Numerical investigation of a porous media combustor in a small-scale diesel engine

The application of porous media in compression ignition engines has significant effects on its combustion behavior. In this work, a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis of combustion in diesel engine is performed for 100% load, and the effects of porous media addition in the combustion chamber are quantified. With a porosity of 66.7%, silicon carbide is applied as porous media of cylindrical shape in the modified piston bowl in the conventional engine. The combustion analysis outputs include average cylinder-pressure, temperature; Nitrogen Oxides (NOx), mean mixture fraction, turbulent kinetic energy, total energy and modified Peclet number. The results of the CFD study for the cases of non-porous media are validated against the performed baseline experimental analysis, whereas porous media predictions are compared to the state-of-the-art studies available in the literature. In presence of porous media, the average peak pressure and temperature are found to drop by similar to 26 bar and similar to 550 K, respectively, as compared to that of non-porous media. Furthermore, NOx emissions are significantly reduced up to 97%. The generation of turbulent kinetic energy is enhanced by 86% for PM leading to an increment of similar to 36% in the thermal energy conversion than without a porous media. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.