Energy Conversion and Management 198 (2019) 111786

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Energy Conversion and Management

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

Numerical investigation on the effects of valve timing on in-cylinder flow, T

combustion and emission performance of a diesel ignition natural gas engine
through computational fluid dynamics
⁎
Jun Shua,c, Jianqin Fua,b, , Dan Zhaoc, Jingping Liua, Yinjie Maa, Banglin Dengd, Dongjian Zengb,
Jianlong Liua, Yongxiang Zhanga
a
State Key Laboratory of Advanced Design and Manufacturing for Vehicle Body, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, China
b
Vehicle Measurement, Control and Safety Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Xihua University, Chengdu 610039, China
c
Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch 8140, New Zealand
d
College of Mechatronics and Control Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: In the present study, a diesel engine was modified to a diesel pilot ignited natural gas engine and the influences
Natural gas of intake valve closing timing on in-cylinder flow, combustion and emission performance of engine were in-
Dual fuel engine vestigated by three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics simulation. Based on the geometric model and
Computational fluid dynamics basic parameters of this engine, the simulation model was built under three operating conditions and then
Valve timing
validated by experimental data. On this basis, the validated model was applied to investigate the effects of the
Combustion
intake valve closing timing strategy. The simulation results indicated that, the volumetric efficiency decreases
Emissions
with the retarding of intake valve closing timing in three cases while it increases as the intake valve closing
timing is advanced by 10°CA at 1200 rpm. The in-cylinder turbulence kinetic energy decreases with the retarding
of intake valve closing timing. The peak in-cylinder pressure decreases when the intake valve closing timing is
either advanced or retarded at 50% load. Nevertheless, the maximum peak in-cylinder pressure occurs at ad-
vancing 10°CA intake valve closing timing at 1200 rpm and 100% load, which rises by 4.5 bar compared with
that at the original intake valve closing timing. Additionally, the maximum heat release rate appears at ad-
vancing 10°CA intake valve closing timing at 100% load, which is 26 J/deg higher than that at the original intake
valve closing timing. Simultaneously, the shortest combustion duration occurs at advancing 10°CA intake valve
closing timing at 1200 rpm and 100% load. For the emissions, the NOx emissions decrease with the retarding of
intake valve closing timing but the variation becomes unobvious with the advancing of the intake valve closing
timing. Besides, the intake valve closing timing strategy has little effect on HC and CO emissions.

1. Introduction
Due to the high fuel efficiency, diesel engine has been widely used
in various fields, especially the transportation industry [1]. Never-
theless, as emission regulations continue to tighten, the NOx and soot
pollution become a crucial problem which puzzled people in the in-
dustry and scholars [2,3]. In order to solve this problem, many ad-
vanced technologies have been adopted in modern diesel engine in both
in-cylinder purification [4] and exhaust gas aftertreatment [5]. Among
them, the most attractive one is homogeneous charge compression ig-
nition (HCCI) which combines the advantages of gasoline engine and
diesel engine [6]. However, the controllability of HCCI, like the heat
release rate (HRR), is still a problem which has not been solved.
Therefore, the method of premixed charge compression ignition (PCCI)
combustion has drawn numerous researches’ attention [7]. Diesel pilot
ignited (DPI) natural gas (NG), as a typical PCCI combustion mode,
could reduce NOx and soot emissions obviously, especially in lean
combustion and higher percent energy substitution (PES) [8].

Abbreviations: ATDC, after top dead center; BSFC, brake specific fuel consumption; BTDC, before top dead center; CFD, computational fluid dynamics; DPI, diesel
pilot ignition; ECU, electronic control unit; EVC, exhaust valve closing; EVO, exhaust valve opening; HCCI, homogeneous charge compression ignition; HRR, heat
release rate; IVC, intake valve closing; IVO, intake valve opening; NG, natural gas; PES, percent energy substitution; PCCI, premixed charge compression ignition;
RCCI, reactivity controlled compression ignition; TKE, turbulence kinetic energy; VVT, variable valve timing
⁎
Corresponding author at: State Key Laboratory of Advanced Design and Manufacturing for Vehicle Body, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, China.
E-mail address: fujianqin@hnu.edu.cn (J. Fu).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enconman.2019.111786
Received 25 April 2019; Received in revised form 3 July 2019; Accepted 4 July 2019
0196-8904/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
J. Shu, et al.
Simultaneously, due to the characteristic of convenient refitting from
diesel engine and the low price of NG, the DPI NG combustion mode has
been successfully used in the heavy-duty transport trucks [9]. Fur-
thermore, a lot of researches still explore the combustion and emission
mechanism of the DPI NG combustion mode for improving the fuel
efficiency and engine performance [10].
When the diesel engine was modified to a DPI NG engine, most of
the parameters need to be optimized, like the injection strategy, the
shape of combustion chamber and so on [11]. Ansari et al. [12] de-
veloped and validated some empirical models on a light duty com-
pression ignition engine and used it to estimate the emissions results.
The optimal data reflected that the better performance in the dual fuel
combustion mode was operated at 7–12 bar IMEP. Yousefi et al. in-
vestigated the effect of swirl ratio, injection timing [13] and PES [14]
on the dynamic performance and emissions of a DPI NG engine. The
results showed that a swirl ratio of 1.5 is found to provide better diesel
diffusion and NG flame propagation. Simultaneously, at injection
timing of 12°CA and 20°CA before top dead center (BTDC), the max-
imum indicated thermal efficiency (26.7%) occurs at 50% PES and a
drastic decrease of NOx emissions is observed at 60% PES. Shim et al.
[15] implemented an experiment about the intake air strategy in the
dual-fuel (NG-diesel) PCCI combustion mode which was conducted in a
heavy-duty engine. They found that the optimized intake charge
strategy not only shows the reduction of simultaneous HC and CO
emissions and the improvement of combustion efficiency, but also en-
hances the combustion stability. Mikulski et al. [16] implemented a
simulation research based on a broad range of operating points to ex-
plore the impact of low reactivity fuel stratification in a reactivity
controlled compression ignition (RCCI) engine. An important phe-
nomenon was identified that gaseous fuel stratification helps to im-
prove the combustion process and decrease methane and CO emissions.
Besides, the valve timing is an important parameter for the DPI NG
engine because of the premixed combustion mode [17]. From the dis-
cussion of the valve strategy in gasoline engine, it can be known that
the valve strategy has a significant influence on the gasoline engine
performance in various aspects [18]. Teodosio et al. [19] utilized the
method of combining experiment with simulation to study the influence
of intake valve strategies on the knock tendency and fuel consumption
in a spark ignition engine. The final solution revealed that both early
intake valve closing (IVC) and late IVC lead the fuel consumption to
increase. At part load, early IVC would be more effective than late IVC,
and at high load, the brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC) ad-
vantages are obtained. Mahrous et al. [20] performed a parametric
analysis for different intake valve timing with a simulation method in a
4-valve HCCI engine. The obtained non-typical intake valve strategies
have a much wider operating range than that of the typical IVC timing
case. Hunicz et al. [21] conducted an experimental research of the heat
transfer impacts of fuel injection into burned mixture in HCCI engine
and the results pointed out that negative valve overlap can be applied to
improve the combustion phasing in HCCI engines. Besides, with the
help of chemical reaction mechanisms and computational fluid dy-
namics (CFD), the variation of gas flow from the intake port to the
cylinder and the components in the cylinder could be easy to obtain. Xu
et al. [22] used a heavy-duty RCCI diesel engine with variable valve
timing (VVT) to explore the potential of improvement in emission and
fuel efficiency. Through optimizing the VVT strategy, the RCCI com-
bustion can achieve the ultra-low soot emissions and reach a fuel
consumption limit level (EURO 6 regulations). Jia et al. [23] performed
a CFD simulation by coupling with a reduced chemical kinetics me-
chanism to analyze the influence of injection timing and IVC timing on
performance and emissions in a PCCI engine. They found that the start
of injection timing within a limited range could reduce the emissions of
PCCI engine. Based on experiment data, Di Blasio et al. [24] built a
numerical model to predict the effect of the compression ratio on the
dynamic performance, particle size distribution and emissions of a dual
fuel engine. In terms of emissions and fuel efficiency, the combustion
2
Energy Conversion and Management 198 (2019) 111786
process with a compression ratio of 15.5 appears to be the best com-
promise in the dual fuel mode. Chen et al. [25] numerically studied the
direct injection stratified charge combustion in a NG-diesel rotary en-
gine. The calculated results displayed that for the mixing process of fuel
and air, the NG energy fraction has an important impact on the per-
formance and emissions of the rotary engine.
From the above literatures review, it can be known that numerous
studies of combustion and emission performance of DPI NG engine are
available, but most of them are only based on experiments, which leads
to the fact that only the phenomena of power performance and emis-
sions have been studied. Although some researchers have studied the
DPI NG engines by the method of CFD coupling with chemical dynamic
mechanism, the CFD model which contains the intake and exhaust
processes is rare. It is well known that valve timing has a great influence
on the performance of engines, which not only directly determines the
gas exchange performance (e.g., pumping loss and fresh intake charge),
but also influences the combustion and emission characteristics because
of in-cylinder gas flow and uniformity of mixture. In general, the DPI
NG engines are modified from diesel engines, and there is little atten-
tion on the influences of valve timing on the performance of diesel
engines let alone DPI NG engines. Therefore, it is necessary to make
further research to reveal the influence mechanism of valve timing and
improve the performance of DPI NG engines. Because IVC timing has
larger effects on the intake process (including the fresh intake charge,
in-cylinder gas flow, etc.) which further affects the combustion, emis-
sion and power performance, the impact of IVC timing on DPI NG en-
gines performance was chosen to research. In this study, based on the
experimental data, a CFD model which contains intake and exhaust
processes and couples with a reduced chemical kinetics mechanism was
built to study the effects of IVC timing on gas flow, in-cylinder com-
bustion and pollutant characteristics of a DPI NG engine. This in-
vestigation is not only beneficial for researchers to comprehend the
deep mechanism of valve timing on premixed DPI NG engines, but also
provides directions and suggestions for improving the combustion and
emission performance of DPI NG engines.
2. Tested engine and simulation model
2.1. Tested engine and operating conditions
In this research, a six-cylinder diesel engine was refitted to a DPI NG
engine through modifying the intake system which provides the mix-
ture of NG and air. Besides, the electronic control unit (ECU) was also
improved to coordinate the amount of fuel (NG and diesel). In each
cylinder, the injected mass of diesel keeps 7 mg per cycle, and the en-
ergy of diesel only takes up a small part in the total fuel energy. In this
way, the soot emission in the DPI NG engine is very rare and thus it
could be ignored. The detailed experimental implementation and
measurement could be found in Ref. [26] and the engine specifications
are presented in Table 1. Considering the research content, the intake
and exhaust valve phase is displayed in Fig. 1. Simultaneously, three
representative operating conditions which are 1200 rpm and 50% load,
Table 1
The specifications of the experimental engine.
Item Content
Bore (mm) 126
Stroke (mm) 130
Connecting rod length (mm) 219
Displacement (L) 9.726
Original compression ratio 17.0
Rated power (kW)/Speed (rpm) 247/1900
Maximum torque (N m)/Speed (rpm) 1550/(1200–1500)
Injector nozzle spray angle (°) 147
Number of injector holes 8
J. Shu, et al.
Fig. 1. The intake and exhaust valve phase.
1600 rpm and 50% load, and 1200 rpm and 100% load are chosen for
this research.
2.2. Choice of physical sub-models
Due to the advantages of the CONVERGE software, e.g., the function
of autonomous meshing (which can save the time of grid dividing) and
the high calculation accuracy [27], it was used to investigate the in-
cylinder flow, combustion and emission performance of the DPI NG
engine with the variation of IVC timing. To ensure the accuracy of the
simulation results, the sub-models were strictly chosen to simulate the
spray, ignition and combustion processes of the DPI NG engine. In the
flow process, the turbulence was simulated through the approach of
Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) [28,29] and the in-cylinder
turbulent flow was calculated through a distortion renormalization
group (RNG) k − ε turbulence model [30]. In the spray process, the
Kelvin-Helmholtz and Rayleigh-Taylor (KH-RT) model was selected to
calculate the spray break-up. The NTC method [31], Post collision
outcomes model [32], Rebound/slide model [33] and Frossling model
[34] were selected to simulate the drop collision, drop coalescence,
drop/wall interaction and drop evaporation, respectively. In the com-
bustion process, the reaction mechanism of diesel fuel and NG is re-
presented by a reduced mechanism which was developed by Ra and
Reitz [35]. This mechanism was coupled in the SAGE model which is
the solver of detailed chemical kinetics in CONVERGE and n-heptane
and methane represent the diesel fuel and NG, respectively. Besides, a
reduced NOx mechanism which contains 4 species and 12 reactions
[36] was applied to predict the NOx emissions. The reasons for the
choice of these models are detailed in Ref. [26].
2.3. Validation of computational fluid dynamics model
To study the impact of the IVC timing on the in-cylinder flow,
combustion and emission performance of the DPI NG engine, the si-
mulation domain contains intake port, exhaust port and cylinder, as
displayed in Fig. 2. The start time of the simulation is −420°CA which
is before the intake valve opening (IVO), and the end time of the si-
mulation is 120°CA which is the time of exhaust valve opening (EVO).
For guaranteeing the accuracy of the calculation, the boundary and
initial conditions are derived from the tested data and the simulation
results of GT-power (which is a kind of one-dimensional (1D) engine
simulation software). For example, the wall temperature could be ob-
tained from the GT-power model and the pressures of intake and
3
Energy Conversion and Management 198 (2019) 111786
exhaust were provided by experimental data. In the GT-power model,
the initial wall temperature of the combustion chamber (including
head, cylinder and piston) was set according to the empirical value and
the similar engine models [37], and then it was verified by comparing
the simulated and tested results (e.g., in-cylinder pressure, heat transfer
loss, etc.). Additionally, the intake gas consists of methane and air and
the exhaust gas includes N2, O2, H2O and CO2, etc., the proportions of
which are determined by the excess air coefficient. The detailed para-
meter values of these boundary and initial conditions in the three cases
are displayed in Table 2. For the computational grid, its basic size was
set to 2 mm and the narrow zones, like the clearance and valve, were
refined. Simultaneously, the method of the adaptive mesh refinement,
which could auto-refine the grids as the fluctuation of the temperature
and velocity in cylinder is beyond the limitation, was adopted to
guarantee the mesh dependency and the minimum size would reach to
0.25 mm.
So as to verify the validity of the CFD model, the calculated pressure
and HRR in three cases are drawn to compare with the corresponding
experimental data, as displayed in Fig. 3(a)–(c). It is easy to observe
that the calculated in-cylinder pressure matches the experimental re-
sults very well in three cases. Meanwhile, the calculated HRR also has
the same variation trend with the measured value and the relative er-
rors are acceptable. The relative errors between the calculated and
measured HRR are mainly attributed to the pilot injection and
boundary conditions. The injection curve used in experiment is sine
wave, while square wave is chosen in the simulation. Additionally, the
combustion process is diesel ignited NG in experiment, while it is n-
heptane ignited methane in simulation. In addition, the comparisons of
NOx, HC and CO emissions between experimental data and calculated
results are displayed in Fig. 4. For NOx and CO emissions, the errors
between the experimental and calculated results are small, which
means that the CFD model has satisfactory simulation accuracy on the
two kinds of emissions. The relative errors in NOx and CO emissions are
mainly attributed to the chemical reaction mechanism. Although the
larger difference is observed between the experimental and calculated
HC emissions, the variation trends in both are similar. For the actual
process, the in-cylinder HC emission can be further oxidized in the
exhaust pipe, and this is the reason why the calculated in-cylinder HC
emission (which is the instantaneous value at EVO) is obviously higher
than the measured one (which is tested in the exhaust pipe). From this
point of view, this CFD model is considered to be valid enough and thus
it can be used for studying the in-cylinder flow and combustion process
with the valve timing variation in the DPI NG engine. Because too late
IVC timing would lead to too much decrease of the effective compres-
sion ratio and too early IVC timing would influence the intake gas (or
volumetric efficiency), the research range of the IVC timing from
−175°CA after top dead center (ATDC) to −125°CA ATDC was chosen,
which is presented in Fig. 5. It should be noted that the original IVC
timing is −155°CA ATDC, which can be seen from Fig. 1. In the IVC
timing variation process, the timing of IVO, EVO and exhaust valve
closing (EVC) keeps fixed.
3. Results and discussions
3.1. Impact of IVC timing on intake process
For studying the impact of different IVC timing on the intake pro-
cess, the volumetric efficiency is introduced to evaluate the intake
performance and air-flow capability. During the calculation of volu-
metric efficiency in this geometric model, both the pressure loss in the
intake pipe and the flow loss in the intercooler are not considered [38].
In the above cases, the definition of volumetric efficiency is shown as
below:
ma
ηv =
ρs Vs (1)
J. Shu, et al.
Fig. 2. The geometry of simulation domain.
where ma is the mass of air inducted into the cylinder per cycle, ρs is the
inlet air density, Vs is swept volume of cylinder. Based on the above
definition, the volumetric efficiency at different IVC timing in three
cases is illustrated in Fig. 6. As shown, the volumetric efficiency de-
creases as the IVC timing retards in all three cases. The main reason is
that partial in-cylinder gas flows back into the intake port. For dis-
playing the in-cylinder gas state, the in-cylinder methane mass is pre-
sented in Fig. 7(a)–(c). Because the intake gas is considered as the
homogeneous mixture of methane and air, the variation of methane
mass in cylinder indicates the intake process. The reduction of in-cy-
linder methane mass signifies that the in-cylinder gas flows back into
the intake port. So, the retarding of IVC timing could not improve the
intake process. In addition, the volumetric efficiency increases as the
IVC timing is advanced by 10°CA at 1200 rpm while it decreases with
the advancing of IVC timing at 1600 rpm. This is because the effect of
intake inertia becomes progressively greater as engine speed increases,
and the advancing of IVC timing at higher speed cannot take ful-
l advantage of the effect of intake inertia. After the IVC, more methane
mass keeps in cylinder at advancing 10°CA at 1200 rpm, which in-
dicates that advancing 10°CA IVC timing leads to the better air flow
performance. It also can be seen from Fig. 6 that, at the same load, the
best volumetric efficiency at 1200 rpm is higher than that at 1600 rpm
by 5.6%. At the same speed, the best volumetric efficiency at 50% load
is 4.4% less than that at 100% load. Therefore, without the con-
sideration of the intake and exhaust tuning, the higher speed could
decrease the volumetric efficiency at the same load. Owing to the
higher intake pressure, the higher load in turbocharged engine could
increase the volumetric efficiency at the same speed. It is rather re-
markable in Fig. 7 that the methane mass declines as the IVC timing
retards in three conditions, which means that the intake process be-
comes worse as the IVC timing retards. Meanwhile, the methane mass
between advancing 10°CA and original IVC timing still has the space for
improvement, which signifies that the volumetric efficiency of DPI NG
engine could still be improved slightly.
To further analyze the impact of IVC timing on the in-cylinder gas
flow, the swirl ratio and turbulence kinetic energy (TKE) in combustion
chamber at −100°CA ATDC are presented in Fig. 8(a) and (b), re-
spectively. As shown in Fig. 8(a), the swirl ratio increases with the
retarding of IVC timing except the original IVC timing at 1200 rpm and
100% load. In this study, the swirl ratio is defined as the ratio of intake
vortex rotation speed to engine speed [38], and thus the flow velocity
through the intake valve takes an important proportion in the swirl
4
Energy Conversion and Management 198 (2019) 111786
ratio. With the retarding of IVC timing, the maximum valve lift and
then the maximum gas flow velocity appear later, and this is the reason
why the swirl ratio becomes larger with IVC timing retarding. In gen-
eral, the swirl ratio is positively related with the engine speed due to the
increased gas flow velocity, while it is not sensitive to the engine load
except at the advanced IVC timing (see Fig. 8(a)). As the IVC timing is
advanced, the in-cylinder gas (methane) does not flow back into intake
port, as it can be seen from Fig. 7. Meanwhile, the higher intake pres-
sure at 100% load leads the flow velocity near intake valve to increase,
which is beneficial for the swirl ratio (compared with 50% load), and
this is the reason why the higher load corresponds to the larger swirl
ratio at the advanced IVC timing. However, the back-flow of in-cylinder
gas occurs as the IVC timing is retarded and it is more obvious at high
load (100% load), which largely reduces the effect of load on the intake
swirl ratio.
The variation of in-cylinder turbulence kinetic energy at different
IVC strategies is shown in Fig. 8(b). It indicates that the in-cylinder
turbulence kinetic energy decreases as the IVC timing becomes later, in
which there is a slight decrease at 1200 rpm but a bigger decrease at
1600 rpm. The main reason is that the opening time of the maximum
valve lift affects the in-cylinder mixture velocity fluctuation. It can also
be seen from Fig. 8(b), the turbulence kinetic energy at 1600 rpm is
almost twice as higher as that at 1200 rpm, but it is nearly the same at
the same speed regardless of the change of engine load. The main
reason is that the engine speed directly affects the in-cylinder mixture
velocity fluctuation [38]. In order to directly show the in-cylinder flow
variation, the velocity distribution on the same section at −180°CA
ATDC is displayed in Fig. 9. As shown, for the same IVC timing, the in-
cylinder gas flow velocity is obviously higher at the higher engine
speed, resulting in the larger swirl ratio and TKE, all these are beneficial
for the flame propagation and combustion rate (which will be discussed
in the next section). For the same speed and load, the in-cylinder gas
flow velocity at retarding 30°CA IVC timing is a bit less than that at
original IVC timing, which is attributed to the different valve lift at
−180°CA ATDC.
3.2. Impact of IVC timing on combustion process
Before beginning a discussion on the combustion process, two im-
portant combustion parameters are defined. One is ignition delay,
which is defined as the duration between diesel injection time and the
time of 10% of the total released energy, and the other is the
J. Shu, et al. Energy Conversion and Management 198 (2019) 111786

combustion duration, which is defined as the duration from 10% to

Piston (K)
90% of the total released energy. To reflect the combustion process with

553
the variation of the IVC timing in DPI NG engine, the in-cylinder
pressure in three conditions are presented in Fig. 10(a)–(c). As illu-
Cylinder (K)

strated, the peak in-cylinder pressure decreases either advancing or

retarding the IVC timing at 50% load. Nevertheless, the maximum peak
433

in-cylinder pressure occurs at advancing 10°CA IVC timing at 1200 rpm

and 100% load, which rises by 4.5 bar than that at original IVC timing.
Head (K)

The main reason is that the maximum peak in-cylinder pressure cor-
523

responds to the highest instantaneous HRR (which can be seen from

Fig. 11(a)–(c)). Before the combustion, the maximum in-cylinder
Exhaust port (K)

pressure occurs at advancing 10°CA IVC timing at 1200 rpm and it

appears at the original IVC timing in the condition of 1600 rpm and
50% load. This issue is mainly attributed to the volumetric efficiency
(or intake gas mass). As it can be seen from Fig. 7(a)–(c), the most
523

intake gas (methane and air) appears at advancing 10°CA IVC timing at
1200 rpm but at the original IVC timing at 1600 rpm, which is con-
Intake port

sistent with the maximum in-cylinder pressure before combustion. At

1200 rpm and 50% load, the maximum in-cylinder pressure in com-
425
(K)

bustion process (or maximum combustion pressure) appears at original

IVC timing while the highest in-cylinder pressure before combustion
appears at advancing 10°CA IVC timing (see Fig. 10(a)). Although the
highest in-cylinder pressure before combustion is benefit for the max-
NG injection timing

imum combustion pressure, it could not lead the maximum combustion

pressure. This is because the maximum combustion pressure has many
influence factors and the pressure before combustion is only one of
(°BTDC)

those factors. In addition, the HRR and combustion phase are the main
380

influence factors for the maximum combustion pressure.

Fig. 11(a)–(c) shows the impact of different IVC strategies on HRR
in three conditions. It can be found that the variation of the IVC timing
Diesel injection timing

almost has no effect on the time of HRR rapid growth. The main reason
is that the in-cylinder temperature is almost the same before combus-
tion in each condition. Additionally, there are two peak points at 50%
load which is similar to the HRR of traditional diesel engine [39] while
(°BTDC)

only one peak point occurs at 100% load which seems to like the HRR
of spark ignition NG engine [40]. This issue is mainly due to the fol-
5
4
0

lowing two aspects. On one hand, at 100% load, the combustion timing
1.46
1.43
1.31

is relatively late and the start of combustion (SOC) is after the top dead
λ

center (TDC), which causes the first peak of HRR (caused by diesel heat
release) is retarded and very close to the subsequent HRR curve (caused
Exhaust pressure

by NG heat release). That is, the first peak of HRR almost coincides with
the HRR curve of NG. On the other hand, the curve sharp of HRR is also
influenced by the diesel energy fraction. Based on the in-cylinder me-
1.265
1.463
1.665
(bar)

thane mass and the n-heptane mass (which keeps at 7 mg per cycle), the
diesel energy fraction can be obtained. At the original IVC timing, it
accounts for about 8.9% at 50% load but 4.5% at 100% load. So, more
CH4 in intake gas

proportion energy released by the n-heptane ignition at 50% load and

two obvious peak points are formed. At the same time, the first peak of
HRR (caused by diesel heat release) is very low due to the less pro-
portion energy released by the n-heptane ignition at 100% load. That is,
3.53
3.58
4.08
(%)

the very low diesel fuel energy percent is another reason why the first
The initial and boundary conditions in three cases.

peak of HRR (caused by diesel heat release) is not obvious. It can also
be found that the maximum HRR appears at advancing 10°CA IVC
Intake pressure

timing at 100% load which is 26 J/deg higher than that at original IVC
timing. This phenomenon is attributed to two main reasons. On one
1.285
1.353
2.165

hand, there is the largest in-cylinder methane mass at advancing 10°CA

(bar)

IVC timing. On the other hand, the combustion duration is shortest at

advancing 10°CA IVC timing (it can be seen in Fig. 12(b)), which means
100%
Load

50%
50%

that more fuel energy is released in a shorter time. Nevertheless, the

maximum HRR occurs at original IVC timing at 50% load. Although, at
Speed (rpm)

1200 rpm and 50% load, the maximum in-cylinder methane mass ap-
pears at advancing 10°CA IVC timing, the combustion duration at ad-
1200
1600
1200

vancing 10°CA IVC timing is longer than that at the original IVC timing.
The ignition delay and combustion duration which could directly
Table 2

Case 1
Case 2
Case 3

display the combustion process are depicted in Fig. 12(a), (b). As shown
in Fig. 12(a), the variation of the ignition delay in three cases is very

5
J. Shu, et al.
Fig. 3. Comparison of in-cylinder pressure and HRR between tested data and calculated results. (a) 1200 rpm, 50% load. (b) 1600 rpm, 50% load. (c) 1200 rpm,
100% load.
small and the ignition delay slightly increases as the IVC timing is re-
tarded. Because the ignition delay is mainly decided by the chemical
reaction rate which is mainly affected by the temperature and molar
concentration of the in-cylinder components and these impacts only
have a small difference in the same condition, the ignition delay only
has a small fluctuation. Nevertheless, the decrease of intake gas mass
(air and methane) becomes larger as the IVC timing is retarded, which
leads the chemical reaction rate to decrease because of the reduction of
molar concentration in cylinder at the same crank angle and the de-
crease of temperature at the injection timing, and this is the reason why
the ignition delay becomes longer. It is obvious in Fig. 12(b) that the
combustion duration increases as the IVC timing is retarded, which is
mainly attributed to the decrease of intake gas mass. For the fixed
equivalence ratio of NG mixture, the flame propagation speed mainly
depends on the temperature and turbulence intensity [38]. As men-
tioned above, both the turbulence kinetic energy and in-cylinder gas
mass decrease with the IVC retarding (see Figs. 7 and 8(b)), and the
latter results in the decrease of in-cylinder temperature during the
combustion process (see Fig. 14). As a result, the flame propagation
speed decreases with the reduction of in-cylinder gas mass, which leads
the combustion duration to become longer. In addition, the shortest
combustion duration occurs at advancing 10°CA IVC timing at
1200 rpm and 100% load. Under this condition, both the in-cylinder gas
mass and the temperature during combustion process reach the
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Energy Conversion and Management 198 (2019) 111786
maximum at advancing 10°CA IVC timing (see Figs. 7(c) and 14(c),
respectively). Just as analyzed before, the maximum in-cylinder gas
mass corresponds to the maximum molar concentration at the same
crank angle and the highest in-cylinder temperature during the com-
bustion process, both of which are helpful for the flame propagation. As
a result, the maximum flame propagation speed occurs at advancing
10°CA IVC timing at 1200 rpm and 100% load and results in the
shortest combustion duration.
3.3. Impact of IVC timing on emissions
It can be known from GDF-Kin 3.0 mechanism [41] that there are
four NOx formation routes. In this research, only the thermal-NO for-
mation route is considered as it is the main route for NOx formation
while other three NOx formation routs have less attribution in the NOx
emissions (which is less than 10%) [42]. That is, the NOx emissions of
DPI NG engine are predicted by the thermal-NO mechanism, which
could reach the research purpose and simplify the simulation process.
The calculated NOx emissions in three conditions are presented in
Fig. 13. On the whole, the impact of IVC timing on NOx emissions is
small and a slight decrease appears with the retarding of IVC timing. By
comparing with the previous study, it can be found that this is different
from the effects of diesel injection timing [2], excess air coefficient [8]
and spray angle [26]. In the thermal-NO mechanism [36], 12 reactions
J. Shu, et al.
Fig. 4. Comparison of NOx, HC and CO emissions between experimental and calculated results.
Fig. 5. Valve lift profiles at different IVC strategies.
Fig. 6. The volumetric efficiency at different IVC timing strategies (Noting: “+”
represents the advance of IVC timing, “–” represents the retard of IVC timing).
7
Energy Conversion and Management 198 (2019) 111786
are considered and the main influence factors are the in-cylinder tem-
perature, oxygen concentration and duration of high temperature. To
deeply discuss the factors, the in-cylinder mean temperatures in three
cases are displayed in Fig. 14(a)–(c). It is easy to find that the in-cy-
linder mean temperatures in three cases reach 1800 K, which is suitable
for the formation of thermal-NO from the oxidation of atmospheric
nitrogen [43]. Although the highest temperatures are nearly same
among the three conditions in Fig. 14(a)–(c), the in-cylinder gas mole
number and the duration of high temperature are different. The intake
gas at 1200 rpm and 100% load is about twice of that at 1200 rpm and
50% in mass. Simultaneously, the duration time of temperature above
1800 K is about 45°CA at 1200 rpm and 100% load while it decreases to
35°CA at 1200 rpm and 50% load. Due to the above reasons, the NOx
emissions at 100% load are higher than those at 50% load. In addition,
the variation of the in-cylinder mean temperature at different IVC
timing strategies is small at 1200 rpm and 50% load. However, things
are changed at 1200 rpm and 100% load. From Fig. 14(c), it can be
observed that the highest in-cylinder mean temperature at advancing
10°CA IVC timing is higher than that at retarding 30°CA IVC timing by
81 K. Accordingly, the difference in the in-cylinder mean temperature
results in the difference in the NOx emissions in the same engine con-
dition. For example, the largest difference of NOx emissions at
1200 rpm and 50% load is only 379 ppm, while it reaches 727 ppm at
1200 rpm and 100% load.
For further analyzing the influence factor of NOx emissions from the
thermal-NO mechanism, the spatial distributions of the temperature,
NO and O mole fraction under different IVC strategies at 1200 rpm are
presented in Fig. 15. As shown, at advancing 20 °CA IVC timing and
100% load, although the temperature in Zone A is very high, there is
nearly no oxygen atoms in this zone (which is occupied by the n-hep-
tane spray). So, less NO appears in Zone A. Through the comparison
between O mole fraction and temperature at 20 °CA ATDC, it is obvious
that the zone of higher oxygen atoms concentration mainly locates in
the high temperature zone. Although a part of oxygen atoms appears
near the flame front, it would be consumed during the flame propa-
gation. In both high temperature and flame front zones, the oxygen
atoms are formed by the reaction (R1), and then it is consumed by the
methane combustion near flame front and is helpful to generate more
J. Shu, et al. Energy Conversion and Management 198 (2019) 111786

Fig. 7. The in-cylinder methane mass versus the crank angle in three conditions. (a) 1200 rpm, 50% load. (b) 1600 rpm, 50% load. (c) 1200 rpm, 100% load.

NO through reaction (R2) in the high temperature zone. It is worth to and exhaust processes in this research (In other words, the uneven gas
note that the symmetrical vertical section in Fig. 15 could not represent flow and mixture lead to the asymmetrical combustion). Therefore, the
the spatial distributions of NOx emissions in this study. This is because area of NOx emissions in a vertical section could not represent the total
the in-cylinder combustion is not uniform due to the impacts of intake NOx emissions in the cylinder. In order to display the real variation of

Fig. 8. The influence of different IVC timing on swirl ratio and TKE at −100°CA ATDC. (a) Swirl ratio. (b) Turbulence kinetic energy.

8
J. Shu, et al. Energy Conversion and Management 198 (2019) 111786

Fig. 9. The influence of different IVC timing on in-cylinder flow at −180°CA ATDC.

Fig. 10. The in-cylinder pressure at different IVC timing in three conditions. (a) 1200 rpm, 50% load. (b) 1600 rpm, 50% load. (c) 1200 rpm, 100% load.

9
J. Shu, et al. Energy Conversion and Management 198 (2019) 111786

Fig. 11. The HRR at different IVC timing in three conditions. (a) 1200 rpm, 50% load. (b) 1600 rpm, 50% load. (c) 1200 rpm, 100% load.

NO as well as its influence factors, the variations of the in-cylinder those at original IVC timing, which is the main reason why the NO
mean temperature, O and NO mole fraction at 1200 rpm and 50% load emission at retarding 30°CA IVC timing is less than that at original IVC
are presented in Fig. 16. As shown, both the maximum mole fraction of timing.
O and the highest in-cylinder mean temperature appear at original IVC
H + O2 ↔ O + OH (R1)
timing, which leads the maximum mole fraction of NO to also appear at
original IVC timing. At the same time, the peak O mole fraction and the
O + N2 ↔ NO + N (R2)
highest temperature at retarding 30°CA IVC timing are slightly less than

Fig. 12. The influence of different IVC timing on combustion parameters in three conditions. (a) Ignition delay. (b) Combustion duration.

10
J. Shu, et al.
Fig. 13. The influence of different IVC timing on NOx emissions in three con-
ditions.
Although there are many species in HC emissions, the methane
emissions account for more than 90% in DPI NG engine [44]. Thus, the
unburned methane could represent the total HC emissions in this study.
Since the DPI NG engine operates in lean-burn mode, the methane
emissions are mainly caused by the effects of combustion chamber
crevice and flame quenching. The influences of IVC strategy on un-
burned methane emissions in three conditions are shown in Fig. 17.
From the figure it can be known that the unburned methane has little
variation with the change of IVC timing at 1200 rpm (which only
Fig. 14. The in-cylinder mean temperature in three conditions. (a) 1200 rpm and 50% load. (b) 1600 rpm and 50% load. (c) 1200 rpm and 100% load.
11
Energy Conversion and Management 198 (2019) 111786
changes by 65 ppm), and it indicates that the unburned methane is not
sensitive to the IVC timing under this condition (1200 rpm). To explain
this issue, the spatial distribution of methane mass fraction at different
IVC timing is given in Fig. 18. As shown, for the same engine condition
but different IVC timing, the spatial distribution of methane mass
fraction is almost the same. However, the unburned methane emission
at 1200 rpm and 100% load is evidently less than that at 1200 rpm and
50% load. As it can be seen from Fig. 18, for the same IVC timing but
different engine load, the spatial distribution of methane mass fraction
differs obviously. At 120°CA ATDC and 50% load, the methane emission
appears in both Zone B and C (which signifies the effects of crevice and
flame quenching, respectively), while it mainly appears in Zone B at
120°CA ATDC and 100% load. It indicates that the effect of flame
quenching is reduced at 100% load due to the higher temperature (it
can be seen from Fig. 14(c)). In other words, the lower methane
emission is the result of less flame quenching at the cold near-wall re-
gion because of the higher post-flame temperature. When the engine
speed increases to 1600 rpm, the variation of unburned methane be-
comes distinct and the maximum variation rate reaches 187 ppm. At the
same time, the unburned methane emissions increase no matter ad-
vancing or retarding the IVC timing. As it can be observed from
Fig. 14(b), for the condition of 1600 rpm and 50% load, the maximum
in-cylinder temperature appears at the original IVC timing. As analyzed
above, the maximum in-cylinder temperature can reduce the effect of
flame quenching and thus more methane is burned. Therefore, the
minimum methane emission occurs at the original IVC timing in this
condition (1600 rpm, 50% load). Moreover, by comparing with the
previous studies [2,8,26], it can be found that the effect of IVC timing
J. Shu, et al.
Fig. 15. The temperature and the mole fractions of O and NO with different IVC timing at 20 °CA ATDC.
Fig. 16. The mean temperature, O and NO mole fraction versus crank angle at
1200 rpm and 50% load.
on the methane emissions is comparable to that of excess air coefficient
and diesel injection timing but obviously lower than that of spray angle,
since the inappropriate spray angle may lead spray diesel to collide
with the chamber wall.
The impacts of different IVC timing on the CO emissions in DPI NG
engine are displayed in Fig. 19. It can be known that the variation of CO
emissions in each engine conditions is very small, in which the biggest
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Energy Conversion and Management 198 (2019) 111786
difference is only 50 ppm. According to the CO formation mechanism
[45], the main routes of the CO production are reactions (R3) and (R4).
Considering the lean condition in this research, the reaction (R4) ac-
counts for the main part and the reaction (R3) mainly appears in the
zone of spray in which the mixture (fuel and air) in cylinder is relative
rich. Although a lot of CO would be produced in the combustion pro-
cess, almost all of them are oxidized by the reaction (R5). The research
of Ref. [46] has demonstrated that reaction (R5) is mainly influenced by
the local temperature. In addition, the effect of temperature on reaction
(R5) is small when the peak temperature is higher than 2200 K and the
temperature of the main combustion stage ranges between 1800 K and
2200 K [47]. It is evident that the temperature in Figs. 14(a)–(c) and 15
meets the standard. Therefore, the air–fuel ratio is the main factor for
the CO formation in this research. Because the equivalent air–fuel ratio
is larger than 1.3 and the variation of excess air coefficient is less than
0.02, the IVC timing strategy has a small impact on the CO emissions. In
addition, by comparing with the previous studies [8,26], it can be found
that the effect of IVC timing on the CO emissions is obviously lower
than that of excess air coefficient and spray angle. This is because the
inappropriate spray angle and rich mixture may results in incomplete
combustion.
HCO + M ↔ H + CO + M (R3)
HCO + O2 ↔ CO + HO2 (R4)
CO + OH ↔ CO2 + H (R5)
4. Conclusions
In this paper, the impacts of IVC timing on in-cylinder flow, com-
bustion process and emission performance of DPI NG engine were in-
vestigated in three typical engine conditions by CFD simulation.
Through the deep analysis of the calculated results, some conclusions
can be drawn below.
(1) The volumetric efficiency of DPI NG engine declines with the re-
tarding of the IVC timing in three cases and it increases as the IVC
J. Shu, et al.
Fig. 17. The influence of different IVC timing on methane emissions in three
conditions.
timing is advanced by 10°CA at 1200 rpm. At the same load, the
maximum volumetric efficiency at 1200 rpm is higher than that at
1600 rpm by 5.6%. At the same speed, the maximum volumetric
efficiency at 50% load is 4.4% less than that at 100% load. The
swirl ratio increases with the IVC timing becoming later except the
original IVC timing at 1200 rpm and 100% load, and the in-cylinder
TKE decreases as the IVC timing is retarded. These phenomena
indicate that the IVC timing has obvious influence on the volu-
metric efficiency and in-cylinder flow, which finally affect the
combustion and emission performance of DPI NG engine. Thus, a
reasonable IVC timing could further improve not only the intake
process, but also the overall performance of DPI NG engine.
(2) The peak in-cylinder pressure decreases either advancing or re-
tarding the IVC timing at 50% load. Nevertheless, the maximum
peak in-cylinder pressure occurs at advancing 10°CA IVC timing at
1200 rpm and 100% load, which rises by 4.5 bar than that at the
original IVC timing. Additionally, the IVC timing almost has no
effect on the time of HRR rapid growth, and the maximum HRR
appears at advancing 10°CA IVC timing at 100% load. The IVC
Fig. 18. Methane mass fraction at different IVC timing (1200 rpm).
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Energy Conversion and Management 198 (2019) 111786
Fig. 19. The influence of different IVC timing on CO emissions in three con-
ditions.
timing has a little effect on the ignition delay, and the combustion
duration increases with the retarding of the IVC timing.
Simultaneously, the shortest combustion duration appears at ad-
vancing 10°CA IVC timing at 1200 rpm and 100% load. So, the
optimization of the IVC timing could obtain better dynamic per-
formance in DPI NG engine.
(3) For the emissions, the NOx emissions decrease with the retarding of
IVC timing while they have little change with the advancing of IVC
timing. By adjusting the IVC timing, the NOx emissions can be re-
duced by 379 ppm at most at 1200 rpm and 50% load, while the
maximum reduction reaches 727 ppm at 1200 rom and 100% load.
The unburned methane has a very small change with the variation
of IVC timing at 1200 rpm, while it increases no matter advancing
or retarding the IVC timing at 1600 rpm and the biggest difference
comes up to 187 ppm. In addition, the CO emissions almost keep
unchanged regardless of the change of IVC timing in all the engine
conditions discussed in this research, which indicates that CO
emissions are not sensitive to IVC timing. Therefore, the IVC timing
strategy has little effect on HC and CO emissions but the retarding
J. Shu, et al. Energy Conversion and Management 198 (2019) 111786

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