High-Pressure Direct-Injection Natural Gas Research Articles

Engine Performance Technology and Applications

The aim of this paper is to summarize and consolidate the optimization and improvements in engine types, new technologies, and existing technologies over the past few years. Additionally, it effectively analyzes the impact of improved engines on automotive performance and driving experience. Regarding direct-injection technology, this paper primarily highlights the new technology in the field of natural gas direct-injection engines. Among these, high-pressure direct-injection natural gas engines excel in improving fuel economy and emissions, effectively suppressing the limitations of knocking on such engines' output power. On the other hand, low-pressure direct-injection natural gas engines exhibit lower injection pressures when the engine is in the intake stroke. Concerning variable valve timing technology, the study investigates parameters such as the angle adjustment of the variable valve timing mechanism, unlocking methods, and unlocking pressures. Furthermore, the dual VVT-I technology enhances intake efficiency, ensuring ample torque output within the low and mid-range RPMs, guaranteeing sufficient power performance in various operating conditions. In today's rapidly advancing industrial technology landscape, many technologies have made significant progress. However, the current societal trend is moving towards energy conservation and carbon reduction, gradually phasing out traditional engines from the historical stage. The future development trend will be new energy engines, such as new energy materials like pure electric, hydrogen, and natural gas. Additionally, artificial intelligence will rapidly emerge in various industries.

Investigation on combustion characteristics and gas emissions of a high-pressure direct-injection natural gas engine at different combustion modes

In the present study, the potential of natural gas pre-injection, mixing-limited combustion, and slightly premixed combustion modes were evaluated to achieve high thermal efficiency and low nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide emissions. To this end, a dual direct injection model was established to perform numerical simulations. The obtained results revealed that in the natural gas pre-injection mode, the optimized natural gas pre-injection proportion and injection interval between the end of natural gas pre-injection and the start of diesel injection can significantly reduce carbon monoxide emissions and improve indicated thermal efficiency with a slight increase in nitrogen oxides. In the mixing-limited combustion mode, combustion phasing and indicated thermal efficiency are not sensitive to the variations of the injection interval between diesel and natural gas. Moreover, a larger injection interval between diesel and natural gas is beneficial to reduce carbon monoxide. In the slightly premixed combustion mode, as the injection interval between diesel and natural gas decreases, combustion phasing delays, carbon monoxide emissions reduce, and nitrogen oxides emissions increase first and then decrease. Advancing the start of natural gas injection increases maximum pressure rise rate and nitrogen oxides in both natural gas mixing-limited combustion and slightly premixed combustion modes but decreases carbon monoxide dramatically. The natural gas mixing-limited combustion mode has more potential to meet carbon monoxide limits imposed by the Euro VII standard with no need for extra after-treatment devices while improving thermal efficiency.

Implementation of various bowl designs in an HPDI natural gas engine focused on performance and pollutant emissions.

The air-fuel mixture preparation in pilot spray-ignited natural gas engines is primarily dominated by piston bowl profiles and fuel injection strategy. Piston bowl geometry is regarded as the crucial point in controlling engine pollutant emissions. In the present work, the SAGE combustion model was applied coupled with a general reaction kinetic mechanism. The engine model was validated with experimental data achieved from a Cummins ISX 400 engine, and good agreement between predicted and measured in-cylinder pressure and heat release rate was obtained. The influence of various piston bowl designs, including Mexican-hat geometry, double-lip geometry, bow geometry, and toroidal geometry, on the combustion process, engine performance, and pollutant emissions of a high-pressure direct-injection natural gas engine have been studied and analyzed numerically. The present study confirms the benefit of the piston bowl design as a beneficial tool to enhance the performance and pollutant emissions of the pilot diesel-ignited natural gas engine. Results showed that different chamber shapes slightly influence the combustion initiation, and the difference in in-cylinder pressure presents noticeable as the combustion continues. A higher turbulent kinetic energy improves the flow movement and facilitates the mixture formation in the cylinder. However, the combustion behavior is unwished caused by the improper injection angle of natural gas. Increasing the recess depth of combustion chambers reduces NOx formations at the price of sacrificing fuel economy. For the bow combustion chamber design, the NOx emission declined by 31.1%, while the indicated specific fuel consumption increased by 5.5% compared with the original engine. Although the indicated mean effective pressure and specific fuel consumption of the optimal double-lip geometry almost remain the same, NOx emissions can be reduced by 16.7% compared with the base design.

Effects of scavenging port angle and combustion chamber geometry on combustion and emmission of a high-pressure direct-injection natural gas marine engine

ABSTRACT HPDI natural gas (HPDI-NA) engines can improve nitrogen oxides and PM emissions while getting better in-cylinder combustion in the comparison of the conventional engines fueled with diesel. In this paper, a three-dimensional (3D) of a HPDI natural gas marine engine is set up. The influence of geometry parameters on mixture flow, combustion, and emissions were presented and discussed. The geometry parameters include scavenging port angle (SPA) and three combustion chamber geometries (shallow-basin-shaped (SBC), shallow-ω-shaped (SWC), and deep-pit-shaped combustion chamber (DPC)). The results show that increasing the SPA can significantly swell the swirl ratio, but too large the swirl ratio is not conducive to improving the scavenging effect. As SPA is varied from 30° to 60°, a richer-than-flammable region gets greater, and the penetration distance is shortened by the larger vortex. Then, the mixing and combustion process get worse. With the increase of the SPA, the emissions of soot, carbonic oxide (CO), and unburned hydrocarbons (HC) can be optimized. Also, a larger scavenge port angle is not conducive to improving nitrogen oxides emission and the fuel consumption efficiency. The combustion chamber geometries have fewer effects on the mixture flow and the pressure profiles and temperature than that of SPA. The CO/HC and soot emissions of the three tested combustion chamber geometries are similar. The effect of the shallow basin-shaped combustion chamber (SBC) is much better than that of the other combustion chamber geometries with respect to NOx emission.

Environmental performance of four different heavy-duty propulsion technologies using Life Cycle Assessment

The goal of this study is to perform an environmental analysis using the Life Cycle Assessment methodology to compare different technologies for heavy-duty trucks: Diesel, Diesel Hybrid, Spark-Ignited Natural Gas, High-Pressure Direct Injection Natural Gas. The analysis considers five impact categories: climate change, particulate matter, ozone photochemical formation, terrestrial eutrophication and acidification. This paper also contains a Total Cost of Ownership analysis.The main results reveal a reduction between 5 and 6% of Greenhouse Gases for alternative propulsion technologies. Natural gas trucks show a considerable reduction (40–50%) compared to conventional diesel in terms of terrestrial eutrophication and acidification, besides, for particulate matter and photochemical ozone formation, there are also minor reductions (10%).The economic analysis indicates that diesel is an attractive alternative, despite its poor environmental behaviour, and natural gas trucks do not seem to be as economically competitive as diesel. Diesel hybrid results show a not good option neither economically nor environmentally.

Investigation of the Combustion Kinetics Process in a High-Pressure Direct Injection Natural Gas Marine Engine

The present work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 91941102) and the High-Tech Ship Research of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the People’s Republic of China (Grant No. MC-201501-D01-03).

Development of a simplified n-heptane/methane model for high-pressure direct-injection natural gas marine engines

High-pressure direct-injection (HPDI) of natural gas is one of the most promising solutions for future ship engines, in which the combustion process is mainly controlled by the chemical kinetics. However, the employment of detailed chemical models for the multi-dimensional combustion simulation is significantly expensive due to the large scale of the marine engine. In the present paper, a reduced n-heptane/methane model consisting of 35-step reactions was constructed using multiple reduction approaches. Then this model was further reduced to include only 27 reactions by utilizing the HyChem (Hybrid Chemistry) method. An overall good agreement with the experimentally measured ignition delay data of both n-heptane and methane for these two reduced models was achieved and reasonable predictions for the measured laminar flame speeds were obtained for the 35-step model. But the 27-step model cannot predict the laminar flame speed very well. In addition, these two reduced models were both able to reproduce the experimentally measured in-cylinder pressure and heat release rate profiles for a HPDI natural gas marine engine, the highest error of predicted combustion phase being 6.5%. However, the engine-out CO emission was over-predicted and the highest error of predicted NOx emission was less than 12.9%. The predicted distributions of temperature and equivalence ratio by the 35-step and 27-step models are similar to those of the 334-step model. However, the predicted distributions of OH and CH2O are significantly different from those of the 334-step model. In short, the reduced chemical kinetic models developed provide a high-efficient and dependable method to simulate the characteristics of combustion and emissions in HPDI natural gas marine engines.

Pyrometric imaging of soot processes in a pilot ignited direct injected natural gas engine

This work assesses the soot formation and oxidation processes in a high-pressure direct injection natural gas engine using simultaneous high-speed two-colour pyrometry and OH* chemiluminescence imaging. A parametric investigation considers the effects of fuel injection pressure, injection duration and relative pilot and natural gas injection timings. A typical combustion event consists of natural gas being ignited by diesel pilot combustion products, followed by partially premixed combustion of natural gas near the piston bowl wall. Soot is formed as natural gas is injected into this reaction zone. A toroidal soot cloud forms and grows towards the centre of the piston bowl. For the range of operating conditions tested, the peak apparent heat release rate and the onset of detectable soot were correlated, as were the timing of the peak soot fraction and end of natural gas injection. The latter indicates that the soot formation and transition to a net oxidation process are strongly influenced by the injection process, similar to diesel engines. Changes in the relative timing of the diesel pilot and natural gas injections influenced natural gas premixing times, with increased premixing leading to a higher peak apparent heat release rate and lower peak soot fraction. The injection pressure affected the peak soot fraction though enhanced oxidation was expected to ultimately reduce the engine-out soot for higher injection pressures. Based on this parametric investigation, an existing conceptual model of pilot ignited direct injected natural gas combustion is extended to also describe the soot formation and oxidation processes.

An Investigation of the Influence of Gas Injection Rate Shape on High-Pressure Direct-Injection Natural Gas Marine Engines

High-pressure direct-injection (HPDI) natural gas marine engines are widely used because of their higher thermal efficiency and lower emissions. The effects of different injection rate shapes on the combustion and emission characteristics were studied to explore the appropriate gas injection rate shapes for a low-speed HPDI natural gas marine engine. A single-cylinder model was established and the CFD model was validated against experimental data from the literature; then, the combustion and emission characteristics of five different injection rate shapes were analyzed. The results showed that the peak values of in-cylinder pressure and heat release rate profiles of the triangle shape were highest due to the highest maximum injection rate, which occurred in a phase close to the top dead center. The shorter combustion duration of the triangle shape led to higher indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP) and NOx emissions compared with other shapes. The higher initial injection rates of the rectangle and slope shapes had a negative effect on the ignition delay periods of pilot fuel, which resulted in lower in-cylinder temperature and NOx emissions. However, due to the lower in-cylinder temperature, the engine power output was also lower. Otherwise, soot, unburned hydrocarbon (UHC), and CO emissions and indicated specific fuel consumption (ISFC) increased for both rectangle and slope shapes. The trapezoid and wedge shapes achieved a good balance between fuel consumption and emissions.

Large-eddy simulation of direct injection natural gas combustion in a heavy-duty truck engine using modified conditional moment closure model with low-dimensional manifold method

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.