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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 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.

New SI engine generations are characterized by a simultaneous reduction of the engine displacement and an increase of the brake power; such targets are achieved through the adoption of several techniques such as turbocharging, direct fuel injection, variable valve timing and variable port lengths. This design approach, called “downsizing”, leads to a marked increase in the thermal loads acting on the engine components, in particular on those facing the combustion chamber. Hence, an accurate evaluation of the thermal field is of primary importance in order to avoid mechanical failures. Moreover, the correct evaluation of the temperature distribution improves the prediction of pointwise abnormal combustion onset.

Fuel deposits in DISI engines promote unburnt hydrocarbon and soot formation: due to the increasingly stringent emission regulations (EU6 and forthcoming), it is necessary to deeply analyze and well-understand the complex physical mechanisms promoting fuel deposit formation. The task is not trivial, due to the coexistence of mutually interacting factors, such as complex moving geometries, influencing both impact angle and velocity, and time-dependent wall temperatures. The experimental characterization of actual engine conditions on transparent combustion chambers is limited to highly specialized research laboratories; therefore, 3D-CFD simulations can be a fundamental tool to investigate and understand the complex interplay of all the mentioned factors. The aim is pursued in this study by means of full-cycle simulations accounting for instantaneous fuel/piston thermal interaction and actual fuel characteristics.

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 paper describes an integrated methodology for the accurate characterization of the thermal behavior of internal combustion engines, with particular reference to a high performance direct injected SI engine for sport car applications. The engine is operated at full load and maximum power revving speed, which is known to be critical from the point of view of thermal stresses on the engine components. In particular, two different sets of 3D-CFD calculations are adopted: on one side, full-cycle in-cylinder analyses are carried out to estimate the point wise thermal heat flux due to combustion on the engine components facing the combustion chamber. On the other side, full-engine multi-region CHT calculations covering the engine coolant jacket and the surrounding metal components are used to compute the point wise temperature distribution within the engine head, liner and block.

The paper presents a combined experimental and numerical activity carried out to improve the accuracy of conjugate heat transfer CFD simulations of a high-performance S.I. engine water cooling jacket. Due to the complexity of the computational domain, which covers both the coolant jacket and the surrounding metal cast (both head and block), particular care is required in order to find a tradeoff between the accuracy and the cost-effectiveness of the numerical procedure. In view of the presence of many complex physical phenomena, the contribution of some relevant CFD parameters and sub-models is separately evaluated and discussed. Among the formers, the extent of the computational domain, the choice of a proper set of boundary conditions and the detailed representation of the physical properties of the involved materials are separately considered.

The paper presents a numerical activity directed at the analysis and optimization of internal combustion engine water cooling jackets, with particular emphasis on the fatigue-strength assessment and improvement. In the paper, full 3D-CFD and FEM analyses of conjugate heat transfer and load cycle under actual engine operation of a single bank of a current production V6 turbocharged diesel engine are reported. A highly detailed model of the engine, made up of both the coolant galleries and the surrounding metal components, i.e., the engine head, the engine block, the gasket, the valve guides and valve seats, is used on both sides of the simulation process to accurately capture the influence of the cooling system layout under thermal and load conditions as close as possible to actual engine operations.