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CFD Analysis of Combustion and Emission in SI Engine

Article  in  International Journal of Applied Engineering Research · January 2015

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 International Journal of Applied Engineering Research ISSN 0973-4562 Volume 10, Number 19 (2015)
© Research India Publications ::: http://www.ripublication.com

CFD Analysis of Combustion and Emission in

SI Engine
J. Krishnaraj1#, C. Karthick kumar1,P.Vasanthakumar1,M.Palanisamy1.
1
Assistant professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Karpagam College of Engineering Coimbatore, Tamilnadu, India
# Corresponding Author E-mail: krishnaraj_j@yahoo.co.in
MOBILE NO: 9629229594

Abstract— Hydrogen is being considered as a primary

automotive fuel and as a replacement for conventional fuels.
Some of the desirable properties of automotive fuels are high
flame velocity & high calorific value, etc. Due to its property,
it is used as an engine fuel. Since hydrogen posses good
combustion fuel it is used as a substitution fluid in internal
combustion engines.
A methodology for design of piston head and chambers of IC
engines with its improved performance and efficiency. This
methodology combines three-dimensional model and CFD
techniques with numerical optimization tools to design,
relatively just compute the working, of IC engines. A
computational model of IC engine is modeled and
computational fluid dynamic analysis has carried out by using
FLUENT. In the analysis, combustion parameters like fluid
flow, mixing, turbulence and back pressure is analyzed using
CFD. Combustion performance, temperature characteristics,
pressure and emission parameters of CO, HC and NOx will be
recorded and analyzed at various flow rates of hydrogen. In
this project a methodology of various proposed designs of
piston heads is modelled and based on the boundary
conditions that model is analyzed. Compare all the analysis
output data decide the best optimized design with the
fulfillment of all characteristics.
Keywords—IC engine, CFD, Piston, combustion, turbulence,
emission.
I. INTRODUCTION
In internal combustion engine design sector the primary area
of consideration is to reduce the fuel consumption and to
improve the efficiency of the engine. For that the design
engineers did the prototypes of the engine and testing it also.
This is traditionally followed process and it had several
limitations. They are time consuming, cost consuming and
also a prototype made for a single purpose didn't use the same
for other purpose.
This difficulty can be overcome by using CFD techniques.
With the advancement in computational power of modern
computers, CFD has found its application in CI engines. This
is now widely used by many automobile industries not only
for the design and analysis of engine, and also for the whole
vehicle analysis. Of the many types of models for engine
combustion process, computational fluid dynamics models are
the advance analysis method due to its capability to predict the
gas flow patterns, combustion, emission etc.
II. PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION
Normally in IC engine the problem induced are improper
mixing air fuel it is due to the fast movement of piston shorter
time is given for mixing the air fuel and the other parameters
like fuel and air density, temperature and swirl inside the
cylinder affect the mixing of air fuel so that Low flame
velocity and Improper combustion will take place and
emission level also increased.
The air standard efficiency of SI engine is approximately 60%
under full load condition, and the authentic brake thermal
efficiency under full load condition is around 32.6% which is
due to the various losses that occur. One of the foremost lose
is burning time loss which is approximately 4% and happen
due to finite time combustion of the charge. This loss can be
reduced to some enlarge by the invention of a higher degree of
swirl which will increase turbulence strength within the engine
cylinder. The production of turbulence of higher strength is
one of the most important factors for stabilizing the ignition
process, fast propagation of flame, notably in the case of lean-
burn combustion. In general, two types of vortices are utilized
in order to generate and safeguard the turbulent flows
proficiently. These vortices are usually known as swirl and
drop flows, which are controlled rotations in the horizontal
and vertical plane of the engine cylinder, respectively. They
contribute to the development of engine performance. Hence,
it is essential for the development of an ICE with high
compression ratio to realize high turbulence concentration and
lean burn combustion. Swirl can be generated during the
intake stroke as well as compression stroke of the engine.
Usually a swirl generated intake persists through the
compression stroke, combustion process, and expansion
stroke.It can considerably enrich the mixing of air and fuel to
give the homogeneous mixture at very rapid time.
III. METHODOLOGY
However, the project offers little assistance for modifying the
piston head and chamber geometry for controlling the flow to
meet the required performance. This paper presents a tactic
which combines 3D, steady state CFD techniques with strong
numerical optimization tools to design, instead of just evaluate
the performance, of IC engine piston and chambers.

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 International Journal of Applied Engineering Research ISSN 0973-4562 Volume 10, Number 19 (2015)
© Research India Publications ::: http://www.ripublication.com

IV. MODELLING AND MESHING fraction, density, calorific value, injection temperature and
CFD-based engine development is widely used in the pressure, mass flow rate, etc are having a significant effect in
automotive industry due to its much lower cost compared to spark ignition combustion modeling. The parameters and
experiment-based engine development. Additionally, specifications are given below
computer simulation provides more clues about the convoluted
engine combustion process which is unattainable or costly Fuel Air Mixture:
using current measurement techniques. Improved precision Methane-air mixture is used for numerical studies.
and efficiency in numerical models and swiftly advancing CH4 + 2O2 ---> CO2 + 2H2O
computer capabilities makes CFD-based engine advancement Air inlet boundary conditions:
more viable than ever. Thus, habitual experimental hardware- Velocity inlet=10 m/s.
based optimization is being replaced with CFD-based Static temperature=300 K.
optimization. Mass fraction of oxygen=0.232.
The combustion simulation of a compression ignition engine Fuel inlet boundary conditions:
is developed using Fluent software (ANSYS 14.5 package) Velocity inlet=40 m/s.
and the several equations of the multi-dimensional model are Static temperature=300 K.
solved by the software automatically. The main inputs Mass fraction of methane=1.0.
incorporate connecting rod length, engine speed, injection Turbulence model:
details, bore, stroke, initial pressure and temperature. The K-epsilon Turbulence model function Scalable Wall function
encode concerning to the simulation model predicts the Combustion Model:
cylinder pressure, cylinder temperature, heat liberate rate, Eddy Dissipation model with eddy dissipation model
emission etc. The results with graphs and various contours coefficient ,B 0.5. Thermal Radiation P1 model.
(temperature, pressure, etc.) Were generated by Fluent
software as outputs to the program for given inputs. Connecting rod length :140 mm
A 2D cylinder geometry is considered .The mesh is created Bore :58 mm
using ANSYS work bench. The engine geometry details and Crank radius :60 mm
specification details are given below. Mesh generation plays a Crank shaft speed :1500 rpm
significant role in obtaining correct results. A quadrilateral X-position :113.68 mm
mesh was created uniformly throughout the area and analyzed Y- velocity :468 m/s
using ANSYS14.5 work bench package. The complete meshed Temperature :300 K
geometry contains 10600 cells, 21403 faces and 10804 nodes. Flow rate :0.001044 kg/S
Start crank angle :0 deg
Stop crank angle :720 deg
Crank angle step size : 0.2 deg.
VI. RESULT AND DISCUSSION
The modelled cylinder the pressure, temperature and emission
products data is shown in fig. From the graph the peak
pressure and temperature generated by the software. Also the
maximum cycle temperature obtained was near 1075K. The
static pressure and static temperature contours at the end of
expansion was also generated by the software.
This methodology combines three-dimensional model and
CFD techniques with numerical optimization tools to design,
rather than just evaluate the performance, of IC engine.
A computational model is also being developed and
Figure.1 dynamic meshed geometry computational fluid dynamic analysis has carried out by using
FLUENT. The mixing parameters like fluid flow, mixing,
V. COMPUTATIONAL METHODOLOGY AND turbulence, average pressure, static pressure and back pressure
BOUNDARY CONDITIONS was analyzed using CFD.
After modelling the geometry, for analysis viscous standard k- Combustion performance, temperature characteristics and
e model is enabled for considering eddy dissipation. Since emission parameters of CO and NOx will be recorded and
geometry is subject to a motion of the piston, dynamic analyzed at various flow rates of hydrogen.
meshing is enabled subjected to suitable boundary condition
of piston, cylinder, walls etc. Combustion in a spark ignition
engine involves the finely atomized liquid fuel into the air at
high temperature and pressure. It includes the fuel and air
boundary conditions like velocity, static temperature, mass

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 International Journal of Applied Engineering Research ISSN 0973-4562 Volume 10, Number 19 (2015)
© Research India Publications ::: http://www.ripublication.com

1. Cylinder pressure, temperature and turbulence of 2. Cylinder pressure, temperature and turbulence of
hemi spherical design of piston shallow depth design of piston

Figure.2 turbulent kinetic energy Figure.5 turbulent kinetic energy

Figure.3 temperature v/s flow time Figure.6 temperature v/s flow time

Figure.4 pressure v/s flow time Figure.7 pressure v/s flow time

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 International Journal of Applied Engineering Research ISSN 0973-4562 Volume 10, Number 19 (2015)
© Research India Publications ::: http://www.ripublication.com
3. Cylinder pressure, temperature and turbulence of
elliptical design of piston
Figure.8 turbulent kinetic energy
Figure.9 temperature v/s flow time
Figure.10 pressure v/s flow time
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From the above figure comparision over piston types to its
parameters in the combustion analysis, the maximum cylinder
pressure reached in the elliptical type design of the piston with
a cylinder pressure value of 110 bars for a complete cycle, and
the maximum temperature thermal energy is liberated in the
elliptical type design of the piston with the maximum
temperature of 1075k, but the maximum turbulence created in
the hemispherical design of the piston with the maximum
value of 6.43k and in the elliptical design of piston have the
moderate value of turbulence.
In the elliptical design of piston have maximum combustion
temperature due to that the emission will get reduced the NOx
level is 1.24e-5 ppm and the Co level is 3.35e-4 % volume.
Compared to other two types of piston (hemisphere & shallow
depth) the elliptical design of the piston has the maximum
pressure and the temperature at the same time the emission
level is to get reduced. It gives the best result of combustion.
VII. CONCLUSION
This project gives the computational results for the effective
combustion chamber of achieving low emission combustion
and to increase the turbulence with different types of the
piston head. The main criterion of this project is to reduce the
emissions of combustion products with effective combustion.
Low emission of combustion products is the main reason for
the achievement of much better fuel efficiency. For our
convenience, I had chosen methane-air as a fuel air mixture in
this project work. The engine performance and pollutant
emission of a commercial SI engine have been investigated by
using gasoline fuels in computational fluid dynamic analysis.
In that combustion analysis, the maximum cylinder pressure
and temperature occurred in the elliptical type of piston head
 International Journal of Applied Engineering Research ISSN 0973-4562 Volume 10, Number 19 (2015)
© Research India Publications ::: http://www.ripublication.com

with a cylinder average pressure value of 110 bars and the

average temperature value of 1075k for a one complete cycle
with crank speed of 1500 RPM.

Experimental results indicated that using of elliptical type

piston head the output CO and NOx emissions decrease
dramatically as a result of 3.35e-4 % volume of CO and 1.24e-
5 ppm of NOx in the emission.

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