Effect of direct water injection timing and quantity on combustion, performance, and emission characteristics of a homogeneous charge compression ignition engine − A CFD analysis

Abstract

Direct water injection in an HCCI engine is a promising strategy to extend the operating load limit. The advantage of water injection depends on the percentage of water evaporated inside the cylinder, which further depends on the time available for the evaporation and the interaction of water spray plumes with the in-cylinder air-flow field. Here, CFD investigations are done to find the effect of water injection timing (WIT) and quantity on the load limit and performance and emission characteristics of the HCCI engine. Various WITs are considered for the study, varying from 100° CA before TDC to 20° CA before TDC. The water-to-fuel ratio is varied from 0 to 1 in steps of 0.2. A three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics model is used for the study, and CFD models used are validated from the available experimental data in the literature. The results show that WITs before 650° CA and after 670° CA are inappropriate for the HCCI engine, as heat release rate and MRPR are high in these cases. Also, the evaporation rate of water increases when the water injection is done in the region where the direction of the air-flow field is opposite to the direction of water injection. At the WIT of 60°, the HRR and MRPR are minimal, and the water vapor distribution is good compared to other cases. Also, it is seen that a water-to-fuel ratio of 0.8 gives more scope for extending the upper load limit with a marginal penalty of the IMEP; hence, a WIT of 60° with the water-to-fuel ratio of 0.8 is considered optimum. With the optimum case, it is feasible to increase the ER from 0.74 to 0.95, resulting in an increase of IMEP from 3.23 bar to 4.92 bar, which is 52.3 % more than without a water injection case at the ER of 0.74. Also, it showed minimum NOx emissions in all the water injection cases. Hence, these results address the primary challenges associated with HCCI engines, demonstrating that direct water injection can substantially improve the combustion controllability and operational range of HCCI engines.