Experimental and numerical engine cycle setup for a dual fuel hydrogen, methane, and hythane with diesel to assess the effect of water injection and nozzle geometry

Abstract

In this study, the potential of gaseous fuels such as hydrogen, methane, and hythane in combination with diesel fuel is assessed in a closed loop thermodynamic framework. An experimental test is conducted with basic diesel fuel and then the model is configured based on the realistic one-cylinder diesel engine to evaluate the robustness and reliability of the simulation. The model is accurate in terms of in-cylinder pressure, temperature, and heat release rate within the 3% error band. In principle, three blend cases of diesel50%—methane50%, diesel50%—hydrogen50%, and diesel50%—hythane50% are compared with baseline neat diesel from engine performance to emissions characteristics. For hythane and hydrogen-involved fuels, the 10% water injection effect is analyzed as well to damp the high flammability and ignition intensity of hydrogen. The findings indicate that the entropy generation in hythane and hydrogen is markedly higher than in diesel case, while water injection can slightly decrease the entropy amount. It is shown that D50H50 has more fuel consumption in higher nozzle diameter (28% at 1 mm hole diameter), while in lower nozzle size range pure diesel fuel consumption dominates. The results revealed that D50Hy40W10 is particularly effective for elevated torque at lower nozzle hole values since the steam contributes toward maximized pressure and the exerted force. The increase of the nozzle number resulted in the CO content increase in the exhaust with the burning temperature reduction.