Potential and challenges for high-pressure direct injection ammonia combustion concepts for propulsion applications

This article describes the application of a modified first-order conditional moment closure model used in conjunction with the trajectory-generated low-dimensional manifold method in large-eddy simulation of pilot ignited high-pressure direct injection natural gas combustion in a heavy-duty diesel engine. The article starts with a review of the intrinsic low-dimensional manifold method for reducing detailed chemistry and various formulations for the construction of such manifolds. It is followed by a brief review of the conditional moment closure method for modelling the interaction between turbulence and combustion chemistry. The high computational cost associated with the direct implementation of the basic conditional moment closure model was discussed. The article then describes the formulation of a modified approach to solve the conditional moment closure equation, whose reaction source terms for the conditional mass fractions for species were obtained by projecting the turbulent perturbation onto the reaction manifold. The main model assumptions were explained and the resulting limitations were discussed. A numerical experiment was conducted to examine the validity the model assumptions. The model was then implemented in a combustion computational fluid dynamics solver developed on an open-source computational fluid dynamics platform. Non-reactive jet simulations were first conducted and the results were compared to the experimental measurement from a high-pressure visualization chamber to verify that the jet penetration under engine relevant conditions was correctly predicted. The model was then used to simulate natural gas combustion in a heavy-duty diesel engine equipped with a high-pressure direct injection system. The simulation results were compared with the experimental measurement from a research engine to verify the accuracy of the model for both the combustion rate and engine-out emissions.

Given the intricate combustion process and the multitude of control parameters inherent to the high-pressure direct injection (HPDI) diesel/natural gas dual-fuel engine, achieving precise combustion control represents a significant challenge. It is imperative to develop a high-precision engine model and integrate it with advanced control algorithms to achieve an optimal combustion strategy. In this study, a system-level engine plant model with high accuracy and real-time performance was developed using a modular modeling method through the calibration of experimental data and the simplification of model calculations. In this model, the relative error of the model simulation is controlled to be less than 5%, and the real-time factor (RTF) is less than 1. The multi-stage combustion process was parameterized by performing piecewise linear fitting of the heat release rate curve, and the relationship between injection parameters and combustion parameters was established using multiple regression analysis. On this basis, a model predictive control (MPC) algorithm was designed and verified in the constructed model-in-the-loop (MiL) platform. The results demonstrate that the designed MPC algorithm can accurately track the combustion phasing CA50 and the indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP) targets with a maximum error of 0.0624° and 0.046% within 6 and 8 cycles while ensuring the stability of the control process. The MiL platform not only meets the current combustion control requirements but also provides a general basis for the development of subsequent engine multi-control strategies and cooperative control optimization.

Diesel air-fuel mixing and combustion have been investigated in a Rapid Compression Machine (RCM). The measurements were performed at high injection pressures up to 260 MPa and under reacting and non-reacting conditions. The spray was injected through solenoid-controlled multi-hole injectors. Two nozzles were applied with orifice diameters of 175 μm (D175) and 150 μm (D150), respectively. The visualization of the penetration of the liquid and the gaseous phase as well as the spray cone angle under evaporative, non-reacting conditions was carried out by the shadowgraph imaging technique in combination with a high speed camera. For combustion studies the flame luminosity of the flame as well as the chemiluminescence signals emitted by the OH radicals in the UV range were detected. Investigations revealed different behavior of the macroscopic spray characteristics with the two applied nozzles when increasing the injection pressure from 200 MPa to 260 MPa. With the larger nozzle diameter (D175) the spray penetration and the spray propagation velocity increase as the injection pressure is increased. On the contrary to that, with the smaller nozzle diameter (D150) an increase of the injection pressure had no effect on the spray velocity. With 260 MPa a higher spray penetration was only observed at the beginning of the injection due to the faster opening of the needle. The further propagation of the tip of the spray was similar with 200 MPa and 260 MPa. With both applied nozzles the injection pressure has little effect on the penetration length of the liquid phase. At an applied injection pressure of 200 MPa the near-nozzle spray angle is wider with D175, whereas similar spray angles were observed at 260 MPa. From the measurements in reacting atmosphere an earlier ignition of the fuel and a faster combustion could be shown with nozzle D150. In addition, a higher combustion pressure was measured. This can be attributed to better air-fuel mixing and a higher premixed portion, which was confirmed by the analysis of the spray angles in the far-nozzle region obtained from the shadowgraph images at non-reacting conditions.

Decarbonizing long-haul goods transportation poses a substantial challenge. High-efficiency natural gas (NG) engines, which retain the efficiency of a diesel engine but reduce the carbon content of the fuel, offer substantial potential for near-term greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions. A fast-running model that can predict engine performance, GHG and air pollutant emissions is critical to assessing this approach for different applications and vehicle drivetrain configurations. This paper presents the development, validation and application of an engine system model that adapts GT-SUITE™'s phenomenological DI-Pulse predictive model to predict the performance and emissions of a 6-cylinder NG engine using a high pressure direct-injection combustion process. The model includes the engine air exchange system, enabling the prediction of the engine and in-cylinder conditions and overall performance over transient drive cycles. The engine model with a fixed set of calibration parameters captures the complex high-pressure direct injection combustion process and generates time-resolved parameters that are fed into a coupled machine learning model to predict emissions, including nitrogen oxide (NOx) and methane (CH4) emissions. While the 1-D model's predictions for CH4 were not accurate, coupling the 1-D engine model with a machine learning model has been shown to substantially improve the estimation of CH4 emissions and allow accurate prediction of engine total GHG emissions over different duty cycles. The model has been validated using transient engine dynamometer data and is then applied to assess performance and emissions over several regulatory and real-world long-haul drive cycles. The model showed an average error of less than 5% in steady operation. Cumulative errors of NOx and CH4 emissions in studied cycles were also less than 10%. The results showed that CH4 share in total GHG emissions ranges from 0.2% to 1.4% over various drive cycles. By predicting engine performance and emissions, the developed combined model has considerable potential for use in engine evaluation studies, especially when combined with new technologies across different duty cycles.

Nitrogen oxides formation mechanisms and control strategies in ammonia high-pressure direct injection combustion of marine low-speed engines

The identification and solution of NVH problem is the main way to continuously improve the comfort in the mechanical field. With the application of 350 bar high pressure fuel supply system, the solution of noise problem of high-pressure system has become an important work content in the development of sound quality of automobile cab. This paper studies the noise reduction of high-pressure direct injection engine, comprehensively analyzes the key factors of high-pressure direct injection system noise, and provides new ideas and references for the system to solve the high-pressure direct injection noise problem. The main path solutions for high-pressure direct injection noise and vibration problems in the mechanical field are to optimize the structural mode, increase vibration isolation, change the pipeline direction, and optimize the injection strategy.

Natural gas is a promising alternative fuel for internal combustion engines, it allows for a reduction of engine-out emissions without impairing high engine efficiencies. Although this approach is already utilized from small to large engine classes, it is almost exclusively based on the combustion of a premixed, homogeneous charge. For ignition, small engines use standard spark-plugs or pre-chambers, while large and lean-operated engines use pre-chambers and pilot injections. Direct high-pressure gas injection is a more recent, alternative way to operate gas engines which offers benefits compared to premixed operation such as high compression ratio, high combustion pressures, lean operation, quantity regulation, among others. However, in contrast to diesel direct injection, the compression temperatures are too low for the auto-ignition of the gas jets. Therefore, an additional ignition system is required, usually a pilot injection system is used. In this study, the usability and performance of three ignition strategies for direct injected high-pressure gas jets have been investigated in an optically accessible test-rig that is able to operate at engine-like conditions. The first type of ignition system is a pilot injection with a liquid fuel, the second is a glow-plug located near the main gas jet, and the third system is a pre-chamber with a nozzle hole aimed at the main gas jet. Results show that all three strategies are feasible options under the studied conditions. Ignition by a pilot fuel injection is a safe and reliable way to ignite the main fuel. The glow-plug is less reliable and leads to high cycle-to-cycle variation. The best option in the present study is the pre-chamber, it is very reliable, delivers the highest peak cylinder pressure and exhibits the lowest cyclic variability. The good performance is attributed to the intense mixing of the main gas jet with the hot jet exiting the pre-chamber.

Effect of injection strategy on an air-assisted direct injection aviation kerosene two-stroke engine

ERDA's coal combustion and power program has focused on two major areas: Direct combustion of coal and advanced power systems. Efforts in the area of direct combustion are concentrated on: Development of atmospheric and pressurized systems capable of burning high-sulfur coal of all rank and quality in fluidized-bed combustors; development of advanced technology power systems to generate power more economically than present technology permits while using medium- and high-sulfur coal in an environmentally-acceptable manner; development of the technology enabling coal-oil slurries to be substituted as feedstock for gas or oil-fired combustors; and improvement of the efficiency of present boilers. Compared with conventional coal-fired systems, fluidized-bed combustion systems give higher power generation efficiencies and cleaner exhaust gases, even when burning high-sulfur coals. If the fluidized-bed system is pressurized, additional economies in capital and operating costs may be realized. The benefits from high-pressure combustion are a reduction of furnace size due to decreased gas volume and better sulfur removal. High-pressure combustion, however, requires the development of equipment to clean the hot combustion products to make them suitable for use in power generation turbines. The advanced power systems program is directed toward developing electric power systems capable of operating on coal or coal-derived fuels. These systems involve the use of high temperature gas turbines burning low-Btu gas and turbine systems using inert gases and alkali metal vapors. Some 25 projects in these areas are described, including a brief summary of progress during the quarter. (LTN)

Natural gas is a promising alternative fuel for internal combustion engines, it allows for a reduction of engine-out emissions without impairing high engine efficiencies. Although this approach is already utilized from small to large engine classes, it is almost exclusively based on the combustion of a premixed homogeneous charge. For ignition, small engines use standard spark plugs or pre-chambers, while large and lean-operated engines use pre-chambers and pilot injections. Direct high-pressure gas injection is a more recent, alternative way to operate gas engines which offers benefits compared to premixed operation such as high combustion pressures, leaner operation, easier quantity regulation, and higher compression ratios, among others. However, in contrast to diesel injection, the compression temperatures are too low for the auto-ignition of the gas jets. Therefore, an additional ignition system is required, usually a pilot injection system is used. In this study, the usability and performance of a scavenged pre-chamber used for the ignition a high-pressure gas jet has been investigated in an optically accessible test-rig that is able to operate at engine-like conditions. Results show that the turbulent hot jet generated by the pre-chamber was able to ignite the high-pressure gas jet under a wide range of operating conditions. Moreover, it also appears to be a promising ignition strategy for very early direct injection during the compression stroke as well as for port injection. The good performance is attributed to the intense mixing of the main gas jet with the hot jet exiting the pre-chamber.

The high-pressure (HP) injector is a highly dynamic component requiring careful voltage and pressure input modulation to achieve the required fuel injection quantities of gasoline direct injection (GDI) engines. Accurate fuel injection curves are a key influence for this technology, and therefore, will require an accurate estimation of fuel flow rate to be realized. In order to be driven to rapid response with respect to solenoid valve coils, HP injectors typically require to be designed to be capable of rapid response in GDI engines. In this paper, the design and analysis of the proposed injector drive circuit are presented. Next, the effects of total pulse width, injector supply voltage, fuel system pressure, and pulse width modulation (PWM) operation on fuel injection quantities of an HP injector are measured for achieving robust performance and stability in the presence of bounded errors of the GDI injectors due to total pulse width, injector’s supply voltage, fuel pressure and PWM operation. Additionally, the fuel injection quantities of the HP injector are measured by tuning the parameters of the injector drive circuit with the PWM operation. These are defined as the fuel injection curves. Finally, experimental results are provided for verification of the proposed injector drive circuit.

Abstract. Direct injection systems for agricultural spray applications continue to present challenges in terms of commercialization and adoption by end users. Such systems have typically suffered from lag time and mixing uniformity issues, which have outweighed the potential benefits of keeping chemical and carrier separate or reducing improper tank-mixed concentration by eliminating operator measurements. The proposed system sought to combine high-pressure direct nozzle injection with an automated variable-flow nozzle to improve chemical mixing and response times. The specific objectives were to: (1) integrate a high-pressure direct nozzle injection system with variable-flow carrier control into a prototype for testing, (2) assess the chemical metering accuracy and proper mixing at different combinations of injection valve frequency and duty cycle along with chemical pressure, and (3) assess the ability of the control system to ensure proper chemical dilutions and concentrations in the nozzle effluent resulting from step changes in target application rates. Laboratory experiments were conducted using the combined system. Results of these experiments showed that the open-loop control of the injectors could provide a means of accurately metering the chemical concentrate into the carrier stream. Chemical injection rates could be achieved with an average error of 5.4% compared to the target rates. Injection at higher duty cycles resulted in less error in the chemical concentration predictions. Discrete Fourier transform analysis showed that the injection frequency was noticeable in the nozzle effluent when the injector was operated at 3.04 MPa and 5 Hz (particularly at lower duty cycles). Increasing the injection pressure and operating frequency to 5.87 MPa and 7 Hz, respectively, improved mixing, as the injection frequency component was no longer noticed in the effluent samples. The variable-flow nozzle was able to maintain appropriate carrier flow rates to achieve product label chemical concentrations. In one case, the maximum allowable concentrate was exceeded, although the nozzle was able to recover in 0.5 s. Steady-state errors ranged from 2.5% to 7.5% for chemical concentrations compared to the selected chemical to carrier ratio (0.03614). This test scenario represented an application rate of 4.68 L ha-1 with velocity increases from 4.0 to 7.1 m s-1 and decreases from 7.1 to 4.0 m s-1, which were typical of the example field application data. Keywords: Pesticides, Precision agriculture, Spraying equipment, Variable-rate application.

This study presents fundamentals of spray and partially premixed combustion characteristics of directly injected methane inside a constant volume combustion chamber (CVCC). The constant volume vessel is a cylinder with inside diameter of 135 mm and inside height of 135 mm. Two end of the vessel are equipped with optical windows. A high speed complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) camera capable of capturing pictures up to 40,000 frames per second is used to observe flow conditions inside the chamber. The injected fuel jet generates turbulence in the vessel and forms a turbulent heterogeneous fuel–air mixture in the vessel, similar to that in a compressed natural gas (CNG) direct injection engine. The fuel–air mixture is ignited by centrally located electrodes at a given spark delay timing of 1, 40, 75 and 110 milliseconds after fuel injection has been completed to reflect different turbulence intensities. For comparative study, by increasing the spark delay timing to five minutes, a homogeneous premixed mixture is also prepared in the vessel which provides information on laminar homogeneous mixture combustion. Spray development and characterization including spray tip penetration, spray cone angle and overall equivalence ratio were investigated under 30–90 bar fuel pressures and 1–5 bar chamber pressure. Flame propagation images and combustion characteristics were determined via pressure-derived parameters and analyzed at a fuel pressure of 90 bar and a chamber pressure of 1 bar at different stratification ratios (from 0% to 100%) at overall equivalence ratios of 0.6, 0.8 and 1.0. Shorter combustion duration and higher combustion pressure were observed in direct injection-type combustion at all fuel air equivalence ratios compared to those of homogenous combustion.

This study presents fundamentals of spray and partially premixed combustion characteristics of directly injected methane in a constant volume combustion chamber (CVCC). The constant volume vessel is a cylinder with inside diameter of 135 mm and inside height of 135 mm. Two end of the vessel are equipped with optical windows. A high speed complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) camera capable of capturing pictures up to 40,000 frames per second is used to observe flow conditions inside the chamber. The injected fuel jet generates turbulence in the vessel and forms a turbulent heterogeneous fuel–air mixture in the vessel, similar to that in a compressed natural gas (CNG) direct-injection (DI) engine. The fuel–air mixture is ignited by centrally located electrodes at a given spark delay timing of 1, 40, 75, and 110 ms. In addition to the four delay times, a 5 min waiting period was used in order to make sure of having laminar homogeneous combustion. Spray development and characterization including spray tip penetration (STP), spray cone angle (SCA), and overall equivalence ratio were investigated under 30–90 bar fuel pressures and 1–5 bar chamber pressure. Flame propagation images and combustion characteristics were determined via pressure-derived parameters and analyzed at a fuel pressure of 90 bar and a chamber pressure of 1 bar at different stratification ratios (S.R.) (from 0% to 100%) at overall equivalence ratios of 0.6, 0.8, and 1.0. Shorter combustion duration and higher combustion pressure were observed in direct injection-type combustion at all fuel air equivalence ratios compared to those of homogeneous combustion.

Liquid ammonia is an ideal zero-carbon fuel for internal combustion engines. High-pressure injection is a key technology in organizing ammonia combustion. Characteristics of high-pressure liquid ammonia injection is lack of research. Spray behaviors are likely to change when a high-pressure diesel injector uses liquid ammonia as its fuel. This study uses high-speed imaging with a DBI method to investigate the liquid penetration, width, and spray tip velocity of high-pressure liquid ammonia injection up to 100 MPa. Non-flash and flash boiling conditions were included in the experimental conditions. Simulation was also used to evaluate the results. In non-flash boiling conditions, the Hiroyasu model provided better accuracy than the Siebers model. In flash boiling conditions, a phenomenon was found that liquid penetration and spray tip velocity were strongly suppressed in the initial stage of the injection process, this being the “spray resistance phenomenon”. The “spray resistance phenomenon” was observed when ambient pressure was below 0.7 MPa during 0–0.05 ms ASOI and was highly related to the superheated degree. The shape of near-nozzle sprays abruptly changed at 0.05 ms ASOI, indicating that strong cavitation inside the nozzle caused by needle lift effects is the key reason for the “spray resistance phenomenon”.