Engine speed and air-fuel ratio effect on the combustion of methane augmented hydrogen rich syngas in DI SI engine

The main challenge on the fueling of pure hydrogen in the automotive vehicles is the limitation in the hydrogen separation from the product of steam reforming and gasification plants and the storage issues. On the other hand, hydrogen fueling in automotive engines has resulted in uncontrolled combustion. These are some of the factors which motivated for the fueling of raw syngas instead of further chemical or physical processes. However, fueling of syngas alone in the combustion chamber has resulted in decreased power output and increased in brake specific fuel consumption. Methane augmented hydrogen rich syngas was investigated experimentally to observe the behavior of the combustion with the variation of the fuel-air mixture and engine speed of a direct-injection spark-ignition (DI SI) engine. The molar ratio of the high hydrogen syngas is 50% H₂ and 50% CO composition. The amount of methane used for augmentation was 20% (V/V). The compression ratio of 14:1 gas engine operating at full throttle position (the throttle is fully opened) with the start of the injection selected to simulate the partial DI (180° before top dead center (BTDC)). The relative air-fuel ratio (λ) was set at lean mixture condition and the engine speed ranging from 1500 to 2400 revolutions per minute (rpm) with an interval of 300 rpm. The result indicated that coefficient of variation of the indicate mean effective pressure (COV of IMEP) was observed to increase with an increase with λ in all speeds. The durations of the flame development and rapid burning stages of the combustion has increased with an increase in λ. Besides, all the combustion durations are shown to be more sensitive to λ at the lowest speed as compared to the two engine speeds.     

The characteristic of polytropic coefficient of compression stroke in hydrogen internal combustion engine

The polytropic coefficient has important effect on the calculation of the instantaneous heat release rate and its comparison with specific heat ratio contains the information of the gas-surroundings heat exchange. This article studies the polytropic coefficient characteristics from 1000 rpm to 5000 rpm and the equivalence ratio from 0.24 to 0.55 by using experimental data from a 2.0 L hydrogen engine. The polytropic coefficient increase from 1.3 to 1.35 with the increase of engine speed from 1000 rpm to 4000 rpm, and then it decrease to around 1.34. This characteristic can be used to calculate the heat release rate more accurately. The study of the effect of equivalence ratio suggested that the polytropic coefficient decreased with the increase of equivalence ratio. The polytropic coefficient of hydrogen engine ranges from 1.28 to 1.35, which is less than the gasoline of 1.32–1.4. And the rising period of polytropic coefficient of ‘hydrogen – 0.55’ at 4500 rpm is very longer than others, which showed that the gases properties had effect on the heat transfer. These characteristics could not only be used for heat transfer calculation, but they can also enrich the research of polytropic coefficient for hydrogen internal combustion engine.     

Effect of ignition timing and hydrogen fraction on combustion and emission characteristics of natural gas direct-injection engine

An experimental study on the combustion and emission characteristics of a direct-injection spark-ignited engine fueled with natural gas/hydrogen blends under various ignition timings was conducted. The results show that ignition timing has a significant influence on engine performance, combustion and emissions. The interval between the end of fuel injection and ignition timing is a very important parameter for direct-injection natural gas engines. The turbulent flow in the combustion chamber generated by the fuel jet remains high and relative strong mixture stratification is introduced when decreasing the angle interval between the end of fuel injection and ignition timing giving fast burning rates and high thermal efficiencies. The maximum cylinder gas pressure, maximum mean gas temperature, maximum rate of pressure rise and maximum heat release rate increase with the advancing of ignition timing. However, these parameters do not vary much with hydrogen addition under specific ignition timing indicating that a small hydrogen fraction addition of less than 20% in the present experiment has little influence on combustion parameters under specific ignition timing. The exhaust HC emission decreases while the exhaust CO₂ concentration increases with the advancing of ignition timing. In the lean combustion condition, the exhaust CO does not vary much with ignition timing. At the same ignition timing, the exhaust HC decreases with hydrogen addition while the exhaust CO and CO₂ do not vary much with hydrogen addition. The exhaust NOx increases with the advancing of ignition timing and the behavior tends to be more obvious at large ignition advance angle. The brake mean effective pressure and the effective thermal efficiency of natural gas/hydrogen mixture combustion increase compared with those of natural gas combustion when the hydrogen fraction is over 10%. __________ Translated from Transactions of CSICE, 2006, 24(5): 394–401 [译自:内燃机学报]     

Hydrogen combustion under diesel engine conditions

The autoignition and combustion of hydrogen were investigated in a constant-volume combustion vessel under simulated direct-injection (DI) diesel engine conditions. The parameters varied in the investigation included: the injection pressure and temperature, the orifice diameter, and the ambient gas pressure, temperature and composition. The results show that the ignition delay of hydrogen under DI diesel conditions has a strong, Arrhenius dependence on temperature; however, the dependence on the other parameters examined is small. For gas densities typical of top-dead-center (TDC) in diesel engines, ignition delays of less than 1.0 ms were obtained for gas temperatures greater than 1120 K with oxygen concentrations as low as 5% (by volume). These data confirm that compression ignition of hydrogen is possible in a diesel engine at reasonable TDC conditions. In addition, the results show that DI hydrogen combustion rates are insensitive to reduced oxygen concentrations. The insensitivity of ignition delay and combustion rate to reduced oxygen concentration is significant because it offers the potential for a dramatic reduction in the emission of nitric oxides from a compression-ignited DI hydrogen engine through use of exhaust-gas-recirculation.     

Combustion and emission characteristics of a spray guided direct-injection spark-ignition engine fueled with natural gas-hydrogen blends

Combustion and emission characteristics of a spray guided direct-injection spark-ignition engine fueled with natural gas-hydrogen blends were investigated. Results show that the brake thermal efficiency increases with the increase of hydrogen fraction and it shows an increasing and then decreasing trend with advancing fuel-injection timing. For later injection timings, the beginning of heat release is advanced with increasing hydrogen fraction, while the beginning of heat release is advanced and then retarded with the increase of hydrogen fraction at earlier injection timings. The flame development duration, rapid combustion duration and total combustion duration decrease with increasing hydrogen fraction. Maximum cylinder gas pressure, maximum mean gas temperature, maximum rate of pressure rise and maximum heat release rate show an increasing and then decreasing trend with the increase of hydrogen fraction. Brake NOx emission is increased and then decreased, while brake HC, CO and CO₂ emissions decrease with the increase of hydrogen fraction.     

Assessment of a synergistic control of intake and exhaust VVT for airflow exchange,combustion, and emissions in a DI hydrogen engine

Variable valve timing (VVT) and Miller cycle are advanced technologies employed to optimize engine performance by improving airflow exchange, which are seldom investigated based on the direct-injection (DI) hydrogen engine. The objective of this study is to assess the effects of intake valve closing (IVC) and exhaust valve opening (EVO) timing on the gas exchange performance, combustion, and emissions of a DI hydrogen engine, after which a synergistic control strategy of IVC and EVO timing is proposed. This work is conducted under wide-open throttle and 1500 rpm. The results indicate that the synergistic control of IVC and EVO timing can increase volumetric efficiency by more than 40%, enhance gas exchange performance, shorten combustion duration, and reduce cyclic variation, resulting in approximately 43.15% brake thermal efficiency. Furthermore, brake mean effective pressure can be increased by more than 60% and NO emissions are controlled to less than 20 ppm by optimizing valve timings.     

Investigation of the effects of hydrogen on cylinder pressure in a split-injection diesel engine at heavy EGR

The distinctive properties of hydrogen have initiated considerable applied research related to the internal combustion engine. Recently, it has been reported that NO_x emissions were reduced by using hydrogen in a diesel engine at low temperature and heavy EGR conditions. As the continuing study, cylinder pressure was also investigated to determine the combustion characteristics and their relationship to NO_x emissions. The test engine was operated at constant speed and fixed diesel fuel injection rate (1500 rpm, 2.5 kg/h). Diesel fuel was injected in a split pattern into a 2-L diesel engine. The cylinder pressure was measured for different hydrogen flow rates and EGR ratios. The intake manifold temperature was controlled to be the same to avoid the gas intake temperature variations under the widely differing levels (2%-31%) of EGR. The measured cylinder pressure was analyzed for characteristic combustion values, such as mass burn fraction and combustion duration.The rising crank angle of the heat release rate was unaffected by the presence of hydrogen. However, supplying hydrogen extended the main combustion duration. This longer main combustion duration was particularly noticeable at the heavy EGR condition. It correlated well with the reduced NO_x emissions.     

Investigation of the gas injection rate shape on combustion,knock and emissions behavior of a rotary engine with hydrogen direct-injection enrichment

The application of hydrogen direct-injection enrichment improves the performance of gasoline Wankel rotary engine, and the hydrogen injection strategy has a significant impact on combustion, knock, and emissions. The Z160F Wankel rotary engine was used as the investigated compact engine, and the simulation model was developed using CONVERGE software. The combustion, knock and emissions characteristics of the engine were studied with the different mass flow of hydrogen injection, i.e., the trapezoid, wedge, slope, triangle and rectangle type of gas injection rate shape. In the numerical simulations, the in-cylinder pressure oscillations were monitored using monitoring points, and the knock index (KI) was used as an evaluation indicator. The study revealed that the gas injection rate shape significantly affected the mixture of hydrogen and air, thus impacting combustion, knock and emissions. When the injection rate shape was rectangle, the flame speed was faster, the peak pressure in the cylinder was higher, and the corresponding crank angle was earlier, which led to higher pressure oscillations in the cylinder and larger KI. Based on the rectangle injection rate shape, the KI decreased by 75.81%, 33.47%, 26.46% and 76.58% for trapezoid, wedge, slope, and triangle, respectively, and the indicated mean effective pressure increased by 15.68%, 5.07%, 0.56% and 14.98%, respectively. Due to the small difference in maximum temperature, which resulted in very little variation in nitrogen oxides for each injection rate shape, the total hydrocarbon emissions of the trapezoid and triangle injection rate shape was high due to the delayed combustion phase. This paper provides a solution for direct hydrogen injection to improve the combustion, knock and emissions behavior of the rotary engine.     

Numerical study of heat transfer of hydrogen combustion in noble gases atmosphere in compression ignition engine

The high energy content of hydrogen and zero carbon emission from hydrogen combustion is very important for compression ignition engine development. Hydrogen requires a very high auto-ignition temperature, which encourages replacing nitrogen with noble gases with higher specific heat ratio during compression process. In noble gases-hydrogen combustion, higher combustion temperature potentially leading to a higher heat loss. This paper aims to investigate the effect of hydrogen combustion in various noble gases on heat distribution and heat transfer on the cylinder wall. Converge CFD software was used to simulate a Yanmar NF19SK direct injection compression ignition engine. The local heat flux was measured at different locations of cylinder wall and piston head. The heat transfer of hydrogen combustion in various noble gases at different intake temperatures was studied using the numerical approach. As a result, hydrogen combustion in light noble gases such as helium produces faster combustion progress and higher heat temperature. The hydrogen combustion that experienced detonation, which happened in neon at 340 K and argon at 380 K, recorded a very high local heat flux at the cylinder head and piston due to the rapid combustion, which should be avoided in the engine operation. At a higher intake temperature, the rate of heat transfer on the cylinder wall is increased. In conclusion, helium was found as the best working gas for controlling combustion and heat transfer. Overall, the heat transfer data gained in this paper can be used to construct the future engine hydrogen in noble gases.     

Effect of mixture strength and injection timing on combustion characteristics of a direct injection hydrogen-fueled engine

An experimental investigation was performed to characterize the hydrogen combustion in a spark-ignition direct-injection engine. It was focused on the effects of mixture strength and injection timing on the characteristics of hydrogen combustion. For this purpose, the practical tests were carried out on an experimental test rig. It is originally designed for optimization of the direct-injection natural-gas engine. The experimental test-rig results comprised the traces for the in-cylinder pressure, mass fraction burned, and heat release rate under the different operation conditions. The results obtained show that the richer mixture condition produced higher pressure trends at all tested points. Besides that, it exhibited a faster rate of increase in combustion rate due to the increase of flame speed. However, the combustion characteristics deteriorated due to the lack of mixture stratification with earlier injection timing. It is concluded that direct-injection timing is essential to achieve better combustion performance. Moreover, retarding the spark ignition timing is also crucial to avoid abnormal combustion in the case of a richer mixture and early start on injection.     

Effect of ignition timing and hydrogen fraction on combustion and emission characteristics of natural gas direct-injection engine

An experimental study on the combustion and emission characteristics of a direct-injection spark-ignited engine fueled with natural gas/hydrogen blends under various ignition timings was conducted. The results show that ignition timing has a significant influence on engine performance, combustion and emissions. The interval between the end of fuel injection and ignition timing is a very important parameter for direct-injection natural gas engines. The turbulent flow in the combustion chamber generated by the fuel jet remains high and relative strong mixture stratification is introduced when decreasing the angle interval between the end of fuel injection and ignition timing giving fast burning rates and high thermal efficiencies. The maximum cylinder gas pressure, maximum mean gas temperature, maximum rate of pressure rise and maximum heat release rate increase with the advancing of ignition timing. However, these parameters do not vary much with hydrogen addition under specific ignition timing indicating that a small hydrogen fraction addition of less than 20% in the present experiment has little influence on combustion parameters under specific ignition timing. The exhaust HC emission decreases while the exhaust CO₂ concentration increases with the advancing of ignition timing. In the lean combustion condition, the exhaust CO does not vary much with ignition timing. At the same ignition timing, the exhaust HC decreases with hydrogen addition while the exhaust CO and CO₂ do not vary much with hydrogen addition. The exhaust NO_x increases with the advancing of ignition timing and the behavior tends to be more obvious at large ignition advance angle. The brake mean effective pressure and the effective thermal efficiency of natural gas/hydrogen mixture combustion increase compared with those of natural gas combustion when the hydrogen fraction is over 10%.     

Analysis of CRDI diesel engine characteristics operated on dual fuel mode fueled with biodiesel-hydrogen enriched producer gas under the single and multi-injection scheme

The present work aims to investigate the consequences of pilot fuel (PF) multiple injections and hydrogen manifold injection (HMI) on the combustion and tailpipe gas characteristics of a common rail direct injection (CRDI) compression ignition (CI) engine operated on dual fuel (DF) mode. The CI engine can perform on a wide variety of fuels and under high pilot fuel (PF) pressure. Pilot fuel injection (PFI) is achieved at TDC, 5, 10, and 15ºCA before the top dead center (bTDC), and divided injection consists of injecting fuel in three different magnitudes on a time basis and PF is injected into the engine cylinder at a pressure of 600 bar. In this work, the hydrogen flow rate (HFR) was fixed at 8 lpm constant and producer gas was inducted without any restriction. The investigational engine setup has the ability to deliver a PF and hydrogen (H₂) precisely in all operating circumstances using a separate electronic control unit (ECU). Results showed that diesel-hydrogen enriched producer gas (HPG) operation at maximum operating conditions provided amplified thermal efficiency by 4.01% with reduced emissions, except NOx levels, compared to biodiesel-HPG operation. Further, DiSOME with the multi-injection strategy of 60 + 20+20 and 50 + 25+25, lowered thermal efficiency by 4.8% and 9.12%, respectively compared to identical fuel combinations under a single injection scheme. However, reductions in NOx levels, cylinder pressure, and HRR were observed with a multi-injection scheme. It is concluded that multi-injection results in lower BTE, changes carbon-based emissions marginally, and decreases cylinder pressure and heat release rate than the traditional fuel injection method.     

Investigations on the combustion parameters of a dual fuel diesel engine with hydrogen and LPG as secondary fuels

This paper presents a detailed experimental investigations on the combustion parameters of a 4 cylinder (turbocharged and intercooled) 62.5 kW gen-set duel fuel diesel engine (with hydrogen and LPG as secondary fuels). A detailed account on maximum rate of pressure rise, peak cylinder pressure, heat release rate in first phase of combustion and combustion duration at a wide range of load conditions with different gaseous fuel substitutions has been presented in the paper. When 30% of hydrogen alone is used as secondary fuel, maximum rate of pressure rise increases by 0.82 bar/deg CA as compared to pure diesel operation, while, peak cylinder pressure and combustion duration increase by 8.44 bar and 5 deg CA respectively. When 30% of LPG alone is used as secondary fuel, the enhancements in maximum rate of pressure rise, peak cylinder pressure and combustion duration are found to be 1.37 bar/deg CA, 6.95 bar and 5 deg CA respectively. It is also found that heat release rate in first phase of combustion reduces at all load conditions as compared to the pure diesel operation in both types of fuel substitutions.One important finding of the present work is significant enhancement in performances of dual fuel engine when hydrogen-LPG mixture is used as the secondary fuel. The highlight of this case is that when the mixture of LPG and hydrogen (40% in the ratio LPG: hydrogen = 70:30) is used as secondary fuel, maximum rate of pressure rise (by 0.88 bar/deg CA) and combustion duration reduces (by 4 deg CA), while, peak cylinder pressure and heat release rate in first phase of combustion increase by 5.25 bar and 35.24 J/deg CA respectively.     

Multi-dimensional modeling of mixture preparation in a direct injection engine fueled with gaseous hydrogen

With the recent advances of direct injection (DI) technology, introducing hydrogen into the combustion chamber through DI is being considered as a viable approach to circumvent backfire and pre-ignition encountered in early generations of hydrogen engines. As part of a broader vision to develop a robust numerical model to study hydrogen spark ignition (SI) combustion in internal combustion (IC) engines, the present numerical investigation focuses on mixture preparation in a hydrogen DI SI engine. This study is carried out with a single hole injector with gaseous hydrogen injected at 100 bar injection pressure. Simulations are carried out for high and low tumble configurations and validated against optical data acquired from planar laser induced fluorescence (PLIF) measurements. Varying mesh configurations are investigated for the impact on in-cylinder mixture distribution. A particular emphasis is placed on the effect of nozzle geometry and mesh orientation near the wall. Overall, the computational model is found to predict the mixture distribution in the combustion cylinder reasonably well. The results showed that the alignment of mesh with the flow direction is important to achieve good agreement between numerical analysis and optical measurement data.     

On the capabilities and limitations of predictive,multi-zone combustion models for hydrogen-diesel dual fuel operation

Compared with traditional hydrocarbon fuels, hydrogen provides a high-energy content and carbon-free source of energy rendering it an attractive option for internal combustion engines. Co-combusting hydrogen with other fuels offers significant advantages with respect to thermal efficiency and carbon emissions.This study seeks to investigate the potential and limitations of multi-zone combustion models implemented in the GT-Power software package to predict dual fuel operation of a hydrogen-diesel common rail compression ignition engine. Numerical results for in-cylinder pressure and heat release rate were compared with experimental data. A single cylinder dual-fuel model was used with hydrogen being injected upstream of the intake manifold. During the simulations low (20 kW), medium (40 kW) and high (60 kW) load conditions were tested with and without exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) and at a constant engine speed of 1500 rpm. Both single and double diesel injection strategies were examined with hydrogen energy share ratio being varied from 0 to 57% and 0–42 respectively. This corresponds to a range in hydrogen air-equivalence ratios of approximately 0–0.29.The results show that for the single-injection strategy, the model captures in-cylinder pressure and heat release rate with good accuracy across the entire load and hydrogen share ratio range. However, it appears that for high hydrogen content in the charge mixture and equivalence ratios beyond the lean flammability limit, the model struggles to accurately predict hydrogen entrainment leading to underestimated peak cylinder pressures and heat release rates. For double-injection cases the model shows good agreement for hydrogen share ratios up to 26%. However, for higher energy share ratios the issue of erroneous hydrogen entrainment into the spray becomes more accentuated leading to significant under-prediction of heat release rate and in-cylinder pressure.     

Effect of fuel injection timing and injection pressure on performance in a hydrogen direct injection engine

The in-cylinder hydrogen fuel injection method (diesel engine) induces air during the intake stroke and injects hydrogen gas directly into the cylinder during the compression stroke. Fundamentally, because hydrogen gas does not exist in the intake pipe, backfire, which is the most significant challenge to increasing the torque of the hydrogen port fuel injection engine, does not occur. In this study, using the gasoline fuel injector of a gasoline direct-injection engine for passenger vehicles, hydrogen fuel was injected at high pressures of 5 MPa and 7 MPa into the cylinder, and the effects of the fuel injection timing, including the injection pressure on the output performance and efficiency of the engine, were investigated. Strategies for maximizing engine output performance were analyzed.The fuel injection timing was retarded from before top dead center (BTDC) 350 crank angle degrees (CAD) toward top dead center (TDC). The minimum increase in the best torque ignition timing improved, and the efficiency and excess air ratio increased, resulting in an increase in torque and decrease in NO_x emissions. However, the retardation of the fuel injection timing is limited by an increase in the in-cylinder pressure. By increasing the fuel injection pressure, the torque performance can be improved by further retarding the fuel injection timing or increasing the fuel injection period. The maximum torque of 142.7 Nm is achieved when burning under rich conditions at the stoichiometric air-fuel ratio.     

Research on the inducing factors and characteristics of knock combustion in a DI hydrogen internal combustion engine in the process of improving performance and thermal efficiency

Hydrogen energy is gaining greater attention because of the energy crisis and CO2 emissions, and knock combustion has become the main obstacle to improving thermal efficiency and power performance of hydrogen engines, which is an important method of hydrogen energy application. In this paper, the knock characteristic parameters and the factors affecting knock tendency of a 2.0 L DI hydrogen engine are investigated experimentally. The results reveal the variation in knock intensity is not linear with the retarding of SOI, which is related to the cylinder mixture distribution. Furthermore, methods such as increasing injection pressures can be useful in reducing the knock intensity. Equivalence ratio has a greater impact on knock compared with other parameters. The conclusions can be used in the further exploration of the knock combustion mechanism in DI hydrogen engines.     

Effects of second hydrogen direct injection proportion and injection timing on combustion and emission characteristics of hydrogen/n-butanol combined injection engine

Hydrogen and n-butanol are superior alternative fuels for SI engines, which show high potential in improving the combustion and emission characteristics of internal combustion engines. However, both still have disadvantages when applied individually. N-butanol fuel has poor evaporative atomization properties and high latent heat of vaporization. Burning n-butanol fuel alone can lead to incomplete combustion and lower temperature in the cylinder. Hydrogen is not easily stored and transported, and the engine is prone to backfire or detonation only using hydrogen. Therefore, this paper investigates the effects of hydrogen direct injection strategies on the combustion and emission characteristics of n-butanol/hydrogen dual-fuel engines based on n-butanol port injection/split hydrogen direct injection mode and the synergistic optimization of their characteristics. The energy of hydrogen is 20% of the total energy of the fuel in the cylinder. The experimental results show that a balance between dynamics and emission characteristics can be found using split hydrogen direct injection. Compared with the second hydrogen injection proportion (IP2) = 0, the split hydrogen direct injection can promote the formation of a stable flame kernel, shorten the flame development period and rapid combustion period, and reduce the cyclic variation. When the IP2 is 25%, 50% and 75%, the engine torque increases by 0.14%, 1.50% and 3.00% and the maximum in-cylinder pressure increases by 1.9%, 2.3% and 0.6% respectively. Compared with IP2 = 100%, HC emissions are reduced by 7.8%, 15.4% and 24.7% and NOx emissions are reduced by 16.4%, 13.8% and 7.9% respectively, when the IP2 is 25%, 50% and 75%. As second hydrogen injection timing (IT2) is advanced, CA0-10 and CA10-90 show a decreasing and then increasing trend. The maximum in-cylinder pressure rises and falls, and the engine torque gradually decreases. The CO emissions show a trend of decreasing and remaining constant. However, the trends of HC emissions and NOx emissions with IT2 are not consistent at different IP2. Considering the engine's dynamics and emission characteristics, the first hydrogen injection proportion (IP1) = 25% plus first hydrogen injection timing (IT1) = 240°CA BTDC combined with IP2 = 75% plus IT2 = 105°CA BTDC is the superior split hydrogen direct injection strategy.     

Analysis of ignition delay by taking Di-tertiary-butyl peroxide as an additive in a dual fuel diesel engine using hydrogen as a secondary fuel

Ignition delay (ID) is one of the important parameters that make influenced on the combustion process inside the cylinder. This ignition delay affects not only the performances but also the noise and emissions of the engine. In this regards the experiments were conducted on single cylinder 4–stroke compression ignition research diesel engine, power 3.50 kW at constant speed 1500 rpm Kirloskar model TV1 with base fuel as diesel and hydrogen as secondary fuel with and without Di-tertiary-butyl-peroxide (DTBP). Experiments were conducted to measure the ignition delay of the dual fuel diesel (DFD) engine at different load conditions and substitution of diesel by hydrogen with or without DTBP and then it was compared with predicted ID given by Hardenberg-Hase equation and modified Hardenberg-Hase equation.The experimental values of ignition delay were compared with theoretical ignition delay which was predicted on the basis of Hardenberg-Hase equation by considering mean cylinder temperature, pressure, activation energy and cetane number and variations are found in between 6.60% and 21.22%. While, the Hardenberg-Hase equation was modified (by considering variation in activation energy) for DFD engine working on diesel as primary fuel and hydrogen as secondary fuel shows variations 1.20%–11.96%. Furthermore, with DTBP it gives variation up to 18.01%. It was found that ID decreases with increase in percentage of DTBP and hydrogen in air-fuel mixture. This might be due to the cetane improver nature of DTBP, pre-ignition reaction rate and energy release rate of hydrogen fuel. The polytropic index get increased by addition of (Di-tert butyl peroxide) DTBP. Similarly, 5% Di tertiary butyl peroxide reduces Ignition delay.     

Visualization of hydrogen jet evolution and combustion under simulated direct-injection compression-ignition engine conditions

The evolution and combustion of H₂ jets were investigated in an optically-accessible constant-volume chamber under simulated direct-injection (DI) compression-ignition (CI) engine conditions. The parameters varied include injection pressure (84–140 bar) and ambient temperature (1000–1140 K). A detailed characterization of the injector system and the ensuing jet penetration process is reported first. High-speed schlieren imaging, OH1 chemiluminescence imaging and pressure trace measurements were subsequently used to investigate the auto-ignition and combustion of the H₂ jets. The results show that the ignition delay of H₂ jets under such conditions is sensitive to ambient temperature variations, but not to injection pressure. Optical imaging reveals that the combustion of H₂ jets mostly initiated from a localized kernel, before spreading to engulf the whole jet volume downstream of ignition location. The imaging also indicates that after ignition, the flame recesses back towards the nozzle and appears to attach to the nozzle to form a diffusion flame structure.