The role of the diffusion-limited injection in direct dual fuel stratification

2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 351-365 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Wissink ◽  
Rolf Reitz
Keyword(s):  
Low Temperature ◽  
Heat Release ◽  
Thermal Efficiency ◽  
Soot Formation ◽  
Combustion Stability ◽  
Dual Fuel ◽  
Low Temperature Combustion ◽  
Fuel Stratification ◽  
Diffusion Limited ◽  
Temperature Combustion

Low-temperature combustion offers an attractive combination of high thermal efficiency and low NO x and soot formation at moderate engine load. However, the kinetically-controlled nature of low-temperature combustion yields little authority over the rate of heat release, resulting in a tradeoff between load, noise, and thermal efficiency. While several single-fuel strategies have achieved full-load operation through the use of equivalence ratio stratification, they uniformly require retarded combustion phasing to maintain reasonable noise levels, which comes at the expense of thermal efficiency and combustion stability. Previous work has shown that control over heat release can be greatly improved by combining reactivity stratification in the premixed charge with a diffusion-limited injection that occurs after low-temperature heat release, in a strategy called direct dual fuel stratification. While the previous work has shown how the heat release control offered by direct dual fuel stratification differs from other strategies and how it is enabled by the reactivity stratification created by using two fuels, this paper investigates the effects of the diffusion-limited injection. In particular, the influence of fuel selection and the pressure, timing, and duration of the diffusion-limited injection are examined. Diffusion-limited injection fuel type had a large impact on soot formation, but no appreciable effect on performance or other emissions. Increasing injection pressure was observed to decrease filter smoke number exponentially while improving combustion efficiency. The timing and duration of the diffusion-limited injection offered precise control over the heat release event, but the operating space was limited by a tradeoff between NO x and soot.

CFD Analysis of Diesel-Methane Dual Fuel Low Temperature Combustion at Low Load and High Methane Substitution

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Aniello ◽  
Lorenzo Bartolucci ◽  
Stefano Cordiner ◽  
Vincenzo Mulone ◽  
Sundar R. Krishnan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Low Temperature ◽  
Heat Release ◽  
Diesel Fuel ◽  
Single Stage ◽  
Dual Fuel ◽  
Low Temperature Combustion ◽  
Two Stage ◽  
Low Load ◽  
Temperature Heat ◽  
Temperature Combustion

Over the last few decades, emissions regulations for internal combustion engines have become increasingly restrictive, pushing researchers around the world to exploit innovative propulsion solutions. Among them, the dual fuel low temperature combustion (LTC) strategy has proven capable of reducing fuel consumption and while meeting emissions regulations for oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and particulate matter (PM) without problematic aftertreatment systems. However, further investigations are still needed to reduce engine-out hydrocarbon (HC) and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions as well as to extend the operational range and to further improve the performance and efficiency of dual-fuel engines. In this scenario, the present study focuses on numerical simulation of fumigated methane-diesel dual fuel LTC in a single-cylinder research engine (SCRE) operating at low load and high methane percent energy substitution (PES). Results are validated against experimental cylinder pressure and apparent heat release rate (AHRR) data. A 3D full-cylinder RANS simulation is used to thoroughly understand the influence of the start of injection (SOI) of diesel fuel on the overall combustion behavior, clarifying the causes of AHRR transition from two-stage AHRR at late SOIs to single-stage AHRR at early SOIs, low temperature heat release (LTHR) behavior, as well as high HC production. The numerical campaign shows that it is crucial to reliably represent the interaction between the diesel spray and the in-cylinder charge to match both local and overall methane energy fraction, which in turn, ensures a proper representation of the whole combustion. To that aim, even a slight deviation (∼3%) of the trapped mass or of the thermodynamic conditions would compromise the numerical accuracy, highlighting the importance of properly capturing all the phenomena occurring during the engine cycle. The comparison between numerical and experimental AHRR curves shows the capability of the numerical framework proposed to correctly represent the dual-fuel combustion process, including low temperature heat release (LTHR) and the transition from two-stage to single stage AHRR with advancing SOI. The numerical simulations allow for quantitative evaluation of the residence time of vapor-phase diesel fuel inside the combustion chamber and at the same time tracking the evolution of local diesel mass fraction during ignition delay — showing their influence on the LTHR phenomena. Oxidation regions of diesel and ignition points of methane are also displayed for each case, clarifying the reasons for the observed differences in combustion evolution at different SOIs.

A comparative study of gasoline skeletal mechanisms under partial fuel stratification conditions using large eddy simulations

2021 ◽  
pp. 146808742110313
Author(s):  
Gaurav Guleria ◽  
Dario Lopez-Pintor ◽  
John E Dec ◽  
Dimitris Assanis
Keyword(s):  
Low Temperature ◽  
Heat Release ◽  
Chemical Kinetic ◽  
Large Eddy Simulations ◽  
Low Temperature Combustion ◽  
Fuel Stratification ◽  
Large Eddy ◽  
Kinetic Mechanisms ◽  
Temperature Combustion ◽  
Research Grade

Partial fuel stratification (PFS) is a low temperature combustion strategy that can alleviate high heat release rates of traditional low temperature combustion strategies by introducing compositional stratification in the combustion chamber using a split fuel injection strategy. In this study, a three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model with large eddy simulations and reduced detailed chemistry was used to model partial fuel stratification at three different stratified conditions. The double direct injection strategy injects 80% of the total fuel mass at −300 CAD aTDC and the remaining 20% of the fuel mass is injected at three different timings of −160, −50, −35 CAD to create low, medium, and high levels of compositional stratification, respectively. The PFS simulations were validated using experiments performed at Sandia National Laboratories on a single-cylinder research engine that operates on RD5-87, a research-grade E10 gasoline. The objective of this study is to compare the performance of three different reduced chemical kinetic mechanisms, namely SKM1, SKM2, and SKM3, at the three compositional stratification levels and identify the most suitable mechanism to reproduce the experimental data. Zero-dimensional chemical kinetic simulations were also performed to further understand differences in performance of the three reduced chemical kinetic mechanisms to explain variations in CFD derived heat release profiles. The modeling results indicate that SKM3 is the most suitable mechanism for partial fuel stratification modeling of research-grade gasoline. The results also show that the autoignition event progresses from the richer to the leaner compositional regions in the combustion chamber. Notably, the leaner regions that have less mass per unit volume, can contribute disproportionately more toward heat release as there are more cells at leaner equivalence ratio ranges. Overall, this study illuminates the underlying compositional stratification phenomena that control the heat release process in PFS combustion.

Multiple injection strategies for reducing HC and CO emissions in diesel-methane dual-fuel low temperature combustion

Fuel ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 305 ◽  
pp. 121372
Author(s):  
Deivanayagam Hariharan ◽  
Sundar Rajan Krishnan ◽  
Kalyan Kumar Srinivasan ◽  
Aamir Sohail
Keyword(s):  
Low Temperature ◽  
Dual Fuel ◽  
Low Temperature Combustion ◽  
Multiple Injection ◽  
Temperature Combustion ◽  
Injection Strategies

A Computational Investigation of the Impact of Multiple Injection Strategies on Combustion Efficiency in Diesel-Natural Gas Dual Fuel Low Temperature Combustion Engine

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorenzo Bartolucci ◽  
Stefano Cordiner ◽  
Vincenzo Mulone ◽  
Sundar R. Krishnan ◽  
Kalyan K. Srinivasan
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Data ◽  
Low Temperature ◽  
Natural Gas ◽  
Combustion Efficiency ◽  
Dual Fuel ◽  
Pilot Injection ◽  
Low Temperature Combustion ◽  
Single Cylinder ◽  
Temperature Combustion ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Dual fuel diesel-methane low temperature combustion (LTC) has been investigated by various research groups, showing high potential for emissions reduction (especially oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and particulate matter (PM)) without adversely affecting fuel conversion efficiency in comparison with conventional diesel combustion. However, when operated at low load conditions, dual fuel LTC typically exhibit poor combustion efficiencies. This behavior is mainly due to low bulk gas temperatures under lean conditions, resulting in unacceptably high carbon monoxide (CO) and unburned hydrocarbon (UHC) emissions. A feasible and rather innovative solution may be to split the pilot injection of liquid fuel into two injection pulses, with the second pilot injection supporting the methane combustion once the process is initiated by the first one. In this work, diesel-methane dual fuel LTC is investigated numerically in a single-cylinder heavy-duty engine operating at 5 bar brake mean effective pressure (BMEP) at 85% and 75% percentage of energy substitution (PES) by methane (taken as a natural gas surrogate). A multidimensional model is first validated in comparison with experimental data obtained on the same single-cylinder engine for early single pilot diesel injection at 310 CAD and 500 bar rail pressure. With the single pilot injection case as baseline, the effects of multiple pilot injections and different rail pressures on combustion emissions are investigated, again showing good agreement with experimental data. Apparent heat release rate and cylinder pressure histories as well as combustion efficiency trends are correctly captured by the numerical model. Results prove that higher rail pressures yield reductions of HC and CO by 90% and 75%, respectively, at the expense of NOx emissions, which increase by ∼30% from baseline. Furthermore, it is shown that post-injection during the expansion stroke does not support the stable development of the combustion front as the combustion process is confined close to the diesel spray core.

Modeling Soot Formation Using Reduced PAH Chemistry in n-Heptane Lifted Flames With Application to Low Temperature Combustion

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gokul Vishwanathan ◽  
Rolf D. Reitz
Keyword(s):  
Low Temperature ◽  
Soot Formation ◽  
Numerical Study ◽  
Low Temperature Combustion ◽  
Constant Volume Chamber ◽  
Soot Mass ◽  
Temperature Combustion ◽  
Lifted Flames ◽  
Polycyclic Aromatic ◽  
Species Comparisons

A numerical study of in-cylinder soot formation and oxidation processes in n-heptane lifted flames using various soot inception species has been conducted. In a recent study by the authors, it was found that the soot formation and growth regions in lifted flames were not adequately represented by using acetylene alone as the soot inception species. Comparisons with a conceptual model and available experimental data suggested that the location of soot formation regions could be better represented if polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) species were considered as alternatives to acetylene for soot formation processes. Since the local temperatures are much lower under low temperature combustion (LTC) conditions, it is believed that significant soot mass contribution can be attributed to PAH rather than to acetylene. To quantify and validate the above observations, a reduced n-heptane chemistry mechanism has been extended to include PAH species up to four fused aromatic rings (pyrene). The resulting chemistry mechanism was integrated into the multidimensional CFD code KIVA-CHEMKIN for modeling soot formation in lifted flames in a constant volume chamber. The investigation revealed that a simpler model that only considers up to phenanthrene (three fused rings) as the soot inception species has good possibilities for better soot location predictions. The present work highlights and illustrates the various research challenges toward accurate qualitative and quantitative predictions of soot for new low emission combustion strategies for I.C. engines.

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