On the Validation of Large Eddy Simulation Applied to Internal Combustion Engine Flows Part II: Numerical Analysis

In internal combustion engines, the characteristic in-cylinder flow field is essential and significantly contributes to engine efficiency and performance. This paper describes the numerical investigation of the flow field in a motored 4-stroke, single-cylinder research engine. Quantitative and qualitative comparisons between experimental and numerical data have been performed at selected crank angle and results obtained in this work are discussed. Statistical flow properties are examined to analyze the averaged and instantaneous flow field. In order to investigate higher order statistical velocity moments and gain insight in the physical processes describing the engine flow structure, multi-cycle Large Eddy Simulation (LES) was carried out on two meshes with different spatial resolution. The three-dimensional structure of the flow has been also visualized by means of iso-surfaces of vortical structures, based on the Q criterion for individual cycles during intake. In order to assess the analysis and to verify that the computational mesh is applicable for the performance of LES simulations, the turbulence resolution M and the ratio of sgs-viscosity to the laminar viscosity were evaluated along the planes of interest. A direct comparison of the statistics of the flow field extracted from the numerical predictions shows a very good agreement with measurements conducted in the same configuration. Discrepancies have been however observed, in particular in the higher moments of the velocity components. Whilst this can be attributed mostly to the limited number of statistical sample (50 LES cycles) collected during the simulation, further investigation is certainly necessary to assess the relevance of modeling and spatial resolution issues.