Numerical study of the firing, radicals and intermediates in the combustion process of a H2-assisted combustion DISI methanol engine

Abstract

The firing, radicals and intermediates in the combustion process of a port-injection hydrogen (H2)-assisted combustion direct-injection spark-ignition (DISI) methanol engine were numerically simulated. The engine with port-injection H2 plus direct-injection methanol was tested at 1800 rpm with intake manifold absolute pressure of 68 kPa. AVL-Fire coupling the detailed methanol chemical kinetics modeling with 21 components and 84 elementary reactions was used to simulate in this study. The model calculation results agreed well with the experiments, and the average error is less than 3% and can guarantee other outcomes. The simulation results show that high added H2 ratio (RH2) has higher turbulent kinetic energy in the region closer to the combustion chamber wall. When RH2 is greater than 6%, the formation time of fire core is obviously shortened and the average flame propagation velocity is significantly increased. Increasing RH2, the generation speed and the peak value of H, O and OH radicals increase, and higher concentration of radicals accelerates the diffusion of combustion from the hot flame zone. OH radical is a key reactant, which always plays a decisive role in the process of methanol oxidation. Effect of added H2 on methanol oxidation reaction is reflected in accelerating the initial stage of combustion and ameliorating the intensity of reaction. The mass fractions of HCHO, HCO and CO, as the main intermediate products, all show a trend of increasing first and then decreasing with the crank angle (CA), and their peak values indicate the phase of the most violent reaction. The peak values of HCHO and HCO are all near the top dead center (TDC), which is consistent with the trend of H and OH radicals generation rate. The relationship between consumption rate of methanol and CA shows that the consumption rate of methanol at RH2 = 9% is the earliest and steepest, and most of methanol has been consumed by reaction before TDC. Added H2 accelerates the fire propagation, H2 dominates the process of radical formation and methanol chain reaction, the flame spread period is shortened rapidly, and the effect of added H2 to promote combustion is obvious.