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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 interest towards hydrogen fueling in internal combustion engines (ICEs) is rapidly growing, due to its potential impact on the reduction of the carbon footprint of the road transportation sector in a short-term scenario. While the conversion of the existing fleet to a battery-electric counterpart is highly debated in terms of both technical feasibility and life-cycle-based environmental impact, automotive researchers and technicians are exploring other solutions to reduce, if not to nullify, the carbon footprint of the existing ICE fleet. Indeed, ICE conversion to “green” fuels is seen as a promising short-term solution which does not require massive changes in powertrain production and end-of-life waste management. To better evaluate potentials and challenges of hydrogen fueling, a clear understanding of fuel injection and mixture formation prior to combustion is mandatory.

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.