LES/FMDF of Spray Combustion in Internal Combustion Engines

The two-phase filtered mass density function (FMDF) model is employed for large-eddy simulation (LES) of turbulent spray combustion in internal combustion (IC) engines. The LES/FMDF is implemented with an efficient, hybrid numerical method. In this method, the filtered compressible Navier-Stokes equations in curvilinear coordinate systems are solved with a generalized, high-order, multi-block, compact differencing scheme. The spray and the FMDF are implemented with Lagrangian methods. The LES/FMDF methodology has been used for simulations of turbulent combustion in a rapid compression machine (RCM) and in a direct-injection spark-ignition (DISI) engine. For both RCM and DISI engine, the complex interactions among turbulent velocity, fuel droplets and combustion are shown to be well captured with the LES/FMDF. The results for the DISI engine indicate that the size, velocity, evaporation and combustion of the sprayed fuel droplets are strongly affected by the unsteady, vortical motions generated by the incoming air during the intake stroke. In turn, the droplets are found to change the in-cylinder flow structure.