Simulation of the intake and compression strokes of a motored 4-valve SI engine with a finite element code

Abstract

A CFD code, using a mixed finite volumes-finite elements method on tetraedrons, is now available for engine simulations. The code takes into account the displacement of moving walls such as piston and valves in a full automatic way: a single mesh is used for a full computation and no intervention of the user is necessary. A fourth order implicit spatial scheme and a first order implicit temporal scheme are used. The work presented in this paper is part of a larger program for the validation of this new numerical tool for engine applications. Here, comparisons between computation and experiments of the intake and compression strokes of a four-valve engine were carried out. The experimental investigations are conducted on a single cylinder four valve optical research engine. The turbulence intensity, mean velocity components, tumble and swirl ratios in the combustion chamber are deduced from the LDV measurements. The comparisons between computations and experiments are made on the mean velocity flow field at different locations inside the chamber and for different crank angles. We also present some global comparisons (swirl and tumble ratios). The simulation shows excellent agreement between computations and experiments.