Experimental and Numerical Study of Methanol/Dimethyl Ether Dual-Fuel Compound Combustion

Abstract

This paper experimentally and numerically investigates the effects of injection timing on combustion of a methanol/dimethyl ether (DME) dual-fuel compound at various methanol concentrations. In this dual-fuel compound combustion approach, methanol is directly injected into the cylinder, and DME is injected at the intake port. The experimental results indicate that methanol injection timing has an obvious effect on the heat release process of the dual-fuel compound combustion, and the effect of methanol concentration (i.e., the engine load) on injection timing is also evident. Late injection should be adopted to achieve smooth combustion and low NOx emissions at high methanol concentrations. Moderate injection timing should be adopted to achieve higher indicated thermal efficiency (ITE) at low methanol concentrations. The simulation results, using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) combined with reduced chemical kinetics, show that methanol injected at −26 °CA after top dead center (ATDC) has a remarkable effect on the high-temperature reaction of DME. In the case of injection timing at −26 °CA ATDC, the high-temperature combustion region is concentrated within the combustion chamber, which results in a higher NO concentration. With injection timing at −6 °CA ATDC, by contrast, the high-temperature combustion region is dispersed in the compression clearance and near the chamber wall, which leads to a relatively low NO concentration. Increasing injection pressure is an effective way to shorten the duration of the methanol/DME dual-fuel compound combustion achieved by later injection.