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In spark-ignition engines, fluctuations of the in-cylinder pressure trace and the apparent rate of heat release are usually observed from one cycle to another. These Cycle-to-Cycle Variations (CCV) are affected by the early flame development and the subsequent flame front propagation. The CCV are responsible for engine performance (e.g. fuel consumption) and the knock behavior. The occurrence of the phenomena is unpredictable and the stochastic nature offers challenges in the optimization of engine control strategies. In the present work, CCV are analyzed in terms of their impact on the engine knock behavior and the related efficiency. Target is to estimate the possible fuel consumption savings in steady-state operation and in the drivecycle, when CCV are reduced. Since CCV are immanent on real engines, such a study can only be done by means of simulation.

The present paper deals with the application of the LES approach to in-cylinder flow modeling. The main target is to study cycle-to-cycle variability (CCV) using 3D-CFD simulation. The engine model is based on a spark-ignited single-cylinder research engine. The results presented in this paper cover the motored regime aiming at analysis of the cycle-resolved local flow properties at the spark plug close to firing top dead center. The results presented in this paper suggest that the LES approach adopted in the present study is working well and that it predicts CCV and that the qualitative trends are in-line with established knowledge of internal combustion engine (ICE) in-cylinder flow. The results are evaluated from a statistical point of view based on calculations of many consecutive cycles (at least 10).

The presented paper deals with a methodology to model cycle-to-cycle variations (CCV) in 0-D/1-D simulation tools. This is achieved by introducing perturbations of combustion model parameters. To enable that, crank angle resolved data of individual cycles (pressure traces) have to be available for a reasonable number of engine cycles. Either experimental data or 3-D CFD results can be applied. In the presented work, experimental data of a single-cylinder research engine were considered while predicted LES 3-D CFD results will be tested in the future. Different engine operating points were selected - both stable ones (low CCV) and unstable ones (high CCV). The proposed methodology consists of two major steps. First, individual cycle data have to be matched with the 0-D/1-D model, i.e., combustion model parameters are varied to achieve the best possible match of pressure traces - an automated optimization approach is applied to achieve that.