Effects of stroke on spark-ignition combustion with gasoline and methanol

Abstract

Besides electrification of the powertrain, new synthetic alternative fuels with the potential to be produced from renewable sources come into focus. Methanol is the most elementary liquid synthetic fuel and no novelty for use in internal combustion engines. This article presents pathways to achieve high efficiency spark-ignition methanol combustion on a direct injection spark-ignition single-cylinder research engine with two different stroke-to-bore ratios (1.2 and 1.5) and a constant bore. In addition, two compression ratios (CRs) were investigated on each setup: CR = 10.8 using RON95 E10 gasoline fuel and a higher CR = 15 using neat methanol. In contrast to previous studies of stroke-to-bore ratio influences on SI combustion, this article aims at demonstrating how the advantages of a high stroke-to-bore ratio can be exploited by combining a long-stroke engine with increased compression ratios and methanol. The increased stroke enhances the tumble motion due to a higher piston speed and a larger compression volume which improves the mixture homogenization and combustion velocity. Moreover, the lower surface/volume ratio results in a reduced heat transfer. When using RON95E10 gasoline fuel and CR = 10.8, an efficiency gain of up to 1.6% could be achieved with the long-stroke compared to the short-stroke especially at lower engine loads. With methanol and CR = 15, an efficiency gain of up to 1.6% could be achieved with the long-stroke setup compared to the short-stroke engine. Subsequently, lean burn conditions were experimentally investigated with methanol and CR = 15. The longer stroke allowed the lean burn limit to be extended from λ = 1.9 to λ = 2.0 with an efficiency gain of up to 2.2%. A maximum indicated efficiency of 47.4% could be achieved at λ = 1.9 with methanol on the long-stroke engine with CR = 15.