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The paper reports an activity aiming at characterizing cycle-to-cycle variability (CCV) of the spark-ignition (SI) process in a high performance engine. The numerical simulation of spark-ignition and of early flame kernel evolution are major challenges, mainly due to the time scales of the spark discharge process and to the reduced spatial scales of flame kernel. Typical mesh resolutions are insufficient to resolve the process and a dedicated treatment has to be provided at a subgrid level if the ignition process is to be properly modelled. The focus of this work is on the recent ISSIM-LES (Imposed Stretch Spark-Ignition Model) ignition model, which is based on an extension of the flame surface density (FSD) transport equation for a dedicated flame kernel treatment at subgrid scales. The FSD equation is solved immediately after spark discharge.

CFD and FE tools are intensively adopted by engine manufacturers in order to prevent thermo-mechanical failures reducing time- and cost-to market. The capability to predict correctly the physical factors leading to damages is hence essential for their application in the industrial practice. This is even more important for last generation SI engines, where the more and more stringent need to lower fuel consumption and pollutant emissions is pushing designers to reduce engine displacement in favor of higher specific power, usually obtained by means of turbocharging. This brings to a new generation of SI engines characterized by higher and higher adiabatic efficiency and thermo-mechanical loads. A recent research highlighted the different behavior of the thermal boundary layer of such engines operated at high revving speeds and high loads if compared to the same engines operated at low loads and revving speeds or even engines with a lower specific power.

The increasing limitations in engine emissions and fuel consumption have led researchers to the need to accurately predict combustion and related events in gasoline engines. In particular, knock is one of the most limiting factors for modern SI units, severely hindering thermal efficiency improvements. Modern CFD simulations are becoming an affordable instrument to support experimental practice from the early design to the detailed calibration stage. To this aim, combustion and knock models in RANS formalism provide good time-to-solution trade-off allowing to simulate mean flame front propagation and flame brush geometry, as well as “ensemble average” knock tendency in end-gases. Still, the level of confidence in the use of CFD tools strongly relies on the possibility to validate models and methodologies against experimental measurements.

Engine knock is one of the most limiting factors for modern Spark-Ignition (SI) engines to achieve high efficiency targets. The stochastic nature of knock in SI units hinders the predictive capability of RANS knock models, which are based on ensemble averaged quantities. To this aim, a knock model grounded in statistics was recently developed in the RANS formalism. The model is able to infer a presumed log-normal distribution of knocking cycles from a single RANS simulation by means of transport equations for variances and turbulence-derived probability density functions (PDFs) for physical quantities. As a main advantage, the model is able to estimate the earliest knock severity experienced when moving the operating condition into the knocking regime.

Engine knock is emerging as the main limiting factor for modern spark-ignition (SI) engines, facing increasing thermal loads and seeking demanding efficiency targets. To fulfill these requirements, the engine operating point must be moved as close as possible to the onset of abnormal combustion events. The turbulent regime characterizing in-cylinder flows and SI combustion leads to serious fluctuations between consecutive engine cycles. This forces the engine designer to further distance the target condition from its theoretical optimum, in order to prevent abnormal combustion to severely damage the engine components just because of few individual heavy-knocking cycles. A RANS-based model is presented in this study, which is able to predict not only the ensemble average knock occurrence but also a knock probability. This improves the knock tendency characterization, since the mean knock onset alone is a poorly meaningful indication in a stochastic event such as engine knock.

The occurrence of knock is the most limiting hindrance for modern Spark-Ignition (SI) engines. In order to understand its origin and move the operating condition as close as possible to onset of this potentially harmful phenomenon, a joint experimental and numerical investigation is the most recommended approach. A preliminary experimental activity was carried out at IM-CNR on a 0.4 liter GDI unit, equipped with a flat transparent piston. The analysis of flame front morphology allowed to correlate high levels of flame front wrinkling and negative curvature to knock prone operating conditions, such as increased spark timings or high levels of exhaust back-pressure. In this study a detailed CFD analysis is carried out for the same engine and operating point as the experiments. The aim of this activity is to deeper investigate the reasons behind the main outcomes of the experimental campaign.

Conventional fossil fuels are more and more regulated in terms of both engine-out emissions and fuel consumption. Moreover, oil price and political instabilities in oil-producer countries are pushing towards the use of alternative fuels compatible with the existing units. N-Butanol is an attractive candidate as conventional gasoline replacement, given its ease of production from bio-mass and key physico-chemical properties similar to their gasoline counterpart. A comparison in terms of combustion behavior of gasoline and n-Butanol is here presented by means of experiments and 3D-CFD simulations. The fuels are tested on a single-cylinder direct-injection spark-ignition (DISI) unit with an optically accessible flat piston. The analysis is carried out at stoichiometric undiluted condition and lean-diluted mixture for both pure fuels.

High power-density Diesel engines are characterized by remarkable thermo-mechanical loads. Therefore, compared to spark ignition engines, designers are forced to increase component strength in order to avoid failures. 3D-CFD simulations represent a powerful tool for the evaluation of the engine thermal field and may be used by designers, along with FE analyses, to ensure thermo-mechanical reliability. The present work aims at providing an integrated in-cylinder/CHT methodology for the estimation of a Diesel engine thermal field. On one hand, in-cylinder simulations are fundamental to evaluate not only the integral amount of heat transfer to the combustion chamber walls, but also its point-wise distribution. To this specific aim, an improved heat transfer model based on a modified thermal wall function is adopted to estimate correctly wall heat fluxes due to combustion.

CFD simulations of reacting flows are fundamental investigation tools used to predict combustion behaviour and pollutants formation in modern internal combustion engines. Focusing on spark-ignited units, most of the flamelet-based combustion models adopted in current simulations use the fuel/air/residual laminar flame propagation speed as a background to predict the turbulent flame speed. This, in turn, is a fundamental requirement to model the effective burn rate. A consolidated approach in engine combustion simulations relies on the adoption of empirical correlations for laminar flame speed, which are derived from fitting of combustion experiments. However, these last are conducted at pressure and temperature ranges largely different from those encountered in engines: for this reason, correlation extrapolation at engine conditions is inevitably accepted. As a consequence, relevant differences between proposed correlations emerge even for the same fuel and conditions.

Recently, a growing interest in the development of more accurate phenomenological turbulence models is observed, since this is a key pre-requisite to properly describe the burn rate in quasi-dimensional combustion models. The latter are increasingly utilized to predict engine performance in very different operating conditions, also including unconventional valve control strategies, such as EIVC or LIVC. Therefore, a reliable phenomenological turbulence model should be able to physically relate the actuated valve strategy to turbulence level during the engine cycle, with particular care in the angular phase when the combustion takes place.

In spark-ignited direct-injected engines, the formation of fuel pools on the piston is one of the major promoters of unburnt hydrocarbons and soot: in order to comply with the increasingly stringent emission regulations (EU6 and forthcoming), it is therefore necessary to limit fuel deposit formation. The combined use of advanced experimental techniques and detailed 3D-CFD simulations can help to understand the mechanisms driving fuel pool formation. In the paper, a combined experimental and numerical characterization of pool formation in a GDI engine is carried out to investigate and understand the complex interplay of all the mentioned factors. In particular, a low-load low-rpm engine operation is investigated for different ignition phasing, and the impact of both fuel formulation and instantaneous piston temperature variations in the CFD analyses are evaluated.

A new generation of highly downsized SI engines with specific power output around or above 150 HP/liter is emerging in the sport car market sector. Technologies such as high-boosting, direct injection and downsizing are adopted to increase power density and reduce fuel consumption. To counterbalance the increased risks of pre-ignition, knock or mega-knock, currently made turbocharged SI engines usually operate with high fuel enrichments and delayed (sometimes negative) spark advances. The former is responsible for high fuel consumption levels, while the latter induce an even lower A/F ratio (below 11), to limit the turbine inlet temperature, with huge negative effects on BSFC. A possible solution to increase knock resistance is investigated in the paper by means of 3D-CFD analyses: water/methanol emulsion is port-fuel injected to replace mixture enrichment while preserving, if not improving, indicated mean effective pressure and knock safety margins.

In order to improve fuel conversion efficiency, currently made spark-ignited engines are characterized by the adoption of gasoline direct injection, supercharging and/or turbocharging, complex variable valve actuation strategies. The resulting increase in power/size ratios is responsible for substantially higher average thermal loads on the engine components, which in turn result in increased risks of both thermo-mechanical failures and abnormal combustion events such as surface ignition or knock. The paper presents a comprehensive numerical methodology for the accurate estimation of knock tendency of SI engines, based on the integration of different modeling frameworks and tools. Full-cycle in-cylinder analyses are used to estimate the point-wise heat flux acting on the engine components facing the combustion chamber.

The establishment of highly-diluted combustion strategies is one of the major challenges that the next generation of sustainable internal combustion engines must face. The desirable use of high EGR rates and of lean mixtures clashes with the tolerable combustion stability. To this aim, the development of numerical models able to reproduce the degree of combustion variability is crucial to allow the virtual exploration and optimization of a wide number of innovative combustion strategies. In this study ignition experiments using a conventional coil system are carried out in a closed volume combustion vessel with side-oriented flow generated by a speed-controlled fan. Acquisitions for four combinations of premixed propane/air mixture quality (Φ=0.9,1.2), dilution rate (20%-30%) and lateral flow velocity (1-5 m/s) are used to assess the modelling capabilities of a newly developed spark-ignition model for large-eddy simulation (GLIM, GruMo-UniMORE LES Ignition Model).

With growing concern about global warming, alternatives to fossil fuels in internal combustion engines are searched. In this context, hydrogen is one of the most interesting fuels as it shows excellent combustion properties such as laminar flame speed and energy density. In this work a CFD methodology for 3D-CFD in-cylinder simulations of engine combustion is proposed and its predictive capabilities are validated against test-bench data from a direct injection spark-ignition (DISI) prototype. The original engine is a naturally aspirated, single cylinder compression ignition (Diesel fueled) unit. It is modified substituting the Diesel injector with a spark plug, adding two direct gas injectors, and lowering the compression ratio to run with hydrogen fuel. A 3D-CFD model is built, embedding in-house developed ignition and heat transfer models besides G-equation one for combustion.