Numerical Study to Achieve Stratified EGR in Engines

Exhaust Gas Re-circulation (EGR) has been used in intemal combustion engines to control automotive emissions. EGR is usually used to dilute the inlet charge, which consists of air, by redirecting part of the exhaust into the inlet manifold of the engine. This results in a reduction of the oxygen mass fraction in the inlet charge. However, dilution of the air-fuel mixture in an engine using stratified EGR could offer significant fuel economy saving comparable to lean burn or stratified charge direct-injection SI engines. The most critical challenge is to keep the EGR and air-fuel mixture separated, or to minimize the mixing between the two zones to an acceptable level for stable and complete combustion. Swirl-type stratified EGR and fuel-air flow structure is considered desirable for this purpose, because the circular shape of the cylinder tends to preserve the swirl motion. Moreover, the axial piston motion has minimal effect on the swirling motion of the fluid in the cylinder. In this study, we consider intake system design in order to generate a two-zone combustion system, where EGR is maintained in a layer on the periphery of the cylinder, and the fuel-air mixture is maintained in the center of the cylinder. KIVA-3V was used to perform numerical simulations on different EGR systems. The simulations were performed to determine if the two-zones can be generated in the cylinder, and to what extent mixing between the two zones occurs. For the engine geometries considered in this study, the results showed that it is possible to generate the two zones, but mixing is difficult to control.