Dual-fuel (DF) engines, in which premixed natural gas and air in an open-type combustion chamber is ignited by diesel-fuel pilot sprays, have been more popular for marine use than pre-chamber spark ignition (PCSI) engines because of their superior durability. However, control of ignition and combustion in DF engines is more difficult than in PCSI engines. In this context, this study focuses on the ignition stability of n-heptane pilot-fuel jets injected into a compressed premixed charge of natural gas and air at low-load conditions. To aid understanding of the experimental data, chemical-kinetics simulations were carried out in a simplified engine-environment that provided insight into the chemical effects of methane (CH4) on pilot-fuel ignition. The simulations reveal that CH4 has an effect on both stages of n-heptane autoignition: the small, first-stage, cool-flame-type, low-temperature ignition (LTI) and the larger, second-stage, high-temperature ignition (HTI). As the ratio of pilot-fuel to CH4 entrained into the spray decreases, the initial oxidization of CH4 consumes the OH radicals produced by pilot-fuel decomposition during LTI, thereby inhibiting its progression to HTI. Using imaging diagnostics, the spatial and temporal progression of LTI and HTI in DF combustion are measured in a heavy-duty optical engine, and the imaging data are analyzed to understand the cause of severe fluctuations in ignition timing and combustion completeness at low-load conditions. Images of cool-flame and hydroxyl radical (OH*) chemiluminescence serve as indicators of LTI and HTI, respectively. The cycle-to-cycle and spatial variation in ignition extracted from the imaging data are used as key metrics of comparison. The imaging data indicate that the local concentration of the pilot-fuel and the richness of the surrounding natural-gas air mixture are important for LTI and HTI, but in different ways. In particular, higher injection pressures and shorter injection durations increase the mixing rate, leading to lower concentrations of pilot-fuel more quickly, which can inhibit HTI even as LTI remains relatively robust. Decreasing the injection pressure from 80 MPa to 40 MPa and increasing the injection duration from 500 µs to 760 µs maintained constant pilot-fuel mass, while promoting robust transition from LTI to HTI by effectively slowing the mixing rate. This allows enough residence time for the OH radicals, produced by the two-stage ignition chemistry of the pilot-fuel, to accelerate the transition from LTI to HTI before being consumed by CH4 oxidation. Thus from a practical perspective, for a premixed natural gas fuel–air equivalence-ratio, it is possible to improve the “stability” of the combustion process by solely manipulating the pilot-fuel injection parameters while maintaining constant mass of injected pilot-fuel. This allows for tailoring mixing trajectories to offset changes in fuel ignition chemistry, so as to promote a robust transition from LTI to HTI by changing the balance between the local concentration of the pilot-fuel and richness of the premixed natural gas and air. This could prove to be a valuable tool for combustion design to improve fuel efficiency or reduce noise or perhaps even reduce heat-transfer losses by locating early combustion away from in-cylinder walls.

A comparison of the flame structure for two different fuels, dodecane and oxymethylene dimethyl ether (OMEX), has been performed under condition of Spray A of the Engine Combustion Network (ECN). The experiments were carried out in a constant pressure vessel with wide optical access, at high pressure and temperature and controlled oxygen concentration. The flame structure analysis has been performed by measuring the formaldehyde and OH radical distributions using planar Laser-Induced Fluorescence (PLIF) techniques. To complement the analysis, this information was combined with that obtained with highspeed imaging of OH * chemiluminescence radiation in the UV. Formaldehyde molecules are excited with the 355-nm radiation from the third harmonic of a Nd:YAG laser, whilst OH is excited with a wavelength of 281.00-nm from a dye laser. In both cases, the beam was transformed into a laser sheet in order to excite an axial flame plane and the fluorescence radiation was collected with an intensified camera (ICCD) and proper filtering. Consequently, two-dimensional maps in the axial flame plane were obtained at different instants after the start of injection (ASOI). Signal from both formaldehyde and OH chemical species can be compared, in order to analyze spatial distribution and interaction. When dodecane and OMEX are compared, several differences arise. The second one presents larger lift-off length but remarkably shorter flame length. Additionally, it has been possible to appreciate for this fuel a lower amount of soot formation during combustion.

The ability of a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation to reproduce the diesel-like reacting spray ignition process and its corresponding flame structure strongly depends on both the fidelity of the chemical mechanism for reproducing the oxidation of the fuel and also on how the turbulence-chemistry interaction (TCI) is modeled. Therefore, investigating the performance of different chemical mechanisms not only in perfect stirred reactors but directly in the diesel-like spray itself is of great interest in order to evaluate their suitability for being further applied to CFD engine simulations. This research work focuses on applying a presumed probability density function (PDF) unsteady flamelet combustion model to the well-known spray A from the Engine Combustion Network (ECN), using three chemical mechanisms widely accepted by the scientific community as a way to figure out the influence of chemistry in the key characteristics of the combustion process in the frame of diesel-like spray simulations. Results confirm that in spite of providing all of them correct trends for ignition delays (ID) and lift-off lengths (LOL), when comparing with experimental results, the structure of the flame presents noticeable differences, especially in the low and intermediate temperatures and high equivalence ratio regions. Consequently, the selection of the chemical mechanism has an impact on the zones of influence of key species as observed in both spatial coordinates and also in the equivalence ratio-temperature maps. These differences are expected to be relevant considering the implications when coupling pollutant emissions models. The analysis of temperature and oxygen concentration parametric studies evidences how the observed differences are consistent and moderately dependent on the ambient conditions. KeywordsCombustion modeling, Chemical mechanism, Spray A, Flamelet IntroductionThe improvement of the combustion technologies in industrial devices, such as diesel engines, in terms of efficiency and pollutant emissions, evidence that a comprehensive knowledge of the processes involved is mandatory. Between the different processes that concur in the energetic transformation, turbulent non-premixed combustion appears as one of the most relevant. Nevertheless, its modeling is a complex issue due to the different length and time scales of the turbulence, the fuel oxidation and the interaction between them [1]. These considerations point out that for a proper modeling of the turbulent non-premixed combustion two main aspects are essential. The first one is the chemical mechanism, that determines the fuel oxidation, while the second one is the turbulence-chemistry interaction (TCI). Promoted by the need of gaining a very detailed knowledge in these issues in diesel spray conditions, the Engine Combustion Network (ECN) has proposed a set of experiments in controlled conditions that shed light for these concerns by means of experiments and numerical simulations. More particularly, the well-known spray A models a die...

The spatial and temporal locations of autoignition depend on fuel chemistry and the temperature, pressure, and mixing trajectories in the fuel jets. Dual-fuel systems can provide insight into fuel-chemistry aspects through variation of the proportions of fuels with different reactivities, and engine operating condition variations can provide information on physical effects. In this context, the spatial and temporal progression of two-stage autoignition of a diesel-fuel surrogate, n-heptane, in a lean-premixed charge of synthetic natural gas (NG) and air is imaged in an optically accessible heavy-duty diesel engine. The lean-premixed charge of NG is prepared by fumigation upstream of the engine intake manifold. Optical diagnostics include: infrared (IR) imaging for quantifying both the in-cylinder NG concentration and the pilot-jet penetration rate and spreading angle, high-speed cool-flame chemiluminescence imaging as an indicator of low-temperature heat release (LTHR), and high-speed OH* chemiluminescence imaging as an indicator high-temperature heat release (HTHR). To aid interpretation of the experimental observations, zero-dimensional chemical kinetics simulations provide further understanding of the underlying interplay between the physical and chemical processes of mixing (pilot fuel-jet entrainment) and autoignition (two-stage ignition chemistry). Increasing the premixed NG concentration prolongs the ignition delay of the pilot fuel and increases the combustion duration. Due to the relatively short pilotfuel injections utilized, the transient increase in entrainment near the end of injection (entrainment wave) plays an important role in mixing. To achieve desired combustion characteristics, i.e., ignition and combustion timing (e.g., for combustion phasing) and location (e.g., for reducing wall heat-transfer or tailoring charge stratification), injection parameters can be suitably selected to yield the necessary mixing trajectories that potentially help offset changes in fuel ignition chemistry, which could be a valuable tool for combustion design.