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The turbulent flow field inside the cylinder plays a major role in spark ignition (SI) engines. Multiple phenomena that occur during the high pressure part of the engine cycle, such as early flame kernel development, flame propagation and gas-to-wall heat transfer, are influenced by in-cylinder turbulence. Turbulence inside the cylinder is primarily generated via high shear flows that occur during the intake process, via high velocity injection sprays and by the destruction of macro-scale motions produced by tumbling and/or swirling structures close to top dead center (TDC) . Understanding such complex flow phenomena typically requires detailed 3D-CFD simulations. Such calculations are computationally very expensive and are typically carried out for a limited number of operating conditions. On the other hand, quasi-dimensional simulations, which provide a limited description of the in-cylinder processes, are computationally inexpensive.

In order to meet the increasingly stringent emissions standard it is imperative that a two pronged approach is pursued for reduction of tailpipe emissions. In this regard emissions, and often the exhaust compositions, are needed to be controlled both at its source and then subsequently cleaned up at the exhaust system. In addition, an aftertreatment system often consists of an array of catalysts and its performance depends on the transient characteristics of the exhaust gas composition. To complicate the matter furthermore, relevant technologies are still evolving at a rapid pace. Consequently, an aftertreatment modeling approach should not only be system based but also offer a high level of configurability. Thus a system level approach that includes a model of an engine and vehicle may provide an efficient means to analyze system performance and examine relative effects of competing phenomena and technologies.

This article describes a system level 1D simulation tool that has been constructed on the Quasi-steady (QS) method. By assuming that spatial changes are much greater than the temporal ones, rigorous 1D governing equations can be considerably simplified thus becoming less computationally demanding to solve and therefore suitable for control oriented modeling purposes. With the proposed tool exhaust pipe wall temperature profiles, including multiple-wall-layer configurations, are solved through a finite difference scheme. Momentum equation is included for predicting pressure losses due to frictions and geometric irregularity. Exhaust fluid properties (transport and thermodynamic) are evaluated according to NASA or JANAF polynomial thermal data basis. The proposed tool allows the consideration of an arbitrary number of chemical species and reactions in the entire system. A novel semi-automatic approach was developed to handle catalytic reaction kinetics intuitively.

Recently there has been a substantial interest in adopting asymmetric geometry design inside wall-flow diesel particular filters (DPFs) with larger inlet channel width to accommodate soot/ash accumulation and to reduce back pressure and thus to increase filter operation life time. The current work is sought to develop a model based approach to investigate various aspects of this strategy and to compare results with conventional channel design. This paper describes assumptions and modeling methodologies used to evaluate the impact of asymmetries arising out of geometric design as well as due to ash deposition/accumulation on the overall pressure drop across the filter. Special attention is given to the challenges and strategies associated with flow and thermal solutions (during soot loading or regeneration) since transient ash accumulation causes a time varying reduction of effective wall-flow filtration length.

An S.I. combustion model has been developed for application in phenomenological engine simulations. The model is based on a turbulent flame concept, linked to an in-cylinder flow and turbulence calculation. The flame front is assumed to spread from the spark plug and propagate through the cylinder, while interacting with the combustion chamber geometry. The model predictions were compared to combustion rate measurements made in a single cylinder four valve passenger car engine. The data spanned a wide range of operating conditions, from an idle timing sweep, to part load EGR and mixture ratio sweeps, to a wide open throttle speed sweep. The results of the comparisons showed a generally good agreement. Some difficulties were encountered at idle, where cycle-to-cycle variability makes modeling difficult especially at early timing settings.

A fuel injection meter and controller has been developed which (1) measures the instantaneous injection rate and the total mass of fuel injected, and (2) controls the mass of fuel injected and injection pressure. The injection rate is computed from instantaneous measurements of the velocity of a pumping plunger and the pressure of fuel injection. A mathematical model of the meter and controller was developed to futher the understanding of various design and operating parameters on the injection rate. Compressibility of the fuel is accounted for. Good agreement is realized between numerically computed injection pressure and rate histories with corresponding experimental results.

A combustion bomb has been developed which allows simulation of diesel combustion without the need to heat the bomb to high temperatures. Simulation of the compression stroke is achieved by burning a lean precharge composed of acetylene, oxygen and nitrogen. By controlling the initial partial pressures of these constituents it is possible to burn them to a state with an oxygen concentration, temperature and pressure representative of conditions in a diesel engine at the start of fuel injection. Diesel fuel injected into these gases autoignites and burns in a manner typical of combustion in diesel engines. This paper describes the design and operation of such a bomb. Experimental results are presented to illustrate its salient features. Particular attention is devoted to various means of obtaining optical access to the flow and the advantages offered over rapid compression machines or heated bombs.

An increasing emphasis is being placed in the vehicle development process on transient operation of engines and vehicles, and of engine/vehicle integration, because of their importance to fuel economy and emissions. Simulations play a large role in this process, complementing the more usual test-oriented hardware development process. This has fueled the development and continued evolution of advanced engine and powertrain simulation tools which can be utilized for this purpose. This paper describes a new tool developed for applications to transient engine and powertrain design and optimization. It contains a detailed engine simulation, specifically focused on transient engine processes, which includes detailed models of engine breathing (with turbocharging), combustion, emissions and thermal warm-up of components. Further, it contains a powertrain and vehicle dynamic simulation.

Engines and vehicle systems are becoming increasing complex partly due to the incorporation of emission abatement components as well as control strategies that are technologically evolving and innovative to keep up with emissions requirements. This makes the testing and verification with actual prototypes prohibitively expensive and time-consuming. Consequently, there is an increasing reliance on Software-In-the-Loop (SIL) and Hardware-In-the-Loop (HIL) simulations for design evaluation of system concepts. This paper introduces a methodology in which detailed chemical kinetic models of catalytic converters are transformed into fast running models for control design, calibration or real time ECU validation. The proposed methodology is based on the use of a hybrid, structured, semi-automatic scheme for reducing high-fidelity models into fast running models.

Numerical simulation of in-cylinder processes can significantly reduce the development and refinement costs of engines. While it can be argued that higher fidelity models improve accuracy of prediction, it comes at the expense of high computational cost. In this respect, a 3D analysis of in-cylinder processes may not be feasible for evaluating large number of design and operating conditions. The situation can be more foreboding for transient simulations. In the current work a phenomenological combustion modeling approach is explored that can be implemented in a lower fidelity modeling framework and can approach the accuracy of higher dimensional models with significant reduction in computational cost. The proposed model uses transported probability density function (tPDF) method within a 0D framework to provide a computationally efficient solution while capturing the essential physics of in-cylinder combustion.