Effect of excess hydrogen on hydrogen fueled internal combustion engine under full load

Abstract

Detailed hydrogen-air chemical reaction mechanisms were coupled with three dimension grids of an experimental hydrogen fueled internal combustion engine (HICE) to establish a combustion model based on CONVERGE software. The influence of excess hydrogen coefficient on the combustion and emission characteristics of HICE under full load was studied based on the CFD model. Simulation results showed that excess hydrogen leaded to higher concentration of OH species in flame front, and quicker hydrogen-oxygen reaction and flame propagation speed, which in turn leaded to higher pressure and temperature in cylinder. The rise of pressure and temperature in turn contributed to the increase of indicate power but un-burned hydrogen leaded to decrease of efficiency. NOx, especially NO emissions decreased significantly with excess hydrogen under full load not only because increased of H concentration, and decreased of O and OH concentration, which leaded to reverse reaction of NO formation through thermal NO routes. Low excess hydrogen coefficient can achieve a good trade-off between power and emissions under full load.