Numerical Investigation of a Free-Piston Hydrogen-Gasoline Engine Linear Generator

The free-piston engine linear generator (FPELG) is being investigated by many researchers because of its high thermal efficiency and its variable compression ratio. However, all researchers focused on the FPELG characteristics with mono-fuel. Therefore, in this paper, the performance of the FPELG th...

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Main Authors: Ziwei Zhang, Huihua Feng, Zhengxing Zuo
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2020-09-01
Series:Energies
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/18/4685
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author Ziwei Zhang
Huihua Feng
Zhengxing Zuo
author_facet Ziwei Zhang
Huihua Feng
Zhengxing Zuo
author_sort Ziwei Zhang
collection DOAJ
description The free-piston engine linear generator (FPELG) is being investigated by many researchers because of its high thermal efficiency and its variable compression ratio. However, all researchers focused on the FPELG characteristics with mono-fuel. Therefore, in this paper, the performance of the FPELG that has adopted gasoline with hydrogen as fuel is investigated. The method of coupling the zero-dimensional dynamics model with the multi-dimensional CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) combustion model was applied during the simulation process. According to the results, the piston TDC (Top Dead Center), the piston peak piston velocity, and the system operation frequency show a negative correlation with the increase of hydrogen fractions. However, the peak in-cylinder pressure was increased with the hydrogen volume fraction increase, due to the fast flame speed and short combustion duration characteristics of hydrogen. Meanwhile, the indicated efficiency of the free-piston engine was increased from 32.3% to 35.3% with the hydrogen volume fraction change from 0% to 4.5%, when the free-piston engine operates at stoichiometric conditions with fixed ignition timing. In addition, with the ignition timing advance increase, the piston TDC was decreased. The peak piston velocity and the peak in-cylinder pressure were in negative correlation with the ignition timing advance. While the engine indicated that the efficiency was increased with the equivalent degree of ignition timing from 20° to 16°. Therefore, the ignition timing of the FPELG under the spark-ignition combustion mode is supposed to be an effective and practical control variable.
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spelling doaj.art-1992e48d862246af81759607763028482023-11-20T13:01:47ZengMDPI AGEnergies1996-10732020-09-011318468510.3390/en13184685Numerical Investigation of a Free-Piston Hydrogen-Gasoline Engine Linear GeneratorZiwei Zhang0Huihua Feng1Zhengxing Zuo2School of Mechanical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, ChinaSchool of Mechanical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, ChinaSchool of Mechanical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, ChinaThe free-piston engine linear generator (FPELG) is being investigated by many researchers because of its high thermal efficiency and its variable compression ratio. However, all researchers focused on the FPELG characteristics with mono-fuel. Therefore, in this paper, the performance of the FPELG that has adopted gasoline with hydrogen as fuel is investigated. The method of coupling the zero-dimensional dynamics model with the multi-dimensional CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) combustion model was applied during the simulation process. According to the results, the piston TDC (Top Dead Center), the piston peak piston velocity, and the system operation frequency show a negative correlation with the increase of hydrogen fractions. However, the peak in-cylinder pressure was increased with the hydrogen volume fraction increase, due to the fast flame speed and short combustion duration characteristics of hydrogen. Meanwhile, the indicated efficiency of the free-piston engine was increased from 32.3% to 35.3% with the hydrogen volume fraction change from 0% to 4.5%, when the free-piston engine operates at stoichiometric conditions with fixed ignition timing. In addition, with the ignition timing advance increase, the piston TDC was decreased. The peak piston velocity and the peak in-cylinder pressure were in negative correlation with the ignition timing advance. While the engine indicated that the efficiency was increased with the equivalent degree of ignition timing from 20° to 16°. Therefore, the ignition timing of the FPELG under the spark-ignition combustion mode is supposed to be an effective and practical control variable.https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/18/4685free-piston engine linear generatorgasoline with hydrogenhydrogen volume fractiondifferent ignition timings
spellingShingle Ziwei Zhang
Huihua Feng
Zhengxing Zuo
Numerical Investigation of a Free-Piston Hydrogen-Gasoline Engine Linear Generator
Energies
free-piston engine linear generator
gasoline with hydrogen
hydrogen volume fraction
different ignition timings
title Numerical Investigation of a Free-Piston Hydrogen-Gasoline Engine Linear Generator
title_full Numerical Investigation of a Free-Piston Hydrogen-Gasoline Engine Linear Generator
title_fullStr Numerical Investigation of a Free-Piston Hydrogen-Gasoline Engine Linear Generator
title_full_unstemmed Numerical Investigation of a Free-Piston Hydrogen-Gasoline Engine Linear Generator
title_short Numerical Investigation of a Free-Piston Hydrogen-Gasoline Engine Linear Generator
title_sort numerical investigation of a free piston hydrogen gasoline engine linear generator
topic free-piston engine linear generator
gasoline with hydrogen
hydrogen volume fraction
different ignition timings
url https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/18/4685
work_keys_str_mv AT ziweizhang numericalinvestigationofafreepistonhydrogengasolineenginelineargenerator
AT huihuafeng numericalinvestigationofafreepistonhydrogengasolineenginelineargenerator
AT zhengxingzuo numericalinvestigationofafreepistonhydrogengasolineenginelineargenerator