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The modelling of operation of the compression ignition engine powered with

diesel fuel with LPG admixture

Article in Mechanika · January 2015

DOI: 10.5755/j01.mech.21.6.11147

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 500

ISSN 1392–1207. MECHANIKA. 2015 Volume 21(6): 500–505

The modelling of operation of the compression ignition engine powered

with diesel fuel with LPG admixture
G. Pulawski*, D. Szpica**
*Bialystok University of Technology, 45C Wiejska Str., 15-351 Bialystok, Poland, E -mail: [email protected]
**Bialystok University of Technology, 45C Wiejska Str., 15-351 Bialystok, Poland, E -mail: [email protected]
http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.mech.21.6.11147

1. Introduction investment return [1-3]. Application the engines to operate

on gaseous fuel is related to many problems [4, 5]. They
The gaseous fuels are used in transportation due to are mainly: adaptation costs, refilling, engine durability,
their lower price However, the car manufacturers rarely fuel tank placing, service and operation safety. As fuels
offer engine units powered with this type of fuel. That is capable of transportation usage can be named: natural gas
why the row of research courses is run aiming the adapta- (CNG - compressed, LNG - liquefied), liquid mixture of
tion different sorts of engines for powering with gaseous propane and butane (LPG) and biogas. Basic parameters of
fuels, what is connected with the cost increase, thus longer these fuels are listed in Table 1.

Table 1
Properties of fuels [1]
LPG Natural gas
Property Diesel Biogas Hydrogen
(70% of butane) (methane)
Heating value, MJ/kg 42.50 45.78 50.00 17.50 120.00
Heating value of stoichiometric mixture, MJ/kg 2.47 2.77 2.74 2.46 3.42
540 424 71
Liquid/gas density, kg/m3 815-855 1.2
2.06 0.72 0.09
Octane number - 105 110 134 70
Cetane number 50-85 - - - -
0.6 2 5 5 4
Flammability limits, %
6.5 9 15 20 75
Theoretical air request for combustion, kg/kg 14.5 15.5 17.2 6.1 34.0

In the case of petrol engines, the gaseous fuel can the ignition of dual-fuel engine (diesel/LPG) effects in
completely replace petrol fuel due to external ignition. In increasing the efficiency and decreasing the hard work
diesel engines, the diesel fuel is essential to initiate the effect [8]. On the other hand, the knocking combustion
ignition (dual-fueled engine) or applying the spark plug, occurs resulting in lowered durability, including failure
then the engine can be powered only with gaseous fuel wear [9]. The effect of the knock can be lowered by means
[6, 7]. Due to the fact, that the diesel engine operates at the of proper selection of diesel/LPG mixing ratio, lowering by
air excess, the delivering the gaseous fuel is possible in this hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide emissions [10].
cylinder filling process at the expense of reduced air mass, Increasing the preliminary dosage mass results in thermal
containing oxygen, essential in combustion process. In this efficiency increase, simultaneously increasing the possibil-
case the engine uses advantages of both fuels and is capa- ity of knock, thus should it not be used in dual-fuel power-
ble of operating with minimal interference in engine con- ing at maximal loads [11]. The negative influence of dual-
struction. The second case requires higher range of inter- fuel powering on CO emission can be reduced by increas-
fering with engine infrastructure, where the additional in- ing the preliminary dosage as a result of lengthening the
stallation of subsystems responsible for ignition initializa- injection, however influences this the NOx emission in-
tion (spark plug) and reducing the compression ratio are crease [12].
required. Unfortunately, the dominant feature with LPG
That is why the attempt was made to create the powering is the variability of chemical composition and
simulation model of the diesel engine powered with ad- pollution content, what influences on the diversity of toxic
mixture of LPG of different degrees. Modern, commercial compounds emission to the atmosphere. In the paper [13] it
solutions of LPG powering systems dedicated for diesel was shown, that at proper LPG composition, the engine
engines are meeting several operational problems. That is works smoothly with up to 90 % ON dosage replaced by
why the calculations were needed, basing on which, the LPG. In general, engines powered with gaseous fuel are
conclusion about source of some engine issues was possi- characterized by lower toxic compounds emission, as it is
ble to draw. in the case of petrol or diesel engines, however in the re-
Internal combustion engines used in road trans- sults of some technical imperfections, the total emission
portation are mostly compression ignition engines powered increases compared to base fuel powering [14].
with diesel fuel. The delay of injection start, which initiates The amount of heat transferred with the exhaust
 501

gases to the diesel engine exhaust system is lower for the  engine speed – 2000 rpm,
dual-fuel solution. Faster gas combustion in smaller com-  intake pressure – 0.1 MPa,
bustion chamber volume causes the increase of maximum  back pressure – 0.1 MPa.
temperature and cycle pressure [15].
On the other hand, the CNG injection to the com- Table 2
bustion chamber results in higher mechanical load as an Engine technical data
effect of maximum pressure increase, comparing to CNG
brought via intake manifold, where as bringing CNG via Engine type CI, natural aspirated
intake manifold results in increased thermal loads [16]. Number, configure of cylinders 4, in-line
Timing system 2 valves per cylinder
2. The characteristics of research object and necessary Displacement, dm3 1.896
conditions from simulation initialization Bore, mm 79.5
Stroke, mm 89.5
The object of research is the compression ignition Connecting rod length, mm 150
engine with parameters listed in Table 2. The simulation Compression ratio 18
research concerns the engine powered only by diesel fuel Maximum power, kW 77 at 4400 rpm
and powered by mixture of diesel and LPG in gaseous Maximum torque, Nm 250 at 1900 rpm
phase injected indirectly to the inlet duct during intake
stroke. diesel LPG
For dual-fuel powering the system presented in
Fig. 1 was applied, where the nozzle was inserted to sup-
port gaseous fuel to the intake manifold. The engine in
intake stroke is partially powered with LPG, making the
combustible mixture. The injection of diesel fuel at the
final phase of compression stroke is responsible for igni- air + LPG diesel
tion initiation.
In the next step of research, the following as- inlet compressed combustion
sumptions were applied:
a) constant wall temperature: 360°K; Fig. 1 Dual-fuel powering system schematics
b) density of flowing gas is pressure and temperature de-
pendent; For simulation initialization purposes, it was nec-
c) air with following properties: essary to determine the valves timing and put it into the
software workspace (Fig. 2).
 density in normal conditions – 1.205 kg/m3,
 heating value – 1.005 kJ/(kg °K),
0.012
 thermal conductivity – 0.0259 W/(m °K), inlet
 dynamic viscosity – 1.81e-05 kg/ms, 0.01 outlet
 kinematic viscosity – 1.506e-05 m2/s, 0.008
 molecular weight – 28.96 kg/kmol;
h, m

0.006
d) gravity omitted; 0.004
e) turbulence model k-epsilon.
0.002
The simulation was conducted by using the transi-
ent option, which means that the parameters of medium 0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700
flow are variable in time. The boundary conditions of the
α, deg
engine operation were applied as for driving with high
loads. Fig. 2 The valve timing of the modeled engine
Thus assumed:

Table 3
Fuel injection parameters
Parameter Simulation 1 Simulation 2 Simulation 3
Fuel type diesel diesel +LPG diesel initial injection +LPG
diesel 20º 10º 1º
Injection angle [ºCA]
LPG - 20 40º
diesel 18º before TDC 18º before TDC 18º before TDC
Injection start angle [ºCA]
LPG - 60º after TDC 60º after TDC

As the initial conditions for the whole fluid com- drop diameter of 40 µm, the mass flow of 4.5 gm/s and the
putational space the constant pressure at value of 100 kPa, stream velocity equal to 250 m/s. The LPG injection war
temperature at value of 290 oK and percentage composition realized by assuming the constant injection pressure of
of air with 21% content of oxygen, water steam of 0.5%, 70 kPa and injector nozzle diameter of 2 mm. The LPG
carbon dioxide of 0.03% were applied. composition was assumed as 50 % of propane and 50% of
The diesel fuel injection was assumed, in which butane. Injection times for specific variants are shown in
the stream is cone-shaped with the apex angle of 120 deg, Table 3.
 502

3. The simulation research methodology optimal cell size - cell size

Skewness= , (1)
optimal cell size
For simulation research purpose the solid model
was created, which corresponds to research object geome-
try, in which one full power cycle is possible to perform
[17]. It consists of the volume, which is inside intake duct,
combustion chamber and exhaust duct, this is the space in
which flow processes occur (Fig. 3).
As an environment for model research the soft- Fig. 5 Deviation from normalized angle [18]
ware was chosen, which bases on computational fluid dy-
namics (CFD) and uses the finite volume elements method     e  e   min 
- ANSYS Fluent. The model changes during simulation as Skewness  MAX  max , , (2)
a result of piston and valves displacement according to  180   e e 
crankshaft movement and timing. The change of the com- The model has multisolid structure, it consists of
putational space is possible due to dynamic mesh applica- ten separate solids. Multisolidness of the model is deter-
tion. The simulation begins from the TDC of the piston, mined by ANSYS Fluent software requirements regarding
which corresponds to the angular crankshaft position at 0º variable geometry during simulation. The simplifications
value. were not applied in the model, in the form of section of the
elements or of symmetrical volume, which significantly
shorten the calculation time, but are able to be applied in
the case of predictible steady state research. In the ana-
outlet
inlet lyzed case they are not applicable due to the turbulent flow
character, strong air swirl during load exchange and une-
outlet valves ven flame spread during combustion.
LPG The model consists mainly of tetrahedral ele-
injector ments, which occur in solids marked in Fig. 6 by numbers
diesel
1, 2, 4, 7, 9. It is needed to say that solid 9 is subjected to
injector
inlet valves rebuild during the whole simulation, the other are constant.
In solids 3, 5, 6, 8, 10 the hexaheddral elements occur with
combustion prismatic shape with quadrangular or triangular base,
chamber which are used accordingly to software requirements for
getting in these areas cell extension or division, thus crea-
tion of new layers during movable elements movement.
Fig. 3 View of model section with focused volume mesh This solution allows valve outline to displace
applied without necessity of rebuilding solids 1 and 2, which
would be related to lengthening the calculation time. Be-
The finite volume mesh is built of about 300000 tween consecutive solids the interfaces are created letting
elements in TDC position and about 500000 in BDC posi- maintain the continuity of the flow between displacing
tion. The quality of the mesh is defined by means of statis- areas of various structure, or creating the wall out of the
tical tool called Skewness, available in ANSYS Mesh interface denying further flow in the time range corre-
module, of which the maximum value was 0.869 and the sponding to the valves closure.
average 0.24.
Tetrahedral 1 3 4 5 2 10
(static)
optimal (equilateral) cell

actual cell

Hexahedral
circumsphere
(layered)

Tetrahedral
(dynamic)
Fig. 4 Deviation from optimal equilateral volume [18]
9 8 7 6
Skewness has an influence on the mesh structure
during rebuilding at consecutive time steps, the value of Fig. 6 Mesh types used in model
which stays on the assumed level, i.e. in this case 0.6.
For simulating processes occuring inside the
Skewness contained in proper range determines high quali-
ty of given results. For 3D models permissible values compression ignition engine the models were used, which
range from 0 to 0.95. The ways of computing the parame- are supplied by ANSYS Fluent software. The tool was
ter are shown in Figs. 4 and 5 and are represented accord- used allowing initiating the combustion process as a result
of compression ignition. It takes into account the amount
ingly by dependencies (1) and (2) for tetrahedronical cells
of time passing from injecting the fuel to self-ignition oc-
and cells of other shapes.
curence, i.e. the ignition lag, which is dependent on the
 503

parameters due to following formula [19]: of reaching higher values of working indicators, i.e. torque.

 C1  0 .22 S p 
 id   
 6N 
 
  1 1   21 .2 
ep

 exp  E a    , (3)
  RT 17 .190   p  12 .4  
 

where C1 is pro-exponential; N is engine speed; S p is mean

piston speed; Ea is effective activation energy; R is univer-
sal gas constant; T is temperature; p is absolute pressure; ep
is pressure exponent.

E hh
Ea  , (4)
CN  25
Fig. 8 Average static pressure course (Pa) in cylinder (die-
where Ehh is activation energy; CN is cetane number. sel and diesel + LPG)
The combustion process was realized by using
Eddy-dissipation model for turbulent models. The fuels are The increase of temperature by about 50 °K is re-
oxidated according to the reactions [20]: lated to that (Fig. 9).

2C10 H 22 +31O2 =20CO2 +22H 2 O ; (5)

C3 H8 +5O2 =3CO2 +4H 2 O ; (6)

2C4 H10 +13O2 =8CO2 =10H 2 O . (7)

4. Research results and discussion

The speed distribution during cylinder filling

(Fig. 7 – the case when cylinder is filled only with air)
showed the correctness of dividing the fluid to components
depending on prognosed work parameters gradients. The
swirls can be observed in almost whole analyzed space
(stream lines with velocity values). Maximum velocity
values were noted at level of 17 m/s in valve slot necking. Fig. 9 Average temperature course (°K) in cylinder (diesel
and diesel + LPG)

That is why it requires monitoring the temperature

in exhaust systems of engine of such type, what is prac-
ticed in commercial LPG system solutions.
Static pressure and temperature distributions at
TDC for Simulation 1 (diesel) are presented in Fig. 10. The
biggest pressure values occur in lower part of combustion
chamber what is the result of proper directing of fuel
streams. (Fig. 10, a and d). The temperature reaches the
biggest values at the edges of the stream as well, according
to the flame spread direction. The diesel fuel injection to
the space filled with air admixtured by LPG show in-
creased pressure in the area of the top part of combustion
chamber, the similar thing occurs in the case of tempera-
ture (Simulation 2 - diesel+LPG - Fig. 10, b and e). Simu-
lation 3 (diesel initial injection + LPG) shows the lowest
pressure and temperature values, what causes the difficul-
Fig. 7 Air flow velocity distribution (m/s) during cylinder ties of reaching the indicators values at a level comparable
filling – piston at 10º CA before BDC with diesel powering.
The maximum value of reaction heat (Fig. 11) in
The average pressure and temperature courses beginning combustion phase in the case of Simulation 2 is
show differences in the case of applying LPG admixture significantly lower than in diesel (Simulation 1), the con-
(Fig. 8 and 9). After occurence of ignition the pressure trary situation occurs in the case of Simulation 3, where
reaches greater gradient in the case of diesel+LPG, maxi- lowered amount of reaction heat value can be observed,
mum value is higher by about 0.25 MPa as well. This im- what let conclude about lower thermal loads occuences for
plies that the engine powered by LPG admixture is capable this kind of solution.
 504

a b c

d e f
o
Fig. 10 Static pressure distribution (Pa) and temperature distribution ( K) in cylinder section at TDC piston position:
a,d - diesel; b,e - diesel + LPG; c,f - diesel initial injection + LPG

the higher hydrocarbons to lower, which flame slower.

6. In the following phase the charged engine simu-
lations are planned to be conducted, because modern com-
pression ignition power units are equipped with air supply-
ing systems of such type., and commercial attempts of
LPG applying as the admixture to the base fuel cause wear
problems.

Acknowledgment

The investigations described in this paper are a

part of the research project No S/WM/2/13 realized
at Bialystok University of Technology.
Fig. 11 Reaction heat course (W) for each simulation
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