Modeling Turbulent Reactive Flow in Internal Combustion Engines With an LES in a Semi-Implicit/Explicit Finite Element Projection Method

A Finite Element Method (FEM) for the solution of turbulent reactive flow on parallel machines is being developed for engine and combustion modeling. This FEM solver is parallel (MPI), solves multi-species fluids using either Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) k-ε model or dynamic LES model for turbulent reactive flow. The code provides an excellent platform for developing better in-cylinder fuel and species evolution, including sprays associated with injection. This code is more robust and more accurate than current engine simulators, with quick turn-around times required by design engineers. We’ve also developed a dynamic LES method which can transition through laminar to fully turbulent flow, and hence requires no assumptions about the turbulent sublayers near walls in bounded flows; this is ideal for engines where the turbulent wall layers are never in equilibrium and the flow is not always turbulent. Another key component of combustion modeling for engines is fuel injection. Spray modeling from KIVA is adopted in our work with the ability to solve large 3D turbulent flow by the help of the parallel technique.