F2000A139

Seoul 2000 FISITA World Automotive Congress

June 12-15, 2000, Seoul, Korea

Numerical Simulation for Mixture Formation and Combustion

in Direct Fuel Injection Gasoline Engines
Yoshihiro Sukegawa* , Toshiharu Nogi, Yusuke Kihara1), Toshio Furuhashi2)
1)

Hitachi Ltd., Hitachi Research Laboratory, 2520 Takaba, Hitachinaka-shi, Ibaraki-ken, Japan
Hitachi Ltd., Hitachi Automotive Products, 2520 Takaba, Hitachinaka-shi, Ibaraki-ken, Japan

2)

The mixture formation and combustion process in direct fuel injection engines was analyzed using the simulation program
developed by the authors. The following conclusions were obtained. (1) The swirl air motion generated in the cylinder plays
an important rule for carrying fuel vapor around the spark plug. (2) The combustion period becomes shorter due to reduction
of attachment of fuel on the piston when using the skewed spray. (3) There is an empirical correlation between homogeneity
of the in-cylinder mixture and the engine torque obtained experimentally. (4) Generation of a uniform mixture in the cylinder
is important to improve combustion efficiency.
Keywords: CFD, Direct Fuel Injection, Stratified Charge, Homogeneous Charge, Fuel Spray
The motions of air, fuel vapor and combustion gas were
simulated by solving conservation equations for mass,
momentum and energy with the standard k- model [4]. To
take account of gas composition change by fuel
vaporization and combustion, three mass conservation
equations for air-fuel mixture, fuel vapor and burned gas
were solved. Each equation was solved by the FLIC method
[5], a second order fully explicit algorithm, based on a finite
volume method. As the difference scheme of the convection
terms, the QUICK scheme [6] was used for the N-S
equations, and the first order upwind scheme was employed
for the equation of turbulence energy k and its dissipation
rate.

INTRODUCTION
To reduce CO2 emission from automobile engines,
development of low fuel consumption engines is strongly
desired. Direct fuel injection gasoline engines (DI engines)
are able to operate with an ultra lean mixture, so they are
expected to be used as low fuel consumption engines.
To get stable combustion with DI engines under variable
operating conditions, advanced controls of in-cylinder
mixture formation are required. For this purpose
understanding of in-cylinder phenomena is very important.
Many studies have observed in-cylinder mixture formations
or airflow in experiments using lasers [1-3]. But detailed
observations in a cylinder during high-speed operation have
difficulties, so observed sections and physical amounts are
restricted. In this situation, numerical simulation of mixture
formation and combustion has flexibility as a way for
in-cylinder observations, with arbitrary sections, timings or
physical quantities, so it is very useful for better
understanding of in-cylinder phenomena and optimizations
of mixture control.

Combustion of the gasoline-air mixture was treated as

oxidation of an octane-air mixture and its chemical reaction
form was given as the following one-step reaction.
C H + (12.5O + 47 N )
8 18
2
2
8CO + 9 H O + 12.5( 1)O + 47N
2
2
2
2

(1)

The turbulent combustion model proposed by Inage et al.

[7] was employed for calculation of reaction rate in
turbulent flow.

The authors developed a numerical simulation program

that can simulate in-cylinder spray behavior, mixture
formation and combustion in DI engine cylinders. The
simulation results were verified with experimental
visualization results of free spray and in-cylinder flames.

40 2
S
t = u 8 L +
C (1 C )

3k

4
i
=
C S
pi u L

This simulation program was applied to 4-valve DI engine

calculations and the mixture formation and combustion
process and combustion characteristics were evaluated.
Furthermore influences of the spray direction on mixture
distributions and combustion were studied.

(2)
(3)

Here the subscript i indicates mean temperature of burned

and unburned gas. The laminar flame speed SL was
calculated by Metghalchis equation [8].

S L = 26.32 84.72( 1.13)

MODELING

a = 2 .18 0 .8( 1)
b = 0.22( 1 0.16 )

METHOD OF CALCULATION

P0

b
( cm / s )

(4)
(5)
(6)

To confirm the propriety of the simulation, free spray

simulation results were compared with experimental data.
The comparison is shown in figure 2. (a) is at atmospheric
(0.1MPa) conditions and (b) is at pressurized (0.6MPa)
conditions. The pressurized conditions match the typical
in-cylinder pressure in the DI engine when fuel is injected
during compression strokes in the stratified charge mode.
For the atmosphere conditions, the spray has a hollow cone
shape and the droplets are spread widely. On the other hand,
at the pressurized conditions, the droplets roll in eddies on
the outer edge of the spray, so spray penetration is shorter
than the penetration obtained for atmospheric conditions.
This is because shear stresses strongly affect the droplets
and the surrounding gas due to the high pressure.

The fuel droplets motion was calculated by the Discrete

Droplet Model (DDM) [9]. In this model, fuel droplets are
treated as parcels. A parcel contains droplets that have the
same diameter and velocity. The motion of parcels was
obtained by solving the following momentum equation
using the second order Euler scheme.
Vd 3C D ~
~
V Vd V Vd
=
4 d d
t
2
24
CD =
1 + 0.167 R ed 3
R ed
~
R ed = V Vd d

(7)
(8)
(9)

The exchange of momentum, energy and mass between

droplets and fluid was considered.

The simulation successfully portrays the influence of

surrounding gas pressure on spray behavior and the
simulation results agree with experimental ones.

As a wall interaction model, Wakisakas impinging model

[10] was employed. Droplet velocity and diameter after
impinging on walls were determined using the model
according to the incident Weber number of the droplet.

VERIFICATION OF COMBUSTION
SIMULATION

ENGINE MODEL AND BOUNDARY

CONDITIONS

To confirm propriety of the combustion model,

simulation results of in-cylinder combustion and
experimental results were compared. Figure 3 shows the
flame surfaces obtained from simulation and experiment. In
this simulation, the flame surfaces were defined as
iso-surfaces on which burned gas mass fraction was 0.5
each time. The burned gas areas surrounded by the flame
surface agree between simulation and experiment.

Table 1 shows the main specifications of the DI gasoline

engine used in the simulation. Figure 1 shows its
combustion chamber shape. A high-pressure fuel injector is
attached between the two intake ports. The attachment angle
of the injector is 36deg. A spark plug is located on the
top-center of the cylinder head. A piston has a bowl on its
crown. One of the two intake ports has a swirl control valve.
This is a butterfly-type valve and during stratified charge
operation, this valve is closed to generate swirl air motion in
the cylinder.

Figure 4 shows the in-cylinder pressure for simulation and

experiment. There is good coincidence. So it is confirmed
that burning velocity in the cylinder is accurately evaluated
using the combustion model.

MIXTURE FORMATION IN STRATIFIED

CHARGE

The fuel injector is a swirl type and it injects fuel at a

pressure of about 7MPa. Experimental data of free spray
under atmospheric conditions were used as initial
conditions for the spray simulations.

The simulation results of spray motions, fuel-air ratio

distributions and flame propagation in the stratified charge
mode are shown in figure 5. The engine speed was
1400rpm, the start of injection timing was 70deg BTDC and
the overall air-fuel ratio was 40. The fuel-air ratio
distributions are shown on the cylinder symmetric planes.

There are two kinds of operating modes for the DI engine,

the stratified charge mode and the homogeneous charge
mode. In the stratified charge mode, the swirl control valve
is closed and fuel is injected at a late stage of the
compression stroke. In the homogeneous charge modes, the
swirl control valve is opened and fuel is injected during the
induction stroke. So both operating modes were calculated
and the mixture formation process and combustion
characteristics were evaluated.

The fuel spray injected at the last compression stroke goes

into the piston bowl and evaporates there. The vaporized
fuel goes toward the spark plug electrode. At near TDC, the
fuel vapor concentrates around the spark plug and the
air-fuel ratio around the spark plug is from 10 to 20, which
would be a very ignitable mixture. Regarding the
combustion stroke, the flame propagates from the spark
point to the mixture in the piston bowl and then outside the
bowl with a small lag. The flame propagates through the
whole cylinder 30deg after the spark timing.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

VERIFICATIONS OF FREE SPRAY SIMULATION

Figure 11 shows a correlation for mixture homogeneity

and measured engine torque. Here the mixture homogeneity
is defined as follows.

To concentrate a rich mixture around the spark plug, swirl

generated in the cylinder plays an important role. Figure 6
shows velocity vectors at the compression stroke. This
figure indicates the velocity vectors on the vertical planes at
40deg BTDC and 20deg BTDC and on the horizontal plane
at 20deg BTDC. The vectors show generation of 2 vortexes
in the cylinder. One is swirl turning near the cylinder wall
and the other is swirl in the piston bowl. At the center of
each swirl, pressure is lower than other parts of the swirl
because of centrifugal force. If the axis of each swirl center
is different, flow goes from the outer side of the lower swirl
where the pressure is higher to the center of the upper swirl
where the pressure is lower. This flow carries fuel vapor
generated in the piston bowl around the spark plug.

FORMATION

IN

L
L

(10)

=1

Equation (10) also implies mean laminar velocity of the

in-cylinder mixture at ignition timing. Figure 11 shows that
the case with higher homogeneity of mixture has higher
engine torque. Therefore generation of a uniform mixture is
important to improve combustion efficiency for the
homogeneous charge mode.

Figure 7 shows calculated heat release rate for two cases :

where fuel was injected straight (non-skewed spray) and
where the fuel injection direction was skewed upwards 7
degrees toward the cylinder head (skewed spray). With the
skewed spray, the heat release rate rises more quickly after
the ignition and is lower late in combustion compared with
the non-skewed spray. Figure 8 shows the fuel-air ratio and
burned gas mass fraction distribution. With the skewed
spray, more fuel can reach around the spark plug, so a richer
mixture is generated there. In this case, the flame
propagation speed is faster than in non-skewed spray. On
the other hand, with non-skewed spray, a too rich mixture is
generated near the piston surface due to fuel impinging on
the piston. This is because more heat is released at the late
stage of combustion than for the skewed spray.
MIXTURE
CHARGE

CONCLUSION
The simulation program to calculate fuel spray, mixture
and combustion gas behavior in an engine cylinder was
developed by the authors and verified by using free spray
and in-cylinder visualization data. This simulation program
was applied to DI engine simulation and the following
conclusions were obtained.
(1) The fuel vapor in the piston bowl was carried around a
spark plug by the swirl generated in the cylinder.
(2) Using skewed spray, the combustion period for the
stratified charge mode was shorter due to enrichment of
mixture around the spark plug and reduction of attachment
of fuel on the piston.

HOMOGENEOUS

(3) For the homogeneous charge mode, a richer mixture was

generated on the intake side of the cylinder when the
non-skewed spray is employed due to downward flow near
the injector nozzle.

The distribution of the fuel-air ratio for homogeneous

charge is shown in figure 9. In this case, the engine speed
was 2000rpm and the start of fuel injection timing was
270deg BTDC.

(4) There was an empirical correlation between

homogeneity of the in-cylinder mixture obtained by the
simulation and the engine torque obtained by the
experiment.

When using the non-skewed spray, fuel vapor near the

injector nozzle goes toward the piston and enters the bowl.
The air motion in the combustion chamber at the induction
stroke is downward flow near the injector nozzle as shown
in figure 10. This downward flow carries fuel vapor near the
injector nozzle into the piston bowl. At the compression
stroke, the air on the exhaust side of the cylinder enters
toward the intake side by the squish effect. So at the late
stage of the compression stroke, the mixture concentration
on the intake side of the cylinder becomes richer than on the
exhaust side. On the other hand, with the skewed spray, a lot
of fuel vapor can reach the exhaust side of the cylinder, so
the amount of fuel enters in the piston bowl is small.
Therefore the mixture concentration at the compression
stroke becomes more uniform than with the non-skewed
spray.

(5) Generation of uniform mixture in a cylinder was judged

important to improve combustion efficiency for the
homogeneous charge mode.

NOMENCLATURE
C: Burned gas mass fraction
Cp: Specific heat
f: Fuel component mass fraction
k: Turbulent kinetic energy
P: Pressure
SL: Laminar burning velocity
T: Absolute temperature
V: Velocity
3

: Air excess ratio

: Flame thickness
: Turbulent energy dissipation rate
: Mixture homogeneity
: Heat conductivity
: Viscosity coefficient
t: Turbulence reaction rate
: Density
: Equivalence ratio
Subscripts
d: Droplet
st: Stoichiometric
t: Turbulence condition
u: Unburned condition
0: Standard state (0atm, 273K)

REFERENCES
[1]Tatsuta H. et al.,SAE 981435,1998.
[2]Faure M.A. et al.,SAE 982705,1998.
[3]Kiyota Y. et al.,FISITA 96,1996.
[4]Launder B.E. et al.,Proc. NASA Conf. on Free
Shear Flows, Langley,1972.
[5]Gentry R.E. et al.,J. of Comp. Physics,1,p87,
1966.
[6]Leonard B.P.,Comput. Meth. in Appl. Mech. and
Engng.,19,p59,1979.
[7]Inage S. et al.,JSME Ser.B,61,No.586,
p2290,1995(in Japanese).
[8]Metghalchi M. et al.,Combust. Flame 48,1982.
[9]Amsden A.A. et al.,Los Alamos National
Laboratory Report,LA-10245-MS,1985.
[10]Wakisaka T.,et al.,JSME Proceeding
No.934-2, p215, 1993(in Japanese).

Intake ports
Spark plug
Exhaust ports
Table 1 Engine specifications
Cylinder head
Displacement
Bore,Stroke
Compression ratio
Piston
Intake port
Fuel pressure

Swirl control
valve

4 valves pentroof
2,987cm 3

Fuel injector

93mm,73.3mm
11:1
With piston bowl
Straight port with
swirl control valve
7-9 MPa(Variable)

Piston bowl

Fig.1 Engine configuration

1.7ms

0.82ms

2.6ms

1.7ms

2.6ms

Experiment

Experiment

Simulation

Simulation

0.82ms*

(a) Atmospheric conditions

(b) Pressurized conditions(0.6MPa)
Fig.2 Comparison of free spray shape between simulation and experiment
*Defined as lapsed time after start of injection

Experiment

P ressure(
M PMa)
In-cylinder
pressure(
P a)

Simulation
Flame front
3.1ms
2ms
t=0
Burned gas

3.1ms
2ms
t=0

CS al
im c.
ulation
Experi
Exp.m ent

CCrank
e
rankangl
angl
edegA T D C

Fig 3 Comparison of flame propagation between simulation

and experiment (1400rpm, A/F=14.7,
Injection=60deg ATDC, Ignition=30deg BTDC)

Fig 4 Comparison of in-cylinder pressure

(1400rpm, A/F=18, Injection=30deg ATDC,
Ignition=40deg BTDC)

Fuel spray motion

Fuel-air ratio

Flame propagation

68deg BTDC

68deg BTDC

14deg BTDC

63deg BTDC

63deg BTDC

10deg BTDC

51deg BTDC

51deg BTDC

2deg BTDC

34deg BTDC

34deg BTDC

10deg ATDC

Fig.5 Simulation results of mixture formation and combustion in the DI engine cylinder
(1400rpm, A/F=40, Injection=70deg BTDC, Ignition=20deg BTDC)

Low pressure
Swirl

High pressure

Swirl
Horizontal section
(A-A section)

Vertical sections
(center of cylinder)

Fig.6 Calculated velocity vectors for in-cylinder air (without fuel injection)

Vapor fraction

Heat release rate (Relative value)

Skewed spray

7deg

Non-skewed spray
40deg BTDC

Rich mixture

Burned gas fraction

20deg ATDC
Non-skewed spray

Unburned gas

Burned gas

TDC

Crank angle
Fig 7 Heat release rate on stratified charge combustion
(1400rpm,A/F=40,Injection=70degBTDC
,Ignition=20degBTDC)

Fig.8 Mass fraction of fuel vapor and burned gas

120BTDC

60BTDC

10BTDC

Fuel/Air
0.1

Skewed
spray

Non-skewed
spray

Skewed spray

Fig 9 Fuel-air ratio distributions of vertical cross section

(Full load, 2000rpm, Injection start=270deg BTDC)
Non-skewed spray

Skewed spray

50m/s
Fig.10 Velocity vector on vertical cross section
(Full load,2000rpm,at 240degBTDC)

Homogeneity
10%

Downward
flow

Torque
1kgm

Experiment

Simulation

2000rpm
2000rpm
Fig.11

4000rpm
4000rpm
Engine speed

6000rpm
6000rpm

Correlation between engine torque and mixture homogeneity