Carlo Alberto Rinaldini

CFD Analyses on 2-Stroke High Speed Diesel Engines

In recent years, interest has been growing in the 2-Stroke Diesel cycle, coupled to high speed engines. One of the most promising applications is on light aircraft piston engines, typically designed to provide a top brake power of 100-200 HP with a relatively low weight. The main advantage yielded by the 2-Stroke cycle is the possibility to achieve high power density at low crankshaft speed, allowing the propeller to be directly coupled to the engine, without a reduction drive. Furthermore, Diesel combustion is a good match for supercharging and it is expected to provide a superior fuel efficiency, in comparison to S.I. engines. However, the coupling of 2-Stroke cycle and Diesel combustion on small bore, high speed engines is quite complex, requiring a suitable support from CFD simulation. In this paper, a customized version of the KIVA-3v code (a CFD program for multidimensional analyses) has been used to address ports and combustion chamber design of a new project (a 3-cylinder 1.8L engine, with a power rating up to 150 HP). Multidimensional calculations have been supported by 1D engine cycle analyses, using GT-Power. Two types of combustion-scavenging system have been considered, both of them featuring direct injection: a configuration with exhaust poppet valves and another one with piston controlled ports. A development of both projects has been performed through a coupled 1d-3d computational approach. A first set of KIVA calculations has been performed, in order to characterize the scavenging and the port flow patterns of both configurations, considering three different operating conditions, representative an aircraft engine. Then, several combustion simulations have been run, for defining two chambers able to match the project goals (high fuel efficiency, limited in-cylinder peak-pressure). For the two best configurations, the most interesting calculation results are presented in the paper.

CFD Combustion and Emission Formation Modeling for a HSDI Diesel Engine Using Detailed Chemistry

In order to comply with current emissions regulations, a detailed analysis of the combustion and emission formation processes in the Diesel engines accounting for the effect of the main operating parameters is required. The present study is based both on 0D and 3D numerical simulations by compiling 0D chemical kinetics calculations for Diesel oil surrogate combustion and emission (soot, NOx) formation mechanisms to construct a φ-T (equivalence ratio - temperature) parametric map. In this map, the regions of emissions formation are depicted defining a possible optimal path between the regions by placing on the same map the engine operation conditions represented by the computational cells, whose parameters (equivalence ratio and temperature) are calculated by means of 3D engine modelling. Unlike previous approaches based on static parametric φ-T maps to analyze different combustion regimes and emission formations in Diesel engines, the present paper focuses on a construction of dynamic φ-T maps, in which the pressures and the elapsed times were taken in compliance with those calculated in the 3D engine simulations. The 0D chemical kinetics calculations have been performed by the SENKIN code of the Chemkin-2 library. In-cylinder conditions represented by computational cells with known φ and T are predicted using KIVA-3V code. When cells are plotted on the map, they identify the trajectories helping to navigate between the emissions regions by varying hardware and injection parameters. Sub-models of the KIVA-3V, rel. 2 code has been modified including spray atomization, droplet collision and evaporation, accounting for multi-component fuel vapor coupled with the improved versions of the chemistry/turbulence interaction model and new formulation of the combustion kinetics for the diesel oil surrogate (consisting in 70 species participating in 310 reactions). Simulations were performed for the HSDI 1.300 Fiat Diesel engine at optimized engine operating conditions and pilot injections. Finally, numerical results are compared with the experimental data on in-cylinder pressure, Rate of Heat Release, RoHR, and selected species distributions.Copyright

Optimization of a Supercharged Single Cylinder Engine for a Formula SAE Racing Car

The paper reviews the development and optimization of a SI high performance engine, to be used in Formula SAE/Student competitions. The base engine is a single cylinder Yamaha 660cc motorcycle unit, rated at about 48 HP at 6000rpm. Besides the reduction of engine capacity to 600cc and the mounting of the required restrictor, mechanical supercharging has been adopted in order to boost performance. The fluid-dynamic optimization of the engine system has been performed by means of 1D-CFD simulation, coupled to a single-objective genetic algorithm, developed by the authors. The optimization results have been compared to the ones obtained by a well known commercial optimization software, finding a good agreement. Experiments at the brake dynamometer have been carried out, in order to support engine modeling and to demonstrate the reliability of the optimization process.

Analysis of a HSDI Diesel Engine Intake System by Means of Multi-Dimensional Numerical Simulations: Influence of Non Uniform EGR Distribution

In order to comply with stringent pollutant emissions regulations a detailed analysis of the overall engine is required, assessing the mutual influence of its main operating parameters. The present study is focused on the investigation of the intake system under actual working conditions by means of 1D and 3D numerical simulations. Particularly, the effect of EGR distribution on engine performance and pollutants formation has been calculated for a production 6 cylinder HSDI Diesel engine in a EUDC operating point. Firstly a coupled 1D/3D simulation of the entire engine geometry has been carried out to estimate the EGR rate delivered to every cylinder; subsequently the in-cylinder flow field has been evaluated by simulating the intake and compression strokes. Finally the spray and combustion processes have been studied accounting for the real combustion chamber geometry and particularly the pollutants formation has been determined by using a detailed kinetic mechanism combustion model. The 1D/3D analysis highlighted a significant cylinder to cylinder EGR percentage variation affecting remarkably the pollutant emissions formation, as evaluated by the combustion process simulations. A combined use of commercial and in-house modified codes has been adopted.Copyright

Advances in The Design of Two-Stroke, High Speed, Compression Ignition Engines

An interesting concept in order to meet the conflicting requirements mentioned above is the 2-Stroke cycle combined to Compression Ignition. Such a concept is widely applied to large bore engines, on steady or naval power-plants, where the advantages versus the 4-Stroke cycle in terms of power density and fuel conversion efficiency (in some cases higher than 50% [1]) are well known. In fact, the double cycle frequency allows the de‐ signer to either downsize (i.e. reduce the displacement, for a given power target) or “down-speed” (i.e. reduce engine speed, for a given power target) the 2-stroke engine. Furthermore, mechanical efficiency can be strongly improved, for 2 reasons: i) the gas ex‐ change process can be completed with piston controlled ports, without the losses associ‐ ated to a valve-train; ii) the mechanical power lost in one cycle is about halved, in comparison to a 4-Stroke engine of same design and size, while the indicated power can be the same: as a result, the weight of mechanical losses is lower.

Combustion optimization of a marine di diesel engine

Enhanced calibration strategies and innovative engine combustion technologies are required to meet the new limits on exhaust gas emissions enforced in the field of marine propulsion and on-board energy production. The goal of the paper is to optimize the control parameters of a 4.2 dm3 unit displacement marine DI Diesel engine, in order to enhance the efficiency of the combustion system and reduce engine out emissions. The investigation is carried out by means of experimental tests and CFD simulations. For a better control of the testing conditions, the experimental activity is performed on a single cylinder prototype, while the engine test bench is specifically designed to simulate different levels of boosting. The numerical investigations are carried out using a set of different CFD tools: GT-Power for the engine cycle analysis, STAR-CD for the study of the in-cylinder flow, and a customized version of the KIVA-3V code for combustion. All the models are calibrated through the above mentioned experimental campaign. Then, CFD simulations are applied to optimize the injection parameters and to explore the potential of the Miller combustion concept. It is found that the reduction of the charge temperature, ensuing the adoption of an early intake valve closing strategy, strongly affects combustion. With a proper valve actuation strategy, an increase of boost pressure and an optimized injection advance, a 40% reduction of NOx emissions can be obtained, along with a significant reduction of in-cylinder peak pressure, without penalizing fuel efficiency.