High pressure direct injection of gaseous fuels using a discrete phase methodology for engine simulations

Direct gaseous fuel injection in internal combustion engines is a potential strategy for improving in-cylinder combustion processes, performance and emissions outputs and, in the case of hydrogen, could facilitate a transition away from fossil fuel usage. Computa-tional fluid dynamic studies are required to fully understand and optimise the combustion process, however, the fine grids required to adequately model the underexpanded gas jets which tend to result from direct injection make this a difficult and cumbersome task. In this paper the gaseous sphere injection (GSI) model, which utilises the Lagrangian discrete phase model to represent the injected gas jet, is further improved to account for the variation in the jet core length with better estimation due to total pressure ratio change. The improved GSI model is then validated against experimental hydrogen and methane underexpanded freestream jet studies, mixing in a direct injection hydrogen spark ignition engine and combustion in a pilot ignited direct injection methane compression ignition engine. The improved GSI model performs reasonably well across all cases examined which cover various pressure ratios, injector diameters, injection conditions and disparate gases (hydrogen and methane) while also allowing for relatively coarse meshes (cheaper computational cost) to be used when compared to those needed for fully resolved modelling of the gaseous injection process. The improved GSI model should allow for efficient and accurate investigation of direct injection gaseous fuelled engines. Crown Copyright (c) 2021 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Hydrogen Energy Publica-tions LLC. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

Direct gaseous fuel injection in internal combustion engines has the potential to improve combustion processes, performance, and emissions, especially in transitioning away from fossil fuels. Computational fluid dynamic studies are necessary to optimize the combustion process, and this paper presents an improved Gaseous Sphere Injection (GSI) model for more efficient and accurate investigation of direct injection gaseous fuelled engines.