Numerical investigation on knock characteristics and mechanism of large-bore natural gas dual-fuel marine engine

Abstract

This work revealed the unique knock characteristics and mechanism of large-bore natural gas dual-fuel Marine engine with flame jet and strong swirl by a novel three-dimensional pressure difference method to further reduce the knock tendency. The knock characteristics were investigated by pressure monitoring points distributed in different spaces. The results indicate that, owing to the large cylinder bore, almost no pressure oscillations were found in the center position, whereas, severe pressure oscillations appeared at the edge. The pressure difference results illustrate that the movement of the high-pressure area and the low-pressure area tends to the low-frequency resonance mode (1,0), which manifests as an axial rotation following the swirl motion direction. Furthermore, the pressure difference method combined with the maximum amplitude of pressure oscillation (MAPO) method and energy distribution slices was adopted to explore the knock mechanism. The results show that the large-bore natural gas engine has a special knock mechanism which can neither be attributed to the end-gas self-ignition theory nor completely flame acceleration theory. The knock mechanism is that the flame jets from the prechambers cause the uneven initial pressure distribution, and the uneven pressure distribution is strengthened by the uneven heat release on the flame surface. This knock mechanism was confirmed by changing the pilot fuel mass and equivalence ratio subsequently. By the way, a knock suppression method by reducing the pilot fuel was proposed based on the knock mechanism.