A Comparison of Injection, Spray, and Combustion Characteristics for Non-Eroded and Eroded Multi-Hole Fuel Injectors

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gina M. Magnotti ◽  
A. Cody Nunno ◽  
Prithwish Kundu ◽  
Aniket Tekawade ◽  
Brandon A. Sforzo ◽  
...  

Abstract It is well known that cavitation erosion in fuel injectors can prevent reliable engine performance after only several thousand hours of operation. However, current simulation tools lack the ability to link flow predictions within the fuel injector to both the efficacy of combustion strategies and lifetime of the injector. Multiphase flow simulation predictions were studied and compared between an informed baseline injector geometry and an x-ray scanned eroded injector geometry. Overall, erosion was found to decrease the fuel mass delivery and injection velocities. A two-stage static coupling approach was employed to link the predicted injection conditions from non-eroded and eroded injectors with the external spray simulations under reacting conditions. Combustion modeling in this coupled approach was carried out using the Unsteady Flamelet Progress Variable approach with a detailed chemical mechanism for n-dodecane, comprising of 2,755 species and 11,173 reactions. Erosion in the injectors led to lower rates of spray penetration in comparison to the baseline configurations. Analysis of the reacting spray simulations revealed an insensitivity of ignition to erosion, yet shorter lift off lengths, higher levels of the soot, and lower levels of NOx were predicted in the eroded injector.

Author(s):  
W. Scott Wayne ◽  
Ryan A. Barnett ◽  
Jeffrey M. Cutright ◽  
Ted E. Stewart

As part of the Norfolk-Southern Railroad’s on-going investigation into fuel consumption reductions for their fleet of 3000 locomotives, the Center for Alternative Fuels, Engines and Emissions at West Virginia University conducted on-site locomotive engine performance and emissions measurements to characterize the performance, fuel consumption and emissions associated with fuel injectors from two injector suppliers. Emissions and fuel consumption were measured using the West Virginia University Transportable Locomotive Emissions Testing Laboratory, which was set up at the Norfolk-Southern Heavy Repair Facility in Roanoke, Virginia. The tests were conducted to evaluate potential emissions and fuel consumption differences between two fuel injector suppliers using an EMD GP38-2 locomotive equipped with a 2100 hp (1566 kW), 16-cylinder, EMD 16-645E engine. The test locomotive engine was freshly overhauled and certified to the EPA locomotive Tier 0 emissions standards. Emissions and fuel consumption measurements were conducted according to the Federal Test Procedures defined in the Code of Federal Regulations 40CFR Part 92 Subpart B [1]. The engine was first tested in the “as overhauled” configuration with the OEM fuel injectors to establish the baseline emissions and fuel consumption. The baseline FTP results confirmed that this locomotive was in compliance with the Federal Tier 0 emissions standards. The OEM specification fuel injectors were replaced with “Fuel Saver” injectors designed and manufactured by an aftermarket injector supplier referred to in this paper as Supplier B. The Supplier B injectors reduced fuel consumption on the average of 2–4% for each notch, except for Notch 4 and Low Idle. However, the Supplier B injectors increased the NOx levels by 20–30% for almost every notch, which is an expected result due to the improved combustion efficiency.


Fluids ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (12) ◽  
pp. 421
Author(s):  
Aishvarya Kumar ◽  
Jamshid Nouri ◽  
Ali Ghobadian

The occurrence of vortices in the sac volume of automotive multi-hole fuel injectors plays an important role in the development of vortex cavitation, which directly influences the flow structure and emerging sprays that, in turn, influence the engine performance and emissions. In this study, the RANS-based turbulence modelling approach was used to predict the internal flow in a vertical axis-symmetrical multi-hole (6) diesel fuel injector under non-cavitating conditions. The project aimed to predict the aforementioned vortical structures accurately at two different needle lifts in order to form a correct opinion about their occurrence. The accuracy of the simulations was assessed by comparing the predicted mean axial velocity and RMS velocity of LDV measurements, which showed good agreement. The flow field analysis predicted a complex, 3D, vortical flow structure with the presence of different types of vortices in the sac volume and the nozzle hole. Two main types of vortex were detected: the “hole-to-hole” connecting vortex, and double “counter-rotating” vortices emerging from the needle wall and entering the injector hole facing it. Different flow patterns in the rotational direction of the “hole-to-hole” vortices have been observed at the low needle lift (anticlockwise) and full needle lift (clockwise), due to their different flow passages in the sac, causing a much higher momentum inflow at the lower lift with its much narrower flow passage.


1996 ◽  
Vol 118 (4) ◽  
pp. 920-926 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. C. Sharatchandra ◽  
D. L. Rhode

This paper analytically investigates the aerodynamic bristle force distributions in brush seals used in aircraft gas turbine engines. These forces are responsible for the onset of bristle tip lift-off from the rotor surface which significantly affects brush seal performance. In order to provide an enhanced understanding of the mechanisms governing the bristle force distributions, a full Navier-Stokes flow simulation is performed in a streamwise periodic module of bristles corresponding to the staggered square configuration. As is the case with a companion paper (Sharatchandra and Rhode, 1996), this study has the novel feature of considering the combined effects of axial (leakage) and tangential (swirl) flows. Specifically, the effects of intra-bristle spacing and bristle inclination angle are explored. The results indicate that the lifting bristle force increases with reduced intra-bristle spacing and increased inclination angle. It was also observed that increases in the axial or tangential flow rates increased the force component in the normal as well as the flow direction.


1981 ◽  
Vol 103 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. R. Shekleton

The Radial Engine Division of Solar Turbines International, an Operating Group of International Harvester, under contract to the U.S. Army Mobility Equipment Research & Development Command, developed and qualified a 10 kW gas turbine generator set. The very small size of the gas turbine created problems and, in the combustor, novel solutions were necessary. Differing types of fuel injectors, combustion chambers, and flame stabilizing methods were investigated. The arrangement chosen had a rotating cup fuel injector, in a can combustor, with conventional swirl flame stabilization but was devoid of the usual jet stirred recirculation. The use of centrifugal force to control combustion conferred substantial benefit (Rayleigh Instability Criteria). Three types of combustion processes were identified: stratified and unstratified charge (diffusion flames) and pre-mix. Emphasis is placed on five nondimensional groups (Richardson, Bagnold, Damko¨hler, Mach, and Reynolds numbers) for the better control of these combustion processes.


Author(s):  
K. Smith ◽  
A. Fahme

The design and development testing of a full scale, low emissions, ceramic combustor for a 5500 HP industrial gas turbine are described. The combustor was developed under a joint program conducted by the U.S. DOE and Solar Turbines. The ceramic combustor is designed to replace the production Centaur 50S SoLoNOx burner which uses lean-premixed combustion to limit NOx and CO to 25 and 50 ppm, respectively. Both the ceramic and production combustors are annular in shape and employ twelve premixing, natural gas fuel injectors. The ceramic combustor design effort involved the integration of two CFCC cylinders (76.2 cm [30 in.] and 35.56 cm [14 in.] diameters) into the combustor primary zone. The ceramic combustor was evaluated at Solar in full scale test rigs and a test engine. Performance of the combustor was excellent with high combustion efficiency and extremely low NOx and CO emissions. The hot walls of the ceramic combustor played a significant role in reducing CO emissions. This suggests that liner cooling air injected through the metal production liner contributes to CO emissions by reaction quenching at the liner walls. It appears that ceramics can serve to improve combustion efficiency near the combustor lean limit which, in turn, would allow further reductions in NOx emissions. Approximately 50 hours of operation have been accumulated using the ceramic combustor. No significant deterioration in the CFCC liners has been observed. A 4000 hour field test of the combustion system is planned to begin in 1997 as a durability assessment.


Author(s):  
Yu.V. Grebeneva ◽  
A.Yu. Lutsenko ◽  
A.V. Nazarova

The purpose of the work was to mathematically simulate the flow around the fairing shell of the launch vehicle at a low subsonic free-stream velocity in the α = 0...360° angle-of-attack range. The calculations were performed using the SolidWorks Flow Simulation software package and the open source OpenFoam package based on the use of numerical methods for simulating the motion of liquid and gas. Within the research, we obtained the flow patterns and the aerodynamic coefficients of the longitudinal and normal forces, the pitch moment, and calculated the aerodynamic quality of the shell. Furthermore, we determined the positions of the stable equilibrium of the model and revealed the features of the flowing around the shell of the combined form at flow from the convex and concave sides. Next, we analyzed the leeward lift-off zones and the zones with increased pressure on the windward surface during flow from the concave side. Finally, we compared the obtained characteristics with the experimental data of TsAGI.


2016 ◽  
Vol 139 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua A. Strafaccia ◽  
Semih M. Ölçmen ◽  
John L. Hoke ◽  
Daniel E. Paxson

Unsteady flow within the intake system of a hydrogen–air pulse detonation engine (PDE) has been analyzed using a quasi-one-dimensional (Q1D) computational fluid dynamic (CFD) code. The analysis provides insight into the unsteady nature of localized equivalence ratios and their effects on PDE performance. For this purpose, a code originally configured to model the PDE tube proper was modified to include a 6.1 m long intake with a single fuel injector located approximately 3.05 m upstream of the primary intake valve. The results show that constant fuel mass flow rate injection from the injector creates large local variations in equivalence ratio throughout the PDE within a cycle. The effect of fill fraction on the engine performance is better described with the presence of the inlet model. However, the effect of ignition delay is shown to be better predicted with a model without the inlet.


2009 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 195-214 ◽  
Author(s):  
S Begg ◽  
F Kaplanski ◽  
S Sazhin ◽  
M Hindle ◽  
M Heikal

A phenomenological study of vortex ring-like structures in gasoline fuel sprays is presented for two types of production fuel injectors: a low-pressure, port fuel injector (PFI) and a high-pressure atomizer that injects fuel directly into an engine combustion chamber (G-DI). High-speed photography and phase Doppler anemometry (PDA) were used to study the fuel sprays. In general, each spray was seen to comprise three distinct periods: an initial, unsteady phase; a quasi-steady injection phase; and an exponential trailing phase. For both injectors, vortex ring-like structures could be clearly traced in the tail of the sprays. The location of the region of maximal vorticity of the droplet and gas mixture was used to calculate the temporal evolution of the radial and axial components of the translational velocity of the vortex ring-like structures. The radial components of this velocity remained close to zero in both cases. The experimental results were used to evaluate the robustness of previously developed models of laminar and turbulent vortex rings. The normalized time, , and normalized axial velocity, , were introduced, where tinit is the time of initial observation of vortex ring-like structures. The time dependence of on was approximated as and for the PFI and G-DI sprays respectively. The G-DI spray compared favourably with the analytical vortex ring model, predicting , in the limit of long times, where α = 3/2 in the laminar case and α = 3/4 when the effects of turbulence are taken into account. The results for the PFI spray do not seem to be compatible with the predictions of the available theoretical models.


Author(s):  
R. A. Hicks ◽  
M. Whiteman ◽  
C. W. Wilson

One of the major aims of research in gas turbine combustor systems is the minimisation of non-desirable emissions. The primary method of reducing pollutants such as soot and NOx has been to run the combustion primary zone lean. Unfortunately, this causes problems when the combustor is run under idle and relight conditions as the primary zone air fuel ratio (AFR) can exceed the flammability limit. Altering this AFR directly affects the primary zone aerodynamics through changes in the spray profile. One method of determining the influence of changes in AFR upon the primary zone is to use Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) models. However, to model the flow through an air-blast fuel injector and accurately predict the resulting primary zone aerodynamics requires hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of cells. Therefore, with current computer capabilities simplifications need to be made. One simplification is to model the primary zone as a 2-D case. This reduces the number of cells to a computationally solvable level. However, by reducing the problem to 2-D the ability to accurately model air-blast fuel injectors is lost as they are intrinsically 3-D devices. Therefore, it is necessary to define boundary conditions for the fuel injector. Currently, due to difficulties in obtaining experimental measurements inside a air-blast fuel injector, these boundary conditions are often derived using semi-empirical methods. This paper presents and compares two such models; the model proposed by Crocker et al. in 1996 and one developed at DERA specifically for modelling air-blast fuel injectors. The work also highlights the importance of the often neglected radial component upon the primary zone aerodynamics.


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