Numerical analysis of combustion process and pressure oscillation phenomena in low-pressure injection natural gas/diesel dual fuel low speed marine engine

Dual fuel strategy is a promising way to achieve low-carbon emission for marine engines, but engine knock restricts the compression ratio and engine thermal efficiency by adopting premixed combustion mode. Engine knock of natural gas/diesel dual fuel low speed marine engine is not well understood under high compression ratio. The characteristics of combustion process and pressure oscillation phenomena were investigated by varying compression ratio, pre-chamber number, energy proportion of pilot diesel with a single-cylinder engine model with numerical simulation. The results show that, with increase in pre-chamber number using the same energy proportion of pilot diesel under compression ratio of 16, the maximum amplitude of pressure oscillation can be significantly reduced from 0.62 MPa to 0.23 MPa in main chamber, while both resonance modes follow (1,0) mode. With double pre-chamber, when the energy proportion of pilot diesel increases from 0.6% to 1.2%, due to the stronger intensity of jet flame, the heat release rate is accelerated as well as the accumulation of H2O2 radical become less before high speed spontaneous combustion, resulting in lower amplitude of pressure oscillation. When the energy proportion of pilot diesel increases from 1.2% to 3.0%, excessive amount of pilot diesel cannot strengthen the jet flame obviously while the amplitude of pressure oscillation increases slightly. These results suggest that about 1.0% in energy proportion of pilot diesel should be optimal by considering the thermal efficiency, pressure oscillation and NOx emission together.

Automated summary

Dual fuel strategy is a promising way to achieve low-carbon emission for marine engines. The effects of compression ratio, pre-chamber number, and energy proportion of pilot diesel on combustion process and pressure oscillation in natural gas/diesel dual fuel low speed marine engine were investigated. It was found that increasing pre-chamber number effectively reduced the maximum amplitude of pressure oscillation in the main chamber. The optimal energy proportion of pilot diesel was determined to be around 1.0% considering thermal efficiency, pressure oscillation, and NOx emission.