Numerical analysis of methane slip source distribution in a four-stroke dual-fuel marine engine

Abstract

We present the results of a numerical model which has been developed for estimating the contribution to the methane slip from different sources in a four-stroke dual-fuel marine engine running on natural gas. The model is a thermodynamic three-zone zero-dimensional full engine cycle model and considers methane slip contributions from short-circuiting, crevices and wall quenching. The model is applied to analyze the methane slip from a four-stroke dual-fuel medium speed marine engine using natural gas as primary fuel. At low loads, wall quenching is found to be the dominant contribution to the methane slip. At full load, the wall quenching contribution is comparable to the level of the short-circuiting and crevice contributions which only vary relatively little with load. At 75% load, the contribution from short-circuiting is highest. In addition, we found that in-cylinder post-oxidation of unburned fuel remaining after the main combustion is negligible.