Published papers

© 2018 International Heat Transfer Conference. All rights reserved. The present study is aimed at exploring the spatial and temporal development of the flame kernel using OH planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF) in a single cylinder optical SI engine with a gasoline surrogate fuel. A tumble enhancing intake port is used for the sake of improvement of ignition and flame propagation. The engine speed was set to 2000 rpm through the experiments. Equivalence ratio is changed from 1.0 to 0.6. With decrease of equivalence ratio, ignition timing is changed to be earlier for appropriate combustion. From the preliminary measurement using particle image velocimetry (PIV), it is found that the cycle-cycle variations of main stream direction of tumble flow at the ignition point are prone to be large in approaching to top dead center in the compression stroke, which significantly affects characteristics of flame and in-cylinder pressure developments. From results of OH PLIF in different crank angle degrees (CAD) after ignition, characteristics of flame behavior are investigated with considering temporal evolution of in-cylinder pressure and characteristics of discharge path. For the stoichiometric condition, overall flame locations are fluctuated by variations of main flow direction, while nevertheless the pressure evolves properly due to fast flame propagation. For the lean conditions, initial stage of flame kernel development has great influence on the completeness of whole combustion.

© IMechE 2018. A micro particle image velocimetry has been performed to investigate tumble enhanced flow characteristics near piston top surface of a motored internal combustion engine for three inlet valve open timing (−30, −15, 0 crank angle degrees). Particle image velocimetry was conducted at 340, 350 and 360 crank angle degrees of the end of the compression stroke at the constant motored speed of 2000 r/min. The measurement region was 3.2 mm × 1.5 mm on the piston top including central axis of the cylinder. The spatial resolution of particle image velocimetry in the wall-normal direction was 75 µm and the vector spacing was 37.5 µm. The first velocity vector is located about 60 µm from the piston top surface. The micro particle image velocimetry measurements revealed that the ensemble-averaged flow near the piston top is not close to the turbulent boundary layer and rather has tendency of the Blasius theorem, whereas fluctuation root-mean-square velocity near the wall is not low. This result shows that revision of a wall heat transfer model based on an assumption of the proper characteristics of flow field near the piston top is required for more accurate prediction of heat flux in gasoline engines.

The thermal efficiency of a spark-ignition (SI) engine must be improved to reduce both environmental load and fuel consumption. Although lean SI engine operation can strongly improve thermal efficiency relative to that of stoichiometric SI operation, the cycle-to-cycle variation (CCV) of combustion increases with the air dilution level. Combustion CCV is caused by CCVs of many factors, such as EGR, spark energy, air-fuel ratio, and in-cylinder flow structure related to engine speed. This study focuses on flow structures, especially the influence of a tumble structure on flow fluctuation intensity near ignition timing. We measured the flow field at the vertical center cross section of an optically accessible high-tumble flow engine using time-resolved particle image velocimetry. There are many factors considered to be sources of CCV, we analyzed three factors: the intake jet distribution, distribution of vortex core position and trajectory of the fluid particle near the spark plug. To estimate the trajectory of fluid particle, the flow structure near the spark plug is tracked backward from the ignition timing to the intake stroke. The CCV of the fluid particle trajectory has two modes, and it is induced by the different of horizontal velocity component. The more detail study is needed to detect the cause of this two-mode behavior. Furthermore, the relationships between CCV factors were analyzed by correlation coefficient and multiple regression analysis. It was not confirm that the CCV of intake jet flow and the pressure wave affect directly the following CCV factors. The CCV of the flow field is mainly generated in the compression stroke. The key part for the CCV at ignition timing is not only the vortex core position, but also the area around the vortex core.

The effect of the non-uniform profile of scalar variables, such a fuel at the upstream and temperature at the downstream of the flame zone was discussed theoretically to elucidate; (1) the deviation of motion from the steady state case and (2) the hysteresis of premixed flames response to the equivalence ratio oscillations seen in an experimental and numerical works. One-dimensional integral model for the non-uniform scalar variable profile with low frequency equivalence ratio oscillation has been developed. Here, the wavelength of the oscillation is assumed to be larger than the nominal flame thickness. Through the integral analysis, we obtained the relation of the flame propagation speed for steady and unsteady cases depending on the non-uniform scalar profile at the upstream and downstream of the flame zone. Hysteresis of the flame propagation speed is found due to the transport of fuel and heat by the non-uniform scalar profile at the upstream and downstream of the flame zone. This result qualitatively agreed with the numerical results of a response of the stagnation laminar CH4/air premixed flames for a low equivalence ratio oscillation frequency. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

© Asia-Pacific Conference on Combustion, ASPACC 2019.All right reserved. Lean-burn SI engines have been investigated to decrease the heat loss, such as the cooling loss and the pumping loss. However, as excess air ratio approaches the lean operation limit, the cycle-to-cycle variation (CCV) of SI combustion becomes an obstacle to stable operation. This study reports the effects of spark discharge characteristics, such as discharge current and spark-shortening phenomena, on the CCV of SI combustion under lean operation (excess air ratio = 1.8 - 2.3). An enhanced ignition system equipped with 20 ignition coils was utilized in this study. In the experiment, the discharge interval between each coil unit was modified to change the discharge current and duration. The results showed that the CCV of combustion was suppressed with the discharge interval, and the lean operation limit was extended to = 2.1. Observations of in-cylinder photographs suggest that the repetition of spark-shortening phenomena promoted the flame kernel formation.

© Asia-Pacific Conference on Combustion, ASPACC 2019.All right reserved. Although an extensive study has been conducted to elucidate the effect of equivalence ratio gradient on flame characteristics, some disagreements regarding the mechanism of the stratification effect exist. This may be attributed to differences in the flame properties used to evaluate the stratification effects. The present study evaluated the magnitude of the stratification effects with various flame properties used previously, and compared their response to mixture composition oscillations. The response of displacement speed was affected by unsteady gas expansion, while the response of consumption speed directly represented the variation in the reaction rate. The response of peak heat release rate provided a better representation of the response of fuel consumption rate than the global heat release rate, because it measures the local characteristics at the reaction zone and does not include heat release variations in the wake of the flame. However, the peak heat release rate overestimates the magnitude of the stratification effect due to additional variation in the heat release from H2 oxidation reaction, which is caused by increase/decrease in the H2 diffusion from the burned side.

In recently developed ammonia combustion technologies such as swirl flow and staged combustion, locally rich or lean pockets of unburned mixtures may occur due to insufficient mixing. This results in a premixed flamelet propagating into a gradually leaner or richer mixture. The present study aims to numerically investigate the propagation of laminar ammonia/air premixed flames in compositionally stratified mixtures. Results indicate that the flame speed in a rich-to-lean stratified mixture is increased from that in corresponding homogeneous mixtures at each local equivalence ratio. In contrast, the stratified flame speed is decreased in a lean-to-rich stratified mixture. The response of the stratified flame speed is attributed to variation in the amount of H2 in the burned gas. In the rich-to-lean stratified flame, an extra amount of H2 diffuses into the reaction zone to enhance chain-branching reactions which produce H radicals. The increased H radicals then promote dehydration reactions, resulting in an increased fuel consumption rate. In the lean-to-rich stratified flame, the opposite process takes place. The above mechanism is similar to the so-called back-support effect observed in methane/air stratified flames. Meanwhile, in both rich-to-lean and lean-to-rich stratified flames, additional NO reduction occurs in the stoichiometric region of the burned gas. This is facilitated by unburned ammonia diffusing from the neighboring rich burned gas mixing with O/H radicals diffusing from the neighboring lean burned gas, resulting in a production of extra NHi radicals which readily reduce NO. Therefore, NO emission in stratified flames is expected to be lower than that estimated from the emission characteristics in homogeneous mixtures. Although similar to the well-known thermal DeNOx mechanism, the current NO reduction process occurs under a much higher temperature due to the abundance of radical species. A similar phenomenon is expected to be observed in a triple flame configuration, which requires future investigations.

Flow characteristics with gel reaction of 10 mass% PVA and 3 mass% borax solutions in a Non-element mixer were experimentally investigated. The mixer consisted of a transparent main flow pipe and transparent branch flow pipes that were connected vertically to the main flow pipe. The PVA solution was supplied to the main flow pipe at a constant inlet pressure 20 kPa. The Reynolds number of the main flow (Re) was varied from 0.5 to 10.0. The borax solution was dyed blue to visualize the flow patterns and was injected periodically from one of the branch flow pipes at a mean speed of 40 mm/s. A pressure sensor was used to measure the pressure variation at 100 mm upstream from the first branch flow pipe. When Re was low, the borax periodically formed a capsule-like slug similar to those that occur in multiphase flows. As Re was increased, the borax capsule was stretched by the shear stress of the main flow and adhered to the upside wall of the mixer. At Re = 10.0, the pipe was prone to becoming blocked by excess gel product, which resulted in the pressure increasing to the inlet pressure of the system.

The combustion behavior of a methane hydrate sphere under normal gravity is experimentally investigated. The initial diameter of the sphere is 20 mm. Variation in temperature at the center of the sphere (T-c) is measured with a K-type thermocouple at ignition temperatures (T-c,T-i) from 193 to 253 K at 20 K intervals. Variation in the near-surface temperature of the sphere (T-s) is measured at ignition temperatures (T-s,T-i) from 233 to 263 K at 10 K intervals. Two combustion phases are observed. When the hydrate is ignited, a stable flame envelope is formed around the sphere (phase 1). In phase 1, the surface of the sphere is dry. After a few seconds, water formed by dissociation of the methane hydrate appears on the surface and methane bubbles are formed by methane ejected from inside the sphere (phase 2), thus destabilizing the flame and causing local extinction. Methane bubbles move down along the surface and merge into a large methane bubble at the bottom of the sphere. This bubble bursts, releasing methane to form a temporary flame, and the water drops from the hydrate sphere. Water on the surface is cooled by the hydrate inside, and an ice shell confines the methane gas that dissociated inside the sphere. Because the dissociation occurs continuously inside the hydrate, the inner pressure gradually increases and at some instant, the ice cracks and methane gas is ejected from the cracks, which results in a micro-explosion with a flame. In phase 1, the surface temperature is below the freezing point of water, and so the surface remains dry and a stable flame envelope is formed; in phase 2, the surface temperature is above the freezing point, and so water appears on the surface. When the temperature at the center of the sphere is lower (193, 213, or 233 K), some methane hydrate remains even after flame extinction because heat transfer from the flame decreases in phase 2 as a result of local extinction. The diameter of the sphere decreases during combustion in accordance with the d-square law, which indicates that the heat of dissociation is supplied by the flame and methane is supplied by the dissociation of methane hydrate in the sphere, as in single-droplet combustion.

This study investigates the effect of fuel concentration oscillation on laminar stagnating premixed flames by both experiment and numerical simulation. The numerical analysis is conducted using ANSYS Fluent 14.5. The equivalence ratio oscillation in the experiments is formed by a novel oscillator with two cylinder piston units that can produce alternating ejections of leaner and richer pre-mixtures. Velocity fluctuation is well suppressed by installing screens on the burner exit. The fuel concentration oscillation between the stagnation plate and the burner exit is visualized and analyzed by acetone ultraviolet light-induced fluorescence in the isothermal condition. The oscillator frequency is varied in the range 2-20 Hz, and the oscillation wavelength is much longer than the flame thickness. The flame oscillates with the fuel concentration, and in the experiment, the amplitude of the flame oscillation attenuates as the frequency of fuel concentration oscillation increases above 5 Hz, which corresponds to a Strouhal number of unity. This indicates that the Strouhal number distinguishes quasi-steadiness for St < 1 and unsteadiness for St > 1. The flame oscillation pattern is a closed loop, which might be attributable to variation of the back support effect on the flame. The numerical results show a similar trend for the flame response to oscillations in fuel concentration. This study finds the flame motion is significantly affected by fuel concentration oscillations, even at low frequencies; in other words, the oscillation wavelength is much longer than the flame thickness, as a result of the back support effect. (C) 2014 The Combustion Institute. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

© 2019 Elsevier Ltd Lean combustion technologies have been investigated to decrease the heat loss of spark ignition engines. However, as the excess air ratio approaches the lean operation limit, the cycle-to-cycle variation of combustion becomes an obstacle to improving thermal efficiency. This paper discusses the influences of spark discharge characteristics, such as discharge current and spark-shortening phenomena, on the ignition and combustion process under lean conditions (excess air ratio (λ) of 1.8–2.3) to suppress the cycle-to-cycle variation of combustion and extend the lean operation limit. In this study, a customized inductive ignition system equipped with 20 conventional ignition coils was applied to enhance the ignition energy. The discharge interval between each coil unit was controlled to change the discharge current and duration. The results show that the in-cylinder discharged energy increased with the discharge interval. The cycle-to-cycle variation of combustion was minimized when the discharge interval was 0.4 ms, and consequently, the lean operation limit was extended to an excess air ratio (λ) of 2.1. The discharge waveforms indicated that the longer discharge interval could promote spark-shortening phenomena such as re-strike due to the lower discharge current. Finally, in-cylinder photographs of ignition and combustion process showed that the flame kernel formation could be promoted by the repetition of spark-shortening phenomena such as re-strike, as well as by the high elongation of the spark channel.