Hydrogen is well recognized as a suitable fuel for spark-ignition engine applications that has many unique attractive features and limitations. It is a fuel that can continue potentially to meet the ever-increasingly stringent regulations for exhaust and greenhouse gas emissions. The application of hydrogen as an engine fuel has been tried over many decades by numerous investigators with varying degrees of success. However, the performance data reported often tend not to display consistent agreement between the various investigators, mainly because of the wide differences in engine type, size, operating conditions used, and the differing criteria employed to judge whether knock is taking place or not. With the ever-increasing interest in hydrogen as an engine fuel, there is a need to be able to model extensively various features of the performance of spark ignition (S.I.) hydrogen engines so as to investigate and compare reliably the performance of widely different engines under a wide variety of operating conditions. In the paper we employ a quasidimensional two-zone model for the operation of S.I. engines when fueled with hydrogen. In this approach, the engine combustion chamber at any instant of time during combustion is considered to be divided into two temporally varying zones: a burned zone and an unburned zone. The model incorporates a detailed chemical kinetic model scheme of 30 reaction steps and 12 species, to simulate the oxidation reactions of hydrogen in air. A knock prediction model, developed previously for S.I. methane-hydrogen fueled engine applications was extended to consider operation on hydrogen. The effects of changes in operating conditions, including a very wide range of variations in the equivalence ratio on the onset of knock and its intensity, combustion duration, power, efficiency, and operational limits were investigated. The results of this predictive approach were shown to validate well against the corresponding experimental results, obtained mostly in a variable compression ratio CFR engine. On this basis, the effects of changes in some of the key operational engine variables, such as compression ratio, intake temperature, and spark timing are presented and discussed. Some guidelines for superior knock-free operation of engines on hydrogen are also made.
Skip Nav Destination
e-mail: karim@enme.ucalgary.ca
Article navigation
January 2006
Technical Papers
Hydrogen Fueled Spark-Ignition Engines Predictive and Experimental Performance
Hailin Li,
Hailin Li
Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering,
The University of Calgary
, Calgary T2N 1N4, Canada
Search for other works by this author on:
Ghazi A. Karim
Ghazi A. Karim
Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering,
e-mail: karim@enme.ucalgary.ca
The University of Calgary
, Calgary T2N 1N4, Canada
Search for other works by this author on:
Hailin Li
Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering,
The University of Calgary
, Calgary T2N 1N4, Canada
Ghazi A. Karim
Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering,
The University of Calgary
, Calgary T2N 1N4, Canadae-mail: karim@enme.ucalgary.ca
J. Eng. Gas Turbines Power. Jan 2006, 128(1): 230-236 (7 pages)
Published Online: July 23, 2004
Article history
Received:
September 16, 2003
Revised:
July 23, 2004
Citation
Li, H., and Karim, G. A. (July 23, 2004). "Hydrogen Fueled Spark-Ignition Engines Predictive and Experimental Performance." ASME. J. Eng. Gas Turbines Power. January 2006; 128(1): 230–236. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.2055987
Download citation file:
Get Email Alerts
Temperature Dependence of Aerated Turbine Lubricating Oil Degradation from a Lab-Scale Test Rig
J. Eng. Gas Turbines Power
Multi-Disciplinary Surrogate-Based Optimization of a Compressor Rotor Blade Considering Ice Impact
J. Eng. Gas Turbines Power
Experimental Investigations on Carbon Segmented Seals With Smooth and Pocketed Pads
J. Eng. Gas Turbines Power
Related Articles
An Experimental and Numerical Investigation of Spark Ignition Engine Operation on H 2 , CO, CH 4 , and Their Mixtures
J. Eng. Gas Turbines Power (March,2010)
Autoignition of Hydrogen and Air Inside a Continuous Flow Reactor With Application to Lean Premixed Combustion
J. Eng. Gas Turbines Power (September,2008)
A Numerical Simulation of Analysis of Backfiring Phenomena in a Hydrogen-Fueled Spark Ignition Engine
J. Eng. Gas Turbines Power (October,2016)
Spark Advance Modeling of Hydrogen-Fueled Spark Ignition Engines Using Combustion Descriptors
J. Eng. Gas Turbines Power (August,2018)
Related Proceedings Papers
Related Chapters
Lay-Up and Start-Up Practices
Consensus on Operating Practices for Control of Water and Steam Chemistry in Combined Cycle and Cogeneration
Physiology of Human Power Generation
Design of Human Powered Vehicles
Reciprocating Engine Performance Characteristics
Fundamentals of heat Engines: Reciprocating and Gas Turbine Internal Combustion Engines