Assessing the cyclic variability of combustion and NO emissions in hydrogen-methane fueled HSSI engine via quasi-dimensional modeling under the influence of flame-kernel turbulence and equivalence ratio variation mechanisms

This paper assesses the cyclic variability (cycle-by-cycle variations (CCV)) of combustion, performance and nitric oxide (NO) emissions in high-speed (HS), spark-ignition (SI) engine fueled with hydrogen-enriched methane (CH4), for which experimental data are available. Thus, in-house, two-zone, quasi-dimensional turbulent combustion model is used that closely trails the flame-front movement, which was validated before regarding performance, emissions, exergy, and CCV for gasoline- or methane-run HSSI engines. It is enhanced herein to study CCV of performance, combustion, and NO emissions, with engine fueled by various hydrogen-methane blends (up to 50 % by vol. hydrogen) and equivalence ratios (EQR). Hence, the influence of flame-kernel turbulence and EQR variation mechanisms on CCV attributes is considered and assessed. The numerical results are compared with measured data of cylinder pressure, indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP), and NO emissions at ‘steady’ conditions, and further for validation against available experimental CCV results for IMEP at all operating conditions. That CCV analysis is extended to peak pressure, IMEP, and NO emissions using coefficients of variation (COV), frequency distributions, and pertinent diagrams illuminating their cycle-by-cycle variations. The CCV variations decrease with hydrogen content in the blend whereas they increase with the mixture leanness delineating the relative merits of the two mechanisms.