In-cylinder Tumble Research Articles

Effects of injection timing on mixture formation, combustion, and emission characteristics in a n-butanol direct injection spark ignition engine

The impact of injection timings on the in-cylinder flow field intensity, mixture formation process, combustion, and emission characteristics are analyzed. The range of injection timing is set between −320°CA and −260°CA. The research results indicate: Delaying the injection timing causes the spray plumes increasingly align with the tumble direction, consequently enhancing the in-cylinder tumble intensity and the turbulence near the spark timing. The mixture homogeneity is influenced by both the formation time and the in-cylinder flow field intensity. Moreover, combustion performance is linked to the homogeneity of the mixture and turbulence intensity near the spark timing. Despite the fact that postponed injection may augment both turbulence intensity and the equivalent ratio around the spark plug at the moment of spark, achieving higher explosion pressure, but the higher viscosity of n-butanol impedes droplet break-up, and its low volatility decelerates the evaporation rate, leading to poorer mixture homogeneity, reduced BMEP, and increased CO and soot emissions. However, at −300°CA start of injection, the extended mixing time optimizes the fuel-air mixture homogeneity, thus improving combustion quality and reducing CO, soot, and HC emissions, albeit leading to increased NOx emissions.

The Effect of Curve Cylinder Liner on in-Cylinder Tumble Flow Motion Characteristic using CFD Port Flow Simulation

One crucial task in determining maximum engine output performance is evaluating its respiration capacity. While the steady state flow bench is a commonly used tool in the automotive industry, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) provides a more detailed and comprehensive analysis of flow characteristics within the cylinder compared to experiments. The objective of this paper is to investigate the impact of curve cylinder liners on flow motion characteristics. Using both experimental and CFD methods, this study examines the effect of curve liners on tumble flow motion at different valve lifts and pressure differences. Scalar maps were analysed to understand the behaviour of flow, and the findings indicate that the air velocity measured at the intake port was consistent between both methods, permitting further CFD analysis. Results show that air velocity measured at the intake port was consistent between both methods, allowing for further CFD analysis. Differences in average velocities between liners were insignificant at lower valve lifts, but noticeable at higher valve lifts, with up to a 15.67% difference recorded when the curve wall assisted air flow, resulting in an increase in air rotational strength. In addition, curve liners produced 11.44% and 10.09% more turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) than straight liners for 150mmH2O and 600mmH2O, respectively, with Plane 2 exhibiting the most significant difference in average TKE. Finally, the tumble ratio produced within the curve cylinder was significantly higher than the slider cylinder liner, with differences of up to 17.03% and 11.04% found at higher valve lift (5.4mm) for 150mmH2O and 600mmH2O, respectively.

On the Use of LES and 3D Empirical Mode Decomposition for Analyzing Cycle-to-Cycle Variations of In-Cylinder Tumbling Flow

On the Use of LES and 3D Empirical Mode Decomposition for Analyzing Cycle-to-Cycle Variations of In-Cylinder Tumbling Flow

Analysis of a tumbling motion using a clustering algorithm on dual-piv measurements: application to the in-cylinder flow of a miller cycle engine

This paper aims to study the internal aerodynamics of a Miller cycle gasoline engine. This cycle uses an over-expanded stroke to recover more work, for the same amount of fuel, than the classical Otto cycle. To achieve this, the effective compression stroke is made smaller than the expansion one by closing the intake valves prematurely. The in-cylinder tumble flow then stops being driven by the valve jet before the piston reaches the bottom dead center, which disturbs the movement. The flow is observed here on a motored single-cylinder transparent engine coupled to a dual-PIV system. This system allows two velocity fields per engine cycle to be measured. The temporal evolution of the flow structures could thus be followed, while keeping the high number of instantaneous fields measured by the traditional PIV systems. The data are then well adapted to statistical analysis. A clustering analysis method, using the k-means algorithm and adapted to dual-PIV data, is described here. The first part presents a method defining a criterion on the instantaneous center of rotation of the tumble motion that can improve the rotation rates by 17%. A second analysis classifies the velocity fields into three groups of strong, medium and weak rotation intensity. The evolution of the characteristic quantities of each group shows that the movements with high rotation rates, created upstream of the compression phase, can give high turbulence rates close to the top dead center of the piston.Graphical abstract

Combustion optimization for fuel economy improvement of a dedicated range-extender engine

In this study, the combustion system of a dedicated range-extender engine was optimized based on a production engine for fuel economy improvement with the use of enhanced tumble flow, higher compression ratio, Atkinson cycle and exhaust gas recirculation (EGR). First, the shape of the intake port was optimized to improve in-cylinder tumble and turbulence for combustion enhancement. The computational fluid dynamics (CFD) results showed that compared to the original intake port, the peak tumble ratio during the compression stroke of the new port is improved by 74.0%, and the turbulent kinetic energy at the spark timing is increased by 33.0%, and the results were verified through the flow test bench experiment. The dyno experiment showed that, with the new intake port, the engine brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC) was improved for all test conditions. Then, the late intake valve closing (IVC) and a higher compression ratio were used in combination to adopt the Atkinson cycle. The IVC timing was set to 642° ATDC based on the preset power target. And the compression ratio was set to 12 to balance knock tendency and BSFC improvement. Finally, the cooled EGR was optimized to further suppress the knocking tendency to improve fuel consumption. The results showed that, with the cooling Strategy 2, the attainable maximum EGR ratio at 2400 rpm full load and 70 Nm conditions was increased, the spark timing could be significantly advanced, and the BSFC was improved. The improvement of BSFC is between 6 g/kW·h and 13 g/kW·h for the load range from 40 Nm to the full load. After the optimization, the minimum BSFC of the range-extender engine reaches 233 g/kW·h, while it is around 242 g/kW·h for the base engine. The operation area where fuel consumption is lower than 240 g/kW·h becomes much wider.

Combined effects of internal exhaust gas recirculation and tumble motion generation in a flex-fuel direct injection engine

The increasing demands placed on the global automotive industry for reducing the environmental impact of its activities have stimulated changes in the concept and design of internal combustion engines. Seeking to comply with a more sustainable future of mobility, the purpose of the present work is to study the impacts of exhaust gas recirculation, combined with changes in the in-cylinder primary flow structure, in the experimental operation of a single-cylinder research engine. The two main fuels for the Brazilian light-vehicle fleet, gasohol (E27) and bioethanol derived from sugarcane (E100), were directly injected in the tests. After performing a baseline calibration to investigate the best valve timing setup for the camshaft in order to optimize the trapped EGR, the induced tumble motion proved to be an effective method to speed up the combustion flame propagation, enhancing the fuel conversion efficiency. The results showed up to 10% fuel consumption reduction, lower exhaust pollutant emissions of CO2, CO, NOX and HC when compared to the baseline engine experiments. Improvements in combustion phasing were observed, with the CoV of IMEP always remaining below the upper limit of 3.5%. The internal EGR combination with in-cylinder tumble flow was a powerful strategy to enhance the overall engine efficiency whilst minimizing its environmental impact, especially for the ethanol-fueled tests, in which the compression ratio was raised from 11.5 to 15.0.

Temporal evolution analysis of in-cylinder flow by means of proper orthogonal decomposition

In-cylinder flow fields and their temporal evolution have strong effect on the combustion dynamics of internal combustion engines. Proper orthogonal decomposition is a statistical tool to analyze these flow fields by decomposing them into flow patterns (known as proper orthogonal decomposition modes) and corresponding coefficients with their contribution to the ensemble flow kinetic energy successively maximized. However, neither of the two prevailing proper orthogonal decomposition approaches satisfactorily describes the temporal behavior of the flow fields. The phase-dependent proper orthogonal decomposition approach is limited to analyzing spatial flow structures at a certain engine phase. The phase-invariant proper orthogonal decomposition approach attempts to account for both spatial and temporal variations, but at the expense of diminished statistical and physical significance. In this article, we seek to understand the temporal behavior of tumble flow fields by analyzing the evolution of low-order phase-dependent proper orthogonal decomposition modes over multiple crank angles. The concept of relevance index is first generalized to enable comparison between two vectorial fields of different sizes. This metric is then used to quantify the directional similarities between the two lowest proper orthogonal decomposition modes obtained at sequential crank angles. The mode shapes are observed to evolve gradually and naturally over most crank angles, but change significantly at certain crank angles during intake. The results indicate that each of the low-order modes features strong velocity fluctuations in different regions of the tumble plane, and different numbers of modes are needed to represent the dominant features of tumble flow at different engine phases. Based on this understanding, we propose to use the partial sum of those proper orthogonal decomposition modes and their coefficients to form a low-order approximation model of the in-cylinder tumble flow, in order to reduce flow field complexity and noise while retaining its major spatial and temporal features.

Investigation of Homogeneous Lean SI Combustion in High Load Operating Conditions

<div class="section abstract"><div class="htmlview paragraph">Homogeneous lean combustion (HLC) can be utilized to substantially improve spark ignited (SI) internal combustion engine efficiency. Higher efficiency is vital to enable clean, efficient and affordable propulsion for the next generation light duty vehicles. More research is needed to ensure robustness, fuel efficiency/NO<sub>x</sub> trade-off and utilization of HLC. Utilization can be improved by expanding the HLC operating window to higher engine torque domains which increases impact on real driving. The authors have earlier assessed boosted HLC operation in a downsized two-litre engine, but it was found that HLC operation could not be achieved above 15 bar NMEP due to instability and knocking combustion. The observation led to the conclusion that there exists a lean load limit. Therefore, further experiments have been conducted in a single cylinder research DISI engine to increase understanding of high load lean operation. HLC is known to suppress end-gas autoignition (knock) by decreasing reactivity and temperatures, but during the experiments knock was observed to be prominent and increasing in severity when engine load was increased despite operating ultra-lean close to lambda 2. Knock is normally mitigated by spark retardation which decreases peak cylinder pressure. However, to maintain stable combustion at lambda = 2 the combustion phasing had to be kept close to TC which resulted in high peak cylinder pressures. Therefore, the combustion event had to be balanced in a window where early combustion promoted knock and late resulted in instability and partial burns. A tumble flap was introduced to increase in-cylinder tumble which reduced knock and improved combustion stability. It could be observed that for most load-points assessed; increased tumble could suppress knock and increase the air-dilution limit which proved beneficial in decreasing the NO<sub>x</sub> emissions. The highest engine load that could be achieved with highly diluted combustion was 16 bar NMEP.</div></div>

Combustion chamber design for a high-performance natural gas engine: CFD modeling and experimental investigation

Abstract The present paper is focused on the development of a high-performance, monofuel, spark ignition engine running on natural gas, featuring a high volumetric compression ratio and a variable valve actuation system. More specifically, the cylinder head geometry effect has been analyzed and the compression ratio has been optimized by means of steady-state and transient simulation activity, as well as of an extensive experimental campaign. The compression ratio effect was mainly investigated by means of experimental tests but a few 3D simulations were also run in order to quantify its impact on the in-cylinder tumble and turbulence. The main novelty of the paper are, first, the adoption of very high engine compression ratio values, second, the combined optimization of the cylinder head design and compression ratio. The main results can be summarized as follows. The engine configuration with mask showed a decrease in the average discharge coefficient by 20–30% and an increase in the tumble ratio by around 200% at partial load. Moreover, the simulation of the engine cycle indicated that the presence of the piston modifies the tumble structure with respect to the steady-state simulation case. An increase in the tumble number and turbulence intensity by around 90% and 10%, respectively, are obtained for the case with mask at 2000 rpm and 4 bar. With reference to the combustion duration, on an average, the presence of the masking surface led to a reduction of the combustion duration (from 1% to 50% of mass fraction burned) between 2 and 6 degrees. As far as the engine compression ratio is concerned, the value of 13 was finally selected as the best compromise between combustion variability, engine performance at full load and fuel consumption at partial load.

Effects of the variable valve lift difference on in-cylinder gas flow in a four-valve gasoline engine

The in-cylinder gas flow is an important factor that affects the engine performance. The appropriate swirl can reduce cycle-to-cycle variations, increase flame propagation speed, and improve the combustion efficiency. Many technologies can induce significant swirl, but lead to intake flow loss. In this research work, the variable valve lift difference adjustment mechanism is developed to obtain and adjust in-cylinder swirl without weakening flow capacity in a four-valve gasoline engine. The in-cylinder swirl and tumble characteristics generated by the variable valve lift difference adjustment mechanism are studied by means of experiment and simulation. The results of the experiment and simulation show the intensity of tumble and swirl under the larger lift valve is increased with the increase in the phase difference between two intake cams at same camshaft angle, and a large-scale swirl is formed in the cylinder when the camshaft angles change from 40° to 80°, and another large scale swirl is formed during the camshaft angles change from 100° to 140°, but the rotating direction of the secondary swirl is inverse to that of first swirl. The scale and shape of the in-cylinder tumble and swirl are not changed significantly with the increase in the phase difference between two intake cams when the camshaft angles change from 80° to 100°. A brief discussion on the research results that improve the performance of actual gasoline engine is given.

Effect of boost pressure on the in-cylinder tumble- motion of GDI engine under steady-state conditions using Stereoscopic-PIV

This paper experimentally investigates the effect of boost pressure on the in-cylinder flow field under steadystate conditions using stereoscopic particle image velocimetry (Stereo-PIV) through increasing the pressure difference across the intake valves. The FEV steady-state flow bench was modified to provide an optical access into the cylinder region. The stereoscopic PIV measurements were carried out at various pressure differences viz., 300, 450, and 600 mmH2O across the intake valves of Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) head for the mid cylinder vertical tumble-plane. Ensemble average velocity vectors were used to characterize the tumble flow structure and for the calculation of tumble ratio and average turbulent kinetic energy. Moreover, the Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) technique was conducted on the PIV measured velocity vector maps to identify the most energetic structures generated at different valve lifts and pressure differences. The results of stereoscopic PIV measurements showed that the overall in-cylinder flow structures were mainly dependent on the valve lift irrespective of the applied pressure difference. However, the level of the turbulence kinetic energy increased as the boost pressure increased. © 2018, Isfahan University of Technology.

PIV measurements and numerical analysis of in-cylinder tumble flow in a motored engine

The purpose of this study is to present an experimental methodology and a numerical analysis to characterize the in-cylinder tumbling flow generated by a motored four-valve spark ignition single-cylinder optical engine. High-speed two-dimensional particle image velocimetry measurements were made in the symmetry vertical plane between the inlet and outlet valves. The velocity flow fields were recorded during the intake and compression strokes for three different engine speeds (1000, 1500, and 2000 rpm) at several crank angles. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations were carried out using the Star-CD software with es-ICE module, and the two different turbulence models, RNG–k–e and k–w SST, were analyzed with experimental data of the engine running at 1000 rpm in motored conditions. Regarding experimental results, vorticity, tumble ratio, and kinetic energy were calculated and compared. The initially large mean kinetic energy and tumble ratio, which is caused by the high-velocity jets of the inlet valves and in-cylinder bulk flow, decrease during intake in response to the piston motion. The air jet entering the cylinder space strikes the piston top surface generating a counter-clockwise rotating tumble vortex. Flow field cyclic variation could be noticed and quantified. In addition, an evolution analysis of the main vortex center and engine speed influence were made. Moreover, a qualitative analysis of the CFD scalar flow field in the region of interest is presented. The numerical results showed a better agreement with the RNG–k–e and experimental mean velocity magnitude curve than k–ω–SST. However, the qualitative scalar velocity field of the k–ω model captured more details of the flow than the k–e model. The methodology contributes to a better understanding of flow motion behavior, piston speed and valve timing influences, and, consequently, the mixture formation process in spark ignition engines.

Investigation of the Effect of the In-Cylinder Tumble Motion on Cycle-to-Cycle Variations in a Direct Injection Spark Ignition (DISI) Engine Using Large Eddy Simulation (LES)

Cycle-to-cycle variations (CCVs) limit the extension of the operating range by inducing load variations and even misfire and/or knock for direct injection spark ignition (DISI) engines and hence need to be controlled. One of the effective and flexible ways to reduce CCV is to employ a charge motion control valve. This study is aimed to analyze the flow characteristics and CCV using large eddy simulation (LES) and fast Fourier transform (FFT) in a non-reacting, DISI engine equipped with a tumble flap (i.e., a specific type of charge motion control valve) inside the intake port. The in-cylinder flow characteristics are analyzed in detail, and the possible effects of multi-scale structures of the fluid field on the subsequent ignition and combustion processes are also discussed. Computational results indicate that closing the tumble flap helps enhance the intensity of the coherent structures and increase the total integral length scale (ILS) while decreasing the Kolmogorov scale and stabilizing the flow field by suppressing the CCV of tumble ratio and tumble center. Furthermore, based on a newly developed FFT triple decomposition, each instantaneous flow field is decomposed into three subfields, termed ensemble mean part and low- and high-spatial frequency parts, respectively. It is found that switching the tumble flap position greatly affects the first two subfields, but it has negligible effect on the last part. With the closed tumble flap, the energy portion of the mean part increases, the rate of energy decay reduces, and the CCV of the low- and high-spatial frequency parts decreases.

An Investigation into In-Cylinder Tumble Flow Characteristics with Variable Valve Lift in a Gasoline Engine

In this paper, the investigation into in-cylinder tumble flow characteristics with reduced Maximum Valve Lifts (MVL) is presented. The experimental work was conducted in a modified four-valve Spark-Ignition (SI) test engine, with optical accesses for measuring in-cylinder air motion in the vertical direction. Three different MVL of 6.8 mm, 4.0 mm and 1.7 mm were tested and Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) was employed for those measurements. Measurement results were analysed by examining the tumble flow field, the tumble ratio variation and the fluctuating kinetic energy distribution. Meanwhile, a numerical analysis method for detecting the vortex centre was developed. From results of the vortex centre distribution, the cyclic variation of the in-cylinder flow was explored. The phase-averaged flow fields show that higher MVLs could produce stronger vertical flows which turn more toward to the piston top and finally are possible to form big scale tumble flow structure. Although lower MVLs create a higher tumble ratio when the piston is close to the Bottom Dead Centre (BDC), higher MVLs substantially produce higher tumble ratios when the piston is moving close to the Top Dead Centre (TDC). In terms of kinetic energy, lower MVLs result in higher values including higher total kinetic energy and higher fluctuating energy. Finally, the vortex centres results demonstrate lower MVLs could enhance cycle-to-cycle variation due to the weakened tumble vortex.

Effects of intake flow and coolant temperature on the spatial fuel distribution in a direct-injection gasoline engine by PLIF technique

The spatial fuel distributions of the homogeneous and stratified charge of a high pressure 6-hole injector were examined in a single cylinder optical direct injection spark ignition (DISI) engine. The effects of in-cylinder charge motion, fuel injection pressure and coolant temperature were investigated using a planar laser induced fluorescence (PLIF) technique. It was found that in the case of homogeneous charge mode, early injection in the intake stroke generated similar fuel distributions at the crank angle of 12° BTDC regardless of the in-cylinder air motion at the coolant temperature of 90°C. In the case of stratified charge mode, the in-cylinder tumble flow played more effective role in mixture preparation than the swirl flow during the compression stroke; and the increase of the coolant temperature improved fuel evaporation; but the increase of the fuel supplying pressure could not change the pattern of the fuel vapour distribution against the expectation.

Stereoscopic multi-planar PIV measurements of in-cylinder tumbling flow

The non-reacting flow field within the combustion chamber of a motored direct-injection spark-ignition engine with tumble intake port is measured. The three-dimensionality of the flow necessitates the measurement of all three velocity components via stereoscopic particle-image velocimetry in multiple planes. Phase-locked stereoscopic PIV is applied at 15 crank angles during the intake and compression strokes, showing the temporal evolution of the flow field. The flow fields are obtained within a set of 14 axial planes, covering nearly the complete cylinder volume. The stereoscopic PIV setup applied to engine in-cylinder flow and the arising problems and solutions are discussed in detail. The three-dimensional flow field is reconstructed and analyzed using vortex criteria. The tumble vortex is the dominant flow structure, and this vortex varies significantly regarding shape, strength, and position throughout the two strokes. The tumble vortex center moves clockwise through the combustion chamber. At first, the tumble has a c-shape which turns into an almost straight tube at the end of the compression. Small-scale structures are analyzed by the distribution of the turbulent kinetic energy. It is evident that the symmetry plane only represents the 3D flow field after 100 CAD. For earlier crank angles, both kinetic energy (KE) and turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) in the combustion chamber are well below the KE and TKE in the symmetry plane. This should be taken into account when the injection and breakup of the three-dimensional fuel jet are studied. The mean kinetic energy is conserved until late compression by the tumble motion. This conservation ensures through the excited air motion an enhancement of the initial air-fuel mixture which is of interest for direct-injection gasoline engines.

6공 연료분사기를 장착한 DISI 엔진 내 균질급기의 연료증기 분포 특성

The spatial fuel vapor distribution of the homogeneous charge by a 6-hole injector was examined in a optically accessed single cylinder direct injection spark ignition(DISI) engine. The effects of in-cylinder charge motion, and fuel injection pressure, and coolant temperature were investigated using a planar LIF (Laser Induced Fluorescence) technique. It was confirmed that the in-cylinder tumble flow played a little more effective role in the spatial fuel vapor distribution than the swirl flow during the compression stroke at 10 mm and 2 mm planes under cylinder head gasket and the increased fuel injection pressure activated spatial distributions of the fuel vapor. In additions, richer mixtures were concentrated around the cylinder wall by the increase of the coolant temperature.

Effect of Engine Speed on In-Cylinder Tumble Flows in a Motored Internal Combustion Engine An Experimental Investigation Using Particle Image Velocimetry

Now-a-days, the stratified and direct injection spark ignition engines are becoming very popular because of their low fuel consumption and exhaust emissions. But, the challenges to them are the formation and control of the charge which is mainly dependent on the in-cylinder fluid flows. Today, an optical tool like particle image velocimetry (PIV) is extensively used for the in-cylinder fluid flow measurements. This paper deals with the experimental investigations of the in-cylinder fluid tumble flows in a motored internal combustion engine with a flat piston at different engine speeds during intake and compression strokes using PIV. The two-dimensional in-cylinder flow measurements and analysis of tumble flows have been carried out in the combustion space on a vertical plane at the cylinder axis. To analyze the fluid flows, ensemble average velocity vectors have been used. To characterize the tumble flow, tumble ratio has been estimated. From the results, it is found that the tumble ratio mainly varies with crank angle positions. At the end of compression stroke, maximum turbulent kinetic energy is more at higher engine speeds. Present study will be very useful in understanding the effect of engine speeds on the in-cylinder fluid tumble flows under real engine conditions.

Spatio-temporal structure and cycle to cycle variations of an in-cylinder tumbling flow

The aim of this paper is to make use of PIV and high-speed PIV in a research engine of moderate tumbling ratio in order to analyze both the spatial structure of the flow and its temporal evolution during series of consecutive cycles. Appropriate analyzing tools are introduced, and four different points are addressed: (1) the chain of events driving the generation of the three-dimensional mean tumbling motion is investigated; (2) a Lagrangian analysis of the roll-up of the tumbling jet in individual cycles demonstrates a strong cycle to cycle variation during the compression phase (the rms of the position of the jet front being approximately 10% of the piston stroke); (3) focussing on the “breakdown” phase, phase invariant proper orthogonal decomposition enables us to distinguish cycles according to their structure near top dead center (TDC). We show that when the coherent energy of the flow is conserved, there is no increase in the fluctuating kinetic energy; (4) finally, the phase-averaged Reynolds stresses is decomposed into a contribution of the in-cycle coherence and the turbulence carried by the flow states. Approximately 30% of the fluctuating kinetic energy is due to cycle to cycle fluctuations in this chamber near TDC.

Effect of Manifold Orientation on Non-Reacting In-Cylinder Tumble Flows in an IC Engine with Pentroof Piston - An Investigation Using PIV

Effect of Manifold Orientation on Non-Reacting In-Cylinder Tumble Flows in an IC Engine with Pentroof Piston - An Investigation Using PIV