Lean-burn gas engines equipped with an un-scavenged prechamber have proven to reduce nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions and fuel consumption, while mitigating combustion cycle-to-cycle fluctuations and unburned hydrocarbon (UHC) emissions. However, the performance of a prechamber gas engine is largely dependent on the prechamber design, which has to be optimised for the particular main chamber geometry and the foreseen engine operating conditions. Optimisation of such complex engine components relies partly on computationally efficient simulation tools, such as quasi and zero-dimensional models, since extensive experimental investigations can be costly and time-consuming. This article presents a newly developed quasi-dimensional (Q-D) combustion model for un-scavenged prechamber gas engines, which is motivated by the need for reliable low order models to optimise the principle design parameters of the prechamber. Our fundamental aim is to enhance the predictability and robustness of the proposed model with the inclusion of the following: (i) Formal derivation of the combustion and flow submodels via reduction of the corresponding three-dimensional models. (ii) Individual validation of the various submodels. (iii) Combined use of numerical simulations and experiments for the model validation. The resulting model shows very good agreement with the numerical simulations and the experiments from two different engines with various prechamber geometries using a set of fixed calibration parameters.
Turbulent jet ignition (TJI) is a promising combustion technology for burning highly diluted air-fuel mixtures. Computationally efficient models to assess the effect of the operating conditions and design parameters on the ignition propensity and timing are of paramount importance for the development of combustion systems employing TJI. To this end, a one-dimensional (1-D) jet model, which is based on the solution of the section integrated mass and momentum conservation equations, is derived in the present study. The model is extended with two additional transport equations for the turbulence intensity and the ignition precursor/tracer, that marks the ignition event. One-dimensional transient flamelet calculations are performed to generate tables for the ignition precursor source term that account for the turbulence and chemistry interaction. Further simplification of the model is carried out to obtain a novel penetration correlation and a computationally inexpensive Lagrangian ignition model. The extended jet model is hierarchically validated using available literature data for non-reactive and reactive jets, as well as experiments conducted in a state-of-the-art optically accessible prechamber. The derived model is able to reproduce both flow-related quantities (velocity and turbulence profiles, jet penetration) and the ignition delay time under different variations. This study also illustrates how numerical simulations in canonical configurations (one-dimensional flamelet) can be used in practical applications of TJI.
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