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Large Eddy Simulations of atomization and evaporation of liquid fuel sprays in diesel engine conditions are performed with stochastic breakup and non-equilibrium droplet heat and mass transfer models. The size and number density of the droplets generated by the breakup model are assumed to be governed by a Fokker-Planck equation, describing the evolution of the PDF of droplet radii. The fragmentation intensity spectrum is considered to be Gaussian and the scale of Lagrangian relative velocity fluctuations is included in the breakup frequency calculations. The aerodynamic interactions of droplets in the dense part of the spray are modeled by correcting the relative velocity of droplets in the wake of other droplets. The stochastic breakup model is employed together with the wake interaction model for simulations of non-evaporating and evaporating sprays in various gas temperature and pressure conditions.

This paper focuses on the numerical investigation of the mixing and combustion of ethanol and gasoline in a single-cylinder 3-valve direct-injection spark-ignition engine. The numerical simulations are conducted with the KIVA code with global reaction models. However, an ignition delay model mitigates some of the deficiencies of the global one-step reaction model and is implemented via a two-dimensional look-up table, which was created using available detailed kinetics models. Simulations demonstrate the problems faced by ethanol operated engines and indicate that some of the strategies used for emission control and downsizing of gasoline engines can be employed for enhancing the combustion efficiency of ethanol operated engines.

A multicomponent droplet evaporation model which discretizes the one-dimensional mass and temperature profiles inside a droplet with a finite volume method has been developed and implemented into a large-eddy simulation (LES) model for spray simulations. The LES and multicomponent models were used along with the KH-RT secondary droplet breakup model to simulate realistic fuel sprays in a closed vessel. The effect of various spray and ambient gas parameters on the liquid penetration length of different single component and multicomponent fuels was investigated. The numerical results indicate that the spray penetration length decreases non-linearly with increasing gas temperature or pressure and is less sensitive to changes in ambient gas conditions at higher temperatures or pressures. The spray models and LES were found to predict the experimental results for n-hexadecane and two multicomponent surrogate diesel fuels reasonably well.