Search Results

Swirling flows are very dominant in applied technical problems, especially in IC engines, and their prediction requires rather sophisticated modeling. An adaptive low-pass filtering procedure for the modeled turbulent length and time scales is derived and applied to Menter' original k - ω SST turbulence model. The modeled length and time scales are compared to what can potentially be resolved by the computational grid and time step. If the modeled scales are larger than the resolvable scales, the resolvable scales will replace the modeled scales in the formulation of the eddy viscosity; therefore, the filtering technique helps the turbulence model to adapt in accordance with the mesh resolution and the scales to capture.

Cycle-To-Cycle Variability (CCV) must be properly considered when modeling the ignition process in SI engines operating with ultra-lean mixtures. In this work, a strategy to model the impact of the ignition type on the CCV was developed using the RANS approach for turbulence modelling, performing multi-cycle simulations for the power-cycle only. The spark-discharge was modelled through a set of Lagrangian particles, introduced along the sparkgap and interacting with the surrounding Eulerian gas flow. Then, at each discharge event, the velocity of each particle was modified with a zero-divergence perturbation of the velocity field with respect to average conditions. Finally, the particles velocity was evolved according to the Simplified Langevin Model (SLM), which keeps memory of the initial perturbation and applies a Wiener process to simulate the stochastic interaction of each channel particle with the surrounding gas flow.

Many studies have been carried out to optimize the aerodynamic performances of a single car or a single vehicle. In present days the traffic increases and sophisticated technologies are developing to guarantee the drivers safety, to minimize the fuel consumption and be more environmentally friendly. Within this research area a new technique that is being studied is Platooning: this means that different vehicles travel in a configuration that minimizes the aerodynamic drag and therefore the fuel consumption and the longitudinal space. In the present study platoons with different vehicles and configurations are taken into account, to analyze the influence of car shape and relative distance between the vehicles. The research has been carried out using CFD techniques to investigate the different flow fields around different platoons, while wind tunnel tests have been used to validate the results of the CFD simulations.

In the paper, a procedure to assess the quality of the shielding effect of wind barriers to protect large sided vehicles crossing the wake of a bridge pylon under cross wind conditions is proposed. The methodology is based on Multi-Body simulations of the response of the vehicle-driver system when it is subjected to the sudden change of the aerodynamic forces due to the wind-tower interaction. The aerodynamic forces that are instantaneously acting on the vehicle are computed according to a force distribution approach that relies on wind tunnel tests that may be performed on still scaled models. From the knowledge of the aerodynamic force distribution along the vehicle at different yaw angles and of the mean wind profile across the tower wake, the aerodynamic force, acting on the moving vehicle, is reconstructed at each time step taking into consideration the actual vehicle-driver dynamics.

NOx and PM are the critical emissions to meet the legislation limits for diesel engines. Often a value for these emissions is needed online for on-board diagnostics, engine control, exhaust aftertreatment control, model-based controller design or model-in-the-loop simulations. Besides the obvious method of measuring these emissions, a sensible alternative is to estimate them with virtual sensors. A lot of literature can be found presenting different modeling approaches for NOx emissions. Some are very close to the physics and the chemical reactions taking place inside the combustion chamber, others are only given by adapting general functions to measurement data. Hence, generally speaking, there is not a certain method which is seen as the solution for modeling emissions. Finding the best model approach is not straightforward and depends on the model application, the available measurement channels and the available data set for calibration.

This paper is focused on the development and application of a CFD methodology that can be applied to predict the fuel-air mixing process in stratified charge, sparkignition engines. The Eulerian-Lagrangian approach was used to model the spray evolution together with a liquid film model that properly takes into account its effects on the fuel-air mixing process into account. However, numerical simulation of stratified combustion in SI engines is a very challenging task for CFD modeling, due to the complex interaction of different physical phenomena involving turbulent, reacting and multiphase flows evolving inside a moving geometry. Hence, for a proper assessment of the different sub-models involved a detailed set of experimental optical data is required. To this end, a large experimental database was built by the authors.

The purpose of the European « SPACE LIGHT » (Whole SPACE combustion for LIGHT duty diesel vehicles) 3-year project launched in 2001 is to research and develop an innovative Homogeneous internal mixture Charged Compression Ignition (HCCI) for passenger cars diesel engine where the combustion process can take place simultaneously in the whole SPACE of the combustion chamber while providing almost no NOx and particulates emissions. This paper presents the whole project with the main R&D tasks necessary to comply with the industrial and technical objectives of the project. The research approach adopted is briefly described. It is then followed by a detailed description of the most recent progress achieved during the tasks recently undertaken. The methodology adopted starts from the research study of the in-cylinder combustion specifications necessary to achieve HCCI combustion from experimental single cylinder engines testing in premixed charged conditions.

The fluid-mechanic behaviour of straight-sided and re-entrant chamber geometries has been studied using laser doppler anemometry (LDA) technique. Measurements have been carried out during the compression stroke in a direct injection diesel engine, representative of medium size family, operating at 1000 rpm under motored conditions. The mean motion and turbulence intensity have been computed using a filtering procedure on the LDA data. Using the second version of KIVA code, the air flow field evolution during the same crank angle period has been also computed. To perform proper comparisons between measured and computed values of mean velocity and turbulence intensity, a careful choice of the initial conditions for computations has been performed. Reasonable agreement has been found between computed and measured mean swirl velocities for both combustion chamber geometries tested. On the contrary, the computed turbulence intensities underestimate those measured.

Many new combustion concepts are currently being investigated to further improve engines in terms of both efficiency and emissions. Examples include homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI), lean stratified premixed combustion, stratified charge compression ignition (SCCI), and high levels of exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) in diesel engines, known as low temperature combustion (LTC). All of these combustion concepts have in common that the temperatures are lower than in traditional spark ignition or diesel engines. To further improve and develop combustion concepts for clean and highly efficient engines, it is necessary to develop new computational tools that can be used to describe and optimize processes in nonstandard conditions, such as low temperature combustion.

Computational fluid dynamics represents a useful tool to support the design and development of Heavy Duty Engines, making possible to test the effects of injection strategies and combustion chamber design for a wide range of operating conditions. Predictive models are required to ensure accurate estimations of heat release and the main pollutant emissions within a limited amount of time. For this reason, both detailed chemistry and turbulence chemistry interaction need to be included. In this work, the authors intend to apply combustion models based on tabulated kinetics for the prediction of Diesel combustion in Heavy Duty Engines. Four different approaches were considered: well-mixed model, presumed PDF, representative interactive flamelets and flamelet progress variable. Tabulated kinetics was also used for the estimation of NOx emissions.

The primary objective of the research discussed here was to compare the commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software, CONVERGE, and a prevalent open-source code, OpenFOAM, with regard to their ability to predict spray and combustion characteristics. The high-fidelity data were obtained from the Engine Combustion Network (ECN) at Sandia National Laboratory in a constant-volume combustion vessel under well-defined, controlled conditions. The experiments and simulations were performed by using two diesel surrogate fuels (i.e., n-heptane and n-dodecane) under both non-reacting and reacting conditions. Specifically, ECN data on spray penetration, liquid length, vapor penetration, mixture fraction, ignition delay, and flame lift-off length (LOL) were used to validate both codes. Results indicate that both codes can predict the above experimental characteristics very well.

The OpenFOAM® CFD methodology is nowadays employed for simulation in internal combustion engines and a lot of work has been done for an appropriate description of all complex phenomena. At the moment in the RANS turbulence models available in the OpenFOAM® toolbox the turbulence modulation is not yet included, and the present work analyzes the predictive capabilities of the code in simulating high injection pressure fuel sprays after modeling the influence of the dispersed phase on the turbulence structure. Different experiments were employed for the validation. At first, non-evaporating diesel spray was considered in a constant volume and quiescent vessel. The validation was performed via the available experimental spray evolution in terms of penetrations and spatial/temporal fuel distributions. Then the Sandia combustion chamber was chosen for diesel spray simulation in non-reacting conditions.

The paper presents results of an experimental investigation of the fluid dynamic processes during the air/fuel mixture formation period between an evaporating diesel spray and swirl air flow under realistic engine conditions. Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) experiments have been carried out using an optically accessible prototype 2-stroke diesel engine equipped with a swirled combustion chamber. The flow within the chamber assumes a well structured swirl motion, similar to that developing in a real diesel engine, operating at high swirl ratio. The engine has been equipped with a common rail injection system and a solenoid-controlled injector, in use on automotive engines for the European market, able to manage multiple injection strategies. Two injector nozzles have been tested: a micro-sac 5-hole nozzle, 0.13 mm diameter, 150° spray angle and a 7-hole, 0.141 mm diameter, 148° spray angle.

Direct-injection technology represents today a very interesting solution to the typical problems that are generally encountered in SI, gas-fueled engines such as reduced volumetric efficiency, backfire and knock. However, development of suitable injection systems and combustion chamber geometry is necessary to optimize the fuel-air mixing and combustion processes. To this end, CFD models are widely applied even if the influence of the mesh structure, numerical and turbulence models on the computed results are still matter of investigation. In this work, a numerical methodology for the simulation of the gas exchange and injection processes in gas-fueled engines was developed within the Lib-ICE framework, which is a set of libraries and applications for IC engine modeling developed using the OpenFOAM® technology. The gas exchange and fuel injection processes were simulated into a four-valve, pent-roof hydrogen-fueled engine with optical access.

The air fuel mixing process of a small direct injection (d.i.) diesel engine, equipped with two different re-entrant combustion chambers and two nozzles having unlike spray angles, has been studied by integrated use of in-cylinder laser Doppler velocimetry (LDV) measurements, engine tests, and KIVA simulations. The LDV measurements have been carried out in an engine with optical access motored at 2200 rpm. The engine tests have been performed on a similar engine at the same speed, at fixed start of combustion, and different air-fuel ratio. The KIVA-II simulations have been made using as initial conditions the parameters determined by LDV and engine tests. The re-entrant bowl with higher levels of air velocity and turbulent kinetic energy at the time of injection gives the best performance. The nozzle having a spray angle of 150° which injects the fuel into the regions at higher turbulent kinetic energy lowers the smoke emission levels.

The paper illustrates an experimental and numerical investigation of the flow generated by an intake port model for a heavy duty direct injection (HDDI) Diesel engine. Tests were carried out on a steady state air flow test rig to evaluate the global fluid-dynamic efficiency of the intake system, made by a swirled and a directed port, in terms of mass flow rate, flow coefficients and swirl number. In addition, because the global coefficients are not able to give flow details, the Laser Doppler Anemometry (LDA) technique was applied to obtain the local distribution of the air velocity within a test cylinder. The steady state air flow rig, made by a blower and the intake port model mounted on a plexiglas cylinder with optical accesses, was assembled to supply the actual intake flow rate of the engine, setting the pressure drop across the intake ports atûP=300 and 500 mm of H2O.

In-cylinder cycle-resolved LDV measurements have been made in a diesel engine having a high-squish re-entrant combustion chamber with compression ratio of 21:1. The engine has been motored in the range of 1000 to 3000 rpm thanks to the use of self-lubricating seeding particles. Conventional ensemble-averaging and filtering techniques have been used for analyzing instantaneous velocity data obtained at two points along a diameter located in a horizontal plane at 5 mm below the engine head. The dependence of the mean motion and turbulence on engine speed has been evaluated. The effect of cut-off frequency selection on turbulence values has been also analyzed. Moreover, the Kolmogorov's -5/3 power domain has been investigated in detail by spectral analysis on the instantaneous velocity data.

In-cylinder measurements of turbulent integral length scales, carried out during the last 60 degrees of the compression stroke at 600 and 1,000 rpm by a two-probe volume LDV system, were used to assess the capability of the k-ε model used in KIVA-II code. The objective of the paper is to address the following question: what is the most reasonable definition of turbulent length scale in the k-ε model for engine applications? The answer derived from the comparison between KIVA predictions and experiments that showed a fair agreement between the computed turbulent length scale and the measured lateral integral length scale. The agreement is a result of proper choice of the initial swirl ratio and turbulent kinetic energy at inlet valve closure (IVC) by taking into account the LDV measurements and the value of the constant Cμε in the k-ε model equations that relates the turbulent length scale to k and ε.

Tangential component of velocity and turbulence were measured in three locations in the re-entrant combustion chamber of a motored single-cylinder d.i. Diesel engine (0.435 liter, 21:1 compression ratio) using a Laser Doppler Velocimetry system. Moreover, a modified LDV system with two-probe volume was used to measure directly lateral integral length scales of the velocity tangential component at two engine speeds. The measurements were made on a horizontal plane at 5 mm below the engine head from 100 degrees before TDC to 60 degrees after TDC of both the compression and expansion strokes. The engine was motored at 1,000 and 1,500 rpm respectively. An ensemble-averaging technique was performed to analyze the instantaneous velocity information supplied by two Burst Spectrum Analyzers. The lateral integral length scale was obtained from the integral of the spatial correlation coefficient of the velocity fluctuation for different separation.

Computations were carried out to simulate in-cylinder flow field and mixture preparation of a small port scavenged direct-injection two-stroke spark-ignition engine using a modified version of KIVA-3 code. Simulations of the interaction between air flow and fuel were performed on a commercial Piaggio (125 cc) motorcycle engine modified to operate with a hollow-cone injector located in different positions of the dome-shaped combustion chamber. The engine has a large exhaust port and five smaller transfer ports connecting the cylinder to the crankcase. The numerical grid of this complex geometry was obtained using an IBM grid generator based on the output of engine design by CATIA solution. To take into account the rapid distortion of flow, the standard k-ε turbulence model in KIVA-3 was replaced by the RNG k-ε model.