Abstract
This study computationally investigates the potential of utilizing gasoline compression ignition (GCI) in a heavy-duty diesel engine to address a future ultra-low tailpipe NOx standard of 0.027 g/kWh while achieving high fuel efficiency.
By conducting closed-cycle, full-geometry, 3-D computational fluid dynamics (CFD) combustion simulations, the effects of piston bowl geometry, injector spray pattern, and swirl ratio (SR) were investigated for a market gasoline. The simulations were performed at 1375 rpm over a load range from 5 to 15 bar BMEP. The engine compression ratio (CR) was increased from 15.7 used in previous work to 16.5 for this study. Two piston bowl concepts were studied with Design 1 attained by simply scaling from the baseline 15.7 CR piston bowl, and Design 2 exploring a wider and shallower combustion chamber design.
The simulation results predicted that through a combination of the wider and shallower piston bowl design, a 14-hole injector spray pattern, and a swirl ratio of 1, Design 2 would lead to a 2–7% indicated specific fuel consumption (ISFC) improvement over the baseline by reducing the spray-wall interactions and lowering the in-cylinder heat transfer loss. Design 1 (10-hole and SR2) showed a more moderate ISFC reduction of 1–4% by increasing CR and the number of nozzle holes. The predicted fuel efficiency benefit of Design 2 was found to be more pronounced at low to medium loads.
Numerical Investigation on the Effect of Piston Bowl Geometry on Combustion Characteristics of a Heavy-Duty Diesel Engine
