A Mean Value Based Sizing and Simulation Model of a Hydrogen Fueled Spark-Ignition Internal Combustion Engine 2007-01-3789

A mean value based sizing and simulation model has been developed for use in the conceptual design and sizing of hydrogen fueled spark-ignition internal combustion engines (HICE) in the aerospace industry, here ‘mean value’ includes mean effective pressure (MEP), mean piston speed, mean specific power, etc. This model is developed since there is currently no such model readily available for this purpose. When sizing the HICE, statistical data and common practice for gasoline internal combustion engines (GICE) are used to obtain preliminary sizes of the HICE, such as total cylinder volume, bore and stroke; to capture the effect of low volumetric efficiency, the preliminary results are adjusted by a volumetric correction factor until the cycle parameters of HICE are reasonable. A non-dimensional combustion model with hydrogen as fuel is incorporated with existing GICE methods. With this combustion model, the high combustion temperature and high combustion pressure are captured. Then the low specific heat ratio and high heat loss rate from the high combustion temperatures are captured with a real gas model. Comparing the data of two experimental HICE and the results obtained with this model, this model can obtain satisfactory sizing results and good estimations of engine performance parameters such as efficiency and MEP's.