Experimental understanding of the relationship between combustion/ flow/flame velocity and knock in a hydrogen-fueled Wankel rotary engine

Driven by issues such as global warming, there is currently great interest and significance in developing zero carbon-emission internal combustion engines. Limited by structural and sealing requirements, there are no experimental studies related to combustion velocity measurement of the hydrogen-fueled Wankel rotary engine (HWRE) with excellent power performance, which is important to investigate its knock characteristic. In this work, a combustion velocity measuring method of dual spark plug HWRE is pro-posed, besides the obtained combustion, flow and flame velocities are correlated with the knock to explore their influence on the HWRE knock characteristics. The study found that adopting dual spark plugs in HWRE is necessary to reduce the negative impact of the flame not being able to propagate against the flow field. Besides, excess air ratio affects the combustion velocity of HWRE by changing the flame velocity, while the engine speed affects the combustion velocity of HWRE by changing the flow velocity, which basically does not affect the flame velocity. The knock level of HWRE is influenced by its flame velocity and flow velocity, both of which are positively correlated to the knock intensity and the latter has a more significant effect. (c) 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

This study focuses on the experimental research of the combustion velocity of a hydrogen-fueled Wankel rotary engine and proposes a measurement method using dual spark plugs. The study found that using dual spark plugs can reduce the negative impact of flame propagation against the flow field. The combustion velocity of the engine is affected by the excess air ratio and engine speed, and the flame velocity and flow velocity both have a positive correlation with the knock level of the engine.