scholarly journals Predicting Cycle-to-Cycle Variation With Concurrent Cycles in a Gasoline Direct Injected Engine With Large Eddy Simulations

Author(s):  
Daniel Probst ◽  
Sameera Wijeyakulasuriya ◽  
Eric Pomraning ◽  
Janardhan Kodavasal ◽  
Riccardo Scarcelli ◽  
...  

High cycle-to-cycle variation (CCV) is detrimental to engine performance, as it leads to poor combustion and high noise and vibration. In this work, CCV in a gasoline engine is studied using large eddy simulation (LES). The engine chosen as the basis of this work is a single-cylinder gasoline direct injection (GDI) research engine. Two stoichiometric part-load engine operating points (6 BMEP, 2000 RPM) were evaluated: a non-dilute (0% EGR) case and a dilute (18% EGR) case. The experimental data for both operating conditions had 500 cycles. The measured CCV in IMEP was 1.40% for the non-dilute case and 7.78% for the dilute case. To estimate CCV from simulation, perturbed concurrent cycles of engine simulations were compared to consecutively obtained engine cycles. The motivation behind this is that running consecutive cycles to estimate CCV is quite time-consuming. For example, running 100 consecutive cycles requires 2–3 months (on a typical cluster), however, by running concurrently one can potentially run all 100 cycles at the same time and reduce the overall turnaround time for 100 cycles to the time taken for a single cycle (2 days). The goal of this paper is to statistically determine if concurrent cycles, with a perturbation applied to each individual cycle at the start, can be representative of consecutively obtained cycles and accurately estimate CCV. 100 cycles were run for each case to obtain statistically valid results. The concurrent cycles began at different timings before the combustion event, with the motivation to identify the closest time before spark to minimize the run time. Only a single combustion cycle was run for each concurrent case. The calculated standard deviation of peak pressure and coefficient of variance (COV) of indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP) were compared between the consecutive and concurrent methods to quantify CCV. It was found that the concurrent method could be used to predict CCV with either a velocity or numerical perturbation. A large and small velocity perturbation were compared and both produced correct predictions, implying that the type of perturbation is not important to yield a valid realization. Starting the simulation too close to the combustion event, at intake valve close (IVC) or at spark timing, under-predicted the CCV. When concurrent simulations were initiated during or before the intake even, at start of injection (SOI) or earlier, distinct and valid realizations were obtained to accurately predict CCV for both operating points. By simulating CCV with concurrent cycles, the required wall clock time can be reduced from 2–3 months to 1–2 days. Additionally, the required core-hours can be reduced up to 41%, since only a portion of each cycle needs to be simulated.

2019 ◽  
Vol 142 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel M. Probst ◽  
Sameera Wijeyakulasuriya ◽  
Eric Pomraning ◽  
Janardhan Kodavasal ◽  
Riccardo Scarcelli ◽  
...  

Abstract High cycle-to-cycle variation (CCV) is detrimental to engine performance, as it leads to poor combustion and high noise and vibration. In this work, CCV in a gasoline engine is studied using large eddy simulation (LES). The engine chosen as the basis of this work is a single-cylinder gasoline direct injection (GDI) research engine. Two stoichiometric part-load engine operating points (6 brake mean effective pressure (BMEP) and 2000 revolutions per minute) were evaluated: a nondilute (0% exhaust gas recirculation (EGR)) case and a dilute (18% EGR) case. The experimental data for both operating conditions had 500 cycles. The measured CCV in indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP) was 1.40% for the nondilute case and 7.78% for the dilute case. To estimate CCV from simulation, perturbed concurrent cycles of engine simulations were compared with consecutively obtained engine cycles. The motivation behind this is that running consecutive cycles to estimate CCV is quite time consuming. For example, running 100 consecutive cycles requires 2–3 months (on a typical cluster); however, by running concurrently, one can potentially run all 100 cycles at the same time and reduce the overall turnaround time for 100 cycles to the time taken for a single cycle (2 days). The goal of this paper is to statistically determine if concurrent cycles, with a perturbation applied to each individual cycle at the start, can be representative of consecutively obtained cycles and accurately estimate CCV. 100 cycles were run for each case to obtain statistically valid results. The concurrent cycles began at different timings before the combustion event, with the motivation to identify the closest time before spark to minimize the run time. Only a single combustion cycle was run for each concurrent case. The calculated standard deviation of peak pressure and coefficient of variance (COV) of IMEP were compared between the consecutive and concurrent methods to quantify CCV. It was found that the concurrent method could be used to predict CCV with either a velocity or numerical perturbation. Both a large and small velocity perturbations were compared, and both produced correct predictions, implying that the type of perturbation is not important to yield a valid realization. Starting the simulation too close to the combustion event, at intake valve close (IVC) or at spark timing, underpredicted the CCV. When concurrent simulations were initiated during or before the intake even, at start of injection (SOI) or earlier, distinct and valid realizations were obtained to accurately predict CCV for both operating points. By simulating CCV with concurrent cycles, the required wall clock time can be reduced from 2–3 months to 1–2 days. In addition, the required core-hours can be reduced up to 41%, since only a portion of each cycle needs to be simulated.


2015 ◽  
Vol 713-715 ◽  
pp. 239-242 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wei Bo Shi ◽  
Xiu Min Yu ◽  
Ping Sun

Hydrogen-gasoline blends is an effective way to improving the performance of spark ignition engine at stoichiometric and lean conditions. Spark timing is one of the important parameters affect the engine performance. This paper investigated the effect of spark timing on performance of a hydrogen-gasoline engine. A four cylinder, gasoline direct injection engine was modified to be a gasoline port injection, hydrogen direct injection engine. The hydrogen energy fraction was set as 0% and 30%. For a specified hydrogen addition, the engine was operated at four excess air ratios of 0.8, 1.0, 1.2 and 1.5. Under the specified excess air ratio condition, the spark timing was varied from 4 to 19°CA before top dead center (BTDC) with an interval of 3°CA. The test result showed that the indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP) climb up and then decline with the increase of spark advance. For hydrogen-gasoline engine, the optimum spark timing for the max IMEP was retarded at a specified excess air ratio. The max thermal efficiency appeared at the optimum spark timing.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 168781402110381
Author(s):  
Li Wang ◽  
Zhaoming Huang ◽  
Wang Tao ◽  
Kai Shen ◽  
Weiguo Chen

EGR and excess-air dilution have been investigated in a 1.5 L four cylinders gasoline direct injection (GDI) turbocharged engine equipped with prechamber. The influences of the two different dilution technologies on the engine performance are explored. The results show that at 2400 rpm and 12 bar, EGR dilution can adopt more aggressive ignition advanced angle to achieve optimal combustion phasing. However, excess-air dilution has greater fuel economy than that of EGR dilution owing to larger in-cylinder polytropic exponent. As for prechamber, when dilution ratio is greater than 37.1%, the combustion phase is advanced, resulting in fuel economy improving. Meanwhile, only when the dilution ratio is under 36.2%, the HC emissions of excess-air dilution are lower than the original engine. With the increase of dilution ratio, the CO emissions decrease continuously. The NOX emissions of both dilution technologies are 11% of those of the original engine. Excess-air dilution has better fuel economy and very low CO emissions. EGR dilution can effectively reduce NOX emissions, but increase HC emissions. Compared with spark plug ignition, the pre chamber ignition has lower HC, CO emissions, and higher NO emissions. At part load, the pre-chamber ignition reduces NOX emissions to 49 ppm.


2019 ◽  
Vol 142 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nikhil Sharma ◽  
Avinash Kumar Agarwal

Abstract Fuel availability, global warming, and energy security are the three main driving forces, which determine suitability and long-term implementation potential of a renewable fuel for internal combustion engines for a variety of applications. Comprehensive engine experiments were conducted in a single-cylinder gasoline direct injection (GDI) engine prototype having a compression ratio of 10.5, for gaining insights into application of mixtures of gasoline and primary alcohols. Performance, emissions, combustion, and particulate characteristics were determined at different engine speeds (1500, 2000, 2500, 3000 rpm), different fuel injection pressures (FIP: 40, 80, 120, 160 bars) and different test fuel blends namely 15% (v/v) butanol, ethanol, and methanol blended with gasoline, respectively (Bu15, E15, and M15) and baseline gasoline at a fixed (optimum) spark timing of 24 deg before top dead center (bTDC). For a majority of operating conditions, gasohols exhibited superior characteristics except minor engine performance penalty. Gasohols therefore emerged as serious candidate as a transitional renewable fuel for utilization in the existing GDI engines, without requirement of any major hardware changes.


Author(s):  
Shima Nazari ◽  
Anna Stefanopoulou ◽  
Jason Martz

Turbocharging and downsizing (TRBDS) a gasoline direct injection (GDI) engine can reduce fuel consumption but with increased drivability challenges compared to larger displacement engines. This tradeoff between efficiency and drivability is influenced by the throttle-wastegate control strategy. A more severe tradeoff between efficiency and drivability is shown with the introduction of Low-Pressure Exhaust Gas Recirculation (LP-EGR). This paper investigates and quantifies these trade-offs by designing and implementing in a one-dimensional (1D) engine simulation two prototypical throttle-wastegate strategies that bound the achievable engine performance with respect to efficiency and torque response. Specifically, a closed-wastegate (WGC) strategy for the fastest achievable response and a throttle-wastegate strategy that minimizes engine backp-pressure (MBWG) for the best fuel efficiency, are evaluated and compared based on closed loop response. The simulation of an aggressive tip-in (the driver’s request for torque increase) shows that the wastegate strategy can negotiate a 0.8% efficiency gain at the expense of 160 ms slower torque response both with and without LP-EGR. The LP-EGR strategy, however offers a substantial 5% efficiency improvement followed by an undesirable 1 second increase in torque time response, clarifying the opportunities and challenges associated with LP-EGR.


Author(s):  
Daniel Probst ◽  
Sameera Wijeyakulasuriya ◽  
Pinaki Pal ◽  
Christopher Kolodziej ◽  
Eric Pomraning

Abstract Knock is a major design challenge for spark-ignited engines. Knock constrains high load operation and limits efficiency gains that can be achieved by implementing higher compression ratios. The propensity to knock depends on the interaction among fuel properties, engine geometry, and operating conditions. Moreover, cycle-to-cycle variability (CCV) in knock intensity is commonly encountered under abnormal combustion conditions. In this situation, knock needs to be assessed with multiple engine cycles. Therefore, when using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to predict knock behavior, multi-cycle simulations must be performed. The wall clock time for simulating multiple consecutive engine cycles is prohibitive, especially for a statistically valid sample size (i.e. 30–100 cycles). In this work, 3-d CFD simulations were used to model knocking phenomena in the cooperative fuel research (CFR) engine. Unsteady Reynolds-Averaged Navier Stokes (uRANS) simulations were performed with a hybrid combustion modeling approach using the G-equation method to track the turbulent flame front and finite-rate chemistry model to predict end-gas autoignition. To circumvent the high cost of running simulations with a large number of consecutive engine cycles, a concurrent perturbation method (CPM) was evaluated to predict knock CCV. The CPM was based on previous work by the authors, in which concurrent engine cycles were used to predict engine CCV in a non-knocking gasoline direct injection (GDI) engine. Concurrent cycles were initialized by perturbing a saved flow field with a random isotropic velocity field. By initializing each cycle with a perturbation sufficiently early in the cycle, each case yields a distinct and valid prediction of combustion due to the chaotic nature of the system. Three operating points were simulated, with different spark timings corresponding to heavy knock, light knock, and no knock. For all the operating points, other conditions were based on the standard research octane number (RON) test specification for iso-octane. The spark timing of the heavy knock case was the same as that of the RON test. The in-cylinder pressure fluctuations were isolated using a frequency filtering method. A bandpass filter was applied to eliminate high and low frequencies. The knocking pressures were calculated consistently between the experimental and simulation data, including the sampling frequency of the data. The simulation data was sampled to match the sampling rate of the experimental data. The knock intensities were compared for the concurrently obtained cycles, the consecutively obtained cycles, and experimental cycles. Knock predictions from the concurrent and consecutive simulations compared well to each other and with experiments, thereby demonstrating the validity of the CPM approach.


2003 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
T Fujikawa ◽  
Y Nomura ◽  
Y Hattori ◽  
T Kobayashi ◽  
M Kanda

To analyse the cycle-by-cycle variation of combustion in a direct injection gasoline engine equipped with a fan-shape spray nozzle and operated with exhaust gas recirculation (EGR), the fuel mixture distribution was measured at a time of spark and during the combustion period by the laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) technique. It was found that in the case of advanced or retarded injection timing, the initial combustion period tends to extend and the indicated mean effective pressure (i.m.e.p.) becomes low when lean mixtures appear at the spark position and at the spark timing. This suggests that the cycle-by-cycle variation of combustion under these conditions is dominated by the fuel concentration at the spark position and spark timing. In contrast to this, for the best injection timing, which allows the lowest cycle-by-cycle variation, the i.m.e.p. fluctuation is affected not by the initial combustion period but by the main combustion period. The observation of LIF images revealed that the i.m.e.p. fluctuation at this condition is strongly correlated to the unburned mixture quantity at the side area of the piston cavity during the latter half of the combustion period. It was shown by a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) calculation that the combination of a uniform spray pattern and a compact cavity shape is effective to reduce the over-lean mixture region in the edge of the piston cavity, which is responsible for the cycle-by-cycle variation of combustion at the condition of best-tuned injection timing.


Author(s):  
Jie Li ◽  
Changwen Liu ◽  
Rui Kang ◽  
Lei Zhou ◽  
Haiqiao Wei

To utilize ethanol fuel in spark ignition engines more efficiently and flexibly, a new ethanol/gasoline dual-direct injection concept in gasoline engine is proposed. Therefore, based on the dual-fuel dual-direct injection system, the effects of different injection timings and two injector positions on the characteristics of combustion were studied comprehensively, and the effects of different octane numbers and temperature stratifications on knock and combustion were explored. The results show that as for Position A (ethanol injecting toward spark plug), with the delay of injection timing, knock tendency and its intensity increase initially and then decrease due to the comprehensive effect of ethanol evaporation and fuel stratification; on the contrary, for Position B (ethanol injecting toward end-gas region), retarding the injection timing of ethanol can effectively reduce the knock propensity. As for the engine performance, a dual-direct injection performs best, especially the retarded injection timing of ethanol for Position A. It can be found that with the delay of the fuel injection timing, the torque first increases and then decreases. The brake-specific fuel consumption decreases initially and then increases at maximum brake torque spark timing.


2018 ◽  
Vol 140 (7) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lei Zhou ◽  
Aifang Shao ◽  
Jianxiong Hua ◽  
Haiqiao Wei ◽  
Dengquan Feng

In spark ignition engines, gasoline direct injection (GDI) is surely the most attractive technology to achieve the demand of high energy efficiency by directly injecting fuel into combustion chamber. This work, as a preliminary study, investigates the effect of retarded injection timing on knock resistance and cycle-to-cycle variation in gasoline engine by experimental method. The retarded injection timing during compression stroke coupled with increased intake air temperature was employed to concentrate on suppressing knock occurrence with stable combustion. Based on the great advantage of injection timing retard on knock suppression, intake temperature was used in this work to reduce cycle-to-cycle variation. In addition, piezo-electrically actuated injector was employed. The results show that injection timing retard during compression stroke can significantly suppress the knock tendency, but combustion becomes unstable and cycle-to-cycle variation is larger than 10%. Thus, increasing intake temperature decreased the cycle-to-cycle variation but increased significantly the knock tendency, as expect. Meanwhile, rich fuel–air mixture in this work also had the same effect as intake temperature did. It can be concluded that retarded injection timing is of significant potential to suppress the knock in GDI engine, although the high intake temperature causes high probability of large knock occurrence. The percentages of knock at the spark timings of 24 °CA before top dead center (BTDC) and 26 °CA BTDC were significantly reduced from approximately 40% to 7% and from approximately 60% to 10%, respectively. Furthermore, the retarded injection timing not only reduced the probability of knock occurrence, but also decreased the knock intensity obviously.


2019 ◽  
Vol 141 (11) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jinlong Liu ◽  
Hemanth Kumar Bommisetty ◽  
Cosmin Emil Dumitrescu

Heavy-duty compression-ignition (CI) engines converted to natural gas (NG) operation can reduce the dependence on petroleum-based fuels and curtail greenhouse gas emissions. Such an engine was converted to premixed NG spark-ignition (SI) operation through the addition of a gas injector in the intake manifold and of a spark plug in place of the diesel injector. Engine performance and combustion characteristics were investigated at several lean-burn operating conditions that changed fuel composition, spark timing, equivalence ratio, and engine speed. While the engine operation was stable, the reentrant bowl-in-piston (a characteristic of a CI engine) influenced the combustion event such as producing a significant late combustion, particularly for advanced spark timing. This was due to an important fraction of the fuel burning late in the squish region, which affected the end of combustion, the combustion duration, and the cycle-to-cycle variation. However, the lower cycle-to-cycle variation, stable combustion event, and the lack of knocking suggest a successful conversion of conventional diesel engines to NG SI operation using the approach described here.


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