Experimental Calibration Method to Validate Flame Front Propagation Data Produced by Virtual Engine Model (VEM) Computation

The main objective of the present paper is to describe the research work accomplished to develop a combined experimental/numerical calibration method, which has the capability to validate combustion models embedded in an advanced 3-D numerical engine simulation tool. The first part of the paper describes the background for the necessity to use 3-D numerical simulation techniques as well as the basic setup requirements for both the virtual engine model and the real engine experimental support. The paper continues with a description of the method used to derive a 3-D flame front propagation function from direct true-color combustion visualizations. Finally a validation of the suggested method is presented by comparing the obtained results with those produced by an independent thermodynamic computation approach.