Numerical investigation of the effect of injection strategy on mixture formation and combustion process in a port injection natural gas rotary engine

This work aimed to numerically study the influence of injection strategy on mixture formation and combustion process in a port injection natural gas rotary engine. On the base of a 3D dynamic simulation model which was established in our previous work, some critical information was obtained, which was difficult to obtain through experiment, in terms of the flow field, the fuel distribution, the temperature field and the concentration fields of some intermediates. Simulation results showed that for mixture formation, the movements of fuel in injection stage were mainly controlled by the intensity of the vortex I for injection timing, and the value of jet flux for injection duration respectively. With retarded injection timing, the decreasing intensity of the vortex I resulted in less fuel moving toward the back of the combustion chamber. With the extension in injection duration, the decreasing value of jet flux resulted in more fuel staying at the back of the combustion chamber. For combustion process, the overall combustion rate for injection strategy which had an injection timing of 390 °CA (BTDC) and injection duration of 51.5 °CA (case ID4) was the fastest. This was mainly due to the fact that the accumulation area of fuel was at the middle and front of the combustion chamber. Meanwhile, fuel concentration near the leading and trailing spark plugs was conducive for the flame kernel formation. Compared with the injection strategy which had an injection timing of 450 °CA (BTDC) and an injection duration of 55 °CA (case IT1), the improved combustion rate of case ID4 had a 23% increase in the peak pressure, but also a certain increase in NO emissions.