Study of cycle-by-cycle variations of a spark ignition engine fueled with natural gas–hydrogen blends

Cycle-by-cycle variations of a spark ignition engine fueled with natural gas–hydrogen blends with hydrogen volumetric fraction of 0%, 12%, 23%, 30% and 40% were studied. The effect of hydrogen addition on cycle-by-cycle variations of the natural gas engine was analyzed. The results showed that the peak cylinder pressure, the maximum rate of pressure rise and the indicated mean effective pressure increased and their corresponding cycle-by-cycle variations decreased with the increase of hydrogen fraction at lean mixture operation. The interdependency between the combustion parameters and the corresponding crank angle tended to be strongly correlated with the increase of hydrogen fraction under lean mixture operation. Coefficient of variation of the indicated mean effective pressure gave a low level and is slightly influenced by hydrogen addition under the stoichiometric and relatively rich mixture operation while it decreased remarkably with the increase of hydrogen fraction under the lean mixture operation. The excessive air ratio at CoVimep = 10% extended to the leaner mixture side with the increase of hydrogen fraction and this indicated that the engine lean operating limit could be extended with hydrogen addition.