Investigation of the Cryogenic Nitrogen and Non-Cryogenic N-Dodecane and Ammonia Injections using a Real-Fluid Modelling Approach

Liu, Xinlei; Zaihi, Abdullah; Al-lehaibi, Moaz; Mohan, Balaji; AlRamadan, Abdullah; Cenker, Emre; Im, Hong G.

Investigation of the Cryogenic Nitrogen and Non-Cryogenic N-Dodecane and Ammonia Injections using a Real-Fluid Modelling Approach

Files

SAE-PFL-manuscript-final.pdf (2.36 MB)

Embargo End Date

2023-03-02

Type

Conference Paper

Authors

Liu, Xinlei
Zaihi, Abdullah

Al-lehaibi, Moaz
Mohan, Balaji
AlRamadan, Abdullah
Cenker, Emre
Im, Hong G.

KAUST Department

Clean Combustion Research Center
Computational Reacting Flow Laboratory (CRFL)
Mechanical Engineering Program
Physical Science and Engineering (PSE) Division

Date

2022-08-30

Abstract

In modern compression ignition engines, the dense liquid fuel is directly injected into high pressure and temperature atmosphere, so the spray transitions from subcritical to supercritical conditions. To gain better control of the spray-combustion heat release process, it is important to have a physically accurate description of the spray development process. This work explored the effect of real-fluid thermodynamics in the computational prediction of multiphase flow for two non-ideal situations: the cryogenic nitrogen and non-cryogenic n-dodecane and ammonia sprays. Three real-fluid equations of state (EoS) such as the Soave-Redlich-Kwong (SRK), Peng-Robinson (PR), and Redlich-Kwong-Peng-Robinson (RKPR) coupled with the real-fluid Chung transport model were implemented in OpenFoam to predict the real-fluid thermodynamic properties. Validations against the CoolProp database were conducted. The RKPR EoS demonstrated an overall better predictive performance compared to the SRK and PR EoS. Due to miscalculations of the thermodynamic properties under supercritical conditions, the cases using the ideal-gas EoS predicted the significantly distinct spray features from the cases using real-fluid EoS. For the cryogenic nitrogen spray simulations, cases using various real-fluid EoS yielded similar spray features because of the low injection rate and thus the weak ambient entrainment process. The reduction of ambient pressure promoted the turbulent mixing process for the n-dodecane spray due to the smaller ambient density and resistance. Compared to ammonia, n-dodecane had higher density and viscosity under supercritical conditions, which led to its higher jet velocity and more concentrated spray feature.

Citation

Liu, X., Zaihi, A., Allehaibi, M., Mohan, B., AlRamadan, A., Cenker, E., & Im, H. (2022). Investigation of the Cryogenic Nitrogen and Non-Cryogenic N-Dodecane and Ammonia Injections using a Real-Fluid Modelling Approach. SAE Technical Paper Series. https://doi.org/10.4271/2022-01-1078

Acknowledgements

This paper is based on work supported by Saudi Aramco Research and Development Center FUELCOM program under Master Research Agreement Number 6600024505/01. FUELCOM (Fuel Combustion for Advanced Engines) is a collaborative research undertaking between Saudi Aramco and KAUST intended to address the fundamental aspects of hydrocarbon fuel combustion in engines, and develop fuel/engine design tools suitable for advanced combustion modes. The computational simulations utilized the clusters at KAUST Supercomputing Laboratory. The authors also thank Prof. Michele Battistoni’s team for proving assistance in the code development.