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In this study, the influence of the charge motion on the internal combustion in a spark ignition sewage gas-driven engine (150 kW) for combined heat and power (CHP) units was investigated. For this purpose, the geometry of the combustion chamber in the immediate vicinity to the inlet valve seats was modified. The geometrical modification measures were conducted iteratively by integrative determination of the swirl motion on a flow bench, by laser-optical methods and consecutively by combustion analysis on a test engine. Two different versions of cylinder heads were characterized by dimensionless flow and swirl numbers prior to testing their on-engine performance. Combustion analysis was conducted with a cylinder pressure indication system for partial and full load, meeting the mandatory NOx limit of 500 mg m−3. Subsuming the flow bench results, the new valve seat design has a significant enhancing impact on the swirl motion but it also leads to disadvantages concerning the volumetric efficiency. A comparative consideration of the combustion rate delivers that the increased swirl motion results in a faster combustion, hence in a higher efficiency. In summary, the geometrical modifications close to the valve seat result in increased turbulence intensity. It was proven that this intensification raises the ratio of efficiency by 1.6%.

This paper presents a newly developed method using rapid prototyping (RP) to develop gas engine cylinder heads with optimized charge motion characteristics to adapt to lean-burn and Miller combustion process requirements. The geometry in close vicinity to the inlet valve seats was designed to increase swirl and flow performance of the cylinder heads. A three-dimensional (3D) printer was used to realize a rapid prototyping concept for the testing of multiple designs; the effects of the different designs were measured using a static flow test bench and a laser-optical method to visualize the flow patterns. The results of the static flow bench tests showed potentially higher flow and swirl performance, with one high-swirl version proving beneficial specifically for lean-combustion and one high-flow version matching the Miller combustion requirements. The two cylinder head versions were then manufactured and the lean-combustion version was tested for on-engine performance on a 150 kW sewage-gas driven lean-combustion engine. It has been shown that the cylinder head generates higher swirl on the test bench but achieves only a slight increase in combustion speed on the test engine. The potential to increase engine efficiency by intensifying swirl is, therefore, considered exploitable. Research has further shown the coefficient of variance (CoV) was reduced by 0.3–1.2%. Charge exchange losses have also been demonstrated to decrease at all tested engine settings. It has further been found that higher swirl intensity has a positive impact on engine emission levels, as the engine out carbon monoxide (CO) emission can be reduced by approximately 70 mg·m−3.

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