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International Journal of Hydrogen Energy 29 (2004) 859 865

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Knock in spark ignition hydrogen engines

Hailin Li, Ghazi A. Karim
Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive N.W., Calgary, Alta, Canada T2N 1N4 Accepted 25 September 2003

Abstract In engine applications, the onset of knock remains one of the prime limitations that needs to be addressed so as to avoid its incidence and achieve superior performance. In the present contribution relating to the spark ignition hydrogen-fuelled engine, the e ects of changes in key operating variables, such as compression ratio, intake temperature and spark timing on knock-limiting equivalence ratios are established both analytically as well as experimentally. Some other factors considered included the optimization of spark timing for maximum indicated power output and/or e ciency and for the avoidance of knock while maintaining high thermal e ciency values. ? 2003 International Association for Hydrogen Energy. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Knock; Hydrogen engines; SI engines

1. Introduction Hydrogen, a renewable fuel resource that can be produced through the expenditure of energy to replace increasingly the depletion of conventional fossil fuels, has long been recognized as a fuel having some unique and highly desirable properties, for application in engines [1]. These features make hydrogen an excellent fuel to potentially meet the ever increasingly stringent environmental controls of exhaust emissions from combustion devices, including the reduction of green house gas emissions. Discussion of the positive features of hydrogen as a fuel and the associated limitations that are impeding its wide application as an engine fuel have been the subject of much research and publications [2]. The viability of hydrogen as a fuel remains critically dependent on the e ective solution of a number of remaining key limiting economic and technical problems. These are primarily related to its production, storage, portability, transport and purity. For example, a hydrogen engine when operated stoichiometrically needs to be 40 60% larger in size than for gasoline operation for the same power
Corresponding author. Tel.: +1-403-220-5775; fax: +1-403-282-8406. E-mail address: karim@enme.ucalgary.ca (G.A. Karim).

output and speed. This could impose some reduction to engine speed, increased mechanical and motoring losses and reduced tolerance to knocking. Some design modications are needed then. Hydrogen is a remarkably light gaseous fuel. Its heating value on mass basis is exceedingly high but on volume basis it is the lowest among common fuels. Its energy release by combustion per unit mass of stoichiometric mixture remains high. Hydrogen has some very high values of key transport properties, such as kinematic viscosity, thermal conductivity and di usion coe cient, in comparison to other fuels. Such di erences together with its extremely low density and low luminosity help to give hydrogen its unique di usive and heat transfer characteristics. The combustion properties of hydrogen have much in uence on its performance as an engine fuel. It has a very wide ammable mixture range in air that permits extremely lean or rich mixtures to support combustion. It requires also a remarkably low minimum amount of energy to e ect ignition with extremely fast resulting ames. However, the values of its spontaneous ignition temperatures are in the range of those of other fuels and the values of its maximum adiabatic combustion temperature in air are only a little higher. The chemical kinetics of the combustion of hydrogen in air are well understood at present and its oxidation reaction

0360-3199/$ 30.00 ? 2003 International Association for Hydrogen Energy. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ijhydene.2003.09.013

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rates and the associated temporal variation of the concentrations of the reactive species can be predicted well. These di erences from other fuels together with those of the thermodynamic and transport properties of hydrogen, contribute to the substantially di erent combustion characteristics of hydrogen from those of other common fuels. The paper describes the basis of a knock-prediction model, which we developed previously for spark ignition (SI) methane engine applications, modied and extended to consider operation on hydrogen engine. The e ect of the associated wide changes possible in operating conditions including a wide range of variations in equivalence ratio on the onset of knock, combustion duration, power, e ciency,

Predicted results, which were veried experimentally showed that the onset of borderline knock is encountered when the value of a calculated knock criterionKn just exceeded a certain critical value. The criterion is a time-varying function dened as the calculated temporal variation in the accumulated energy released due to pre-ignition chemical reaction activity within the temporally diminishing in size end gas per instantaneous value of the cylinder volume. This energy release which is calculated while employing a full accounting of the details of chemical reactions is normalized relative to the corresponding total amount of energy to be released through normal ame propagation per unit of cylinder swept volume. This ratio of energy releases is expressed by the following equation [3]:

total energy released due to end gas reactions up to time t cylinder volume|t Kn = : total energy of the whole charge to be released by ame propagation cylinder volume|t0 and operational limits were investigated. The predicted results using this approach are compared to corresponding experimental results of our own obtained in a variable compression ratio (CR) single-cylinder CFR engine. The e ects of changes in some of the key operating SI engine variables, such as CR, intake temperature, and spark timing on the onset of knock when operating on hydrogen are presented and discussed. The role of the presence with the hydrogen of some carbon monoxide or methane on the incidence of engine knock is also considered. Some guidelines for knock-free operation of engines on hydrogen are presented. 2. SI engine knock and its prediction Knock in SI engines is an acknowledged barrier to the further improvement of e ciency, increased power and the use of a wider range of fuels. The onset of knock, which is caused mainly by the auto-ignition of the unburned mixture in the end gas region of the charge which is at any moment yet to be burned, involves exceedingly rapid rates of combustion of the fuelair mixture, increased heat transfer to the cylinder walls, excessively high cylinder pressure and temperature levels and increased emissions. These may lead to highly undesirable engine performance and the potential damage to engine components when allowed to persist. Accordingly, it is critically important not only to avoid knocking but also to know the limiting conditions for its incidence under any set of operating and designing conditions. E ective means for extending knock-free operation need to be developed. A knock-prediction model developed earlier primarily for applications to gas-fueled engines was based on establishing whether auto-ignition is to take place or not within the end gas region during ame propagation period. The model was modied for application to hydrogen-fueled engines.

(1)

This dimensionless function would represent also the fractional increase in total cylinder pressure due to the pre- ame oxidation reaction activity of the instantaneous size of the diminishing end gas relative to the mean e ective combustion pressure. The latter is dened as the average increase in pressure due to normal combustion when it is assumed to take place within the engine swept volume. Accordingly, the value of the knock criterion function Kn is an integrated function of the normalized current energetic consequence of any pre- ame-front oxidation energy release of the end gas at any instant before ame arrival. Such a modelling approach was shown to be capable of predicting successfully the onset of knock in CH4 -fuelled SI engines and was extended to consider cases when H2 was present as an additive [4]. However, for engine operation with pure hydrogen, knock may be encountered as shown in Fig. 1 [5], over a much wider range of equivalence ratio values on either side of the stoichiometric value and is associated with widely varying ame propagation. To account for the contributions of these di erences, the value of Kn was modied so that the total energy release for any mixture is further normalized relative to that of the stoichiometric mixture. Also, the combustion duration representing the inverse of the mean rate of ame propagation is normalized relative to a typical constant value c; ref , such as that observed with the common fuel methane (e.g. 50 CA), as shown in the following equation [6]: Kn = hsp ht mu h0 (CR 1) h0 m0 ( h0 )stoich
c; ref c; f :c:

; (2)

where hsp and ht are the specic enthalpy of the unburned end gas at spark passage and instant time t , respectively, h0 is the e ective heating value of the fresh charge, mu is the corresponding remaining mass of the end gas at the time t; m0 is the mass of the initial fresh charge.

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are calculated together with the corresponding value of Kn . Should this sequence of calculations nd that up to the end of the combustion period the value of Kn never exceeds the critical value, which was found experimentally to be around 1.0 1.5 [3], then the cycle is considered to be knock free. On the other hand if its value during combustion exceeds that critical value then knock is encountered at that instant. The other variables are then used to calculate performance parameters such as power and e ciency at the borderline knock condition. The critical value for the knock criterion is e ectively governed by the relative mass of the end gas at the onset of auto-ignition and its relative energy release then amplied by the CR. 3. Experimental procedure
Fig. 1. The rich and lean knock limits for unthrottled hydrogen operation in a CFR engine at three di erent intake temperatures at 900 rev= min.

A two-zone, quasi-dimensional model using the knock criterion approach, developed and described by Shrestha and Karim [3,4], was used to predict the performance of SI engines operating on methane. The homogeneous charge inside the cylinder at any instant during turbulent ame propagation and combustion was considered to be divided into two zones of burned products and of unburned reactants that include the end gas region while accounting for heat transfer to the surrounding walls. An appropriate combustion energy release rate function is employed to model the combustion and the corresponding energy release processes after ignition. This formulation was obtained following examination of a large number of experimental data for a variety of operating conditions and shown to be quite adequate for the present modelling approach [7]. The composition of the burned products following ame propagation is calculated while accounting for thermodynamic dissociation. In order to monitor at any instant during ame propagation the likelihood of the onset of knock due to auto-ignition of the unburned end gas, the reactivity of the temporally changing end gas region is evaluated employing a su ciently detailed description of the chemical reaction kinetics of the unburned mixture. For hydrogenair combustion reactions, a 30 steps and 12 species scheme was employed. For the methane and hydrogen fuel system, 150 reaction steps were employed. The formation and consumption of each species of the reactive end gas charge are calculated as a function of time, together with the corresponding energetic consequences of such reactions. These are employed in calculating the instantaneous value of the knock criterion, the dimensionless energy function dened in Eq. (1) throughout the entire ame propagation period. In an engine cycle calculation, key variables such as composition, pressure and temperature values for the two regions of the cylinder charge

In the present work, the incidence of knock was established directly from the observation of the cylinder pressure variations with time while using a ush-mounted pressure transducer. The onset of knock, such as when the spark timing was advanced or the CR increased from a knock-free setting could be identied by the appearance of high-frequency pressure oscillations near the beginning of the expansion stroke together with the characteristic knocking sound. Knock would take place rst in only a small proportion of the cycles. Increasing for example the CR or the spark advance would increase the proportion of knocking cycles, the intensity of pressure oscillations and the knocking sound. In the present work, the onset of knock boundary was taken when clearly perceptible knocking can be seen in 10 20% of the cycles. Once knock was detected, the variations of the pressure with crank angle for 100 consecutive cycles were recorded for performance analysis. The limits for knock can be established in terms of the corresponding limited equivalence ratio, CR or spark timing [5]. The experimental examination of the onset of knock with hydrogen as the fuel was carried out in a single cylinder variable CR CFR engine of 82:6 mm bore and 114 mm stroke operated at constant speed of 900 rev= min. A schematic diagram of the layout of the apparatus is shown in Fig. 2. The prediction results were validated against corresponding experimental results. Unless otherwise stated, the spark timing variation with CR is that shown in Fig. 3, which is consistent with the ASTM procedure and that we followed in earlier experiments for the knock rating of a range of fuels [5]. 4. Results and discussion Figs. 4 and 5 show the predicted variation with CR of the knock-limited equivalence ratio (KLER) plotted logarithmically together with the corresponding experimental values displaying relatively good agreement. The reason for the less satisfactory agreement between the two types of values for

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Fig. 2. Schematic diagram of the experimental setup. 1. Metering valves; 2. pressure gauges; 3. choked nozzles; 4. pressure regulator; 5. charge amplier; 6. crank angle signal.

22

10.00

Spark Timing, CA BTDC

18

K.L.E.R.

14

1.00

10

0.10

6 5 7 9 11 13 15

6.0

8.0

10.0

12.0

14.0

Compression Ratio

Compression Ratio

Fig. 3. The variation of spark timing with changes in CR employed at 900 rev= min.

Fig. 4. The comparison of the predicted KLER under unthrottled operation with those determined experimentally in a CFR engine. Triangle: experimental data, solid line: predicted data. Tin =311 K, 900 rev= min.

the limits at the very low CRs and low intake temperatures is uncertain but it could be the result of less adequate accounting at these conditions for the increased e ect of residual gas and heat transfer on the onset of knock. It is possible under the low CR condition that the experimental detection of knock could have been a ected by the pressure gradients produced by the very fast ame propagation rates of

hydrogen rather than due to exclusively auto-ignition [1,8]. A higher value of Kn could have been tolerated then. However, to maintain simplicity of prediction, the calculated values were obtained while using the same xed numerical value for the knock criterion throughout. On this basis, the e ects of changing some of the key operating variables on

H. Li, G.A. Karim / International Journal of Hydrogen Energy 29 (2004) 859 865
10.00

863

10.00

K.L.E.R.

ST=2 K.L.E.R.
1.00

ST=10 ST=14

1.00

ST=6

0.10 6.0 7.0 8.0 9.0 10.0 11.0 12.0 Compression Ratio

0.10 6.0 7.0 8.0 9.0 10.0 Compression Ratio 11.0 12.0

Fig. 5. The comparison of the predicted KLER under unthrottled operation with those determined experimentally in a CFR engine. Triangle: experimental data, solid line: model-predicted data. Tin = 345 K, 900 rev= min.
10.00

Fig. 7. Predicted variation of the KLER with CR for a range of spark timings (BTDC) in unthrottled CFR engine at 900 rev= min, Tin = 311 K.

10.00 Operational region

Equivalence Ratio

K.L.E.R.

298 K 311 K 1.00 345 K

Knocking Region
1.00

Operational region

0.10 6.0 7.0 8.0 9.0 10.0 Compression Ratio 11.0 12.0
0.10

6.0

8.0

10.0

12.0

14.0

Compression Ratio

Fig. 6. The typical variance of the predicted KLER under unthrottled operation in a CFR engine, with changes in CR and intake temperatures at 900 rev= min.

Fig. 8. Predicted variation in the knocking and operational regions with CR in unthrottled CFR engine at 311 K and 900 rev= min.

engine performance parameters could be predicted. It was conrmed that the incidence of knock is the most important consideration in hydrogen engine operation. As an example Fig. 6 shows typically the e ects of changing the CR on the knock limits for a range of intake mixture temperature values indicating that both the CR and intake temperature are key variables that control the incidence of knock. However, as shown in Fig. 7, the e ects of retarding the spark timing further than what was employed tended to produce in comparison a lesser e ect on the knock limits than other parameters such as CR or temperature. For the operation of an SI engine on hydrogen, a su ciently wide operational mixture region bounded by limiting mixtures producing knock and the corresponding operation limiting mixtures that produce misre [6,9], should be aimed at especially for the lean mixture operation. However, it was found that the knocking region tends to widen and the operational region to narrow with increasing the CRs and/or intake temperatures as shown in Figs. 8 and 9.

This would indicate that for a satisfactory performance of the SI engine with hydrogen as the fuel, great care is needed in controlling the mixture composition. Also, this is less of a challenge when moderately low CR and intake temperature values are employed. To achieve satisfactory engine performances while obtaining superior power production, which is the main concern of the engine combustion control, a knocking borderline operation is desirable. Fig. 10 shows typical power output and e ciency values at knock borderline operation for a range of values of CRs. It can be seen that the engine achieves a power production peak at moderate values of CR but high e ciency values are continued with higher CRs. This behavior is due to the combined e ects of increasing the CR that tends to increase engine power production and its e ciency and the corresponding deliberate decrease in equivalence ratio to avoid the onset of knock which reduces the power but increases the e ciency due to the leaner mixture operation. The spark timing also contributes to

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H. Li, G.A. Karim / International Journal of Hydrogen Energy 29 (2004) 859 865
40.0

Operational Region
30.0
Equivalence Ratio

Optimized for Effic ienc y

Knocking Region
1.00

20.0 10.0 0.0 - 10.0 Optimized for Knoc k

Operational Region

0.10 6.0 7.0 8.0 9.0 10.0 11.0 12.0

Compression Ratio

- 20.0 0.20

0.40

0.60

0.80

1.00

Equivalence Ratio

Fig. 9. Predicted variation in the knocking and operational regions with CR in unthrottled CFR engine at 345 K and 900 rev= min.
340.0

0.45

Fig. 11. Typical variation of optimized predicted values of spark timing with leaning of equivalence ratio at constant CR = 8, Tin = 311 K, 900 rev= min.

Indicated Power Production

Indicated Power Production Efficiency

320.0

0.4
300.0

0.4
Indicated Power Efficiency

500

0.36 0.32 0.28 0.24 0.2 0.20

400

0.35
280.0

300

260.0

0.3

200

240.0 6.0 8.0 10.0 12.0

0.25
14.0

100

Compression Ratio

Fig. 10. Variations in the predicted knock-limited indicated power output and e ciency of a CFR engine with CR at 311 K and 900 rev= min.

0.40

0.60

0.80

1.00

Equivalence Ratio

this tendency since increasingly retarded spark timing was adopted for high CRs, as shown in Fig. 3. Other than power production, achieving high e ciency values is becoming more important than ever because of the increasing concerns about fuel consumption. Spark timing optimization can be another means for optimizing engine performance. This optimization tends to be more complex for hydrogen-fuelled engines because of the wide variations in ame propagation rates possible and the need to avoid both the onset of knock and combustion failure. Thus, the spark timing that achieves the highest e ciency while avoiding the onset of knock is selected. When the engine is operated on mixtures around the stoichiometric region where knock is often encountered, the spark timing is retarded signicantly to avoid knock, as shown typically in Fig. 11. Fig. 12 shows the indicated power output and e ciency variations with equivalence ratio while using the optimized spark timing. The value of the peak indicated power production e ciency is about 38%, achieved for a lean operation of = 0:36.

Fig. 12. Variation of the predicted values of indicated power and e ciency of a CFR engine with changes in equivalence ratios while optimized spark timing is employed. CR = 8:0, Tin = 311 K, 900 rev= min.

Methane and carbon monoxide are often present with hydrogen when it is derived from fossil fuels such as when it is manufactured through the steam reforming of fossil fuels, notably natural gas or their partial oxidation in oxygenated air [10]. Pure CH4 and dry pure CO show superior knock-resisting qualities to those of H2 in air [11]. The effect of the presence of CH4 or CO with H2 on the incidence of knock was determined experimentally over a range of fuel composition. Both KLER and CR were established. As shown in Figs. 13 and 14, the presence of CH4 improves the knock limits of the binary fuel mixtures re ecting the increasing in uence of the superior knock-resisting quality of CH4 . However, the presence of CO shows a weak in uence on the knock limits of the fuel mixtures, although pure dry CO has superior knock-resisting qualities to those of CH4 [11]. This re ects on the enhancing e ect of H2 on the oxidation reaction rate of CO. Such an e ect dramatically

Indicated Power, J/Cycle

H. Li, G.A. Karim / International Journal of Hydrogen Energy 29 (2004) 859 865
12
H2 -CH4 Mixtures

865

10
H2 -CO Mixtures

K.L.C.R.

2 0 20 40 60 80 CH4/(CH4+H2), CO/(CO+H2), % 100

operation. The compression ratio and intake temperature are the main parameters that a ect the knock limited equivalence ratio while the e ect of spark timing tends to be in comparison less. The knock-free operational mixture region tends to narrow signicantly with increasing compression ratio and/or intake temperature. This represents a practical limitation to the improvement of power and e ciency of hydrogen engines. The presence of methane with hydrogen improves its knock limits while the presence of carbon monoxide in comparison tends to show a weaker e ect.

Fig. 13. Comparison of the variation of the experimentally determined knock limited compression ratio (KLCR) in a CFR engine with changes in the fuel composition of binary fuel mixtures of H2 with CH4 and CO. Equivalence ratio = 1:0, Tin = 311 K, Pin = 87 kPa, N = 900 rev= min, spark timing as in Fig. 3.
1 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0 0 20 40 60 80 100

Acknowledgements The nancial support of Canadian NSERC is gratefully acknowledged.

H2-CH4 Mixtures H2-CO Mixtures

Dry Air

References
[1] King RO, Hayes SV, Allan AB, Anderson RWP, Walker EJ. The hydrogen engine: combustion knock and the related ame velocity. Trans Eng Inst Canada (EIC) 1958;2(4):1438. [2] Karim GA. Hydrogen as a spark ignition engine fuel. Int J Hydrogen Energy 2003;28:56977. [3] Shrestha SOB, Karim GA. A predictive model for gas fuelled spark ignition engine applications. SAE paper 1999-01-3482, 1999. [4] Shrestha SOB, Karim GA. Hydrogen as additive to methane for S.I. engine applications. Int J Hydrogen Energy 1999;24:57786. [5] Karim GA, Klat SR. The knock and autoignition characteristics of some gaseous fuels and their mixtures. J Inst Fuel 1966;39:109 19. [6] Li HL, Karim GA. Hydrogen fuelled spark ignition engines: predictive and experimental performance. Spring Technical Conference of the ASME Internal Combustion Engine Division, Salzburg, Austria, May 1114, 2003. [7] Shrestha SOB, Karim GA. An experimental and analytical examination of the combustion period for gas-fuelled spark ignition engine applications. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, vol. 215 (Part A); J Power Energy 2001;215:6374. [8] Allan AB. Hydrogen as the fuel for a spark ignition Otto cycle engine. SAE paper 821200, 1982. [9] Shrestha SOB, Karim GA, Wierzba I. Examination of operational limits in gas fuelled spark ignition engines. SAE paper 2000-01-1944, 2000. [10] Jamal Y, Wyszynski ML. On-board generation of hydrogen-rich gaseous fuelsa review. Int J Hydrogen Energy 1994;19:55772. [11] Li HL, Karim GA, Sohrabi A. An experimental investigation of the knock characteristics of CH4 , CO, H2 and their mixtures. 2003 Spring Technical Meeting, Combustion Institute Canadian Section, Vancouver, BC, Canada, May 1114, 2003.

K.L.E.R.

CH4/(CH4+H2), CO/(CO+H2), %

Fig. 14. Comparison of the variation of the experimentally determined KLER in a CFR engine with changes in fuel composition of binary fuel mixtures of H2 with CH4 and H2 . CR =12, spark timing=12 CA BTDC, Tin =311 K, Pin =87 kPa, N = 900 rev= min.

reduces the superior knock-resisting properties of CO. The binary mixtures of H2 and CO show similar knock-resisting qualities to that of H2 for a wide range of fuel compositions until very high concentrations of CO are employed. Similar trends were observed for higher operational CRs with hydrogen. 5. Conclusions The two-zone model developed earlier when modied was shown to be capable of predicting hydrogen engine performance including the incidence of knock. The avoidance of the incidence of knock is a most important consideration in H2 spark ignition engine