Realizing stratified mixtures distribution in a hydrogen-enriched gasoline Wankel engine by different compound intake methods

Abstract

This work aimed to realize stratified mixtures distribution in a hydrogen-enriched compound-intake gasoline Wankel engine by utilizing the difference of gas velocity from different intake ports. A three-dimension computational fluid dynamics (CFD) WRE model was established to investigate the mixture formation and combustion process under five different intake modes, i.e. the way of the binary fuel enters the combustion chamber through different intake ports (side intake port, peripheral intake port or both port). The intake mode S-HGP (the mixtures of H2, gasoline and air are in the peripheral intake port and pure air is in the side intake port) realized an optimal equivalence ratio distribution, in which condition, the most fuels gather near the spark plug and the minority fuel in the rear region of the combustion chamber. Since the unburned mixtures always exist in the rear region of the chamber due to the mainstream in the WRE, the stratified distribution of S-HGP could consume most of the fuel. Because the faster flame propagation release a large amount of heats near top dead center (TDC), S-HGP possesses the highest average in-cylinder pressure under five intake modes, is about 1.264 times than the worst intake mode. Moreover, S-HGP has the maximum average in-cylinder temperature, the ideal thermal condition and moderate lean combustion get the lowest CO emission, comparing with the intake mode performing the highest CO emissions, the CO emission of S-HGP is decreased by 745% near the exhaust valve opening timing (210 °CA ATDC). However, owing to the higher temperature inside cylinder, S-HGP has slightly high NO emission. In conclusion, the results mean that compound intake combined with intake modes control is an effective method for fuel distribution optimization besides the fuel direct injection.