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A hybrid computational fluid dynamics (CFD)/computational aero-acoustics (CAA) approach, in which large-eddy simulation (LES) and APE-RF (solution of the acoustic perturbation equations for reacting flows) are employed for the CFD and CAA, respectively, calling it the hybrid LES/APE-RF approach, is used to analyze the influence of a wall on the combustion noise from a lean-premixed gaseous hydrogen/air low-swirl turbulent jet flame. The wall boundary conditions pertaining to the APE-RF system are formulated to account for acoustic reflection from the wall. The results show that the sound pressure level (SPL) spectrum obtained from the LES/APE-RF is in good agreement with that measured in the experiment. In the LES/APE-RF, the SPL spectrum of combustion noise with the wall plate explicitly changes compared to that without the wall plate. Specifically, the presence of the wall plate tends to ease the peaks that appeared in the case without the wall plate and create a nearly constant SPL within a specific frequency band. The analysis of the heat release rate fluctuation reveals that these phenomena are caused by the absence of a single periodic oscillation of heat release rate. The presence of the wall plate creates an asymmetric flow around the flame and distorts the flame structure, thereby altering the flame fluctuation phenomena.

形態: カラー図版あり, Physical characteristics: Original contains color illustrations, Accepted: 2020-05-24, 資料番号: PA2120018000

Propagation of a H2-added strained laminar CH4/air flame in a rich-to-lean stratified mixture is numerically studied. The back-support effect, which is known to enhance the consumption speed of a flame propagating into a leaner mixture compared to that into a homogeneous mixture, is evaluated. A new method is devised to characterize unsteady reactant-to-reactant counterflow flames under transiently decreasing equivalence ratio, in order to elucidate the influence of flow strain on the back-support effect. In contrast to the conventional reactant-to-product configurations, the current configuration is more relevant to unsteady stratified flames back-supported by their own combustion products. Moreover, since H2 distribution downstream of the flame is known to play a crucial role in back-supported CH4/air flames, the influence of H2 addition in the upstream mixture is examined. The results suggest that a larger strain rate leads to a larger equivalence ratio gradient at the reaction zone through increased flow divergence, which amplifies the back-support. Meanwhile, since H2 addition in the upstream mixture does not affect the downstream H2 content, the relative increase in the consumption speed, i.e. the back-support, is suppressed with larger H2 addition. Especially, when the upstream H2 content decreases with the equivalence ratio, the H2 preferentially diffuses toward the unburned gas, which mitigates H2 accumulation in the preheat zone and further weakens the back-support.

形態: カラー図版あり, Physical characteristics: Original contains color illustrations, Accepted: 2020-04-17, 資料番号: PA2120004000

Reducing the cycle-to-cycle variation in an engine is a key to expanding the operational limits of high-efficiency engines such as lean-burn engines. The cycle-to-cycle variation of the engine output is caused by unstable combustion and is especially induced by the cycle-to-cycle variation of the in-cylinder flow. This investigation aims to clarify how the cycle-to-cycle variation of in-cylinder flow develops during intake and compression strokes. To achieve this aim, 12 kHz time-resolved particle image velocimetry measurements were conducted on the symmetrical vertical plane in a four-valve, four-stroke optically accessible engine. This study focuses on the relationship between the flow at the plug position at the ignition timing and the flow distribution in the intake and compression stroke. Correlation map analysis reveals this relationship, and some flow distributions are extracted. The fluctuations in the flow distribution induce the cycle-to-cycle variation of the flow direction at the plug position at the ignition timing, the position of the stagnation plane between the intake flow from the intake valves and the upper side of the tumble vortex, the strength of the blowback flow into the intake port generated by the Miller cycle, and the position of the tumble vortex in the late compression stroke. The flow distributions extracted by the correlation map analysis clearly change between cycles. These results also suggest that correlation map analysis is an effective way to elucidate the factors that induce the cycle-to-cycle variation of the in-cylinder flow.

In order to improve thermal efficiency of spark ignition engine under super-lean burn conditions (excess air ratio [Formula: see text]), thermal stratification technique by in-cylinder water injection toward piston surface (stratified water insulated combustion architecture), in which low temperature water vapor layer is formed on the surface, is proposed. From the water spray visualization using the optically accessible engine, injected water is distributed near the piston top surface at ignition timing and thermal stratification can be achieved in the case that water injection timing (SOIw) is set at earlier stage of a compression stroke. In addition, heat flux on the piston surface measured at the same time is reduced by water injection. The 0.5-L single-cylinder engine test at λ = 2.0 at a constant ignition timing also shows that water injection at earlier stage of a compression stroke makes it possible to mitigate knock without significant increase in combustion instability. On the other hand, part of water is distributed near the spark plug at ignition timing with the water injection at SOIw = −60 °ATDC, resulting in unstable combustion. In addition, the engine test at λ = 2.0 and water/fuel ratio(W/F) = 18% shows that knock mitigation by water injection enables spark advance and following combustion enhancement. As a result, combustion period becomes short and cooling loss decreases, followed by the 1.0-pt improvement of gross indicated thermal efficiency. Moreover, the engine can be operated at minimum spark advance for best torque by increasing W/F up to 35%. Finally, stratified water insulated combustion architecture concept is applied at λ = 1.9 with a higher compression ratio of 17, showing that water injection at SOIw = −120 °ATDC and W/F = 50% enables minimum spark advance for best torque operation, and remarkably high gross indicated that thermal efficiency of 52.63% can be achieved with a sufficiently low knock level and coefficient of variation of indicated mean effective pressure.

The response of laminar methane/air counterflow premixed flames under sinusoidal equivalence ratio oscillation was investigated numerically. The timescales of the oscillation were chosen to be sufficiently longer than the flame timescale so that the flame responds quasi-steadily. The response of periodically stratified flame (SF) with a detailed reaction mechanism exhibited the “back-support” effect, in that the consumption speed Sc response deviated increasingly from Sc of steady homogeneous flames (HFs) at higher oscillation frequencies. It was shown that even when the imposed oscillation timescale is much longer than the flame timescale, the flame response can still be delayed under a sufficiently large equivalence ratio gradient. Subsequently, the above results were compared with those obtained with a global four-step mechanism that omits back-diffusion radicals into the reaction zone. As a result, SFs with the global mechanism displayed a much smaller back-support effect in both lean and rich mixtures. Further analysis with modified diffusion coefficients revealed the dominant roles of H2 and radical species diffusion in inducing the back-support effect. Contrary to the previous findings, variations in burned gas temperature were found to play a negligible role in modifying Sc. Additionally, the hysteresis of the back-support effect under periodical stratification was found to be more prominent on the richer side because of the presence of a larger H2 pool.

To develop higher efficiency and lower emission gasoline engines, ultra-lean burning under high Reynolds number conditions is desired. It is believed that enhancement of tumble flow in the engine cylinder is effective for increase of turbulent intensity, resulting in improvement of characteristics of flame propagation and ignition under a strong discharge, while the enhancement of tumble flow might cause heat loss from the wall. Investigations of characteristics of turbulence and distributions of wall and gas temperature in engine cylinders are still challenging due to transient and high pressure, and due to cycle-to-cycle variations. In the previous study (Jainski et al., 2013), a micro particle image velocimetry (micro PIV) measurements were conducted in an engine cylinder at up to 1100 rpm and the characteristics of velocity boundary layer around a cylinder head were investigated. The study has shown that the log-law does not properly present the measured velocity distributions near the wall. In our previous study (Shimura et al., 2018), a micro PIV was conducted in a motored engine cylinder to investigate velocity boundary layer characteristics near piston top before the top dead center (TDC) at a constant engine speed of 2000 rpm to deepen understanding characteristics of velocity boundary layer in engine cylinder with tumble flow. The velocity boundary layer was well fitted to the Blasius theory at 30 CAD before TDC and deviated from the theory at 15 CAD before TDC. However, the obtained data was two components of velocity in the measurement plane, which means that effects of magnitude of velocity were not clear in the previous measurement. In this study, stereoscopic micro PIV was conducted to elucidate the effects of magnitude and direction of velocity on the characteristics of velocity boundary layer near the piston top in the tumble enhanced SI IC optical engine. The tumble enhanced SI IC optical engine used in the previous study (Shimura et al., 2018; Matsuda et al., 2019) was used also in this study. The bore is 75 mm and the stroke is 112.5 mm. Length of the connecting rod is 250 mm. The engine has two intake valves of the diameter 29 mm and two exhaust valves of the diameter 25 mm. The compression ratio is 13.0. The optical access is achieved through the quartz glass cylinder. A tumble enhancing intake port is used for the sake of improvement of ignition and flame propagation. The engine speed can be set up to 2000 rpm at the maximum. The overall flow fields taken by a preliminary PIV experiment can be seen in the literatures (Shimura et al., 2018; Matsuda et al., 2019). The laser beams for PIV are from two Nd:YAG lasers (LOTIS, LS-2131, 150 mJ/pulse, 532 nm) are led to the same optical axis by a mirror and a polarizing beam splitter. The laser beam is formed into laser sheet of 180 µm thickness by laser sheet forming optics and led into the engine cylinder. The scattering light was collected by long distance microscope lenses (Quester, SZM100) and imaged onto CCD cameras (Princeton Technology, ES4020) in the stereoscopic alignment with 18 degrees. To compensate for the difference in the focal length caused by the quartz engine liner, a cylindrical lens of 1000 mm focal length was placed in front of each long distance microscope lens. SiO2 of 1 µm mean diameter was used for tracer particles. The micro PIV was operated at about 6.6 Hz to be synchronized with engine speed. The time separation of the successive particle images was 1.5 µs. The field of view of the micro PIV was 3.5 mm × 3.5 mm on the piston top including central axis of the cylinder. Here, x and y coordinates are set to the direction from the exhaust to the intake valves and the direction from the piston to the pent roof, respectively. z coordinates is perpendicular to x and y axes, and the orizin of the coordinates is set at the center of the piston top. The spatial resolution of PIV, which is defined by the size of interrogation region, is 108.8 µm × 54.4 µm. Vector spacing is 54.4 µm × 27.2 µm. The first vector position is about 27.2 µm away from the wall. The measurements were conducted at 345 CAD. The engine was motored at 2000 rpm and operated for three intake valve open timings of -30 CAD. The operation condition of the engine tested contain strong cycle-to-cycle variations, which results in the large root-mean-square values of velocity fluctuation near the center of the piston top (Shimura et al., 2018). To evaluate flow characteristics in the cycle-to-cycle variations, conditional averaging based on magnitude of fluid velocity is used in this study. Figure 1(a) shows a histogram of the magnitude of combined velocity of u and w. The magnitude of velocity can be considered as momentum of fluid because few fluctuation of density is considered and temperature boundary layer is enough thin compared to the velocity boundary layer. The large variations in the momentum can be observed in Fig. 1(a). The large variations are considered to be caused by the variations of tumble core locations. The fraction of the large momentum Here, the momentum are classified into C1 to C4 based on fractions (C1: 54.4%, C2: 19.5%, C3: 19.5%, C4: 6.6%). Figure 1(b) and (c) shows mean velocity distribution classified into C1 and C4 in Fig. 1(a). The distribution is fitted to the log-law velocity profile of developed wall turbulence. The mean velocity profile for C1 shows large discrepancy from that of general turbulent boundary layers, while that for C4 show relatively close to that of general turbulent boundary layer. C2 and C3, which are not shown here, have trend between the C1 and C4 profiles. These results show that the velocity profiles which can be assumed to be the developed turbulent boudary layer in the targeted condition is less than half of cycles, which means partial applicability of conventional CFD models for prediction of boundary layer of the engine condition.

Lean combustion technologies have been investigated to decrease the heat loss of spark ignition engines. However, as the excess air ratio approaches the lean operation limit, the cycle-to-cycle variation of combustion becomes an obstacle to improving thermal efficiency. This paper discusses the influences of spark discharge characteristics, such as discharge current and spark-shortening phenomena, on the ignition and combustion process under lean conditions (excess air ratio (λ) of 1.8–2.3) to suppress the cycle-to-cycle variation of combustion and extend the lean operation limit. In this study, a customized inductive ignition system equipped with 20 conventional ignition coils was applied to enhance the ignition energy. The discharge interval between each coil unit was controlled to change the discharge current and duration. The results show that the in-cylinder discharged energy increased with the discharge interval. The cycle-to-cycle variation of combustion was minimized when the discharge interval was 0.4 ms, and consequently, the lean operation limit was extended to an excess air ratio (λ) of 2.1. The discharge waveforms indicated that the longer discharge interval could promote spark-shortening phenomena such as re-strike due to the lower discharge current. Finally, in-cylinder photographs of ignition and combustion process showed that the flame kernel formation could be promoted by the repetition of spark-shortening phenomena such as re-strike, as well as by the high elongation of the spark channel.

Phosphor thermometry is a method used to measure temperature based on the temperature-dependent phosphorescence of phosphors and elucidate heat transfer phenomena, such as high-temperature gas flow. Although various rare earth-doped thermographic phosphors are in use, the effect of oxygen concentration on their phosphorescence has not been sufficiently explored. We explore herein the applicability of Dy-doped yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG:Dy), a well-known rare earth-doped phosphor with temperature sensitivity above 1000 K, in phosphor thermometry at different oxygen concentrations. A third-harmonic Nd: YAG laser excited the sample. Phosphorescence was measured using a photomultiplier tube for lifetime detection. A spectrometer was used to detect the intensity ratio between two emission lines. The chamber was filled with a nitrogen–oxygen mixture with a controlled concentration. The phosphorescence intensity ratio depended on temperature over a wide temperature range and varied with the oxygen concentration, especially above 1000 K. The YAG:Dy lifetimes could be detected over the entire temperature range and remained constant up to 1000 K. In addition, the lifetimes decreased with the increasing oxygen concentration, especially above 1000 K, confirming the oxygen quenching effect. Consequently, YAG:Dy is confirmed to be sensitive to oxygen concentration for determining the intensity ratio and lifetime, especially above 1000 K.

International audience; A low-swirl burner operating in premixed mode with methane and air is studied using high-speed acetone and OH-PLIF and advanced post-processing methods. In a transient operating point where the equivalence ratio is slowly increased while keeping the bulk velocity constant, a thermo-acoustic instability is found to grow and generate large pressure fluctuations in the combustion chamber. The instability is maintained by bursts of flame in phase with the pressure fluctuation cycle. It is found that these bursts are amplified by the fact that the boundaries of the flame arms are fluctuating in phase. This phasing of the arms’ boundaries is due to the change in flame speed coming from the increase of equivalence ratio.

A micro particle image velocimetry has been performed to investigate tumble enhanced flow characteristics near piston top surface of a motored internal combustion engine for three inlet valve open timing (−30, −15, 0 crank angle degrees). Particle image velocimetry was conducted at 340, 350 and 360 crank angle degrees of the end of the compression stroke at the constant motored speed of 2000 r/min. The measurement region was 3.2 mm × 1.5 mm on the piston top including central axis of the cylinder. The spatial resolution of particle image velocimetry in the wall-normal direction was 75 µm and the vector spacing was 37.5 µm. The first velocity vector is located about 60 µm from the piston top surface. The micro particle image velocimetry measurements revealed that the ensemble-averaged flow near the piston top is not close to the turbulent boundary layer and rather has tendency of the Blasius theorem, whereas fluctuation root-mean-square velocity near the wall is not low. This result shows that revision of a wall heat transfer model based on an assumption of the proper characteristics of flow field near the piston top is required for more accurate prediction of heat flux in gasoline engines.

Phosphor thermometry has been viewed as a promising method for non-contact temperature measurement. This article explores the temperature dependence of the Dy-doped phosphors: YAG: Dy, Al2O3:Dy, and Y2SiO5:Dy. The phosphors were energized at 355 nm from a 3rd-harmonic-generation Nd:YAG laser. The intensity of YAG:Dy was much stronger than the other phosphors, and the I458 nm/I497 nm intensity ratios had high temperature resolution over a wide range of temperatures. Although Al2O3:Dy and Y2SiO5:Dy had weaker intensity, the temperature resolution of intensity ratios was as substantial as YAG:Dy. The uncertainty in measured temperature of Dy-doped phosphors was evaluated using linearized error propagation theory, based on the noise-to-signal ratio and temperature sensitivity, revealing that the measurement uncertainty of YAG:Dy was less than the other two phosphors, and thus was the most reliable thermographic phosphor. In addition, the optimization of the bandpass filter combination was explored at each temperature range with YAG:Dy phosphor. Consequently, each temperature can be precisely measured by dividing the integrated intensity between 441 and 475 nm as a counter peak range and 476–500 nm as a main peak range. Thus, ideal bandpass filters are relatively constant throughout all temperatures.

The dynamics of a laminar premixed stagnating flame subjected to simultaneous velocity and equivalence ratio oscillations are investigated experimentally. A flame of premixed methane and air is formed in a wall-stagnating flow. The oscillations of velocity and equivalence ratio are imposed independently by two sets of dual cylinder–piston oscillators. To impose the equivalence ratio oscillation, methane/air mixtures with equivalence ratios of $$\phi =1.0$$ and $$0.4$$ are supplied to different cylinder–piston units. The pistons move in anti-phase and create a sinusoidal equivalence ratio oscillation while keeping the volume flow rate constant. To impose the velocity oscillation, a mixture with $$\phi =0.7$$ is supplied to the single unit of another oscillator. The phase difference between the two oscillations is set by changing the relative position of the pulley teeth of the two oscillators. The oscillator frequency is varied between 2 and 20 Hz, meaning that the oscillation wavelengths are much longer than the flame thickness. When frequencies of the velocity and equivalence ratio fluctuations are in a quasi-steady state condition, the flame motion is affected independently by velocity oscillation and equivalence ratio oscillation and the linear-superposition assumption can be applied. When the velocity and equivalence ratio oscillation frequencies are increased and exceed the transition frequency from the quasi-steady state to unsteady state, the flame motion gradually deviates from linear-superposition assumption. This is due to the variations in the unsteady molecular diffusion and the back-support effect.

The hydrogen permeation with a flat sheet Pd/Ag membrane for mixture of hydrogen and carbon dioxide was investigated experimentally. A flat sheet, dense 77wt.%Pd/23wt.%Ag purification membrane with thickness of 25μm and diameter of 0.02m was used. The membrane temperature, total upstream pressure and inlet H2 mole fraction were set to 623K, 0.25MPa and 0.75, respectively. Meanwhile, the downstream pressure was set at atmospheric. Mean mole flux (feed flow rate/effective membrane surface area) was varied between 0.089-0.62mol.s-1.m-2. When the mean mole flux is increased, hydrogen permeation flux increases, which is supposed due to the effect of flow velocity. In addition, the analytical result based on Sieverts’ equation with the effect of permeation is found to be very close with the experimentally obtained hydrogen permeation flux. For permeation with H2:CO2 mixture, future work is necessary to investigate the variation in permeation flux with time.

The variation in hydrogen concentration distribution on Pd/Ag membrane surface for permeation with H2/N2 mixture was investigated numerically, by varying the diameter of the mixture inlet. A 77wt.%Pd/23wt.%Ag purification membrane with thickness of 25μm and effective surface area of 3.14x10-4m2 was considered. The membrane temperature, total upstream pressure, and inlet H2 mole fraction were set to 623K, 0.25MPa and 0.75, respectively. Meanwhile, the downstream pressure was set at atmospheric. Mean mole flux (feed flow rate/effective membrane surface area) was varied between 0.19-0.95 mol.s-1.m-2. The hydrogen concentration distribution was investigated for various ratios of inlet radius to membrane radius (0.22:1, 0.50:1 and 0.75:1). It is found that hydrogen permeation flux obtained from various hydrogen concentration distributions are almost same, and quantitatively fit with analytical result based on the Sieverts’ equation with the effect of H2 permeation.

The permeation characteristic of a flat sheet Pd/Ag membrane was investigated experimentally by using pure hydrogen. A 77wt.%Pd/23wt.%Ag membrane with 25μm thickness and 0.02m diameter was used. The hydrogen permeation mole flux was investigated under various reference membrane temperatures (423-723K), for upstream pressures of 0.21-0.29MPa, and feed flow rate of 1.39x10-4mol/s. In all cases, the downstream pressure was set at atmospheric. Experimental results demonstrate the linear relationship between the hydrogen permeation flux and difference in square root of hydrogen partial pressure between the upstream side and downstream side, regardless of reference temperatures. This indicates the compatibility of the Pd/Ag membrane used in the present study with Sieverts’ Law. At sufficiently low temperature level, the hydrogen permeation flux is found to be very sensitive with the changes in the temperature.