Enhancement of the combustion process in dual-fuel engines at part loads using exhaust gas recirculation

Dual-fuel engines at part loads inevitably suffer from lower thermal efficiency and higher carbon monoxide and unburned fuel emission. The present work was carried out to investigate the combustion characteristics of a. dual-fuel (diesel-gas) engine at part loads, using a single-zone combustion model with detailed chemical kinetics for combustion of natural gas fuel. The authors have developed software in which the pilot fuel is considered as a subsidiary zone and a heat source derived from two superimposed Wiebe combustion functions to account for its contribution to ignition of the gaseous fuel and the rest of the total released energy. The chemical kinetics mechanism consists of 112 reactions with 34 species. This quasi-two-zone combustion model is able to establish the development of the combustion process with time and the associated important operating parameters, such as pressure, temperature, heat release rate (HRR), and species concentration. Therefore, this paper describes an attempt to investigate the combustion phenomenon at part loads and using hot exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) to improve the above-mentioned drawbacks and problems. By employing this technique, it is found that lower percentages of EGR and allowance for its thermal and radical effects have a positive influence on performance and emission parameters of dual-fuel engines at part loads. Predicted values show good agreement with corresponding experimental values under special engine operating conditions (quarter-load, 1400 r/min). Implications are discussed in detail.