3D CFD Simulations of Hydrogen Fuelled Spark Ignition Engine

By supporting hydrogen as an alternative fuel to the conventional fuel i.e. gasoline, new era of renewable and carbon neutral energy resources can be introduced. Hence, development of hydrogen fuelled internal combustion engine for improved power density and less emission of NOx has become today’s need and researchers are continuously extending their efforts in the improvement of hydrogen fuelled internal combustion engine. In this work, three dimensional CFD simulations were performed using CFD code (AVL FIRE) for premixed combustion of hydrogen. The simplified 3D geometry of engine with single valve i.e. inlet valve was considered for the simulation. Various combustion models for spark ignition for hydrogen i.e. Eddy Breakup model, Turbulent Flame Speed Closure Combustion Model, Coherent Flame model, Probability Density Function model were tested and validated with available simulation results. Results obtained in simulation indicate that the properties of hydrogen i.e. high flame speed, wide flammability limit, and high ignition temperature are among the main influencing factors for hydrogen combustion being different than that of gasoline. Different parameters i.e. spark advance angle (TDC to 40° before TDC in the step of 5°), rotational speed (1200 to 3000 rpm in the step of 300 rpm), equivalence ratio (0.5 to 1.2 in the step of 0.1), and compression ratio (8, 9 and 10) were used to simulate the combustion of hydrogen in spark ignition engine and to investigate their effects on the engine performance, which is in terms of pressure distribution, temperature distribution, species mass fraction, reaction progress variable and rate of heat release for complete cycle. The results of power output for hydrogen were also compared with that of gasoline. It has been observed that power output for hydrogen is almost 12–15% less than that of gasoline.