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Numerical and experimental analysis on the effects of turbocharged compressed bio-methane-fueled automotive spark-ignition engine

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Abstract

This work focuses on the numerical and experimental analysis of turbocharger selection and boost pressure effects on a CNG-fueled spark-ignition engine. Because of this, investigations are carried out on the influence of downsized compression ratio of 10.5:1 at different boost pressures and compared with a naturally aspirated compression ratio of 12.5:1. In order to perform the experimentation, a twin-cylinder, port fuel-injected, CNG engine with 15.5 kW at 3400 rpm is modified to utilize compressed bio-methane as fuel under 100% throttle condition. A simulation is performed to study the compressor impeller for T1 and T2 turbochargers using the ANSYS turbomachinery tool. Results indicate that the circumferential velocity of T1 is higher than of T2 at all boost pressures. Subsequently, experimentation is performed using T1 and T2 at three different boost pressure levels in a compression ratio of 10.5:1 at 1.1, 1.3, and 1.5 bar. T2 developed a maximum boost pressure of 1.1 bar compared to T1. T1 is chosen for further experimentations. At 1.3 bar of boost pressure, a rise in brake power was recorded by 19.3% compared to 12.5:1 under the naturally aspirated mode. Consequently, there is a reduction in fuel consumption by 10.1%, and hydrocarbon, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide emission levels reduce by 25%, 8.2%, and 4.9%, respectively. Therefore, turbocharging at a lower compression ratio exhibits better performance and reduces emissions compared to a higher compression ratio under naturally aspirated mode.

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Abbreviations

A/F:

Air to fuel ratio

BSFC:

Brake-specific fuel consumption

CBM:

Compressed bio-methane

CH4 :

Methane

CNG:

Compressed natural gas

CO:

Carbon monoxide

CO2 :

Carbon dioxide

COV:

Coefficient of variation

CR:

Compression ratio

Cu2 :

Circumferential velocity at impeller outlet

EVC:

Exhaust valve closing

EVO:

Exhaust valve opening

HC:

Hydrocarbon

HP:

Horse power

ht:

Enthalpy at impeller inlet

ht2 :

Enthalpy at impeller outlet

IVC:

Intake valve closing

IVO:

Intake valve opening

LPG:

Liquefied petroleum gas

MAPreq:

Manifold absolute pressure required

N:

Engine speed

NO:

Nitric oxide

O2 :

Oxygen

P1c:

Pressure at compressor inlet

P2c:

Pressure at compressor outlet

Pamb:

Ambient pressure

r:

Centroid radius of the scroll

r2:

Radii at impeller outlet

Rg:

Exhaust gas constant

T1:

KP31 turbocharger

T1c:

Temperature at compressor inlet

T2:

KP35 turbocharger

T2c:

Temperature at compressor outlet

TDC:

Top dead center

T m :

Intake manifold temperature

V d :

Displacement volume

W a :

Actual airflow rate

\(\eta_{{\text{C}}}\) :

Compressor efficiency

\(\pi_{{\text{c}}}\) :

Pressure ratio

ΔPloss:

Pressure loss

ω:

Turbocharger speed

C:

Compressor

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully thank the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), India, Project No: EMR/2016/004138, for the valuable funding, and the Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT), for their immense support to conduct the research work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mechanical Engineering, Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore, India

    Jim Alexander

  2. Automotive Research Centre, School of Mechanical Engineering, Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore, India

    E. Porpatham

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  1. Jim Alexander
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  2. E. Porpatham
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Contributions

EP was involved in supervision, conceptualization, methodology, writing—review and editing. JA helped in data generation, formal analysis, writing—original draft, writing—review and editing.

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Correspondence to E. Porpatham.

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Appendix

Appendix

The experimentation was conducted by varying the compression ratio at 10.5:1 and 12.5:1 for naturally aspirated and turbocharged modes, respectively. The compression ratio was varied by changing the thickness of the gasket, increasing the thickness gives a lower compression ratio, and decreasing the gasket thickness gives a higher compression ratio. The following equation gives the calculation used for estimating the compression ratio.

$$ {\text{Compression}}\;{\text{ratio}} = \left[ {\frac{{\left( {{\text{Swept}}\;{\text{Volume}}} \right) + \left( {{\text{Upper}}\;{\text{Chamber}}\;{\text{Bowl}}\;{\text{Volume}} + {\text{Gasket}}\;{\text{Volume}} + {\text{Piston}}\;{\text{Crown}}\;{\text{Clearence}}\;{\text{Volume}}} \right)}}{{\left( {{\text{Upper}}\;{\text{Chamber}}\;{\text{Bowl}}\;{\text{Volume}} + {\text{Gasket}}\;{\text{Volume}} + {\text{Piston}}\;{\text{Crown}}\;{\text{Clearence}}\;{\text{Volume}}} \right)}}} \right] $$

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Alexander, J., Porpatham, E. Numerical and experimental analysis on the effects of turbocharged compressed bio-methane-fueled automotive spark-ignition engine. Clean Techn Environ Policy 25, 465–482 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10098-021-02161-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10098-021-02161-5

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