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High-pressure natural gas injection (GI) marine engine research with a Rapid
Compression Expansion Machine

Conference Paper · May 2013

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 CONSEIL INTERNATIONAL INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL
DES MACHINES A COMBUSTION ON COMBUSTION ENGINES

PAPER NO.: 12
High-pressure natural gas injection (GI) marine
engine research with a Rapid Compression
Expansion Machine
Dino Imhof, Kyushu University, Japan
Daisuke Tsuru, Kyushu University, Japan
Hiroshi Tajima, Kyushu University, Japan
Koji Takasaki, Kyushu University, Japan

Abstract: The use of natural gas as fuel for ves-
sels is a highly promising solution to meet the chal-
lenges of technical compliance requested by upcom-
ing CO2 , SOx , NOx and soot emission regulations. In
gas injection (GI) engines, gas sprays burn as diffusive
combustion without knocking or misfiring. The thermal
efficiency is high because a high compression ratio,
equal to diesel engines, can be applied. However, un-
like lean burn gas engines, an additional device, such
as an EGR or SCR system, is required to meet IMO
Tier III NOx regulations. In order to analyze and un-
derstand the combustion processes of such potential
concepts to reduce emissions, a Rapid Compression
Expansion Machine (RCEM) with relevant dimensions
of marine engines has been developed at Kyushu Uni-
versity. The RCEM is utilized as a research model for
GI engines. An electronically controlled high-pressure
gas injection system enables injection pressures of up
to 50 MPa. Diesel pilot sprays in dual fuel mode as
well as glow plugs are used for ignition. Air condi-
tions in the cylinder at the gas injection are about 10
MPa and 550 °C, simulating a current GI engine. In a
first series of experiments, a cylinder head with a cubic
shaped clearance volume and an observation view of
200 mm in width and 50 mm in height is applied to an-
alyze the spray combustion. In the experiments, pure
methane, the main component of natural gas, is used.
At first, the GI combustion is compared to the diesel
spray combustion. As a result, rates of heat release for
GI and diesel combustion are comparable, while the
emissions decrease by using gas. However, the direct
photos taken with 20’000 fps show a different flame
behavior between the two fuels. Such differences in
the flame characteristics are examined in detail ap-
plying the ’Laser shadowgraph’ and the ’BDL (Back
Diffused Laser)’ optical techniques. Furthermore, in
order to meet IMO Tier III NOx regulations, the oxy-
gen content of the intake air is reduced as a good ap-
proximation for an Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR)
system. As expected, the brightness of the flame de-
creases and a NOx reduction of 75 % in 17 % O2 can
be achieved. For a second series of experiments, a
cylinder head with a cylindrical clearance volume is
newly developed to allow different swirl velocities and
an observation view over the whole 240 mm in diame-
ter window; the side injection system corresponds to a
common two-stroke engine. Injection nozzles with dif-
ferent numbers of injection holes are tested, applying
different injection pressures, and multi flames are visu-
alized. In conclusion it can be stated that experiments
with the RCEM help to determine emission influenc-
ing parameters and optimization potential, to visualize
and to analyze phenomena that have not been simu-
lated yet.

©CIMAC Congress 2013, Shanghai


1. INTRODUCTION
The use of natural gas, whose main component is
methane (CH4), as fuel for vessels is a highly
promising solution to meet challenges of technical
compliance requested by upcoming carbon dioxide
(CO2) and emission regulations.
The GI (Gas Injection) combustion system in which
high pressure gas is directly injected into the
cylinder is described here. In a typical low-speed
two-stroke GI engine, gas at 25 to 30 MPa is
injected through gas injection nozzles fitted on the
cylinder head at the end of compression stroke; it is
then ignited by a liquid fuel injected from pilot fuel
injectors. The combustion pattern of a GI engine is
totally different than that of what we call pre-mixed
lean-burn combustion; rather, it is much closer to
the diffusive combustion that occurs in diesel spray
combustion.
Referring to the history of GI type gas engines,
during the 1980s, many low-speed engine builders
began developing and testing two-stroke DF (Dual
Fuel) engines for use on LNG carriers, so as to
make it possible to burn the boil-off gas as fuel.
After the developing time, MES (Mitsui Engineering
and Shipbuilding Co., Ltd.) built the 12K80MC-GI-S
(40 MW) engine with a bore of 800 mm and 12
cylinders [1]. This engine was operated for a total of
20,000 hours during 1994 to 2003 as a local power
station at the company’s Chiba shipyard. The
technology developed by MES has been later
incorporated into the following ME-GI engine
development.
At MAN Diesel & Turbo AS, a test engine 4T50ME-
X (Number of cylinders: 4, Bore: 500 mm, Stroke:
2200 mm, MCR speed: 123 rpm, MCR power: 7080
kW) has been converted to a GI engine, and
various tests related to practical application have
been conducted. The Pme (mean effective
pressure) has already reached a level of 2 MPa [2].
However, fundamental studies on the
combustion process with GI system have not so
often been opened. To create the new ideas, for
example, to reduce NOx emission and to
improve the thermal efficiency at the same time,
it is essential to clarify how the gas-jet is burning
in the GI engine in detail.
For that purpose, the authors have developed a
Rapid Compression Expansion Machine (RCEM)
to visualize the GI combustion process. The
RCEM also helps to clarify the emission influencing
© CIMAC Congress 2013, Shanghai Paper No. 12
parameters and to analyse the combustion
phenomena that have not been simulated yet.
In the first series of experiments, a cylinder head
with a cubic shaped clearance volume and an
observation view of 200 mm in width and 50 mm in
height is applied to analyse the GI combustion. In
the experiments, pure methane, the main
component of natural gas, is burned and compared
to the diesel spray combustion.
For the second series of experiments, the
combustion chamber is replaced from the cubic
shaped one to a cylindrical volume simulating
current two-stroke GI engines. It is newly designed
to allow different swirl intensities and an
observation view over the whole 240 mm in
diameter window. Injection nozzles with different
number of injection holes are tested, applying
different injection pressures.
2. EXPERIMENTAL APPARATUSES
AND METHODS
The Rapid Compression Expansion Machine
(RCEM)
A single cylinder test engine has been completely
modified and converted into the Rapid
Compression Expansion Machine (RCEM). A
labelled cross-sectional view including the injector
arrangement is presented in Figure 1 and the main
specifications are listed in Table 1. The cubic
shaped clearance volume and a pair of glass
windows at both sides allow various optical
investigations of single gas-jet combustion.
Table 1: RCEM specifications
Stroke 260 mm
Compression ratios 9.5, 8.2
Clearance volume 200 x 66 x 80 mm
Engine speed 300 rpm
2 Quartz windows
Optical access
100 (thick) x 200 x 50 mm
The experimental procedure is as follows: Prior to
the experiment, the charge air is pre-heated and
pre-compressed in the large accumulator shown in
Figure 1. This two-stage compression concept
allows experimentation at sufficiently high
compression pressure (Pc) and temperature (Tc) at
combustion even if the compression ratio is low,
keeping the clearance volume large. Moreover, Pc
and Tc can be easily changed depending on the
experimental conditions.
The RCEM is a one-shot firing machine: An electric
motor accelerates the RCEM to 300 rpm, and an
2
intake valve actuates only once, allowing the air
from the accumulator to flow into the cylinder. After
that, one real cycle of compression and combustion
is carried out.
Figure 1: The Rapid Compression Expansion
Machine (RCEM)
After the combustion event, the decompression
valve opens to avoid any further combustion during
running down. Then, the burned gas is led to an
exhaust gas (CO, HC and NOx) analyser.
Injection system
Figure 2: Gas injector and accumulator
© CIMAC Congress 2013, Shanghai Paper No. 12
Electronically controlled fuel injection systems (EFI)
are utilized, not only for the gas injection but also
for the diesel oil pilot injection. The injection system
has the merits that any injection timings and
injection pressure can be chosen. One EFI set is
used for the pilot injection and another EFI to
actuate the gas (methane) injection.
A gas booster can pressurise the methane up to
50 MPa. The gas injector with a gas accumulator
developed by the authors is displayed in Figure
2. The gas accumulator compensates the gas
pressure drop during one injection.
Optical settings and methods
To obtain precise visual data, two high-speed
cameras are applied for direct photographs and
Back Diffused Laser (BDL) method to visualize the
soot clouds within the luminous flame. Moreover,
Shadowgraph method enables to visualise the
burning or burned gases. The optical setting system
to take the BDL and Shadowgraph images
simultaneously is illustrated in Figure 3.
Figure 3: Optical setting for Shadowgraph and BDL
Cylindrical combustion chamber
Another cylinder head with a cylindrical clearance
volume shown in Figure 4 is prepared to allow
the observation view over the whole bore
diameter (240 mm) and visualize the flame
behaviour in the air swirl simulating a two-stroke
GI engine. Figure 5 also shows the location of
intake valve for swirling intake air flow. Actually
four kinds of valve sets with different flow angles
are prepared to change the swirl intensity.
3

Optical access Intake port
Accumulator
Figure 4: RCEM with new cylinder head
Figure 5: Cross-sectional view of cylindrical
combustion chamber
3. RESULTS FROM SINGLE GAS-JET
EXPERIMENTS
Comparison between GI and diesel combustion
At first, the combustion process of GI is compared
to the diesel combustion: In this experiment, the
gas pressure is set to 30 MPa and an injector
nozzle with a diameter of 1.2 mm is applied. Air
conditions in the cylinder at injection timing are Pc:
10 MPa (Pressure difference between gas injection
pressure and Pc is 20 MPa) and Tc: about 550 °C,
simulating a real GI engine.
For the pilot diesel oil injection, 60 MPa injection
pressure and a nozzle diameter of 0.16 mm are
used. As the standard case, the pilot oil is injected
before the gas injection. The injected mass of pilot
oil is equivalent to 3-4 % of the total heat release.
© CIMAC Congress 2013, Shanghai Paper No. 12
A comparison of rates of heat release (ROHR) and
direct photos of flames between GI and diesel
combustion is shown in Figure 6, while the
emission data is given in Table 2.
Seeing the direct photos of the GI flame set against
the diesel flame in Figure 6, the GI combustion
process in the left side series shows a bright pilot
flame that successfully ignites the gas-jet at -4 deg.
ATDC. Thereafter the gas flame outruns the pilot
flame and penetrates to the right edge of the
combustion chamber.
Compared to the diesel flame in the right side
series, the gas flame looks less bright, as expected
from the lower C/H ratio of methane, and it has a
wider flame width than the diesel flame. Though the
gas injection pressure of 30 MPa is much lower
than the diesel injection pressure of 100 MPa, the
penetration of the gas flame is equivalent to the
diesel flame, for example at 0 deg. and 6 deg.
ATDC. A special feature of GI case is that the
visible flame looks unable to come up to the nozzle
side from the ignition point during and after the
injection period.
Though GI and diesel combustion have the
differences mentioned above, the heat release rate
for GI combustion is close to that of diesel
combustion, as seen from Figure 6. Seeing in detail,
ROHR of GI rises steeper just after the ignition,
maybe because of the pilot fuel combustion.
However, the maximum rate is a little smaller in the
GI case.
In the emission data shown in Table 2, GI
combustion emits much smaller CO but higher HC
emissions than the diesel. However, unburned
methane from this experiment is estimated to be
about 0.5 % of total injected gas. This is much less
than the case of lean-burn gas combustion, where
normally 2-3 % methane slip is observed.
As mentioned, the luminosity of GI fame is lower
than the diesel combustion. The combustion
temperature should also be proportionally lower. As
shown in Table 2, NOx emission from GI
combustion results in about 3/4 of that of the diesel.
However, unlike the homogeneous combustion of
lean burn gas engines, a drastic reduction of NOx
emission, such as -80 %, is impossible.
Table 2: Comparison of emission data
Fuel GI Diesel
CO [ppm] 8~10 44
HC [ppm] 69~87 21
NOx [ppm] 346~393 531
4
 Looking at -1 deg. ATDC of BDL, it is clear that the
pilot flame forms black soot. And at 7 deg., the soot
Pilot fuel from the pilot flame is pushed by the following gas-
Gas injection (GI)
Diesel jet to the flame front. On the other hand, seeing the
Gap
case of glow plug ignition at 7 deg. where no pilot
sensor flame exists, though the gas is surely burning
signal according to the Shadowgraph image, the black
part in BDL is very small. That means the gas-jet is
burning well with forming almost no soot cloud.

-20 -10 0 10 20 30 At 13 deg., gas flame can be seen in the whole

deg. CA visual field in both cases with pilot and glow plug.
kJ/deg. kJ The gas combustion forms only thin soot cloud
1.5 25 compared with the pilot diesel oil flame seen
before.
1.2 20
Pilot fuel (Ignition source) Glow plug
0.9 Gas injection (GI) 15 Shadowgraph Shadowgraph
Diesel
0.6 10
BDL BDL
0.3 5
Glow plug
0 0 Shadowgraph Shadowgraph
-20 0 20 40 60
-0.3 -5 Burning methane
deg. CA
BDL BDL
Gas injection (GI) (30 MPa) Diesel (100 MPa)
Soot from pilot fuel
Flame from
pilot spray Shadowgraph Shadowgraph
200 mm

BDL BDL

Figure 7: Shadowgraph and BDL images from GI

combustion with pilot injection or glow plug

Effect of pilot injection conditions on GI combustion

As understood by the study so far, the pilot flame

is the main origin of soot from GI combustion.
Figure 8 shows the BDL photos changing the
Figure 6: Comparison between GI and diesel
pilot fuel mass from 3 to 7 % of total released
combustion
heat. As expected, the less pilot fuel mass
To demonstrate how clean the GI combustion is, shows the smaller soot cloud. Then, how is the
soot formation in the flame is visualized using the effect of the pilot injection timing on GI
BDL technique mentioned before. Two combustion?
experiments are carried out. The normal pilot at 4 deg. ATDC
injection is used as the ignition source for the BDL
first experiment and a glow plug for the second Pilot-%
experiment to eliminate the soot formed by the
pilot diesel oil.

Figure 7 shows the Shadowgraph and BDL photos

for the GI flame in the above-mentioned two cases
of ignition sources. The black part of Shadowgraph
represents the burning area. Black part of BDL
photos shows the soot-cloud formed in the flame.
Figure 8: Soot clouds formed in the pilot flames

© CIMAC Congress 2013, Shanghai Paper No. 12 5

Effect of pilot injection timing on GI combustion On the other hand, in the late case, pilot oil is
is clarified. The experimental conditions are injected into the gas-jet. And it would be possible
summarised in Table 3. The tested three injection that the pilot spray is covered by methane that
timings and ROHR data are illustrated in Figure additionally decreases the ignition reactions of
9. The gas injection timings remain unchanged the pilot spray. After that, the pilot spray ignites
for the three experiments. the accumulated gas-air mixture at once and the
gas flame expands too fast as seen at 1 deg. in
Table 3: Conditions for different pilot timings Figure 10. Such phenomena would result in the
high peak of the ROHR.
Pilot injection conditions
Pilot injection timing Early Normal Late
Pilot inj. pres. [MPa] Normal
Nozzle hole Late
0.16 60
diameter [mm] Early
Injection pressure 50 Gas
50
[MPa] 40
Injection start 30 1.50
-8.0 -6.0 -4.4
[deg. ATDC]
20 Gas
Injection end
-4.8 -1.7 0.2 10 nozzle
[deg. ATDC]
lift [-]
Gas injection conditions 0
Nozzle hole
1.0 -10 -20 -10 0 10 20 -0.50
diameter [mm] deg. CA
Injection pressure
27.5 kJ/deg. kJ
[MPa]
1.5 25
Injection start / end
-4.0 / 16.0
[deg. ATDC]
1.2 20
Seeing the results, the earlier pilot injection (blue
line) seems not to affect the ROHR of gas 0.9 15
Normal
combustion, that looks unchanged from the Late
0.6 10
normal pilot timing (black line) in the figure. Early
0.3 5
On the other hand, the late pilot timing (red line)
results in a high peak in the ROHR, like a diesel 0 0
knock. According to Table 4, emission data, the -20 0 20 40 60
late pilot timing causes higher NOx and HC -0.3 -5
emissions, while the earlier pilot timing shows little deg. CA
influence on the emissions. Figure 9: Three different pilot injection timings and
related ROHR
The visual data reveals this knocking like
phenomena by the late pilot timing: Table 4: Emission data with different pilot injection
Shadowgraph images are taken and presented timings
in Figure 10. At -5.5 deg. ATDC, gas-jet just
injected from the left edge of combustion Pilot Early Normal Late
injection
CO [ppm] 12 18 21
chamber can be seen in all three cases. And in timing
the cases of early and normal timing, pilot fuel is HC [ppm] 85 78 100
also observed. In these two cases, the gas-jet NOx [ppm] 223 216 260
catches up with the pilot flame and is ignited
smoothly. This is visible at -1.5 deg..

Figure 10:
Visual data with different
pilot injection timings

© CIMAC Congress 2013, Shanghai Paper No. 12 6

 GI combustion simulating EGR condition Comparison of ROHR in Figure 11 shows that
reduced oxygen content decreases the maximum
One way to reduce NOx emission of GI combustion ROHR (10-20 deg. ATDC) and afterwards causes
to clear IMO Tier III NOx regulation is to apply the more after-burning, consequently HC emission
Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) method. In this increases, as given in Table 5.
study, to clarify the combustion state under the
EGR condition, an experiment in the poorer oxygen The ROHR of higher pressure charge case is
content of the intake air is carried out: Oxygen illustrated as the red line in Figure 11.
content of the intake air is reduced to 17.5 %. Unexpectedly the maximum ROHR is still below the
normal air. Comparing the emission data of
Two ways of oxygen reduction are tried: One is to reduced oxygen content between the low and high
charge the reduced oxygen air at the same charge pressure in Table 5, the latter case shows
pressure as normal air. Another is applying the no improvement of HC data though the total mass
higher pressure for the reduced oxygen air to of oxygen is recovered to the level of normal air in
compensate the total oxygen mass for combustion. this experiment, while CO reduces to the level
without EGR.
Direct photos of GI flame in 17.5 % O2
Table 5: Emissions from EGR condition
-3 Oxygen cont. 17.5 %
21.0 % 17.5 %
charge air high press.
Charge air
0.7 MPa 0.7 MPa 0.87 MPa
-1 pressure
CO [ppm] 14 – 16 25 13
HC [ppm] 70 - 87 132 136
1 NOx [ppm] 459 - 464 114 120

Effect of gas injection pressure

7

deg. ATDC
Returning back to the normal 21 % oxygen air, gas
injection pressure is increased and effects on the
kJ/deg. kJ
gas flame penetration and ROHR are investigated.
1.5 25
Shadowgraph Table 6 shows the experimental conditions. Gas
1.2 20
injection pressure is raised from 27.5 to 47.5 MPa
for the same injection hole diameter.
0.9 15
Table 6: Experimental conditions for single flame
0.6 10 experiments with higher gas injection pressures
Injection pressure
0.3 5 27.5 37.5 47.5
[MPa]
Air conditions at injection start
0 0
Compression
-20 0 20 40 60 7.5 MPa
pressure
-0.3 -5 Gas injection conditions
deg. CA Nozzle hole
1.0
21.0 % O2 0.7 MPa 17.5 % O2 0.7 MPa diameter [mm]
Inject. start / end
17.5 % O2 0.87 MPa -3.1 / 18.3 -3.3 / 17.3 -2.0 / 17.9
[deg. ATDC]
Figure 11: Results from lower oxygen content
simulating EGR condition Figure 12 (A) shows the shadowgraph of unburned
gas-jets injected in the pure nitrogen. The
Flame photos in 17.5 % oxygen condition (in the penetrating distance of jet front at each timing is
above-mentioned former way) and a comparison of measured and plotted in Figure 12 (B). It is clear
ROHR with the normal 21 % oxygen case are that the gas-jet with higher injection pressure
shown in Figure 11. Comparing the direct photos in penetrates faster, and it is estimated that the
21 % oxygen shown at the left side of Figure 6, the momentum theory of spray could be applied to the
flames in reduced oxygen content (Figure 11) are gas-jet similar to the diesel spray [3].
less bright, representing a lower combustion
temperature, and consequently NOx emission is Figure 12 (C) shows the ROHR for these three
reduced to about 1/4 (see Table 5). cases. The higher injection pressure case shows
the higher ROHR, it is reasonable as the injection
rate is also higher.

© CIMAC Congress 2013, Shanghai Paper No. 12 7

 gas is injected and the nozzle hole diameters are
changed depending on the injection pressure so
(A)
47.5 MPa that the injection durations may become the
same. That means the injection rate is constant.
The experimental conditions are listed in Table
37.5 MPa 7. In this test, gas pressure is reduced from 27.5 to
16.5 MPa.
27.5 MPa
Table 7: Experimental conditions for single flame
experiments with lower gas injection pressures
in nitrogen [9 deg. after inj. start]
Injection pressure
(B) 27.5 20.0 16.5
[MPa]
[mm]
180 Air conditions at injection start
160 Compression
7.5 MPa
140 pressure
Oxygen
120 21.0 %
concentration
100
Gas injection conditions
80 47.5
40NCMPa
Nozzle hole
60 37.5
30NCMPa 1.0 1.2 1.4
diameter [mm]
40 27.5
20NCMPa Inject. start / end
-3.1 / 18.3 -2.4 / 17.7 -2.8 / 18.0
20 [deg. ATDC]
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Time after injection start [ms] (A) 27.5 MPa
(C) kJ/deg. kJ
1.5 25
20.0 MPa

1.2 20
16.5 MPa
0.9 15 at 6 deg. ATDC

0.6 10 (B) kJ/deg. Δp

27.5
20MPa
MPa kJ
1.5 25
0.3 5 Δp
20.0 MPa
12.5 MPa
1.2 20
Δp
16.5
9 MPa
0 0
-20 0 20 40 60 0.9 15
-0.3 -5
0.6 10
deg. CA
ΔP400
47.5 MPa
ROHR ΔP300
37.5 MPa
ROHR ΔP200
27.5 MPa
ROHR 0.3 5

Figure 12: ROHR from single flame experiments 0 0

with higher gas injection pressures
Effect of gas injection pressure on combustion
keeping injection rate
For GI engines, a weaker point than the lean-
burn engines exists when the boil-off gas must
be burned. The compression work to pressurize
the gas to normal 30 MPa is relatively large.
Sometimes it would be equivalent to 3-5 % of the
engine output itself. Hence, to create a way to
achieve good combustion with lower injection
pressure is important.
In order to investigate the effects of gas injection
pressure keeping the injection rate, experiments
with three different injection pressures are carried
out. For these experiments, the same amount of
-20 0 20 40 60
-0.3 -5
deg. CA
Figure 13: ROHR from single flame experiments
with lower gas injection pressures
As a result, ROHR in Figure 13 (B) shows a clear
tendency: The lower the injection pressure is,
the less maximum ROHR and the more after-
burning can be seen, that means the combustion
rate is decelerated by lowering the injection
pressure in these experiments
The direct photos of gas flames in the three
cases shown in Figure 13 (A) suggest that one
reason of combustion deterioration would be the
slower penetration of gas flame. In this experiment,
the larger injection hole is applied for the lower

© CIMAC Congress 2013, Shanghai Paper No. 12 8

injection pressure. However it looks unable to Single flame and multiple flame
recover the penetration of flame front.
In the swirling air of pattern (d), the pilot fuel and
Table 8 summarises the emission results: HC gas are injected from the side of combustion
emissions increase with the lower injection chamber as shown in Figure 5 in chapter 2. For this
pressure, maybe because of the poorer combustion experiment, two kinds of injection nozzles, one with
with after-burning. However, as an expected result, single hole of 1.6 mm dia. and another with four
NOx emission decreases with the lower injection holes of 0.8 mm dia. are prepared (Table 9). Total
pressure. hole-area is the same in both cases. The gas
combustion states in the two cases are analysed
Table 8: Emission data from single flame applying the same injection pressure of 27.5 MPa
experiments with lower gas injection pressures and Pc of 7.5 MPa (Table 9).
Injection pressure
27.5 20.0 16.5
[MPa] Table 9: Experimental conditions for single and four
CO [ppm] 9 11 13 injection holes experiments
HC [ppm] 72 101 120 Experiment 1 hole nozzle 4 holes nozzle
NOx [ppm] 376 270 249 Air conditions at injection start
Compression
7.5 MPa
pressure
4. EXPERIMENTS APPLYING MULTIPLE Compression
773 K
FLAME AND SWIRL temperature
Pilot injection conditions
Nozzle hole
Swirl intensity 0.2
diameter [mm]
Injection pressure
To simulate the GI combustion in a real engine 65
[MPa]
combustion chamber, the new cylinder head with Injection start /end
-8.5 / -2.0
cylindrical combustion chamber equipped with a [deg. ATDC]
glass for whole bore (240 mm) observation is Gas injection conditions
applied. Nozzle hole
1.6 x 1 0.8 x 4
diameter [mm]
Injection pressure
m/s 27.5
[MPa]
35
(a) Injection start / end
-3.5 / 11.5
30 [deg. ATDC]

25 (b)
Comparing the ROHR between single hole and four
20 holes case in Figure 15, the single hole shows
(c) slightly lower combustion rate than the four holes at
15
(d) the former half of combustion duration. However
10
the difference is rather smaller than expected.
5
0 In case of diesel combustion, the difference of
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 combustion between large single hole and smaller
Distance from center [mm] four holes case would be much more than this
figure, because the smaller hole diameter
Figure 14: Four patterns of swirl velocity distribution contributes to the atomization of liquid fuel.
(average at TDC ± 20 deg. CA) However, in GI case, the first stage of fuel-air
mixing process would be insensitive to the injection
Figure 14 shows the prepared four patterns of swirl
hole diameter.
velocity distribution in the cylindrical combustion
chamber at TDC measured by PIV (Particle Image
The effect of swirl itself on ROHR can be confirmed
Velocimetry) method.
by comparing the single gas flame in the swirl, the
blue line of Figure 15, and in the cubic shaped
In this experiment, the swirl pattern (a), (b) and (d)
combustion chamber, the black line (without EGR)
have been tested. And it has become clear that (a)
of Figure 11. Both cases have the same 25 kJ of
is too strong and gas flames are too much curved.
total released heat. As a result, the former shows
As pattern (d) has shown the better emission data
much sharper ROHR with higher maximum value
than (b), (d) is used for the following experiment.
and less after-burning than the latter.

© CIMAC Congress 2013, Shanghai Paper No. 12 9

 kJ/deg. kJ
1 hole 4 holes
1.5 25

1.2 20 Swirl Swirl

Pilot fuel Pilot fuel
0.9 15
ROHR…
1 hole Gas Gas
0.6 ROHR…
4 holes 10 0°
20° 10°
0.3 5
30°
40°
0 0
-20 0 20 40 60
-0.3 -5
deg. CA 1

Figure 15: ROHR from single and four injection

holes experiment

Figure 16 shows the comparison of direct photos

between single hole and four holes case. According
to the photos, the single hole shows a flame with
sufficient penetration and it also looks distributed
well to the tangential direction thanks to the swirl at
10 and 15 deg.. It would be the reason of less
deterioration of combustion than the four holes 6
case.

However, seeing Table 10 of emission data, it is

revealed that the four holes case shows the better
combustion from the data of lower CO, HC and
higher NOx.

Table 10: Emission data from single and four

injection holes experiment
Experiment 1 hole 4 holes 10
CO [ppm] 30 21 0
HC [ppm] 158 127
NOx [ppm] 264 328

5. CONCLUSIONS

The Rapid Compression Expansion Machine

(RCEM) has made it possible to investigate the GI
15
combustion in detail. A comparison to the diesel
0
combustion shows that the GI combustion results in
a similar heat release rate, but NOx and soot
emissions are clearly reduced.

At this moment, NOx emissions are above IMO Tier

III emission regulations and some additional
measure, such as Exhaust Gas Recirculation
(EGR) system is required to clear it. An EGR
approximation is applied by reducing the oxygen
content of the charge air to 17.5 %; hence NOx
Figure 16: Direct photographs from single and
emission is drastically reduced, as expected.
multiple flame experiments

© CIMAC Congress 2013, Shanghai Paper No. 12 10

 The RCEM is convenient to carry out the
experiments to clarify the effect of gas injection
pressure, penetration of gas flame front and air
swirl intensity on the GI combustion. However, it is
understood that the optimization of GI combustion
would be more difficult than the diesel at this
moment from the lack of experiences.

As a next task for the authors, a CFD model for GI

combustion must be created. A numerical model
developed by combining the three dimensional
code: KIVA3V and the software tool for solving
complex chemical kinetics: SENKIN is now being
applied and validated using the visual data
described in this paper.

Considering the origin of SOx and PM, pilot liquid

fuel should be minimized. Some new idea, for
example, gas ignition using a powerful laser
technique should be studied as the next task.

The above-mentioned similar heat release data by

GI combustion to the diesel combustion suggests
that a high thermal efficiency like a diesel engine
could be achieved by GI engine. However, the work
to compress the natural gas to 25-30 MPa,
equivalent to 3-5% of the engine output is a
problem. The system to pressurize the LNG and
evaporate it under 25-30 MPa should be applied to
solve this problem.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Special thanks go to Mitsui Engineering and

Shipbuilding Co., Ltd, Japan, for supporting the
project.

REFERENCES

[1] T. Fukuda, M. Ohtsu, M. Hanafusa, P. S.

Pedersen, O. Grone and O. Schnohr,
«Development of the World’s First Large-
Bore Gas-Injection Engine» in 21st CIMAC
Interlaken, 1995, Paper No. D51.

[2] L. Juliussen, M. Kryger and A. Andreasen,

«MAN B&W ME-GI Engines. Recent
Research and Results» in International
Symposium on Marine Engineering (ISME),
Kobe, 2011.

[3] M. Miyake, T. Biwa, Y. Endoh, M. Shimotsu,

S. Murakami and T. Komoda, «The
development of high output, highly efficient
th
gas burning diesel engines» in 15 CIMAC
Paris, 1983, pp.1193 -1216.

© CIMAC Congress 2013, Shanghai Paper No. 12 11

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