Multidimensional Modeling of Mixture Formation in a Hydrogen-Fueled Heavy-Duty Optical Engine With Direct Injection

Hydrogen (H₂), as a carbon-free fuel, is considered as one of the most promising solutions to reduce the carbon footprint of hard-to-decarbonize energy and transportation sectors. As such, hydrogen-fueled internal combustion engines (H₂ ICEs) have recently been receiving increasing attention, particularly in applications such as on-road/off-road heavy-duty transport and combined heat and power. The direct injection (DI) of gaseous hydrogen into the combustion chamber offers great potential for achieving high power density and high engine efficiency, while mitigating the risk of backfire and reducing pre-ignition. However, the numerical simulation of H₂ DI system remains a formidable challenge associated with the high computational cost of reproducing compressible supersonic flow and shocks in narrow injector passages and in near-nozzle regions. In general, there is a lack of well-established and validated practices for the modeling of high-pressure H₂ DI in large-bore engines. To this end, this study focuses on computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling of the mixture formation process in a heavy-duty optical engine employing a medium-pressure H₂ DI system. Both large eddy simulations (LES) and Reynolds Averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) simulations are performed and evaluated against optical data. Gaseous hydrogen is injected into the combustion chamber via a centrally located outward opening hollow-cone injector at a pressure of 40 bar. Simulations are carried out for two injection timings, namely, −120 and −60 °CA. The numerical predictions for H₂ distribution in different horizontal and vertical planes during the compression stroke are systematically compared against optical data obtained through planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF) measurements. Overall, the LES approach using the Dynamic Structure model is found to have good predictive capabilities for the early jet penetration in terms of length and shape, as well as the later H₂ distributions. However, the unsteady RANS approach with the renormalization group $k−ϵ$ model, which is widely used by industry to model heavy-duty ICEs, significantly underpredicts the H₂ mixing, even at similar mesh resolution to that used in LES. These results indicate that there is a need for the improvement of mixing submodels within the RANS approach when applied to H₂ DI simulations.