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The interaction of turbulent premixed methane combustion with the surrounding flow field can be studied using optically accessible test rigs such as a rapid compression expansion machine (RCEM). The high flexibility offered by such a test rig allows its operation at various thermochemical conditions at ignition. However, limitations inherent to such test rigs due to the absence of an intake stroke do not allow turbulence production as found in IC-engines. Hence, means to introduce turbulence need to be implemented and the relevant turbulence quantities have to be identified in order to enable comparability with engine relevant conditions. A dedicated high-pressure direct injection of air at the beginning of the compression phase is considered as a measure to generate adjustable turbulence intensities at spark timing and during the early flame propagation.

Large-bore natural gas engines may use pre-chamber ignition. Despite extensive research in engine environments, the exact nature of the jet, as it exits the pre-chamber orifice, is not thoroughly understood and this leads to uncertainty in the design of such systems. In this work, a specially-designed rig comprising a quartz pre-chamber fit with an orifice and a turbulent flowing mixture outside the pre-chamber was used to study the pre-chamber flame, the jet, and the subsequent premixed flame initiation mechanism by OH* and CH* chemiluminescence. Ethylene and methane were used. The experimental results are supplemented by LES and 0D modelling, providing insights into the mass flow rate evolution at the orifice and into the nature of the fluid there. Both LES and experiment suggest that for large orifice diameters, the flow that exits the orifice is composed of a column of hot products surrounded by an annulus of unburnt pre-chamber fluid.

Numerical simulations of diesel sprays in a constant-volume vessel have been performed with the conditional moment closure (CMC) combustion model for a broad range of conditions. On the oxidizer side these include variations in ambient temperature (800-1100 K), oxygen volume fraction (15-21%) and density (7.3-58.5 kg/m₃) and on the fuel side variation in injector orifice diameter (50-363 μm) and fuel pressure (600-1900 bar); in total 22 conditions. Results are compared to experimental data by means of ignition delay and flame lift-off length (LOL). Good agreement for both quantities is reported for the vast majority of conditions without any changes to model constants: the variations relating to the air side are quantitatively accurately predicted; for the fuel side (viz. orifice diameter and injection pressure) the trends are qualitatively well reproduced.

Large Eddy Simulation (LES) of premixed turbulent combustion in a confined cylinder setup at engine relevant conditions has been carried out for three different initial turbulence intensities, mimicking different flame propagation regimes. Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) of the setup under investigation provides the reference data to be compared against. The DNS fields have been filtered on the LES grid and are used as initial conditions for the LES at onset of combustion, guaranteeing a direct comparability of the single realizations between the modeled and reference data. Two different combustion models, the G-Equation and CMC-premixed (Conditional Moment Closure) are compared with respect to their predictive capabilities as well as their usability and computational cost. While the G-Equation is a widely adopted approach for industrial applications and usually relies on a tunable turbulent flame speed closure, the novel LES-CMC comes as a tuning parameter free model.

A recently developed auto-ignition model based on a single transport equation in combination with a reduced kinetic scheme has been validated and tested in combination with a cascade jet and droplet breakup model. The validation has been performed by comparing ignition locations and delays for various thermodynamic conditions with experimental data from a high-pressure combustion cell. Also for medium-size diesel engine applications, predictions of ignition delay are in good agreement with experimental observations. In addition, a new approach to the modeling of the early flame development in diesel engine combustion is introduced. The reaction rate in the transition phase from the premixed to the mixing-controlled combustion mode is determined by means of a sub-grid scale model, which describes the evolution of a turbulent diffusion flame. The model has been tested during the early combustion phase of a medium-size, medium-speed DI diesel engine.

A computational study of the near-wall premixed flame propagation in homogeneous charge spark ignited engines is presented on the basis of a spectral concept accounting for flow-chemistry interaction in the flamelet regime. Flame surface enhancement due to wrinkling and modification of the local laminar flame speed due to flame stretch are the main phenomena described by the model. A high pass filter in the turbulent kinetic energy spectrum associated with the distance between the ensemble-averaged flame front location and the solid surface has been also introduced. In addition a probability density function of instantaneous flamelet positions around the above mean flame front location allows to consider statistical effects in a simplified way. Issues of temperature distribution within the boundary layer and associated heat losses, except for the concept of a thermal quenching distance, are thereby not explicitly taken into account.

Addition of hydrogen-rich gas to gasoline in internal combustion engines is gaining increasing interest, as it seems suitable to reach near-zero emission combustion, able to easily meet future stringent regulations. Bottled gas was used to simulate the output of an on-board reformer (21%H2, 24%CO, 55%N2). Measurements were carried out on a 4-stroke, 2-cylinder, 0.5-liter engine, with EGR, in order to calculate the heat release rate through a detailed two-zone model. A quasi-dimensional model of the flame was developed: it consists of a geometrical estimate of the flame surface, which is then coupled with the heat release rate. The turbulent flame speed can then be inferred. The model was then applied to blends of gasoline with hydrogen-rich gas, showing the effect on the flame speed and transition from laminar to turbulent combustion.

Past research has shown that post injections have the potential to reduce Diesel engine exhaust PM concentration without any significant influence in the NOx emissions. In earlier research it was observed that soot reduction due to a post injection is based on three reasons: increased turbulence (1) and heat (2) from the post injection during soot oxidation and lower soot formation due to smaller main injection for similar load conditions (3). The second effect of heat addition during the soot oxidation is debated in the literature. The experimental investigation presented in the current work provides insight into the underlying mechanisms of soot formation and reduction using post injections under different operating conditions. The experimental data have been obtained using a cylindrical constant volume chamber with high optical access. The soot evolution has been obtained using 2-color-pyrometry.

It is well-known that the spatial distribution of turbulence intensity and fuel concentration at spark-time play a pivotal role on the flame development within the pre-chamber in gas engines equipped with a scavenged pre-chamber. The combustion within the pre-chamber is in turn a determining factor in terms of combustion behaviour in the main chamber, and accordingly it influences the engine efficiency as well as pollutant emissions such as NOx and unburned hydrocarbons. This paper presents a numerical analysis of fuel concentration and turbulence distribution at spark time for an automotive-sized scavenged pre-chamber mounted at the head of a rapid compression-expansion machine (RCEM). Two different pre-chamber orifice orientations are considered: straight and tilted nozzles. The latter introduce a swirling flow within the pre-chamber. Simulations have been carried out using with two different turbulence models: Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) and Large-Eddy Simulation (LES).