Application of CFD for Analysis and Design of IC Engines

Abstract

Most of us are not familiar with the concept that an internal combustion (IC) engine is working on a four-stroke six-event principle. The six events are suction, compression, combustion, expansion, blow-down and exhaust. However, the expansion and blow-down happen in the power stroke and they can be clubbed together. Therefore, we can say that an engine, whether diesel or gasoline, is working on four-stroke five-event principle. The purpose of this chapter is to make the reader to familiarize with the complexities involved in the working of a four-stroke engine. The five events which are completed in four strokes are: suction, compression, combustion, expansion and exhaust. Application of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) principles for each process mentioned above is a challenging job. The difficulty in understanding the working of an IC engine is due to the fact that we cannot see what is happening inside the cylinder piston arrangement. All that is described in textbooks is based on our knowledge gained over a period of time by conducting experiments. There is no doubt in saying that “seeing is believing”. As it is next to impossible to have a complete experimental flow visualization, nowadays CFD comes in handy to have theoretical flow visualization. Well-developed software is available for the simulation in 3D geometries. In this chapter, we explain step-by-step the details required for the CFD simulation of various processes in an IC engine. Extensive results obtained over a period of 20 years of research by the application of CFD in analysing the flow in engines are comprehensively presented and discussed. CFD can be very well applied for analysing any particular process. It can also be used for the modification of the existing engine design or can also be employed for a new design of an engine. It is hoped that readers may be benefitted in understanding the application of CFD for fluid flow analysis and engine design by reading this chapter. Therefore, the main aim of this chapter is to make the reader appreciate how exactly CFD can be applied for design of an engine. As it is application oriented, we are not going deep into the equations, modelling, etc. A number of case studies are presented and discussed.