v

ANNA UNIVERSITY CHENNAI

CHENNAI 600 025
ABSTRACT

Degree and branch

M.E. Internal Combustion Engineering

Submission

June 2015

Title of the project

EFFECTS OF THE RE-ENTRANT BOWL

Month and Year of

GEOMETRY ON A DIRECT INJECTION

TURBOCHARGED DIESEL ENGINE
PERFORMANCE AND EMISSIONS
A CFD APPROACH
Name of the student

Roll Number

[Link]
:

2012277007

Name and designation of

the Guide

Dr. M.R. SWAMINATHAN

Assistant Professor
Internal Combustion Engineering Division
Department of Mechanical Engineering
College of Engineering, Guindy
Anna University
Chennai-600025

vi

Due to the stringent legislation on emissions from diesel

engines and also increasing demand on fuel consumption, the importance of detailed
3D simulation of fuel injection, mixing and combustion has been increased in the
recent years. The piston bowl design is one of the most important factors that affect
the airfuel mixing and the subsequent combustion and pollutant formation processes
in a direct injection (DI) diesel engine. The purpose of this study is to investigate the
effects of re-entrant bowl geometry of piston on both engine performance and
emissions in a DI turbocharged diesel engine for heavy-duty applications. The bowl
geometry and dimensions, such as the pip region, bowl lip area, and toroidal radius,
are all known to have an effect on the in-cylinder mixing and combustion processes.
Based on the idea of enhancing diffusion combustion at the later stage of the
combustion period, three different bowl geometries were selected and investigated.
All the other relevant parameters namely compression ratio, maximum diameter of the
bowl, squish clearance and injection rate were kept constant. A commercial CFD code
STAR-CD was used to model the in-cylinder flows and combustion process, and
experimental results of the baseline bowl have been used to validate the numerical
models. The simulation results show that, bowl 3 enhance the turbulence and hence
results in better air-fuel mixing among all three bowls in a DI diesel engine. As a
result, the ISFC and soot emission reduced, although the NOX emission is increased
owing to better mixing and a faster combustion process.

Place: Chennai
Date:
([Link])

vii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express my profound sense of gratitude

Dr. M.R. SWAMINATHAN, Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical
Engineering, Anna University for her timely suggestions and valuable
guidance. I am intensely grateful to her for her encouragement to take up a
project on experiment. I express my sincere thanks to him for his dynamic
inputs.
I wish to thank Dr. G. NAGARAJAN, Professor and Head, Internal
Combustion Engineering Division, Department of Mechanical Engineering, for
his continuous support and encouragement for my project.
It is also my privilege to thank Dr. B. MOHAN, Professor and Head
of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, for extending all the facilities
and support.
I express my profound gratitude to all staff members of Internal
Combustion Engineering Division, for their support and motivation for
carrying out my project work.

INIYAVAN K

viii

TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER
NO.

TITLE

PAGE
NO.

ABSTRACT (TAMIL)

iii

ABSTRACT (ENGLISH)

LIST OF TABLES

xi

LIST OF FIGURES

xii

ABBREVIATIONS

xv

NOMENCLATURE

xvii

INTRODUCTION

1.1 GENERAL

1.2 SCOPE OF THE PRESENT WORK

2.

LITERATURE REVIEW

3.

METHODOLOGY

4.

GEOMETRICAL AND NUMERICAL

1.

MODELLING

10

4.1 INTRODUCTION

10

4.2 COMPUTATION MODELS

10

4.3 COMBUSTION CHAMBER PARAMETERIZATION

11

4.3.1Effects of the Re-entrant Bowl Radius on

Engine Performance and Emissions

12

4.3.2 Effects of the Re-entrant Bowl Pip Shape

on Engine Performance and Emissions

13

4.3.3 Effect of the Maximum Diameter of the

Re-entrant Bowl on Engine Performance
and Emissions

14

4.3.4 Summary

15

ix
CHAPTER.
NO.

TITLE

PAGE
NO.

4.4 FINALISATION OF THE RE-ENTRANT BOWL

SHAPES FOR THE PRESENT STUDY
4.5 CFD MODEL SET-UP
4.5.1 Computational Mesh and Time Step
4.6 INITIAL AND BOUNDARY CONDITIONS

5.

15
16
19
20

4.6.1 Initial Conditions

20

4.6.2 Boundary Conditions

21

4.7 FLUID PROPERTIES

21

4.8 FUEL INJECTION CHARACTERISTICS

22

GOVERNING EQUATIONS AND CFD

METHODOLOGY

23

5.1 INTRODUCTION

23

5.2 GOVERNING EQUATIONS

23

5.2.1 Governing Conservation Equations

6.

23

5.3 TURBULENCE MODEL EQUATION

25

5.4 COMBUSTION MODELS

26

5.4.1 Diesel Combustion Model

26

5.4.2 Ignition Model

27

5.5 SPRAY SUB-MODELS

27

5.6 NOX MODEL

28

5.7 SOOT MODEL

29

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

31

6.1 SIMULATION OF MOTORING CASE

31

6.2 MOTORING CASE RESULTS

32

6.2.1 Cylinder Pressure and Temperature

32

6.2.2 Velocity Magnitude

33

6.2.3 Turbulent Kinetic Energy

33

6.3 VALIDATION OF MOTORING CASE SIMULATION

RESULTS

35

6.4 SIMULATION OF COMBUSTION CASES

35

x
CHAPTER
NO.

7.

TITLE

PAGE
NO.

6.5 CFD MODEL VALIDATION FOR COMBUSTION

SIMULATION

37

6.6 EFFECT OF RE-ENTRANT BOWL GEOMETRY

ON ENGINE PERFORMANCE AT MAXIMUM
POWER

39

6.6.1 Pressure and Temperature Variations

Inside the Cylinder

40

6.6.2 NOX and Soot Emissions

40

6.6.3 Swirl and TKE

43

6.7 SUMMARY

54

CONCLUSION

55

7.1 SCOPE FOR FUTURE WORK

57

APPENDIX 1

58

REFERENCES

59

PAPER PRESENTED

61

LIST OF TABLES

xi

TABLE
NO.
4.1

TITLE

PAGE
NO.

Effects of the re-entrant bowl radius on engine

performance and emissions

12

Effects of the re-entrant bowl pip shapes on engine

performance and emissions

13

Effects of the re-entrant bowl major diameter

on engine performance and emissions

14

4.4

Operating conditions for CFD simulation

17

4.5

Investigated cases

18

4.6

Initial conditions

21

4.7

In-cylinder air properties

22

4.8

Fuel properties

22

4.9

Nozzle parameters

22

6.1

Comparison of simulated and calculated

pressure and temperature values

34

6.2

Various models used for combustion simulation

36

6.3

Comparison of engine performance and emissions

for the three bowls at 2400 rpm, full load

45

4.2

4.3

LIST OF FIGURES

xii

FIGURE
NO.
1.1

TITLE

PAGE
NO.

Re-entrant bowl with main geometrical

parameters

4.1

Three re-entrant bowl shapes with different bowl radius

12

4.2

Three re-entrant bowls with different pip shapes

13

4.3

Three re-entrant bowls with different maximum diameter

14

4.4

Geometry of re-entrant bowls

12

4.5

Main geometrical parameters

12

4.6

Computational grid at BDC position for

baseline bowl

15

4.7

Computational grid at TDC position for

baseline bowl

15

6.1

Pressure distribution at 10 CA bTDC position

32

6.2

Pressure distribution at TDC position

32

6.3

Temperature distribution at 10 CA bTDC position

33

6.4

Temperature distribution at TDC position

33

6.5

Velocity distribution in swirling flow direction

at 10 CA bTDC position

33

Velocity distribution in swirling flow direction

at TDC position

33

6.6
FIGURE
NO.

TITLE

PAGE
NO.

xiii

6.7

TKE distribution at 10 CA bTDC position

34

6.8

TKE distribution at TDC position

34

6.9

Pressure vs crank angle diagram for motoring

analysis

35

6.10

In-cylinder pressure at 2400 rpm, full load

37

6.11

Predicted total in-cylinder and measured engine

-out NOX emission at 2400 rpm, full load

38

Pressure traces for the three bowls at 2400

rpm, full load

40

Temperature, NOX and soot traces for the three

bowls at 2400 rpm, full load

41

6.14

Intensity of swirl vs crank angle

43

6.15

TKE vs crank angle

44

6.16

Bowl shape influence on ISFC and gross-IMEP

46

6.17

Bowl shape influence on NOX and

soot mass @ EVO

46

Comparison of equivalence ratio and in-cylinder

temperature distribution in the three bowls at
2400 rpm and 20 CA aTDC

47

Comparison of soot and NOX distribution in the

three bowls at 2400 rpm and 20 CA aTDC

48

Comparison of equivalence ratio and in-cylinder

temperature distribution in the three bowls at
2400 rpm and 25 CA aTDC

49

6.12

6.13

6.18

6.19

6.20

FIGURE
NO.

TITLE

PAGE
NO.

xiv

6.21

6.22
6.23
6.24

Comparison of soot and NOX distribution in the

three bowls at 2400 rpm and 25 CA aTDC

50

TKE distribution in the three bowls

at TDC and 10 CA aTDC

51

TKE distribution in the three bowls at

20 CA aTDC and 30 CA aTDC

52

The history of velocity distribution in swirling

flow direction for the three bowls at various
crank angles

53

ABBREVIATIONS

xv

AFR

Air Fuel Ratio

aTDC

After Top Dead Centre

BDC

Bottom Dead Centre

BMEP

Brake Mean Effective Pressure

BSFC

Brake Specific Fuel Consumption

bTDC

Before Top Dead Centre

CA

Crank Angle

cc

Cubic Centimetre

CFD

Computational Fluid Dynamics

CO

Carbon Monoxide

CO2

Carbon Dioxide

CR

Compression Ratio

DI

Direct Injection

EVC

Exhaust Valve Closure

EVO

Exhaust Valve Open

HC

Hydrocarbon

HSDI

High Speed Direct Injection

IC

Internal Combustion

ID

Ignition Delay

IMEP

Indicated Mean Effective Pressure

ISFC

Indicated Specific Fuel Consumption

IT

Injection Timing

LATCT

Laminar and Turbulent Characteristic Time

LDA

Laser Doppler Anemometry

LDV

Laser Doppler Velocimetry

IVC

Intake Valve Closure

IVO

Intake Valve Open

NO

Nitric Oxide

NOx

Oxides of Nitrogen

PPDF

Presumed Probability Density Function

PIV

Particle Image Velocimetry

xvi
PM

Particulate Matter

RANS

Reynolds-Averaged Navier Stokes

RNG

Renormalisation Group

ROHR

Rate of Heat Release

rpm

Revolution Per Minute

SFC

Specific Fuel Consumption

SOC

Start of Combustion

SOI

Start of Injection

SR

Swirl Ratio

TDC

Top Dead Centre

TKE

Turbulent Kinetic Energy

NOMENCLATURE

xvii

Pre-exponential constant

Ad

Droplet cross-sectional area, m2

As

Droplet surface area, m2

cd

Coefficient of discharge of nozzle

cp

Mean constant pressure specific heat at temperature T

cop

Reference specific heat at temperature T

Dm

Vapour diffusivity

Activation energy, J

Flux vector

Fh,j

Diffusional energy flux in direction xj

fv

Mean soot volume fraction

Determinant of metric tensor

Hm

Heat of formation of constituent m

Hpip

Pip height

Hv

Enthalpy of vapourization of fuel

Static enthalpy, J/kg

ht

Thermal enthalpy

Turbulent kinetic energy, m2/s2

Mi

Molecular weight of species

Mass

mm

Mass fraction of a constituent

Nu

Nusselt number

Piezometric pressure, Pa

Pr

Prandtl number

Heat of combustion of fuel vapour, volumetric flow

Characteristic gas constant

xviii
Re

Reynolds number

Ru

Universal gas constant

Source term

Sc

Schmidt number

Si

Momentum source components

Sh

Sherwood number

Sm

Mass source

Temperature

Time

Time interval

xi

Cartesian coordinate

ui

Absolute fluid velocity component in direction xi

uj

uj-ucj, Relative velocity between fluid and local

(moving) coordinate frame that moves with velocity ucj

Ys

Soot mass fraction

Greek symbols
d

Fuel Density

Soot density

Dissipation of turbulent kinetic energy

Combustion time scale

Laminar time scale

ij

Stress tensor components

Turbulent viscosity

Source term for the soot volume fraction

Subscripts
eff

Effective value

xix
i,j,k

Tensorial notation