Applied Energy 88 (2011) 11401152

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Applied Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apenergy

Multi-dimensional scavenging analysis of a free-piston linear alternator based

on numerical simulation
Jinlong Mao , Zhengxing Zuo, Wen Li, Huihua Feng
School of Mechanical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 11 November 2009
Received in revised form 25 September
2010
Accepted 5 October 2010
Available online 30 October 2010
Keywords:
Free-piston
Linear alternator
Two-stroke
Scavenging process
Numerical simulation
Computational uid dynamics

a b s t r a c t
A free-piston linear alternator (FPLA) is being developed by the Beijing Institute of Technology to improve
the thermal efciency relative to conventional crank-driven engines. A two-stroke scavenging process
recharges the engine and is crucial to realizing the continuous operation of a free-piston engine. In order
to study the FPLA scavenging process, the scavenging system was congured using computational uid
dynamics. As the piston dynamics of the FPLA are different to conventional crank-driven two-stroke
engines, a time-based numerical simulation program was built using Matlab to dene the pistons motion
proles. A wide range of design and operating options were investigated including effective stroke length,
valve overlapping distance, operating frequency and charging pressure to nd out their effects on the
scavenging performance. The results indicate that a combination of high effective stroke length to bore
ratio and long valve overlapping distance with a low supercharging pressure has the potential to achieve
high scavenging and trapping efciencies with low short-circuiting losses.
2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
As oil prices rise and the debate on fossil fuels and environmental legislation intensies, alternative drivetrains and engines are
gaining in interest. The FPLA is an alternative engine with the potential to be both environmental friendly and efcient. The FPLA is
a combination of a free-piston engine and a linear electrical machine. This type of energy converter has many advantages such
as high efciency, low fuel consumption and low emissions which
makes it suitable for a series hybrid vehicle [1]. Other signicant
potential advantages of the FPLA, such as reduced heat transfer
losses, variable compression ratio and combustion optimization
exibility, etc. were presented by Mikalsen and Roskilly [2].
Multi-dimensional computational uid dynamics (CFD) codes
are widely used in the design and development of internal combustion engines due to their ability to investigate variables which
are difcult or costly to measure in experimental tests [3]. CFD offers an expedient means for investigating the ow, gas exchange
and combustion processes under realistic engine operating conditions, and the identication of the important features and major
underlying interactions between them.
The approach by the Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT) uses a
loop scavenged, carbureted free-piston, double-ended cylinder
arrangement with a linear alternator integrated directly into the
Corresponding author. Tel./fax: +86 10 68911062.
E-mail address: mjl@bit.edu.cn (J. Mao).
0306-2619/$ - see front matter 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2010.10.003

cylinders center position, as illustrated in Fig. 1. The combustion

at opposing cylinder ends is used to drive coils xed to the piston
back and forth through the alternators magnetic eld. The alternator generates electrical power and controls the pistons motion by
dynamically varying the rate of electrical generation. Engine startup is also achieved using the alternator. Some experiments have already been done using the FPLA prototype and the results showed
that the engines could not work continuously for several cycles.
According to the in-cylinder pressure data collected, the engine
misred every one or two strokes and the device would power
down without the aid of the linear alternator. Based on part load
characteristics of two-stroke engines, there must be something
inappropriate with the BIT engines gas exchange system.
The paper provides some insights into the multi-dimensional
gas ows in the scavenging process of a FPLA using commercial
CFD software AVL_FIRE based on numerically simulated piston
motion proles and evaluates the scavenging performance using
different design and operating options. The experimentally measured in-cylinder and scavenge case pressures were used to dene
the boundary conditions.
2. Free-piston engines
2.1. Literature review
The free-piston engine concept was rst introduced in the
1920s, and since then there have been many attempts to use this

J. Mao et al. / Applied Energy 88 (2011) 11401152

1141

Nomenclature
a
A
At
b
B
cV
D
f
Fe
Ff
g
h
hm
H
Hc
H_ e
H_ i
iL
L
Leff
Ltot
Loverlap
m
min
M
MF
Ncoil
p
p0
pL
pR

ps
psL
psR
Q
Qc
Qh
Qin
R
Rs
RL
t
t0
tc
T
Tw
U
U
V
Vn
Vs
W
x
xign

shape factor of Wiebe function

top area of the piston (m2)
heat transfer area (m2)
shape factor of Wiebe function
magnetic induction intensity (m)
constant volume specic heat (J/(kg K))
cylinder diameter (m)
frequency (Hz)
electromagnetic force (N)
friction force (N)
air gap length (m)
heat transfer coefcient (J (m2 K)1)
thickness of the permanent magnet (m)
length of coil cutting magnetic lines (m)
magnetic eld strength (A/m)
enthalpy output (J/s)
enthalpy input (J/s)
current in the load circuit (A)
induction (mH)
effective stroke length (m)
total stroke length (m)
valve overlapping distance (m)
moving translator mass (kg)
mass of the charge (kg)
load coefcient (N/(m s1)1)
mean magneto motive force (A)
number of turns in the coil
in-cylinder absolute pressure (Pa)
scavenge pressure (Pa)
pressures in the left cylinder (Pa)
pressures in the right cylinder (Pa)

c
eind
U
k

l0
s
sp

kind of engine for automobile and power generation applications.

These engines were in commercial use in the 19301960s as air
compressors in naval applications and air generators feeding hot
gases to power turbines. As conventional internal combustion engine and gas turbine technology matured, the free-piston engine
concept was abandoned in the 1960s because of issues such as control problems and low power densities [4].
As modern microprocessor-based control methods became
available, the free-piston engine concept again stimulated interest
among research groups. Many papers on FPLA have been published
in the past two decades and among these West Virginia University
have demonstrated the stable operation of a spark ignited FPLA
prototype with a bore of 36.5 mm, a maximum possible stroke of
50 mm producing 316 W output power at 79 V while working at

pressure in scavenge case (Pa)

pressure in left scavenging case (Pa)
pressure in right scavenging case (Pa)
energy (J)
heat released in combustion (J)
heat transfer (J)
total input energy (J)
gas constant (J/(kg K))
internal resistance of coils (X)
load resistance (X)
time (s)
time combustion begins (s)
combustion duration (s)
temperature (K)
wall temperature (K)
internal energy (J)
mean piston speed (m/s)
displaced volume of the cylinder (m3)
volume of free blow-down (m3)
volume of scavenge case (m3)
work done (J)
displacement of the translator (m)
translator ignition position (m)
specic heat ratio
induced voltage (V)
ux passing through the coil (Wb)
total ux passing through the coil (Wb)
vacuum permeability (H/m)
pole pitch (m)
width of PM (m)

full load [5,6]. Subsequently, a numerical parametric study of a

compression ignition FPLA was done by Shoukry et al. [7] in which
several parameters were modeled to predict the behavior of the
engine over a wide operating range. Petreanu [8], in his doctoral
dissertation, presented a conceptual design for a four-stroke compression ignition linear engine based on a numerical simulation of
the operation of this type of linear engine.
Dr. Peter Van Blarigan at Sandia National Laboratory carried out
a series of single shot combustion experiments on a rapid compression expansion machine to simulate a free-pistons performance
and undertook a numerical study of a free-piston engine operating
on homogenous charge compression ignition combustion [9]. The
engine operated at a high compression ratio (30:1) and a very
lean (fuel/air equivalence ratio of 0.35) fuel/air mixture to

Fig. 1. FPLA conguration.

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J. Mao et al. / Applied Energy 88 (2011) 11401152

approach the ideal Otto cycle performance. The experiments

demonstrated a thermal efciency of 56% with low emissions.
Goldsborough investigated a wide range of design options of scavenging systems using CFD. The computational results indicated
that a stratied scavenging scheme employing uniow geometry
and supplied by a stable, low temperature/pressure charge best
optimized the efciency and emissions characteristics of the engine [10].
The European Union has been researching the subject of Freepiston Energy Converter (FPEC) aimed at developing an efcient
new technology suitable for vehicle propulsion, auxiliary power
units and distributed power generation since 2002. Simulations
of the combustion system (two cylinders, two-stroke, and HCCI
combustion) showed an indicated efciency of 51% at 23 kW
power output (effective efciency around 46%) [11].
The Czech Technical University has recently successfully developed a direct injection FPLA prototype, with steady operation being
realized based on precise motion control. When the prototype was
running at a frequency of 27 Hz and compression ratio of 9, the
average power output was approximately 350 W, but the efciency
was not reported [12].
Mikalsen and Roskilly proposed a design of a single cylinder
free-piston engine generator with gas-lled bounce chamber then
simulated its working process and discussed the effects of changing parameters over a wide operating range, with different mass
and compression ratios, on the FPLA performance [13]. A novel approach to modeling the free-piston engine through the introduction of a solution-dependent mesh motion using the engine CFD
toolkit OpenFOAM was also presented [14].
Bergman and Fredriksson et al. recently presented a CFD based
optimization of a dieselfueled, uniow scavenged, free-piston engine. The piston dynamics, combustion process and intake and exhaust system dynamics were solved using Matlab/Simulink, KIVA3V and GT-Power respectively. Since there was no coupling between them, an iterative procedure was used for these models.
The effects of varying parameters such as compression ratios,
power supplied to the compressor, fuel injection timings and injection pressures were studied in both conventional and HCCI modes
[15,16].
Free-piston engines are commonly modeled by most researchers using zero-dimensional, single zone models developed for conventional engines. While such models can be useful for
investigating basic engine performance and piston dynamics, they
are unable to identify details of the engine operation such as incylinder gas motion and emissions formation.
2.2. Operating characteristics of free-piston engines
Free-piston engines are crankless engines in which the output
power is extracted by a linear load device directly coupled to the
moving piston. Because energy transfer for the to-and-fro motion
of the free-piston is complete, cycle-to-cycle energy storage is
not possible. Consequently, energy to power the separate intake
and exhaust strokes is not available and free-piston engines must
execute a two-stroke engine working mode with intake and exhaust processes typically conducted through ports coverage and
un-coverage by the piston. However, conventional two-stroke engines are plagued by problems of insufcient charging and high
short-circuit losses over their part operating regimes due to the
wide range of speeds and power outputs over which the engines
operate. The free-piston engine, however, uses a much narrower
range of operating speeds due to the electrical generating scheme
employed by the device [9].
Although discussed briey by some free-piston engine
researchers, only a few studies investigating the details of the
three-dimensional gas ows in the scavenging process in free-pis-

Fig. 2. Geometric parameters of FPLA.

ton engines have been reported. The motion of a free-piston is not

mechanically prescribed but is rather a result of the balance of incylinder pressures, inertia forces, friction forces and the applied
load. The differences in the piston motion proles between the
free-piston engine and conventional engine have been documented by a number of authors, and the free-piston engine is
known to have higher piston acceleration around its end points
and a signicantly faster power stroke expansion [14]. These may
inuence the in-cylinder gas dynamics and consequently the performance of the engine.
2.3. Parameter denitions
 Effective stroke length: the distance between the upper edge of
the exhaust port and the cylinder head.
 Valve overlapping distance: the distance the translator can travel
when the exhaust ports of both cylinders are closed.
 Total stroke length: the distance the translator can travel from
cylinder head to cylinder head. Since the effective stroke length
is dened by the geometry of the cylinder, it is altered by
changing the valve overlapping distance.
 Scavenging efciency: the ratio of the trapped fresh charge to the
total trapped mass of the cylinder during the scavenging process [17].
 Trapping efciency: the ratio of the trapped fresh charge in the
cylinder to the total delivered fresh charge [17]. The trapping
efciency is a measure of how much fuel ows directly into
the exhaust system (short-circuiting) and how much mixing
there is between the exhaust residual and the fresh charge.
The geometric parameters of FPLA are shown in Fig. 2. The relationships of effective stroke length, total stroke length and valve
overlapping distance can be expressed by the following equation:

Ltot 2Leff  Lov erlap

3. Numerical simulation
As the piston motion prole of FPLA is different to conventional
engines, existing work on the CFD modeling of free-piston engines
uses piston motion proles obtained from a dynamic engine model, which are expressed mathematically as a function of time and
implemented in the CFD code [3,9,15]. The same method is used
in this paper and the time is transferred to the equivalent crank angle according to the frequency of the translator.
The FPLA represents both a dynamic and a thermodynamic device and the approach uses a series of dynamic and thermodynamic equations to follow different events such as compression,
combustion, expansion and scavenging over a full stroke.

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J. Mao et al. / Applied Energy 88 (2011) 11401152

3.1. Dynamic modeling

The mean value of the MMF can be obtained from the single-order truncated Fourier series [20]:

The piston dynamics are determined by analyzing the forces

acting on the free-piston and these include the pressures from each
cylinder, pressures from each scavenge case, friction force and the
electromagnetic force introduced by the linear alternator, as can be
seen in Fig. 3.
Applying Newtons second law:
2

d x
dt

pL  pR A psR  psL A  F f  F e

Considering that the free-piston is free of side loads from the connecting rod, the friction force is small compared to the magnetic
force [18]. It was taken to be a constant in the dynamic model.

MF x

px
px
a0
b1 sin
a1 cos
2
s
s

where a0

a1

b1

Z 2s

Z 2s

Z 2s

3.2. Modeling of the linear alternator

M F xdx 0

M F x cos

M F x sin

Then M F x

px
dx 0

px

Mp sin

dx

ps 
p

2s

sin

M p sin

ps 
p

2s

px
:

So the ux density in the air gap due to PM excitation is:

The linear alternator consists of two main components, a stator
and a translator. The permanent magnets are mounted on the stator and the translator which is made up of coils is the moving portion of the machine. A schematic of a three-phase, U shaped
linear alternator with permanent magnet (PM) excitation is shown
in Fig. 4.
The FPLA operates on the same basic physical principles as conventional rotary alternators. The principle that governs the voltage
generating operation of the alternator is Faradays law expressed as
[19]:

eind 

dk
d/
Ncoil
dt
dt

The permanent magnets create a magneto motive force (MMF)

in the air gap between the stator and the winding coils as shown in
Fig. 5, and the magneto motive force can be described by the following mathematical equation:

8
0
>
>
>
>
>
M
>
>
< p
MF x 0
>
>
>
> M p
>
>
>
:
0

0<x<
s sp
2

Bx

l0
g

M F x

where Bm

ps 
px
px
l0 4
p
Mp sin
sin
Bm sin
g p
2s
s
s

ps 
l0 4
p
M p sin
:
g p
2s

Both experimental measurements and numerical calculation

using the nite element method showed that the ux in the air
gap of the PM-exited linear alternator in Fig. 5 could be assumed
to be sinusoidal, supporting the above result [21].
Therefore, the ux contained in the differential element dx is:

d/ BxdA BxHdx

Then the total ux contained in the coil of one phase at a random position x is described by the following equation:

kx

Ncoil HBxdx sHNcoil M p

xs

p 
ps 
l0 8
p
sin
x
cos
s
g p2
2s
8

ssp
2

<x<

Thus, the induced electromotive force produced in the coil of

one phase is:

ssp

2
3ssp
<
x
<
2
2
3ssp
3ssp
<
x
<
2
2
3ssp
<x<2
2

s sp

e

p  dx
ps 
dk
l 8
p
HN coil M p 0 sin
x
sin
dt
s dt
g p
2s

The induced current in the load circuit can be derived from the
following equations:

where Mp = Hchm.

diL t
dt

Rs RL

et Rs RL iL t L
et 
1  e
iL t
Rs RL

10

11

The magnetic force has the opposite direction to the direction of

the translators movement. According to Amperes law, it is described by the following equation:

Fig. 3. Free body diagram for FPLA.

F e 2Ncoil BxiL H 4H

Fig. 4. Schematic of a U shaped three-phrase linear alternator.

N2coil B2m

Rs RL
t
L

1  e

Rs RL

sin

px dx

s dt

12

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J. Mao et al. / Applied Energy 88 (2011) 11401152

Fig. 5. Model of the linear alternator.

When it comes to the three-phase linear alternator, the third

phase is derived from the other two phases according to the following equation [22]:





2
2
sin u  sin u p  sin u  p
3
3

13

So the total electromagnetic force produced by a three-phase

linear alternator is:



Rs RL


1  e L t dx 
2
2 px
sin
F e 4H2 N 2coil B2m
 p
dt
s 3
Rs RL


px
p
x
2
2
2
sin
p
sin
s
s 3



 dx
Rs RL
Rs RL
1 dx
M 1  e L t
6H2 N 2coil B2m 1  e L t
Rs Rl dt
dt

Fig. 6. Thermodynamic system of FPLA.

Considering the cylinder content is an ideal gas, then at every

instant the ideal gas law is satised as:

pV min RT

17

Substitution and mathematical manipulation yield the following equation which is used to calculate the in-cylinder pressure
at each time step.

dp c  1 dQ
p dV

c
dt
V dt
V dt
14

where

In the combustion model, since the engine is crankless, a timebased Wiebe function (as opposed to a conventional crank-angle
based approach) is used to express the mass fraction burned in
the combustion process as [6]:

1
M 6H2 N 2coil B2m
:
Rs Rl


1b !
t  t0
vt 1  exp a
tc

3.3. Thermodynamic modeling

dQ c
dvt
Q in
dt
dt

The zero-dimensional, single zone model is used to describe the

thermodynamic process in the cylinder and the important assumptions are:
 At any instant of time there is thermodynamic equilibrium of
the temperature and pressure in the cylinder.
 The working gas in the cylinder obeys the ideal gas law.
 The effects of vaporizing liquid droplets, uid ow, combustion
chamber geometry or spatial variations of the mixtures composition are ignored.
 The kinetic energy of the working gas is negligible.
 The combustion process is assumed to be perfect and no combustion loss is considered.
The thermodynamic model is derived based on the rst law of
thermodynamics and the ideal gas law. It includes the calculation
of the processes of scavenging, compression, combustion, expansion and exhaust. The zero-dimensional, single zone model is used
to describe the thermodynamic process [57,9,13].
Appling the rst law of thermodynamics and the ideal gas law
on the cylinder as an open thermodynamic system, shown in
Fig. 6, and assuming that the specic heat cV and the gas constant
R are constant, then:

dU
dV dQ
p

H_ i  H_ e
dt
dt
dt

15

In the case of the compression and expansion processes,

neglecting crevice ow and leakage, the rst law of thermodynamics applied to the cylinder content becomes:

min

dcV T
dV dQ
p

dt
dt
dt

16

18

19
20

The in-cylinder heat transfer effect is modeled according to

Hohenberg [23]:

dQ h
hAt T  T w
dt

21

and the in-cylinder temperature is calculated according to the ideal

gas law:

pV
min R

22

The heat transfer coefcient h is given by:

h 130V 0:06

105

0:8

T 0:4 U 1:40:8

23

So the amount of the total heat input used to increase the incylinder pressure is:

dQ dQ c dQ h


dt
dt
dt

24

Exhaust blow-down is modeled to be a polytrophic expansion

process while the exhaust port is opening and the scavenging ports
are still covered by the piston [13]

dp c  1 dQ
p dV n

c
dt
V n dt
V n dt

25

When the scavenging ports and intake port are covered by the
piston, the fuel/air mixture in the scavenging case is modeled to
be adiabatic compression and adiabatic expansion. When the scavenge ports are connected with the cylinder and intake port, the
pressures in each block are assumed to be the same with the scavenge pressure.

dps
p dV s
c s
dt
V s dt

26

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J. Mao et al. / Applied Energy 88 (2011) 11401152

For two-stroke spark ignition engines with under piston or

crankcase scavenging, the scavenging efciency is about 0.70.9
[24], which is also supported by the CFD scavenging analysis of
the free-piston engine mentioned in this paper. Thus, a scavenging
efciency of 0.8 is introduced to evaluate the effects of incomplete
scavenging effect. The moment the scavenging ports are open, the
pressure and temperature are assumed to be the same with the
scavenging conditions and the incoming gases mix entirely with
the burned gases.
3.4. Parameters of the FPLA
The dynamic and thermodynamic equations of the FPLA were
solved using a numerical simulation program in Matlab and some
of the parameters were dened according to the experimental data
measured.
Before starting the program, the geometric dimensions of the
free-piston engine, the initial conditions and the initial values of
some parameters were rst entered into the program. The values
used are listed in Table 1.
3.5. Free-piston motion prole

Fig. 7. Free-piston engine and two-stroke engine piston motion proles.

Table 2
Specications of the FPLA and TSE.

The movement of the translator is shown in Fig. 7 and the piston

movement of the original two-stroke engine (TSE) which was chosen to compose the FPLA prototype, is also presented for comparison. Since the stroke length of the FPLA is variable, the parameters
are adjusted to ensure the same stroke length is achieved with the
TSE. The specications of the FPLA and TSE are presented in Table 2.
Here CA is crank angle and ECA is equivalent crank angle which
are used to note the port timings. However, it is only a time notation since the free-piston engine does not have a crankshaft to dene the pistons motion (ECA = (t  t0)f360, where t0 is the start
time of the piston motion proles and f is the to-and-fro frequency
of the translator [10,17]).
Only the exhaust and scavenging processes are studied in this
research, so the calculation domain is from exhaust port opening
to exhaust port closing, as is marked in Fig. 7.
The piston motion prole is described using two arrays of numbers one of which represents the ECA and the other represents the
displacement of the piston, with the le being directly imported
into the CFD code.
3.6. Translator motion proles with different operating conditions
Since the free-piston engine is restricted to the two-stroke
operating principle, if efcient gas exchange cannot be realized
Table 1
Specications of the FPLA.
Parameters

Value

Bore
Effective stroke length
Valve overlapping distance
Total stroke length
Compression ratio of scavenging case
Mass of the translator
Specic heat ratio in compression stroke
Specic heat ratio in expansion stroke
Load coefcient of the linear alternator
Inductance
Internal resistance
Load resistance
Scavenging pressure
Scavenging temperature
Friction force
Combustion duration
Translator ignition position

34 mm
20 mm
6 mm
34 mm
1.18
1.74 kg
1.33
1.30
55.3 N/(m s1)
1.29 mH
2.0 X
2.5 X
1.0 bar
313 K
22 N
4.5 ms
12 mm

Parameters

Two-stroke engine

Free-piston engine

D
Compression ratio
Leff
Loverlap
Real stroke
Exhaust port opening (EPO)
Exhaust port closing (EPC)
Scavenging port opening
Scavenging port closing
f
Scavenging arrangement

34 mm
8
20 mm

28.6 mm
94.92 CA
265.1 CA
117.5 CA
242.5 CA
30 Hz
Loop scavenged

34 mm
8
20 mm
6 mm
28.6 mm
101.6 ECA
253.4 ECA
126.7 ECA
229.5 ECA
30 Hz
Loop scavenged

the engine will not operate in practice. To ensure that continuous

operation can be achieved, a wide range of design and operating
ranges for the free-piston engine such as effective stroke length,
valve overlapping distance, frequency and charging pressure were
investigated to nd the appropriate design options giving high
scavenging efciency, high trapping efciency and low short-circuiting losses. The calculation ranges are listed in Table 3.
As the piston dynamics change with different operating conditions and geometrical dimensions, the piston motion proles must
rst be dened in the numerical simulation program. Since there
was no coupling between the CFD code and numerical simulation
program, the piston dynamics were adjusted depending on the desired operating frequency and the stroke of the free-piston engine
in the numerical simulation program. The piston motion proles
for different operating conditions are shown in Figs. 811. The detailed parameters for each operating point are listed in Tables 47.

3.6.1. Effective stroke length

Four values of effective stroke length were used to investigate
the effects of scavenging. As can be deduce from Eq. (1), longer

Table 3
Calculation ranges.
Parameters

Value

Leff
Loverlap
f
p0

20 mm
2 mm
25 Hz
1.0 bar

22 mm
4 mm
30 Hz
1.2 bar

24 mm
6 mm
35 Hz
1.5 bar

26 mm
8 mm
40 Hz

10 mm

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J. Mao et al. / Applied Energy 88 (2011) 11401152

Fig. 11. Piston dynamics with different operating frequencies.

Fig. 8. Piston dynamics with different effective stroke lengths and constant valve
overlapping distance.

Table 4
Operating parameters with different effective stroke lengths and constant valve
overlapping distance.
Parameters

Case I

Case II

Case III

Case IV

Leff
Loverlap
Ltot
D
EPO
EPC
f
p0

20 mm
6 mm
34 mm
34 mm
102.2 ECA
254.5 ECA
40 Hz
1.0 bar

22 mm
6 mm
38 mm
34 mm
100.0 ECA
255.0 ECA
40 Hz
1.0 bar

24 mm
6 mm
42 mm
34 mm
98.6 ECA
256.0 ECA
40 Hz
1.0 bar

26 mm
6 mm
46 mm
34 mm
97.6 ECA
256.9 ECA
40 Hz
1.0 bar

Table 5
Operating parameters with different effective stroke lengths and variable valve
overlapping distance.

Fig. 9. Piston dynamics with different effective stroke lengths and variable valve
overlapping distance.

Parameters

Case I

Case II

Case III

Case IV

Leff
Loverlap
Ltot
D
EPO
EPC
f
p0

20 mm
6 mm
34 mm
34 mm
102.2 ECA
254.5 ECA
40 Hz
1.0 bar

22 mm
10 mm
34 mm
34 mm
112.2 ECA
244.7 ECA
40 Hz
1.0 bar

24 mm
12 mm
36 mm
34 mm
114.5 ECA
241.6 ECA
40 Hz
1.0 bar

26 mm
14 mm
38 mm
34 mm
117.5 ECA
238.9 ECA
40 Hz
1.0 bar

Table 6
Operating parameters with different valve overlapping distances.

Fig. 10. Piston dynamics with different valve overlapping distances.

Parameters

Case I

Case II

Case III

Case IV

Case V

Loverlap
D
Leff
Ltot
f
EPO
EPC
f
EPO
EPC
p0

2 mm
34 mm
20 mm
38 mm
30 Hz
90.8 ECA
262.6 ECA
40 Hz
92.3 ECA
264.1 ECA
1.0 bar

4 mm
34 mm
20 mm
36 mm
30 Hz
95.9 ECA
258.4 ECA
40 Hz
101.2 ECA
255.0 ECA
1.0 bar

6 mm
34 mm
20 mm
34 mm
30 Hz
101.6 ECA
253.4 ECA
40 Hz
102.2 ECA
254.5 ECA
1.0 bar

8 mm
34 mm
20 mm
32 mm
30 Hz
108.3 ECA
247.6 ECA
40 Hz
108.1 ECA
248.7 ECA
1.0 bar

10 mm
34 mm
20 mm
30 mm
30 Hz
116.8 ECA
240.6 ECA
40 Hz
115.1 ECA
242.2 ECA
1.0 bar

effective stroke length with constant valve overlapping distance

will lead to longer total stroke length. As is determined by the geometric structure of the scavenge port which will be discussed later,
the opening area of scavenging port is larger with longer stroke. As

J. Mao et al. / Applied Energy 88 (2011) 11401152

Table 7
Operating parameters with different frequencies.
Parameters

Case I

Case II

Case III

Case IV

f
D
Leff
Loverlap
Ltot
EPO
EPC
p0

25 Hz
34 mm
26 mm
12 mm
40 mm
113.8 ECA
241.4 ECA
1.0 bar

30 Hz
34 mm
26 mm
12 mm
40 mm
112.3 ECA
243.1 ECA
1.0 bar

35 Hz
34 mm
26 mm
12 mm
40 mm
111.9 ECA
243.7 ECA
1.0 bar

40 Hz
34 mm
26 mm
12 mm
40 mm
110.7 ECA
243.0 ECA
1.0 bar

can be seen in Table 4, longer effective stroke length leads to longer

scavenging period. The movement of the translator with different
effective stroke lengths and constant valve overlapping distance
is shown in Fig. 8.
Since the opening area of scavenging ports and scavenging period which have great effects on the scavenging performance, are
also affected by the effective stroke length with constant valve
overlapping distance. Therefore, in order to analyze just the effects
of effective stroke length to scavenging performances, the valve
overlapping distances were varied to make sure that the piston just
reached the bottom edge of the exhaust port at BDC for each case.
The reason for this is to make sure that the biggest opening area of
the scavenging ports of each case is the same. As can be seen in Table 5, longer effective stroke length has shorter scavenging period.
The movement of the translator with different effective stroke
lengths and variable valve overlapping distance is shown in Fig. 9.
3.6.2. Valve overlapping distance
Valve overlapping distance is a very important parameter since
it determines the total period of the scavenging process. Usually
the valve overlapping distance is determined based on the maximum thrust force of the linear alternator to avoid the large resistance caused by the pressure difference in the two cylinders. As
can be seen in Table 6, a shorter valve overlapping distance leads
to a longer scavenging period and a larger opening area of the scavenging ports. The movement of the translator with different valve
overlapping distances is shown in Fig. 10.
3.6.3. Operating frequency
Four values of operating frequency were chosen to investigate
the effect on scavenging, and the scavenging periods are listed in
Table 7. As can be seen in Fig. 11, a higher frequency leads to a
higher compression ratio which means that the piston will move
further down during the scavenging process and as a result a longer scavenging period and a larger opening area of the scavenging
ports.
3.6.4. Charging pressure
Three cases of different charging pressures were also calculated.
Since the cylinder is exposed to the environment through the exhaust port during the gas exchanging process and the exhaust port
closes later than the scavenging ports, the dynamics of the translator for different charging pressures were assumed to be the same
for each case. The basic parameters were: bore of 34 mm, effective
stroke length of 20 mm, valve overlapping distance of 6 mm, frequency of 30 Hz and EPOEPC of 101.6253.4 ECA.
4. Multi-dimensional scavenging analysis of the FPLA
4.1. Scavenging description
Scavenging is the simultaneous emptying of the burned gases
and lling with a fresh air/fuel mixture. Near Top Dead Center

1147

(TDC) the spark plug initiates combustion and the cylinder pressure increases dramatically driving the piston downwards. This
power stroke decreases the volume of the scavenge case and thus
pressurizes it contents consisting of the fresh charge. As the exhaust port begins to be uncovered by the piston, the combustion
products begin venting from the cylinder. This process is called free
blow-down and occurs because the cylinder contents are still at a
higher pressure than that of the exhaust port. As the piston continues to move towards Bottom Dead Center (BDC), the scavenging
ports open providing a ow path between the cylinder and the
ports. Due to the pressure differential between the cylinder and
the scavenging ports, a ow develops whose purpose is to replace
the combustion products with a fresh charge before the scavenging
ports close. This phase is called scavenging and is unique to twostroke engine. The scavenging process is over when the scavenging
ports are again shielded by the piston.
Short-circuiting is a detrimental phenomenon that constitutes a
loss of fresh fuel/air mixture through the exhaust ports during
scavenging. This represents a parasitic loss where work from the
engine, used to pressurize the crankcase, is lost through the exhaust. More importantly, in a carbureted engine where the scavenging charge contains fuel and lubricating oil, short-circuiting
results in poor fuel consumption and the emission of unburned
hydrocarbons.

4.2. CFD model conguration

The geometry of the engine was represented in the form of a
computational mesh. The numerical mesh constitutes the
decomposition of the geometrical domain into small volumes
termed cells, for which the governing equations of uid ow
are solved simultaneously. Due to the layout symmetry of
the cylinder ports, it was only necessary to model half of the
geometry in order to minimize the computational cost. The
CFD model was constructed using four blocks representing exhaust port, scavenging port, cylinder and the scavenging case,
as can be seen in Fig. 12.
The moving parts such as the cylinder and scavenging case were
meshed with layered hexahedrons with the layers being normal to
the movement of the piston. Since the geometry of the scavenging
port was very irregular, it was meshed with hybrid grids including
tetrahedrons, prisms and hexahedrons, and the total quantity of
structure cells was more than 80% to avoid divergence and ensure
the accuracy of the results.
The total number of all cells was 149,375 including 398 tetrahedron cells, 1953 prism cells and 143,608 hexahedron cells. The total number of cells varied with different geometrical dimensions of
the engine discussed above. The dimensions of the rst wall cell of
the cylinder were about 2  1  0.5 mm; the dimensions of the
rst wall cell of the scavenge case were 1.3  0.5  1.3 mm; and
the dimensions of the rst wall cell of the exhaust port were
0.8  0.5  0.5 mm. The scavenge port was rened several times
at the sharp edges due to its complex geometry and the upper part
dimensions of the rst wall cell were 0.5  0.5  0.5 mm while the
lower part were 0.5  0.5  1 mm.
The dynamic mesh tool Fame Engine in AVL_FIRE was used to
create the moving mesh according to the numerically simulated
free-piston motion prole. The update of the volume was handled
automatically at each time step based on the new position of the
piston.
Since the grid distributions of the cylinder and scavenge case
were different from that of the exhaust and scavenge ports, a
mathematical connectivity between every two contact domains
was created and the exact contact area was calculated for every
time step.

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J. Mao et al. / Applied Energy 88 (2011) 11401152

Fig. 12. CFD model of free-piston engine.

4.3. Boundary conditions

The boundary conditions were chosen to reect the physical
conditions in the validation model and the prototype engine. In
the dynamic ow simulations, a xed pressure was applied at
the outlet boundary without the inlet, since the induction process
did not take place during the gas exchange process. The exhaust
port and the combustion chamber were initialized with a homogenous high pressure consisting of burned gas, whereas the scavenge port and scavenge case were initialized with compressed
fresh charge. Constant wall temperatures were also used. The standard K  e model was employed to capture turbulence.
4.4. Numerical solver settings
The time step for the calculation is set about 0.10.4 for all the
calculation cases depending on convergence at each time step. Discretization was achieved through the second order MINMOD relaxed differencing scheme for momentum and continuity while
the rst order upwind differencing scheme was used for turbulence, energy and scalar quantities.
During a simulation, the CFD solver needed to know when to
jump to the next time step for a transient run. There were two
ways the solver could make this decision. The pressure and
momentum were solved until the reduction of residuals reached
104 or the total number of iterations exceeded 50; the solver
would then jump to the next time step.
5. Results and discussion
5.1. Scavenging results for the FPE and TSE
The scavenging results for the free-piston engine (FPE) and
two-stroke engines are listed in Table 8. It seems that the scavenging results for these two engines are very similar since the pistons
motion proles during the scavenging process have small
differences, as shown in Fig. 7. The pV diagrams of these two

Table 8
Scavenging results of FPE and TSE.

Two-stroke engine
Free-piston engine

Scavenging efciency (%)

Trapping efciency (%)

79.49
78.40

68.74
68.20

engines also have negligible differences during the scavenging process, as can be seen in Fig. 13. But what is important is that since
the free-piston engine does not have a crank mechanism, its stroke
is variable for different operating conditions which makes the
scavenging process of the free-piston engine more complicated
than the two-stroke engine.
The CFD simulated and experimentally collected pressure of
scavenge case is shown in Fig. 14. The same variation trend of
the pressure curves can be observed. The deviation between the
CFD simulated and experimental collected pressure curves is assumed to be caused by the gas leak in the hole of the scavenge case
where the connecting rod passes through.
The in-cylinder mass ow during the scavenging process and a
series of snapshots of contours of mass fractions of burned gases on
a plane cut through the center of the free-piston engine, are shown
in Fig. 15. As can be seen in the gure, the upper part of the engine
is initially lled with burned gases (red1) and the lower part with
fresh charge (blue).
At about 80 before BDC, the piston uncovers the exhaust port
and free blow-down occurs such that the cylinder pressure approaches the ambient pressure. About 25 later the scavenge ports
open and the fresh charge compressed by the underside of the piston in the scavenge case is able to ow into the cylinder. The
incoming air/fuel mixture is directed towards the unported cylinder wall, where it is deected upwards by the cylinder wall and
the piston and ow form a U shaped loop. With this loop

1
For interpretation of color in Fig. 15, the reader is referred to the web version of
this article.

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J. Mao et al. / Applied Energy 88 (2011) 11401152

Fig. 13. pV diagram during scavenging process of FPE and TSE.

Fig. 14. Pressure in the scavenge case.

scavenge arrangement, the incoming charge displaces and mixes

with the exhaust gas residual and some of the incoming charge
ows directly into the exhaust port. The scavenge process ends
with both the scavenge case and cylinder pressure close to the

ambient pressure once the scavenge ports are closed. Towards

the end of the scavenge process there can be a backow of fresh
charge and exhaust gas residuals into the scavenge case. The upward movement of the piston now reduces the pressure in the

Fig. 15. Contours of mass fraction of burned gas during scavenging process of FPE.

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J. Mao et al. / Applied Energy 88 (2011) 11401152

scavenge case. At about 70 after BDC, the exhaust port closes and
the whole gas exchange process ends. Later the charge in the cylinder will be compressed by the upward movement of the piston.
During this process, two undesirable features are the mixing of the
incoming charge with the exhaust residuals and the passage of the
fresh charge directly into the exhaust port.
5.2. Effects of effective stroke length
The scavenging results with different effective stroke lengths
and constant valve overlapping distance are shown in Fig. 16. As
discussed earlier, longer effective stroke length leads to longer
scavenging period and larger opening area of the scavenging ports
with the parameters of Table 4. It is hard to identify just the effects
of effective stroke length to the performance of scavenging.
The results show that as the effective stroke length grows with
the current parameters, the scavenging efciency keeps increasing
while the trapping efciency keeps decreasing.
With the parameters setting in Table 5, the effects of just effective stroke length to the scavenging performance can be analyzed.
A longer effective stroke length means that the fresh gas ow has

Fig. 18. Effects of valve overlapping distance.

to travel a longer distance to sweep the burned gas out. Thus, a

longer effective stroke length would lead to lower scavenging efciency but higher trapping efciency, as can be seen in Fig. 17.

5.3. Effects of valve overlapping distance

The scavenging results with ve valve overlapping distances
and two frequencies are shown in Fig. 18. It is clear that a shorter
overlapping distance leads to a little higher scavenging efciency
but a much lower trapping efciency (higher short-circuiting loss)
as a shorter valve overlapping distance results in a longer scavenging period. The trends are similar for two different operating frequencies. Therefore, a longer valve overlapping distance would
be favorable for achieving a high trapping efciency.

5.4. Effects of operating frequency

Fig. 16. Effects of effective stroke length with constant valve overlapping distance.

Fig. 17. Effects of effective stroke length with the same opening area of scavenging
ports.

The scavenging results with different operating frequencies are

shown in Fig. 19. The curves show that as the operating frequency
increases the scavenging efciency keeps increasing while the
trapping efciency keeps decreasing.

Fig. 19. Effects of operating frequency.

J. Mao et al. / Applied Energy 88 (2011) 11401152

1151

the best parameter combinations for high scavenging and trapping

efciencies. A wide range of design and operating options was
investigated including effective stroke length, valve overlapping
distance, operating frequency and charging pressure.
The results of the analysis indicate that:

Fig. 20. Effects of charging pressure.

(1) The scavenging performances of the FPE and TSE have minor
differences when the two kinds of engines are working
under the same conditions.
(2) The parameters that lead to a higher scavenging efciency
will also lead to a lower trapping efciency.
(3) A longer effective stroke length would lead to lower scavenging efciency but higher trapping efciency.
(4) A smaller valve overlapping distance would help improve
the scavenging efciency, but it would also lead to more
short-circuiting losses.
(5) A higher operating frequency would help to increase the
scavenging efciency of the free-piston engine but also
decrease the trapping efciency.
(6) A low supercharged free-piston engine would greatly
improve the scavenging efciency (90%) while keeping
the trapping efciency within a reasonable range (0.60.8).
Therefore, an optimum arrangement of the free-piston engines
scavenging system would utilize a higher effective stroke length to
bore ratio, a long valve overlapping distance with a low supercharge to achieve a good scavenging performance (scavenging efciency  0.9, trapping efciency  0.8). However, the control of
short-circuiting is challenging with the current means of supplying
the fuel (carburetor or port injection). Subsequent research will
investigate the use of in-cylinder direct injection to reduce shortcircuiting after the exhaust port (valve) is closed.
Acknowledgement
This project is supported by the National Nature Science Foundation of China (51005010). We would like to thank the sponsors.
References

Fig. 21. In-cylinder pressure during scavenging process with different charging
pressure.

5.5. Effects of charging pressure

The scavenging results with three different charging pressures
are shown in Fig. 20. It seems that the free-piston engine with
low supercharging (1.5 bar) would greatly improve its scavenging
efciency compared to the naturally aspired engine with a comparatively smaller reduction in trapping efciency.
As can be seen in Fig. 21, the in-cylinder p-ECA diagram with
different charging pressures during the gas exchanging process
has the same trend except for some uctuation during the scavenging process. At the end of the exchanging process, the in-cylinder
pressure has almost the same value for different charging pressures which validates the assumption that the piston dynamics
for different charging pressures can be assumed to be the same
since constant scavenging efcieny is present in the zero-dimensional simulation program model.
6. Conclusions
Computational modeling and single step parametric variations
have been used to analyze the scavenging system for a FPLA to nd

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