Thesis
Combustion characteristics and control of marine hydrogen-diesel dual-fuel engines with port fuel injection
- Creator
- Rights statement
- Awarding institution
- University of Strathclyde
- Date of award
- 2026
- Thesis identifier
- T18152
- Person Identifier (Local)
- 202258291
- Qualification Level
- Qualification Name
- Department, School or Faculty
- Abstract
- Driven by the IMO’s greenhouse gas reduction strategy, maritime decarbonisation has become imperative. Hydrogen-Diesel dual-fuel (HDDF) engines offer a promising route to reducing CO₂ emissions from large-bore, medium-speed marine engines. However, port-fuel-injected (PFI) hydrogen presents unresolved combustion and emission challenges, including incomplete combustion, rapid heat release, and mixture inhomogeneity. This study systematically investigates HDDF combustion and develops effective control strategies. The CFD model was verified through grid sensitivity analysis and validated against experimental data under diesel-only and dual-fuel conditions. Firstly, the diesel injection strategy was optimised to enhance flame propagation, reducing the unburnt hydrogen fraction from 50% to 1% and thereby improving hydrogen combustion completeness. Then, the combustion and emission characteristics at different hydrogen substitution ratios (HSRs) were investigated. Compared with diesel operation, 30% HSR improves indicated thermal efficiency (ITE) by 2.96% but increases NOx emission by 3.11 g/kWh. To suppress unstable combustion at 90% and 95% HSRs, direct water injection (DWI) enables knock-free operation. At the recommended DWI control points, ITE increases by 1.43% and 1.39%, while NOx emissions decrease by 6.01 g/kWh and 6.45 g/kWh, respectively. Furthermore, the effects of hydrogen-air mixture inhomogeneity were investigated. Hydrogen stratification was found to govern local reactivity and combustion behaviour. An inverted Gaussian distribution achieved the highest ITE (48.9%) but caused unstable combustion, whereas a homogeneous mixture provided a balanced compromise between efficiency (48.0% ITE) and emissions. Finally, to recover low-load performance, an increased compression ratio was combined with diesel split injection. At 60% HSR, this strategy achieved a hydrogen combustion efficiency of 96.5% and an ITE of 53.9%, representing a 3.0% improvement over diesel operation while reducing NOx emissions by 1.59 g/kWh. Overall, this study clarifies the combustion behaviour of marine HDDF engines and proposes practical control strategies for achieving stable, efficient, and cleaner Hydrogen-Diesel combustion.
- Advisor / supervisor
- Chen, Ning
- Jeong, Byongug
- Zhou, Peilin
- Resource Type
- DOI
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PDF of thesis T18152 | 2026-09-22 | Public | Download |