Fuel-air Mixing Research Articles

Experimental study of spatial distribution of knock events in a turbocharged spark-ignition engine

An experimental investigation on the spatial distribution of knock events in a turbocharged spark-ignition engine for hybrid vehicle applications was conducted by using a multichannel fiber optic method. The knock positions were detected under different conditions to investigate the influence of crucial engine design and operating parameters on the knock characteristics including the spatial distribution in the combustion chamber and its relationship to knock intensity. The measured data reveal that the spatial distribution in the engine with a port fuel injection (PFI) system is mainly located on the exhaust side with insignificant influence of engine speed and load, which is attributed to the elevated thermal load around the exhaust valves. However, the knock events under gasoline direct-injection (DI) conditions were found to occur in more scattered locations with more occurring on the engine front-end and rear-end sides. These results indicate that the in-cylinder fuel-air mixing process may have a significant impact on the knock occurrence spots under DI conditions. The knock positions of the engine with different excessive air ratios, injection timings, and intake-valve timings were also detected, indicating that engine operating parameters have complex influences on the knock-region distribution in a DI engine. In addition, experiments were also carried out in two different cylinders to verify the cylinder-to-cylinder variations in knock regions which may be caused by the engine cooling design. Furthermore, no apparent correlations were observed between the knock position and the knock intensity by analysis of the experimental data.

Effect of Nozzle Inclination Angle on Fuel-Air Mixing and Combustion in a Heavy Fuel Engine

Effect of Nozzle Inclination Angle on Fuel-Air Mixing and Combustion in a Heavy Fuel Engine

Effects of pilot injection on ignition performance for F-24/Gasoline fuel blends

This study experimentally investigates the effects of pilot injection on first stage and overall ignition behavior for different fuel blends. A conventional petroleum-derived fuel (F-24) with a Derived Cetane Number (DCN) of 48.5 and gasoline (GAS), which has a low DCN of 21.4 but high volatility, were blended at different volumetric ratios. These blends were injected into a high temperature, pressure vessel using either a single or pilot-main injection strategy. Four optical diagnostics (formaldehyde PLIF, OH* chemiluminescence, schlieren, and Mie scattering) were employed to visualize the ignition process and to evaluate liquid length, penetration distance, heat release rate, the first stage, and overall ignition delays. It is shown that the higher GAS blend ratios result in longer ignition delay and less overall heat release attributed to the poor reactivity of GAS. In such cases, the contributions of the extended first stage ignition delay to the extended overall ignition delay decrease with GAS blend ratio. Furthermore, some of the high GAS blend fuels exhibit no overall ignition at all due to the excessive fuel-air mixing. The study then shows that this decrease in ignition performance with GAS can be mitigated by introducing pilot injection, which shortens the ignition delays and provides more overall heat release. Specifically, at low GAS blend ratios, the ignition exhibits mixing controlled combustion where the ignition of pilot fuel-air mixture induces the main fuel ignition. For pilot-main injections, the decrease in first stage ignition delay accounts for the average of 87 % of the reduced overall ignition delay, suggesting that the reduced ignition delay with pilot injection is primarily due to the reduced time for fuel atomization, vaporization, and decomposition of the main fuel. These results will contribute to the development of ignition models capable of capturing the impact of fuel composition and pilot injection on ignition performance.

Mixing measurement on hydrogen jet by LIBS under various injection strategies

Favorable fuel properties of hydrogen for combustion system opens a new avenue to achieve deep decarbonization in transportation sector. Meanwhile, various technical challenges including low volumetric energy density, nitrogen oxide emissions, and backfire impede successful implementation of hydrogen in combustion engines. To overcome those issues, stratified charge combustion (SCC) is considered to optimize engine performance and emissions. As direct injection approach is utilized in SCC mode, ensuring quality of air-fuel mixing in combustion chamber is crucial. This study aims to understand hydrogen mixing behavior by quantitative measurement on equivalence ratio using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). This measurement has been conducted under non-reacting conditions, employing realistic injection strategy, multiple injection, so the influences of dwell time, and split ratio are addressed. In addition to LIBS, this study includes a morphological analysis of the hydrogen jet, which was visualized using high-speed schlieren imaging. The experimental data showed that shorter first injection duration was resulted in an increased jet width at the spark plug location, which reduced the equivalence ratio within the center of the jet. Longer dwell time also demonstrated wider jet width at the spark plug location, reducing the equivalence ratio within the center of the jet.

Effects of Secondary Fuel Injectors Position and Angle on the Performance of a Miniature Trapped Vortex Combustor

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the impact of different positions and angles of secondary fuel injector on the flow field characteristics, fuel-air mixing, and combustion performance of a miniature trapped vortex combustor (TVC), utilizing a combination of experimental and numerical methods. The numerical computation results show a good agreement with experimental data. Detailed computational findings highlight the significant influence of varying injector positions and angles on miniature TVC performance. Adjusting the positions and angles of secondary fuel injectors lead to notable outcomes: Adjusting the positions and angles of secondary fuel injectors leads to notable outcomes: achieving a more stoichiometric mixture within the cavity, extending the region of intense combustion, and increasing combustion efficiency by up to 3.4%. These adjustments are conductive to enhancing the overall performance of a miniature trapped vortex combustor.

Numerical study of piston bowl geometries on PFI-HCCI engine performance

Homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) is an advanced combustion strategy proposed to provide higher efficiency and lower emissions than conventional compression ignition. However, there are still tough challenges in the successful operation of HCCI engines. Among these challenges, homogeneous mixture preparation and combustion phase control plays a vital role in determining the efficiency and emissions. Piston bowl geometry significantly enhances the process by improving the flow, turbulence, and mixing for the combustion. The study utilised experimental and numerical simulation methods to analyse HCCI combustion in port fuel injection (PFI) mode and evaluate the effect of piston geometries on engine performance. For this purpose, the different pistons bowl geometries (Baseline model, SQC, and CCC) with the same volume, compression, and equivalence ratio were numerically tested in a four-stroke, single-cylinder, YANMAR diesel engine. The numerical simulation results provide adequate assurance to proceed with the study with different piston geometries design. Compared to SQC and CCC, the Baseline model produced significantly higher cylinder pressure, temperature, and heat release rate. Different piston shape designs influenced the formation of air-fuel mixing, thereby affecting the time and location of onset combustion. The present investigation offered the significant role of piston geometry for the control mechanism of PFI-HCCI combustion, that is a vital part in demonstrating HCCI combustion.

Realistic fuel spray modeling for gasoline direct injection engine applications

Fuel spray modeling plays a critical role during modern gasoline direct injection (GDI) engine development due to fuel injection’s dominant impact on engine performance and emissions as well as the complex physical processes involved. In engineering three-dimensional (3D) computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations, the liquid-phase fuel atomization, evaporation, and mixing are usually modeled with the discrete droplet model (DDM) adopting a Lagrangian approach for multiphase CFD simulations. To this end, general practices heavily depend on the reduced order characterization of the injector nozzle flow. However, such simplified injector modeling may lead to insufficient representations of the complex spray dynamics. To tackle this problem, this study proposes a novel workflow to numerically evaluate GDI sub-cooled and flash-boiling sprays under engine-relevant conditions using a side-mounted GDI injector together with real gasoline fuel properties. The workflow introduces a one-way coupling (OWC) method leveraging high-fidelity nozzle flow simulations to provide realistic boundary conditions to the Lagrangian injector model. The proposed workflow was first verified in a constant volume chamber (CVC) environment and then implemented in a practical GDI engine setup to study spray morphology, fuel-air mixing, and wall-wetting propensity. In addition, detailed comparison was performed between the OWC method and the conventional rate of injection (ROI) routine. Quantitative analysis of spray characteristics was conducted to highlight possible source of discrepancies of the conventional ROI method.

Investigations of spray breakup Rayleigh–Taylor instability via multiphase lattice Boltzmann flux solver

Poor fuel–air mixing of the diesel spray in low ambient temperature and pressure or thin air leads to intricate fuel breakup mechanism near the nozzle, which still remains worth of study. In this study, a pressure-based modified multiphase lattice Boltzmann flux solver (MLBFS) is proposed to accommodate the fuel spray breakup characteristics of multiphase, multicomponent, and large density ratio, in which the source terms of governing equation are modified emphatically for high injection pressure. Therefore, the characteristics of microscopic diesel spray breakup induced by Rayleigh–Taylor instability are investigated, including spray penetration, spray area, and spray arc length. It is revealed that the spray penetration is increased exponentially with the fuel–air density ratio Rρ. Influenced by air resistance and circulation interference, the roll-up vortex, droplet size, and spray area increase with the decreasing of Rρ (corresponding to high ambient pressure). Affected by entrainment and Rayleigh–Taylor instability, the development of the spray arc length experienced three stages: rapid growth, peak, and violent fluctuation, in which the lower Rρ facilitates development. It is concluded that Rayleigh–Taylor instability is favorable for stimulating the spray internal circulation of spray to enhance entrainment with surrounding air, while improving roll-up and breakup in the spray tail region. Such investigation is conductive to better understanding the micro-breakup mechanisms of fuel spray in the spray-induced internal combustion engine.

Computational Fluid Dynamics: Flow Analysis on The Effect of Different Jet Orifice Angle Multi Circular Jet for Fuel and Air Mixing

The mixing of fuel and air plays a major role in the spray and flame behavior, hence affecting the combustion performance and emissions of the internal mixing air-assisted atomizers. Air-assisted atomizers are introduced to counter the low-pressure differential of a simplex nozzle, which reduces the atomization quality. The present study aims to determine the effects of Multi Circular Jet (MCJ) plates on the geometrical configurations of internal flows in mixing chamber and the internal flow of plate 3 using different properties of fuel. In this study, the realizable k-ε turbulence model, specifically designed for strongly swirling flows, is validated through numerical simulations. The turbulence model selected is a type of Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) model called the k-ε model. The MCJ plates provide the primary air entrance into the mixing chamber. Additionally, it acts as a turbulence generator and can be adjusted to alter the flow of fuel and air mixtures in a mixing chamber. The study compares several MCJ geometries in terms of pressure, speed, turbulent kinetic energy, and volume fraction and compares the performances of diesel and Crude Palm Oil (CPO) B30 biodiesel fuels. The findings imply that CPO B30 biodiesel has superior atomization and mixing due to its higher density and turbulent kinetic energy. CPO B30 biodiesel was compared to Diesel in terms of maximum pressure, average speed, turbulent kinetic energy per unit mass, and volume fraction. The results indicate that CPO B30 has lower pressure and higher velocity than Diesel, suggesting better fuel atomization and mixing. The higher density of CPO B30 leads to increased turbulent kinetic energy, improving fuel-air mixing inside the combustion chamber. The study demonstrates that the use of MCJ plates can enhance mixing in a mixing chamber. In addition, MCJ plates show the ability to control the spray and atomization. The findings of this study contribute to a better understanding of the relationships between geometry and fuel-air mixing, as well as the characteristics of the internal mixing air-assisted atomizer, which will lead to future burner system improvements.

The Effect of Ignition Procedure on Flashback of Hydrogen-Enriched Flames

Abstract The impact of different ignition sequences on the ignition dynamics of CH4-H2 flames in a bluff body burner is investigated at atmospheric conditions. Experiments are performed over a wide range of operating conditions covering pure methane injection (PH0) to pure hydrogen injection (PH100). A perforated plate of total porosity σ=0.17 is positioned at the outlet of the combustion chamber to increase the chamber back pressure and trigger transient flashback during ignition. Time-series of pressure, OH* chemiluminescence and OH-PLIF images of the propagating flame branch are recorded simultaneously to characterize the ignition process. Two ignition procedures are investigated. For ignition procedure A, designated as an early ignition procedure, the spark is initiated before fuel injection. For ignition procedure B, designated as a late ignition, the spark is only activated after the fuel injection. The impact of the fuel air mixing on the final stabilization state is investigated by changing the fuel delivery time (dt) before the initial spark. Three different time delays are considered dt = 1, 3, and 5 s. The final state of the flame is found to be highly sensitive to the selected ignition procedure and increasing dt favors the occurrence of flashback. At constant power, the magnitude of the pressure peak is driven by a competition between the fuel mass flowrate at the moment of ignition and the high reactivity of hydrogen, which shifts the flammability limit toward lower equivalence ratios, hence generating a lower reaction rate. For procedure A, the peak of the chamber over pressure shows a nonmonotonic growth for increasing levels of H2 in the fuel blend, while it linearly increases for procedure B. Experiments are then conducted at a fixed injection flow velocity Ub = 5 m s–1 and fixed laminar burning velocity Sl0=0.25 m s–1 by varying the level of hydrogen enrichment. For procedure A, the over pressure amplitude decreases with increasing the hydrogen enrichment leading to a soft ignition for all CH4-H2 blends. Under ignition procedure B, the amplitude of the over pressure reached during ignition is found to be relatively unaffected by the hydrogen concentration, but the flame stabilization mode shows a strong dependence to both the level of H2-enrichment and fuel delivery time dt. OH* as well as OH-PLIF images reveal that the trajectory of the flame leading point changes as dt increases. The different dynamics of the flame leading points is likely to be the cause the different types of stabilization modes observed.

Physics-based reduced-order modeling of flash-boiling sprays in the context of internal combustion engines

Flash-boiling injection is one of the most effective ways to accomplish improved atomization compared to the high-pressure injection strategy. The tiny droplets formed via flash-boiling lead to fast fuel–air mixing and can subsequently improve combustion performance in engines. While most of the previous studies related to the topic focused on modeling flash-boiling sprays using three-dimensional (3D) computational fluid dynamics (CFD) techniques such as direct numerical simulations (DNS), large-eddy simulations (LES), and Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) simulations, the present work introduces a reduced-order cross-sectionally averaged spray (CAS) model with significantly reduced computational cost. The proposed CAS model incorporates several physical submodels in flash-boiling sprays such as those for air entrainment, drag, superheated droplet evaporation, flash-boiling induced breakup, and aerodynamic breakup models. The CAS model is then applied to different fuels to investigate macroscopic spray characteristics such as liquid and vapor penetration lengths under flash-boiling conditions. It is found that the newly developed CAS model captures the trends in global flash-boiling spray characteristics reasonably well for different operating conditions and fuels. Moreover, the CAS model is shown to be faster by up to four orders of magnitude compared with simulations of 3D flash-boiling sprays. The novelty of the present work lies in providing a reduced-order flash-boiling spray model that offers cost-effective computational representations of complex phenomena. The proposed model can be very valuable for applications, such as experimental design, fuel screening, and creating digital twins, thus playing a crucial role in the advancement of research and development in the field of spray combustion.

Surface tension and evaporation behavior of liquid fuel droplets at transcritical conditions: Towards bridging the gap between molecular dynamics and continuum simulations

The phase transition from subcritical to supercritical conditions, referred to as transcritical behavior, significantly impacts the evaporation and fuel–air mixing in high-pressure liquid-fuel propulsion systems. Transcritical behavior is characterized as a transition from classical two-phase evaporation to a single-phase gas-like diffusion regime as surface tension and latent heat of vaporization reduce. However, the interfacial behavior represented by the surface tension coefficient and evaporation rate during this transition which are crucial inputs for Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations of practical transcritical fuel spray is still missing. This study aims at developing new evaporation rate and surface tension models for transcritical n-dodecane droplets using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations irrespective of the droplet size. As MD simulations are primarily limited to the nanoscale, the new models can bridge the gap between MD and continuum simulations and enable the direct application of these findings to microscopic droplets. A new characteristic timescale, i.e., “undroplet time,” is defined which marks the transition from classical two-phase evaporation to single-phase gas-like diffusion behavior. The undroplet time indicates the onset of droplet core disintegration and penetration of nitrogen molecules into the droplet, which occurs after the vanishment of the surface tension. By normalizing the time with respect to the undroplet time, the rate of surface tension decay, evaporation rate, and the rate of droplet mass depletion become independent of the droplet size. Calculation of pairwise correlation coefficients for the entire MD results shows that both surface tension coefficient and evaporation rate are strongly correlated with the background temperature, while pressure and droplet size play a less significant role past the critical point. Therefore, new models for surface tension coefficient and evaporation rate spanning from sub- to supercritical conditions are developed as a function of background pressure and temperature, which can be used in continuum simulations. The identified phase change behavior based on the undroplet time shows a good agreement with the phase change regime maps obtained using microscale experiments and nanoscale MD predictions.

Spray-evaporation characteristics of n-pentanol/n-dodecane binary fuel at ultra-high injection pressure

The spray and evaporation characteristics of the fuel directly affect the combustion and emission performance of the engine. In this work, the atomization and evaporation characteristics of the n-pentanol/n-dodecane binary fuel were investigated by varying the injection pressure (100–300 MPa). Process of breaking, atomization, evaporation and oil-gas mixing were measured by schlieren technique. The liquid phase length of the spray was measured using the Mie scattering method. Numerical simulations were performed in a constant volume combustion chamber to further investigate the effects of injection pressure. The findings demonstrate that n-pentanol/n-dodecane binary fuel has slightly more liquid penetration than pure n-dodecane fuel, which may be attributed to n-pentanol's higher density. The results also show that the ultra-high injection pressure notably improved the spray penetration and reduced the droplet size that led to fragmentation of the fuel droplets and effectively improved the atomization characteristics. Moreover, a substantial reduction of over 20% in droplet size was observed with the increase in injection pressure from 100 to 200 MPa. However, it has been observed that the reduction in droplet size due to an increase in injection pressure diminishes when the pressure exceeds 200 MPa. In such cases, the size reduction is less than 10%, which implies that the impact of ultra-high injection pressure on size reduction is restricted. Although the impact of ultra-high injection pressure on fuel evaporation under evaporative conditions is limited, it can enhance fuel air mixing performance through intensified turbulence activity within the spray, thereby promoting greater air roll-up.

A Numerical Study on Droplet Evaporation using Mass and Heat Transfer Approach

Liquid fuel is injected into many combustion devices like engines, boilers, and gas turbines where it evaporates, mixes with air, and finally burns. The combustion process influences by evaporation and corresponding air-fuel mixing. Hence, the evaporation study of the fuel droplets is important in different thermodynamic conditions. In the present paper, fuel droplet evaporation has been numerically studied by two different approaches i.e., mass transfer and heat transfer. Multiple case studies have been conducted by varying the droplet surface temperature, its initial diameter, and the temperature of ambiance to understand the influence of each parameter on the evaporation process by the two different concepts. Transfer numbers (B), evaporation constants (K), and droplet lifetime are obtained through both heat and mass transfer models. These observations are highly helpful to understand the droplet evaporation process and comparing the two different approaches to droplet evaporation modeling.

Fuel Injector Requirements to Achieve Supercritical Flow at the Exit

Advanced engine designs and alternative fuels introduce the possibility of supercritical fuel injection in aviation gas turbines and diesel engines, as is already the case for many rocket engines. Previous studies have focused mainly on fuel–air mixing in the supercritical regime after injection. However, injector requirements to achieve supercritical flow at the exit have not been investigated systematically. In this study, supercritical flow in an injector is analyzed using computational fluid dynamics with a real gas model and fluid properties derived from Helmholtz equations of state. Three operational challenges are illustrated depending upon the fuel: 1) large decreases in pressure and temperature within the injector, 2) injector choking, and 3) supersonic expansion of the supercritical jet. These challenges are addressed by developing and validating a one-dimensional, nonisentropic model of supercritical flow in the injector. This reduced-order model can guide injector designs for different fuels and applications and help decouple the injector supercritical flow from that in the downstream chamber to significantly reduce the computational effort for fuel–air mixing simulations. Results show that larger-diameter injectors are generally required to achieve supercritical injection with a fuel energy injection rate per unit area matching that of a typical diesel injector.

Fuel-air mixing in motored CFR engine at research octane number (RON) relevant condition

This paper presents a three-dimensional (3-D) computational fluid dynamics (CFD) study of a motored cooperative fuel research (CFR) engine at research octane number (RON) relevant condition. The boundary conditions for 3-D simulations were generated with a one-dimensional GT-Power model. For the first time in literature, a carburetor was added to a virtual CFR engine model with 3-D CFD. Therefore, the proposed setup can simulate the fuel and thermal stratifications inside the engine cylinder with realistic detail. The transient simulations in this work were performed within the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) framework with a Realizable k-ε turbulence model. Major conclusions from the present work are: (1) The in-cylinder flow of the CFR engine is swirl-dominated due to the existence of the intake valve shroud. (2) There is a significant amount of liquid droplets entering the cylinder during the intake stroke. The maximum instantaneous amount of liquid for 50% PRF 87 (containing 87% iso-octane and 13% n-heptane (v/v)) and 50% ethanol mixture is indicated to be around 26% of total injected fuel mass. (3) The heat of vaporization (HoV) of the fuel is responsible for creating both temperature and charge stratification inside the cylinder.

An Experimental Investigation On Converting Conventional to Supercharged CI Engine

Due to the increase in grounds performance of internal combustion engines, the diesel engine has become dominant forces in the power, propulsion, and energy. For domestic, industrial, and transportation applications, internal combustion engines are the more reliable and misogynist power source. Diesel engines rely on fluid Spritz dynamics for air-fuel mixtures and swirl plays a crucial role in the pattern of air motion as impacts fuel air mixing and combustion. Further-more, older studies have indicated that it affects heat transfer, combustion efficiency, and engine emissions. By varying air inlet pressure, this work demonstrates the presentation and production features of Compression Ignition engines. Using compressor, the inlet pressure of air is manipulated, and when compressed air is sent to engine at different pressures, performance parameters and heat balance sheets are calculated.

Experimental Investigation of a Multi Tube Burner for Premixed Hydrogen and Natural Gas Low Emission Combustion

Abstract Hydrogen as an essential part of future decarbonization of the energy industry makes it a crucial necessity to replace conventional, natural gas based concepts in gas turbine combustion. This paper presents an experimental study of a multi-tube jet flame burner. The study is carried out with natural gas and pure hydrogen fuel at gas turbine relevant conditions at atmospheric pressure. To identify key differences between hydrogen-air and natural gas–air flames on the overall robustness and flame flashback behavior, air bulk velocity (80–120 m/s), adiabatic flame temperature (1235–2089 K) and air inlet temperature (623–673 K) are varied over a wide range, covering a range of Reynolds numbers of 10,000–20,000. Depending on flame temperature, two different flame shapes are observed for natural gas–air flames. The shape of the hydrogen-air flame changes less over the range of flame temperatures tested, but is generally more compact. The process of fuel-air mixing is further investigated by concentration distribution measurements in a water tunnel setup. Therefore, planar laser-induced fluorescence is utilized for visualization. The measured concentration distributions confirm the overall good mixing quality but also give an explanation on the observed flashback behavior of the different burner designs at reacting tests. The findings of the study are composed in a flashback correlation combining the observed flashback drivers for the burner configurations investigated.

Impact of n-butanol addition to hydrogenated catalytic biodiesel fueled a constant volume combustion chamber; a computational study

ABSTRACT The continuous quest for renewable, efficient, and clean energy sources has led to significant advances in the field of biodiesel production. Hydrogenated catalytic biodiesel (HCB) seems to be a promising option among various renewable biodiesel fuels which can be obtained from waste cooking oil. However, its extreme ignitability limits its application in existing engines. Therefore, a blend of n-butanol and HCB has been proposed in the present study, aiming to explore the spray combustion and soot formation behavior of these blends as a step toward the best possible utilization of this blend in engine. The objective was to examine the impact of adding n-butanol to HCB fuel on spray combustion and soot particles. A new skeletal chemical kinetic model of HCB/n-butanol blend was introduced and validated through measured data reported in the literature. Numerical studies have been performed in a constant volume combustion chamber under reactive spray environments. The simulation results concluded that, blending 20%, 40%, and 60% n-butanol with HCB fuel increased the heat release rates by 31.6%, 47.8%, and 87%, respectively. Furthermore, introducing a 20% of n-butanol into HCB fuel resulted in a 35.7% increase in ignition delay time and a 35.3% increase in flame liftoff length. These results demonstrated the reactivity of n-butanol/HCB mixture experienced a decrease when increasing the n-butanol fraction in the blend, while the fuel atomization was improved. The simulation results also demonstrated a notable reduction in the equivalence ratio when the n-butanol addition ratio was increased, which was a result of the entrainment effect that enhanced the mixing of fuel spray and surrounding fresh air. The simulation results also demonstrated that, adding 20%, 40%, and 60% n-butanol to HCB fuel resulted in a 25%, 43%, and 50% reduction in soot mass of HCB, respectively. This was mainly attributed to the less amount of C2H2, A1, and A4 species with n-butanol addition. Consequently, this sequential reduction leads to suppression of PAHs growth, nucleation, surface growth, and soot coagulation. Besides, a longer flame length resulting from the increased blending ratio of n-butanol could also have an additional soot suppression effect by improving air-fuel mixing and thus suppressing the overall soot mass.

Assessment of a hydrogen-fueled swirling trapped-vortex combustor using large-eddy simulation

In recent years, the study of hydrogen combustion has gained significant interest due to its exceptional lean blow-out (LBO) performance, high efficiencies, and almost negligible greenhouse gas emissions. The present study combines the advantages of hydrogen combustion with the beneficial characteristics of trapped-vortex combustion (TVC) and swirling flows. Large-eddy simulation (LES) is conducted to evaluate the performance of a swirling trapped-vortex combustor. LES sub-gird terms are described using k-equation subgrid model, while, turbulence-combustion interaction is modelled employing the PaSR (Partially Stirred Reactor) closure with a detailed 23-step chemical reaction mechanism for hydrogen/air. A radial vane swirler is incorporated to supply an annular mainstream and generate a wake region in front of the cavity leading edge to enhance cavity flow entrainment. To evaluate the performance of a hydrogen-fueled TVC under non-swirl and swirling conditions with varying swirl numbers (0.1–0.6), several flow and combustion characteristics are analyzed. These includes temperature distribution, vortical structure, combustion efficiency, NO emission, and flame shape. The results show that a large recirculation zone dominates the cavity for the all swirl numbers resulting in a strong fuel–air mixing and high combustion efficiency. It is demonstrated that the swirling motion effectively mitigates the negative impacts of pressure fluctuations arising from the interaction of combustion with cavity oscillations. A stable flame is observed inside the cavity and in the shear layer at the cavity lip in all cases, merging to form a distinctive C-shaped flame. Increasing the swirl number causes the second part of the flame to move to the wake region before the leading edge, enhancing combustion stability and efficiency. Combustion efficiency exceeds 98.5% for all cases, reaching 99.8% for a swirl number of 0.6. The temperature distribution is nearly uniform inside the cavity, with an improved distribution at the TVC’s outlet for higher swirl numbers. Under non-swirling conditions, the corrected NO concentration is below 5 ppm. Increasing the swirl number escalates the outlet NO emission, nevertheless, a maximum NO concentration of 19 ppm is observed for the swirling cases. Comparing these findings with existing data suggests that the swirling TVC offers advantages over other hydrogen-fired TVC’s.