Effect of water injector location on combustion and performance of an HCCI engine - A CFD analysis

Abstract A homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) engine is capable of producing high thermal efficiency with very low emissions. However, because of the limited upper load level constrained by knocking, the HCCI engine is not yet commercialized. Water injection can tackle this issue, enhancing the upper load limit without excessive heat release rate. However, the effectiveness of water injection depends on in-cylinder water evaporation, which in turn depends on water injection parameters. Therefore, this study is conducted to study the effect of water injector location on the combustion and performance characteristics of an HCCI engine by a computational fluid dynamic (CFD) analysis. The engine specifications and boundary conditions are taken from the literature. A three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (3D CFD) model was developed using CONVERGE CFD coupled with detailed chemical kinetics to gain a better understanding of the phenomena of water injection in an HCCI engine. The CFD models used are validated from the available experimental data in the literature for the engine considered. Here, the water injector location is optimized based on the Water vapor distribution within the cylinder, nitric oxide (NOx) emissions, and maximum rate of pressure rise (MRPR). The results show that the water injector at 37 mm from the center of the cylinder gives better results than in other cases considered. With the optimum water injector location, the indicated mean effective pressure is increased by about 35.91% than without the water injection case. This study will be helpful in the development of HCCI engines.