2008 International Conference on Computer Science and Software Engineering

Three-dimensional Simulation and Experiment in a

high-speed direct-injection diesel engine based on
KIVA-3V Code
LIU Yongfeng ,ZHANG Youtong
School of Mechanical and Vehicular Engineering,
Beijing Institute of Technology,
Beijing 100081, P.R.China
E-mail: liuyongfeng@bit.edu.cn ; youtong@bit.edu.cn
LIU Yongfeng, Tian Hongsen, Qin Jianjun
School of Mechanical - Electronic and Automobile
Engineering,
Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture,
Beijing 100044, P.R.China

Abstract— To simulate exactly the three-dimensional turbulent the same event have to be performed to generate the statistics,
combustion temperature field in Direct-Injection (DI) diesel thereby making this method even more expensive[8]-[12].
engine the structure of KIVA-3V code is performed. Instead of
dealing with all the elementary reactions, one single overall The aim of this study was to provide new way to calculate
reaction is considered to calculate ignition and extinction, which temperature field in DI diesel engine. For this purpose, first,
reduces computational cost. Since the shape of 4JB1 piston is not we outline structure of KIVA-3V code and analyze its solution
on the axis of symmetry, 3600 grid computing was modeled algorithm. Second, temperature equation is changed through
which corresponds x-offset 4mm and y-offset 1 mm. Besides, three coordinate transformations. Multi-step chemistry reaction
schematic of the test bench configuration and engine mechanisms [13] are used to calculate steady state combustion
specification are showed and the measured injection rate profiles and one-step reaction is used to calculate ignition and
corresponding to rail pressures of 600 bar, 800 bar, and 1000 bar extinction. In particular, in order to clarify the effect of scalar
are drawn as an important input for the simulation. Finally, dissipation rate on extinction, we not only consider
cylinder pressures and the corresponding heat release rates with stoichiometric mixture fraction field but also the stretched
variation of injection timing are compared with experimental coordinate. Finally, we check the simulation with experiment
data. Spatial temperature distribution pictures at different crank data.
angle are analyzed. It gives the new theory and method to
understand the turbulent diffusion combustion temperature field
in DI diesel engine. II. SIMULATION
Keywords—three-dimensional simulation; KIVA-3V code; Direct- 1. A General Structure
Injection diesel engine The KIVA-3V computer program consists of a set of
subroutines driven by a short main program, and includes three
parts: pre-processor (K3PREP), main program, post-processor
I. INTRODUCTION (K3POST). Figure 1 is the schematic of the code structure.
Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) offers a way of As before, there are a number of supporting subroutines that
gaining insight into the various processed occurring in the perform tasks for the primary subroutines.
cylinder of an internal combustion engine. Despite tremendous
progress in the field over the last 20 years, CFD is still far
from being as integral a part of the engine development
process as for example structural analysis using Finite Element
Methods (FEM) [1]-[4]. This has its origin in the extreme
complexity of the processes involved and the cross-scientific
nature of the problem. Engine CFD is one of the most
challenging simulation problems. This is caused by the high
quasi-cyclic unstationarity of engine flows, the importance of
minor geometric details, and the fact that the involved length
and time scales in engine processes spread over several orders
of magnitude making spatially and temporally resolved
measurements as well as direct numerical simulation (DNS)
very difficult[5]-[7]. Even if the latter were feasible, two more
difficulties would arise. One is the proper description of initial
and boundary conditions. The other is the chaotic nature of
turbulence, which in engineering is circumvented by using Figure 1. KIVA-3V structure
statistic methods. Hence, for transient problems many DNS of

978-0-7695-3336-0/08 $25.00 © 2008 IEEE 219

DOI 10.1109/CSSE.2008.492
 In KIVA-3V, the chopper subroutine has been replaced by small changes in the pressure at intake valve closing (IVC).
what we call snapper. Besides serving as a chopper that Typically, the maximum error in the pressure measured by the
deactivates and reactivates cylinder planes in response to transducer is 0.1% if the pressure limit of the transducer,
piston motion, the snapper incorporates logic that allows an which in this case is 250 bar. This leads to an inaccuracy of
automatic means for moving the piston past ports in the 0.25 bar in the pressure at IVC. For a typical operating point
cylinder wall, when ports are present. A reversed snapper is investigated here, this corresponds to a 13 bar error in peak
also included for geometries having two opposed pistons in the motored pressure and around 12 bar at a typical start of
same cylinder. Snapper is discussed in detail in Sec. II.H injection. It is therefore clear that any attempt of simulating
below.
the combustion has to be preceded by a thorough analysis of
the compression stroke.
B Basis for the Numerical Simulation
The computations started at 180 degrees crank angle
BTDC (before top dead center) and ended 140 degrees after
top dead center (ATDC) at the point where the exhaust valve
opens. The wall temperature (450K) were set such that
calculated and measured pressures matched during the
compression phase before injection started. The wall
temperature were held constant during the computations. The
wirl was set to 0.5 times the number of revolution of the
engine (rpm) which correspinds to the measured swirl. The
injection nozzle was located on the axis of symmetry. Since
the shape of piston is not on the axis of symmetry, 3600 was
modeled which corresponds x-offset 4mm and y-offset 1 mm.
Figure 2 shows the computational grid used in the simulations
Figure 3. Schematic of the experimental set-up
containing 16,359 cells. This corresponds to a grid resolution
In table 1 some data on the engine is summarized. The test
of 0.9mm, 3.5mm and 30 in the radial, axial and azimuthal
engine is the four cylinder, 2.8 L 4JB1 DI engine. The
directions, respectively.
injection system is a third generation Bosch Common-Rail
featuring a maximum injection pressure of 1600 bar. The
injector is equipped with a six-hole nozzle, where each hole
has a diameter of 0.124 mm. the injector is slightly offset (by
1.0 mm) to the center of the cylinder axis to allow a better
cooling of the narrow bridge between the exhaust valves. The
ohmega-shaped bowl-in-piston is offset to the cylinder with x-
offset 4 mm and y-offset 1mm.This made model 360-degree,
offering exact calculating the full geometry.

z TABLE 1. ENGINE SPECIFICATION

Engine 4JB1
Figure 2. computational grid used in the simulations 2000 rpm
Engine speed
Displacement 700cc
Bore 93mm
III EXPERIMENT Stroke 102mm
Figure 3 shows a schematic of the test bench Compression ratio 18.2
Connecting rod 142.3 mm
configuration. EGR was varied manually by operating a valve
Injector nozzle 6-hole
and the boost was supplied from an external supercharge. An Spray cone angle 150 degree
induction air flow meter from Aerzen (max. Flow capacity Injector protrusion 1 mm
100 m3/h) was used to measure the air mass flow. A Fuel Diesel
compensation volume (100L) was included in the system in
order to reduce oscillations in the air mass flow. The crank Figure 4 shows the measured injection rate profiles
angle encoder was a ROD 420, capable of resolving tenth of a corresponding to rail pressures of 600 bar, 800 bar, and 1000
crank angke degree. The in-cylinder pressure was measured bar, respectively. The back pressure was 50 bar. These shape
using a flush mounted quartz sensor from Kistler (type were used as input for the simulations to be presented.
6061B). The pressure transducer is very accurate on a relative
basis but does not directly yield absolute values. In this
measurement, the reference was taken to be atmospheric
pressure and had to be corrected for the applied boost pressure.
The peak motored cylinder pressure is extremely sensitive to

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 Figure. 4 Injection rate profile

1. IV RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

A Variation of injection timing at constant EGR-rate and rail
pressure
Figure 5 shows a comparison of measured and calculated
cylinder pressures for five different injection timings at a
constant EGR-rate of 30% , and rail pressure 800 bar. Figure
6 displays the corresponding heat release rates. As it can be
seen in Figure 5 the overall agreement in both ignition delay
and peak cylinder pressure is excellent. The overprediction of
the initial heat release discussed above is rather subtle, as seen
in Figure 6.It was found that more fuel had to be injected at
the most retarded injection timing, 2 degrees ATDC, which
was observed in the experiments as well. However, at this late
injection the simulations significantly under-predict the peak
cylinder pressure.

Figure 6. Comparison of measured and predicted

apparent heat release rates

B Qualitative picture of combustion temperature

Figure 5. Comparison of measured and predicted
In order to visualize the spray envelope, the computational
cylinder pressure
parcels representing the droplets have been superimposed
onto the pictures. It is worth noting that there are no
indications of liquid wall impingement at this operating
condition. The overall liquid penetration length of
approximately 17-19 mm is in agreement with that predicted
by Siebers, using a scaling law, for the conditions prevailing
in the cylinder at the start of injection. Liquid wall
impingement is expected to be important during pilot
injection (due to the low in-cylinder density, increasing the
liquid penetration) and possibly at cold start (due to the low
in-cylinder temperature reducing the evaporation rate). The
temperature distributions at early crank angles are shown in
Figure 7. Ignition starts at 8 degree ATDCa4 degrees after
injection has ended—in a relatively well-mixed region of
mixture fraction 0.15a0.2, corresponding to an equivalence

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ratio of 2.7a3.8. The ignition location is at the tip of the spray,
where the droplets are smallest and the evaporation fastest.
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Figure 7. Spatial distribution of temperature

V CONCLUSIONS
(1) The extended simulation model was applied to simulate a
wide range of part load operating conditions, varying injection
timing and injection pressure, in a version of the 4JB1 DI
engine, for which an extended set of experimental data exists.
(2) The connection of multi-step model and one-step model
with large activation energy is able to predict three-
dimensional temperature field in a real DI engine.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This project has been supported by DEDP(Diesel Engine
Development Programm) project (Nr.1003), P.R.China. The
support of Beijing Municipal Commission of Education
(KM200710016013) is gratefully acknowledged.
.
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