Numerical investigation into the fuel evaporation and mixture formation characteristics of a free-piston diesel engine

The free-piston engine generator becomes a new-type potential substitute for the conventional crankshaft combustion engine. This article presents a simulation to study the fuel spray and mixing characteristics of a diesel free-piston engine generator by comparing a corresponding crankshaft combustion engine. A full-cycle model which couples with piston dynamics, combustion, and gas exchange is developed to simulate the fuel spray, atomization, and mixing in the free-piston engine generator. The result indicates that compared with the crankshaft combustion engine, the free-piston engine generator provides a higher temperature and pressure for fuel spray and mixing during the ignition delay, but its ignition delay lasts shorter. The free-piston engine generator shows a shorter spray penetration and more fuel impingement due to its smaller combustion chamber volume during the injection process. The free-piston engine generator exhibits a lower level of air utilization and worse uniformity of fuel–air mixture in combustion chamber. In addition, the shorter ignition delay of free-piston engine generator makes the time of atomization, evaporation, and mixing of fuel shorter, and the mixing effect of free-piston engine generator is worse, resulting in less combustible mixture formed during the ignition delay. In addition, some guiding suggestions have been proposed to improve the fuel spray and fuel–air mixing characteristics of free-piston engine generator.