Fuel-Spray Modeling for application in Internal Combustion Engines

Abstract

Direct injection spark ignition (DISI) engines aim to reduce the specific fuel consumption and achieve the strict emission standards in state of art internal combustion engines. Therefore, in this research project we aim to develop simulations from the phenomenon of fuel spray injection in a combustion chamber using a Lagrangian-Eulerian approach for representing the multiphase flow and the Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations for modeling the turbulence of the continuum medium by means of the open-source CFD library OpenFOAM. In order to validate the obtained results and the developed models, published and unpublished experimental data from the "Spray G" gasoline injection with multi-hole injector test-case from the Engine Combustion Network (ECN) will be employed. The particular phenomena of breakup, heat transfer and evaporation will be analyzed in relation to their global effect on the spray evolution inside the carrier gas. Additionally, investigations on the effect of different boundary conditions, grid size, model constants, turbulence model, initial turbulence, numerical schemes and jet interaction will be made. Finally, after validation of the model against experimental data, a simplified direct injection engine model with moving mesh will be proposed.