Development of a natural gas spark ignition engine for optimum performance

1997 ◽  
Vol 211 (5) ◽  
pp. 361-378 ◽  
Author(s):  
A Das ◽  
H C Watson
Keyword(s):  
Natural Gas ◽  
Spark Ignition ◽  
Limited Range ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Spark Ignition Engine ◽  
Petrol Engine ◽  
Shape Modification ◽  
Will Emit ◽  
Brake Thermal Efficiency ◽  
Wide Range

A 4 litre displacement, six cylinder, fuel injected petrol engine was modified to natural gas (NG) fuelling. Experimental investigation was carried out with various mixture controls and compression ratios over a wide range of operating conditions. As a strategy for combustion chamber shape modification, the compression ratio was raised with simultaneous enhancement of in-cylinder turbulence through squish motion. A fast burning chamber for the combustion of lean mixtures of natural gas and air was developed. Brake thermal efficiency in excess of 40 per cent and brake torque in excess of the peak base torque with petrol were achieved. The research provides the foundation for the implementation of NG cars that will emit only about 65 per cent of the carbon dioxide (CO2) of their petrol engine counterparts, with the prospect of extending the limited range of NG cars by up to one-third and producing low hydrocarbon (HC) and nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions.

A comparative study of the performance and exhaust emissions of a spark ignition engine fuelled by natural gas and gasoline

1997 ◽  
Vol 211 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. L. Evans ◽  
J Blaszczyk
Keyword(s):  
Natural Gas ◽  
Engine Performance ◽  
Detailed Comparison ◽  
Exhaust Emissions ◽  
Spark Ignition ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Spark Ignition Engine ◽  
Spark Ignition Engines ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Lean Limit

The purpose of this study was to obtain a detailed comparison of engine performance and exhaust emissions from natural gas and gasoline fuelled spark ignition engines. Each fuel was tested at both wide-open throttle and two part-load operating conditions over a wide range of air—fuel ratios. The results show that the power output of the engine at a given throttle position was reduced by about 12 per cent when fuelled by natural gas due to displacement of air by the gas. The emission levels for natural gas were lower by from 5 to 50 per cent, depending on the pollutant, compared to gasoline. On an energy basis, both fuels exhibited nearly equal thermal efficiency, except that at very lean air—fuel ratios natural gas showed increased efficiency due to an extension of the lean limit of combustion.

Laminar flame speed correlations for methane, ethane, propane and their mixtures, and natural gas and gasoline for spark-ignition engine simulations

2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (9) ◽  
pp. 951-970 ◽  
Author(s):  
Riccardo Amirante ◽  
Elia Distaso ◽  
Paolo Tamburrano ◽  
Rolf D Reitz
Keyword(s):  
Natural Gas ◽  
Laminar Flame ◽  
Spark Ignition ◽  
Flame Speed ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Spark Ignition Engine ◽  
Computational Time ◽  
Laminar Flame Speed ◽  
Spark Ignition Engines ◽  
Empirical Correlations

The laminar flame speed plays an important role in spark-ignition engines, as well as in many other combustion applications, such as in designing burners and predicting explosions. For this reason, it has been object of extensive research. Analytical correlations that allow it to be calculated have been developed and are used in engine simulations. They are usually preferred to detailed chemical kinetic models for saving computational time. Therefore, an accurate as possible formulation for such expressions is needed for successful simulations. However, many previous empirical correlations have been based on a limited set of experimental measurements, which have been often carried out over a limited range of operating conditions. Thus, it can result in low accuracy and usability. In this study, measurements of laminar flame speeds obtained by several workers are collected, compared and critically analyzed with the aim to develop more accurate empirical correlations for laminar flame speeds as a function of equivalence ratio and unburned mixture temperature and pressure over a wide range of operating conditions, namely [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text]. The purpose is to provide simple and workable expressions for modeling the laminar flame speed of practical fuels used in spark-ignition engines. Pure compounds, such as methane and propane and binary mixtures of methane/ethane and methane/propane, as well as more complex fuels including natural gas and gasoline, are considered. A comparison with available empirical correlations in the literature is also provided.

Development of the Control and Acquisition System for a Natural-Gas Spark-Ignition Engine Test Bench

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorenzo Gasbarro ◽  
Jinlong Liu ◽  
Christopher Ulishney ◽  
Cosmin E. Dumitrescu ◽  
Luca Ambrogi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Natural Gas ◽  
Internal Combustion Engines ◽  
Test Bench ◽  
Spark Ignition ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Spark Ignition Engine ◽  
Acquisition System ◽  
Combustion Engines ◽  
Engine Test ◽  
New Sensors

Abstract Investigations using laboratory test benches are the most common way to find the technological solutions that will increase the efficiency of internal combustion engines and curtail their emissions. In addition, the collected experimental data are used by the CFD community to develop engine models that reduce the time-to-market. This paper describes the steps made to increase the reliability of engine experiments performed in a heavy-duty natural-gas spark-ignition engine test-cell such as the design of the control and data acquisition system based on Modbus TCP communication protocol. Specifically, new sensors and a new dynamometer controller were installed. The operation of the improved test bench was investigated at several operating conditions, with data obtained at both high- and low-sampling rates. The results indicated a stable test bench operation.

Hydrogen Fuelled Spark-Ignition Engines: Predictive and Experimental Performance

2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hailin Li ◽  
Ghazi A. Karim
Keyword(s):  
Compression Ratio ◽  
Power Efficiency ◽  
Spark Ignition ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Spark Ignition Engine ◽  
Zone Model ◽  
Engine Fuel ◽  
Oxidation Reactions ◽  
Chemical Kinetic Model ◽  
Wide Range

Hydrogen is well recognized as a suitable fuel for spark-ignition engine applications that has many unique attractive features and limitations. It is a fuel that can continue potentially to meet the ever increasingly stringent regulations for exhaust and greenhouse gas emissions. The application of hydrogen as an engine fuel has been tried over many decades by numerous investigators with varying degrees of success. The performance data reported often tend not to display consistent agreement between the various investigators mainly because of the wide differences in engine type, size, operating conditions used and the differing criteria employed to judge whether knock is taking place or not. With the ever-increasing interest in hydrogen as an engine fuel, there is a need to be able to model extensively various features of the performance of spark ignition (S.I.) hydrogen engines so as to investigate and compare reliably the performance of widely different engines under a wide variety of operating conditions. The paper employs a quasi-dimensional two-zone model for the operation of S.I. engines when fuelled with hydrogen. In this approach, the engine combustion chamber at any instant of time during combustion is considered to be divided into two temporally varying zones: a burned zone and an unburned zone. The model incorporates a detailed chemical kinetic model scheme of 30 reaction steps and 12 species, to simulate the oxidation reactions of hydrogen in air. A knock prediction model, developed previously for S.I. methane-hydrogen fuelled engine applications (Shrestha and Karim 1999(a) and 1999(b)) was extended to consider operation on hydrogen. The effects of changes in operating conditions, including a very wide range of variations in equivalence ratio on the onset of knock and its intensity, combustion duration, power, efficiency and operational limits were investigated. The results of this predictive approach were shown to validate well against corresponding experimental results of our own and those of others, obtained mostly in a variable compression ratio CFR engine. On this basis, the effects of changes in some of the key operational engine variables, such as compression ratio, intake temperature and spark timing are presented and discussed. Some guidelines for superior knock free-operation of engines on hydrogen are made also.

Hydrogen Fueled Spark-Ignition Engines Predictive and Experimental Performance

2004 ◽  
Vol 128 (1) ◽  
pp. 230-236 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hailin Li ◽  
Ghazi A. Karim
Keyword(s):  
Compression Ratio ◽  
Power Efficiency ◽  
Spark Ignition ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Spark Ignition Engine ◽  
Zone Model ◽  
Engine Fuel ◽  
Oxidation Reactions ◽  
Chemical Kinetic Model ◽  
Wide Range

Hydrogen is well recognized as a suitable fuel for spark-ignition engine applications that has many unique attractive features and limitations. It is a fuel that can continue potentially to meet the ever-increasingly stringent regulations for exhaust and greenhouse gas emissions. The application of hydrogen as an engine fuel has been tried over many decades by numerous investigators with varying degrees of success. However, the performance data reported often tend not to display consistent agreement between the various investigators, mainly because of the wide differences in engine type, size, operating conditions used, and the differing criteria employed to judge whether knock is taking place or not. With the ever-increasing interest in hydrogen as an engine fuel, there is a need to be able to model extensively various features of the performance of spark ignition (S.I.) hydrogen engines so as to investigate and compare reliably the performance of widely different engines under a wide variety of operating conditions. In the paper we employ a quasidimensional two-zone model for the operation of S.I. engines when fueled with hydrogen. In this approach, the engine combustion chamber at any instant of time during combustion is considered to be divided into two temporally varying zones: a burned zone and an unburned zone. The model incorporates a detailed chemical kinetic model scheme of 30 reaction steps and 12 species, to simulate the oxidation reactions of hydrogen in air. A knock prediction model, developed previously for S.I. methane-hydrogen fueled engine applications was extended to consider operation on hydrogen. The effects of changes in operating conditions, including a very wide range of variations in the equivalence ratio on the onset of knock and its intensity, combustion duration, power, efficiency, and operational limits were investigated. The results of this predictive approach were shown to validate well against the corresponding experimental results, obtained mostly in a variable compression ratio CFR engine. On this basis, the effects of changes in some of the key operational engine variables, such as compression ratio, intake temperature, and spark timing are presented and discussed. Some guidelines for superior knock-free operation of engines on hydrogen are also made.

scholarly journals Effect of ignition timing on engine characteristics of a single cylinder spark ignition engine with CNG fueled

2017 ◽  
Vol 20 (K6) ◽  
pp. 79-86
Author(s):  
Quoc Dang Tran
Keyword(s):  
Natural Gas ◽  
Thermal Efficiency ◽  
Engine Speed ◽  
Spark Ignition ◽  
Spark Ignition Engine ◽  
Ignition Timing ◽  
Compressed Natural Gas ◽  
Brake Thermal Efficiency ◽  
Timing System ◽  
Cng Engine

This article shows an investigated research on Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) engine with a port injection when varying ignition timing. The obtained results from simulating study have indicated that both of brake thermal efficiency and torque have a similar trend when varying ignition timing. The effect of ignition timing on the value of brake thermal efficiency is stronger in comparison with torque, however, the increase in engine speed or lambda value have to adjust the ignition timing more early. To reach the maximum break torque at each engine speed, the ignition timing should be adjusted IT = 14 - 32 bTDC, and this is also basic value to design the ignition timing system using CNG engine with port injection.

Optimization of Design and Operational Parameters Using Genetic Algorithm for a Spark Ignition Engine With CNG/H2 Mixtures

2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Anand ◽  
R. Balamurugan
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Algorithm ◽  
Spark Ignition ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Spark Ignition Engine ◽  
Nox Emissions ◽  
Engine Fuel ◽  
Operational Parameters ◽  
Si Engine ◽  
Engine Efficiency ◽  
Wide Range

The present contribution describes the potential of using gaseous fuels like Hythane (CNG/H2 mixtures) as a spark ignition (SI) engine fuel. Genetic Algorithm (GA) is used to optimize the design and operational parameters of a CNG/H2 fueled spark ignition engine for maximizing the engine efficiency subjected to NOx emission constraint. This research deals with quasi-dimensional, two-zone thermodynamic simulation of four-stroke SI engine fueled with CNG/H2 blended fuel for the prediction of the combustion and emission characteristics. The validity of the model has been carried out by comparing the computed results with experimental data obtained under same engine setup and operating conditions. A wide range of engine parameters were optimized using a simple GA regarding both engine efficiency and NOx emissions. The five parameters chosen were compression ratio, engine speed, equivalence ratio, H2 fraction in the fuel, and spark plug position in cylinder head. The amount of NOx emissions was being kept under the constrained value of 750 ppm (< 5 g/kWh), which is less than permissible limit for heavy-duty engines.

Modelling the early stage of spark ignition engine combustion using the KIVA-3V code incorporating an ignition model

2003 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 179-192 ◽  
Author(s):  
L Andreassi ◽  
S Cordiner ◽  
V Rocco
Keyword(s):  
Early Stage ◽  
Combustion Process ◽  
Spark Ignition ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Spark Ignition Engine ◽  
Gasoline Direct Injection ◽  
Combustion Model ◽  
Cylinder Wall ◽  
Predictive Capability ◽  
Wide Range

The evolution of early stages of homogeneous mixture combustion in spark ignition (SI) engines represents a critical period that greatly affects the whole combustion process. A proper description of this critical phase represents a major issue, which could strongly influence the overall model predictive capability (i.e. model ability to reproduce the real engine behaviour for a large range of operating conditions without any major tuning). Such requirements become even more important for the simulation of last-generation gasoline direct injection or lean stratified engines, where ignition could determine the functionality of the engine itself. In this paper, after a detailed analysis of the ignition physical process and its modelling issues, the predictive capability of the KIVA-3V code has been improved by substituting the original ignition procedure with a more detailed kernel evolution model based on the one presented by Herweg and Maly in 1992. The ignition model introduced in a KIVA-3V version already modified by the authors (re-zoning algorithm, combustion and turbulence models, cylinder wall heat transfer, etc.) has then been tested in order to assess its level of accuracy in describing this complex phenomenon, by varying the most critical engine operating conditions and keeping combustion tuning parameters unchanged. After comparing ignition model results with the corresponding ones presented by Herweg and Maly, a specific application of the overall model (KIVA-3V + ignition model + turbulent combustion model) has been made to perform an analysis of a compressed natural gas (CNG) fuelled engine for heavy-duty applications. To this aim, the in-cylinder combustion history and the related processes as the temperature distribution and NOx formation have been calculated and verified with reference to the experimental data measured in a wide range of operating conditions of an IVECO turbocharged engine.

Effect of Biogas Composition Variations on Engine Characteristics Including Operational Limits of a Spark-Ignition Engine

2019 ◽  
Vol 141 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sachin Kumar Gupta ◽  
Mayank Mittal
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Thermal Efficiency ◽  
Carbon Dioxide Emissions ◽  
Spark Ignition ◽  
Spark Ignition Engine ◽  
Si Engine ◽  
Promising Alternative ◽  
Brake Thermal Efficiency ◽  
Indicated Mean Effective Pressure ◽  
Wide Range

Biogas is a promising alternative fuel to reduce the consumption of petroleum-based fuels in internal combustion (IC) engines. In this work, the effect of various biogas compositions on the performance, combustion, and emission characteristics of a spark-ignition (SI) engine is investigated. Additionally, the effect of Wobbe index (WI) of various fuel compositions was also evaluated on the operational limits of the engine. While considering a wide range of biogas compositions (including bio-methane), the percentage of carbon dioxide (CO2) (in a blend of methane and CO2) was increased from 0 to 50% (by volume). A single-cylinder, water-cooled, SI engine was operated at 1500 rpm over a wide range of operating loads with compression ratio of 8.5:1. With the increase in WI of the fuel, both low (limited by coefficient of variation (COV) of indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP)) and high (limited by pre-ignition) operating loads were decreased; however, it was found that the overall operating range was increased. Results also showed that for a given operating load, with the increase of CO2 percentage in the fuel, the brake thermal efficiency was decreased, and the flame initiation and combustion durations were increased. The brake thermal efficiency was decreased from 16.8% to 13.7%, when CO2 was increased from 0% to 40% in methane–CO2 mixture at 8 N·m load. Concerning to emissions, a considerable decrease was noted in nitric oxide, whereas hydrocarbon, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide emissions were increased, with the increase in CO2 percentage.

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.

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