Abstract
The effect of two mechanisms that contribute to the cyclic variability of a spark-ignition (SI) engine fueled with lean methane–hydrogen blends was examined. This assessment was performed using a research computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code, employing a fast methodology that allowed the simulation of several cases (three per mechanism and per case) and thus greatly reduced the computational time. The first mechanism is related to the local gas turbulent properties at the spark plug, and the second mechanism is related to the fuel mass variation per cycle. The engine performance and emissions results were processed using a linear regression approach, and then using a Monte Carlo–based approach to extract the main indicators such as the coefficient of variation (COV) of the indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP) for each individual mechanism as well as for their combination. It was found that the contribution of the first mechanism is significant and it mainly affects the initial flame propagation process. On the other hand, the second mechanism affects the equivalence ratio and subsequently the whole combustion process with a high variability of CO emissions, and its uncertainty was accounted for by expanding its range.
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Data Availability Statement
All data, models, and code generated or used during the study appear in the published article.
Acknowledgments
The authors thank Prof. F. Moreno and Dr. J. Arroyo (University of Zaragoza, Spain) for the kind provision of the experimental data of the SI engine.
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Published In
Journal of Energy Engineering
Volume 149 • Issue 1 • February 2023
Copyright
© 2022 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: May 22, 2022
Accepted: Oct 12, 2022
Published online: Dec 9, 2022
Published in print: Feb 1, 2023
Discussion open until: May 9, 2023
ASCE Technical Topics:
- Air pollution
- Chemical processes
- Chemistry
- Combustion
- Computational fluid dynamics technique
- Computer models
- Construction engineering
- Construction management
- Emissions
- Energy consumption
- Energy engineering
- Energy sources (by type)
- Engineering fundamentals
- Engines
- Environmental engineering
- Equipment and machinery
- Fluid dynamics
- Fluid mechanics
- Fuels
- Hydrologic engineering
- Models (by type)
- Non-renewable energy
- Pollution
- Standards and codes
- Water and water resources
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