Research on Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition Combustion of Intake Port Exhaust Gas Recirculation Based on Cam Drive Hydraulic Variable Valve Actuation Mechanism

The thermal efficiency of an efficient gasoline engine is only about 40% and it will produce a large number of harmful products. Curbing harmful emissions and enhancing thermal efficiency have always been the goals pursued and emission regulations are also being tightened gradually. As one of the main consumers of fossil fuels, automobile engines must further reduce fuel consumption and emissions to comply with the concept of low-carbon development, which will also help them compete with electric vehicles. Homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) combustion combined with variable valve actuation (VVA) technology is one of the important ways to improve engine emissions and economy. HCCI combustion based on VVA can only be realized at small and medium loads. The actual application on the entire vehicle needs to be combined with spark ignition (SI) combustion to achieve full working condition coverage. Therefore, HCCI combustion needs fast valve response characteristics; however, the valve lift and timing of the existing VVA mechanisms are mostly controlled separately, resulting in poor valve response. In order to solve this problem, the cam driven hydraulic variable valve actuation (CDH-VVA) mechanism was designed. The valve lift and timing can be adjusted at the same time and the switching of valve lift and timing can be completed in 1~2 cycles. A set of combustion mode switching data is selected to show the response characteristics of the CDH-VVA mechanism. When switching from spark ignition (SI) to HCCI, it switches to HCCI combustion after only one combustion cycle and it switches to stable HCCI combustion after two combustion cycles, which proves the fast response characteristics of the CDH-VVA mechanism. At the same time, the CDH-VVA mechanism can form the intake port exhaust gas recirculation (EGR), as one type of internal EGR. This paper studies the HCCI combustion characteristics of the CDH-VVA mechanism in order to optimize it in the future and enable it to realize more forms of HCCI combustion. At 1000 rpm, if the maximum lift of the exhaust valve (MLEV) is higher than 5.0 mm or lower than 1.5 mm, HCCI combustion cannot operate stably, the range of excess air coefficient (λ) is largest when the MLEV is 4.5 mm, ranging from 1.0~1.5. Then, as the MLEV decreases, the range of λ becomes smaller. When the MLEV drops to 1.5 mm, the range of λ shortens to 1.0~1.3. The maximum value of the MLEV remains the same at the three engine speeds (1000 rpm, 1200 rpm and 1400 rpm), which is 5.0 mm. The minimum value of the MLEV gradually climbs as the engine speed increase, 1000 rpm: 1.5 mm, 1200 rpm: 2.0 mm, 1400 rpm: 3.0 mm. With the increase of engine speed, the range of indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP) gradually declines, 3.53~6.31 bar (1000 rpm), 4.11~6.75 bar (1200 rpm), 5.02~6.09 bar (1400 rpm), which proves that the HCCI combustion loads of the intake port EGR are high and cannot be extended to low loads. The cyclic variation of HCCI combustion basically climbs with the decrease of the MLEV and slightly jumps with the increase of the engine speed. At 1000 rpm, when the MLEV is 5.0 mm, the cyclic variation range is 0.94%~1.5%. As the MLEV drops to 1.5 mm, the cyclic variation range rises to 3.5%~4.5%. Taking the maximum value of the MLEV as an example, the cyclic variation range of 1000 rpm is 0.94%~1.5%, 1200 rpm becomes 1.5%~2.3% and 1400 rpm rises to 2.0%~2.5%.

Numerical simulation of S-shaped inlet under the intake total pressure distortion

During the development of the stealth fighter, the S-shaped inlet enters the designer’s vision because it has better stealth than bump inlet and straight inlet. During the use of the S-shaped inlet, due to its structural reasons, secondary flow is likely to occur in the curved section, which directly causes the flow state to be changeable and complicated. Therefore, this paper takes the S-shaped inlet as the research object to analyzes the steady flow field simulation under uniform inlet condition and distortion inlet condition and analyze the flow field of the airflow and the total pressure of each section under the S-shaped inlet by changing the intake distortion conditions with CFX software. The results show that although the S-shaped inlet will occur total pressure distortion under uniform intake. However, when the S-shaped inlet work under certain flight conditions, the level of total pressure distortion will be smaller than the uniform inlet condition, which can improve the air intake performance. Finally, it can be inferred that with use of the S-shaped intake port, the deterioration of distortion may be prevented under certain specific intake conditions.

Modeling and Analysis of Anti-Icing Power of Aircraft Engine Inlet Based on Symmetric Algorithms

To evaluate the capability of engine inlet, inlet components and power plant anti ICER under low temperature, this paper introduces the evaluation method of anti icing system for civil aviation engine room, and analyzes the anti icing power of the aircraft intake based on the symmetric algorithm. The realizable k-cube model and wall function method are used to analyze the flow field in the inlet of an aircraft engine. Based on the analysis of the flow field of the intake port of an aircraft engine, the anti ice power of the intake port is calculated according to the heat balance relationship of the intake port surface. The symmetrical particle swarm algorithm is adopted to optimize the calculation process of inlet anti-ice power, and the particle wide area learning strategy is used to promote the calculation of inlet anti-ice power. In this way, the computational complexity is significantly reduce and the accuracy of the power analysis of the inlet anti-ice is enhanced. The simulation results show that the absolute error of the proposed method is less than 1% in 1000 iterations. Through the analysis of the surface temperature changes of the inlet deflector under different experimental conditions, it can be known that the method can effectively analyze the anti-icing power of aircraft engine inlet.

Investigation of parameters affecting rotary engine by means of one zone thermodynamic model

The scope of this work was to establish a one zone thermodynamic calculation model to analyze 13B multi side port (MSP) rotary engine on the base of Mazda RX-8. Volume variation was calculated according to the basic geometrical data of the engine and heat transfer was calculated by using the Wilmer's heat transfer coefficient. Combustion process was defined as heat addition according to Vibe function and simultaneously converting fresh charge to combustion products. To account related losses discharge drag, leakage, crevice volumes and mean friction pressure were taken into account. The port fuel injection (homogeneous mixture) was used in the model assumptions. Model calculations were validated with experimental data. Many parameters were investigated in the model such as combustion chamber pressure, mass and engine torque at different speeds and full load conditions. Moreover, the effect of the Vibe parameter, combustion duration and intake port variations on the torque were investigated. The highest torque value was observed in the model with only primary intake port at low rpm (1000 - 3750 rpm), primary and secondary port at mid rpm (3750 - 6250 rpm). Higher torque values were obtained from two secondary and two auxiliaries than primary, secondary and auxiliary in the literature at high rpm (6250 - 8500 rpm). Combustion duration, Vibe parameter and variations of different intake ports has a significant effect on the engine characteristics. The thermodynamic model developed in this study may be used as an effective tool to examine the performance parameters of the Wankel engine.

Combustion optimization for fuel economy improvement of a dedicated range-extender engine

In this study, the combustion system of a dedicated range-extender engine was optimized based on a production engine for fuel economy improvement with the use of enhanced tumble flow, higher compression ratio, Atkinson cycle and exhaust gas recirculation (EGR). First, the shape of the intake port was optimized to improve in-cylinder tumble and turbulence for combustion enhancement. The computational fluid dynamics (CFD) results showed that compared to the original intake port, the peak tumble ratio during the compression stroke of the new port is improved by 74.0%, and the turbulent kinetic energy at the spark timing is increased by 33.0%, and the results were verified through the flow test bench experiment. The dyno experiment showed that, with the new intake port, the engine brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC) was improved for all test conditions. Then, the late intake valve closing (IVC) and a higher compression ratio were used in combination to adopt the Atkinson cycle. The IVC timing was set to 642° ATDC based on the preset power target. And the compression ratio was set to 12 to balance knock tendency and BSFC improvement. Finally, the cooled EGR was optimized to further suppress the knocking tendency to improve fuel consumption. The results showed that, with the cooling Strategy 2, the attainable maximum EGR ratio at 2400 rpm full load and 70 Nm conditions was increased, the spark timing could be significantly advanced, and the BSFC was improved. The improvement of BSFC is between 6 g/kW·h and 13 g/kW·h for the load range from 40 Nm to the full load. After the optimization, the minimum BSFC of the range-extender engine reaches 233 g/kW·h, while it is around 242 g/kW·h for the base engine. The operation area where fuel consumption is lower than 240 g/kW·h becomes much wider.

DESIGN IMPROVEMENT OF A GAS-FIRED PYROLYSIS REACTOR

Design defects in a reactor often results in poor reactor performance. This study examined the effects of variations in burner holes and air to fuel ratio on thermal efficiency and emission characteristics of three locally fabricated gas cooking stoves with 48, 96 and 144 burner holes. The purpose of the study was to use the stove design with optimal efficiency and lowest emissions, as a model for improving the design of a gas-fired pyrolysis reactor that had air-fuel intake port defect with consequent incomplete combustion. The results of the study showed that stove with 96 burner holes produced the lowest emissions of 89.672 mg/m3 while stove with 144 burner holes was found to be the most fuel efficient with efficiency of 69.0. The results imply that a trade-off exists in the design of the burners to achieve either the most environmentally-friendly or most fuel-efficient burner. However, a compromise of the two objectives of maximizing fuel efficiency and minimizing emissions was reached by choosing as a model, the burner having 96 holes with thermal efficiency of 64.3% and emissions of 89.672 mg/m3 over burner having 144 holes with thermal efficiency of 69.0% and emissions of 258.974 mg/m3 . Keywords: Air flow, , Burner Holes, Combustion, Emissions, Improved design, Thermal ef

Application of a zonal hybrid URANS/LES turbulence model to high and low-resolution grids for engine simulation

A zonal hybrid unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes/large eddy simulation (URANS-LES) Zonal detached-eddy simulation (ZDES) model is applied to internal combustion engine (ICE) simulation and comparisons of predicted flow morphology and variability are carried out against on the transparent combustion chamber (TCC-III) particle image velocimetry (PIV) data set for motored conditions. To this aim, a previously developed model derived from a standard seamless-detached eddy simulation (DES) formulation is adopted for two different grid resolutions. In particular, two zonalization choices are evaluated based on previous single-grid results, in order to assess the model outcomes based on the joint turbulence treatment/grid density: the seamless-DES mode is applied (1) only to the cylinder (TCC-Z1) and (2) to the cylinder and intake port (TCC-Z2). Multi-cycle simulations (50 samples) are carried out and the results are compared to experimental data in terms of PIV images using multiple quality indices on multiple planes ( Y = 0 and X = 0). Finally, comparison of predicted mean flow fields is extended to standard URANS mode. Results show that the use of a cylinder-only seamless-DES treatment on a relatively coarse grid results in a quantitative agreement between simulated and measured (PIV) flow fields, both in terms of average morphology and flow variability, whereas the extension of the DES mode to the intake port does not introduce relevant variations. Quality indicators seem to be moderately sensitive to the grid resolution, thus confirming the adaptive potential of a ZDES–like model and promoting the use of DES–type turbulence modelling even on relatively low-resolution grids. The analysis of average fields compared to URANS simulations highlights the benefit for both grids of a scale-resolving ZDES modelling when the same underlying turbulence model ( k-ε RNG) is used. This study reinforces the recommendation in the use of hybrid URANS-LES models to simulate ICE flows. The adopted ZDES formulation based on the two-equation k-ε RNG model shows that high-quality results can be obtained even on engineering-grade grids, both in terms of average and cycle-to-cycle variation. The numerical results obtained using the two grids with variable resolution are consistent, and this further promotes a wider adoption of this class of models to simulate engine flows in industrial applications.