Applied Thermal Engineering 169 (2020) 114918

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Applied Thermal Engineering

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apthermeng

Three-dimensional simulation of two-phase flow in a complex gallery and T

telescopic pipe coupled system
⁎
H.Y. Zhao, P.J. Ming , W.P. Zhang, Q. Liu, W.L. Qi
College of Power and Energy Engineering, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin 150001, China

R E S E A R C H HI G HL I GH T S

• Two-phase flow in the oil cooling gallery of low-speed diesel engines was simulated.
• Inclusion of the telescopic pipe is essential for the piston galley model.
• Decreasing the crank shaft speed will increase the oil filling ratio.
• Raising the inlet pressure increases the oil filling ratio and mass flow rate.
• The air hole is essential for maintaining a proper oil filling ratio.

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Highly efficient cooling of heavy duty marine diesel engine pistons is one of the key parts of modern advanced
Piston cooling gallery engine piston design. Due to the high efficiency of the shaker cooling system, oil cooling galleries are extensively
Two-phase flow used. These galleries on low-speed marine engines are particularly complex, including a telescopic pipe and an
Telescopic pipe air hole on the cross head. Few work has been done on coolant flow in such complex system under coupling of
Marine low-speed diesel engine
reciprocating, pressure and inertial force until now. The flow behaviour is relatively poorly understood. This
Numerical simulation
study focuses on the influence of telescopic pipe on the two-phase flow details for a marine low-speed diesel
engine. A 3D CFD model is established including both the piston gallery and a telescopic pipe. With this model,
the change in the two-phase flow pattern with the progression of the crank angle was investigated, and the
pressure and mass flow rate through typical sections of the oil cooling system were analysed. By changing the oil
inlet pressure and crank shaft speed, key parameters characterising the flow pattern inside the galleries were
compared. The numerical results demonstrate a strong correlation between the telescopic pipe and two-phase
flow characteristics. Both decreasing the crank shaft speed and increasing the inlet pressure will reduce the
backflow of outside air from the air hole boundary and increase the oil filling ratio. The proposed numerical
model is able to predict the complex two-phase flow phenomenon in the gallery, which is important and provides
a basis for further studies on the heat transfer mechanism and optimal design of the cooling system.

1. Introduction
Increasing the cylinder pressure and specific power of diesel engines
has been in great demand to meet increasingly stringent regulations on
fuel economy and lower emissions. This has caused significant concerns
regarding the thermal loading to the pistons. Excessive piston tem-
peratures may lead to severe oxidation and degradation of the piston
materials, eventually resulting in piston failure. Thus, it is important
and beneficial to control the piston temperature. The most common and
effective measure for decreasing piston temperatures is to place cooling
oil galleries inside the pistons. Cooling oil is injected into these piston
galleries, and the reciprocating mixed air and oil absorbs extra heat
away from the inner surface of the piston galleries. Investigation of the
oscillating oil-cooling mechanism is an essential prerequisite for opti-
mising the gallery structures and improving the cooling performance.
Bush et al. [1] carried out a pioneering study comprising a series of
comprehensive experiments. They obtained an expression for the heat
transfer coefficient based on the piston size, oil properties, and piston
reciprocation parameters. Later, French [2] considered the influence of
changes in oil viscosity on the heat transfer during the cooling process.
In addition, a corrected empirical formula was proposed. In recent
decades, many researchers have designed various experimental

⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: pingjianming@hrbeu.edu.cn (P.J. Ming).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2020.114918
Received 1 July 2019; Received in revised form 10 December 2019; Accepted 7 January 2020
Available online 08 January 2020
1359-4311/ © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
H.Y. Zhao, et al. Applied Thermal Engineering 169 (2020) 114918

installations to investigate the two-phase convective heat transfer

phenomena [3–6]. These have focused on visualisation of the oil
movement, the oil filling ratio, different gallery shapes, various oil
nozzle arrangements, varying oscillation frequencies, and the corre-
sponding influence on the convective heat transfer performance.
With the rapid development of computer technology, computational
fluid dynamics (CFD) techniques have become the dominant method for
simulating oil cooling behaviour. More flow field details can be ob-
served, and changes in specific parameters over time and space can be
obtained directly; these changes were largely ignored in the previous
experimental research. Kajiwara et al. [7] employed CFD analysis to
simulate the heat transfer coefficient of a simplified 2D orifice based on
the predicted oil filling ratio and piston acceleration; the heat transfer
coefficient was then used to calculate the piston temperature by ap-
plying a finite element method (FEM) approach. Pan et al. [8] devel-
oped a CFD code to conduct an oil cooling analysis of an actual 3D Fig. 2. Geometric profile of the piston head.
piston gallery, realising visualisation of the “cocktail shaking” me-
chanism and proposing an optimised design of the key parameters. This
Fig. 2 shows the geometric profile of the piston head for a low-speed
strategy has been widely adopted in subsequent studies. Zhu et al. [9]
studied the impact of different turbulence models on the two-phase diesel engine, with the red arrow denoting the direction of oil flow.
Rather than simple O-rings, the piston cooling gallery for a low-speed
oscillating flow inside the gallery, concluding that the shear stress
transport (SST) k-ω model provides better performance in the visuali- diesel engine contains an inner cavity, 18 side holes, 18 cylinder-shaped
outer cavities, and 4 cross oil return pipes. The cooling oil is pressed
sation results compared with the experimental snapshots and the nu-
merical accuracy of the heat transfer coefficient. Wang et al. [10] in- into the piston gallery by the telescopic pipe, which will be described in
detail in Section 3. Zhou [13] considered a simplified model comprising
vestigated the heat transfer enhancement obtained by adding
nanoparticles to the cooling oil; different volume concentrations and 1/6 of the piston gallery, in which the asymmetrical structure was
neglected and the cross oil return pipe was approximated by ensuring
particle species were compared. Deng et al. [11] focused on uneven
heat transfer distributions in an annular cooling cavity using a relative the same total back-flow area. In addition, the influence of the tele-
scopic pipe on the inlet velocity was artificially defined and lacking in
displacement method. Subsequently, they proposed a multi-objective
optimisation model [12] of the cooling gallery cross-section, and the theoretical evidence. Liu [14] employed AVL FIRE software to simulate
the heat transfer behaviour of the whole piston cooling gallery system;
final optimal gallery was verified to reduce the temperature by 10 ℃
and the thermal stress by 8.7 MPa. however, the parameters affecting the cooling performance were not
analysed.
Almost all of these previous studies focused on simple annular
In this study, the two-phase flow phenomenon is investigated inside
galleries with different cross-section shapes, while few researchers have
the complex structure of the piston gallery for a marine low-speed
investigated the heat transfer performance of cooling galleries for
diesel engine. A cooling system containing the cavities inside the
marine low-speed diesel engines. The main reason for this gap is the
highly complex structure of these galleries. The typical piston cooling crosshead, piston rod, piston head, and telescopic pipe is established.
The details of the flow field during the reciprocating motion of the
galleries for high- and low-speed diesel engines are shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 1. Schematics of typical piston galleries for (a) high- and (b) low-speed diesel engines.

2
H.Y. Zhao, et al. Applied Thermal Engineering 169 (2020) 114918

piston are extracted and analysed. Key parameters, such as the crank
shaft speed and inlet pressure, that affect the two-phase oscillating flow
behaviour are investigated and compared to obtain a better under-
standing of the piston cooling mechanism.

2. Mathematical formulations

An unsteady, incompressible, pressure-based solver was employed

for the numerical simulation. The algorithm is based on the cell-based
collated finite volume method. Considering dynamic meshes, the con-
servative equations [15] for a general scalar, ϕ , in a continuous integral
form on an arbitrary control volume, V, can be represented as follows:
d
dt
∫ ρϕdV + ∫ ρϕ (u − ug)·d A = ∫ Γϕ∇ϕ·d A + ∫ Sϕ dV ,
V ∂V ∂V V (1)

where ∂V is employed to represent the boundary of the control volume,

V; A denotes the outward area vector; ρ is the fluid density; u is the
flow velocity vector; u g denotes the velocity of the moving mesh; Γϕ is
the diffusion coefficient; and Sϕ is the source term relative to ϕ . The four
terms in Eq. (1) from left to right represent the transient term, con-
vection term, diffusion term, and source term, respectively. The set of
final fluid transport equations can be obtained by setting the scalar, ϕ , Fig. 3. Sketch of the cooling gallery system.
to 1, establishing the velocity components, energy, or turbulent vari-
ables, and then selecting proper expressions for the diffusion coeffi-
the residuals of all governing equations fall below 1.0 × 10−5 or the
cient, Γϕ , and source term, Sϕ .
maximum number of iterations reaches 20.
The Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) model is selected for
time efficiency considerations. The RANS two-equation SST k-ω tur-
3. Model setup and boundary conditions
bulence model is adopted based on its good performance for two-phase
oscillating flows and ability to capture wall effects during the im-
Choosing a proper computational domain and setting up accurate
pingement process. The layering and in-cylinder functions are turned
boundary conditions are essential for simulating a practical problem
on to simulate the reciprocating motion of the piston. The Semi-Implicit
using the CFD technology. Previous studies on piston cooling analysis
Method for Pressure Linked Equations (SIMPLE) algorithm is employed
focus on the reciprocating two-phase fluid inside the piston head. Thus,
to solve the segregated momentum equations and pressure correction
the computational model only consists of the galleries inside the piston
equations. A first-order implicit scheme is used to discretise the tran-
head and parts of the galleries inside the piston rod. In addition, the
sient term of the governing equations, while a second-order upwind
piston reciprocating motion is considered by adding an external body
method is used to deal with the convective term, and a second-order
force term to the momentum equation rather than the compression and
central differencing scheme used to discretise the diffusion term.
tension of a telescopic pipe. Such simplifications reduce the computa-
The gas and oil inside the cooling gallery system are assumed to be
tional costs, and no extra dynamic mesh model needs to be employed.
immiscible and incompressible. The volume of fluid (VOF) method is
However, it is still not recognized whether such simplifications are
employed to capture the two-phase moving interface between the
reasonable. Moreover, it is difficult to set up accurate boundary con-
mixture phases. This method is very simple and efficient and has been
ditions for the oil inlet for such an oversimplified model. How does the
employed extensively in major commercial software and self-developed
compression and tension of the telescopic pipe impact the flow beha-
CFD codes. The volume fraction variable, α , which represents the
viour inside the piston galleries remains still a standing question.
portion of the specified fluid in a control volume, is employed to con-
A sketch of the computational domain is shown in Fig. 3. The whole
struct the transport equation as follows:
cooling system is divided into five parts for clarity and data analysis:
d zone 1 is the telescopic pipe, zone 2 is the crosshead (in), zone 3 is the
dt
∫ αdV + ∫ α (u − ug)·d A = 0. crosshead (out), zone 4 is the piston head, and zone 5 is the piston rod.
V ∂V (2)
The inlet and outlets of the system are also depicted in Fig. 3. The oil
A single set of momentum equations and turbulence equations are inlet is connected to the oil main cavity, and it is set as a pressure inlet
solved throughout the domain, and the resulting velocity is shared by boundary. There are two outlets in this system: one is the air hole lo-
both phases. After solving the volume fraction equations, the volume- cated in the crosshead (in) domain near the telescopic pipe, and the
averaged density and viscosity are updated: other is the oil outlet. Both of these are set as pressure outlets. No-slip
ρ = αρL + (1 − α ) ρG wall boundary conditions are assumed for the rest of the boundaries.
μ = αμL + (1 − α ) μG , The front, side, and top views of the whole cooling gallery system
(3)
are illustrated in Fig. 4. The telescopic pipe contains a fixed pipe and a
where ρL , ρG , μL , and μG are the densities and viscosities of the liquid moving pipe, as shown in Fig. 5. The fixed pipe is connected to the oil
and gas, respectively. The updated densities and viscosities are sub- inlet and is stationary. The moving pipe is connected to the crosshead
stituted into the momentum equations, and in turn affect the distribu- (in) and moves up and down with the piston head, piston rod, and
tion of the flow field. The key challenge for solving Eq. (2) is to dis- crosshead. The meshes at the interface between the moving pipe and
cretise the convection term properly to advect the interface without the outer fixed pipe are set as deforming meshes. In addition, the de-
causing dispersion, diffusion or wrinkling. A compressive scheme is forming domain is divided into structured grids. Owing to the structural
employed in the present study. Thus, an artificial compressive term is complexity, the rest of the subdomains are mapped with unstructured
added into the volume fraction equation to avoid numerical diffusion. meshes. The total mesh number for the computational domain is ap-
The computational time step is fixed as a crank angle of 0.5°. The proximately six million. No extra grid independence analysis was con-
numerical results in a time step are considered to be converged when ducted in this study, but it is assumed that the current mesh is

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H.Y. Zhao, et al. Applied Thermal Engineering 169 (2020) 114918

Fig. 4. Front, side, and top elevation drawings of the whole cooling gallery system.

Table 1
Physical parameters of the two-phase fluid.
Parameters Gas Oil

3
Density (kg/m ) 1.225 867
Viscosity (kg/m−s) 1.7894 × 10−5 0.012642

Table 2
Parameters of the piston reciprocating motion.
Parameters Values Unit

Crank shaft speed 169 rpm

Starting crank angle 0 deg
Crank radius 0.775 m
Connecting rod length 1.654 m
Piston stroke cut-off 1.55 m

cooling oil outlet.

Table 2 lists the parameters for the piston reciprocating motion. The
related displacement curve, velocity curve, and acceleration curve for
the piston motion are presented in Fig. 6.

Fig. 5. Schematic profile of the dynamic mesh for the telescopic pipe.
4. Numerical results and discussion

sufficiently fine based on the work of Zhou [13] and Liu [14].
At the initial moment, the whole domain is filled with air. The
physical properties of oil and air are listed in Table 1. The cooling oil
from the oil inlet flows into the telescopic pipe, and then flows suc-
cessively through the crosshead (in), the inner tube of the piston rod,
the inner cavity of the piston head, the side hole, the outer cavity of the
piston head, four cross oil return pipes, and the outer tube of the piston
rod. Finally, the oil runs into the crosshead out and flows out of the
4.1. Two-phase flow characteristics of the cooling system
The simulation is implemented on a server with 24 processers. The
inlet pressure is first set to 3.0 bar and the crank shaft speed to 169 rpm.
The pressure at the two outlets is set to 0 bar. The results are considered
to be stable when the monitoring curves for the oil filling ratio in all
sub-domains vary in cyclic periods. This typically requires approxi-
mately 15 computing cycles.

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H.Y. Zhao, et al. Applied Thermal Engineering 169 (2020) 114918

0.0
Displacement [m] Displacement
-0.4

-0.8

-1.2

-1.6

0 30 60 90 120 150 180 210 240 270 300 330 360

16

Velocity
8
Velocity [m/s]

-8

-16
0 30 60 90 120 150 180 210 240 270 300 330 360

200
Acceleration [m/s2]

-200

Acceleration
-400
0 30 60 90 120 150 180 210 240 270 300 330 360

Crank Angle [deg]

Fig. 6. Piston displacement, velocity, and acceleration curves with varying crank angles.

4.1.1. Oil distribution in the cooling system the piston head and piston rod domain, x = −0.192 profile of the
The flow field and relevant variables change periodically within an telescopic pipe domain, and the crosshead (in) and (out) domains are
engine cycle. The oil distribution in the cooling gallery system at dif- used to construct the counter plots in Fig. 7. Enlarged views of the oil
ferent piston positions is shown in Fig. 7. The x = −0.008 section of distribution for the x = −0.008 section of the piston head and the

Fig. 7. Oil distribution in the gallery cooling system at typical positions.

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H.Y. Zhao, et al. Applied Thermal Engineering 169 (2020) 114918

Fig. 8. Oil distribution at the x = −0.008 section of the piston head over one period.

Fig. 9. Oil distribution in the crosshead (in) domain at typical positions.

crosshead (in) domain are displayed in Figs. 8 and 9, respectively.

When the piston is located at the top dead centre (TDC), the telescopic 1.0

pipe domain is completely filled with oil. The oil inside the inner cavity
of the piston head has a tendency to move upward, and part of the oil 0.9
flows into the cylinder-shaped outer cavity through the side holes.
Outside air begins to flow back into the oil gallery system from the air
Oil Filling Rate

hole boundary. As the piston accelerates downward, the volume of the 0.8
telescopic pipe domain increases rapidly. Owing to the negative pres-
sure effect, outside air is drawn into the crosshead (in) and telescopic
0.7
pipe domains. A large portion of the oil inside the piston head accu- Telescopic pipe
mulates near the top wall of the oil chamber under the effect of inertia. Crosshead (in)
When the crankshaft rotates from 90° to 180°, the piston slows down to 0.6 Crosshead (out)
move downward. The air entering from the air hole begins to decrease, Piston head
and oil refills the telescopic pipe. The oil inside the piston head gra- Piston rod
dually flows out of the top wall and moves downward at a high speed. 0.5
0 90 180 270 360
As the piston begins to move upward, the oil inside the telescopic pipe
is compressed into the crosshead (in), piston rod, and piston head. A Crank Angle [deg]
small part of the oil flows out through the air hole boundary. Oil con-
Fig. 10. Instantaneous oil filling ratios in each sub-domain over one period.
taining a large amount of air flows into the inner tube of the piston rod
from the crosshead (in) domain, becoming a slug flow. The compressed
two-phase fluids directly impact on the upper surface of the inner of the air sucked in from the air hole boundary. The variation in the
cavity. When the crank shaft moves to approximately 315°, the oil in- curves for the crosshead (in) and crosshead (out) domains is much
side the piston head gradually flows away from the lower surface of the larger, as both are connected to the outlets. The effect of the telescopic
chamber and moves upward. pipe can easily cause backflow of the outside air. It is clearly observed
The curves for the oil filling ratios over one period in the five sub- that air backflow occurs when the piston accelerates downward or the
domains during are shown in Fig. 10. Most of the time, the oil filling telescopic pipe is stretching. The oil filling ratio in the piston head and
ratio in the telescopic pipe domain is equal to 1, except when the piston rod domains is altered little, as these are distant from the inlet
crankshaft rotates to approximately 90°. This slight deviation is a result and outlets.
The curves for the area-weighted volume fraction at the two outlets

6
H.Y. Zhao, et al.
1.0
0.8
Area-weighted volume fraction
0.6
0.4
0.2
Air hole
Oil outlet
0.0
0 90 180 270
Crank Angle [deg]
Fig. 11. Area-weighted volume fraction at the outlets over one period.
during one period are shown in Fig. 11. The curves verify the flow
phenomena discussed above. From 0° to 90°, the outside air is drawn
into the cooling system as a result of the negative pressure effect, and
the volume fraction at the air hole boundary is zero. The oil gradually
flows out from the air hole during the following 90° of crank angle, and
the volume fraction of the air hole begins to increase. When the piston
starts to move upward, the oil inside the telescopic pipe is compressed
out from the air hole, and the volume fraction value reaches one. For
the oil outlet, the minimum volume fraction occurs at approximately
180°, when the piston is located near the bottom dead centre (BDC).
4.1.2. Pressure distribution of the oil gallery system
The counter plots for the pressure of the oil gallery system at dif-
ferent crank angles are shown in Fig. 12. When the piston is located at
TDC, the maximal pressure occurs in the piston head domain. The
pressure of the piston head decreases rapidly until the piston reaches a
crank angle of 90°. Then, the pressure of the piston head gradually
increases during the latter part of the cycle. Another two key piston
positions are at crank angles of 45° and 270°, where the pressure of the
region near the air hole boundary reach its minimum and maximum,
Fig. 12. Pressure of the oil gallery system at different crank angles.
Applied Thermal Engineering 169 (2020) 114918
respectively. It is evident that the telescopic pipe plays a key role in
forcing the two-phase fluid into the piston head. Thus, the original
study that constructed the computational domain by ignoring the
telescopic pipe is over-simplified and unreasonable.
For further analysis, five interfaces are defined. As presented in
Fig. 13, InterF1 connects the moving pipe of the telescopic pipe and the
crosshead (in), InterF2 connects the crosshead (in) and the inner tube of
the piston rod, InterF3 connects the outer tube of the piston rod and the
crosshead (out), InterF4 connects the inner tube of the piston rod and
the inner cavity of the piston head, and InterF5 connects the piston
head and the outer tube of the piston rod. The curves for the area-
averaged pressure at the different interfaces are shown in Fig. 14. The
trends in InterF1 and InterF2 are very similar. These two interfaces are
the inlet and outlet of the crosshead (in) domain, respectively. The
trends in the corresponding curves are also in good agreement with the
360
counter plots in Fig. 12: the minimum and maximum pressures occur at
crank angles of 90° and 270°. InterF4 and InterF5 are the inlet and
outlet of the piston head domain, respectively. The curves for the in-
terface pressure exhibit similar tendencies before a crank angle of 130°,
after which the amplitude of increase is greater for InterF4. In contrast,
the pressure curve for InterF3 changes gently, as it is distant from the
oil inlet and telescopic pipe.
4.1.3. Mass flow rate through typical profiles
The mass flow rate through the oil inlet and two outlets over one
piston motion cycle is shown in Fig. 15. The curve at the oil inlet is
quite similar to a sine curve. Large amounts of oil flow into the gallery
as piston stroke moves downward owing to the increase in volume of
the telescopic pipe domain. During the compression process, part of the
oil stored in the telescopic pipe is forced out through the oil inlet, and
the mass flow rate is negative. As the area of the air hole is very small,
the mass flow rate is also very small. The enlarged view indicates that
the mass flow rate at the air hole is strongly linked to the curve for the
area-averaged volume fraction, as illustrated by the black line in
Fig. 11. Because the density of oil is much larger than that of air, the
mass flow rate of the air phase can almost be ignored. The curve at the
oil outlet changes smoothly compared to that at the oil inlet, while the
trend is consistent.
Fig. 16 shows the mass flow rate through the five typical interfaces
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H.Y. Zhao, et al. Applied Thermal Engineering 169 (2020) 114918

Fig. 13. Definition of different interfaces.

1000000
InterF1 6
InterF2
800000
InterF3
InterF4
4
600000 InterF5
Mass flow rate[kg/s]
Pressure [Pa]

400000 2

200000 InterF1
0 InterF2
0 InterF3
-2
InterF4
-200000 InterF5
0 90 180 270 360
0 90 180 270 360
Crank Angle [deg]
Crank Angle(deg)
Fig. 14. Average pressures at different interfaces over one period.
Fig. 16. Mass flow rate at different interfaces during one period.
30
0.2
connected to the moving pipe of the telescopic pipe. The tension and
0.0
compression of the telescopic pipe have a significant influence on the
Mass flow rate [kg/s]

20 oil flow behaviour. The curves for the mass flow rate at the oil inlet and
-0.2

InterF1 are entirely different. The curves for the other four interfaces
show similar tendencies. The oscillation at InterF2 and InterF4 from
Mass flow rate [kg/s]

-0.4

10 135° to approximately 270° can be explained by the slug flow resulting

Air hole

-0.6
0 90 180 270 360
Crank Angle [deg]
in oil containing a large amount of air being forced into the inner pipe
of the piston rod.
0
4.1.4. Summary of the two-phase flow phenomena
Based on the discussions above, the two-phase flow phenomena
-10 Oil inlet inside the gallery system during one piston motion cycle can be divided
Oil outlet into four parts:
Air hole
-20 (1) The piston accelerates downward, and the volume of the telescopic
0 90 180 270 360
pipe increases rapidly. Large amounts of oil flow into the gallery
Crank Angle [deg]
system from the oil inlet, the pressure of the gallery system de-
Fig. 15. Mass flow rate at the inlet and outlets during one period. creases, and outside air is drawn into the telescopic pipe and
crosshead (in) domain from the air hole boundary. A large portion
of the oil inside the piston head accumulates near the top wall of the
as the crank angle progresses. The curve for InterF1 varies more than
oil cavity under the effect of inertia.
those for the other interfaces. This is because InterF1 is directly

8
H.Y. Zhao, et al.
(2) The piston slows down to move downward, and the telescopic pipe
continues to extend. The amount of oil entering from the oil inlet
gradually decreases, and the telescopic pipe begins to become
completely filled with oil. A small part of the oil flows out through
the air hole, and air continues to flow into the gallery system. The
pressure of the system begins to increase. The oil inside the piston
head gradually flows out of the top wall and moves downward at a
high speed.
(3) The piston moves upward with increasing velocity, and the volume
of the telescopic pipe decreases rapidly. The pressure inside the
gallery system continues to increase. The oil inside the telescopic
pipe is compressed rapidly, and the compressed oil is forced out in
three ways: part of the oil flows out through the oil inlet and air
hole boundary, while the other part is forced into the crosshead
(in), inner tube of the piston rod, and then the piston head. The
mixed fluids flow with high velocity and directly impact the upper
wall of the oil chamber.
(4) The piston slows to move upward, and the telescopic pipe continues
to be compressed. The pressure at the bottom of the telescopic pipe
decreases rapidly, and outside air begins to flow back near the BDC.
The pressure inside the piston head gradually increases to a max-
imum, and the oil inside the piston head gradually flows away from
the bottom surface of the chamber and moves upward.
4.2. Effect of the crank shaft speed
In this section, three different engine crank shaft speed are selected
for comparison: 126.75 rpm, 147.875 rpm, and 169 rpm; the pressure
of the oil inlet is fixed at 3.0 bar. Comparisons of the oil filling ratio,
area-averaged volume fraction at the two outlets, and pressure and
mass flow rate through typical interfaces are shown in Figs. 17–20,
respectively.
The oil filling ratio of the gallery system is quite sensitive to the
crank shaft speed. As the crank shaft speed increases, the oil filling ratio
decreases in all sub-domains. As shown in Fig. 18, less outside air can
flow back to the gallery system through the air hole in the 126.75 rpm
case. This leads to the computational domain being nearly completely
filled with oil. Moreover, no effective two-phase oscillating behaviour
can form inside the piston head. This is interpreted as poor cooling
performance. On the other hand, the results stress the importance of the
air hole for guaranteeing the supply of air into the oil gallery system.
The plots in Fig. 19 suggest that a higher crank shaft speed will
result in a wider range of pressure variation, i.e. a lower minimum
pressure and higher maximum pressure. The results indicate that the
mass flow rate is dependent on both the flow velocity and fluid density.
Owing to the large difference in density between the air and oil, the
mass flow rate of the air phase can almost be ignored. The case with a
lower crank shaft speed leads to a smaller pressure jump, resulting in
lower flow velocity; however, it also results in a greater portion of oil or
increased density of the fluid mixture. For example, consider the curve
1.01
Zone1: Telescopic pipe
1.00
Oil Filling Rate
Oil Filling Rate
0.99
0.98 126.75 rpm
147.875 rpm
169 rpm
0.97
0.96
0 90 180 270 360
Crank Angle [deg]
Fig. 17. Instantaneous oil filling ratios in zone 1, zone 2, and zone 4 at different crank shaft speeds.
Applied Thermal Engineering 169 (2020) 114918
for InterF1. InterF1 is very close to the air hole, and the greatest amount
of air is sucked into the telescopic pipe in the 169 rpm case as the piston
is moving downward. Thus, the corresponding mass flow rate is the
smallest. Then, the oil in the telescopic pipe is compressed into the
crosshead (in), and the flow velocity plays a dominant role. The mass
flow rate for the 169 rpm case thus becomes the greatest. The curves for
InterF4 and InterF5 can be explained in the same way.
4.3. Effect of the inlet pressure
To investigate the effect of the inlet pressure, the crank shaft speed
is fixed at 169 rpm, and the inlet pressure is varied as 2.5 bar, 3.0 bar,
and 3.5 bar. Figs. 21 and 22 show the oil filling ratio in three sub-
domains and the area-averaged volume fraction for the two outlets,
respectively, at three different inlet pressures. With increasing inlet
pressure, the oil filling ratio also increases. The start and end crank
angles for the air backflow phenomenon are similar among the three
different inlet pressures. The main change lies from 90° to 180°, when
the air backflow and oil outflow occur at the same time. This process
lasts longer time with an inlet pressure of 2.5 bar.
The influence of the inlet pressure on the interface pressure and
mass flow rate are compared in Figs. 23 and 24, respectively. It is clear
that a higher inlet pressure leads to a higher pressure of the whole
domain. Fig. 23 verifies this conclusion. Increasing the inlet pressure
leads to an increase in the mass flow rate. This can be explained from
two perspectives: first, the larger pressure jump for a higher inlet
pressure results in a higher flow velocity; and second, the higher oil
filling ratio results in a higher density of the hybrid fluid.
5. Conclusions
In this study, 3D CFD was employed to simulate the two-phase flow
inside the oil cooling gallery of a marine low-speed diesel engine. A
computational domain containing the piston head, piston rod, cross-
head, and telescopic pipe was established. The key variables of the oil
filling ratio, pressure, and mass flow rate were analysed during one
piston motion cycle. Moreover, the influence of the inlet pressure and
crank shaft speed on these key variables was also investigated. Several
conclusions can be summarised as follows:
(1) The telescopic pipe is indispensable for setting up the piston galley
model to simulate the two-phase flow phenomena. The tension and
compression of the moving pipe directly impact the oil distribution,
pressure change, and flow field characteristics. The tensile process
causes copious oil to be stored in the telescopic pipe and a large
amount of air to be sucked into the crosshead (in). During the
compression process, the two-phase fluid is forced into the piston
head and directly impacts on the top wall of the inner cavity.
(2) As the crank shaft speed increases, the oil filling ratio decreases,
and more air flows back through the air hole boundary.
1.1 1.1
Zone2: Crosshead (in) Zone4: Piston head 126.75 rpm
1.0 147.875 rpm
169 rpm
1.0
Oil Filling Rate
0.9
0.8 0.9
0.7
126.75 rpm 0.8
0.6 147.875 rpm
169 rpm
0.5 0.7
0 90 180 270 360 0 90 180 270 360
Crank Angle [deg] Crank Angle [deg]
9
H.Y. Zhao, et al. Applied Thermal Engineering 169 (2020) 114918

1.2
Air hole Oil outlet
1.0
1.0

0.8
Oil Filling Rate

0.8

Oil Filling Rate

0.6
126.75 rpm
0.4 147.875 rpm 0.6
169 rpm
0.2 126.75 rpm
0.4 147.875 rpm
0.0 169 rpm
0 90 180 270 360 0 90 180 270 360
Crank Angle [deg] Crank Angle [deg]

Fig. 18. Area-averaged volume fraction at the two outlets at different crank shaft speeds.

1000000
1000000 1000000
InterF4 InterF5
InterF1 800000
800000 800000

Pressure [Pa]
Pressure [Pa]
Pressure [Pa]

600000 600000
600000

400000 400000
400000
3.0bar 3.0bar
3.0bar
200000 200000 200000

126.75 rpm 126.75 rpm 126.75 rpm

0 0 0 147.875 rpm
147.875 rpm 147.875 rpm
169 rpm 169 rpm 169 rpm
-200000 -200000 -200000
0 90 180 270 360 0 90 180 270 360 0 90 180 270 360
Crank Angle [deg] Crank Angle [deg] Crank Angle [deg]

Fig. 19. Area-averaged pressures at InterF1, InterF4, and InterF5 at different crank shaft speeds.

8 8 8
InterF1 InterF4 InterF5
6 6 6
Mass flow rate [kg/s]

Mass flow rate [kg/s]

Mass flow rate [kg/s]

4 4 4

2 2 2

0 0 0

126.75 rpm 126.75 rpm 126.75 rpm

-2 -2 -2
147.875 rpm 147.875 rpm 147.875 rpm
169 rpm 169 rpm 169 rpm
-4 -4 -4
0 90 180 270 360 0 90 180 270 360 0 90 180 270 360
Crank Angle [deg] Crank Angle [deg] Crank Angle [deg]

Fig. 20. Mass flow rate through InterF1, InterF4, and InterF5 at different crank shaft speeds.

1.0
1.0
Zone4: Piston head
Zone1: Telescopic pipe Zone2: Crosshead (in) 2.5bar
1.00
0.9 3.0bar
0.9
3.5bar
Oil Filling Rate
Oil Filling Rate

Oil Filling Rate

0.98 0.8
0.8

0.7
2.5bar 2.5bar
0.96 0.7
3.0bar 3.0bar
0.6
3.5bar 3.5bar

0.94 0.5 0.6

0 90 180 270 360 0 90 180 270 360 0 90 180 270 360
Crank Angle [deg] Crank Angle [deg] Crank Angle [deg]

Fig. 21. Instantaneous oil filling ratio in zone1, zone 2, and zone 4 with different inlet pressures.

10
H.Y. Zhao, et al. Applied Thermal Engineering 169 (2020) 114918

1.2
Air hole Oil outlet
1.0 1.0

0.8
Oil Filling Rate

Oil Filling Rate

0.8
0.6

0.4 0.6
2.5bar
0.2 3.0bar 2.5bar
3.5bar 0.4
3.0bar
0.0 3.5bar
0 90 180 270 360 0 90 180 270 360
Crank Angle [deg] Crank Angle [deg]
Fig. 22. Area-averaged volume fraction at the two outlets with different inlet pressures.

1000000 1000000 1000000

InterF1 InterF4 InterF5
800000 800000 800000
Pressure [Pa]

Pressure [Pa]
Pressure [Pa]

600000 600000 600000

400000 400000 400000

200000 200000 200000

2.5bar 2.5bar 2.5bar
0 3.0bar 0 3.0bar 0 3.0bar
3.5bar 3.5bar 3.5bar
-200000 -200000 -200000
0 90 180 270 360 0 90 180 270 360 0 90 180 270 360
Crank Angle [deg] Crank Angle [deg] Crank Angle [deg]

Fig. 23. Area-averaged pressure for InterF1, InterF4, and InterF5 with different inlet pressures.

8 8 8
InterF1 InterF4 InterF5
6 6 6
Mass flow rate [kg/s]
Mass flow rate [kg/s]

Mass flow rate [kg/s]

4 4 4

2 2 2

0 0 0
2.5bar 2.5bar 2.5bar
-2 3.0bar -2 3.0bar -2 3.0bar
3.5bar 3.5bar 3.5bar
-4 -4 -4
0 90 180 270 360 0 90 180 270 360 0 90 180 270 360
Crank Angle [deg] Crank Angle [deg] Crank Angle [deg]

Fig. 24. Mass flow rate through InterF1, InterF4, and InterF5 with different inlet pressures.

Furthermore, the pressure variation is larger, resulting in a higher CRediT authorship contribution statement
flow velocity. The whole computational domain is almost com-
pletely filled with oil for cases with excessively low crank shaft H.Y. Zhao: Software, Validation, Investigation, Data curation,
speeds, thus working against the two-phase oscillation and heat Writing - original draft. P.J. Ming: Conceptualization, Formal analysis.
transfer performance. W.P. Zhang: Supervision. Q. Liu: Writing - review & editing. W.L. Qi:
(3) Increasing the inlet pressure leads to an increase in the oil filling Visualization.
ratio and mass flow rate through typical interfaces.
(4) The air hole, which is designed to reduce pressure fluctuations in
Declaration of Competing Interest
the telescopic pipe, plays an important role in taking in air when
the piston moves downward; this is essential for maintaining a
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
proper oil filling ratio in the computational domain.
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influ-
ence the work reported in this paper.
The heat transfer performance of the cooling gallery for a low-speed
diesel engine will be investigated in the next stage of this research,
together with the coupling behaviour between the two-phase oscillation Acknowledgements
and piston thermal load.
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support provided
by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant numbers
51479038, 51709064] and the Fundamental Research Funds for the

11
H.Y. Zhao, et al.
Central Universities [grant number HEUCF201711].
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