Standard Article

International J of Engine Research

2023, Vol. 24(3) 934–948
Ó IMechE 2021
Modeling and performance analysis of Article reuse guidelines:
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diesel engine considering the heating DOI: 10.1177/14680874211069217
journals.sagepub.com/home/jer

effect of blow-by on cylinder intake gas

Zhenyu Shen1, Yanjun Li1 , Nan Xu1, Baozhi Sun1,

Yunpeng Fu2 and Jiameng Wang2

Abstract
Recently, the stringent international regulations on ship energy efficiency and NOx emissions from ocean-going ships
make energy conservation and emission reduction be the theme of the shipping industry. Due to its fuel economy and
reliability, most large commercial vessels are propelled by a low-speed two-stroke marine diesel engine, which consumes
most of the fuel in the ship. In the present work, a zero-dimensional model is developed, which considers the blow-by,
exhaust gas bypass, gas exchange, turbocharger, and heat transfer. Meanwhile, the model is improved by considering the
heating effect of the blow-by gas on the intake gas. The proposed model is applied to a MAN B&W low-speed two-
stroke marine diesel engine and validated with the engine shop test data. The simulation results are in good agreement
with the experimental results. The accuracy of the model is greatly improved after considering the heating effect of
blow-by gas. The model accuracy of most parameters has been improved from within 5% to within 2%, by considering
the heating effect of blow-by gas. Finally, the influence of blow-by area change on engine performance is analyzed with
considering and without considering the heating effect of blow-by.

Keywords
Marine diesel engine, zero-dimensional, two-stroke, thermal performance, blow-by

Date received: 19 October 2021; accepted: 7 December 2021

Introduction Diesel engines dominate the ship propulsion systems

More than 10 billion tons of cargo were transferred by
ships in 2015, accounting for more than 80% of the
global trade, due to its effective and lowest cost.1,2
Meanwhile, lots of CO2 and other greenhouse gases
(GHG) are emitted by the shipping industry. During
2010, During 2012, an average of 1 billion tons CO2
annually was estimated by the international shipping
emissions, accounting for about 2.2% of global CO2
emissions.3,4 The third IMO (International Maritime
Organization) GHG research report said that by 2050
the CO2 emissions from international shipping would
grow by 50%–250%, due to the economic growth and
energy developments.4,5 At the same time, lots of regu-
lations have been issued by IMO to control ship emis-
sions from ship design and operation aspects. Although
the emissions from the shipping industry do not
account for a large proportion of global emissions, a
ship will face the consequences of fines, detention, or
even not being allowed to operate normally if it does
not meet related regulations.
for the past decades, where 99% of the larger commer-
cial vessels have adopted marine engine marine diesel
engines as the prime mover,6 which consumes most of
the fuel in an ocean-going ship. The prime mover is
generally a low-speed two-stroke diesel engine for an
ocean-going ship, which is a complex system, including
subsystems such as turbocharger, exhaust gas receiver,
scavenge receiver, and air coolers, etc. Meanwhile, due
to the large size and high power of the low-speed two-
stroke diesel engine, experimental research is time-
consuming and expensive, and it is impossible to study
the thermal performance under certain fault conditions.
1
College of Power and Energy Engineering, Harbin Engineering
University, Harbin, China
2
Dalian Marine Diesel Corporation Limited, Dalian, China
Corresponding author:
Yanjun Li, College of Power and Energy Engineering, Harbin Engineering
University, Harbin 150001, China.
Email: lyjheu@163.com
Shen et al.
Therefore, it is a good way to establish an engine ther-
modynamic model with high accuracy and fast speed to
study the engine thermal performance.
According to different application scenarios, there
are different models, including the thermodynamics to
diesel cycles, mean value energy model (MVEM), zero-
dimensional model, one-dimensional model, and three-
dimensional model.7–9 In thermodynamics to the diesel
cycles, the four processes are usually assumed to be
reversible, where the irreversibility losses across cylinder
walls are considered.10–13 Continuous mass and energy
flows are considered in the MVEMs, so accurate cylin-
der pressure and temperature cannot be obtained.8,14–16
The MVEMs have a fast speed because of lot simplifi-
cation, and they are suitable for the scenarios where
real-time simulation is needed,9 such as controller
design,17,18 hardware-in-loop,19,20 and fault diagno-
sis.21,22 The gas working medium in the cylinder and its
subsystems is considered uniform in the zero-
dimensional models. The models are built based on the
energy conservation equation, mass conservation equa-
tion, ideal gas state equation. Then the pressure, tem-
perature, mass, and composition of gas working
medium changes with crank angle are determined.23–26
The zero-dimensional models are widely used in diesel
engine thermal performance analysis, fault simulation,
and emission prediction, thanks to the accuracy of the
models and relatively fast speed. Larsen et al.27 took
SFOC and NOx as the objective for multi-objectives
with a zero-dimensional model. Lamaris et al.6 devel-
oped a diesel engine thermodynamic fault diagnosis
model based on a zero-dimensional engine model. With
the engine modeled in zero-dimensional, one-
dimensional models were used in some subsystems, such
as exhaust pipes, to get a better fault diagnosis effect.
These models have been using to detect failures or develop
improvements for diagnosis.28–30 The spatial distribution
of the working medium is considered in a three-
dimensional model and the model accuracy is very high,
while the calculation time is long due to the complexity
and characteristic of the models. Thus, the three-
dimensional models are usually used in the simulation of
engine subsystems, such as cylinder heat transfer, simula-
tion of ventilation process, vibration.31–33 A zero-
dimensional model is the best choice for engine thermal
performance research, due to its reasonable simplifications
with an appropriate tradeoff in speed and accuracy.9
Payri et al.34 developed a complete zero-dimensional
simulation model, which considered the blow-by, fuel
injection, and cylinder heat transfer. For its research
objective, only the compression, combustion, and
expansion phases were considered regardless of the
cylinder gas exchange. Thus, the scavenge receiver, the
exhaust gas receiver, and the turbocharger were not
considered as well.
Hountalas35 established a zero-dimensional simula-
tion model of a marine diesel engine and applied it to
935
fault diagnosis. The thermodynamic model was used to
determine the actual causes of diesel engine failures in
some cases where the reasons cannot be determined
directly from monitored exhaust gas temperature, max-
imum combustion pressure. Finesso et al.23 developed
a fast zero-dimensional combustion diagnosis model
with lots of simplification for the gas exchange phase
and the model could be applied to diesel engine control
units or combustion and emission diagnosis for its fast
speed. Scappin et al.36 developed a zero-dimensional
model with an accuracy of 5% and studied the influ-
ence of some parameters influence on the SFOC and
NOx. Although a lot of research was done on the zero-
dimensional models and their applications in the fault
diagnosis, few considered the gas exchange process and
the turbo compressor at the same time, and no work
considered the heating effect of the blow-by gas on the
intake gas was seen.
In the present work, a zero-dimensional model that
considers the blow-by, exhaust gas bypass (EGB), gas
exchange, turbocharger, heat transfer to the cylinder
wall is developed. The model is improved by consider-
ing the heating effect of the blow-by gas on the intake
gas. Then the model is applied in a low-speed two-
stroke marine diesel engine and validated with the shop
test data. Furthermore, the model improvement on the
model accuracy is analyzed. At last, the effect of the
blow-by area on the engine thermal performance is
studied.
Model description
Two-stroke diesel engines are different from four-stroke
diesel engines in terms of structure and working pro-
cess. In a low-speed two-stroke diesel engine, the piston
reciprocates once for one work cycle, while it is twice
for a four-stroke diesel engine. Meanwhile, low-speed
two-stroke diesel engines do not have a separate gas
exchange process, and the scavenging ports and the
exhaust valve are opened simultaneously for a long
period during the gas exchange, which is more compli-
cated compared with that of four-stroke diesel engines.
In the present work, a zero-dimensional thermody-
namic model is developed, according to the working
characteristics of the two-stroke diesel engines.
It is an open system for the engine cylinder, where
the control volume method model is adopted. The
energy conservation, mass conservation, and the ideal
gas state equations are solved with the changes of crank
angle. The engine model consists of the engine cylinder
model as well its sub-models to describe the thermody-
namic characteristics of the engine. The sub-models are
combustion heat release, heat transfer, scavenge recei-
ver, exhaust gas receiver, turbocharger, and air cooler
models, which have a significant influence on the engine
model accuracy. The diagram of the calculation model
in the present work is shown in Figure 1.
936 International J of Engine Research 24(3)

Figure 1. Diagram of the calculation model.

Basic hypotheses Engine cylinder

The internal energy variation in a cylinder is equal to
 The thermal state of the gas working medium in the sum of work, fuel heat released, heat transfer to the
the cylinders, scavenging receivers, and exhaust gas walls, blow-by energy loss, energy difference between
receivers is assumed to be uniform, so the pressure the scavenge gas and exhaust gas.29 According to the
and temperature are equal regardless of spatial principles of the engine zero-dimensional model, the
location.34,37 This assumption is reasonable because energy conservation equation (1), mass conservation
the velocities of the fluid and combustion are much equation (2), and perfect gas station equation (3) equa-
smaller than that of the sound.34 tions are as40:
 Ideal gas is assumed, so the thermal performance dQHR
dU
= p dV
dt +  dQdtW + hin dm dmout dmbb
dt  hout dt  hbb dt
in
parameters are only related to the gas temperature dt dt

and composition. This assumption is reasonable for ð1Þ

the engine performance study, for the error are dm
= dmin
 dmdtout +
dmf
 dmdtbb ð2Þ
negligible.38 dt dt dt

 Two species of gas work medium air and stoichio- pV = mRT ð3Þ
metric combustion products are considered, where where U is internal energy, QHR is heat release of fuel,
all gas is considered the mixing of the two species.39 QW is heat loss to the cylinder walls, m is mass, h is spe-
ci-
fic
Shen et al.
enthalpy, V is trapped volume, and R is gas constant.
Where the subscripts in, out, f, and bb are inlet, outlet,
fuel, and blow-by, respectively.
Equations (1)–(3) are solved in each crank angle step
to determine the cylinder pressure and temperature,
etc. Then, the thermal performance parameters such as
power and exhaust temperature, are derived. Each item
in equations (1)–(3) will be introduced in Section 2.3.
Sub-models
Exhaust and scavenge receivers. An open system is used in
the exhaust and scavenge receivers models.8,40 Similar
to the engine cylinder model, the energy conservation,
mass conservation, and ideal gas state equations are
solved to get the pressure, temperature, mass, and gas
composition in each crank angle step. Because of the
high temperature in the exhaust receiver, the heat trans-
fer is considered by the convection heat transfer corre-
lation in the tube.41 While the heat transfer is small to
be ignored due to the low temperature in the scavenge
receiver.
EGB. In recent years, many low-speed two-stroke diesel
engines are equipped with an EGB valve to improve
turbocharger efficiency at part load, while maintaining
the turbocharger speed at safe levels at high load. Thus,
at the high load, part of the exhaust gas passes through
the EGB instead of the turbine to avoid the overload of
the turbine. The opening area of the EGB valve is con-
trolled by an electronic control unit (ECU) and the
transient EGB mass flow rate is calculated according to
the pressure difference before and after the EGB valve
and the opening area.34,42
Turbocharger. The compressor map is used in the model,
which provides the four character parameters interrela-
tions that determine compressor operation perfor-
mance, in specific: turbocharger speed, corrected flow
rate, pressure ratio, and compressor efficiency. The
power and outlet temperature are derived by the rela-
tion of pressure ratio, compressor efficiency, and mass
flow rate.8
Turbine flow rate is modeled by turbine swallowing
map, which provides the relationship between the
expansion ratio and swallowing capacity. Due to lack
of turbine efficiency map, a semi-empirical formula is
used, which fits the model well and is as40:
ht
=  0:2124 + 4:5601vr  4:9414v2r + 1:1779v3r
ht, max
ð4Þ
where vr is speed ratio. Where subscript t and max are
turbine and maximum, respectively.
The turbine rotational speed is calculated by the
shaft dynamics formula, namely the conservation equa-
tion of angular momentum.8,40
937
Air cooler. The boost pressure by the compressor is
cooled by an air cooler to increase the air density and
decrease the air temperature, so more fuel can be
injected into the cylinder to be burnt and increase the
engine power density. The air cooler effectiveness and
pressure loss are positively correlated with mass flow
rate and is as29,43:
e = 1  bm_ 2ac ð5Þ
Dpac = dm_ 2ac ð6Þ
where the air cooler effectiveness e is defined as:
Ta, in Ta, out
e= Ta, in Tcm, in ð7Þ
where b, d are coefficient constants and m_ ac is air cooler
mass flow rate. where subscripts ac, a, cm, in, and out
are air cooler, air, cooling medium, inlet, and outlet,
respectively.
Gas exchange. The gas exchange has an important effect
on diesel engine thermal performance especially for the
low-speed two-stroke diesel engine. Not only does it
determine the temperature, pressure, and gas composi-
tion in the cylinder at the beginning of the compression
process but also it has a great influence in the matching
of the turbocharger. It does not have a separate air
exchange stroke for a low-speed two-stroke diesel
engine, most of the gas exchange is completed in the
scavenging process. Therefore, the residual exhaust gas
fraction in the cylinder after the gas exchange is higher
than that of the four-stroke diesel engine. For a two-
stroke diesel engine, the air exchange process includes
three periods: exhaust blowdown, scavenging, and after
exhaust (different from the four-stroke diesel engine that
the exhaust valve is closed later than the scavenging
ports). The gas exchange process was not considered or
only the average flow rates were considered in many
studies.9,34,36 The gas exchange model is developed
according to the opening areas of scavenge ports and
exhaust valve and the pressure difference between recei-
vers and cylinder, which can more accurately simulate
the dynamic response process relationship between
cylinder, turbocharger, scavenge receiver, and exhaust
receiver. The exhaust and scavenge mass flow rates can
be estimated by isentropic flow through an orifice.34,40,44
The scavenging ports opening area is controlled by
the reciprocating motion of the piston. While the
exhaust valve opening area is controlled by an ECU.
The opening area of scavenging ports and the exhaust
valve is calculated as follows40:
Ain = Nsp Hsp Bsp sinb ð8Þ
Aout = pi  He coss½De + He sinscoss ð9Þ
where N is number, H is transient opening height, B is
width, b is the inclination of scavenge ports, pi is the
circumference ratio, D is the disc outer diameter, and s
938 International J of Engine Research 24(3)

dQW
 
is the exhaust valve seat cone angle. where subscripts sp dt =a Ach ðTTch Þ + Apis TTpis +Acw ðTTcw Þ
and e are scavenge ports and exhaust valves. ð13Þ

where a is the heat transfer coefficient. where subscripts

Blow-by. The instantaneous mass flow rate of blow-by
ch, pis, and cw are cylinder head, piston head, and cylin-
from cylinder to the crankcase is estimated by isentro-
der wall, respectively.
pic flow through an orifice44,45:
The well-known Woschni correlation is used for the
rffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
dmbb x heat transfer coefficient calculation,40,46 which is widely
= cbb Abb ð10Þ used in gasoline and diesel engines:
dt RT
  2   k + 1  0:8  0:8
p VTr
0:2
C1 Sp +C2 T0:55
k k
where x = ðk1Þ pcrk
2k
 pcrk . a=C0 B ð p  pm Þ
p p
105 pr Vr
when the pressure ratio satisfies: ð14Þ
pcrk
  k
\ 2 k1 ð11Þ where B is cylinder bore, C0 is coefficient constant to
p k+1
be adjusted for the specified engine according to the
 k1
k
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
The flow is choked and x = 2 2k shop test data and Tr , pr , and Vr are the temperature,
k+1 k + 1.
pressure, and volume at the time of exhaust valve clos-
where c is discharge coefficient of blow-by, k is specific ing (EVC). where constant C1 is equals 6:18 for the gas
heat ratio, and A is blow-by area. where subscripts bb exchange period and 2:28 for the rest of the cycle, while
and crk are blow-by and crankcase, respectively. C2 is equal to 3:24 3 103 for the combustion and
expansion periods and 0 for the rest of the cycle. where
Heat release rate. The combustion process is a complex subscript m is motoring.
physical and chemical process, which is very important
for engine thermal performance. The objective of the
Gas properties. The gas working fluid in the cylinder and
proposed paper is the accurate thermodynamic condi-
other subsystems is regarded as the ideal gas, which is
tions in the chamber, not the prediction of the phenom-
regarded as a mixture of air and stoichiometric combus-
ena in the combustion. Meanwhile, double Wiebe
tion products.34,47 The stoichiometric combustion prod-
function is widely used, which can provide a realistic
ucts are determined by the composition of the fuel. The
heat release for thermodynamic simulation and is
gas constant and specific heat capacity at constant vol-
as34,36:
ume are calculated as follows:
Mpc
1 dQHR Qpc   u  SOCpc
R = Ra Xa + Rsop Xsop ð15Þ
= 6:9 Mpc + 1 exp
v dt Dupc Dupc
" # cv = cv, a Xa + cv, sop Xsop ð16Þ
Mpc + 1
u  SOCpc
6:9 where X is the mass fraction and cv is the specific heat
Dupc
capacity at constant volume. where subscripts a and scp
Mdc
Qdc u  SOCdc are air and stoichiometric combustion products, respec-
+ 6:9 ðMdc + 1Þ exp
Dudc Dudc tively. cv, a and cv, sop are calculated using an interpola-
" #
u  SOCdc Mdc + 1 tion database of air and the stoichiometric combustion
6:9 products.
Dudc
ð12Þ
Model improvement
where v is engine angular velocity, Du is combustion
Part of the mass and energy is lost from cylinder to
duration, M is combustion shape factor, u is crank
crankcase in the form of blow-by due to the existence
angle degree, SOC is the start of combustion. Where
of the side clearance, ring end gap, ring orifice of the
subscripts pc and dc are premixed combustion and dif-
piston rings. Meanwhile, in a low-speed two-stroke die-
fusion combustion, respectively.
sel engine, the crankcase is connected with the scaven-
ging ports. When the piston is near the top dead center,
Heat transfer. Heat transfer to cylinder wall accounts the scavenging receiver and the crankcase are con-
for a large part of heat release, which is estimated by nected through the scavenging ports, so the crankcase
convective heat transfer assuming a constant value for is connected with the intake system of the diesel engine.
the cylinder walls temperature.40,41 The surface tem- The high-temperature gas in the cylinder flows into the
perature of the piston head and cylinder head is higher crankcase through blow-by, which has a heating effect
than that of the cylinder wall, for combustion mainly on the gas in the crankcase. Because the crankcase is
occurs near the piston head and cylinder head. The heat connected with the intake system, it is equivalent to
transfer to the cylinder walls is as: heating the intake air.
Shen et al.
Lots of research has been done on the energy loss
and mass loss due to blow-by through zero-dimensional
and one-dimensional models. However, few studies
considered the mixed heating effect of blow-by gas on
the intake air of engines. In the present work, an engine
model that considers the mixing heating effect of blow-
by gas on the intake gas is developed. A low-speed two-
stroke diesel has a large interconnected area between
the crankcase and the scavenge ports. Thus, the average
heating effect of blow-by is reasonable.
Control volume method is used in the model devel-
opment, where energy conservation, mass conservation,
and the ideal gas state equation are solved with the
changes of crank angle:
Ð dUcrk Ð hbb dmbb Ðh Ðh
dt
= + sr dmdtac  crk dm sc ð17Þ
dt dt
Ð dmcrk Ð dmbb Ð dmac Ð dmsc
dt
= dt
+ dt  dt ð18Þ
pcrk Vcrk = mcrk Rcrk Tcrk ð19Þ
where subscripts crk, ac, and sc are crankcase, air cooler
and scavenge, respectively.
When the engine works at a steady state,
Ð dUcrk Ð dmcrk
dt
= dt = 0.
Model validation
The model setup is the process of inputting the neces-
sary parameters, which includes the engine geometric
structure parameters, compressor, and turbine map
characters, the model constants, and the initial para-
meters set. The initial parameters are set according to
the experimental parameters, such as the pressure and
temperature of the scavenging and exhaust receivers.
The fuel used in the shop test is marine diesel oil
(MDO), whose low calorific value (LCV) is 42.92 MJ/
kg according to the fuel report.
Engine characteristics
A low-speed two-stroke diesel engine (7G80 ME-C9.5)
is used for model validation and case study, whose gen-
eral characteristics are shown in Table 1. The diesel
engine consists of seven cylinders in line with the rated
power of 21,000 kW @ 58 rpm. The engine is equipped
with ECUs to control fuel injection and exhaust valve
opening, so it has good combustion performance and
high efficiency at part load.
In the model calibration and verification process,
engine shop test measurements are used, including the
main parameters mean values and cylinder pressure
traces at 50%, 75%, 85%, and 100% loads.
Sub-models calibration
There are some constants in the sub-models that need
to be calibrated based on experimental data. It mainly
includes the cross-sectional area of the blow-by model
939
Table 1. Main characteristics of 7G80MEC9 engine.
Parameters Value
Rated power (kW) 21,000
Rated rotational speed (rpm) 58
Cylinder number (–) 7
Bore (mm) 900
Stroke (mm) 3720
Connecting rod length (mm) 3720
Displacement volume (m3) 1.87
Compression ratio (–) 32.0:1
Turbocharger type TCA66-21 3 2
Bypass valve diameter (mm) 61
LCV (J/kg) 4.292 3 107
Fire order 1-7-2-5-4-3-6
EVO (deg) 128
EVC (deg) 288
SPO (deg) 140
SPC (deg) 240
and the constant coefficients in the heat transfer and
the heat release rate models.8,34 The sub-models are
calibrated with experimental data.
Blow-by area and compression ratio calibration. Blow-by has
an important effect on the engine thermal performance,
while it is difficult to obtain the blow-by cross-sectional
area according to structural parameters. Aghdam and
Irimescu et al.44,48 established models for estimating
the compression ratio and the blow-by cross-sectional
area, whose error was within 65% under different
loads. The compression ratio and the equivalent blow-
by cross-sectional area were adjusted according to the
diesel engine model in Section 2 to minimize the root
mean square error between the simulated cylinder pres-
sure and the experimental one.
The diesel engine studied in the present work has
seven cylinders, while the motored measurement is with
six cylinders firing with fuel and one cylinder motoring.
This is not the normal fuel injection combustion condi-
tion for all cylinders. Therefore, during the calibration
process of blow-by and compression ratio, the turbo-
charger, scavenge receiver, and exhaust receiver models
are not considered. The scavenging pressure, scaven-
ging temperature, exhaust pressure, etc., are set as
boundary conditions according to the experimental
data. Figure 2 shows the measured cylinder pressure
versus crank angle together with that of the modeled
for the motored cycle. A very good agreement can be
seen from the comparison between simulation results
and the experimental results and the calibrated com-
pression ratio and blow-by equivalent cross-sectional
area are 32.0 and 36 mm2, respectively. Figure 3 shows
the simulated cylinder temperature versus crank angle
for the motored cycle. It can be seen from Figures 2
and 3, that both cylinder pressure and temperature
increase after exhaust valve opening (EVO). The pres-
sure in the motor cylinder is lower when EVO than that
of the exhaust receiver. Due to the pressure difference,
the high temperature and pressure exhaust gas in the
940 International J of Engine Research 24(3)

Figure 2. Compression between modeled and measured Figure 3. Simulated temperature versus crank angle for
pressure trace of motored cycle. motored cycle.

Model validation
Table 2. Calibrated combustion model parameters.
Figure 4 presents the comparison between the simula-
Parameters Up Lower Load (%) tion results and the measurements for the main engine
limit limit performance parameters at different loads (load 50%,
50 75 85 100
75%, 85%, and 100%). The error bars indicate 65%
Qpc 0.76 0.92 0.92 0.80 0.83 0.76 tolerance and 615% tolerance for SFOC and exhaust
Dupc 19.0 22.5 19.0 19.0 20.5 22.5 temperature respectively, which are specified by the
SOCpc 0.1 0.3 0.1 0.1 0.3 0.3 manufacture.38 It can be seen from Figure 4 that the
simulation results are in good agreement with the mea-
surements at different loads and the SFOC and exhaust
exhaust receiver from other fired cylinders flow into the temperature are all within the error balls.
motored cylinder when EVO, so the cylinder pressure Figure 5 shows the cylinder pressure traces compari-
and temperature both increase between EVO and sca- son between simulation results and measurements
venge ports opening (SPO). under different loads (load 50%, 75%, 85%, and load
100%), which are used to further verify the model. As
seen from Figure 5, the simulation pressure traces are
Heat transfer model calibration. C0 in heat transfer model in good agreement with the measurements. Both the
is used to be adjusted for specified engine and different main thermal performance parameters and pressure
loads according to the shop test data.23 In the present traces validation results show that the model has suffi-
work, the variation range of C0 is 2.0–2.5. cient accuracy to be used as a simulation platform to
simulate engine thermal performance under different
conditions.
Heat release rate. In the fuel heat release rate model, the
coefficients SOCpc , Dupc , Qpc , Mpc , SOCdc , Dudc , Qdc ,
and Mdc are adjusted to match the simulated cylinder Result and discussions
pressure traces with the experimental results.34 Some of
Heating effect of the blow-by gas on the intake gas
the eight parameters are set as fixed values, such as
Mpc = 2, Mdc = 0:8, Dudc = 80, SOCdc = 0:5Dupc , and The present model considers the blow-by and its heat-
Qdc = 1  Qpc , only SOCpc , Dupc and Qpc need to be ing effect on intake gas. Under different loads, the heat-
adjusted according to the experimental parameters. ing effect of blow-by on intake gas is different due to
The coefficients of different loads for equation (12) are the difference in the mass flow rate and energy loss.
determined by adjusting the parameters to minimize Figure 6 shows the blow-by mass flow rate and sca-
the average root variance between the simulated pres- venge gas flow rate changes with load. It can be seen
sure traces and the experimental results, which are from Figure 6, the blow-by mass flow rate gradually
shown in Table 2. increases with the engine load increase, and the
Shen et al. 941

Figure 4. Comparison between measurement and simulation results for the main engine performance at different loads: (a) SFOC
and power, (b) Exhaust temperature and turbine speed, (c) Compression and maximum combustion pressure, (d) Scavenge receiver
and exhaust receiver pressure, (e) Temperature before and after air cooler.

variation range is 0.4–0.6 kg/s. Meanwhile, the scavenge
gas flow rate also increases among 20–45 kg/s, as engine
load increases. The mass flow rate of blow-by is about
1%–2% of the scavenge gas mass flow rate.
Figure 7 shows the blow-by energy loss under differ-
ent loads. The blow-by energy loss gradually increases
among 800–1200 kW with the increase of the load. The
blow-by energy loss is mixed with the scavenge air
compressed and cooled by the turbocharger and air
cooler respectively, which has a heating effect on the
intake air.
Figure 8 shows the air temperature after the air
cooler, after the heating effect of the blow-by gas, and
the temperature rise due to the heating effect of blow-
by. The air temperatures after the air cooler and after
the heating effect of blow-by gradually increase with
942 International J of Engine Research 24(3)

Figure 5. Comparison between calculated and measured pressure traces at different loads: (a) 50% load at 46 rpm, (b) 75% load at
46 rpm, (c) 85% load at 46 rpm, and (d) 100% load at 46 rpm.

Figure 7. Blow-by energy loss and engine power under

different loads.
Figure 6. Blow-by and scavenge mass flow rate.

the increase of load. While the temperature rise due to Table 3 shows the comparison between the calcu-
the blow-by heating effect decreases with load increase lated and experimental results of engine main thermo-
and the range of temperature rise is 20–30 K. dynamic parameters with considering and without
Shen et al. 943

blow-by area (compared with the blow-by area adjusted

Figure 8. The air temperature after air cooler, the air
temperature after the heating effect of blow-by, and the
temperature rise due to the heating effect of blow-by.
considering the heating effect of blow-by. The calcula-
tion errors of the thermodynamic parameters when
considering the heating effect of blow-by are signifi-
cantly less than that without considering the heating
effect.
When considering the heating effect of blow-by on
the intake gas, the exhaust gas temperature will increase
due to the temperature rise of the gas entering the cylin-
der. In turn, the turbine speed and exhaust temperature
are higher than without considering. When considering
the heating effect of blow-by, the engine power, SFOC
and maximum combustion pressure errors reduce from
within 5% to within 2% compared with that without
considering the heating effect. Therefore, the model
accuracy is greatly improved.
Blow-by effect on engine performance (considering
the heating effect of blow-by)
Figure 9 provides the engine main performance para-
meters variation with the percentage change of the
in Section 3.2.1). The SFOC increases with the increase
of blow-by area, and it will increase by 3% when the
blow-by area is doubled. In turn, the SFOC will
decrease 3% when the blow-by area changes to zero.
However, it is not realistic to completely avoid the
blow-by mass and energy loss to prevent the piston ring
from breaking due to the excessive pressure difference
between the upper and lower surfaces of the piston
rings, especially for the top piston ring. The blow-by
mass loss and energy loss almost linearly increase with
the increase of blow-by area. With the increase of the
blow-by area, the blow-by energy loss and temperature
of the gas entering cylinder increase, which in turn
causes the increase of cylinder temperature, exhaust
temperature, and turbine speed. While the compression
and maximum combustion pressure decrease with the
blow-by area increase. Meanwhile, the scavenge pres-
sure, exhaust receiver pressure, and air temperature
after the air cooler slightly increase with the blow-by
area increase.
Blow-by effect on engine performance (without
considering the heating effect of blow-by)
Figure 10 reveals the blow-by area effect on the engine
main performance parameters when the heating effect
of blow-by is not considered. Similar to the results of
considering the heating effect of blow-by, with the
increase of blow-by area, the SFOC, blow-by mass loss,
and blow-by energy loss almost linearly increase, and
the compression pressure and maximum combustion
pressure decrease. The turbine speed, exhaust gas tem-
perature, scavenge pressure, exhaust receiver pressure,
air temperature before and after air cooler decrease
with the increase of blow-by area, which is different
from that considering the heating effect of blow-by.
With the increase of blow-by area, the blow-by energy
loss increase, which causes the decrease of exhaust gas
energy, turbine speed, scavenge pressure, exhaust recei-
ver pressure, and the air temperature before and after
the air cooler.

Table 3. Comparison of the engine main thermodynamic parameters with and without considering the heating effect of blow-by on
intake gas.

Parameter Unit Measurement Considering the heating effect Without considering the heating effect
Simulation Error Simulation Error

Power kW 21,000 21,288.9 1.38 21,382.4 1.82

SFOC g/(kWh) 165.97 165.4 20.37 164.6 20.81
Pcomb bar 148.4 150.1 1.16 150.1 1.16
Pmax bar 175.2 175.2 0.00 175.5 0.17
T/C rev rpm 14,973 14,711.5 21.75 14,431.4 23.62
Pscav bar 3.84 3.81 20.91 3.76 22.06
Pexh bar 3.73 3.66 21.82 3.63 22.82
Texh °C 265 245.7 27.28 230.3 213.11
Tain °C 199 196.1 21.46 189.9 24.56
Taout °C 41 40.5 21.22 40.3 21.71
944 International J of Engine Research 24(3)

Figure 9. Blow-by effect on engine performance (considering the heating effect of blow-by): (a) Power and SFOC, (b) Compression
and maximum combustion pressure, (c) Turbine speed and exhaust temperature, (d) Scavenge receiver and exhaust receiver
pressure, (e) Temperature before and after air cooler, (f) Blow-by mass and energy loss.

Conclusion Meanwhile, the model is improved by considering the

heating effect of the blow-by gas on the intake gas.
A zero-dimensional engine model is developed, which
Then the model is applied to a low-speed two-stroke
considers the turbocharger, exhaust gas bypass, and the
marine diesel engine. The main conclusions of the study
geometric dimensions of the exhaust valve and sca-
are as follows:
venge ports to better simulate their mutual influence.
Shen et al. 945

Figure 10. Blow-by effect on engine performance (without considering the heating effect of blow-by): (a) Power and SFOC, (b)
Compression and maximum combustion pressure, (c) Turbine speed and exhaust temperature, (d) Scavenge receiver and exhaust
receiver pressure, (e) Temperature before and after air cooler, (f) Blow-by mass and energy loss.

(1) Engine main performance parameters, as well as
pressure traces of different loads, are used for the
model validation. The errors of the main engine
performance parameters are very small, and the
SFOC and exhaust temperature are all with the
error balls. Meanwhile, the simulated pressure
traces are in good agreement with the
measurements. According to the comparison
between simulation results and measurements, the
model has good accuracy and the capability to
predict the engine thermal performance.
(2) The temperature rise due to the heating effect of
blow-by is about 20–30 K. The model accuracy of
power, SFOC, turbine speed, exhaust
946
temperature, scavenge pressure is greatly
improved from within 5% to within 2%, when
considering the heating effect of blow-by. The
model accuracy has been greatly improved after
considering the heating effect of blow-by.
(3) With the increase of blow-by area, the SFOC,
blow-by mass loss, blow-by energy loss almost lin-
early increase, and the compression pressure and
maximum combustion pressure decrease whether
considering or without considering the heating
effect of blow-by. With the increase of blow-by
area, when considering the heating effect of blow-
by, the turbine speed, exhaust gas temperature,
scavenge pressure, exhaust receiver pressure, and
air temperature before and after air cooler
increase, while the corresponding parameters
decrease when without considering the heating
effect of blow-by. When without considering the
heating effect of blow-by, the blow-by energy loss
increases with the increase of blow-by area, which
leads to the decrease of exhaust gas energy. In
turn, the turbine speed, scavenge pressure,
exhaust receiver pressure, and air temperature
before and after the air cooler decrease with the
increase of blow-by area. While the larger the
blow-by area, the higher temperature of the gas
entering the cylinder, which makes the rise of the
gas temperature entering the cylinder and then
the exhaust gas temperature, when considering
the heating effect of blow-by.
Declaration of conflicting interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with
respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this
article.
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial sup-
port for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this
article: This research was supported by the Intelligent Ship
Project of Ministry of Industry and Information Technology
of China (Grant No. 2016544) and China Scholarship
Council, which the authors gratefully acknowledge.
ORCID iD
Yanjun Li https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6736-0439
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Appendix
Notation
Acronyms
EVC Exhaust valve closing
EVO Exhaust valve opening
LCV Low calorific value
MDO Marine diesel oil
MVEM Mean value engine model
SFOC Specific fuel oil consumption
SPC Scavenge ports closing
SPO Scavenge ports opening
Greek symbols
a Heat transfer rate (W/m2.K)
b Inclination of scavenge ports (rad)
ãu Combustion duration (rad)
e Air cooler effectiveness (2)
h Efficiency (2)
u Crank angle degree (rad)
948 International J of Engine Research 24(3)

s Exhaust valve seat cone angle (rad) T Temperature (K)

v Engine angular velocity (s21) U Internal energy (J)
V Volume (m3)
Symbols vr Speed ratio (2)
X Mass fraction (2)
A Area (m2)
b, C0, Constant coefficient (2)
C1, C2,
Subscripts
d a Air
B Width (m) ac Air cooler
c Discharge coefficient (2) b Bypass valve
cv Specific heat capacity under constant cm Cooling medium
volume (J/kg K) dc Diffusion combustion
D Disc outer diameter (m) e Exhaust valve
h Specific enthalpy (J/kg) f Fuel
H Height (m) in In
k Specific heat ratio (2) max Maximum
m Mass (kg) out Outlet
M Combustion shape factor (2) pc Pre-mixed combustion
m_ Mass flow rate (kg/s) scp Stoichiometric combustion products
p Pressure (Pa) sp Scavenge ports
pi Circumference ratio (2) t Turbine
Q Heat (J) w Wall
R Gas constant (J/kg K)
SOC Start of combustion (rad)