Third Party Funds Group - Sub project
Acronym: eSpray
Start date : 01.06.2020
End date : 31.05.2022
One part of sustainable future mobility will be e-fuels synthesized using regenerative energy. They provide chemical energy storage and are an important step on the way to controlled, clean, and efficient combustion. However, to convert them back into mechanical power, their physical-chemical behavior in the internal combustion engine needs to be understood and condensed into simulation tools for design. At the same time, certain classes of e-fuels promise to be much more conducive to clean and efficient engine combustion. The target of this project are oxygenated e-fuels for compression-ignition engines.
The project goal is to acquire a better understanding of the spray atomization and ignition of oxygenated e-fuels. Starting from a reference fuel that represents current diesel fuels, the proposed project will focus on oxygenated e-fuels and derived blends. With an array of experimental techniques, the species distribution and temperature field in free jets will be measured quantitatively. CFD simulations and chemical mechanism reduction are used to complement the experimental results. Experiments and simulation in an optically accessible engine then are used to tranfer these transfer to the much more complex boundary conditions of a running engine. Each project partner will perform experiments with the same injectors and boundary conditions, and will first use simple optical techniques to make sure that indeed the spray behaves as in the other laboratories. Based on this common experiment, each partner then contributes additional physical insight with the advanced optical diagnostics or simulation that are the specialty expertise of that research group (e.g., laser-induced fluorescence, Rayleigh and Raman scattering), such that a very complete picture of spray, mixing, and ignition can be assembled.
The research network consists of institutes with a expertise in combustion research using optical diagnostics and multidimensional simulations. The Institute of Engineering Thermodynamics at Friedrich-Alexander University (FAU/GER), the Combustion Research Facility at Sandia National Laboratories (SANDIA/USA), and the Institute for Combustion and Gas Dynamics at the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE/GER) all will measure the temperature and species distribution in the fuel jet, but each with different optical methods to minimize overall experimental uncertainties. They will also image several indicators of cold-stage and hot-stage ignition. The Department of Mechanical Engineering at Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU/CHN) will derive chemical kinetic models as an input for simulations at the Institute of Powertrains and Automotive Technology at Vienna University of Technology (TUW/AUT). Their CFD simulation will be validated against the experiment, but will also provide additional information that is not accessible by experiments. The project will be guided by an advisory board from industry with representatives from both SMEs and larger companies.
The main expected result is the promotion of innovations in the field of renewable-energy storage. Such innovations will create additional demand in chemical process engineering, catalysis, and process equipment for synthetic fuel design and production. The experimental and numerical methods developed in the proposed research project will help the R&D in high-tech companies specialized in measurement technologies, optical systems, and simulation of reactive flows. In these areas, major developments and market contributions are provided by small and medium size enterprises (SME).