BS Ratio
BS Ratio
BS Ratio
Applied Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apenergy
H I G H L I G H T S
• AEfficiency
CFD study of the impact of bore-to-stroke on engine performance has been done.
• Higher NOxincreases with smaller B/S ratio due to lower heat losses.
• Lower B/S ratio
emissions for lower B/S ratio mainly due to faster mixing and combustion.
• decreases fuel rich pockets in squish region and then soot formation.
A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T
Keywords: Research on combustion systems for Internal Combustion Engines (ICE) is guided by the necessity of improving
Diesel engine engine efficiency while achieving the pollutant regulations. In this framework, this study identifies and describes
CFD model the effect of the bore-to-stroke ratio (B/S) on the combustion system performance and emissions by means of
Bore-to-stroke ratio computational fluid dynamics (CFD).
Engine efficiency
The study is applied to a 4-cylinder 4-stroke High Speed Direct Injection (HSDI) CI engine. It is divided in two
Emissions control
parts, the first part is focused on one operating point and presents a detailed description of the main effects of
different B/S ratios configurations, and the second part compares the results with different engine operating
conditions. For both parts the air management, injection settings and compression ratio were kept constant in
order to isolate the impact of the B/S ratio.
The results confirmed that the indicated thermal efficiency was increased for lower B/S ratio because of the
combustion chamber surface area decrease and faster combustion. Regarding the emissions, NOx and soot
presented a strong and opposed dependence on B/S ratio generated mostly due to enhanced air–fuel mixing for
lower B/S ratio. Finally, those trends were proven to be independent from the operating condition, giving the
study a more general value.
⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: jopasen@mot.upv.es (J.M. Pastor).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2017.08.023
Received 18 May 2017; Received in revised form 31 July 2017; Accepted 8 August 2017
0306-2619/ © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
J. Benajes et al. Applied Energy 205 (2017) 903–910
to re-examine those scaling relationships traditionally used to describe even use correlations to simulate its behavior. Vassallo et al. [17] car-
engine performance, and assess their impact on 4-cylinder 4-stroke ried out an investigation of the impact of B/S ratio also on a light-duty
High Speed Direct Injection (HSDI) CI engine. engine. The results were obtained by employing a 1D approach based
Experimental optimization is a well-known method due to the on Design of Experiments (DOE) methodology. They show that B/S
simplicity of adjusting air management, injection setting or fuel com- ratio close to 1, enables a good equilibrium between specific power
position aiming for an improved combustion process. Therefore, in the rating and low-end torque thanks to the volumetric efficiency profile
past years a lot of the research works focused on combustion system and the lower heat transfer by convection in the pipes. The higher
optimization, have been performed experimentally [9–11]. However, volumetric efficiency for this ‘square design’ and lower convection is
when engine hardware, such as the combustion chamber or the injector proven to compensate its unfavorable surface-to-volume ratio. In ad-
nozzle definition, is involved in the optimization tasks, the process is dition, the longer stroke length of low B/S ratio generates higher fric-
costly in terms of time and resources since it involves manufacturing tion losses leading to better thermal efficiencies for higher B/S ratios.
and assembling parts, together with weeks or even months of intensive The next step in the computational modeling approach, which is the use
testing. For that reason, limited experimental research has been re- of 3D CFD simulations, have also been performed [18]. As proven, even
ported in the literature discussing the optimum bore-to-stroke (B/S) operating with advanced combustion concepts they offer a more de-
ratio for engines equipped with state-of-the-art air management and tailed insight on the effect of B/S ratios and its interaction with the
injection systems, and also restricted to the current emissions con- combustion process, in-cylinder pollutants distributions and heat
straints. Kermani et al. [12] performed an experimental study of the transfer, allowing a better understanding of the complete problem.
influence of the B/S ratio on fuel consumption, performance and From the previous discussion, due to the recent interest on the po-
emissions on a light-duty Diesel engine. Experiments proved how tential benefits in terms of engine efficiency attainable by redefining
higher B/S ratios increase heat transfer losses, due to the higher com- the optimum B/S ratio and the high computational cost of integrating
bustion chamber area-to-volume ratio at TDC, resulting in a decrease of CFD modeling activities in the engine predesign stage, it is evident how
the indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP). Additionally, it was also the key effects of B/S ratio and how they interact are still not well
shown that decreasing B/S ratios increase the piston swept surface re- understood. In this framework, the research work reported in the pre-
sulting in an increase of friction losses. The study converges to an op- sent paper focuses on the identification and description of the impact of
timum B/S ratio range of 0.9–0.95, being 0.85 the smallest B/S ratio the B/S ratio on the trade-off between thermal efficiency and emissions
evaluated. Also from an experimental study, Lavoisier et al. [13] by means of CFD modeling, this is, taking into account the detailed
pointed out that higher B/S ratio will allow wider bowls that improve interaction between B/S ratio and the combustion process. The process
combustion process at high speed and load. This could be counteracted carried out in this paper has two main blocks, the first one focuses on
by the less favorable k-factor (ratio of bowl volume to total volume of one operating point and presents all the important effects of different B/
the combustion chamber at TDC), which limits the air utilization. In this S ratios configurations. On the second block, the previous results are
study was found an optimal B/S ratio close to 0.93, taking into account compared against other operating points of the same engine.
maximum rated power, fuel consumption and pollutants.
In terms of engine efficiency, the B/S ratio has an impact on both 2. Experimental tools
heat losses to the walls and friction losses [14], so a balance has to be
found between those two counteracting effects. Several studies have 2.1. Engine characteristics
been performed investigating the mechanical losses, Payri et al. [15]
showed that the mechanical losses represents around 4–10% of the total The experimental data required for the calibration and validation of
fuel energy injected. Subsequently, those authors [16] further devel- the CFD model was obtained from a 4-cylinder 4-stroke High Speed
oped their research, proving that the friction between the piston and Direct Injection (HSDI) CI engine, equipped with a common-rail injec-
the liner is responsible for 50% of the total mechanical losses, so that tion system. Table 1 contains the main engine characteristic and Table 2
the piston friction results in 2–5% of the total energy. contains the main fuel characteristics.
Recently, computational modeling is gaining reliability in pre- All the experimental results used in this paper, and additional
dicting combustion and pollutants by using properly calibrated and
validated models, not only because the predicted results have a high Table 1
accuracy but also because it offers an in depth analysis that cannot be Engine main characteristics.
performed experimentally with the current measurement techniques.
Then, computational modeling has been used to further study the effect Engine data
Bore × stroke [mm] 85 × 88
of B/S ratio in CI engines, mostly for predesign purposes. During this
Unitary Displacement [cm3] 499.36
stage of the engine design, 1D models are dominant since they offer a Connecting rod length [mm] 145
quick and robust prediction of the whole engine behavior. However, Geometric compression ratio [–] 16.7
these models tend to excessively simplify the combustion process or Nozzle hole number 7
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J. Benajes et al. Applied Energy 205 (2017) 903–910
Table 2 The diesel spray was simulated by using the standard Droplet
Fuel main characteristics. Discrete Model [19]. Spray atomization and break-up were simulated
by means of the Huh-Gosman [26] and Reitz-Diwakar [27] models,
Engine data
Cetane number [–] 46.6 respectively. Diesel fuel physical properties were given by the DF1 fuel
LHV [MJ/kg] 42.124 surrogate [28].
Stoichiometric air/fuel ratio [–] 14.802 In these simulations, turbulent flow was modelled by means of the
Density [kg/m3] 843.3 RNG k-ε model [29], with wall-functions based on the model from
Kinematic viscosity [cSt] 2.46
Angelberger [30] in order to account for wall heat transfer. An implicit
scheme was used for time discretization, while divergence terms used
Table 3
the second order Monotone Advection and Reconstruction Scheme
In-cylinder thermodynamic conditions at IVC. (MARS) [19]. Velocity-pressure coupling was solved by means of a
Pressure-Implicit with Splitting of Operators (PISO) algorithm [31].
Case PIVC [bar] mIVC [g] TIVC [K] YO2 [%] YN2 [%] YRES [%] The CFD model was thoroughly validated by simulating the three
1750 rpm @ 3.89 1.28 422.6 22.9 75.3 1.8
operating conditions under investigation, described in Table 3. The
Full Load mesh used for the CFD cases was a hybrid mesh with about 160,000
2280 rpm @ 2.63 0.94 417.48 20.3 66.7 13 cells of 0.3 mm near the wall and 0.5 mm for the rest of the domain.
Part Load The simulations were run with 16 processors and each simulation took
3750 rpm @ 3.97 1.24 442.97 22.7 74.7 2.6
between 20 h and 36 h depending on the operating condition. The re-
Full Load
sults of the CFD model compared with the experimental data in terms of
performance and pollutants, are included in Figs. 1–3 and Table 4.
information required to perform the study of the B/S ratio, were pro- Those figures show a fair agreement in terms of performance (IMEP)
vided by the engine manufacturer. Additionally, a database of injection and combustion characteristics (HRR). In addition, the final soot levels
ratio profiles for different injection settings, using the engine’s injection were close to experimental data after calibrating the model constants on
system, was created. An in-house 0-D model code capable of reprodu- the 3750 rpm @ Full Load operating condition. An over-prediction of
cing any injection rate profile [1] was used to generate the needed NOx values is observed for the 1750 rpm @Full-load load condition,
injection rate profiles to perform the calculations. probably related with the fast reduction in HRR during the main in-
jection that was not able to be captured properly by the CFD model
compared to experimental data. Nevertheless, the quality of the CFD
3. Modeling tools model was considered as suitable for carrying out the optimization
activities.
The section below describes the experimental and theoretical tools
used to carry out the research. This brief description focuses only on
4. Methodology
their most relevant characteristics.
This section shows how the bore-to-stroke variations were done and
3.1. CFD model the assumptions that were taken for performing the CFD calculations.
An important aspect of the present study is to isolate as much as
The StarCD code version 4.22 [19] was used to perform the CFD possible the effect of the B/S ratio. In this case, when changing this
simulations of the engine combustion system. The axisymmetry of the parameter, the boundary conditions and initialization setup were all
combustion chamber allows to create a sector mesh comprising 157412 kept constant and only the geometry was modified, so injection settings,
cells at BDC with periodic boundary conditions after performing a grid volumetric compression ratio and displacement were kept constant at
convergence study. Each case was calculated as a closed combustion the reference value. The study was focused on four B/S ratio levels,
cycle, this is from the intake valves closing (IVC) to the exhaust valves ranging from 0.8 to 1.1, using the original engine value, B/S = 0.966 as
opening (EVO) (from 247 to 519° aTDC with the TDC at 360 deg). The the reference value.
initial thermodynamic conditions and wall temperatures are obtained As seen in Fig. 4, the shape of the piston bowl was kept unchanged
from the experimental cylinder pressure signal by means of the in-house for all the cases, in order to isolate B/S effects. In order to keep the
combustion diagnosis code CALMEC [20,21]. The reference values used engine compression ratio, a compensation volume, which accounts for
for the three operating conditions considered are shown in Table 3. valve recesses and other not resolved cylinder head geometric details,
The combustion model was the ECFM-CLEH [22,23]. Concerning was generated in the cylinder head following the same approach as
pollutants, NOx were calculated using a built-in NOx NORA model, found in the literature [32]. However, the squish gap between the cy-
which is based on the tabulation of equilibrium values of three NOx linder head and the flat top of the piston (from just before the end of
species and their relaxation times following a perturbation [24]. A bowl to the full piston bore) was kept constant for all B/S ratios, and
sectional method based on a description of sections containing soot only this compensation volume was adjusted to keep constant the
particles of equal volume was used for soot formation and oxidation compression ratio for all cases. As shown in Table 5, the connecting rod
[25]. was modified in order to keep as constant as possible the evolution of
200 0.04 Fig. 1. Experimental vs CFD results at 1750 rpm@ Full Load. In-cylinder
CFD pressure (a) and normalized heat release rate (b).
HRR [-/cad]
EXP
Pcyl [bar]
Inj. rate
100 0.02
0 0
-50 0 50 100 -20 0 20 40 60
Crank angle [deg a TDC] Crank angle [deg a TDC]
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J. Benajes et al. Applied Energy 205 (2017) 903–910
100 0.08 Fig. 2. Experimental vs CFD results at 2280 rpm @ Part Load. In-cylinder
CFD pressure (a) and normalized heat release rate (b).
HRR [-/cad]
0.06 EXP
Pcyl [bar]
Inj. rate
50 0.04
0.02
0 0
-50 0 50 100 -20 0 20 40 60
Crank angle [deg a TDC] Crank angle [deg a TDC]
200 0.04 Fig. 3. Experimental vs CFD results at 3750 rpm@ Full Load. In-cylinder
HRR [-/cad] CFD pressure (a) and normalized heat release rate (b).
EXP
Pcyl [bar]
Inj. rate
100 0.02
0 0
-50 0 50 100 -20 0 20 40 60
Crank angle [deg a TDC] Crank angle [deg a TDC]
(a) (b)
Fig. 4. Geometries with different B/S values. A detailed study was carried out with the aim of investigating the
impact of the B/S ratio on engine performance and emissions. Firstly, a
detailed analysis for the high-speed/load point (3750 rpm @ Full-load)
Table 5
Geometric characteristics for each B/S ratio case. has been performed. After that the results for the other two operating
conditions are presented.
B/S ratio 0.8 0.88 0.966 1.1
Bore [mm] 79.8 82.4 85 88.8
5.1. B/S impact at high-speed/load
Stroke [mm] 99.8 93.6 88 80.7
Connecting Rod length [mm] 164.4 154.3 145 133
k-factor [–] 0.88 0.87 0.86 0.845 Focusing on the combustion process, Fig. 5 shows accumulated heat
release law (HRL) for all the B/S ratios considered and the differences
relative to the reference B/S. It can be seen how reducing B/S ratio
the volume during the combustion process. produces an increase in accumulated heat release up to around 80 cad
It has to be pointed out that the air-loop system has not been si- after the start of combustion, when more than of 90% of the total HRL
mulated, then the impact of B/S ratio on open-loop cycle was not di- has been achieved. However, this advantage is later recovered by larger
rectly assessed. However some aspects about the hypothesis of un- B/S ratios achieving nearly the same value of HRL at the end of the
changed initial conditions have been considered. As a method to combustion.
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J. Benajes et al. Applied Energy 205 (2017) 903–910
Fig. 5. Normalized HRL (a) and HRL differences relative to the reference B/S
case (b) at high-speed/load operating point.
Fig. 8. Heat transfer (a) and Gross indicated efficiency (b) normalized by the
reference B/S case at high-speed/load operating point.
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J. Benajes et al. Applied Energy 205 (2017) 903–910
Fig. 9. Wall heat transfer per surface area (a) and total surface wall area (b) at
high-speed/load operating point.
Fig. 10. NOx (a) and soot (b) normalized by the reference B/S case at high-
speed/load operating point.
Fig. 11. In-cylinder mass with temperature over 1700 K and ϕ < 1 (a) and
NOx mass normalized by the max. value (b) at high-speed/load operating
point.
Fig. 12. Soot mass (normalized by the max. value) at high-speed/load operating point. Fig. 14. Normalized combustion length for all the operating conditions of the engine.
Fig. 13. Mass-averaged with Ф > 1 (a) and soot mass (b) in squish and bowl
regions at high-speed/load operating point.
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Fig. 15. Heat transfer losses (a) and GIE (b) for all operating conditions nor-
malized by the value of the reference B/S ratio for each operating condition.
Fig. 16. NOx (a) and soot (b) for all operating conditions normalized by the
value of the reference B/S ratio for each operating condition.
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