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INTAKE ANALYSIS ON FOUR-STROKE ENGINE USING CFD
A. M. Mohd Shafie1, a, Musthafah M. T.1, b, M. S. Ali1, c, Yusmady M.A.1,d,Rosli A.
Bakar2, e
1Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka,
Hang Tuah Jaya,
76100 Durian Tunggal Melaka, Malaysia
*Email: amientk@gmail.com
2Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Pahang,
26600 Pekan, Pahang, Malaysia
aamientk@gmail.com, bmusthafah@utem.edu.my, csyahir9610@gmail.com,
dyusmady@utem.edu.my, erosli@ump.edu.my
ABSTRACT
Flow patterns are vital to ensure that the engine can produce high performance with the
presence of swirl and tumble inside the cylinder. In this paper, the simulation of air is
simulated in the software to predict the flow pattern using the steady state pressure
based solver at two different planes in the engine domain. The domain used for the
simulation is based on the actual engine parameters. Using the commercial CFD solver
ANSYS FLUENT, the CFD simulation is run under five different piston positions and
seven different engine speeds. Note that in this simulation, only intake strokes are
simulated. The results show the velocity of the flow is high during the sweep as the
intake stroke takes place. This situation is believed to produce more swirl and tumble
during the compression, hence enhancing the burning rate in an entire region of the
clearance volume.
Keywords: CFD; fluent; in-cylinder flow; intake flow; Meshing.
INTRODUCTION
Engines are used to propel the vehicle by converting the chemical energy to
mechanical motion. Reciprocating Engine with four-stroke cycle consists of the intake
stroke, compression stroke, expansion stroke and exhaust stroke. At the stages of intake
and compression stroke, it is the most influential part to dictate the flow pattern and
structure of air entering and exiting the swept volume. Air flow for the internal
combustion engine is generally in turbulent flow as the speed of the internal combustion
engines is high (panday and bidesh, 2012). This turbulent flow is excluded when the
flow goes through a crevice volume as it will diminish the turbulence near the wall. The
domain used in the simulation is based on the engine used by Ammar et al. (2014) for
engine dynometer with 3.36 kW of power. Typically, turbulence kinetic energy and
turbulence kinematic viscosity are the benchmark to measure the turbulence with
compressible flow in the cylinder (Pandey and Bidesh, 2012).
CFD is the most promising tool to foretell the flow structure and pattern of the
air inside the engine cylinder and provides the details of the tumble and swirl in the
cylinder. Furthermore, the velocity profile as well as pressure within the domain for
given boundary condition can be obtained completely (Kumar et al, 2013; Stefano et al.
2
2013). Flow development and decay in the cylinder is usually analyzed with stable
turbulence models such k-epsilon and RNG in the CFD. Stefano et al. (2013) stated that
instead of using the simple model, it is recommended to use a more refined model such
as Large Eddy Simulation (LES) or Detached Eddy Simulation (DES). On the other
hand, for a better RANS modelling, it is recommended to use Reynolds Stress and K-
omega SST with enough resolution for near wall flow. Stefano et al. (2013) stated that
in recent years, the Large Eddy Simulation (LES) or Detached Eddy Simulation (DES)
were used in application of flows in the internal combustion engine. Flow in the
cylinder of the engine inherently decisive for the combustion performance of the engine
(Hemant and Saurish, 2013).
During the intake stroke and compression stroke, creating a vortical flow motion
which is swirling and/or tumble is indispensable not only to have a fast burning rate but
also high mixing process with the air inside the engine cylinder. It is due to single
properly defined vortical structure is more stable than other large scale in-cylinder flow
(Bari and Idris, 2013; Panday and Bidesh 2012). Swirl is air movement in the cylinder
about the cylinder axis while tumble is a movement of air in direction of upside to
downside or conversely, that the circles are at the perpendicular axis of the engine
cylinder. Hence, during combustion it generates higher turbulence and faster flame-
front propagation (Hemat and Saurish, 2013). Besides, suitable value of swirl will
improve the fuel efficiency hence the duration of the combustion can be abbreviated.
Panday and Bidesh (2012) claimed that 4% from burning time loss is one of the primary
lose in spark ignition engine which its occurrence resulting from finite time of
combustion. Increasing the degree of swirl leads to increase of the turbulence intensity
inside the cylinder and this situation can eliminate the loss of burning time. Higher
turbulence intensity produces more stable ignition process and faster flame propagation,
particularly in lean-burn combustion.
SIMULATION SETUP
Computational Domain
The domain was created according to the actual engine as illustrated in Figure 1 with
the specifications shown in the Table 1 which is then drawn in CAD Software, CATIA
P3 V5R20. A comprehensive study was conducted by comparing the physical model
with computational model in order to minimize the modeling error with fewer number
of iteration (Kumar et al, 2013). Figure 2 shows the domain that is imported to the
ANSYS workbench. In order to simulate the domain, mesh was generated in the
ANSYS-Mesh to divide the domain into a small size. Automatic mesh generation was
used for the entire domain. Quality of mesh is important to the accuracy of the result.
3
Table 1. Specification of engine used.
Engine type
Robin EY20-3, 0.5 HP
Max. Power (HP/rpm)
5/4000
Max. Torque
(kgm/rpm)
0.96/2800
Bore
Stroke (mm)
67.4
52
Intake air
Naturally aspirated
Type of Piston Head
Flat
Compression Ratio
6.3
Inlet Diameter (mm)
26
Outlet Diameter (mm)
21
Figure 1: Clearance volume of the in-cylinder engine
Figure 2: Imported domain in ANSYS workbench
4
Figure 3(a) shows the complete cycle of a four-stroke engine. The position of
the engine is varied with 9°, 18°, 27°, 36°, and 45° after top dead center. Furthermore,
the simulation runs at various speeds with increment of 500 rpm starting at 1500 rpm
and ending at 4500 rpm. Note that the shape of the cylinder head is flat in shape.
The mesh quality needs to comply with mesh metric of maximum skewness
below 0.98 and the maximum orthogonal quality with approach to one. Mesh skewness
is vital to control because it will affect not only the convergence, but also the result of
the simulation. The domain shown in Figure 3(b) illustrated the cut-view with the piston
located 45° after top dead center and it was in a good quality of mesh with maximum
skewness of 0.968 and orthogonality of 0.996. The elements of the domain are 148852
of tetrahedron element.
(a) (b)
Figure 3. (a) Complete cycle; (b) Cut-view of the clearance volume of the engine
Numerical Strategy
The compressible Navier-Stoke equations of momentum, continuity and energy
were used to solve the flow simulation in ANSYS FLUENT. The generalization of each
of governing equations have the following forms, respectively:
Mass equation
The derivation of the mass equation is known as continuity equation is based on the
control volume and the equivalent differential equation is written as:
5
0.
t
(1)
Where
is flow velocities in x, y, and z direction for three dimensional flow case and
is the density of fluid used in the simulation.
Momentum equation
Momentum equation is founded fluid motion which
the body and the surface forces considered in the control volume are described as:
M
SpUU
t
U
..
(2)
Where
U
is the flow velocity,
p
is the static pressure,
is the strain rate and
M
S
is the
momentum sources acting on the fluid. These equations are also known as the Navier-
Stoke equation.
Energy equation
Mtot
tot SUUTUh
t
p
t
h.....
(3)
Where
and
tot
h
represent the thermal conductivity and total enthalpy of the fluid.
Equation (1), Equation (2) and Equation (3) were incorporated into CFD models in
order to solve the simulation of the domain.
Simulation Setting
This simulation is performed in the steady state with pressure-based solver that solves
the equation of energy, momentum and continuity at initial. Model of k-epsilon of
realizable with Non-equilibrium wall function is used since the model is simple and
stable for the initial simulation strategy to predict the flow pattern in the cylinder
(Stefano et al, 2013). The purpose of using Non-equilibrium wall function is to indicate
the flow near the wall as the source of the turbulence and vorticity (Kumar et al, 2013).
Pressure field is obtained using SIMPLE algorithm for pressure-velocity
coupling. The discretization scheme for a convective term of momentum and energy
used the second order upwind scheme while the others used the first order upwind. Only
two boundary condition considered in this case; velocity inlet and pressure outlet. The
other region is prescribed as wall and assumed as no-slip and adiabatic. The velocity of
the inlet is calculated from the continuity of the piston speed at various engine speed
6
which is at 1500 rpm, 2000 rpm, 2500 rpm, 3000 rpm, 3500 rpm, 4000 rpm and 4500
rpm. However, the initial gauge pressure is set as 1 atm for all engine speed. The
pressure outlet is set to 0.87 Pa as referred to the GT-Power software as the pressure is
low when the intake process occurs.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
All of the results for the simulation are illustrated based on the planes as shown in the
Figure 4 consist of Plane A and Plane B to ensure the comparison is at the similar place.
Plane A is illustrated as a cutaway view in the clearance volume viewed from the z-
direction with the same axis as the cylinder axial axis. Meanwhile Plane B is a cutaway
viewed from x-direction. Plane A located at the bottom surface of the combustion
chamber in order to monitor the velocity profile when air enters the cylinder. Plane B is
placed near to the flow entering the spark plug region.
Figure 4. reference plane to be observed
Flow in the cylinder is vital for the internal combustion engine to be more efficient.
Swirl and tumble flow in the cylinder are inherently decisive for the mixture to be
mixed well to form homogeneous mixture in a brief time before the combustion occurs
(Panday and Bidesh 2012). Figure 5 shows the flow viewed from the plane A located at
the entering region of the flow from the combustion chamber to the swept volume.
From the figure it clearly shows that the velocity of the flow is higher at the entering
region of the flow to the swept volume segment. The flow velocity seems to be higher
when air flows through the volume which has a lower cross sectional area as can be
seen in the illustration of the domain. For engine speed 4500 rpm, it is clear that the air
flow velocity is higher at the left side of the wall since the inlet air located more at the
left side hence producing higher velocity. It is noticeable that each of the crank angle
has different values of legend in the Figure 5. However the maximum value for the
legend at each crank angle is based on the local value at that position. Air flow at engine
speed of 4500 rpm and crank angle of 45 degree has higher velocity produced compared
to the others as the inlet velocity for this circumstance is the highest. Hence, the velocity
produced at this circumstance is the highest as well.
7
18
27
36
45
1500
rpm
2000
rpm
2500
rpm
3000
rpm
3500
rpm
4000
rpm
4500
rpm
Figure 5. Flow viewed from Plane A
8
Figure 6 shows the view of the air flow at the Plane B located vertically with the
cylinder and near the spark plug location. At this position, the flow of air produces
around the spark plug can be observed. Most of the flows at this view have higher
velocity at the entrance to swept volume which is cylindrical as viewed from the Plane
A. From Figure 6, it shows that at the engine speed at 4500 rpm with piston located 18
degree after top dead center develops high velocity near ignition region. This can be one
of the triggers of producing a tumble at the combustion chamber. Among of all
boundary condition given, engine speed of 4500 rpm and crank angle of 45 degree
creates highest velocity at the entrance of swept volume which is then believed to
produce swirl and tumble. Hence, enhanced mixing of the fuel and air improves the
engine performance. High engine speed produces high inlet air flow which helps the
development of higher swirl and vice versa.
9
18
27
36
45
Legend
1500
rpm
2000
rpm
2500
rpm
3000
rpm
3500
rpm
4000
rpm
4500
rpm
Figure 6. Flow Viewed from Plane B
CONCLUSION
This paper manifests the flow structure and pattern of air inside the swept volume for a
steady state condition with desired parameters given. Presence of swirl and tumble
inherently improves the combustion propagation hence increasing the performance of
the engine. Result of the in-cylinder flow for the first 45 degree after top dead center
shows that air flow have higher velocity when approaching the entrance of swept
volume. The flow of air during the intake process dictates the tumble and swirl
formation before piston moving upward to top dead center in compression process. It is
foretold that the turbulence occurs at the clearance volume as the shape of squish area
lead to encourage the turbulence flow for the domain. The limitation of this paper is that
the simulation only simulates at the intake process and not at the compression process
which can illustrate more tumble and swirl flow. For the future work, the simulation
9
will be performed with the presence of fuel and air to observe the mixing process occurs
in the clearance volume and swept volume.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors are grateful to Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Teknikal
Malaysia Melaka (UTeM) for financial support of short-term grant research project no.
PJP/2013/FKM (9B) /SC01227. The deepest appreciation is granted to the research
center of Faculty of Mechanical Engineering (GTeV, CARe) as well as Universiti
Malaysia Pahang, Professor ssistance in this project.
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