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Energy
Energy Procedia
Procedia 00
00 (2017)
(2017) 000–000
000–000
ScienceDirect
ScienceDirect
www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia
www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia
Energy
EnergyProcedia 142
Procedia 00(2017)
(2017)1251–1258
000–000
www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia
9th International Conference on Applied Energy, ICAE2017, 21-24 August 2017, Cardiff, UK
1. Introduction
Supplying water into the cylinder is considered to be one of the most promising internal measures of diesel
engines to reduce NOx emissions. Generally, fuel water emulsion, intake water injection and direct water injection
are the three main approaches utilized to provide water into combustion chamber.
In water fuel emulsion fuel and specific ratio of water are mixed by a trace content of surfactant. By using water
fuel emulsion, NOx, PM and soot emissions are reduced simultaneously[1]. The micro- explosion phenomena in the
emulsion spray induced by volatility differences between fuel and water improve the air entrainment, which lead to
better atomization[2,3]. D.T.Hountalas et al. utilized a multi-zone combustion model to compare and evaluate EGR,
intake water injection and fuel water emulsion in NOx reduction and found out that, at the same NOx reduction level,
only soot emissions of fuel water emulsion decreased[4]. The drawback of water fuel emulsion is the restrict of fixed
water to fuel ratio since there are different best water to fuel ratios for different engine operating conditions[3,5].
Intake water injection is the easiest method to introduce water to cylinder, which needs the minimal modification
to the existing engine structure. S. Brusca and R. Lanzafame investigated the effect of water injection on a CFR
Cetane Engine with water to fuel mass ratio varying from 0 to 1.5 and reported that NOx concentration in exhaust
gas decreases as water to fuel mass ratio increases. Maximum NOx reduction up to 40% was achieved when W/F
ratio was 1.5[6]. The effect of intake manifold water injection of a CI engine fueled with biodiesel was studied by
B.Tesfa et al. Results showed that water injection does not show clear effect on BSFC and thermal efficiency at
intermediate and higher engine loads, but has a negative impact of maximum 4% reduction of BSFC at low engine
loads. They also found out that water injection leaded to NOx reduction by up to 50% over entire operating range[7].
One of the biggest advantages of direct water injection is the variable suitable water to fuel ratio depending on
different engine operating conditions. Arto Sarvi et al. investigated the effect of direct water injection (DWI) on the
emissions on large-scale medium-speed turbo-charged diesel engines and found out that DWI results in significant
NOx and slight HC emissions reduction and slight soot and PM emissions increment[8]. Rudolf H. Stanglmaier et al.
developed a diesel water coinjection system and mounted it on a production Volvo D-12 heavy duty engine. A
conclusion is drawn that fuel water coinjection is effective for steady state NOx, HC, CO and smoke emissions[9].
The effect of water injection on combustion can be wildly divided into three parts: thermal effects, chemical
effects and dilution effects [10]. In regard to thermal effects, evaporation cooling of water in air charge increases the
density and air mass of intake charge. Water vapor in the cylinder also causes higher specific heat capacity of the
intake charge. Both give rise to lower combustion temperatures and lower NOx emissions[6,10,11]. In cylinder
water dilution effect refers to the reduction of concentration of oxygen per unit volume or mass of charge caused by
inert medium introduction[12,13]. The chemical effect is that supplied water decreases the concentration of atomic
oxygen and suppresses NO formation reactions[14,15].
Most researches focused on emissions and a widely accepted conclusion is that the introduction of water has great
benefits on NOx reduction with little or slight effect on thermal efficiency. This study concentrated on engine
thermal efficiency and revealed the mechanism of efficiency enhancement contributed by water injection.
2. Experimental Setup
The test is conducted on a common rail diesel engine retrofitted from a two cylinder mechanical pump diesel
engine. Engine specifications are shown in Table 1.
The schematic diagram of diesel engine direct water injection test bench is shown in Fig 1. A fuel supply system
provided from 200bar to 1600bar high pressure diesel. A Bosch diesel injector was utilized to inject diesel directly
into one test cylinder while the other cylinder had no diesel supply. The self-designed high pressure water supply
system consisted of air booster, gas-liquid booster, high pressure water rail, rail pressure gauge, rail temperature
controller and direct water injector. The direct water injector was modified from a Bosch diesel injector. The gas-
liquid booster with a boost ratio 1:60 was used to pressurize the water in the high pressure water rail. The initial high
pressure gas was supplied by an air booster with an output range from 1 to 8 bar. The water injection pressure in the
whole test was 35MPa. The schematic of combustion chamber layout is presented in Fig 2.
A Kistler cylinder pressure sensor was mounted on the top of combustion chamber. An optical encoder was used
to track engine position and gave a TTL signal each 0.5°CA. Cylinder pressure, intake temperature and pressure,
exhaust temperature, fuel injection timing and duration, water injection timing and duration, emissions were all
acquired by corresponding sensors and collected by NI PCI-6250 acquisition card utilizing trigger sampling mode
with a sample interval of 0.5 °CA. The controller platform of direct water injection common rail diesel engine test
bench was established on the basis of NI CompactRIO system. NI CompactRIO consists of a real-time controller,
reconfigurable FPGA chassis and C-series modules. In our test bench, two Drivven DI modules were selected to
control diesel direct injection and water direct injection separately.
3. Test Procedure
The engine was first started without water injection and no measurement would be carried out until the engine
reached a steady state. After reaching a stable condition, the data acquisition began. Around 100 cycles, first 50
cycles without water injection and the last 50 cycles with water injection were recorded each time. Some related
engine operation conditions were given in Table 2.
Fig 3 depicts the comparison of P-V diagrams of water injection cycle and no water injection cycle. Diesel is
injected 8°CA BTDC with the injection duration of 0.85ms . Water is injected 180°CA BTDC with the injection
duration of 0.4ms. The IMEP of no water injection cycle is 0.8931MPa, while the IMEP of water injection cycle is
0.9296. The IMEP of water injection cycle is increased by 4.09% compared with no water injection cycle under the
same diesel injection timing and duration, which means indicated thermal efficiency is improved by 4.09%.
Fig. 3. Comparison of cylinder pressure under water cycle and dry cycle
As shown in Fig3, the cylinder pressure of water injection cycle is lower than that of dry cycle in the compression
stroke, which means the negative work of compression stroke is reduced. The negative work of compression stoke is
reduced by 2.33%. Meanwhile the cylinder pressure of water injection cycle is higher than that of dry cycle in the
power stroke, which means positive work of power stroke is enhanced. The increment of power stroke negative
work is 1.76%. The work variation in intake and exhaust stroke is negligible. The work reduction of compression
stroke and the work increment of power stroke are the main sources of thermal efficiency enhancement. The heat
absorption of injected water contributes mainly to the lower cylinder pressure of compression stroke. The cylinder
pressure of power stroke of water cycle becomes higher because additional working fluid is added into cylinder.
Combustion is retarded slightly after water injection as is shown in Fig 4. CA10 is retarded from 358.5°CA to
359°CA. Analysis suggests that the lower cylinder temperature and pressure in the late compression stroke resulting
from heat absorption of the injected water results in the slight combustion start phase delay. CA50 is also retarded
slightly from 363.5°CA to 365°CA. The minor differences of CA10, CA50 between water injection and dry cycles
illustrates that small amount of water injection in the compression stroke has little retardation effect on combustion.
Fig. 4. Comparison of cylinder pressure and heat release rate under Fig. 5. Comparison of heat release rate and cumulative heat release of
water cycle and dry cycle water cycle and dry cycle
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The thermal efficiency enhancement comes from heat absorption of water evaporation in the compression stroke
and the additional working fluid mass increment in the power stroke. All these lead to a conclusion that physical
effect dominates under little amount of water injection in compression stroke conditions.
The heat release rates and cumulative heat releases of water injection and dry cycle are compared in Fig5. The
start phase of cumulative heat release of water injection cycle is later compared with no water injection cycle. Then
both cumulative heat releases begin to increase. The cumulative heat release of water injection cycle increases faster.
The cumulative heat release of water injection cycle becomes higher than no water injection cycle after around
364°CA until the end phase, which means more heat is absorbed by the working fluid.
The indicated efficiency enhancements of different water injection timings under same engine operating
condition are compared in Fig 6. The water injection duration is 0.4ms. It is noticed that the thermal efficiency
enhancement decreases from 4.09% to 2.10% as the water injection timing retards.
Cylinder pressures of same water injection duration with different injection timings are compared in Fig 7. It is
observed that the cylinder pressures of compression stroke are different from each other, while cylinder pressures
from 15°CA ATDC to the end of power stroke are quite close to each other. The injected water has a strong cooling
effect that changes the compression pressures significantly. It takes time for the injected water to evaporate.
However, after 15°ATDC, it is definite that all the in-cylinder water evaporates no matter the how late the injection
timing is. The reason is that after the occurrence of combustion the cylinder temperature becomes so high that the
evaporation speed is tremendously accelerated. Enough time is provided for water to evaporate.
Fig. 7. Cylinder pressures of different water injection timings Fig. 8. Comparison of the reduction of negative compression stroke’s
work and the increment of positive power stroke’s work
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Fig 8 illustrates the negative work reductions of compression stroke and positive work increments of power
stroke of same water injection duration (0.4ms) at different injection timings. It is noticed that the positive work
increments of power stroke of different injection timing operating points are close to each other except for the -
30°CA injection timing operating point, while the negative work reductions of compression stroke goes down as the
injection timing retards. Water starts to absorb heat and evaporate in cylinder after being injected, which gives rise
to the drop of cylinder pressure. It is obvious that the later water is injected, the later the cylinder pressure starts to
drop, and the smaller quantity of cumulative reductions of negative work of compression stroke is realized.
With enough time provided, which means the injection timing is not too late, all injected water will evaporate to
become steam before diesel combustion starts. In the power stroke, the working fluid mass and components are also
almost the same and the heat released by the fuel combustion process is also similar if the injected water has no
significant chemical influence on the combustion process. Similar working fluid components and mass with similar
heat release in the power stroke result in similar cylinder pressure. So it can be proved by the close to each other
expansion pressure lines that, small amount of water injection in the compression stroke with enough time to
evaporate before combustion starts does not have significant chemical effect on the combustion process and the
influences on combustion process is dominated by the heat absorption and the addition of working fluid. Test points
with 0.3ms water injection duration share the same tendency with different injection timings. However, when
injection timing retards to 30°CA BTDC, the evaporation process doesn’t finish before diesel combustion starts. The
local evaporation and endothermic effect of water cause uneven temperature distribution and oxygen concentration
distribution, which have a significant chemical effect on diesel combustion process. So the positive work of power
stroke with 30°CA BTDC injection timing is different from other test points.
When the water injection duration increases to 0.8ms, the trend of thermal efficiency enhancement varying with
water injection timing is different from that of short injection durations of 0.3ms and 0.4ms. As can be seen in Fig 9,
the thermal efficiency enhancements are all below 1% except for -30°CA BTDC point, which means no significant
changes of thermal efficiency appear when water injection timing varies from 180°CA BTDC to 60°CA BTDC.
Fig. 9. Indicated thermal efficiency enhancements of different water Fig. 10. Comparison of cylinder pressure under water cycle and dry
injection timings cycle
More detailed information is revealed in the P-φ diagram. The P-φ diagram of -90°CA BTDC injection timing is
shown in Fig 10 as an example. It is noted that the cylinder pressures of water injection and no water injection
cycles have no obvious differentiations. Other operating points with injection timings varying from 180°CA BTDC
to 60°CA BTDC are similar. Analysis suggests that, the spray penetration is much longer when the injection
duration increases to 0.8ms. Spray wall impingement phenomenon occur when injection timing is too early in the
compression stroke with low ambient pressure. The mixing of injected water and engine oil will lead to
emulsification of engine oil, which has negative impact on engine performance.
When water injection timing retards to 30°CA BTDC, the thermal efficiency enhancement rises to 2.42%. The
increase of in-cylinder pressure at injection timing suppresses the occurrence of spray wall impingement. Fig 11
shows the P-φ diagram of 30°CA BTDC injection timing. 2 °CA after injection timing, the cylinder pressure curves
of water injection cycle and no water injection cycle begin to separate. The heat absorption of water evaporation
reduces the cylinder pressure, retards the combustion process and extends the expansion line in power stroke.
Zhehao Zhang et al. / Energy Procedia 142 (2017) 1251–1258 1257
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Fig. 11. Comparison of cylinder pressure under water cycle and dry cycle Fig. 12. Comparison of the reduction of negative compression
stroke’s work and the increment of positive power stroke’s work
As is shown in Fig 12, the reduction of negative compression stroke’s work is 0.81J, very little compared with
16.86J, the increment of positive power stroke’s work. The thermal efficiency enhancement mainly comes from
combustion retardation and working fluid addition. In general, for small water injection durations, early injection
timing is more beneficial, while for large water injection durations, late injection timing is more beneficial.
Since spray wall impingement occurs in most injection timings with 0.8ms water injection duration, this part will
focus on 0.3 and 0.4ms injection durations. The correlation between indicated thermal efficiency and water injection
timing with 0.3 and 0.4ms water injection duration are given in Fig 13. Both injection durations share the same trend.
As the water injection retards, the indicated thermal efficiency decreases. The indicated thermal efficiency
enhancement of 0.3ms duration is always lower than that of 0.4ms with the same water injection timing.
Fig. 13. Comparison of Indicated thermal efficiency enhancement Fig. 14. Comparison of the reduction of negative compression stroke’s
under 0.3ms water injection duration and 0.4ms water injection work and the increment of positive power stroke’s work under 0.3ms
duration water injection duration and 0.4ms water injection duration.
The detailed reason is revealed by fig 14. The reduction of compression stroke work of 0.3ms duration is always
lower than that of 0.4ms at the same injection timing, while the enhancement of power stroke work of 0.3ms is also
lower than that of 0.4ms in most same injection timing conditions. Less water absorbs less heat and also provides
less working fluid addition in the power stroke. However, as the water injection duration rises to 0.8ms, the
indicated thermal efficiency enhancement is not significant at most injection timings due to the water spray wall
impingement and engine oil emulsification. If the water injection further increases, the combustion is deteriorated
and the indicated thermal efficiency decreased. Under test conditions, when the water injection duration is more than
1.4ms, the indicated thermal efficiency of water cycle becomes lower than that of dry cycle whatever the injection
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timing is. In short, as the injection duration increases, the indicated thermal efficiency goes up first until reach the
peak, and then goes down. Under test conditions, the best water duration is 0.4ms.
5. Conclusion
The effect of early direct water injection on the indicated thermal efficiency of diesel engine is investigated in
this study. Conclusions drawn are summarized as follows:
1. Compression stroke direct water injection has a slight retardation effect on diesel combustion.
2. Small amount of direct water injection in the compression stroke improves the indicated thermal efficiency.
The heat absorption of water evaporation reduces cylinder temperature and pressure and leads to the reduction of
negative compression stroke’s work. Water evaporates to become steam and add to the working fluid in cylinder.
Positive stroke’s work is increased due to the addition of working fluid.
3. Large amount of direct water injection in the early stage of compression stroke has no effect on indicated
thermal efficiency in that the wall impingement occurs with relatively low in-cylinder pressure.
4. Early injection timing is beneficial for small water injection duration, while late injection timing is
beneficial for relatively larger water injection duration. 180°CA BTDC is the best water injection timing of
operating conditions with 0.3 and 0.4ms water injection duration during compression stroke.
5. With increasing water injection duration, the indicated thermal efficiency goes up first until reaches the
peak and then goes down. Further increasing water injection duration deteriorates combustion process and has
negative impacts on thermal efficiency. The highest thermal efficiency enhancement is achieved under 0.4ms water
injection duration and 180°CA BTDC water injection timing condition with 4.08% thermal efficiency enhancement.
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