This paper presents an application of the mean value combustion model to simulate large bore turbocharged diesel engines, coupled with large electric AC synchronous generators, to mimic power generation within a training simulator for a ship board electrical power system. A mean value engine model has been developed to simulate the most prevalent phenomena occurring in diesel direct injection internal combustion engines. The combustion process is modeled as a mean value system where characteristics of combustion are averaged over the entire cycle. Detailed models of the air intake, fuel delivery, and internal/external cooling systems have been developed using concepts from fluid dynamics and thermodynamics. The engine model has been created in MATLAB ® Simulink ® to simulate actual hardware signals sent to the power management controller to facilitate the development of the power system trainer. The model has been structured so that it is highly adaptable and is capable of simulating a wide variety of engine bore sizes and cylinder numbers which has significantly increased the utility of the work presented herein.

Porous media (PM) has interesting advantages in compared with free flame combustion due to the higher burning rates, the increased power range, the extension of the lean flammability limits, and the low emissions of pollutants. Future clean internal combustion (IC) engines should have had minimum emissions level (for both gaseous and particulate matter) under possible lowest fuel consumption permitted in a wide range of speed, loads and having good transient response. These parameters strongly depend on mixture formation and combustion processes which are difficult to be controlled in a conventional engine. This may be achieved by realization of homogeneous combustion process in engine. This paper deals with the simulation of direct injection IC engine equipped with a chemically inert PM, with cylindrical geometry to homogenize and stabilize the combustion of engine. A 3D numerical model for PM engine is presented in this study based on a modified version of the KIVA-3V code. Due to lack of any published data for PM engines, numerical results of thermal and combustion wave propagation in a porous medium are compared with experimental data of lean methane-air mixture under filtration in packed bed and very good agreement is seen. For PM engine simulation methane as a fuel is injected directly inside hot PM that is assumed, mounted in cylinder head. Lean mixture is formed and volumetric combustion occurs in PM and in-cylinder. Mixture formation, pressure and temperature distribution in both phases of PM and in-cylinder fluid with the production of pollutants CO and NO and also effects of injection time in the closed part of the cycle are studied.

Due to the vast resources of natural gas (NG), it has emerged as an alternative fuel for SI internal combustion engines in recent years. The need to have better fuel economy and less emission especially that of greenhouse gases has resulted in development of NG fueled engines. Direct injection of natural gas into the cylinder of SI internal combustion engines has shown great potential for improvement of performance and reduction of engine emissions especially CO2 and PM. Direct injection of NG into the cylinder of SI engines is rather new thus the flow field phenomena and suitable configuration of injector and combustion chamber geometry has not been investigated completely. In this study a numerical model has been developed in AVL FIRE software to perform investigation of direct natural gas injection into the cylinder of spark ignition internal combustion engines. In this regard, two main parts have been taken into consideration aiming to convert an MPFI gasoline engine to direct injection NG engine. In the first part of study multidimensional numerical simulation of transient injection process, mixing and flow field have been performed via different validation cases in order to assure the numerical model validity of results. Adaption of such a modeling was found to be a challenging task because of required computational effort and numerical instabilities. In all cases present results were found to have excellent agreement with experimental and numerical results from literature. In the second part, using the moving mesh capability, the validated model has been applied to methane injection into the cylinder of a direct injection engine. Five different piston head shapes have been taken into consideration in investigations. An inwardly opening multi-hole injector has been adapted to all cases. The injector location has been set to be centrally mounted. The effects of combustion chamber geometry have been studied on mixing of air-fuel inside cylinder via quantitative and qualitative representation of results. Based on the results, suitable geometrical configuration for a NG DI engine has been discussed.

Inner nozzle flow characteristics (e.g., cavitation, turbulence, injection velocity) are known to affect spray development and hence combustion and emissions. Our previous studies showed that petrodiesel and biodiesel (soybean-based fuels) had very different cavitation and turbulence characteristics, which caused differences in spray breakup, penetration, dispersion, etc. Specifically, the atomization characteristics of biodiesel were worse than those of diesel; they were a direct consequence of biodiesel’s reduced cavitation and turbulence levels at the nozzle exit. In this study, the nozzle flow characteristics of biodiesel (from different feedstocks like tallow, soy, rapeseed, cuphea, and hydrotreated vegetable oil [HVO]) were compared with those of diesel. The first step was to obtain data on the physical properties of these fuels (e.g., their density, viscosity, surface tension, vapor pressure) at different temperatures. At full-needle open position, the cavitation contours scaled with the vapor pressure and viscosity; hence, methyl esters such as soy (SME), rapeseed (RME), and tallow (TME) exhibited less cavitation. The nozzle discharge coefficient, exit velocity, turbulent kinetic energy, and dissipation rate at the orifice exit were also compared for these fuels. Transient effects due to needle movement upon the inception of cavitation were studied. The effects of different needle-lift profiles (pertaining to various load conditions) on the nozzle flow development of these fuels were also characterized. This study also provides data on the critical boundary conditions for spray simulations from using the Kelvin Helmholtz-aerodynamic cavitation turbulence (KH-ACT) model, which accounts for cavitation and turbulence-induced breakup in addition to aerodynamic breakup.

For increasing the thermal engine efficiency, faster combustion and low cycle-to-cycle variation are required. In PFI engines the organization of in-cylinder flow structure is thus mandatory for achieving increased efficiency. In particular the formation of a coherent tumble vortex with dimensions comparable to engine stroke largely promotes proper turbulence production extending the engine tolerance to dilute/lean mixture. For motorbike and scooter applications, tumble has been considered as an effective way to further improve combustion system efficiency and to achieve emission reduction since layout and weight constraints limit the adoption of more advanced concepts. In literature chamber geometry was found to have a significant influence on bulk motion and turbulence levels at ignition time, while intake system influences mainly the formation of tumble vortices during suction phase. The most common engine parameters believed to affect in-cylinder flow structure are: 1. Intake duct angle; 2. Inlet valve shape and lift; 3. Piston shape; 4. Pent-roof angle. The present paper deals with the computational analysis of three different head shapes equipping a scooter/motorcycle engine and their influence on the tumble flow formation and breakdown, up to the final turbulent kinetic energy distribution at spark plug. The engine in analysis is a 3-valves pent-roof motorcycle engine. The three dimensional CFD simulations were run at 6500 rpm with AVL FIRE code on the three engines characterised by the same piston, valve lift, pent-roof angle and compression ratio. They differ only in head shape and squish areas. The aim of the present paper is to demonstrate the influence of different head shapes on in-cylinder flow motion, with particular care to tumble motion and turbulence level at ignition time. Moreover, an analysis of the mutual influence between tumble motion and squish motion was carried out in order to assess the role of both these motions in promoting a proper level of turbulence at ignition time close to spark plug in small 3-valves engines.

A master combustion mechanism of biodiesel fuels has recently been developed by Westbrook and co-workers [1]. This detailed mechanism involves 5037 species and 19990 reactions, the size, which prohibits its direct use in computational fluid dynamic (CFD) applications. In the present work, various mechanism reduction methods included in the Reaction Workbench software [2] were used to derive a semi-detailed reduced combustion mechanism maintaining the accuracy of the master mechanism for a desired set of engine conditions. The reduced combustion mechanism for a five-component biodiesel fuel was implemented in the FORTÉ CFD simulation package [3] to take advantage of advanced chemistry solver methodologies and advanced spray models. The spray characteristics, e.g. the liquid penetration and flame lift-off distances of RME fuel were modeled in a constant-volume combustion chamber. The modeling results were compared with the experimental data. Engine simulations were performed for the Volvo D12C heavy-duty diesel engine fueled by RME on a 72° sector mesh. Predictions were validated against measured in-cylinder parameters and exhaust emission concentrations. The semi-detailed mechanism was shown to be an efficient and accurate representation of actual biodiesel combustion and emissions formation. Meanwhile, as a comparative study, the simulation based on a detailed diesel oil surrogate mechanism were performed for diesel oil under the same conditions.

Over a significant period of time, efforts have been made towards a valid and accurate estimation of DI diesel engine NO x emissions. Considering the fact that experiments have a high cost in both time and money, modelling approaches have been developed in an effort to overcome these issues. It is well known that accuracy in the prediction of NO x emissions lies specifically on the accurate estimation of local temperature and O 2 histories inside the combustion chamber that govern NO x formation, fulfilled by an accurate estimation of the combustion mechanism. To account for the actual effect of parameters that control NO x formation and overcome inefficiencies introduced from existing purely empirical models or artificial neural networks, valid only on the combustion systems for which they were developed [1], an alternative solution is the introduction of physically based semi-empirical models. Towards this direction, in the present work is presented and evaluated a new modelling approach, based on the combustion rate obtained from the measured cylinder pressure trace using Heat Release Rate Analysis. The model used is a semi-empirical two-zone one which makes use of the estimated elementary fuel mass burnt at each crank angle interval. The combustion process is considered to be adiabatic, while chemical dissociation is also considered. With this approach, temperature distribution throughout the combustion chamber is considered for, together with its evolution during the engine cycle. In addition, O 2 availability is also considered for through the calculated charge composition. The result is an extremely fast computational model, combining the advantages of both empirical and physically based ones. In the present work is given a detailed validation of the model, from its application on two different types of diesel engines: a heavy-duty DI diesel engine and a light-duty DI diesel engine with pilot fuel injection. A significant number of cases where tested for both engine configurations, considering different operation points and variation of operating parameters, such as rail pressure and EGR. The twelve points of the European Stationary Cycle (ESC) were covered for the case of the heavy duty DI diesel engine, whilst for the light-duty DI engine a total number of forty-six operating points was studied. For both engine configurations the model reveals a very good predictive ability, considering for the effect of all operating parameters examined on NO x emissions. However, there is potential for improvement and development on its physical base for even more accurate predictions. The merits of good accuracy in prediction trends with varying engine operating parameters — even without calibration — and low computational time establish a potential for model use in engine development, optimization studies and model based control applications.

A renewed interest in CNG fuelled engines, which has recently been boosted by the even more stringent emissions regulations, has generated considerable R&D activity in the last few years. In order to fulfill such limits, most current CNG vehicles combine advanced technical and control solutions such as VVA intake systems, new turbocharging solutions, enhanced ECU strategies, etc. The present work focuses on the complete fluid-dynamic characterization of a gaseous injection system so as to support the design of the related control module and devices. To that end, a numerical investigation into the fluid-dynamic behavior of a commercial CNG injection system has been extensively carried out by means of the GT-POWER code. A detailed geometrical model including the rail, the injectors as well as the pipe connecting the pressure regulator to the rail has been built in the GT-POWER environment. The model has been validated by comparing the experimental to the numerical outputs for the rail pressure and for the injected mass quantity. The model has hence been applied to the prediction of the pressure waves produced by the injection event and of their effect on the actually injected fuel mass. Moreover, the influence of the pressure regulator dynamics has been assessed by simulating the impact on the system behavior of a pressure noise downstream from the regulator. Finally, the possibility of reducing the rail volume, thus enhancing its dynamic response, has been investigated. The results have shown a good agreement between the predicted and the measured rail pressure and injected fuel mass flow rates over a wide range of engine operation conditions. Moreover, the dynamic simulations sketched a dependence of the injected fuel mass on the average rail pressure level, which in turn appeared to reduce for increasing engine power outputs. Finally, the reduction in the rail volume has proved not to significantly affect the injected mass flow rate.

This work deals with the analysis of the performance and emissions of ethanol HCCI/PSCCI engines by means of a Dynamic Adaptive Chemistry (DAC) technique. The implementation of such a technique provides a reduction of the computational cost of the simulations without compromising the reliability of the results. Very accurate results, in terms of pressure and heat release rate profiles and CO, CO 2 and UHC emissions, are obtained with ethanol as the only species for the DRGEP graph search both with the charge uniformly distributed in the combustion chamber and by directly injecting liquid fuel in the same chamber. The global speed up of DAC simulations is twice with respect to a full mechanism which consists of 57 species and 288 reactions and a further increase is expected when DAC is compared to very detailed kinetics.

Today, Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes (RANS) simulation approach remains the most widely used method in computational fluid dynamic studies of IC-Engines because it allows a good prediction of the mean flow properties at an affordable computational cost. The main limit of the RANS approach resides in the method used to predict turbulence that fails in the reproduction of anisotropic turbulence conditions. It can result in a lack of accuracy in reproducing the main physical processes, as spray evolution (mixture formation), heat transfer, and combustion, governing the IC-Engine physics. To fix this problem, the large Eddy Simulation (LES) approach can be considered. In LES the governing equations are filtered in space, rather than time-averaged as in RANS. It allows the direct solution of all the turbulent scales up to a cut-off length defined by the filter dimension. Therefore, in LES a more accurate description of the turbulence and of all the physical processes correlated to it has to be expected. However, even if the LES method allows an irrefutable improvement in turbulent flow solution accuracy, today its application to industrial IC-Engine design is still rare because of its high computational cost. During the last few years, significant advances in numerical methods, sub-grid scale models, and hardware performance have supported LES applications in many industrial fields. This paper is intended to work in the same direction by presenting a new LES methodology based on the coupling between LES and an adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) procedure. The main goal of this procedure is to guarantee a good resolution of the turbulent flow field adapting the filter size to the local turbulence length scale. The developed procedure allows a significant reduction of the total mesh size and, therefore, of the computational cost. The LES-AMR method was tested on an IC-Engine geometry for which experimental results were available.

Increasing demands on the capabilities of engine simulation and the ability to accurately predict both performance and acoustics has lead to the development of several numerical tools to help engine manufacturers during the prototyping stage. One dimensional simulation tools are widely used during this phase and they allow the simulation of several engine configurations within a short time. Certain components, however, such as the intake and exhaust manifolds, exhibit a high degree of geometric complexity, which cannot be accurately modelled by ID codes, unless equivalent ID models are adopted. The need of achieving good accuracy, along with acceptable computational runtime, has given the spur to the development of a geometry based quasi-3D approach. This is designed to model the acoustics and the fluid dynamics of both intake and exhaust system components used in internal combustion engines. Models of components are built using a network, or grid, of quasi-3D cells based primarily on the geometry of the system. The solution procedure is an explicitly time marching pseudo staggered grid approach, where the equations of mass and energy are solved at cell centers while the momentum equation at cell connections or boundaries. The quasi-3D approach has been fully integrated into a ID research code in order to study the behavior of intake and exhaust devices under real engine pulsating flow conditions. This approach was mainly developed to model the acoustic behavior of complex shape silencers, however, in this work it has been extended and applied to the prediction of the fluid dynamic behavior of intake and exhaust systems. The validation was carried on a high performance V4 motorbike engine. In particular, the silencer and the air box have been modeled resorting to a quasi-3D reconstruction. Calculated results of instantaneous pressure traces and volumetric efficiency have been compared to measured data, highlighting a good capability in capturing dynamic effects with a computational runtime much lower than the one required by the integration of fully 3D models with the ID.

Fuel efficiency is now the over-riding engine development objective. With approximately 50–60% of the input fuel energy in an internal combustion engine lost through thermal and mechanical inefficiencies, friction has been targeted as the arch nemesis in any engine development program. A significant portion of the parasitic frictional losses is due to the top compression ring. This suggests that optimization of tribological performance of the compression ring conjunction warrants much more attention that it has been hitherto afforded. Studies reported thus far take into account ring-bore conformance, based on static fitment of the ring within an out-of-round bore, whose out-of-circularity is affected by manufacturing processes, surface treatment and assembly. The various static fitment analyses presume quasi-static equilibrium between ring tension and gas pressure loading with the generated conjunctional pressures. This is an implicit assumption of ring rigidity whilst in situ , which is in fact not the case in practice. The transient nature of combustion variation means that mere static or quasi-static force balance is inappropriate. Furthermore, the bore is not a right circular cylinder. Thus, its radial cross-sectional out-of-roundness and its axial variation introduce further transience in the ring-bore conformance. Consequently, the net force applied to the ring induces its modal behaviour, which accounts for its instantaneous in situ shape within the bore. These considerations are not taken into account in the often idealized ring-bore tribology. The paper provides transient solution of ring-bore conjunction, when subjected to ring in-plane modal behavior, when the conjunction is subjected to a mixed regime of lubrication, comprising hydrodynamic viscous action and boundary interactions.

The injection of small amount of diesel fuel is mainly achieved through the shortening of energizing signal. Consequently, in such injection phases, the needle does not reach the mechanical stroke-end and its displacement may be defined as ballistic. By means of a detailed 3D-CFD modeling, the behavior of nozzle flow is investigated under typical pilot/split injection conditions, namely high injection pressure and low needle lift. The investigation focuses on the effects of the restricted flow passage on fuel flow at hole inlets. Once the modeling details are described, the influence of different elements on the internal fuel flow is shown and discussed, pointing out the role of different driving factors; investigations take into account actual injector tip layouts and the response to the needle off-axis operating conditions. Results are presented highlighting the flow pattern features within the nozzle and their reflects on the hole-to-hole differences.

In the last few years, a significant research effort has been made for developing and enhancing Direct Injection (DI) for compressed natural gas (CNG) engines. Several research projects have been promoted by the European Community (EC) in this field with the objective of finding new solutions for the automotive market and also of encouraging a fruitful knowledge exchange among car manufacturers, suppliers and technical universities. This paper concerns part of the research activity that has been carried out by the Politecnico di Torino, AVL List GmbH and Siemens AG within the EC VII Framework Program (FP) InGAS Collaborative Project (CP), aimed at optimizing the control phase of a new injector for CNG direct injection, paying specific attention to its behavior at small injected-fuel amounts, i.e., small energizing times. The CNG injector which was developed within the research project proved to be suitable to be used in a DI SI engine, featuring a pent-roof combustion chamber head and a bowl in piston, with reference to both homogeneous and stratified charge formation. Fuel flow measurements made by AVL on the four-cylinder engine revealed a good linearity between injection duration and fuel mass-flow rate for injection durations above a reference value. In order to improve the injector characterization at short injection durations, an experimental and numerical activity was designed. More specifically, a multidimensional CFD model of the actual injector geometry was built by Politecnico di Torino, and purposely-designed simulation cases were carried out, in which the needle-lift time-history was defined on the basis of experimental measurements made by Siemens. The numerical model was validated on the basis of experimental data concerning the total injected-fuel amount under different conditions. Then, the model was applied in order to evaluate the dynamic flow characteristic by taking also the inner geometry of the injector valve group into account, so as to establish a correlation to the needle lift measurements done by Siemens for injector characterization. In the paper this dynamic behavior of the injector is analyzed, under actual operating conditions, and its impact on the nozzle injection capability is discussed. The simulation results did not show significant oscillations of the stagnation pressure upstream of the nozzle throat section, and thus the resultant mass-flow rate profile is almost proportional to the needle-lift one. As a consequence, in order to characterize the injector flow behavior in the nonlinear region (short injection duration), the measurement of needle lift is sufficient.

The aim of the present work is to investigate the possibility of using eucalyptus biodiesel and its blends with diesel fuel as an alternative fuel for diesel engines. Eucalyptus oil is converted to biodiesel with ethanol using sodium hydroxide as a catalyst. The characterization of the obtained biodiesel shows that the thermo-physical properties are in the range recommended by American Standard (ASTM D6751). Innovative biodiesel development tests on the diesel engine require a lot of time and efforts. Here, mathematical model, which is based on the thermodynamic single zone model, is developed to analyze the combustion characteristics such as cylinder pressure and the performance characteristics such as brake power, brake thermal efficiency and specific fuel consumption of a DI diesel engine.

High-Speed Direct Injection (HSDI) diesel engines are increasingly used in automotive applications due to superior fuel economy. An advanced CFD simulation has been carried out to analyze the effect of injection timing on combustion process and emission characteristics in a four valves 2.0L Ford diesel engine. The calculation was performed from intake valve closing (IVC) to exhaust valve opening (EVO) at constant speed of 1600 rpm. Since the work was concentrated on the spray injection, mixture formation and combustion process, only a 60° sector mesh was employed for the calculations. For combustion modeling, an improved version of the Coherent Flame Model (ECFM-3Z) has been applied accompanied with advanced models for emission modeling. The results of simulation were compared against experimental data. Good agreement of calculated and measured in-cylinder pressure trace and pollutant formation trends were observed for all investigated operating points. In addition, the results showed that the current CFD model can be applied as a beneficial tool for analyzing the parameters of the diesel combustion under HSDI operating condition.

Nowadays, environmental concerns are posing a great challenge to DI Diesel engines. Increasingly tightening emission limits require a higher attention on combustion efficiency. In this scenario, computational fluid-dynamics can prove its power guaranteeing a deeper understanding of mixture formation process and combustion. A high efficiency Diesel engine can be developed only mastering all the parameters that can affect the combustion and, therefore, NOx and soot emissions. In this work, the development of an engine in order to fulfill Tier 4i emission standard will be presented. Originally, the engine was a two-valve engine supplied with a DPF. Since no SCR aftertreatment is supplied, NOx emission target are achieved through external exhaust gas recirculation and retarding the start of injection. In order to fulfill Tier 4i emissions, the main concern is on soot emission and, thus, the combustion chamber has been re-designed, through CFD simulations, leading to a better interaction between the flow field, the fuel spray and the piston bowl geometry. Particularly, through intake phase simulations, performed with the CFD code Fire v2009 v3, different intake ducts, with different swirl ratio, have been simulated in order to provide a flow field as realistic as possible for the combustion simulations. Through combustion process simulations, performed with the CFD code Kiva, by varying different parameters the interaction between the swirl flow field, generated by the intake duct, the reverse squish motion, and motions aerodynamically generated by spray has been investigated leading to the definition of a new engine lay-out. The study shows how, given the need of retarded injection for limiting NOx emission, the decrease of swirl ratio, when combined with a proper piston bowl design, allows a significant decrease of soot emissions and the achievement of Tier 4i emission standard.

The aim of this work is the study of the fluid dynamic structure of underexpanded hydrogen jets by using a High Performance Computing (HPC) methodology. An axial symmetric two-dimensional turbulent flow model, which solves the Favre-averaged Navier-Stokes equations for a multicomponent gas mixture, has been implemented and validated. In order to predict the decrease in spreading rate with increasing Mach number, a compressibility correction has been added to the turbulence closure model. The flow model has been assessed by comparing spreading and centerline property decay rates of subsonic jets at different Mach numbers with those obtained both by theoretical considerations and experimental measurements. Besides, the Mach disk structure of an underexpanded jet has been analysed, thus confirming the suitability of the computational model. To take into account the effects of real gases, both van der Waals and Redlich-Kwong equations of state have been implemented. The computations performed under ICEs conditions show that the values of Mach number and pressure just behind the Mach disk are affected by the use of real gas equations.

Transient operation of engines leads to air fuel (A/F) ratio excursions, which can increase engine emissions. These excursions have been attributed to the formation of fuel films in the intake port, which are caused by a portion of the intake fuel impinging and adhering on the relatively cool port surface. These films act as a source or sink which cause the AF variations depending upon the transient condition. Gaining a fundamental understanding of the nature and quantity of such films may assist in future fuel mixture preparation designs that could aid in emission reductions, yet would not require overly expensive nor complicated systems. The control of air to fuel ratio is a critical issue for high performance engines: due to the low stroke-to-bore ratio the maximum power is reached at very high regimes, letting little time to the fuel to evaporate and mix with air. The injector located upstream the throttle causes a lot of fuel to impinge the throttle and intake duct walls, slowing the dynamics of mixture formation in part load conditions. The aim of this work is to present a CFD methodology for the evaluation of mixture formation dynamics applied to a Ducati high performance engine under part load conditions. The phenomena involved in the process are highly heterogeneous, and particular care must be taken to the choice of CFD models and their validation. In the present work all the main models involved in the simulations are validated against experimental tests available in the literature, selected based on the similarity of physical conditions of those of the engine configuration under analysis. The multi-cycle simulation methodology here presented reveals to be a useful tool for the evaluation of the mixture dynamics and for the evaluation of injection wall film compensator models.

The influence of split-injection on engine performance is studied using system and in-cylinder simulation of a two-stroke medium speed diesel engine. System level models for the engine and fuel system and a multi-dimension CFD model for the combustion chamber were developed and calibrated with experimental data. Calibration of these models from the available test data is discussed and calibration results are presented. The SFC and NO x predictions show good sensitivity to injection timing variation. These calibrated models were then used to simulate split injection through the modification of the fuel injector. Split injection achieved through this modification results in fuel savings while maintaining same NO x levels.