The Application of a Thermal Efficiency Maximizing Control Strategy for Ignition Timing and Equivalence Ratio on a Natural Gas-Fueled Hercules G1600

1996 ◽  
Vol 118 (4) ◽  
pp. 872-879
Author(s):  
M. L. Franklin ◽  
D. B. Kittelson ◽  
R. H. Leuer
Keyword(s):  
Control System ◽  
Natural Gas ◽  
Thermal Efficiency ◽  
Equivalence Ratio ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Control Process ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Optimization Process ◽  
Lean Burn ◽  
Spark Timing

A two-dimensional optimization process, which simultaneously adjusts the spark timing and equivalence ratio of a lean-burn, natural gas, Hercules G1600 engine, has been demonstrated. First, the three-dimensional surface of thermal efficiency was mapped versus spark timing and equivalence ratio at a single speed and load combination. Then the ability of the control system to find and hold the combination of timing and equivalence ratio that gives the highest thermal efficiency was explored. NOx, CO, and HC maps were also constructed from our experimental data to determine the tradeoffs between efficiency and emissions. The optimization process adds small synchronous disturbances to the spark timing and air flow while the fuel injected per cycle is held constant for four cycles. The engine speed response to these disturbances is used to determine the corrections for spark timing and equivalence ratio. The control process, in effect, uses the engine itself as the primary sensor. The control system can adapt to changes in fuel composition, operating conditions, engine wear, or other factors that may not be easily measured. Although this strategy was previously demonstrated in a Volkswagen 1.7 liter light duty engine (Franklin et al., 1994b), until now it has not been demonstrated in a heavy-duty engine. This paper covers the application of the approach to a Hercules G1600 engine.

A Refined Analytical Combustion Model for Evaluating the Effects of EGR Percentage on Improvement of Knock Characteristics of Natural Gas in Spark Ignition Engine

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Ghanbari ◽  
Hesameddin Safari ◽  
Seyed Ali Jazayeri ◽  
Reza Ebrahimi
Keyword(s):  
Natural Gas ◽  
Compression Ratio ◽  
Thermal Efficiency ◽  
Combustion Products ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Spark Ignition Engine ◽  
Combustion Model ◽  
Lean Burn ◽  
Spark Timing ◽  
Engine Knock

Accurate modeling of engine knock onset is needed for control of SI engine combustion and increase of thermal efficiency. This contribution presents a refined model for analysis of engine knock when using natural gas fuel and EGR. The model is used to compare the effectiveness of EGR to other knock suppression methods such as lean-burn combustion, compression ratio reduction, and ignition timing retardation. The model consists of two zones: a burned combustion products region and an unburned reactants comprising the end gas region, separated by a flame front of negligible thickness. A mass burning rate is derived from a turbulent combustion model. FORTRAN code as programming software is used for combustion simulation. Operating conditions which affect an engine’s tendency to knock are discussed. The model was validated by comparison to experimental data. Results show that EGR addition is more effective at suppressing knock, while maintaining high thermal efficiency and output work, compared to other knock suppression techniques such as inlet pressure and temperature, equivalence ratio, spark timing, or compression ratio.

Lean-Burn Characteristics of a Heavy-Duty Diesel Engine Retrofitted to Natural Gas Spark Ignition

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jinlong Liu ◽  
Cosmin E. Dumitrescu
Keyword(s):  
Natural Gas ◽  
Combustion Chamber ◽  
Spark Ignition ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Combustion Stability ◽  
Fuel Injector ◽  
Heavy Duty ◽  
Lean Burn ◽  
Spark Timing ◽  
Heavy Duty Diesel

Increased utilization of natural-gas (NG) in the transportation sector can decrease the use of petroleum-based fuels and reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. Heavy-duty diesel engines retrofitted to NG spark ignition (SI) can achieve higher efficiencies and low NOx, CO, and HC emissions when operated under lean-burn conditions. To investigate the SI lean-burn combustion phenomena in a bowl-in-piston combustion chamber, a conventional heavy-duty direct-injection CI engine was converted to SI operation by replacing the fuel injector with a spark plug and by fumigating NG in the intake manifold. Steady-state engine experiments and numerical simulations were performed at several operating conditions that changed spark timing, engine speed, and mixture equivalence ratio. Results suggested a two-zone NG combustion inside the diesel-like combustion chamber. More frequent and significant late burn (including double-peak heat release rate) was observed for advanced spark timing. This was due to the chamber geometry affecting the local flame speed, which resulted in a faster and thicker flame in the bowl but a slower and thinner flame in the squish volume. Good combustion stability (COVIMEP < 3 %), moderate rate of pressure rise, and lack of knocking showed promise for heavy-duty CI engines converted to NG SI operation.

Experimental Investigation of a Heavy-Duty CI Engine Retrofitted to Natural Gas SI Operation

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jinlong Liu ◽  
Hemanth Bommisetty ◽  
Cosmin E. Dumitrescu
Keyword(s):  
Natural Gas ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Intake Manifold ◽  
Heavy Duty ◽  
Lean Burn ◽  
Engine Operation ◽  
Cycle Variation ◽  
Spark Timing ◽  
Ci Engine ◽  
Ci Engines

Heavy-duty compression-ignition (CI) engines converted to natural gas (NG) operation can reduce the dependence on petroleum-based fuels and curtail greenhouse gas emissions. Such an engine was converted to premixed NG spark-ignition (SI) operation through the addition of a gas injector in the intake manifold and of a spark plug in place of the diesel injector. Engine performance and combustion characteristics were investigated at several lean-burn operating conditions that changed fuel composition, spark timing, equivalence ratio, and engine speed. While the engine operation was stable, the reentrant bowl-in-piston (a characteristic of a CI engine) influenced the combustion event such as producing a significant late-combustion, particularly for advanced spark timing. This was due to an important fraction of the fuel burning late in the squish region, which affected the end of combustion, the combustion duration, and the cycle-to-cycle variation. However, the lower cycle-to-cycle variation, stable combustion event, and the lack of knocking suggest a successful conversion of conventional diesel engines to NG SI operation using the approach described here.

An Investigation of Lean Combustion in a Natural Gas-Fueled Spark-Ignited Engine

1996 ◽  
Vol 118 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Gupta ◽  
S. R. Bell ◽  
S. T. Tillman
Keyword(s):  
Natural Gas ◽  
Equivalence Ratio ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Engine Fuel ◽  
Performance And Emission ◽  
Lean Combustion ◽  
Indicated Mean Effective Pressure ◽  
Light Duty ◽  
Spark Timing ◽  
Transportation Applications

Natural gas has been used extensively as an engine fuel in gas pipeline transmission applications and, more recently, as a fuel for transportation applications including both light-duty and heavy-duty vehicles. The objective of this work was to investigate the performance and emission characteristics of natural gas in an original equipment manufacturer (OEM), light-duty, spark-ignited engine being operated in the lean fueling regime and compare the operation with gasoline fueling cases. Data were acquired for several operating conditions of speed, throttle position, air-fuel equivalence ratio, and spark timing for both fuels. Results showed that for stoichiometric fueling, with a naturally aspirated engine, a power loss of 10 to 15 percent can be expected for natural gas over gasoline fueling. For lean operation, however, power increases can be expected for equivalence ratios below about φ = 0.80 with natural gas fueling as compared to gasoline. Higher brake thermal efficiencies can also be expected with natural gas fueling with maximum brake torque (MBT) timings over the range of equivalence ratios investigated in this work. Coefficient of variation (COV) data based on the indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP) demonstrated that the engine is much less sensitive to equivalence ratio leaning for natural gas fueling as compared to gasoline cases. The lean limit for a COV of 10 percent was about φ = 0.72 for gasoline and φ = 0.63 for natural gas. Lean fueling resulted in significantly reduced NOx levels where a lower plateau for NOx concentrations was reached at φ near or below 0.70, which corresponded to about 220 ppm. For natural gas fueling, this corresponded to about 1.21 gm/(kW-h). Finally, with MBT timings, relatively short heart release durations were obtained for lean fueling with natural gas compared to gasoline.

Performance and Combustion Investigation of a Lean Burn Natural Gas Engine Using CFD

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sridhar Sahoo ◽  
Srinibas Tripathy ◽  
Dhananjay Kumar Srivastava
Keyword(s):  
Natural Gas ◽  
Equivalence Ratio ◽  
Spark Ignition Engine ◽  
Engine Fuel ◽  
Lean Burn ◽  
Gas Engine ◽  
Natural Gas Engine ◽  
Spark Timing ◽  
Combustion Duration ◽  
Wide Range

Natural gas is widely used in sequentially port fuel injection engine to meet stringent emission regulation. Lean burn operation is one of the ways to improve spark-ignition engine fuel economy. The instability in the combustion process of the lean burn engine is one of the major challenges for engine research. In this study, the performance and combustion characteristics of a lean burn sequential injection compressed natural gas (CNG) engine were investigated numerically using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling over a wide range of air/fuel equivalence ratio. A detailed chemical kinetic mechanism was used for natural gas combustion along with laminar flame speed model to capture lean burn operating condition within the combustion chamber. Combustion pressure, indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP), and heat release were analyzed for performance analysis, whereas flame development angle (CA 10), combustion duration, thermal efficiency were taken for combustion analysis. The results show that on increasing air/fuel equivalence ratio at a given spark timing, IMEP decreases as the lean burn mixture produces less amount of gross power output due to insufficient available energy. Moreover, lower burning velocity characteristic of natural gas extends the combustion duration, where a substantial amount of total energy released after top dead center. It is also seen that optimum spark timing (MBT) for maximum IMEP advances with an increase in air/fuel equivalence ratio due to late ignition timing under lean burn condition. CFD model successfully captures the effect of dilution to illustrate the considerations to design future combustion engine for spark ignited natural gas engine.

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.

Multiple Combustion Stages Inside a Heavy-Duty Diesel Engine Retrofitted to Natural-Gas Spark-Ignition Operation

2020 ◽  
Vol 142 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jinlong Liu ◽  
Cosmin Emil Dumitrescu
Keyword(s):  
Natural Gas ◽  
Heat Release ◽  
Spark Ignition ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Intake Manifold ◽  
Lean Burn ◽  
Spark Timing ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Heavy Duty Diesel ◽  
The One

Abstract Converting existing diesel engines to natural-gas (NG) spark-ignition (SI) operation can reduce the dependence on oil imports and increase energy security. NG-dedicated conversion can be achieved by the addition of a gas injector in the intake manifold and of a spark plug in place of the diesel injector. Previous studies indicated that lean-burn NG inside the traditional diesel chamber (i.e., a bowl-in-piston geometry) is a two-stage combustion (i.e., a fast burn inside the bowl followed by a slower burn inside the squish). However, a triple-peak apparent heat release rate (AHRR) was seen at specific operating conditions (e.g., advanced spark timing (ST) at medium load and engine speed), suggesting that one of the two combustion stages may separate again. Specifically, the burn inside the squish region divided in two events before and after top dead center (TDC). This was due to the different flow motion inside the squish during the compression stroke compared to the one in the expansion stroke, which affected the combustion environments. The result was the apparition of two close peaks in pressure trace, which suggest larger gradients in pressure and temperature than at a more delayed ST. In addition, the phasing and magnitude of three peaks of the heat release changed cycle-to-cycle. As an advanced ST is the usual strategy used in lean-burn SI combustion, understanding phenomena such as the one presented here can be important for reducing engine-out emissions and increase engine efficiency.

Experimental Investigation of a Heavy-Duty Compression-Ignition Engine Retrofitted to Natural Gas Spark-Ignition Operation

2019 ◽  
Vol 141 (11) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jinlong Liu ◽  
Hemanth Kumar Bommisetty ◽  
Cosmin Emil Dumitrescu
Keyword(s):  
Natural Gas ◽  
Spark Ignition ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Compression Ignition ◽  
Heavy Duty ◽  
Compression Ignition Engine ◽  
Engine Operation ◽  
Cycle Variation ◽  
Spark Timing ◽  
Ci Engines

Heavy-duty compression-ignition (CI) engines converted to natural gas (NG) operation can reduce the dependence on petroleum-based fuels and curtail greenhouse gas emissions. Such an engine was converted to premixed NG spark-ignition (SI) operation through the addition of a gas injector in the intake manifold and of a spark plug in place of the diesel injector. Engine performance and combustion characteristics were investigated at several lean-burn operating conditions that changed fuel composition, spark timing, equivalence ratio, and engine speed. While the engine operation was stable, the reentrant bowl-in-piston (a characteristic of a CI engine) influenced the combustion event such as producing a significant late combustion, particularly for advanced spark timing. This was due to an important fraction of the fuel burning late in the squish region, which affected the end of combustion, the combustion duration, and the cycle-to-cycle variation. However, the lower cycle-to-cycle variation, stable combustion event, and the lack of knocking suggest a successful conversion of conventional diesel engines to NG SI operation using the approach described here.

Development and validation of a novel quasi-dimensional combustion model for un-scavenged prechamber gas engines with numerical simulations and engine experiments

2020 ◽  
pp. 146808742095133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Konstantinos Bardis ◽  
Panagiotis Kyrtatos ◽  
Guoqing Xu ◽  
Christophe Barro ◽  
Yuri Martin Wright ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Numerical Simulations ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Design Parameters ◽  
Combustion Model ◽  
Experimental Investigations ◽  
Computationally Efficient ◽  
Lean Burn ◽  
Dimensional Models ◽  
Three Dimensional Models

Lean-burn gas engines equipped with an un-scavenged prechamber have proven to reduce nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions and fuel consumption, while mitigating combustion cycle-to-cycle fluctuations and unburned hydrocarbon (UHC) emissions. However, the performance of a prechamber gas engine is largely dependent on the prechamber design, which has to be optimised for the particular main chamber geometry and the foreseen engine operating conditions. Optimisation of such complex engine components relies partly on computationally efficient simulation tools, such as quasi and zero-dimensional models, since extensive experimental investigations can be costly and time-consuming. This article presents a newly developed quasi-dimensional (Q-D) combustion model for un-scavenged prechamber gas engines, which is motivated by the need for reliable low order models to optimise the principle design parameters of the prechamber. Our fundamental aim is to enhance the predictability and robustness of the proposed model with the inclusion of the following: (i) Formal derivation of the combustion and flow submodels via reduction of the corresponding three-dimensional models. (ii) Individual validation of the various submodels. (iii) Combined use of numerical simulations and experiments for the model validation. The resulting model shows very good agreement with the numerical simulations and the experiments from two different engines with various prechamber geometries using a set of fixed calibration parameters.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document