Performance and emission characteristics of diesel engine using ether additives: A review

Pressure on alternative fuels and strict environmental regulations are driving a strategic shift in the efficient use of renewable biofuels. One of the promising biofuel candidates recently interested by scholars is a biological or organic additive that is added into diesel or biodiesel fuel to improve engine performance and reduce pollutant emissions. With efforts to improve efficiency and combustion quality in cylinders, combustion characteristics, flame structure and emission formation mechanism in compression ignition (CI) engines using blended fuel with organic additives have been studied on the effect of additive properties on the combustion behaviour. In this review, the physicochemical properties of typical organic additives such as ethers compounds and their effects on engine performance and emission characteristics have been discussed and evaluated based on conclusions of recent relevant literature. The results of the analysis revealed the prospect of using ether additives to improve combustion in cylinders and reduce pollutant emissions from CI engines. Obviously, the presence of higher oxygen content, lower viscosity and density, and higher cetane number resulted in a positive change in the combustion dynamics as well as a chain of mechanisms for the formation of pollutant precursors in the cylinder. Therefore, ether additives have a significant contribution to the sustainable energy strategy of the transportation sector in the next period when internal combustion engines still dominate in the competition for energy system choices equipped on vehicles.

Mathematical Modelling of Turbulent Combustion of Two-Phase Mixtures of Gas and Solid Particles with a Eulerian–Eulerian Approach: The Case of Hydrogen Combustion in the Presence of Graphite Particles

The numerical modelling of turbulent combustion of H2–air mixtures with solid graphite particles is a challenging and key issue in many industrial problems including nuclear safety. This study presents a Eulerian–Eulerian model based on the resolution of the Navier–Stokes equations via large eddy simulation (LES) coupled with a system of ordinary differential equations (ODEs) of the detailed chemical kinetics to simulate the combustion of mixtures of gases and particles. The model was applied to predict the transient evolution of turbulent combustion sequences of mixtures of hydrogen, air and graphite particles under low concentration conditions. When applied to simulate lab-scale combustion experiments, the results showed a good agreement between experimental and numerical data using a detailed chemical kinetic model. Moreover, the model was able to predict some key experimental tendencies and revealed that the presence of a low concentration of graphite particles (~96 g/m3) in the scenario influenced the hydrogen combustion dynamics for mixtures of 20% (in volume) of hydrogen in air. Under these conditions, pressure levels reached at the walls of the sphere were increased and the combustion time was shortened. The results also showed the viability of using this kind of a model for obtaining global combustion parameters such as wall pressure evolution with time.

Experimental Investigation of Acoustic Characteristic on Orifice Shaped With Bias Flow

Combustion dynamics has been a significant problem for a lean, premixed, prevaporized (LPP) combustor. Understanding the acoustic characteristics of combustor components is essential to modeling thermoacoustic behavior in a gas turbine combustion system. Acoustic characteristics such as impedance and scattering matrix elements are experimentally determined for different-shape orifices with an emphasis on the effect of the flow field on them. These orifices are used to represent premixed swirl cups in LP combustors. The validity and limitation of two different methodologies are evaluated by comparing measured results with those of others. Consistent with analytical predictions, the measured resistance through an orifice increases as the bias flow increases. Different types of orifices considered in this study behave similarly to a thin orifice at high bias flow even though the discharge coefficients vary as much as 30% between them. The conventional method produces impedance values independent of waves reflected from the end boundary condition only when the scattering elements at the orifice downstream are roughly equal to those upstream of the orifice. However, the scattering matrix method produces impedance values that are not affected by the source or reflected waves at the system’s boundary. The scattering matrix measurements show that the reflection and transmission elements increases and decreases, respectively, as the bias flow through an orifice increases.

Application of Large Eddy Simulation for HA_Class Combustion System Design to Mitigate Combustion Instabilities (Frequency, and Amplitude)

Enabled by national commercialization of massive shale resources, Gas Turbines continue to be the backbone of power generation in the US. With the ever-increasing demand on efficiency, GT combustion sections have evolved to include shorter combustion lengths and multiple axial staging of the fuel, while at the same time operating at ever increasing temperatures. This paper presents the results of very detailed Large Eddy Simulations of one (or two) combustor can(s) for a 7HA GE Gas Turbine Engine over a range of operating parameters. The model of the simulated combustor can(s) includes (include) all the details of the combustor from compressor diffuser to the end of the stationary part of the first stage of the turbine. It includes the geometries of multiple pre-mixers within the combustion can(s) and the complete design features for axial fuel staging. All simulations in this work are performed using the CharLES flow solver developed by Cascade Technologies. CharLES is a suite of massively parallel CFD tools designed specifically for multiphysics LES in high-fidelity engineering applications. Thermo acoustic results from LES were validated first in the physical GE lab and then in full-engine testing. Both the trend as well as the predicted amplitudes for the excited axial dominant combustion mode matched the data produced in the lab and in the engine. The simulations also revealed insight into the ingestion of hot gases by different hardware pieces that may occur when machine operates under medium to high combustion dynamics amplitudes. This insight then informed the subsequent design changes which were made to the existing hardware to mitigate the problems encountered.