NUMERICAL ANALYSIS OF FUEL INJECTION IN INTAKE MANIFOLD AND INTAKE PROCESS OF A MPI NATURAL GAS ENGINE

Unsteady state free natural gas jets injected from several types of injectors were numerically simulated. Simulations showed good agreements with the schlieren experimental results. Moreover, injections of natural gas in intake manifolds of a single-valve engine and a double-valve engine were predicted as well. Predictions revealed that large volumetric injections of natural gas in intake manifolds led to strong impingement of natural gas with the intake valves, which as a result, gave rise to pronounced backward reflection of natural gas towards the inlets of intake manifolds, together with significant increase in pressure in intake manifold. Based on our simulations, we speculated that for engines with short intake manifolds, reflections of the mixture of natural gas and air were likely to approach the inlets of intake manifolds and subsequently be inbreathed into other cylinders, resulting in non-uniform mixture distributions between the cylinders. For engines with long intake manifolds, inasmuch as the degrees of intake interferences between the cylinders were not identical in light of the ignition sequences, non-uniform intake charge distributions between the cylinders would occur.