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Applied Thermal Engineering 123 (2017) 7–18

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Applied Thermal Engineering


journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apthermeng

Research Paper

Mixing and combustion mechanisms within lateral swirl combustion


system (LSCS) in a DI diesel engine
Xiang-Rong Li a,⇑, Wei Yang a, Li-Wang Su b, Fu-Shui Liu a
a
School of Mechanical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China
b
China North Engine Research Institute (Tianjin), Tianjin 300400, China

h i g h l i g h t s

 A three-stage mechanism of the wall-impinging for the LS chamber is illustrated.


 The fuel spray diffuses quickly away from the wall in the LS chamber.
 Two swirling flames are formed in the LS chamber accelerating the combustion.
 The stack region will degenerate into a stack point in the LS chamber.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The fuel diffusion around the combustion chamber wall is the key to affecting the engine performance.
Received 7 March 2017 The current enveloping combustion systems (e.g. x combustion systems) mainly utilize the air in the
Revised 7 May 2017 radial direction of the combustion chamber along the spray track. In these systems, since the combustion
Accepted 16 May 2017
chamber wall only envelops the spray without obvious guiding effect, it will cause difficulty in the fuel
Available online 17 May 2017
diffusion around the chamber wall and deteriorate the combustion. On the contrary, the LSCS, as a guid-
ing combustion system, could effectively improve the diffusion around the chamber wall. Therefore, it is
Keywords:
necessary to further understand the mixing and combustion mechanisms of the LSCS. In this study, the
DI engine
LSCS
spray and combustion characteristics of the wall-impinging jet in the lateral swirl (LS) combustion cham-
Constant-volume spray experiment ber were investigated in a constant-volume combustion vessel through the high-speed photography.
Wall jet performances These characteristics were compared between the x and LS combustion systems through the image pro-
Mixing and combustion cessing and the two-color method. The results show that the spray process in the x combustion system
contains free jet and wall jet, while the spray process in LS combustion system contains free jet, forma-
tion of LS, and LS & intervening wall jet after the separation of jet head from the convex edge. The LSCS
forces the fuel spray to swirl along the circumference of the combustion chamber. As a result, it could
strengthen the diffusing and mixing process, and avoid a large quantity of fuel burning near the wall
to form a thermos constraint. The LSCS could improve the distribution of the air-fuel mixing and conse-
quently accelerate the combustion and reduce the soot emission through the guiding effect of convex
edge on the wall jet.
Ó 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction increase of manufacture cost and engine weight. In these technolo-


gies, it is effective but challenging to improve the combustion pro-
Strict emission regulations and decreasing fossil fuels bring a cess only by changing the combustion chamber shapes.
great challenge to the application of diesel engines. Thanks to the The performance of the direct injection (DI) diesel engines
technologies such as high-pressure injection system, high boost mainly depends on a quick combustion process near the top dead
turbocharger, and after-treatment system, the new generation of center. In this process, fuel spray, air motion, and combustion
diesel engines can meet the requirements of emission and fuel chamber shape are coupled together to produce power and emis-
economy. Meanwhile, the technical approaches will lead to the sions. Therefore, a geometrical matching of combustion chamber
shape with the given air motion and fuel injection parameters is
essential to improve the diesel engine performance. One key chal-
⇑ Corresponding author. lenge to improve the diesel engine performance is how to utilize
E-mail address: prof.lixr@yahoo.com (X.-R. Li).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2017.05.089
1359-4311/Ó 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
8 X.-R. Li et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 123 (2017) 7–18

Nomenclature

ASOI after start of injection LS lateral swirl


BSFC brake specific fuel consumption LSCS lateral swirl combustion system
DI direct injection PM particulate matter
DSCS double swirl combustion system
ECS enveloping combustion system
GCS guiding combustion system

the diesel engine. In the present work, spray and combustion char-
acteristics of the wall-impinging jet in the LS combustion chamber
were studied in a constant-volume combustion vessel through
high-speed photography and two-color method. Specifically, the
processes of fuel diffusion, mixing and combustion were studied
to explain how the LSCS to improve fuel accumulation, accelerate
mixing and burning, and reduce soot emission.

1.1. The formation of LSCS concept

According to the interaction between the spray and combustion


chamber, the authors categorize the DI combustion system into the
enveloping combustion system (ECS) and the guiding combustion
Fig. 1. The schematic diagram of LSCS.
system (GCS). The ECS mainly uses the combustion chamber wall
to envelop fuel spray. In order to improve the air utilization, the
air is confined to the fuel spray region in the chamber, such as x
[5] and dumbbell combustion chambers [6]. The combustion
chamber geometry parameters including the combustion chamber
diameter, the combustion chamber depth, and the cone height
were optimized by Wickman through the genetic algorithm [7].
The optimization results show that the optimal combustion cham-
ber has the features of large diameter and shallow depth. This main
reason is that the large diameter of shallow combustion chamber
reduces the chance for the fuel spray to impinge the wall, which
makes most fuels burn far away from the wall (i.e. spatial combus-
tion). The Wickman’s research proves one technical approach to
optimize the ECS.
In order to improve fuel atomization and reduce soot emission,
the injection pressure of the fuel injection system has been contin-
uously increased. Meanwhile, the diesel engines have been gradu-
ally downsized to increase the power density. Both factors make
the wall-impinging jet to become an inevitable issue for diesel
engines. Katsura et al. [8,9] systematically studied the characteris-
tics of the wall jet which can be divided into the main jet region and
the wall-main jet region. The results show that most of the fuel piles
around the wall, and this is because the emergence of the wall jet
vortex leads to the formation of the stagnate region between the
main jet region and the wall-main jet region. Su [10] studied the
Fig. 2. BSFC, soot and NOx comparison of FSCS for various excess air ratio.
effect of the chamber wall confinement on spray characteristics.
The results show that the initial impinging phase of the spray-
wall can strengthen the disturbance of fuel spray on the air which
the combustion chamber shape to promote the mixing and com- promotes the air-fuel mixing. However, the subsequent impinging
bustion process. To solve this problem, Liu and Li proposed the lat- process can cause an accumulation of fuel near the wall and deteri-
eral swirl combustion system (LSCS) [1], as shown in Fig. 1. Su [2,3] orate the air-fuel mixing. Moreover, the over-rich mixture in the
experimentally and numerically indicated that the LSCS can core of the fuel spray cannot be solved in the ECS. Therefore,
improve air-fuel mixing, and reduce soot emission and BSFC as through passively restricting air into the fuel spray region, the
shown in Fig. 2. Li [4] studied the combustion and emissions char- ECS cannot solve the above problems of fuel accumulation and fur-
acteristics of the LSCS. The results show that the LSCS can obtain a ther improve the mixing rate. However, these problems can be
good performance under the low excess air ratio (=1.3) conditions. solved by the GCS through the wall guiding effect on fuel spray.
In summary, the LSCS can optimize the fuel-air mixing process to Many researchers have focused on the GCS such as TRB [11],
improve soot emission and fuel economy. This is because that LSCS’ OSKA-D [12], NICS-MH [13], DSCS [14,15]. Based on the ECS, the
special wall shapes influence the fuel spray and air motion, and GCS guides the fuel spray to develop along a specific trajectory
have a positive effect on the mixing and combustion process. through special wall shapes, which can promote the fuel diffusion
Hence, this study was conducted to develop an understanding of and mixing. Li [16] analyzed the matching of the DSCS (double swirl
how the LSCS can affect the mixing and combustion process in combustion system) and split injections, the results show that the
X.-R. Li et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 123 (2017) 7–18 9

acceleration effect of pilot injection forms more intensive double and two light sources. The high-pressure common rail system with
swirls that could enhance the air-fuel mixing. Lee [17] performed the 170 MPa pressure (as shown in Fig. 4(a)), consisted of a high-
a ULPC combustion system optimization for engine-out PM reduc- pressure pump that supplied fuel to the common rail with four
tion in a heavy duty diesel engine. The combustion system utilizes outlets. One outlet connected to the injector with the orifice diam-
the lower lip to split the fuel into two parts, acquiring a high air uti- eter of 0.28 mm. The injector was mounted on the constant-
lization and reducing soot emission without hardware changes. volume vessel (with the design pressure of 2 MPa) through the
Wei [18] proposed a swirl chamber combustion system, which injector linker as shown in Fig. 4(b). The chamber bracket under
can accelerate the swirl mixing of the fuel spray to reduce the injector was fixed in the constant-volume vessel which con-
emissions. sists of quartz windows, sealing gaskets, and intake & exhaust
For the ECS and GCS mentioned, the air utilization in the com- pipes. Through the quartz window, the pictures were captured
bustion chamber is mainly concentrated in the radial direction of by the PHANTOM v7.3 high-speed camera (as shown in Fig. 4(c))
the combustion chamber along the spray trajectory. However, which is produced by USA TRI Company. In the experiment, the
the air of the region in the circumference direction of the combus- high-speed camera applied the operating frame rate of 10,000 f/s,
tion chamber (i.e. the region between sprays) has not been suffi- the aperture of f/8, and the exposure time of 98 us. The applied
ciently utilized [2]. Although the introduction of the swirl can light source were two UXL-500SX xenon lamps (from Japan USHIO
improve the uniformity of the fuel distribution in the circumfer- Company), which were set at the angle of 90° to the camera, as
ence direction of the combustion chamber, the swirl can lead to shown in Fig. 4(d).
the loss of intake air flow and the decrease of intake mass. Based The experiment applied a x chamber module and two lateral
on these problems, the LSCS is proposed to improve the mixing swirl (LS) chamber modules with the diameter of 100 mm, as
and combustion without more manufacturing cost. shown in Fig. 5. Two LS chamber modules have different heights
of convex edge (6 mm and 3 mm), and their radius of the circle
2. Experimental equipment and data processing are 8.8 mm and 12.7 mm respectively. On the sides of the modules,
the support plate with two holes was designed for fixing the mod-
2.1. Experimental setup ules. In the experiment, the injection pressure was 140 MPa and
the injection pulse was 2.5 ms. The ambient gas was sulfur hex-
The spray experiment of the wall-impinging jet was conducted afluoride with the density of 52.6 kg/m3. To ensure the gas purity,
in the constant-volume testing system (as shown in Fig. 3), which the pressure in the constant-volume vessel should be pumped to
consists of a high-pressure common rail system, a constant- the negative pressure through a gas pump. Next, the vessel was
volume vessel without the heating device, a high-speed camera, scavenged by sulfur hexafluoride gas. After repeating the process

Common
rail

Injector

High pressure
pump

Light Light
source source

Constant volume vessel


Fuel tank High speed
without heating device
camera

Fuel line
Singal line
ECU

Computer

Fig. 3. The constant-volume testing system without heating device.


10 X.-R. Li et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 123 (2017) 7–18

Fig. 4. The experimental equipment.

6 mm Chamber

3 mm Chamber
45°

Convex
edge
ω Chamber
6 mm
3 mm

R 50

Fig. 5. Combustion chamber modules.

two times, the sulfur hexafluoride gas in the vessel met the exper- temperature and pressure in the vessel met the experiment
imental requirements. The injecting and the shooting process were requirements. Besides, the shooting process in the combustion
synchronized. To ensure the accuracy, the pictures of every condi- experiment was similar to the shooting process in the spray
tion were repeatedly captured for three times. experiment.
The combustion experiment of the wall-impinging jet was con-
ducted in the constant-volume testing system (as shown in Fig. 6), 2.2. Data processing
which is basically similar to the spray experiment system. The
constant-volume testing system used in this experiment has a The pictures were processed by the Matlab program. The pic-
heating device which consists of many heating wires with the ture processing is shown in Fig. 7. First, the original pictures were
rated heating power of 9 kW [19]. The constant-volume testing denoised. Then the spray pictures were processed to calculate
system (with the maximum heating temperature of 900 K and spray area, spray radius, and spray height. The flame pictures were
the maximum pressure of 6 MPa), consisted of four windows with processed by the two-color method. The two-color method is
the diameter of 100 mm to visual the spray and combustion. based on the radiation emitted by soot particles at two different
Around the windows, the window cooling device was fixed. In wavelengths, to calculate the temperature of the soot particles.
the experiment, the high-speed camera applied the operating The soot particles can instantaneously reach thermal equilibrium
frame rate of 10,000 f/s, the aperture of f/16 and the exposure time with the environment due to the small size of soot particles
of 10 us. The injection pressure was 140 MPa, and the injection [20,21]. Hence the temperature of soot particles can represent
pulse was 1.0 ms. The ambient gas was the compressed air with the temperature of the flame. The soot concentration was repre-
the density of 26.6 kg/m3 and the temperature of 850 K. Firstly part sented by the KL factor, where K was the soot absorption coeffi-
of compressed air was pumped into the vessel and then the com- cient proportional to soot concentration and L was the
pressed air was heated to the aimed temperature. Finally, the other geometrical thickness in the detecting direction of flame [21–23].
part of compressed air was pumped again into the vessel until the The two-color method can conveniently acquire the combustion
X.-R. Li et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 123 (2017) 7–18 11

Fig. 6. The constant-volume testing system with heating device.

features without disturbing the combustion process. To study the At 1.9 ms ASOI, the fuel has already swirled obviously in the LS
propagation of spray and flame, their profiles were obtained chambers and the LS motion forms in the chamber. The compar-
through the Matlab program. ison of the fuel spray process in the LS and x chambers indicates
that the least fuel is distributed around both sides of the convex
3. Results and discussions edge due to the fierce wall-diversion effect in the 6 mm chamber.
With the decrease of the height of the convex edge, the wall-
3.1. Spray experiment of wall impinging jet diversion effect is weakened. In the 3 mm chamber, the fuel is
increased around both sides of the convex edge, and in the x
Fig. 8 shows the spray impinging process under different com- chamber, the most fuel is distributed around the wall. However,
bustion chambers. At 0.7 ms ASOI, the spray shapes under different the fuel distribution beyond the chamber module just shows the
chambers are basically the same, since the fuel spray has not been opposite trend. During the operation of the diesel engine, part of
in contact with the combustion chamber. At 1.1 ms ASOI, part of the fuel is burned near the wall (e.g. the condition in the x cham-
the fuel spray has impinged the chamber. Under the guiding action ber), resulting in insufficient fresh air in this area and relatively lit-
of the convex edge, the fuel spray in the LS chamber obviously tle use of air on both sides of the fuel spray. In the LS chamber, the
swirls to both sides of the convex edge. On the contrary, the fuel fuel spray is forced to split into two bunches, which not only
spray in the x chamber is obstructed by the adducent wall of the improves the over-concentration in the fuel spray core but also
x chamber. The diffusion speed of the fuel spray to both sides is effectively utilizes the air on both sides of the fuel spray.
restricted. Compared with the fuel spray in the x chamber, the Fig. 9 shows the spray areas under different chambers. At the
velocity direction of the fuel spray in the LS chamber has been early stage of the spray process, the fuel sprays under the three
obviously changed. During the process, the kinetic energy loss in chambers are in the state of free jet and their spray areas are basi-
the LS chamber is less than the kinetic energy loss in the x cham- cally the same before 1 ms ASOI. After 1.2 ms ASOI, the fuel sprays
ber since the fuel spray in the LS chamber is not obstructed by the begin to impinge the combustion chamber wall and their spray
wall [2]. areas begin to change obviously. Because of the obvious wall-
At 1.1 ms ASOI, the fuel spray in the LS chamber has begun to diversion effect in the 6 mm chamber, the fuel spray can rapidly
separate from the chamber wall, but the fuel spray in the x cham- develop in the combustion chamber and the spray area is relatively
ber still develops along the chamber wall. This is the fuel adhesion large. According to the experimental results, the adducent wall in
phenomenon which is one of the reasons for the increase of PM the x chamber has a significant hindrance effect on the spray pro-
and HC emissions in diesel engines. Therefore, the separation of cess after impinging the wall. The spray area in the x chamber is
the fuel spray from the chamber wall in the LS Chamber plays a sig- always smaller than the spray area in the LS chamber. In the spray
nificant role in improving emission performance of diesel engines. impingement process, the increase rate of the spray area is high for
12 X.-R. Li et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 123 (2017) 7–18

[8]. The impinging spray is studied through the spray radius and
the spray height. Fig. 11 shows the spray radius under different
chambers. It can be seen that the fuel spray impinges the wall at
1.1 ms ASOI and begins to develop toward both sides. Due to the
diversion effect of the LS chamber, the spray radius in the LS cham-
ber is larger than the spray radius in the x chamber. In the spray
process, the spray radius in the 3 mm chamber changes obviously
and is always larger than the spray radius in the x chamber. From
1.1 to 1.9 ms ASOI, the spray radius in the 6 mm chamber grows
more slowly. After 1.9 ms ASOI, the spray radius in the 6 mm
chamber is less than spray radius in the x chamber. This indicates
that the higher height of the convex edge will constrain the spray
development along the radial direction. Fig. 12 shows the spray
height under different chambers. From 1.1 to 1.4 ms ASOI, the
spray height in the x chamber is slightly higher than the spray
height in the LS chamber. After 1.5 ms ASOI, the spray height in
the LS chamber increases linearly and is significantly higher than
the spray height in the x chamber. This indicates that the LS cham-
ber can obviously accelerate the diffusion of the fuel spray away
from the wall. From 2.4 to 3 ms ASOI, the obvious fluctuation
occurs for the x chamber, which is mainly because the stagnate
region has not been formed and the initial wall jet vortex is unsta-
ble. After 3 ms ASOI, the wall jet vortex causes the formation of a
stagnate region at the end of the spray near the wall. The stagnate
region hinders the spray flow until a balance is formed. Therefore
the spray height grows steadily.

3.2. Combustion experiment of wall-impinging jet

3.2.1. Flame pictures


Fig. 7. The picture processing flow.
Fig. 13 shows the flame development under different chambers.
It can be seen that the obvious flame appears at 0.6 ms ASOI and
the flame has touched the wall due to the strong spray penetrabil-
the 6 mm chamber, but the increase rate is basically unchanged for ity ability under the small ambient density. At 0.8 ms ASOI, the
the 3 mm and x chambers after 3 ms ASOI. swirling flame has begun to appear on both sides of the convex
Fig. 10 shows a schematic diagram of an impinging spray. The edge in the LS chamber. At 1 ms ASOI, the LS flame has basically
structure of the impinging spray has been analyzed by Katsura formed. Subsequently (1.2 ms ASOI), the jet flame head separates

Fig. 8. The spray impinging under different chambers.


X.-R. Li et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 123 (2017) 7–18 13

Fig. 9. The spray areas under different chambers. Fig. 12. The spray height under different chambers.

In the LS chamber, the combustion flame is distributed on both


sides of the convex edge. Because of the existence of arcs on both
sides, two swirling flames are formed on both sides of the convex
edge, and the few flame exists in the arcs region. In the x chamber,
since the adducent surface has a hindrance effect on the flame
propagation, the flame can only spread along the wall after reach-
ing the wall. As a result, the flame gradually becomes thick leading
to the phenomenon of thermos constraint [24]. At 2 ms ASOI, the
flame basically disappears in the central area of the LS chamber,
but the flame is still fierce in the central region of the x chamber.
This phenomenon shows that the fuel of the x chamber is more
than the fuel of the LS chamber in the central region of the com-
bustion chamber. Most of the fuel in the x chamber will be directly
sprayed into the burning region. A large amount of fuel concen-
trated will burn in the central region of the wall. Consequently,
the air in the central region is less than the air on both sides of
the central region. Compared to the x chamber, the flame in the
LS chamber is swirled to both sides of the central region, which will
Fig. 10. A schematic diagram of an impinging spray. utilize the air in the combustion chamber. At the late stage of the
combustion, two strong flame centers are formed in the LS cham-
ber and the spray height also increases obviously. However, only
one flame center is formed in the x chamber. Because of the same
injection parameters, the ignition time is the same in the three
combustion chambers. At 2.7 ms ASOI, the obvious flame has dis-
appeared in the LS chamber, and the combustion has finished. On
the contrary, the large area of the bright flame still exists in the
x chamber. Therefore, the combustion duration in the x chamber
is longer than the combustion duration in the LS chamber, which
indicates that the combustion speed in the LS chamber has been
improved significantly.

3.2.2. Flame temperature


Fig. 14 shows the flame temperature under different chambers.
From 0.6 to 1.1 ms ASOI, the flame temperature in the LS chamber
is higher than the flame temperature in the x chamber. After
1.4 ms ASOI, the flame temperature in the LS chamber is lower
than the flame temperature in the x chamber. This indicated that
Fig. 11. The spray radius under different chambers. the LS chamber can accelerate the combustion. Fig. 15 shows the
temperature distribution under different chambers. Before 1.5 ms
ASOI, the flame area in the LS chamber is larger than the flame area
from the end of the convex edge under the action of the diversion in the x chamber. For the LS chamber, the temperature of the local
arc. At 1.6 ms ASOI, the flame is completely distributed on both zone has reached 2300 K at 0.9 ms ASOI, and the flame tempera-
sides of the convex edge. Since the flame is not constrained by ture and area are significantly increased at 1.2 ms ASOI. After
the wall after separating from the convex edge, the head area of 1.5 ms ASOI, the high-temperature zone in the LS chamber is
LS flame increases rapidly. rapidly reduced. For the x chamber, the slow burning at the early
Compared to the x chamber, the combustion process in the LS stage causes an accumulation of premixed gas and a large area of
chamber is obviously different. high-temperature flame is formed near the wall. This is mainly
14 X.-R. Li et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 123 (2017) 7–18

ω Chamber

3 mm Chamber

6 mm Chamber
0.5 ms 0.6 ms 0.8 ms 1.0 ms 1.2 ms 1.6 ms 2.0 ms 2.2 ms 2.7 ms

Fig. 13. The flame development under different chambers.

Fig. 14. The flame temperature under different chambers. Fig. 16. The total KL factor under different chambers.

2300K

2200K

ω Chamber 2100K

2000K

1900K

3 mm Chamber

1800K

1700K

6 mm Chamber 1600K

0.6 ms 0.9 ms 1.2 ms 1.5 ms 1.9 ms 2.2 ms


Fig. 15. The temperature distribution under different chambers.
X.-R. Li et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 123 (2017) 7–18 15

Fig. 17. The KL factor distribution under different chambers.

because the flame development is obstructed by the adducent wall KL factor greater than 2.5 appears near the wall in the x chamber,
of the x chamber. but this area appears away from the wall in the LS chamber. After
2.2 ms ASOI, the area with KL factor greater than 2.5 basically dis-
3.2.3. KL factor appears in the LS chamber, but this area still exists in the x
Fig. 16 shows the total KL factor under different chambers. chamber.
Before 1.3 ms ASOI, the total KL factor in the LS chamber is slightly
higher than the total KL factor in the x chamber. Subsequently, the 3.3. Mechanism of the LS combustion
total KL factor in the x chamber increases rapidly at 1.2 ms ASOI
and then becomes much higher than the total KL factor in the LS Through the above research, it is found that the LS chamber can
chamber. The main reason is that the stagnate region has been effectively promote the air-fuel mixing, accelerate the burning rate
formed in the high-temperature flame at 1.2 ms ASOI, and a large and reduce soot emission. In order to further explain the character-
amount of fuel accumulates in the stagnate region. Then the area istics of the LSCS, the profile development of the spray and the
of the stagnant region continues to expand and the fuel concentra- flame is analyzed through processing the spray and combustion
tion continues to increase and generate a large amount of soot. pictures. Fig. 18 shows the development of the spray profile. After
Fig. 17 shows the KL factor distribution under different chambers. the spray impinges the wall, the spray front moves away from the
At 0.9 ms ASOI, the area with the KL factor greater than 2.5 has wall. In the 6 mm chamber, the spray front moves in the normal
appeared in the LS chamber, but this area just appears in the x direction of the wall, while the spray front in the x chamber basi-
chamber at 1.2 ms ASOI. At 1.5 ms ASOI, the large area with the cally moves along the wall. Fig. 18 and the spray animation show

Stagnate region Stagnate region


Boundary

Boundary
Stagnate region

1.1ms 1.1ms
1.1ms

6 mm Chamber 3 mm Chamber ω Chamber


Fig. 18. The development of the spray profile (the interval between two profiles is 0.2 ms).
16 X.-R. Li et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 123 (2017) 7–18

Stagnate region Stagnate region


Stagnate region

0.6ms
0.6ms 0.6ms

6 mm Chamber 3 mm Chamber ω Chamber


Fig. 19. The development of the flame profile (the interval between two profiles is 0.2 ms).

Fig. 20. A schematic diagram of the spray impinging wall in the LS and x chambers.

that there is a stagnate region at the root of the spray. The stagnate the wall are separated by a narrow space. On the contrary, the
region under different chambers shows the different shapes. The flame front in the x chamber moves along the wall, and the jet
stagnate region in the x chamber has the largest area in all three flame and the fame after impinging the wall are connected through
chambers, but the stagnate region in the 6 mm chamber has the the stagnate region, resulting in the accumulation of fuel.
smallest area. In all three sprays, there is an available space Fig. 20 shows a schematic diagram of the spray impinging wall
between the main spray and the spray after impinging the wall. in the LS and x chambers. The spray process in the x chamber is
The available space in the x chamber has the smallest area in all divided into two stages: free jet and wall jet. At the early stage
three chambers, and the available space in the 6 mm chamber of wall jet, the spray moves along the wall, and spray height and
has the largest area. This is because the diversion effect of the LS spray radius both increase. Due to the poor diversion effect of
chamber is higher than the diversion effect of the x chamber. the x chamber wall, a stack region is formed near the wall. At
Fig. 19 shows the development of the flame profile. In the LS the late stage of wall jet, the fuel in the stack region continues to
chamber, the flame front moves in the opposite direction of the accumulate and hinders the diffusion of the fuel. This results in
spray movement, and the jet flame and the fame after impinging the emergence of a large area of the stagnate region at the root
X.-R. Li et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 123 (2017) 7–18 17

2. In the LS chamber, two flame centers are formed away from the
wall under the effect of the convex edge. On the contrary, only
one flame center in the x chamber is formed around the wall
and the fuel is sprayed into the flame, deteriorating the com-
bustion. Hence the combustion speed in the LS chamber is
quicker than the combustion speed in the x chamber.
3. The flame temperature in the LS chamber is higher than the flame
temperature in the x chamber at the early stage of the combus-
tion, but the flame temperature in the LS chamber is lower than
the flame temperature in the x chamber at the late stage of the
combustion. In the x chamber, more soot is produced at the late
stage and mainly distributed around the wall. Contrarily, more
soot is produced at the early stage and mainly distributed away
from the wall in the LS chamber. Hence the soot in the LS chamber
is much easy to mix with the air and be oxidized.
4. In the LS chamber, the spray and combustion processes of the
wall-impinging jet are divided into three stages: free jet, forma-
tion of LS, and LS & intervening wall jet after the separation of
Fig. 21. LS and intervening wall jet after the separation of jet head from the convex jet head from the convex edge. The convex edge splits the fuel
edge. spray from the core of the spray and forms LS, which could solve
the over-rich mixture in the core of the fuel spray. The develop-
ment of spray and flame profiles indicates that LSCS can effec-
tively utilize the air in the circumferential space of the
of the spray. At this time the spray height and spray radius basi- combustion chamber, and promote the development of the fuel
cally do not increase, which causes a large accumulation of fuel spray away from the wall, avoiding the accumulation of fuel
around the wall, finally producing much more soot. According to around the wall. The main reason is that the stack region is
Figs. 20 and 21, the spray process in the LS chamber is divided into not formed around the wall in the LS chamber and the area of
three stages: free jet, formation of LS, and LS & intervening wall jet the stagnate region is always small during the development of
after the separation of jet head from the convex edge. At the stage the spray.
of free jet, the spray in the LS chamber is not obviously different
from the spray in the x chamber. At the stage of formation of LS,
the convex edge forces the stack region to degenerate into the
stack point, which greatly reduces the accumulation of fuel and References
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