Modeling Spray and Auto-Ignition

in an Internal Combustion Engine

J.J.H. Gerritzen
Report number WVT 2008.xx
–confidential–

Supervisors:
dr.ir. L.M.T. Somers (TU/e)
dr. B. Albrecht (DAF Trucks N.V.)

Eindhoven University of Technology

Department of Mechanical Engineering
Division Thermo Fluids Engineering
Section Combustion Technology
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Abstract

Alternative fuels and hybrid drives are becoming more and more interesting due to the depletion of
conventional fuels and environmental issues. It certainly takes over decades before transportation is
independent of fossil fuels. A short-term solution is the improvement of the current combustion engines.
This can be done by tuning and modifying engine properties and testing it on expensive testing facilities.
Powerful tools to improve engine designs are Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) packages. These
programs can be used to create a numerical model of the engine and easily apply changes. This makes
expensive testing facilities unnecessary.
There are three processes which can be distinguished to play in important role in the internal
combustion engine. First of all the turbulence inside the cilinder which controls the mixing of the fuel
with air and remaining exhaust gases. Secondly, the liquid fuel spray is a phenomena which has been
extensively studied and many different properties of the fuel as well as the injector are of influence on
the spray. Last, the auto-ignition and combustion of the fuel-air mixture. The time before the premixed
fuel-air mixture auto-ignites has a major influence on the efficiency of the combustion. The first process,
turbulence, has already been studied. The goal of this thesis is to model spray and auto-ignition inside
an Diesel engine using the CFD package Fluent.
A detailed study on the fundamentals of engine sprays gains more insight in the phenomena taking
place. The break-up of the liquid fuel jet can be divided into primary break-up, i.e. liquid fuel to
droplets, and secondary break-up, i.e. droplets into even smaller droplets. The droplets are subject to
many phenomena. Modeling all these phenomena takes a thorough understanding of them. There are
many different, mostly empirical, relationships that try to model effects of break-up, collision etcetera.
However, as of today, non of them is generally accepted to be correct. Therefore, various authors have
tried to model sprays without taking into account the detailed phenomena.
The CFD package Fluent is used to simulate a non-reacting heptane spray. The fuel spray is modeled
by the Discrete Phase Model, which applies an secondary phase in the Lagrangian frame of reference.
The primary break-up is modeled by the Plain Orifice Atomizer, and the secondary break-up by the wave
model. The numerical model is compared with two different data sets. The numerical and experimental
spray are compared on liquid length (LL) and spray penetration (S). The results are highly parcel-,
time-, and grid-dependent. A sensitivity study revealed that the best possible setup uses 1,000 parcels
per injection, a time-step of 1µs and 1mm3 grid cells. Also the physical droplet properties and the
mass flow are found to greatly influence the result. The best possible setup is however still not capable
of producing accurate results. The main error is found to be in the primary and secondary break-up
models, which produce non-realistic droplet diameters. Improvement of the Plain Orifice Atomizer and
the secondary break-up model is necessary. Another promising possibility to describe the spray is the
implementation of a thermodynamical model.
In Diesel engines, high compression ratios are applied to produce high pressures and temperatures,
creating conditions in which the premixed fuel auto-ignites. The auto-ignition is controlled by many
features, e.g. piston geometry, fuel, swirl and injector. Auto-ignition influences the efficiency of the
combustion process and therefore is an important parameter. Hence, a good description of this feature
is necessary. Since combustion models in CFD are generally not capable of capturing auto-ignition,

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combustion needs to be delayed by means of ignition delay models. Tuning the ignition delay model each
new simulation is not desirable. Therefore, the Shell auto-ignition model is introduced and validated
with experimental data and kinetic mechanisms. The Shell model is also compared to the Hardenburg
ignition delay correlation from Fluent. The Shell model gives good results on the 13.5bar measurements,
and the Hardenburg model performs even better after tuning. Kinetic mechanisms produce results
comparable to the Shell model. The pressure is increased to an engine operating pressure of 130bar.
The Shell model agrees with two kinetic mechanisms, where the Hardenburg model, without retuning,
over-predicts the ignition delay time by one order of magnitude. No measurements were available at
this pressure.
Engine simulations are run in a one-sixth cilinder model. The in- and exhaust stroke are not modeled,
and only part of the compression and expansion stroke are modeled, so valves and valve pockets as well
as the intake geometry can be left out of the simulation, saving valuable computational time. The
resulting pressure curve agrees very well with simulations carried out at DAF Trucks with the CFD
package Star-CD. From the pressure data, classical observables can be calculated. The rate of heat
release is found to be somewhat smaller in maximum magnitude compared to Star-CD simulations, but
the cumulative heat release is the same in both packages. The rate of heat release can be approximated
by the fuel mass burned rate, which gives good results. Next to classical oberservables, CFD modeling
gives more insight in detailed processes. The spray penetration, determined from the fuel vapor mass
fraction, as well as the temperature profile are displayed in 2D on a plane created at the center of
spray axis. The correctness of the spray is doubtful due to many simplifications and assumptions in the
used nozzle. Nevertheless, such results can of great value in for example piston bowl design. Pollution
models in Fluent are used to predict the emission of soot and NOx . The results need to be validated
with experimental data. Once tuned, simulations with different operating conditions should give the
correct order of magnitude and capable of predicting trends of pollution formation.