The effect of prechambers on flame propagation in a natural-gas powered engine

Large-bore two-stroke natural-gas-fueled engines commonly are located along natural gas pipelines, siphoning off a small portion of gas from the pipeline for use as a fuel, in order to pump the remaining gas along the pipeline. The KIVA-3 computational fluid dynamics program was used to simulate the compression stroke, combustion, and power stroke in a natural-gas-fueled engine by solving the full Navier-Stokes equations. These calculations include cases with and without prechambers. Prechamber stoichiometry and spark locations were independently varied with the goal of understanding how various prechamber parameters influence the ignition of the fuel-air charge in the main chamber. The goal is to allow the use of very lean main-chamber charges to minimize nitrogen oxide (NO{sub x}) production. These calculations were performed in both two and three dimensions