Effect of spark ignition location on the turbulent jet ignition characteristics in a lean burning natural gas engine

2022 ◽  
pp. 146808742110646
Author(s):  
Xue Yang ◽  
Yong Cheng ◽  
Qingwu Zhao ◽  
Pengcheng Wang ◽  
Jinbing Chen

The Turbulent Jet Ignition is an effective concept to achieve stable lean burning for natural gas engines due to the multiple ignition sources, high ignition energy, and fast combustion rate. A variation of the ignition location has a non-negligible effect on the ignition performance of the TJI system. The present work aims to provide more details on this effect by numerical simulations. Both factors of the additional fuel supply to the pre-chamber and the in-cylinder flow field are taken into consideration in this study. A numerical model is built based on a lean burning natural gas engine and validated by experimental results. Five different spark ignition sources are equally arranged on the vertical axis of the pre-chamber, with different distances from the connecting orifices. Simulations are carried out under the same initial and boundary conditions except for the location of the ignition source. Combustion pressure, in-cylinder flow field, fuel mass fraction distribution, and heat release rate are analyzed to study the in-cylinder ignition and combustion process. The results show that a rotational flow and a non-uniform fuel distribution are formed in the pre-chamber during the compression stroke. The turbulent jet characteristics are significantly influenced by the coupling of two factors: the combustion rate inside the pre-chamber as well as the flame propagation distance from the ignition source to the connecting orifices. Rapid combustion rate and shorter flame propagation distance both lead to the earlier ejection of cold jets and hot jets. Among five ignition sources, the one located closest to the connecting orifices generates earlier hot jets with the highest mean velocity. The jets are more effective to ignite the lean mixture and could decrease the combustion duration of the main chamber.

1999 ◽  
Vol 34 (11) ◽  
pp. 764-773
Author(s):  
Yukiyoshi Fukano ◽  
Kazuo Tachibana ◽  
Shigeo Kida ◽  
Toshikazu Kadota

Author(s):  
Joohan Kim ◽  
Riccardo Scarcelli ◽  
Sibendu Som ◽  
Ashish Shah ◽  
Munidhar Biruduganti ◽  
...  

Abstract Lean combustion in an internal combustion engine is a promising strategy to increase thermal efficiency by leveraging a more favorable specific heat ratio of the fresh mixture and simultaneously suppressing the heat losses to the cylinder wall. However, unstable ignition events and slow flame propagation at fuel-lean condition lead to high cycle-to-cycle variability and hence limit the high-efficiency engine operating range. Pre-chamber ignition is considered an effective concept to extend the lean operating limit, by providing spatially distributed ignition with multiple turbulent flame-jets and enabling faster combustion rate compared to the conventional spark ignition approach. From a numerical modeling perspective, to date, still the science base and available simulation tools are inadequate for understanding and predicting the combustion processes in pre-chamber ignited engines. In this paper, conceptually different RANS combustion models widely adopted in the engine modeling community were used to simulate the ignition and combustion processes in a medium-duty natural gas engine with a pre-chamber spark-ignition system. A flamelet-based turbulent combustion model, i.e., G-equation, and a multi-zone well-stirred reactor model were employed for the multi-dimensional study. Simulation results were compared with experimental data in terms of in-cylinder pressure and heat release rate. Finally, the analysis of the performance of the two models is carried out to highlight the strengths and limitations of the two formulations respectively.


Author(s):  
Joohan Kim ◽  
Riccardo Scarcelli ◽  
Sibendu Som ◽  
Ashish Shah ◽  
Munidhar S. Biruduganti ◽  
...  

Abstract Lean combustion in an internal combustion engine is a promising strategy to increase thermal efficiency by leveraging a more favorable specific heat ratio of the fresh mixture and simultaneously suppressing the heat losses to the cylinder wall. However, unstable ignition events and slow flame propagation at fuel-lean condition lead to high cycle-to-cycle variability and hence limit the high-efficiency engine operating range. Pre-chamber ignition is considered an effective concept to extend the lean operating limit, by providing spatially distributed ignition with multiple turbulent flame-jets and enabling faster combustion rate compared to the conventional spark ignition approach. From a numerical modeling perspective, to date, still the science base and available simulation tools are inadequate for understanding and predicting the combustion processes in pre-chamber ignited engines. In this paper, conceptually different RANS combustion models widely adopted in the engine modeling community were used to simulate the ignition and combustion processes in a medium-duty natural gas engine with a pre-chamber spark-ignition system. A flamelet-based turbulent combustion model, i.e., G-equation, and a multi-zone well-stirred reactor model were employed for the multi-dimensional study. Simulation results were compared with experimental data in terms of in-cylinder pressure and heat release rate. Finally, the analysis of the performance of the two models is carried out to highlight the strengths and limitations of the two formulations respectively.


Author(s):  
Azer P. Yalin ◽  
Morgan W. Defoort ◽  
Sachin Joshi ◽  
Daniel Olsen ◽  
Bryan Willson ◽  
...  

A practical impediment to implementation of laser ignition systems has been the open-path beam delivery used in past research. In this contribution, we present the development and implementation of a fiber-optically delivery laser spark ignition system. To our knowledge, the work represents the first demonstration of fiber coupled laser ignition (using a remote laser source) of a natural gas engine. A Nd:YAG laser is used as the energy source and a coated hollow fiber is used for beam energy delivery. The system was implemented on a single-cylinder of a Waukesha VGF 18 turbo charged natural gas engine and yielded consistent and reliable ignition. In addition to presenting the design and testing of the fiber delivered laser ignition system, we present initial design concepts for a multiplexer to ignite multiple cylinders using a single laser source, and integrated optical diagnostic approaches to monitor the spark ignition and combustion performance.


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