Simulation Studies on Glow plug Assisted Neat Methanol Combustion in a Diesel Engine
2022-01-0616
03/29/2022
- Event
- Content
- Methanol due to its high latent heat of vaporization and the oxygen content can lower the NOx and soot levels in a compression ignition (CI) engine. Though methanol has a very low cetane number, hot surface ignition (HSI) using a glow plug can be used for combustion in a CI engine. In this work, a CFD simulation model of a glow plug assisted methanol HSI engine was developed and validated using experimental data on cylinder pressure and heat release reported in literature on a glow plug assisted engine with optical access. The SAGE combustion model, simplified GRI- MECH 3.0 reaction mechanism and adaptive grid refinement were employed. Parametric studies on glow plug surface temperature, injection strategies that use split injection at different split ratios and timings, location of the glow plug and the effect of shielding the glow plug were investigated by applying the model to a three cylinder neat methanol HSI engine. It was observed that combustion of methanol was first initiated within the spray that was closest to the glow plug which then spread to the other sprays in stages resulting in a long and stepped heat release pattern. Split injection with equal mass share was beneficial as it controlled the combustion rate and reduced the NOx. A shroud around the glow plug was advantageous as it restricted the amount of methanol hitting the surface of the glow plug and the residence time. Simulation results of indicated thermal efficiency, heat release, NOx and relative soot levels will be presented in the full paper at different outputs and with changes in the parameters indicated above. Comparisons will be made with the base diesel combustion.
- Citation
- Krishnan, R., Panda, K., and Ramesh, A., "Simulation Studies on Glow plug Assisted Neat Methanol Combustion in a Diesel Engine," SAE Technical Paper 2022-01-0616, 2022, .