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Efficient cooling of pistons with oil jets can avoid engine failures due to exceeded piston temperatures of thermally high-loaded combustion engines and can contribute to fuel consumption savings. To reduce expensive and time-consuming engine testing during product development, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations help to quantify the piston cooling performance and provide detailed insights into the complex interactions between oil, air, and piston already in the design phase. The durability of new piston design approaches, such as integrated advanced cooling galleries or highly resistant materials like steel, can be evaluated including the use of alternative fuels, such as compressed natural gas (CNG), hydrogen, alcohols, or e-fuels. A new CFD simulation methodology for oil-jet piston cooling has been developed to investigate the cooling efficiency considering various piston cooling geometries and operational parameters.

There is no doubt that the modern internal combustion engine (ICE) is approaching its theoretical limits in terms of efficiency. Owed to the fact that the conversion of fuel-bound chemical energy into effectively usable power by combustion is largely defined by the fuel properties, the combustion process and the implicit phenomenon of abnormal combustion is a governing factor that limits further efficiency increases. However, the use of a knock-resistant fuel such as methane is leading to a significant raise in the average combustion pressure and total engine efficiency. In turn this requires a base engine architecture that is specially designed to cater the increased thermal and mechanical requirements so that the positive fuel properties can be fully exploited. Furthermore, an improvement of the energy balance is achieved by utilizing the kinetic energy stored in the vehicle by means of electrical recovery.

A new CFD simulation model and methodology for oil jet piston cooling has been developed using the modern level set approach. In contrast to the widely used volume of fluid (VOF) method, the level set approach explicitly tracks the interface surface between oil and air, using an additional field equation. The method has been extensively tested on two- and three-dimensional examples using results from literature for comparison. Furthermore, several applications of oil jet piston cooling on Ford engines have been investigated and demonstrated. For example, three-dimensional simulations of piston cooling nozzle jets on a diesel engine have been calculated and compared to test-rig measurements. Laminar jets, as well as jets with droplets and fully atomized jets, have been simulated using realistic material properties, surface tension, and gravity.

The performance of modern boosted gasoline engines is limited at high loads by knock, stochastic Low Speed Pre-Ignition as well as megaknock. The main objective of the present work is to develop a predictive combustion model to investigate auto-ignition and megaknock events at high load conditions in gasoline engines. A quasi one-dimensional combustion simulation tool has been developed to model abnormal combustion events in gasoline engines using detailed chemical kinetics and a multi zone wall heat transfer model. The model features six boundary layers representing specific geometrical features such as liner and piston with individual wall temperatures and chemistry to accurately track the individual zone’s thermodynamic properties. The accuracy of the utilized auto-ignition and one-dimensional spark ignition combustion models was demonstrated by validating against experimental data.

Modern cylinder-head designs for gasoline engines are guiding the exhaust gas to the turbocharger system via an integrated exhaust manifold (IEM) which has several advantages like weight and cost reduction. On the other hand, the exhaust ports are running through a package labyrinth and are heavily bent within smallest space. Increased pressure drop, reduced mass flow rate, and deteriorated port flow efficiency could be the consequences leading to higher emissions, increased fuel consumption, and higher knock sensitivity. The optimization of the individual ports by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is a proper means to minimize or even delete these drawbacks. Meanwhile, there are several powerful optimization methods for three-dimensional flows on the market. In this paper, a combined optimization strategy using CFD topology optimization followed by a shape optimization is presented.

The performance of boosted gasoline engines is limited at high loads by knock, stochastic Low Speed Pre-Ignition, and Megaknock. An investigation has been carried out on the occurrence of abnormal combustion and megaknock in a 1.6 L GTDI engine with the aim to determine the causes of such phenomena. A classification of abnormal combustion events and causes is presented in order to facilitate a consistent terminology. The experiments specifically focus on the effects of exhaust residual gas on occurrence of megaknock in multi-cylinder engines. The results showed that while a misfire will not lead to megaknock, a very late combustion in one cycle, in one cylinder may lead to megaknock in the following cycle in the same or adjacent cylinder. Additionally, a recently developed multi-zone model was used to analyze the role of residual gas on auto-ignition.

A fundamental requirement for natural gas (NG) and renewable methane (e.g. bio-methane or power-to-gas methane) as automotive fuel is reliable knock resistance; to enable optimization of dedicated NG engines with high compression ratio and high turbocharger boost (which enables considerable engine downsizing factors). In order to describe the knock resistance of NG, the Methane Number (MN) has been introduced. The lowest MN which generally can be found in any NG is 65, and the vast majority of NG (~ 99.8%) is delivered with a MN above 70. The MN of bio-methane and power-to-gas methane is usually far above 80. Thus, from an automotive point of view any methane fuel should at least provide a minimum Methane Number of 70 at any point of sale. But the European draft standard describing the automotive CNG fuel quality so far proposes a minimum MN limit of 65.