Modeling study on the effect of piston bowl geometries in a gasoline/biodiesel fueled RCCI engine at high speed

• The RCCI engine fueled with gasoline and biodiesel is simulated.
• The effect of piston bowl geometry is investigated.
• The throat diameter of a piston can affect combustion process.
• SCC shows superiority among three investigated geometries for RCCI combustion.

This paper reports the numerical investigation on the effects of three bowl geometries on a gasoline/biodiesel fueled RCCI engine operated at high engine speed. The three bowl geometries are HCC (Hemispherical Combustion Chamber), SCC (Shallow depth Combustion Chamber) and OCC (Omega Combustion Chamber). To simulate the combustion in an RCCI engine, coupled KIVA4–CHEMKIN code was used. One recently developed reaction mechanism, which contains 107 species and 425 reactions, was adopted in this study to mimic the combustion of gasoline and biodiesel. During the simulation, the engine speed was fixed at 3600 rpm. The low reactivity fuel gasoline was premixed with air with energy percentages of 20% and 40%; accordingly, to maintain the same energy input, the percentages of biodiesel were 80% and 60% (B80 and B60). In addition, the SOI timing was varied at three levels: −11, −35 and −60 deg ATDC for B80 and B60, respectively. With SOI timing of −11 deg ATDC, the combustion is mixing-controlled; in contrast, advancing SOI timing to −60 deg ATDC, the combustion turns into the reactivity-controlled. Comparing the results on combustion characteristics, engine performance and emissions among different bowl geometries, it is concluded that the original OCC design for Toyota diesel engine is better for mixing-controlled combustion; whereas, SCC is the most suitable piston design for RCCI combustion among the three selected geometries under the investigated operating conditions of the engine. With SCC, better combustion and performance can be achieved while maintaining relatively lower CO, NO and soot emissions.