Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition of Methane
Model ID: 1852
Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) engines are being considered as an alternative to traditional spark- and compression-ignition engines. As the name implies, a homogeneous fuel/oxidant mixture is autoignited by compression with simultaneous combustion occurring throughout the cylinder volume. Combustion temperatures under lean burn operation are relatively low, resulting in low levels of NOx emission. Furthermore, the fuel’s homogeneous nature as well as the combustion process itself lead to low levels of particulate matter being produced.
Although HCCI combustion shows much promise, the method also suffers from a number of recurring problems, one of the more important being ignition timing. The following model examines the HCCI of methane, investigating ignition trends as a function of initial temperature, initial pressure, and fuel additives.
This model solves the mass and energy balances describing the detailed combustion of methane in a variable-volume system. The large amount of kinetic and thermodynamic data required to set up the problem is readily made available by importing relevant files into the Reaction Engineering interface.
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This simulation is from a diesel engine where the internal-combustion reaction is ignited through high pressure as opposed to a spark. Shown is the over 300 reactions that make up the reaction mechanism, and the pressure duration during an ignition cycle. |
