IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v15y2022i24p9331-d998575.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Influence of Hydrogen Enrichment Strategy on Performance Characteristics, Combustion and Emissions of a Rotary Engine for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)

Author

Listed:
  • Merve Kucuk

    (Department of Mechanical Engineering, Bursa Technical University, Bursa 16310, Turkey)

  • Ali Surmen

    (Department of Automotive Engineering, Bursa Uludag University, Bursa 16059, Turkey)

  • Ramazan Sener

    (Department of Electronics and Automation, Batman University, Batman 72100, Turkey)

Abstract

In recent years, there has been great interest in Wankel-type rotary engines, which are one of the most suitable power sources for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) applications due to their high power-to-size and power-to-weight ratios. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the potential of a hydrogen enrichment strategy for the improvement of the performance and reduction of the emissions of Wankel engines. The main motivation behind this study was to make Wankel engines, which are already very advantageous for UAV applications, even more advantageous by applying the hydrogen enrichment technique. In this study, hydrogen addition was implemented in a spark-ignition rotary engine model operating at a constant engine speed of 6000 rpm. The mass fraction of hydrogen in the intake gradually increased from 0% to 10%. Simulation results revealed that addition of hydrogen to the fuel accelerated the flame propagation and increased the burning speed of the fuel, the combustion temperature and the peak pressure in the working chamber. These phenomena had a very positive effect on the performance and emissions of the Wankel engine. The indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP) increased by 8.18% and 9.68% and the indicated torque increased by 6.15% and 7.99% for the 5% and 10% hydrogen mass fraction cases, respectively, compared to those obtained with neat gasoline. In contrast, CO emissions were reduced by 33.35% and 46.21% and soot emissions by 11.92% and 20.06% for 5% and 10% hydrogen additions, respectively. NO x emissions increased with the application of the hydrogen enrichment strategy for the Wankel engine.

Suggested Citation

  • Merve Kucuk & Ali Surmen & Ramazan Sener, 2022. "Influence of Hydrogen Enrichment Strategy on Performance Characteristics, Combustion and Emissions of a Rotary Engine for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(24), pages 1-22, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:15:y:2022:i:24:p:9331-:d:998575
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/24/9331/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/24/9331/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lev Finkelberg & Alexander Kostuchenkov & Andrei Zelentsov & Vladimir Minin, 2019. "Improvement of Combustion Process of Spark-Ignited Aviation Wankel Engine," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(12), pages 1-11, June.
    2. Yan Zhang & Zhengxing Zuo & Jinxiang Liu, 2015. "Numerical Analysis on Combustion Characteristic of Leaf Spring Rotary Engine," Energies, MDPI, vol. 8(8), pages 1-24, August.
    3. Fan, Baowei & Pan, Jianfeng & Yang, Wenming & Pan, Zhenhua & Bani, Stephen & Chen, Wei & He, Ren, 2017. "Combined effect of injection timing and injection angle on mixture formation and combustion process in a direct injection (DI) natural gas rotary engine," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 519-530.
    4. Osman Akin Kutlar & Fatih Malkaz, 2019. "Two-Stroke Wankel Type Rotary Engine: A New Approach for Higher Power Density," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-22, October.
    5. Shimon Pisnoy & Leonid Tartakovsky, 2021. "Numerical Investigation of the Combined Influence of Three-Plug Arrangement and Slot Positioning on Wankel Engine Performance," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-18, February.
    6. Simone Bigalli & Iacopo Catalani & Francesco Balduzzi & Nicola Matteazzi & Lorenzo Agostinelli & Michele De Luca & Giovanni Ferrara, 2022. "Numerical Investigation on the Performance of a 4-Stroke Engine with Different Passive Pre-Chamber Geometries Using a Detailed Chemistry Solver," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(14), pages 1-18, July.
    7. Wang, Shuofeng & Ji, Changwei & Zhang, Bo, 2010. "Effects of hydrogen addition and cylinder cutoff on combustion and emissions performance of a spark-ignited gasoline engine under a low operating condition," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 35(12), pages 4754-4760.
    8. Su, Teng & Ji, Changwei & Wang, Shuofeng & Shi, Lei & Yang, Jinxin & Cong, Xiaoyu, 2017. "Investigation on performance of a hydrogen-gasoline rotary engine at part load and lean conditions," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 205(C), pages 683-691.
    9. Fan, Baowei & Pan, Jianfeng & Yang, Wenming & Chen, Wei & Bani, Stephen, 2017. "The influence of injection strategy on mixture formation and combustion process in a direct injection natural gas rotary engine," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 187(C), pages 663-674.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chen, Wei & Pan, Jianfeng & Liu, Yangxian & Fan, Baowei & Liu, Hongjun & Otchere, Peter, 2019. "Numerical investigation of direct injection stratified charge combustion in a natural gas-diesel rotary engine," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 233, pages 453-467.
    2. Gao, Jianbing & Tian, Guohong & Jenner, Phil & Burgess, Max & Emhardt, Simon, 2020. "Preliminary explorations of the performance of a novel small scale opposed rotary piston engine," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    3. Yang, Jinxin & Ji, Changwei & Wang, Shuofeng & Wang, Du & Ma, Zedong & Zhang, Boya, 2018. "Numerical investigation on the mixture formation and combustion processes of a gasoline rotary engine with direct injected hydrogen enrichment," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 224(C), pages 34-41.
    4. Jiao, Huichao & Ye, Xianlei & Zou, Run & Wang, Nana & Liu, Jinxiang, 2022. "Comparative study on ignition and combustion between conventional spark-ignition method and near-wall surface ignition method for small-scale Wankel rotary engine," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 255(C).
    5. Run Zou & Yi Zhang & Jinxiang Liu & Wei Yang & Yangang Zhang & Feng Li & Cheng Shi, 2022. "Effect of a Taper Intake Port on the Combustion Characteristics of a Small-Scale Rotary Engine," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-14, November.
    6. Shi, Cheng & Chai, Sen & Di, Liming & Ji, Changwei & Ge, Yunshan & Wang, Huaiyu, 2023. "Combined experimental-numerical analysis of hydrogen as a combustion enhancer applied to wankel engine," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 263(PC).
    7. Savvas Savvakis & Dimitrios Mertzis & Elias Nassiopoulos & Zissis Samaras, 2020. "A Design of the Compression Chamber and Optimization of the Sealing of a Novel Rotary Internal Combustion Engine Using CFD," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-21, May.
    8. Rajak, Upendra & Nashine, Prerana & Verma, Tikendra Nath, 2019. "Assessment of diesel engine performance using spirulina microalgae biodiesel," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 166(C), pages 1025-1036.
    9. Yuan, Chenheng & Liu, Yang & Han, Cuijie & He, Yituan, 2019. "An investigation of mixture formation characteristics of a free-piston gasoline engine with direct-injection," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 173(C), pages 626-636.
    10. Chang, Ke & Ji, Changwei & Wang, Shuofeng & Yang, Jinxin & Wang, Huaiyu & Xin, Gu & Meng, Hao, 2022. "Numerical investigation of the combined effect of injection angle and injection pressure in a gasoline direct injection rotary engine," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 254(PB).
    11. Tehseen Johar & Chiu-Fan Hsieh, 2023. "Design Challenges in Hydrogen-Fueled Rotary Engine—A Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(2), pages 1-22, January.
    12. Djati Wibowo Djamari & Muhammad Idris & Permana Andi Paristiawan & Muhammad Mujtaba Abbas & Olusegun David Samuel & Manzoore Elahi M. Soudagar & Safarudin Gazali Herawan & Davannendran Chandran & Abdu, 2022. "Diesel Spray: Development of Spray in Diesel Engine," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-22, November.
    13. Chen, Guan-Bang & Li, Yueh-Heng & Cheng, Tsarng-Sheng & Chao, Yei-Chin, 2013. "Chemical effect of hydrogen peroxide addition on characteristics of methane–air combustion," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 564-570.
    14. Ji, Changwei & Wang, Shuofeng & Zhang, Bo, 2012. "Performance of a hybrid hydrogen–gasoline engine under various operating conditions," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 584-589.
    15. Fan, Baowei & Pan, Jianfeng & Yang, Wenming & Pan, Zhenhua & Bani, Stephen & Chen, Wei & He, Ren, 2017. "Combined effect of injection timing and injection angle on mixture formation and combustion process in a direct injection (DI) natural gas rotary engine," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 519-530.
    16. Meng, Hao & Ji, Changwei & Shen, Jianpu & Yang, Jinxin & Xin, Gu & Chang, Ke & Wang, Shuofeng, 2023. "Analysis of combustion characteristics under cooled EGR in the hydrogen-fueled Wankel rotary engine," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 263(PB).
    17. Ruirui Wang & Jingyu Ran & Xuesen Du & Juntian Niu & Wenjie Qi, 2016. "The Influence of Slight Protuberances in a Micro-Tube Reactor on Methane/Moist Air Catalytic Combustion," Energies, MDPI, vol. 9(6), pages 1-17, May.
    18. Yuan, Chenheng & Peng, Shizhuo & Zhou, Lifu, 2023. "Multi-field coupling effect of injection on dynamics and thermodynamics of a linear combustion engine generator with slow compression and fast expansion," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 270(C).
    19. Wang, Shuofeng & Ji, Changwei & Zhang, Bo & Cong, Xiaoyu & Liu, Xiaolong, 2016. "Effect of CO2 dilution on combustion and emissions characteristics of the hydrogen-enriched gasoline engine," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 118-126.
    20. Zareei, Javad & Rohani, Abbas & Mazari, Farhad & Mikkhailova, Maria Vladimirovna, 2021. "Numerical investigation of the effect of two-step injection (direct and port injection) of hydrogen blending and natural gas on engine performance and exhaust gas emissions," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 231(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:15:y:2022:i:24:p:9331-:d:998575. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.