Renewable Energy 143 (2019) 335e351

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Renewable Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/renene

The impact of combustion chamber configuration on combustion and

emissions of a single cylinder diesel engine fuelled with soybean
methyl ester blends with diesel
Shahanwaz Khan a, *, Rajsekhar Panua b, Probir Kumar Bose c
a
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Aliah University, New Town, Kolkata 700160, India
b
Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Agartala 799046, India
c
Former Director, National Institute of Technology, Agartala 799046, India

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

Article history: The multi-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation involving in-cylinder flow and
Received 11 June 2018 combustion have been done to study the effect of soybean methyl ester and piston bowl configuration on
Received in revised form performance, combustion and pollutant emissions from a single cylinder diesel engine. The baseline
20 March 2019
engine configuration consists of a hemispherical piston bowl. The investigation has been conducted for
Accepted 30 April 2019
Available online 7 May 2019
biodiesel blends with diesel and different piston bowl configurations such as Toroidal Re-entrant
Combustion Chamber (TRCC), Re-entrant Combustion Chamber (RCC) and baseline Hemispherical
Combustion Chamber (HCC) for same bowl volume to have constant compression ratio of 17.5. To
Keywords:
Biodiesel
simulate the in-cylinder flow and combustion process, AVL FIRE code was performed and experimental
Combustion results of baseline hemispherical bowl have been used to validate the numerical model. The simulation
Turbulence results show that flow behaviour inside the combustion chamber strongly depends on the piston bowl
Soybean configuration in diesel engine. The results obtained from the simulation for the fuel blends are compared
Soot with that of baseline diesel fuel. The brake specific fuel consumption is higher for biodiesel due to its
Methyl ester lower heating value compared to baseline mineral diesel. However, significantly better results were
obtained from engine having modified combustion chambers mainly due to better air movement and
charge mixing.
© 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction biodiesel fuels due to its properties favourable to diesel engines.

The diesel engines dominate the field of commercial trans-
portation and agricultural machinery due to its ease of operation
and higher fuel efficiency. The increasing fears of fossil fuel atten-
uation and tough emission norms compel the research community
to explore alternative renewable fuels for diesel engines. Therefore,
attention has been focused on developing the renewable or alter-
nate fuels to replace the petroleum-based fuels for transport ve-
hicles. It has been found that the biodiesel are promising fuels
because their properties are similar to that of diesel and are pro-
duced easily and renewably from the crops. Biodiesel is getting
global consideration as a promising renewable alternative to the
mineral diesel. Soybean methyl ester is desirable among renewable
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: shahanwaz77@gmail.com (S. Khan).
Biodiesel is currently the most widely accepted alternative fuel
for diesel engines due to its technical, environmental and energy
security without compromising the engine performance and
emitting lesser quantity of harmful pollutants. In addition, bio-
diesel is completely miscible with diesel, allowing the blending of
these two fuels in any proportion.
Wang et al. [1] investigated experimentally that the basic engine
performance such as power output and fuel consumption are
comparable to diesel when fuelled with vegetable oil and its blends.
The emission of nitrogen oxides (NOx) from vegetable oil and its
blends are lower than that of pure diesel fuel. Ramadhas et al. [2]
reported that the vegetable oil methyl esters gave performance and
emission characteristics comparable to that of diesel. Hence, it may
be considered as diesel fuel substitutes and raw vegetable oil can be
used as fuel in diesel engines with some minor modifications. The
use of vegetable oils as internal combustion engine fuels may play a
vital role in helping the developed world to reduce the

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2019.04.162
0960-1481/© 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
336 S. Khan et al. / Renewable Energy 143 (2019) 335e351
Nomenclature
f elliptic function
k turbulent kinetic energy
z velocity scale ratio
B10 10% biodiesel and 90% diesel
B30 30% biodiesel and 70% diesel
B50 50% biodiesel and 50% diesel
Abbreviations
BDC bottom dead center
BSFC brake specific fuel consumption
CFD computational fluid dynamics
COME corn oil methyl ester
ECFM extended coherent flame model
EVO exhaust valve opening
environmental impact of fossil fuels. Qi et al. [3] studied that soy-
bean biodiesel-diesel blend may be a feasible alternative which can
be used as alternative of mineral diesel. But in order to assure a
proper engine operation more care has to be taken during the usage
of higher percentage of biodiesel level in diesel engine. They also
reported that the cetane index slightly decreases with the increase
of biodiesel content; generally the effect of biodiesel content on the
cetane index of the blends is not significant. Altın et al. [4] reported
that from the performance viewpoint, both vegetable oils and their
esters are promising alternatives as fuel for diesel engines. Because
of their high viscosity, drying with time and thickening in cold
conditions, vegetable oil fuels still have problems, such as flow,
atomization and heavy particulate emissions. Lee et al. [5] reported
that there is no noticeable difference in ignition delays of diesel and
biodiesel, while flame propagates slower with slower evaporation
and mixing for biodiesel. NOx emission decreased with increasing
biodiesel fraction for biodiesel less than 60% due to its lower
heating value, while NOx increased for biodiesel greater than 60%
€
due to the oxygen content in biodiesel. Ozener et al. [6] showed
after combustion analyses that the biodiesel addition to the con-
ventional diesel fuel decreased the ignition delay and reduced the
premixed peak, but with slight penalty in NOx emissions. Biodiesel
is non-toxic, biodegradable and a renewable diesel fuel which can
be used alone or in blends with petroleum diesel fuels. Qi et al. [7]
investigated that biodiesel exhibited the similar combustion stages
to that of diesel, however, biodiesel showed an earlier start of
combustion. The brake specific fuel consumption was higher for
biodiesel due to its lower heating value. The average reduction in
NOx emission in case of biodiesel combustion is around 5%. Dhar
et al. [8] investigated that brake specific fuel consumption for lower
Karanja oil methyl ester biodiesel blends was comparable to min-
eral diesel; however, it increased for higher biodiesel blends. They
also reported that relatively higher NOx emissions have been
observed for higher biodiesel blends, particularly at higher engine
loads Çelikten et al. [9] reported that the properties of rapeseed oil
and soybean oil methyl esters are similar to those of the diesel fuel.
Soybean oil methyl ester biodiesel had the higher specific fuel
consumption and NOx emission comparing with normal diesel and
rapeseed biodiesel. Agarwal et al. [10] performed the detailed
combustion analysis which revealed that the combustion duration
increased significantly even with smaller concentration of Karanja
oil in the fuel blend. NO emission was slightly higher for higher
Karanja oil blends. An et al. [11] reported that NO emission have
been reduced with the increase of biodiesel blend ratio. Ramadhas
et al. [12] investigated that the lower blends of biodiesel (methyl
HCC hemispherical combustion chamber
IVC intake valve closing
MCC mixing controlled combustion
NOx nitrogen oxides
NO nitric oxide
PMC premixed combustion
ppm parts per million
RCC re-entrant combustion chamber
RME rapeseed oil methyl ester
RoHR rate of heat release
SMD sauter mean diameter
SME soybean methyl ester
TDC top dead center
TKE turbulence kinetic energy
TRCC toroidal re-entrant combustion chamber
esters of rubber seed oil) increase the brake thermal efficiency and
reduce the fuel consumption. The exhaust gas emissions are
reduced with increase in biodiesel concentration. Lahane et al. [13]
studied that ignition delay and rate of pressure rise decreased with
all biodiesel diesel blends due to higher cetane number of biodiesel
than base diesel. However, NOx emission increased with induction
of biodiesel blends as compared to diesel due to oxygen content in
biodiesel. Kumar et al. [14] investigated that the heat release rate of
corn oil methyl ester (COME) blends decreases compared with that
of diesel; however the rate of pressure rise of COME blends is much
higher than that of diesel at the full-load condition. The ignition
delay and combustion duration decreases for biodiesel blends
compared to conventional diesel. Sivalakshmi et al. [15] studied
that the ignition delay increased with higher proportion of ethanol
in the blends; maximum cylinder pressure and maximum rate of
heat release increased with the increase of ethanol proportion in
the blends. However, the NOx emission initially increases with the
addition of ethanol in the blends and then decrease with further
addition of ethanol. Khan et al. [16] investigated that the improved
air motion in Toroidal re-entrant combustion chamber (TRCC) en-
gine due to its bowl geometry improves the air-fuel mixing process
which in turn reduces the brake specific fuel consumption and soot
emission due to improved combustion. Jaichandar et al. [17] stud-
ied that the performance and emission characteristics of
compression ignition engines mainly depend upon the combustion
process. Combustion of fuel in diesel engines depends on the effi-
cient fuel atomization, to increase the surface area of the fuel in
order to attain improved air-fuel mixing and increased evaporation
rates. The reduction in the average droplet diameter increases the
heat release rates, facilitates ignition, provides excellent vapor-
ization and thereby improves combustion efficiency and reduces
the pollutant emissions. Li et al. [18] investigated that Omega
combustion chamber bowl geometry shows its superiority of
combustion chamber shape in forming strong squish in a short
period and as a result, the performance of this type of engine
combustion chamber is better. Rakopoulos et al. [19] reported that
the quasi-dimensional model with the proposed simplified air
motion model is capable of capturing the physical effect of com-
bustion chamber geometry and speed on the in-cylinder velocity
and temperature field, while needing significantly lower
computing time compared to the more detailed and accurate CFD
model. They also added that the CFD model is more suitable when
detailed simulation of the in-cylinder geometry is required and the
way the corresponding transport phenomena are affected.
Labeckas et al. [20] studied that the maximum values of the engine
 S. Khan et al. / Renewable Energy 143 (2019) 335e351
performance parameters increase with rapeseed oil methyl ester
concentration in the blend up to a degree that at every particular
speed, tends to be a bit different. Forson et al. [21] studied that the
jatropha oil has substantial prospects as a long-term substitute for
diesel fuels and can be used as an ignition-accelerator additive
introduced into pure diesel fuel. Qi et al. [22] reported that BSFC
increases with increase in percentage of biodiesel in the blends due
to the lower heating value of biodiesel. The oxygen content in the
biodiesel results in better combustion and increases the combus-
tion chamber temperature, which leads to higher NOx emissions,
especially at high engine loads. Ismail et al. [23] investigated that
the unsaturation level and fuel bound oxygen content of the bio-
diesel fuels are all-important in determining the ignition delay
period and the combustion behaviour, which consequently affect
the NOx and soot formation processes. Ismail et al. [24] developed
and validated a reduced chemical kinetics mechanism under zero-
dimension and multi-dimensional engine simulations for a range of
engine operating conditions and types of biodiesel fuel. The igni-
tion delay periods and temporal evolutions of important species are
in good agreement with those produced using detailed kinetics.
The results show that the proposed mechanism gives reliable
predictions of in-cylinder combustion and emission processes.
Ismail et al. [25] reported that biodiesel fuels are found to produce
larger fuel droplet sizes, longer spray penetration, and lower
vaporization rates compared to those of fossil diesel. They also
found that biodiesels and their blends produce shorter ignition
delay periods than fossil diesel. Brakora et al. [26] studied the
combined reduced methyl butanoate/n-heptane mechanism,
which contained 55 species and 156 reactions applied to engine
simulations and compared to biodiesel-fuelled engine experi-
ments. The mechanism successfully predicted ignition timing,
pressure and heat release rate calculations in the simulated engine.
Gafoor et al. [27] investigated that high turbulent kinetic energy
with a large swirl is crucial to enhance the quality of combustion.
They also reported that variation in initial swirl affects in-cylinder
pressure, temperature and the emission parameters more signifi-
cantly for piston geometries with high bowl to piston diameter
ratio than with low diameter ratios. Kumar [28] reported that
modified pistons geometries resulted into better atomization inside
cylinder that resulted into uniform combustion at every location of
cylinder which increases the brake thermal efficiency, brake mean
effective pressure and lowers the specific fuel consumption
compared to baseline engine. Due to better combustion in modified
systems, the exhaust gas temperature at outlet is high which results
into high NOx emissions. Karabektas et al. [29] investigated that
cottonseed oil methyl ester preheated up to 90
C can be used as a
substitute for diesel fuel without any significant modification in
expense of increased NOx emissions. Kegl et al. [30] studied that
higher NOx emission is a consequence of advanced injection and
combustion process and of higher in-cylinder gas temperature at
the beginning of combustion of biodiesels and their blends. Suh
et al. [31] reported that the higher viscosity and surface tension of
the biodiesel due to the increased blending ratio, induced the
higher SMD distributions. However, the NOx emissions of biodiesel
are higher than that of diesel regardless of injection timing, because
the heat release rate of biodiesel is higher. The soot emissions of
biodiesel fuel were less than that of diesel fuel for all injection
conditions. Yoon et al. [32] studied that the maximum combustion
pressures and heat releases of a biodiesel-ethanol blend are
generally higher than those of the mineral diesel. The soot and NOx
emissions for a blend are relatively lower than the diesel at all test
ranges. Jyothi et al. [33] studied the effect of varied piston bowl
geometry on the performance and emission characteristics of
Mahua oil biodiesel experimentally for different loads. It was re-
ported that, at 20% blend of biodiesel, the performance and
337
emission parameters were improved compared to mineral diesel
operation. Venkateswaran et al. [34] showed that the swirl and
turbulent kinetic energy with bowl geometry having more re-
entrance is much higher than baseline bowl and it produces bet-
ter combustion and hence better engine performance is found than
the baseline bowl which is effective in lowering specific fuel con-
sumption and soot emission. Park [35] optimized bowl geometries
allowed the reduction of engine emissions and better engine per-
formances compared to original combustion chambers. Prasad et al.
[36] carried out the numerical simulation in several swirl inducing
piston bowls in diesel engine and reported that a high re-entrant
bowl produced better swirl and turbulent kinetic energy and
reduced NOx and soot emission levels. Wei et al. [37] examined the
impact of initial swirl on in-cylinder flow and reported that the
appropriate initial swirl motion is beneficial to improve combus-
tion and emission. Dhinesh et al. [38] examined that the Toroidal
re-entrant combustion bowl showed superior performance and
emission reduction compared with its competitors. It could have
attributed to the better mixing, gain of swirl motion and the tur-
bulence level of the bowl. It was concluded that Toroidal re-entrant
combustion bowl was the most optimized combustion bowl for the
blend Cymbopogon flexuosus biofuel 20% þ diesel 80% þ 20 ppm
cerium oxide nano particle powered by a single cylinder diesel
engine. Jaichandar et al. [39] examined specific fuel consumption
substantially lower for TRCC compared to baseline engine fuelled
with 20% Pongamia oil methyl ester. Moreover, NOx emission ap-
pears to be higher for TRCC piston bowl due to increased com-
bustion chamber temperature. Vedharaj et al. [40] concluded that
toroidal combustion bowl was the most preferable for the 50%
blend of kapok biodiesel with diesel fuel owing to its superior
performance and emission in an agricultural research engine. Bapu
et al. [41] examined the consequence of a modified combustion
bowl profile on a diesel engine powered by Calophyllum inophyllum
methyl ester. They reported that the bowl with lower diameter to
depth ratio would have superior squish flow resulting in the
enhancement of the performance characteristics. Subramanian
et al. [42] optimized the engine combustion chamber and
concluded that the CFD results has helped to identify the suitable
piston bowl profile which initiates more swirl and turbulent kinetic
energy required for better combustion. Raj et al. [43] studied that
combustion bowl profile played a key role in in-cylinder air fuel
mixing and combustion.
The above literature implies that the use of biodiesel in
compression ignition engines is a viable alternative to mineral
diesel. The development of combustion chamber configuration for
air-fuel mixing, droplet-wall interaction and combustion process is
an important challenge of diesel powered vehicles. Computational
fluid dynamics simulation could play a very important role to
reduce the number of experiments and to provide a detailed insight
on flow, air fuel mixing, combustion and pollutant emissions. In
addition, the results obtained by simulation could be visualized by
some technical means which would provide a more comprehensive
understanding on the working process of combustion chamber
modification strategies in diesel engine. Hence, the numerical
model could provide a better understanding of the combustion
process and the parameters influencing the engine performance
and emissions when running on biodiesel blends. Therefore, the
main objective of the present study is to investigate the perfor-
mance, combustion and emission characteristics of a biodiesel
assisted diesel engine operating under variation of combustion
chamber configurations.
2. Materials and methods
In the present study, a multi-component biodiesel reaction
338 S. Khan et al. / Renewable Energy 143 (2019) 335e351

Table 1
Engine technical specifications.

Engine type 4-Stroke, Single Cylinder,

Water Cooled, Diesel Engine

Bore 87.5 mm
Stroke 110 mm
Length of connecting rod 234 mm
Displacement volume 661 cc
Compression ratio 17.5
Rated Speed 1500 RPM
Rated power 5.2 kW @1500 RPM
Number of nozzle hole 3
Outlet diameter of hole 0.3 mm
Fuel Injection System Direct Injection
Injection timing 23
bTDC
Injection Pressure 200 bar
Combustion chamber Hemispherical
Inlet valve closing (IVC) 35.5
after BDC
Exhaust valve opening (EVO) 35.5
before BDC

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of engine experimental setup.

mechanism was integrated into three dimensional CFD simulations
to simulate the fuel oxidation and emission formation processes of
a diesel engine fuelled by diesel, biodiesel blends at a constant
engine speed of 1500 rpm under full load operation. Soybean
methyl ester (SME) has been chosen as biodiesel, a renewable and
environment friendly fuel for the study. The biodiesel blends with
conventional diesel fuel has been considered for the investigation.
The total mass of fuel injected into the engine cylinder remains
constant irrespective of all fuel blends and combustion chambers.
Computational fluid dynamics analysis has been done to study
the effect of biodiesel blends together with combustion chamber
geometry on fuel mixing, combustion and emissions from a single-
cylinder direct injection diesel engine. The predicted results ob-
tained from the simulation considering different combustion
chambers are compared for various biodiesel blend ratio. A baseline
engine having HCC piston bowl geometry with conventional diesel
fuel has been experimentally considered for comparison with
simulation and the results obtained support a good degree of
confidence in the numerical predictions.
2.1. Experimental approach
A Kirloskar make, four stroke, single cylinder, water cooled,
direct injection diesel engine with hemispherical combustion
chamber (HCC) have been considered for the present work. The
engine was equipped with eddy current dynamometer (Make: Saj
test plant Pvt. Ltd) for load measurement. The engine is also syn-
chronized to a crank angle sensor (Make- Kubler-Germany, Model
8.3700.1321.0360) for measuring the engine rpm. The engine was
operated at a rated constant speed of 1500 rpm. The cylinder
pressure was measured by a piezoelectric pressure transducer
(Make: KISTLER) fitted on the engine cylinder head and a crank
angle encoder fitted on the flywheel. A three-hole injector was
used, which injects the fuel in the form of fine spray to ensure good
fuel atomization. The fuel was injected into the centrally positioned
combustion chamber made in the piston crown. This engine was
coupled to an eddy current dynamometer with a control system.
The detail technical specifications of the engine are given in Table 1.
Engine exhaust emissions were measured by the exhaust gas
analyzer (AVL List GmbH; 444). The schematic diagram of engine
experimental setup has been shown in Fig. 1.
2.2. Measured data uncertainty analysis
The uncertainty expected during the sampling of the
experimental parameters by the corresponding components of
engine and emission analysis equipment at a given ambient con-
dition is enlisted in Tables 2 and 3 respectively, as declared by their
respective manufacturers.
3. Engine combustion chamber modifications
In the present investigation, to study the impacts of combustion
chamber geometry on fuel mixing, combustion and emission
characteristics of direct injection diesel engine, the piston bowl
configuration was modified to have Toroidal Re-entrant Combus-
tion Chamber (TRCC) and Re-entrant Combustion Chamber (RCC)
apart from the baseline Hemispherical Combustion Chamber (HCC)
provided in the existing engine. For all three combustion chamber
configurations, bowl volume was kept constant to have same
compression ratio of 17.5 for the investigated engines. The three
combustion chamber configurations considered for this study has
been shown in Fig. 2.
4. Soybean methyl ester as fuel
In the present investigation, the soybean methyl ester biodiesel
has been considered as a potential alternative to mineral diesel and
used as fuel in compression ignition engine. The important prop-
erties of diesel, soybean biodiesel and its blends are compared in
Table 4. The properties of the blend fuels have been determined
considering the equations used by the researchers [44e46]. Soy-
bean biodiesel have heating value lower than that of diesel due to
the presence of oxygen content in their molecules. The kinematic
viscosity and flash point of soybean biodiesel is higher than that of
diesel. A small percentage of biodiesel addition with diesel can
definitely improve the flash point of the resultant mixture. Hence,
this fuel is safer to store and transport compared to that of mineral
diesel.
5. Numerical approach
In the present study, the engine simulation software AVL FIRE
code was used for simulating the engine combustion and emission
formation processes. The software code uses finite volume
approach and solves the conservation of mass, momentum and
energy equations. It has been used for simulating transient oper-
ating condition with unstructured mesh. To reduce the
 S. Khan et al. / Renewable Energy 143 (2019) 335e351 339

Table 2
Uncertainty of experimental equipments.

Name of Instrument Details of Instrument % Uncertainty in sampling [16]

Dynamometer (Eddy Current) Make Saj Test Plant Pvt. Ltd; Model:AG10 ±1.0
Dynamometer Loading unit Make Apex; Model: AX-155. e
Load sensor Make Sensotronics Sanmar Ltd., Model:60001 ±0.2
Load indicator Make Selectron; Model:PIC152eB2 ±0.1
Fuel measuring unit Make Apex; Model:FF0.012 ±1.5
Fuel flow transmitter Differential pressure transmitter; Make Yokogawa; Model:EJA110-EMS-5A-92NN ±0.065
Cylinder pressure sensor Piezo sensor of Make-PCB Piezotronics Inc; Model: HSM111A22 ±0.1
Fuel injector pressure sensor Piezo sensor; Make: PCB Piezotronics Inc; Model:M108A02 ±0.15
Crank angle sensor Make Kubler-Germany; Model:8.3700.1321.0360 ±0.2
Data acquisition device NIUSB-6210 Bus Powered M Series e
Temperature sensor Make Radix; Type RTD, PT100 and Thermocouple Type K ±0.4%
Temperature transmitter Make Wika; Model:T19.10.3K0e4NK-Z ±0.2%
Airflow transmitter Make Wika; Model:SL1 ±0.5%

Table 3
Specifications of emission measuring equipment (AVL DIGAS 444).

Measured parameter Measuring range Resolution Accuracy % Uncertainty in sampling [16]

Carbon monoxide (CO) 0 … 10% vol 0.01% vol <0.6% vol: ±0.03% vol ±0.2
0.6% vol: ±5% of value ±0.3
Carbon dioxide (CO2) 0 … 20% vol 0.1%vol <10% vol: ±0.5% vol ±0.15
10% vol: ±5% of value ±0.2
Unburnt hydro carbons (UHC) 0 … 20000 ppm vol 2000:1 ppm vol <200 ppm vol: ±10 ppm ±0.1
>2000:10 ppm vol 200 ppm vol: ±5% of value ±0.2
Oxygen (O2) 0 … 22%vol 0.01% vol <2% vol: ±0.1%vol ±0.2
2% vol: ±5% of value ±0.3
Nitric oxide (NO) 0 … 5000 ppm vol 1 ppm vol <500 ppm vol: ±50 ppm vol ±0.2
500 ppm vol: ±10% of value ±0.9

(a) HCC (b) RCC (c) TRCC

Fig. 2. Investigated three combustion chamber configurations.

computational time, a 120
sector (for 3 holes injector) mesh was
created based on the symmetric combustion chamber geometry of
the Kirloskar TV1 engine. The mesh generated for computation
consists of 29525 cells at TDC and meshes are hexahedral. A cen-
trally mounted injector location has been adapted to all the cases.
The basic sub-models considered in this present work have been
listed in Table 5. The SIMPLE algorithm is used for pressure velocity
coupling in the solution of the flow field. The upwind numerical
discretization scheme is employed to solve the model equations as
it is always bounded and provides stability for the pressure
Table 4
Basic properties of base diesel, soybean biodiesel and its blends.
correction equation.
5.1. Boundary and initial conditions
In the present numerical investigation, wall boundary condi-
tions are applied to cylinder head and cylinder wall. Cyclic sym-
metry boundary condition is applied to continuous boundaries and
moving wall boundary condition is applied to piston bowl. No-slip
boundary condition is provided at the wall boundaries like cylinder
head, cylinder liner and piston bowl. Standard wall functions are
used to calculate the variables at the near wall cells and the cor-
responding quantities on the wall. The initial conditions have been
specified at intake valve closing, consisting of a quiescent flow field

Property SME Diesel B10 B30 B50

Table 5

3
Density at 20 C (kg/m ) 872 836 839.6 846.8 854 Summary of applied sub-models for simulation.
Kinematic viscosity (mm2/s) at 40
C 5.2 2.7 2.96 3.47 3.98
Lower heating value (MJ/kg) 38.81 42.50 41.76 40.62 39.46 Turbulence k-z- f
Flash point (
C) 166 67 e e e Breakup WAVE
Cloud point (
C) 1 7 e e e Wall interaction Walljet1
Acid value (mg KOH/g) 1.762 0.032 e e e Combustion ECFM-3Z
Cetane index 47 50 49.7 49.1 48.5 NO model Extended Zeldovich
Sulfur content (% mass) 0.014 0.048 e e e Soot Model Kinetic Model
Oxygen (wt %) 11 e e e e Wall treatment Hybrid wall treatment
Stoichiometric air/fuel ratio (kg/kg) 12.48 14.45 14.24 13.84 13.44 Heat transfer wall Standard wall function
340 S. Khan et al. / Renewable Energy 143 (2019) 335e351

Table 6
Initial conditions for simulation.

Initial pressure 1 bar

Initial temperature 335 K
Turbulence kinetic Energy 10 m2/s2
Residual gas ratio 0.05
Piston temperature 525 K
Cylinder head temperature 425 K
Liner temperature 375 K
Fuel Diesel, Biodiesel

with pressure and temperature for full load condition and the de-
tails of initial conditions considered for the simulation are illus-
trated in Table 6.

Fig. 4. Cylinder pressure comparison for coarse, medium and fine meshes at full load.
5.2. Mesh independent study

The spray oriented hexahedral mesh generation has been per-
formed based on automatic mesh generation feature of ESE DIESEL
to predict better fuel-air mixing process. Considering hemispheri-
cal combustion chamber configuration with three hole nozzle and
using the symmetry of computational domain, three meshes of
120
polar sector has been considered for one injector nozzle hole
with different cell sizes. Maghbouli et al. [47] reported that though
grid size at wall boundaries seems to be coarse, the fine polar sector
mesh generated in liquid fuel spray direction and in vicinity of
injector nozzle ensures accurate breakup and evaporation pre-
dictions for liquid fuel droplets. The spray oriented mesh aligned to
the spray injection axis is very beneficial to have more accurate air-
fuel mixing predictions. Maghbouli et al. [48] studied that
enhanced and more realistic spray penetration, air-fuel mixing,
equivalence ratio and scalar dissipation rate distributions were
resulted by applying conical mesh aligned to the direction of the
spray.
Fig. 3 represents the coarse, medium and fine mesh consists of
14900 cells, 31725 cells and 53012 cells respectively at Top Dead
Center (TDC) for baseline HCC piston bowl. To show the mesh in-
dependence, simulations were conducted at a constant engine
speed of 1500 rpm at full load for all meshes, and the traces of
predicted cylinder pressure were compared as shown in Fig. 4. It
can be seen that with further refinements on the mesh there is no
significant change observed on the predicted cylinder pressure
curves from the medium mesh to the fine mesh. In order to save
computational time, the medium mesh was considered for the
present study and was used for all the simulations.
5.3. Model validation
The numerical simulation has been performed based on the
input parameters of the engine experimental conditions in a single
cylinder direct injection diesel engine at full load operation. In or-
der to validate the accuracy of calculated results, the predicted
results considering baseline diesel were compared with the
experimental results conducted on a single cylinder direct injection
diesel engine of hemispherical combustion chamber. It is evident
from Fig. 5 that the predicted results are in good agreement with
the experimental results of in-cylinder pressure and rate of heat
release curves especially during the compression and expansion
strokes, implying that the combustion process is modelled
successfully.
5.4. Turbulence model
The in-cylinder flows and turbulence effects were calculated by
using the four equation k-z- f turbulence model, which has been
developed by Hanjalic et al. [49] and is widely used in diesel engine
simulation [16,27,37] due to its robustness for computations
involving meshes with moving boundaries and highly compressed
flows as it is the actual happening in internal combustion engines.
The authors propose a version of an eddy viscosity model based on
Durbin’s elliptic relaxation concept [50]. The motivation behind
this development is to improve the numerical stability of the model
by solving a transport equation for the velocity scale ratio z ¼ n2 =k
instead of the velocity scale n2 , thus making the model more robust

(a) Coarse Mesh (c) Medium Mesh (b) Fine Mesh

Fig. 3. Meshes of baseline HCC model with 120
Sector at TDC.
 S. Khan et al. / Renewable Energy 143 (2019) 335e351 341

(a) (b)
Fig. 5. Validation results of (a) cylinder pressure (b) rate of heat release at full load operation.

and less sensitive to grid nonuniformities. Because of a more
convenient formulation of the equation for the velocity scale ratio z
and especially of the wall boundary condition for the elliptic
function f, the k-z- f model supposed to be more robust and less
sensitive to nonuniformities and clustering of the computational
grid than its parent n2 -f model [51].
5.5. Spray break-up model
The fuel spray phenomenon have been predicted using the
WAVE breakup atomization model described by Reitz and co-
authors [52], which is one of the discrete droplet models and is
widely used in diesel fuel spray simulation [16,27,36,53]. The wave
breakup model is used for spray modeling, which depends upon

Fig. 6. Variation of cylinder pressure for fuel blends among three piston bowls.
342 S. Khan et al. / Renewable Energy 143 (2019) 335e351

Fig. 7. Traces of heat release rate among combustion chambers at different fuel blends.

Fig. 8. Predicted in-cylinder temperature among piston bowls at different blends of fuel.
 S. Khan et al. / Renewable Energy 143 (2019) 335e351
Fig. 9. Traces of NO mass fraction emission from piston bowls at different fuel blends.
the physical and dynamic parameters of the injected fuel and the
domain fuel; however, it depends mainly on the wavelength of the
speed of the droplets. It is assumed that droplets are formed with a
droplet size proportional to the wavelength of fastest growing or
most probable unstable surface wave.
The phenomenon of wall spray interaction under conditions of
real engines is difficult to describe due to the complicated in-
cylinder flow, injection and combustion processes. Spray wall
interaction model is used for accounting the effect of non-atomized
or non-evaporated fuel particles striking the surface of the piston
bowl. The spray wall interaction model Walljet1 have been
considered in the present study which was done based on the
spray-wall impingement model described by Naber and Reitz [54].
The concept is that under operating conditions of engine, a vapour
cushion is formed under the droplets and they rebound or slide
along the walls. Since the wall film physics do not play an essential
role within the wall interaction process; this model does not take
into account the wall film physics. The droplet heat-up and evap-
oration process developed by Dukowicz [55] has been considered
for baseline diesel and multi-component model has been consid-
ered for biodiesel blends with diesel.
5.6. Combustion model
In this study, the Extended Coherent Flame Model for 3 zones
(ECFM-3Z) was chosen as the combustion model in which the flame
initialization time is calculated from the function of the chemical
time and the mass fractions of the reactive gases. It is a general
343
purpose combustion model capable of simulating the complex
mechanisms of turbulent mixing, diffusion combustion, flame
propagation and pollutant emission that characterize modern in-
ternal combustion engines. The considered ECFM-3Z combustion
model was described by Colin et al. [56] specifically for diesel
combustion. The present combustion model represents three
mixing zones: a pure fuel zone, a pure air plus possible residual
gases zone and a mixed air fuel zone. A mixing model is presented
to allow progressive mixing of the initially unmixed fuel and air
which is developed based on a flame surface density transport
equation that can describe inhomogeneous turbulent premixed
and diffusion combustion.
5.7. NOx model
In a diesel engine, a high gas temperature and long residence
time at such temperatures may cause a great amount of NO to be
formed during the combustion process. The nitric oxide formation
chain reactions are initiated by atomic oxygen, which forms from
the dissociation of oxygen molecules at the high temperatures
reached during the combustion process. Hence thermal NO for-
mation, which can be described by the extended Zeldovich mech-
anism [16,27,36,57,58] is considered in the present study. The time
scale for oxides of nitrogen (NOx) reactions is larger than the time
scales for the turbulent mixing process and the combustion of
hydrocarbons that control the heat-releasing reactions. Therefore,
the computation of NOx can be decoupled from the main reacting
flow field predictions.
344 S. Khan et al. / Renewable Energy 143 (2019) 335e351
5.8. Soot model
The formation and emission of carbonaceous particles is a pro-
cess that is often observed during the combustion of hydrocarbons.
The deposition of soot inside the combustion chamber vitiates the
thermal and mechanical properties of an engine. The formation and
distribution of soot directly affects the heat transfer and the tem-
perature field of a flame. It is widely accepted that the formation of
soot is a complex process, which consists of a lot of complex re-
actions. The kinetic approach described by Mauss et al. [59] is
employed to describe the formation of soot and is widely used in
diesel engine simulation. This model includes gas phase kinetics
describing the chemical reactions on a molecular scale as well as
particle dynamics to describe a series of processes including par-
ticle inception, surface growth, coagulation, and oxidation on a
particle scale.
6. Results and discussion
In order to investigate the effect of soybean methyl ester, three
biodiesel blends (B10, B30 and B50) with mineral diesel have been
considered in the present study. The simulation has been per-
formed for the crank angle period of intake valve closing (IVC) to
exhaust valve opening (EVO) at constant engine speed of 1500 RPM.
The performance, emissions and combustion characteristics of the
engine fuelled with biodiesel blends with diesel were compared
with the baseline hemispherical combustion chamber fuelled with
mineral diesel and some of the important results have been
Fig. 10. Predicted soot mass fraction emission from piston bowls at different blends of fuel.
discussed in the following sections.
6.1. Combustion characteristics
The variations in the cylinder pressure with crank angle among
different combustion chamber configurations for different bio-
diesel blends with diesel have been shown in Fig. 6. It has been
found that modified piston bowls shows the higher peak cylinder
pressure compared to baseline HCC bowl configuration for all cases
of fuels. The greater air entrainment into the injected fuel due to
shape of combustion chamber improves air-fuel mixing, evapora-
tion and combustion in case of modified piston bowls which
increased peak cylinder pressure. This is mainly due to availability
of greater amount of premixed fuel and air mixture resulting in
stronger premixed combustion phase in case of modified com-
bustion chambers due to higher turbulence comparing to the
baseline HCC combustion chamber. The peak cylinder pressure is
slightly higher for diesel than for biodiesel, because combustion for
diesel starts earlier than biodiesel owing to a shorter ignition delay.
Peak pressure depends mainly on the combustion rate in the
premixed combustion (PMC) phase. Diesel have longer premixed
combustion phase, resulting higher peak cylinder pressure
compared to soybean methyl ester (SME) biodiesel. It is found that
the predicted peak pressures of 63.93, 62.89, 61.75, 60.54 bar have
been recorded for diesel, B10, B30 and B50, respectively in case of
TRCC piston bowl. However, predicted peak pressures of 64.01,
62.15, 61.32, 60.95 bar for RCC and predicted peak pressures of
57.28, 56.29, 55.01, 53.55 bar for baseline HCC piston bowl have
 S. Khan et al. / Renewable Energy 143 (2019) 335e351
DIESEL
B10
B30
B50 HCC
Fig. 11. Equivalence ratio distribution among piston bowls at TDC with different fuel blends.
been found.
The rate of heat release is a very important factor in combustion
systems since it provides the heat power available for conversion
into useful mechanical work. Fig. 7 represents the traces of heat
release rate with variation of fuel blends in three piston bowls.
From figure it can be observed that modified bowl configurations
predicts the higher peak rate of heat release compared to baseline
HCC piston bowl. The higher air entrainment during fuel injection
because of increased turbulence in modified piston bowls is
responsible for better air fuel mixing and combustion, resulting
higher peak rate of heat release.
The heat release rate for diesel is higher because of the short
ignition delay and higher release of heat during the premixed
combustion phase. The peak heat release rate is slightly higher for
diesel than soybean methyl ester (SME) biodiesel, because com-
bustion for diesel starts earlier than biodiesel owing to a shorter
ignition delay and higher heating value and better spray formation.
Fig. 8 shows the mean temperature distribution in three com-
bustion chambers at different fuel blends participation in com-
bustion. It has been observed from the figure that the modified
piston bowls produces a higher in-cylinder temperature compared
to baseline HCC piston bowl. The higher turbulence in modified
piston bowls creating more homogeneously distributed fuel air
mixture, resulting more intense combustion which is responsible
for higher in-cylinder temperature.
Diesel exhibits longer and more dominant premixed combus-
tion (PMC) phase than the mixing controlled combustion (MCC)
345
RCC TRCC
phase due to the shorter ignition delay period across all the com-
bustion chambers. The PMC phase affords higher combustion effi-
ciency which results in higher combustion temperature. However,
the MCC phase is mainly governed by the turbulent intensity and
the local oxygen concentration, and is typically less efficient than
that of the PMC phase. Therefore, the combustion temperature
during the MCC phase is usually lower than that of the PMC phase.
The influence of fuel-bound oxygen content in biodiesel is signifi-
cant during the MCC phase. The fuel borne oxygen from biodiesel
combustion creates extra-lean combustion environment, causing
the flame temperature to drop faster, resulting lower combustion
temperature.
6.2. Engine exhaust emissions
The NOx formation is highly temperature dependent phenom-
enon, with increase in biodiesel blends, NOx emission is expected
to decrease because of lower combustion temperature of biodiesel.
It is mainly attributed to the impact of fuel-bound oxygen content
in the biodiesel blends which is lean-fuel combustion process for all
piston bowls.
Fig. 9 represents NO emission results from three investigated
combustion chambers operated with different biodiesel blends. It
can be observed from the figure that the NO emission is decreased
with the increase proportion of biodiesel for all three piston bowl
configurations due to decreased in-cylinder temperature. Similar
observations have been reported by the researchers [1,5,7]. It can
346 S. Khan et al. / Renewable Energy 143 (2019) 335e351
also be observed that the NO emission from TRCC bowl is higher
than those of the other piston bowl configurations. The main reason
for the increase in NO emission may be attributed to higher com-
bustion temperatures arising from improved combustion due to
better mixture formation in TRCC bowl configuration.
During the PMC phase, fuel and air are well-mixed prior to
combustion to produce a more complete combustion and higher
combustion temperature which is ideal for NOx formation. Here,
the additional fuel bound oxygen content in biodiesel is unable to
further enhance the combustion and the NOx formation rate.
However, the effects of fuel-bound oxygen become more apparent
during the MCC phase where the higher fuel-bound oxygen level in
biodiesel promotes a more complete MCC phase than that of the
diesel. The magnitude of NO reduction is enhanced when diesel is
substituted with blends of biodiesel fuels as illustrated in Fig. 9. It
can be observed that NO reduction is most significant in case of RCC
piston bowl when the diesel is replaced with biodiesel.
Fig. 10 depicts soot results that occur among piston bowls along
with different biodiesel blends at full load operation. From the
figure it was observed that increasing biodiesel proportion in-
creases the soot emission level because of high density, kinematic
HCC
DIESEL
B10
B30
B50
Fig. 12. Temperature distribution among combustion chambers at 10
after TDC with different fuel blends.
viscosity and lower compressibility, inferior air fuel mixing and
combustion. The soot oxidation is mainly a function of the local
temperatures which are also controlled by the air fuel mixing
process. It has been found that in case of modified piston bowls soot
formation is lower and the rate of soot oxidation is higher. It could
be attributed to higher air entrainment in modified piston bowls
which might be the reason for higher oxidation compared to
baseline HCC piston bowl.
Soot is mainly formed during the MCC phase in the rich com-
busting liquid core region of the spray jet where the equivalence
ratio is between 1.5 and 4 and the local temperature is between
1400 K and 2000 K. Therefore, fuels which exhibit dominant MCC
phase tend to produce higher soot emission level [25]. The soybean
methyl ester biodiesel fuelled modified engines shows better soot
emission formation and oxidation results. The higher concentration
of fuel bound oxygen content in case of modified engines does
promote more complete and leaner combustion in the MCC phase
which can inhibit soot formation rate and lower the soot level in
the exhaust stream.
The combustion and emission characteristics in the diesel en-
gines largely depend on the airefuel equivalence ratio distribution
RCC TRCC
 S. Khan et al. / Renewable Energy 143 (2019) 335e351
HCC
DIESEL
B10
B30
B50
Fig. 13. TKE distribution among three piston bowls with different fuel blends at 5
before TDC.
in the engine cylinder. In order to know the effect of combustion
chamber configuration, the in-cylinder equivalence ratio distribu-
tion in cross-section of the three bowl configurations at TDC has
been shown in Fig. 11. It can be seen from the figure that there are
lesser areas of high equivalence ratio regions in modified com-
bustion chambers compared to baseline HCC due to better air fuel
mixing. These high equivalence ratio regions are responsible for
incomplete combustion, inferior engine performance and soot
emissions. When the engine has been operated with biodiesel
blends, the airefuel equivalence ratio obtained higher than that of
mineral diesel. It has been observed that increasing biodiesel pro-
portion causes an increase in the high equivalence ratio regions for
all three investigated combustion chambers. This may be attributed
due to higher viscosity and density of biodiesel.
The in-cylinder temperature distribution considering different
biodiesel blends for three bowl configurations at 10
crank angle
after TDC has been shown in Fig. 12. It can be observed from the
figure that increased biodiesel substitution decreases the intensity
of temperature for all three investigated combustion chambers. It
has been also observed that the modified bowl configurations
shows greater area of high intensity of combustion temperature
region compared to baseline HCC due to better combustion.
Fig. 13 shows the distribution of turbulence kinetic energy (TKE)
347
RCC TRCC
at 5
crank angle before TDC in three investigated combustion
chambers operated with different biodiesel blends. The results
reveal that there is greater area of high turbulent kinetic energy
regions in case of modified bowl configurations especially TRCC
bowl configuration compared to baseline HCC configurations.
Hence air entrainment in combustion chamber could significantly
be enhanced by increasing turbulence by change in piston bowl
configuration. This enhanced air entrainment due to shape of
combustion chamber is more beneficial for fuel air mixing and
combustion in case of modified piston bowls.
The distribution of NO mass fraction at 17
crank angle after TDC
operated with different biodiesel blends for three investigated
combustion chambers has been shown in Fig. 14. The results reveal
that there is greater area of high NO regions in case of modified
piston bowl configurations compared to that of baseline HCC
configuration. Also it has been observed that addition of biodiesel
blends significantly reduces NO emission from the combustion
chambers. The amount of NO reduction level and the ability of
biodiesel fuels to reduce exhaust NO emission appears to be
enhanced by introducing soybean methyl ester.
Fig. 15 shows the distribution of soot mass fraction at 15
crank
angle after TDC among three investigated combustion chambers
with different biodiesel blends. The results reveal that there is
348 S. Khan et al. / Renewable Energy 143 (2019) 335e351
HCC
DIESEL
B10
B30
B50
Fig. 14. NO emission from piston bowls with different fuel blends at 17
after TDC.
greater area of high soot regions in case of baseline HCC bowl
configuration compared to modified bowl configurations. Also it
has been observed from the contours that with the increase of
biodiesel proportion in the blend soot emission from the combus-
tion chambers increased significantly, especially in case of baseline
HCC combustion chamber.
6.3. Engine performance
Torque is the measure of rotational effort applied on engine
crankshaft by the piston. Fig. 16 (a) represents the amount of torque
exerted by the piston operated with various combustion chambers
along with different fuel blends participated in combustion process
at full load. It has been observed from the figure that increasing
proportion of soybean methyl ester biodiesel in the blends reduces
the torque output of the engine. However, the effort is better for
modified piston bowls compared to baseline HCC piston bowl due
to better fuel-air mixing and more complete combustion of fuel.
The brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC) is an important
parameter that reflects the performance of an engine operation.
Fig. 16 (b) shows variation of BSFC with respect to fuel blends
RCC TRCC
participated in combustion process at full load operation. As
heating value of soybean methyl ester is lower compared to mineral
diesel, therefore increasing proportion of soybean methyl ester
biodiesel in the blends result in lower heating value of the fuel and
hence BSFC increases. The brake specific fuel consumption of HCC is
higher than that of modified piston bowls for all fuel blends. The
decrease in specific fuel consumption of modified piston bowls may
be attributed to more efficient utilization of the fuel because of
higher turbulence, fuel-air mixing leads to more complete
combustion.
7. Conclusions
Three dimensional numerical investigation has been carried out
to explore the effect of combustion chamber geometry on com-
bustion, performance and emission characteristics of a biodiesel
fuelled diesel engine. The comparison between three combustion
chamber geometries were conducted in terms of cylinder pressure,
heat release rate, temperature distribution in the combustion
chamber and the pollutant emissions when engine operating at
constant speed of 1500 rpm. The results obtained from this study
 S. Khan et al. / Renewable Energy 143 (2019) 335e351 349

HCC RCC TRCC

DIESEL
B10
B30
B50

Fig. 15. Soot emission from combustion chambers with different fuel blends at 15
after TDC.

(a) (b)
Fig. 16. Variation of (a) Torque and (b) BSFC for different combustion chambers at full load.
350 S. Khan et al. / Renewable Energy 143 (2019) 335e351
have been summarized as follows:
 The three dimensional contours of turbulent kinetic energy and
equivalence ratio implies that the higher turbulence in modified
combustion chambers provide better fuel-air mixing process
leading more complete combustion.
 The brake specific fuel consumption substantially increases with
increase of biodiesel induction in the blends due to its lower
heating value compared to baseline mineral diesel. However, a
significant improvement in BSFC was observed with modified
combustion chambers.
 The reduced calorific value of biodiesel blends leads to lower
heat release rate and hence lower in-cylinder combustion
temperature and pressure.
 The emission of NO from biodiesel blends is lower than mineral
diesel for all piston bowl configurations due to the lower in-
cylinder temperature, which is the dominating factor deter-
mining the formation of thermal NO. However, NO emission for
TRCC bowl configuration is the highest due to increased tur-
bulence and resulted higher in-cylinder combustion
temperature.
 The overall combustion, performance and emissions of RCC
engine have been found better compared to other two piston
bowl configurations.
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