Application of semi-direct fuel injection system to free piston engine generator for better performance: Simulation approach with validation results

Abstract

This paper explores methods to improve the fuel economy of a two-stroke free piston engine generator (FPEG) with no additional cost. In order to solve the problem of low fuel capture and poor fuel economy of two-stroke FPEG using port fuel injection (PFI), the fuel injection method is optimised in this paper. This fuel injection system is semi-direct injection (SDI). In contrast to PFI, SDI also uses a low-pressure injector, which introduces fuel directly into the ports of the engine. This study explores the feasibility of SDI on a free-piston engine generator through numerical simulation. The results show that SDI can effectively avoid short-circuit losses and improve the fuel capture rate by more than 60 % relative to PFI. Meanwhile, the ISFC is reduced by 42.3 %, and the lowest fuel consumption rate is 259.7 g/(kW·h). The combustion efficiency of SDI is maintained at over 95 % under warm-up conditions. Compared with PFI, the stagnation period is shortened by up to 10.9 % and the centre of gravity of combustion is advanced by up to 16.7 %. SDI effectively reduces HC emissions and has a lower NOx emission level than PFI. At the same time, SDI produces more CO due to stratified combustion.