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Legislative challenges, changing customer needs and the opportunities opened-up by electrification are the major driving forces in today’s automotive industry. Fuel cell vehicles offer the potential for CO2 emission free mobility, especially attractive for heavy duty long-haul range application. The development of key components of fuel cell powered vehicles, namely the fuel cell stack itself as well as the related hydrogen/air supply and thermal management sub-systems, goes hand in hand with various challenges regarding performance, lifetime and safety. The proper layout and sizing of the stack and the related fuel and air supply system components, as well as the suitable dimensioning of the cooling system, are decisive for the overall system efficiency and achievable lifetime.

This paper presents a newly developed quasi-dimensional multi-zone dual fuel combustion model, which has been integrated within the commercial engine system simulation framework. Model is based on the modified Multi-Zone Combustion Model and Fractal Combustion Model. Modified Multi-Zone Combustion Model handles the part of the combustion process that is governed by the mixing-controlled combustion, while the modified Fractal Combustion Model handles the part that is governed by the flame propagation through the combustion chamber. The developed quasi-dimensional dual fuel combustion model features phenomenological description of spray processes, i.e. liquid spray break-up, fresh charge entrainment, droplet heat-up and evaporation process. In order to capture the chemical effects on the ignition delay, special ignition delay table has been made.

Commonly, the spray process in Direct Injection (DI) diesel engines is modeled with the Euler Lagrangian discrete droplet approach which has limited validity in the dense spray region, close to the injector nozzle hole exit. In the presented research, a new reactive spray modelling method has been developed and used within the 3D RANS CFD framework. The spray process was modelled with the Euler Eulerian multiphase approach, extended to the size-of-classes approach which ensures reliable interphase momentum transfer description. In this approach, both the gas and the discrete phase are considered as continuum, and divided into classes according to the ascending droplet diameter. The combustion process was modelled by taking into account chemical kinetics and by solving general gas phase reaction equations.

In the present work, a scalable simulation methodology is presented that enables the assessment of the impact of SI-engine cycle-to-cycle combustion variations on fuel consumption and hence CO2 emissions on three different levels of modeling depth: in-cylinder, steady-state engine and transient engine and vehicle simulation. On the detailed engine combustion chamber level, a 3D-CFD approach is used to study the impact of the turbulent in-cylinder flow on the cycle-resolved flame propagation characteristics. On engine level, cycle-to-cycle combustion variations are assessed regarding their impact on indicated mean effective pressure, aiming at estimating the possible fuel consumption savings when cyclic variations are minimized. Finally, on the vehicle system level, a combined real-time engine approach with crank-angle resolved cylinder is used to assess the potential fuel consumption savings for different vehicle drivecycle conditions.

This paper outlines an improved computational methodology to simulate the immersion quenching heat transfer characteristics. Main applicability of the presented method lays in virtual experimental investigation of the heat treatment of cast aluminum parts, above all cylinder heads of internal combustion engines. The boiling phase change process between the heated part and a sub-cooled liquid domain is handled by using the Eulerian multi-fluid modeling approach, which is implemented within the commercial Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code AVL FIRE®. Solid and liquid domains are treated simultaneously. While for the fluid domain mass, momentum and energy equations are solved in the context of multi-fluid modeling approach, only the energy equation is solved to predict the thermal field in the solid region. For the presented quenching simulation, the solid and fluid parts are contained in a single domain.

In spark-ignition engines, fluctuations of the in-cylinder pressure trace and the apparent rate of heat release are usually observed from one cycle to another. These Cycle-to-Cycle Variations (CCV) are affected by the early flame development and the subsequent flame front propagation. The CCV are responsible for engine performance (e.g. fuel consumption) and the knock behavior. The occurrence of the phenomena is unpredictable and the stochastic nature offers challenges in the optimization of engine control strategies. In the present work, CCV are analyzed in terms of their impact on the engine knock behavior and the related efficiency. Target is to estimate the possible fuel consumption savings in steady-state operation and in the drivecycle, when CCV are reduced. Since CCV are immanent on real engines, such a study can only be done by means of simulation.

The presented paper deals with a methodology to model cycle-to-cycle variations (CCV) in 0-D/1-D simulation tools. This is achieved by introducing perturbations of combustion model parameters. To enable that, crank angle resolved data of individual cycles (pressure traces) have to be available for a reasonable number of engine cycles. Either experimental data or 3-D CFD results can be applied. In the presented work, experimental data of a single-cylinder research engine were considered while predicted LES 3-D CFD results will be tested in the future. Different engine operating points were selected - both stable ones (low CCV) and unstable ones (high CCV). The proposed methodology consists of two major steps. First, individual cycle data have to be matched with the 0-D/1-D model, i.e., combustion model parameters are varied to achieve the best possible match of pressure traces - an automated optimization approach is applied to achieve that.

A Large-Eddy-Simulation (LES) approach is applied to the calculation of multiple SI-engine cycles in order to study the causes of cycle-to-cycle combustion variations. The single-cylinder research engine adopted in the present study is equipped with direct fuel-injection and variable valve timing for both the intake and exhaust side. Operating conditions representing cases with considerably different scatter of the in-cylinder pressure traces are selected to investigate the causes of the cycle-to-cycle combustion variations. In the simulation the engine is represented by a coupled 1D/3D-CFD model, with the combustion chamber and the intake/exhaust ports modeled in 3D-CFD, and the intake/exhaust pipework set-up adopting a 1D-CFD approach. The adopted LES flow model is based upon the well-established Smagorinsky approach. Simulation of the fuel spray propagation process is based upon the discrete droplet model.

The present paper deals with the application of the LES approach to in-cylinder flow modeling. The main target is to study cycle-to-cycle variability (CCV) using 3D-CFD simulation. The engine model is based on a spark-ignited single-cylinder research engine. The results presented in this paper cover the motored regime aiming at analysis of the cycle-resolved local flow properties at the spark plug close to firing top dead center. The results presented in this paper suggest that the LES approach adopted in the present study is working well and that it predicts CCV and that the qualitative trends are in-line with established knowledge of internal combustion engine (ICE) in-cylinder flow. The results are evaluated from a statistical point of view based on calculations of many consecutive cycles (at least 10).

A methodology to simulate the injection process in the internal combustion (IC) engines by means of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is presented. Entire sequence of the gasoline injection processes, starting with a transient injector-flow simulation and continuing with break-up and spray propagation using AVL FIRE, is shown. In the first part, a multidimensional model for the cavitating flow in a multi-hole gasoline injector is presented, based on the two-fluid model and capable to simulate N-phase systems. Considered fluid components are liquid fuel and fuel vapor. Momentum and mass exchange between the two phases are accounted for. In the second part of the work, the link between nozzle flow and spray formation is established performing simulations including the break-up model. This calculates the initial conditions for the spray droplets, e.g., size and velocity, based on the local turbulent kinetic energy (TKE), velocity and phase distribution at the nozzle orifice.

A series calculation methodology from the injector nozzle internal flow to the in-cylinder fuel spray and mixture formation in a diesel engine was developed. The present method was applied to a valve covered orifice (VCO) nozzle with the recent common rail injector system. The nozzle internal flow calculation using an Eulerian three-fluid model and a cavitation model was performed. The needle valve movement during the injection period was taken into account in this calculation. Inside the nozzle hole, cavitation appears at the nozzle hole inlet edge, and the cavitation region separates into two regions due to a secondary flow in the cross section, and it is distributed to the nozzle exit. Unsteady change of the secondary flow caused by needle movement affects the cavitation distribution in the nozzle hole, and the spread angle of the velocity vector at the nozzle exit.

In the near future the effort on the development of exhaust gas treatment systems must be increased to meet the stringent emission requirements. If the relevant physical and chemical models are available, the numerical simulation is an important tool for the design of these systems. This work presents a CFD model that allows to cover the full range of applications in this area. After a detailed presentation of the theoretical background and the modeling strategies results for the simulation of a close-coupled catalyst are shown. The presented model is also applied to the oxidation of nitrogen oxides, to a diesel particle filter and a fuel-cell reformer catalyst.

In a consortium of European industrial partners and research institutes, a combination of industrial development and scientific research was organised. The objective was to improve the catalytic NOx conversion for lean burn cars and heavy-duty trucks, taking into account boundary conditions for the fuel consumption. The project lasted for three years. During this period parallel research was conducted in research areas ranging from basic research based on a theoretical approach to full scale emission system development. NOx storage catalysts became a central part of the project. Catalysts were evaluated with respect to resistance towards sulphur poisoning. It was concluded that very low sulphur fuel is a necessity for efficient use of NOx trap technology. Additionally, attempts were made to develop methods for reactivating poisoned catalysts. Methods for short distance mixing were developed for the addition of reducing agent.

A probability density function method for turbulent reacting flows has been implemented into the CFD code FIRE in order to enable simulation of SI engine combustion under premixed, partially premixed and fully stratified charge conditions. In order to assess the accuracy of the computational method, different aspects of SI engine combustion have been numerically studied under premixed charge conditions for varying mixture composition and engine operation parameters. Calculated flame propagation characteristics, local flame front speeds and global heat release results are presented and compared to the corresponding experimental data for variations in fuel to air equivalence ratio, residual gas mass fraction, engine speed and load. Good overall agreement between the numerical and experimental results is obtained for the operating conditions considered.