Numerical Assessment of Combustion Behavior and Emission Formations in an Ultrasonic-Assisted Ignition Engine

[Image: see text] By effective utilization of the dynamic mesh and coordinate transformation techniques, an ultrasonic horn is physically integrated in the chamber of an internal combustion engine. The consequences of multiple ultrasonic-fed strategies on the flow field, combustion process, and emission formation under the same working conditions are studied by numerical simulation. Based precisely on the bench test data, GT-Power and CONVERGE set up the original engine one-dimension (1d) and three-dimension (3d) simulation models. The chamber pressure and heat release rate of the 1d and 3d models under a full load condition of 3000 r·min(–1) were validated, and the maximum relative error is less than 5%, proving the accuracy of the model. By reforming the 3d numerical model, ultrasonics is added to the gasoline engine’s combustion chamber. Six different ultrasonic-fed schemes with 20 kHz amplitude of 30–300 μm are typically selected for in-depth research. The larger the amplitude, the stronger the turbulent kinetic energy (TKE), and the maximum TKE exceeds 46.6% at the ignition time. Stronger TKE can energetically encourage the generation of OH, O, and H radicals and improve the combustion reaction rate, and the peak pressure (P(MAX)) is increased by 1.9 MPa compared with scheme No. However, NO(X) and HC emissions gradually increase, reaching a maximum of 32.4 and 43.8%, respectively, while CO and soot emissions decrease, reaching a maximum of 11.4 and 11%, respectively. Four groups of ultrasonic-fed schemes with an amplitude of 100 μm and frequency of 20–50 kHz are scientifically studied. The findings indicated that the TKE level steadily increases as the frequency increases and the in-cylinder TKE increases by 16.4% at ignition time. The increase in ultrasonic frequency can promote the generation of active free radicals and meaningfully improve the combustion reaction rate to a certain extent. The P(MAX) can be increased up to 1 MPa compared with scheme No. At the same time, the NO(X), HC, and soot also increased considerably, reaching 31.8, 17.9, and 21.9%, respectively. The CO showed a downward trend but gradually slowed, with a maximum decline of 6.5% at 20 kHz. The above simulation analysis is based on the full load condition of 3000 r·min(–1), sufficiently proving that ultrasonics has a regulation effect on emissions and can achieve specific emissions through later optimization.