Computational Investigations On A Four Cylinder Four Stroke Cycle Spark Ignition Engine With Hydrogen And Gasoline Direct Injection

This paper presents the results of the computational investigations on a four cylinder four stroke cycle spark ignition engine using hydrogen as an alternative fuel to conventional gasoline or petrol in direct injection modes of fuel supply. The results were computed in the professional thermodynamic internal combustion engines simulation software, AVL BOOST The Software uses the fundamental conservation laws of mass, energy and momentum along with the numerical finite volume method needed to solve the partial differential equations written for a control volume. These equations were written for the flow based gas exchange processes in the intake and exhaust gas manifolds using pipe connections in their designs. The laws of thermodynamics and gas dynamic principles help to solve and compute the values of the thermodynamic variables in all the components of the engine. Further the software has provision for selection of suitable combustion models, heat transfer models, frictional power based models, along with the models needed for the analysis of emission produced by the modeled engine. The software has extensive provisions to select alternative elements used in the development of a complete model for a particular class of engines. The modeled engine was first run in the gasoline direct injection mode and the results were computed for its performance and emissions analysis. These results were used as a reference data for this type of conventional engine.

The simulations were repeated by using hydrogen in direct injection mode as an alternative fuel to petrol. It was observed that the engine performance with hydrogen fuel was better than its performance with gasoline. It was further observed that engine does not produce any CO

emissions with hydrogen as its fuel. Further the soot emissions were lower in case of hydrogen fuel. However the gasoline fuel produces lower NOx emissions as compared to the hydrogen fuel.