Combustion in CI engine

Combustion in CI Engine
Combustion in a CI engine is quite different from that of an SI engine. While combustion
in an SI engine is essentially a flame front moving through a homogeneous mixture,
combustion in a CI engine is an unsteady process occurring simultaneously in many
spots in a very non-homogeneous mixture controlled by fuel injection.
Air intake into the engine is un-throttled, with engine torque and power output
controlled by the amount of fuel injected per cycle.
Only air is contained in the cylinder during compression stroke, and a much higher
compression ratios (12 to 24) are used in CI engines.
In addition to swirl and turbulence of the air, a high injection velocity is needed to spread
the fuel throughout the cylinder and cause it to mix with the air.
Fuel is injected into the cylinders late in the compression stroke by one or more injectors
located in each cylinders. Injection time is usually about 200 crankshaft rotation (150 bTDC
and 50 aTDC).
Combustion characteristics
Combustion occurs throughout the chamber over a
range of equivalence ratios dictated by the fuel-air
mixing before and during the combustion phase.
In general most of the combustion occurs under
very rich conditions within the head of the jet, this
produces a considerable amount of solid carbon
(soot).
Cylinder p- for a CI engine.

A : point of fuel injection

B : point of ignition
AB : ignition delay period
C : end of fuel injection
Combustion in CI Engine
Ignition delay (ab) : fuel is injected directly into the cylinder towards
the end of the compression stroke. The liquid fuel atomizes into small
drops and penetrates into the combustion chamber. The fuel vaporizes
and mixes with the high-temperature high-pressure air.
Premixed combustion phase (bc) :combustion of the fuel which has
mixed with the air to within the flammability limits (air at high-
temperature and high-pressure) during the ignition delay period occurs
rapidly in a few crank angles
Mixing controlled combustion phase (cd) : after premixed gas
consumed, the burning rate is controlled by the rate at which mixture
becomes available for burning. The rate of burning is controlled in this
phase primarily by the fuel-air mixing process.
Period after burning (de) : heat release may proceed at a lower rate
well into the expansion stroke (no additional fuel injected during this
phase). Combustion of any unburned liquid fuel and soot is responsible
for this.
Stages of Combustion in CI Engines
Ignition Delay
Ignition delay is defined as the time (or crank angle interval) from when
the fuel injection starts to the onset of combustion.
Both physical and chemical processes must take place before a
significant fraction of the chemical energy of the injected liquid is
released.
Physical processes are fuel spray atomization, evaporation and mixing of
fuel vapor with cylinder air.
Good atomization requires high fuel-injection pressure, small injector
hole diameter, optimum fuel viscosity, high cylinder pressure (large
divergence angle).
Rate of vaporization of the fuel droplets depends on droplet diameter,
velocity, fuel volatility, pressure and temperature of the air.
Ignition Delay
Physical processes are fuel
spray atomization,
evaporation and mixing of
fuel vapor with cylinder air.
Chemical processes similar
to that described for auto-
ignition phenomenon in
premixed fuel-air, only
more complex since
heterogeneous reactions
(reactions occurring on the
liquid fuel drop surface)
also occur.
Factors Affecting Delay Period (DP)
Compression Ratio: DP
decreases with increase
of CR.
Engine Speed: DP
decreases with increase
of engine speed.
Power Output: DP
decreases with increase
of power output.
Factors Affecting Delay Period (DP)
Injection timing: At normal engine conditions the minimum delay occurs with
the start of injection at about 10-15 BTC. The increase in the delay time with
earlier or later injection timing occurs because of the air temperature and
pressure during the delay period.
Fuel Atomization: DP decreases with fineness of atomization.
Fuel Quality: DP decreases with higher cetane number. For a CI engine the air
throttled so the load is varied by changing the amount of fuel injected
Increasing the load (bmep) increases the residual gas and wall temperature
which results in a higher charge temperature at injection which translates to a
decrease in the ignition delay.
Intake Temp. & Pressure: DP decreases with increase of Temperature and
pressure. an increase in ether will result in a decrease in the ignition delay, an
increase in the compression ratio has the same effect.
Fuel Ignition Quality
Rating of both fuel measures the tendency of fuel to auto ignite
spontaneously.
Cetane number: increasing the value represents that fuel will readily
ignite and it leads to better performance
Octane number: increasing leads to fuel to resist spontaneous ignition
The ignition characteristics of the fuel affect the ignition delay.
The ignition quality of a fuel is defined by its cetane number CN.
For low cetane fuels the ignition delay is long and most of the fuel is
injected before auto ignition and rapidly burns, under extreme cases
this produces an audible knocking sound referred to as diesel knock.
For high cetane fuels the ignition delay is short and very little fuel is
injected before auto-ignition, the heat release rate is controlled by the
rate of fuel injection and fuel-air mixing smoother engine operation.
Effects of variable on Ignition
delay
 Effect of
Ignition Delay
Knock in CI Engines
Knock in SI and CI engines are fundamentally similar. In
SI engines, it occurs near the end of combustion;
whereas in CI engines, it occurs near the beginning of
combustion.
Knock in CI engines is related to delay period. When DP
is longer, there will be more and more accumulation of
fuel droplets in combustion chamber. This leads to a too
rapid a pressure rise due to ignition, resulting in jamming
of forces against the piston and rough engine operation.
When the DP is too long, the rate of pressure rise is
almost instantaneous with more accumulation of fuel.
Knocking combustion in SI and CI
Engine
Knocking combustion in SI and CI
Engine
SI engine
Later part of combustion
Homogenous charge leads to
Detonation
Pre-ignition: fuel and air
injected during suction stoke.
Rate of pressure rise is always
less compared to CI, there
fore knocking tendency are
more.
More reaction time smoother
combustion
Octane rating: 80-100
CI Engine
Starting point of combustion
Heterogeneous charge leads to
knocking
No Pre-ignition: only air is
compressed and fuel is injected at
the end of compression stroke.
Rate of pressure rise in case of
normal combustion is always high
due which there is always some sort
of audible knock present in case of CI
engine.
More reaction time more fuel
accumulation
Cetane rating: 45-65
CI Engine Types
Two basic categories of CI engines:
Direct-injection : have a single open combustion where entire volume of the
combustion chamber is located in in the main cylinder and fuel is injected
directly.
Indirect-injection : chamber is divided into two regions and the fuel is injected
into the pre-chamber which is connected to the main chamber via a nozzle, or
one or more orifices.
For very-large engines (stationary power generation) which operate at low
engine speeds the time available for mixing is long so a direct injection
quiescent chamber type is used (open or shallow bowl in piston).
As engine size decreases and engine speed increases, increasing amounts of
swirl are used to achieve fuel-air mixing (deep bowl in piston).
For small high-speed engines used in automobiles chamber swirl is not
sufficient, indirect injection is used where high swirl or turbulence is generated
in the pre-chamber during compression and products/fuel blow down and mix
with main chamber air.
Types of CI Engines
Direct injection chamber
Direct injection chamber

Advantages Drawbacks
Minimum heat loss High injection pressure
during compression is required
because of less surface necessity of accurate
to volume ratio hence metering of fuel by the
better efficiency injection system,
No cold starting particularly for small
problem engine
Fine atomization
In-direct injection combustion
chamber
Swirl chamber
Sphere shaped chamber
50 % of air is transferred
during compression
Throat is tangential to the
chamber-leads to high velocity
combustion product reenters
main combustion chamber
Considerable heat loss due to
more surface/volume ratio
Where quality of fuel is
difficult to control
Used where reliability is more
important than fuel economy
Pre-combustion chamber
40% of combustion space
Fuel is injected into the
combustion pre-combustion
chamber combustion is initiated
Results in pressure rise forces
flaming droplets together with
air at high velocity thus creates
strong secondary turbulence
80% of energy is released
The rate of pressure rise and
maximum pressure is lower
compared to those of open type
combustion chamber
Air-cell chamber
Clearance volume divided into two chamber one is in main
cylinder another one is energy cell.
Energy cell divided into 2 chambers major, minor and are
separated by main combustion chamber by narrow orifice
The pressure difference between main cylinder and energy
cell will be more due to small orifice.
At end of compression both compressed air and fuel enters
energy cell leaving behind less air motion(absent air motion)-
leads to lesser burning rate in combustion chamber.
Fuel is well mixed with air and high pressure rise due to
heat release and hot burning gases.
High velocity jet Entered produces swirl motion into main
combustion chamber
Advantage:
Lesser injection pressure
Direction of spraying is not important
Disadvantage
poor cold start performance
More fuel consumption due to loss of pressure due to air
motion through the duct and heat loss due to large heat
transfer area.