Development of a Variable Fuel Placement Airblast Atomiser

Author(s):  
Leigh C. Morgan ◽  
Alan J. Wheatley ◽  
Kevin D. Brundish

This paper presents the progress made on the development of a dual spray, direct injection airblast fuel nozzle capable of variable fuel placement. It is anticipated that by varying the fuel placement within the confines of a combustion chamber it will be possible to control localised flame ‘Fuel Air Ratio’ and thus extend both stability and emissions performance in respect of engine power range. The extension of combustion stability is particularly desirable to high pressure, temperature and turndown ratio aero engines where the ratio between maximum and flight idle fuel flows is extreme. Atomiser aerodynamics have been developed that produce two different airflow re-circulating regions within the combustor. A concentric fuel filmer feeds each of these regions. By staging the fuel into each flame re-circulation zone the variation of local ‘Fuel Air Ratio’ can be more accurately controlled. A combination of bench testing and CFD has been used to analyse and manipulate airflow distribution between swirlers to form the two distinct flame regions. The work is ultimately concerned with the rationalisation of airflow distribution and fuel placement to best fit the operational envelope of the engine. The variable placement fuel injector features three or more air swirlers (inner swirler, middle swirler and dome swirler) and two ‘airblast’ fuel filmers (pilot and main). The paper describes the progress made with a number of fuel injector configurations.

Author(s):  
K. D. Brundish ◽  
M. N. Miller ◽  
L. C. Morgan ◽  
A. J. Wheatley

This paper presents the progress made on the development of a dual spray, direct injection airblast fuel nozzle capable of variable fuel placement. It is anticipated that by varying the fuel placement within the confines of a combustion chamber it will be possible to control localised zonal ‘Fuel Air Ratio’ and thus extend both stability and emissions performance in respect of engine power range. The extension of combustion stability is particularly desirable to high pressure, temperature and turndown ratio aero engines where the ratio between maximum and flight idle fuel flow is extreme. Target performance data for the design has been derived from anticipated future engine cycles. A number of initial concepts were examined and recent development work has focused on the most successful design to date. Combustor testing has been performed at both atmospheric and high pressure. The combustor utilised was a single sector tubular combustor with combustor volume and airflow distributions representative of the cycle for which the fuel injector was designed. Two fuel injector configurations were examined, having different design flow structures. Combustion stability testing was performed with air inlet conditions of atmospheric pressure and 293K. Stability and ignition data were derived over a range of combustor pressure drops. Fuel injector AFRs of over 100:1 were achieved. An ignition loop was also derived although optimisation studies were not performed at this stage. High pressure emissions evaluation was also performed up to 13 Bar. Idle and scaled climb-out power conditions were tested, with a range of fuel scheduling between the pilot and main. Idle efficiency of over 99.5% was achieved. Low emissions performance was also achieved with less than 10 EINOx at climb out power settings. Future work will include testing at up to 40 Bar pressure to establish actual full power performance in addition to further development work on stability and ignition performance.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (10) ◽  
pp. 2941
Author(s):  
Wojciech Tutak ◽  
Arkadiusz Jamrozik ◽  
Karol Grab-Rogaliński

The main objective of this study was assessment of the performance, emissions and combustion characteristics of a diesel engine using RME–1-butanol blends. In assessing the combustion process, great importance was placed on evaluating the stability of this process. Not only were the typical COVIMEP indicators assessed, but also the non-burnability of the characteristic combustion stages: ignition delay, time of 50% heat release and the end of combustion. The evaluation of the combustion process based on the analysis of heat release. The tests carried out on a 1-cylinder diesel engine operating at a constant load. Research and evaluation of the combustion process of a mixture of RME and 1-butanol carried out for the entire range of shares of both fuels up to 90% of 1-butanol energetic fraction. The participation of butanol in combustion process with RME increased the in-cylinder peak pressure and the heat release rate. With the increase in the share of butanol there was noted a decrease in specific energy consumption and an increase in engine efficiency. The share of butanol improved the combustion stability. There was also an increase in NOx emissions and decrease in CO and soot emissions. The engine can be power by blend up to 80% energy share of butanol.


Author(s):  
Jianing Li ◽  
Umesh Bhayaraju ◽  
San-Mou Jeng

A generic novel injector was designed for multi-Lean Direct Injection (M-LDI) combustors. One of the drawbacks of the conventional pressure swirl and prefilming type airblast atomizers is the difficulty of obtaining a uniform symmetric spray under all operating conditions. Micro-channels are needed inside the injector for uniformly distributing the fuel. The problem of non-uniformity is magnified in smaller sized injectors. The non-uniform liquid sheet causes local fuel rich/lean zones leading to higher NOx emissions. To overcome these problems, a novel fuel injector was designed to improve the fuel delivery to the injector by using a porous stainless steel material with 30 μm porosity. The porous tube also acts as a prefilming surface. Liquid and gaseous fuels can be injected through the injector. In the present study, gaseous fuel was injected to investigate injector fuel-air mixing performance. The gaseous fuel was injected through a porous tube between two radial-radial swirling air streams to facilitate fuel-air mixing. The advantage of this injector is that it increases the contact surface area between the fuel-air at the fuel injection point. The increased contact area enhances fuel-air mixing. Fuel-air mixing and combustion studies were carried out for both gaseous and liquid fuel. Flame visualization, and emissions measurements were carried out inside the exit of the combustor. The measurements were carried out at atmospheric conditions under fuel lean conditions. Natural gas was used as a fuel in these experiments. Fuel-air mixing studies were carried out at different equivalence ratios with and without confinement. The mass fraction distributions were measured at different downstream locations from the injector exit. Flame characterization was carried out by chemiluminescence at different equivalence ratios and inlet air temperatures. Symmetry of the flame, flame length and heat release distribution were analyzed from the flame images. The effects of inlet air temperature and combustion flame temperature on emissions was studied. Emissions were corrected to 15% O2 concentration. NOx emissions increase with inlet air temperature and flame temperature. Effect of flame temperature on NOx concentration is more significant than effect of inlet air temperature. Fuel-air mixing profile was used to obtain mass fraction Probability Density Function (pdf). The pdfs were used for simulations in Chemkin Pro. The measured emissions concentrations at the exit of the injector was compared with simulations. In Chemkin model, a network model with several PSRs (perfectly stirred reactor) were utilized, followed by a mixer and a PFR (plug flow reactor). The comparison between the simulations and the experimental results was investigated.


Author(s):  
Dmitrii Mamaikin ◽  
Tobias Knorsch ◽  
Philipp Rogler ◽  
Philippe Leick ◽  
Michael Wensing

Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) systems have become a rapidly developing technology taking up a considerableand rapidly growing share in the Gasoline Engine market due to the thermodynamic advantages of direct injection. The process of spray formation and propagation from a fuel injector is very crucial in optimizing the air-fuel mixture of DI engines. Previous studies have shown that the presence of some cavitation in high-pressure fuel nozzles can lead to better atomization of the fluid. However, under some very specific circumstances, high levels of cavitation can also delay the atomization process; spray stabilization due to hydraulic flip is the most well-known example. Therefore, a better understanding of cavitation behavior is of vital importance for further optimization of next generation fuel injectors.In contrast to the abundance of investigations conducted on the inner flow and cavitation patterns of diesel injectors, corresponding in-depth research on the inner flow of gasoline direct-injection nozzles is still relatively scarce. In this study, the results of an experiment performed on real-size GDI injector nozzles made of acrylic glass are presented. The inner flow of the nozzle is visualized using a high-power pulsed laser, a long-distance microscope and a high- speed camera. The ambiguity of dark areas on the images, which may represent cavitation regions as well as ambient air drawn into the nozzle holes, is resolved by injecting the fuel both into a fuel or gas filled environment. In addition, the influence of backpressure on the transient flow characteristics of the internal flow is investigated. In good agreement with observations made in previous studies, higher backpressure levels decrease the amount of cavitation inside the nozzles. Due to the high temporal and spatial resolution of the experiment, the transient cavitation behavior during the opening, quasi-steady and closing phases of the injector needle motion can be analyzed. For example, it is found that cavitation patterns oscillate with a characteristic frequency that depends on the backpressure. The link between cavitation and air drawn into the nozzle at the beginning of injection is alsorevealed.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4995/ILASS2017.2017.4639


Author(s):  
Jinlong Liu ◽  
Cosmin E. Dumitrescu

Increased utilization of natural-gas (NG) in the transportation sector can decrease the use of petroleum-based fuels and reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. Heavy-duty diesel engines retrofitted to NG spark ignition (SI) can achieve higher efficiencies and low NOx, CO, and HC emissions when operated under lean-burn conditions. To investigate the SI lean-burn combustion phenomena in a bowl-in-piston combustion chamber, a conventional heavy-duty direct-injection CI engine was converted to SI operation by replacing the fuel injector with a spark plug and by fumigating NG in the intake manifold. Steady-state engine experiments and numerical simulations were performed at several operating conditions that changed spark timing, engine speed, and mixture equivalence ratio. Results suggested a two-zone NG combustion inside the diesel-like combustion chamber. More frequent and significant late burn (including double-peak heat release rate) was observed for advanced spark timing. This was due to the chamber geometry affecting the local flame speed, which resulted in a faster and thicker flame in the bowl but a slower and thinner flame in the squish volume. Good combustion stability (COVIMEP < 3 %), moderate rate of pressure rise, and lack of knocking showed promise for heavy-duty CI engines converted to NG SI operation.


Author(s):  
Renyou Yang ◽  
Gerasimos Theotokatos ◽  
Dracos Vassalos

This study aims at the parametric investigation of the gas injection system settings of a large marine two-stroke dual fuel engine by using a developed and customized CFD method in the ANSYS Fluent software. The investigated engine injection system parameters include the gas injection timing, the gas injection duration, the gas injector lateral angle, and the gas injector holes number. Based on the comparison of the predicted performance parameters for the closed-cycle processes, the results indicate that the gas injector lateral angle is the most significant parameter that affects the engine power as well as the NO and CO2 emissions. For satisfying the contradictory objectives of retaining the engine power and reducing the NO and CO2 emissions, appropriate design settings for the gas injection are recommended for the investigated engine operation in the gas mode at 75% load.


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