesel Engine Using a Triple Wiebe Function

2019 ◽  
Vol 142 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jinlong Liu ◽  
Cosmin Emil Dumitrescu
Keyword(s):  
Natural Gas ◽  
Diesel Engines ◽  
Mass Fraction ◽  
Internal Combustion Engines ◽  
Combustion Process ◽  
Spark Ignition ◽  
High Energy ◽  
Multi Stage ◽  
Stage Combustion ◽  
Wiebe Function

Abstract The use of natural gas (NG) in heavy-duty internal combustion engines can reduce the dependence on petroleum fuels and greenhouse gas emissions. Diesel engines can convert to NG spark ignition (SI) by installing a high-energy ignition system and a gas injector. The diesel combustion chamber affects the flow inside the cylinder, so some existing SI combustion models will not accurately describe the operation of converted diesels. For example, the single Wiebe function has difficulties in correctly describing the mass fraction burn (MFB) throughout the combustion process. This study used experiments from a 2L single-cylinder research engine converted to port fuel injection NG SI and operated with methane at 1300 rpm and equivalence ratio 0.8 (6.2 bars IMEP) to compare the standard Wiebe function with a triple Wiebe function. Results indicated that lean-burn engine operation at an advanced spark timing produced three peaks in the heat release rate, suggesting a multi-stage combustion process. A “best goodness-of-fit” approach determined the values of the key parameters in the zero-dimensional Wiebe function model. The triple Wiebe function described the mass fraction burn and combustion phasing more accurately compared with the single Wiebe function. Moreover, it provided the duration and phasing of each individual burning stage that can then characterize the combustion in such converted diesel engines. This suggests that a multiple Wiebe function combustion model would effectively assist in analyzing such a multi-stage combustion process, which is important for engine optimization and development.

A Numerical Investigation of Combustion Chamber Geometry Effects on Natural Gas Direct Injection Properties in a SI Engine With Centrally Mounted Multi-Hole Injector

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bijan Yadollahi ◽  
Masoud Boroomand
Keyword(s):  
Numerical Model ◽  
Natural Gas ◽  
Flow Field ◽  
Combustion Chamber ◽  
Internal Combustion Engines ◽  
Gasoline Engine ◽  
Direct Injection ◽  
Internal Combustion ◽  
Combustion Engines ◽  
Validity Of Results

Due to the vast resources of natural gas (NG), it has emerged as an alternative fuel for SI internal combustion engines in recent years. The need to have better fuel economy and less emission especially that of greenhouse gases has resulted in development of NG fueled engines. Direct injection of natural gas into the cylinder of SI internal combustion engines has shown great potential for improvement of performance and reduction of engine emissions especially CO2 and PM. Direct injection of NG into the cylinder of SI engines is rather new thus the flow field phenomena and suitable configuration of injector and combustion chamber geometry has not been investigated completely. In this study a numerical model has been developed in AVL FIRE software to perform investigation of direct natural gas injection into the cylinder of spark ignition internal combustion engines. In this regard, two main parts have been taken into consideration aiming to convert an MPFI gasoline engine to direct injection NG engine. In the first part of study multidimensional numerical simulation of transient injection process, mixing and flow field have been performed via different validation cases in order to assure the numerical model validity of results. Adaption of such a modeling was found to be a challenging task because of required computational effort and numerical instabilities. In all cases present results were found to have excellent agreement with experimental and numerical results from literature. In the second part, using the moving mesh capability, the validated model has been applied to methane injection into the cylinder of a direct injection engine. Five different piston head shapes have been taken into consideration in investigations. An inwardly opening multi-hole injector has been adapted to all cases. The injector location has been set to be centrally mounted. The effects of combustion chamber geometry have been studied on mixing of air-fuel inside cylinder via quantitative and qualitative representation of results. Based on the results, suitable geometrical configuration for a NG DI engine has been discussed.

scholarly journals Performance, Efficiency and Emissions Evaluation of Gasoline Port-Fuel Injection, Natural Gas Direct Injection and Blended Operation

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Pamminger ◽  
Thomas Wallner ◽  
James Sevik ◽  
Riccardo Scarcelli ◽  
Carrie Hall ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Natural Gas ◽  
Internal Combustion Engines ◽  
Fuel Injection ◽  
Direct Injection ◽  
Combustion Process ◽  
Internal Combustion ◽  
Intake Port ◽  
Combustion Engines ◽  
Part Load ◽  
Port Fuel Injection

The need to further reduce fuel consumption and decrease the output of emissions — in order to be within future emissions legislation — is still an ongoing effort for the development of internal combustion engines. Natural gas is a fossil fuel which is comprised mostly of methane and makes it very attractive for use in internal combustion engines because of its higher knock resistance and higher molar hydrogen-to-carbon ratio compared to gasoline. The current paper compares the combustion and emissions behavior of the test engine being operated on either a representative U.S. market gasoline or natural gas. Moreover, specific in-cylinder blend ratios with gasoline and natural gas were also investigated at part-load and wide open throttle conditions. The dilution tolerance for part-load operation was investigated by adding cooled exhaust gas recirculation. The engine used for these investigations was a single cylinder research engine for light duty application which is equipped with two separate fuel systems. Gasoline was injected into the intake port; natural gas was injected directly into the cylinder to overcome the power density loss usually connected with port fuel injection of natural gas. Injecting natural gas directly into the cylinder reduced both ignition delay and combustion duration of the combustion process compared to the injection of gasoline into the intake port. Injecting natural gas and gasoline simultaneously resulted in a higher dilution tolerance compared to operation on one of the fuels alone. Significantly higher net indicated mean effective pressure and indicated thermal efficiency were achieved when natural gas was directly injected after intake valve closing at wide open throttle, compared to an injection while the intake valves were still open. In general it was shown that the blend ratio and the start of injection need to be varied depending on load and dilution level in order to operate the engine with the highest efficiency or highest load.

An Experimental Study of the Combustion Process in a Natural-Gas Spark-Ignition Engine

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jinlong Liu ◽  
Cosmin E. Dumitrescu ◽  
Hemanth Bommisetty
Keyword(s):  
Natural Gas ◽  
Equivalence Ratio ◽  
Internal Combustion Engines ◽  
Combustion Process ◽  
Spark Ignition ◽  
High Energy ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Spark Ignition Engine ◽  
Intake Manifold ◽  
Spark Timing

Abstract The conversion of existing internal combustion engines to natural-gas operation can reduce U.S. dependence on petroleum imports and curtail engine-out emissions. In this study, a diesel engine with a 13.3 compression ratio was modified to natural-gas spark-ignited operation by replacing the original diesel injector with a high-energy spark plug and by fumigating fuel inside the intake manifold. The goal of this research was to investigate the combustion process inside the flat-head and bowl-in-piston chamber of such retrofitted engine when operated at different spark timings, mixture equivalence ratios, and engine speeds. The results indicated that advanced spark timing, a lower equivalence ratio, and a higher speed operation increased the ignition lag and made it more difficult to initiate the combustion process. Further, advanced spark timing, a larger equivalence ratio, and a lower speed operation accelerated the flame propagation process inside the piston bowl and advanced the start of the burn inside the squish. However, such conditions increased the burning duration inside the squish due to more fuel being trapped inside the squish volume and the smaller squish height during combustion. As a result, the end of combustion was almost the same despite the change in the operating conditions. In addition, the reliable ignition, stable combustion, and the lack of knocking showed promise for the application of natural-gas lean-burn spark-ignition operation in the heavy-duty transportation.

The Effect of Intake Valve Deactivation on Lean Stratified Charge Combustion at an Idling Condition of a Spark Ignition Direct Injection Engine

2012 ◽  
Vol 134 (9) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald O. Grover ◽  
Junseok Chang ◽  
Edward R. Masters ◽  
Paul M. Najt ◽  
Aditya Singh
Keyword(s):  
Laminar Flame ◽  
Direct Injection ◽  
Combustion Process ◽  
Spark Ignition ◽  
Combustion Efficiency ◽  
Combustion Stability ◽  
Charge Motion ◽  
Piston Bowl ◽  
Light Load ◽  
Spark Plug

A combined experimental and analytical study was carried out to understand the improvement in combustion performance of a four-valve spark ignition direct injection (SIDI) wall-guided engine operating at lean, stratified idle with enhanced in-cylinder charge motion by deactivating one of the two intake valves. A fully warmed-up engine was operated at low speed, light load by injecting the fuel from a pressure-swirl injector during the compression stroke to produce a stratified fuel cloud surrounding the spark plug at the time of ignition. Steady state flow-bench measurements and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) calculations showed that valve deactivation primarily increased the in-cylinder swirl intensity as compared with opening both intake valves. Engine dynamometer measurements showed an increase in charge motion led to improved combustion stability, increased combustion efficiency, lower fuel consumption, and higher dilution tolerance. A CFD study was conducted using in-house models of spray and combustion to simulate the engine operating with and without valve deactivation. The computations demonstrated that the improved combustion was primarily driven by higher laminar flame speeds through enhanced mixing of internal residual gases, better containment of the fuel cloud within the piston bowl, and higher postflame diffusion burn rates during the initial, main, and late stages of the combustion process, respectively.

Experimental Setup of Combustion Visualization Inside a Heavy-Duty Diesel Engine Converted to Natural-Gas Spark-Ignition Operation

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vishnu Padmanaban ◽  
Jinlong Liu ◽  
Cosmin E. Dumitrescu
Keyword(s):  
Diesel Engine ◽  
Natural Gas ◽  
Flame Propagation ◽  
Combustion Process ◽  
Spark Ignition ◽  
Experimental Setup ◽  
Engine Operation ◽  
Spark Plug ◽  
Efficient Combustion ◽  
Heavy Duty Diesel

Abstract The conversion of existing diesel engines to natural-gas (NG) spark-ignition (SI) operation would reduce U.S. dependence on oil imports and curtail greenhouse gas emissions. As the literature shows that the combustion process in such converted engines is different compared to that in conventional SI engines, understanding the effects of the diesel geometry and fuel effects on the in-cylinder flame propagation is important for optimizing engine operation. This paper describes the experimental setup that allowed the visualization of combustion phenomena inside a single-cylinder diesel engine converted to single-fuel NG spark-ignition operation through the addition of a spark plug and a low-pressure gas injector. The synchronization between the piston position and image acquisition was done using over-the-counter electronic components. While the setup could not visualize flame propagation inside the squish region, the combustion images, together with the pressure-based analysis, help understand the characteristics of lean NG flame propagation inside a diesel geometry, which is an important for designing a highly-efficient combustion process.

scholarly journals Effects of mixture formation strategies on combustion in dual-fuel engines – a review

2021 ◽  
Vol 184 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-40
Author(s):  
Ireneusz Pielecha ◽  
Maciej Sidorowicz
Keyword(s):  
Internal Combustion Engines ◽  
Direct Injection ◽  
Combustion Process ◽  
Critical Factor ◽  
Diesel Oil ◽  
Combustion Efficiency ◽  
Dual Fuel ◽  
Compression Ignition ◽  
Mixture Formation ◽  
Spark Plug

The article presents an overview of technical solutions for dual fuel systems used in internal combustion engines. It covers the historical and contemporary genesis of using two fuels simultaneously in the combustion process. The authors pay attention to the value of the excess air coefficient in the cylinder, as the ignitability of the fuel dose near the spark plug is a critical factor. The mixture formation of compression ignition based systems are also analyzed. The results of research on indirect and direct injection systems (and their combinations) have been presented. Research sections were separated based to the use of gasoline with other fuels or diesel oil with other fuels. It was found that the use of two fuels in different configurations of the fuel supply systems extends the conditions for the use of modern combustion systems (jet controlled compression ignition, reactivity controlled compression ignition, intelligent charge compression ignition, premixed charge compression ignition), which will enable further improvement of combustion efficiency.

Numerical investigation of a fueled pre-chamber spark-ignition natural gas engine

2021 ◽  
pp. 146808742110201
Author(s):  
Joohan Kim ◽  
Riccardo Scarcelli ◽  
Sibendu Som ◽  
Ashish Shah ◽  
Munidhar S Biruduganti ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Natural Gas ◽  
Combustion Rate ◽  
Internal Combustion Engines ◽  
Combustion Process ◽  
Spark Ignition ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Chemical Mechanism ◽  
Main Chamber ◽  
Commercial Development ◽  
Combustion Duration

Pre-chamber spark-ignition (PCSI) is a leading advanced ignition concept for internal combustion engines with the potential to enable diesel-like efficiency in medium-duty/heavy-duty (MD/HD) natural gas (NG) engines. By leveraging distributed ignition sources from multiple turbulent jets, the PCSI technology can deliver extremely short combustion duration in ultra-lean mixtures and significantly improve the engine thermal efficiency. However, in the automotive industry there is a lack of adequate science base and predictive simulation tools required for commercial development of PCSI engines. In this study, Reynolds-Average Navier-Stokes simulations are carried out to describe the combustion process in lean-burn NG engines, focusing on the combustion modeling approach. Two combustion models, multi-zone well-stirred reactor (MZ-WSR) and G-equation, are used to simulate the combustion process in an MD NG engine equipped with a fueled-PCSI system for four operating conditions close to the lean operating limit. A skeletal chemical mechanism and a laminar flame speed tabulation are used to compute the combustion accurately. Simulation results are compared with experimental data regarding measured cylinder pressure, heat release rate, and combustion duration. By dividing the PCSI combustion process into four distinct phases, the difference between the two models’ results for each phase is analyzed in detail. The MZ-WSR model overestimates the combustion duration for early flame kernel growth in the pre-chamber due to the lack of a specific formulation to take turbulence-chemistry interaction into account. Despite the prolonged combustion duration and low pressure built-up inside the pre-chamber, the model matches the combustion rate in the main-chamber. In contrast, the G-equation model delivers good agreements for the pre-chamber combustion and turbulent jet-driven combustion processes. However, the model starts to underestimate the combustion rate in the main-chamber, especially under ultra-lean mixture conditions. Finally, improvements are needed for both models to simulate the later combustion stage that occurred in the near-wall regions.

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