CFD modeling of a four stroke S.I.

engine
for motorcycle application
Abstract
This thesis deals with the numerical 3D simulation of a four stroke, sparkignited, internal
combustion engine, which is mounted on a high performance motorcycle.
The work, carried out
in collaboration with Politecnico di Milano and MV Agusta, focuses on the
simulation of the
intake, compression and expansion stroke, including combustion simulation,
using an open
source CFD code.
Simulation of internal combustion engines offers a great challenge in the
field of CFD research.
Moving boundaries of the solution domain, caused by the motion of the
piston and valves, leads
to deformation of the computational grid, with decreasing quality of the
solution as result. Based
on this, a previously developed mesh motion strategy was employed where a
number of meshes
are used to cover the whole simulation cycle. Within each mesh interval the
internal cell points
of the mesh are moved to account for the boundary motion of the piston and
valves. This strategy
was previously applied to simplified geometries as well as real engine
geometries. The purpose
of this work is to show its validity for a real and complex engine geometry,
covering a longer
simulation interval then previously.

After an initial description of the mesh creation process, studies of the incylinder charge motion,
created during the intake stroke, were made to investigate the presence of a
tumble motion. The
result shows that a strong tumble motion is not generated. This could also be
because of
numerical

diffusion

caused

by

the

mesh

structure.

Furthermore,

investigations were made to see

why the present engine has a tendency to knock. The simulations showed
that the in-cylinder
flow field creates a temperature distribution in the cylinder that is not
uniform, possible
increasing the knock risk close to the exhaust valves. Lastly, simulations of
the combustion
process were made using the Weller combustion model. Problems causing a
calculated
turbulence intensity that was too low for proper flame propagation were
apparent, leading to
inconsistency

between

the

calculation and the calibrated

1D calculation.

calculated

cylinder

pressure

of

the

CFD