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A study on in-cylinder flow field of a 125cc motorcycle engine at low engine speeds

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Abstract

The in-cylinder flow characteristics of a four-stroke, four-valve, pent-roof small engine of motorcycle at engine speeds from 2000 rpm to 4000 rpm were studied using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The aim of this study was to investigate the in-cylinder flow characteristics of small engines, including tumble, swirl, turbulent kinetic energy (TKE), angular momentum, in-cylinder air mass, turbulent velocity, turbulent length scale, and air flow pattern (in both intake and compression strokes) under motoring conditions. The engine geometry was created using SolidWorks, then was exported and analyzed using CONVERGE, a commercial CFD method. Grid independence analysis was carried out for this small engine and the turbulence model was observed using the renormalized group (RNG) k-ɛ model. The pressure boundary conditions were used to define the fluid pressure at the intake and exhaust of the port. The results showed that the increase in the engine speed caused the swirl flow in the small engine to be irregularly shaped. The swirl flow had a tendency to be stable and almost constant in the beginning of the compression stroke and increased at the end of compression stroke. However, the increase of in engine speed had no significant effect on the increase in tumble ratio, especially during the intake stroke. There was an increase in tumble ratio due to the increase in engine speed at the end of compression stroke, but only a marginal increase. The increase in engine speed had no significant effect on the increase in angular momentum, TKE, or turbulent velocity from the early intake stroke until the middle of the intake stroke. However, the angular momentum increased due to the increase in engine speed from the middle of the intake stroke to the end of compression stroke, and the angular momentum achieved the biggest increase when the engine speed rose from 3000 to 4000 rpm by 10 % at the end of the intake stroke. The increase in engine speed caused an increase of TKE and turbulent velocity from the middle of intake stroke until the end of compression stroke. Moreover, the biggest increase of TKE and turbulent velocity occurred when the engine speed rose from 3000 to 4000 rpm at the middle of intake stroke around 50 % and 25 %, respectively. Turbulent length scales appeared to be insensitive to increasing engine speed, especially in the intake stroke until 490 °CA. From that point, the value of the turbulent length scale increased as engine speed increased. The biggest increase in the turbulent length scales occurred when the intake valve was almost closed (around 20 %) and the engine speed was within two specific ranges (2000 to 3000 rpm and 3000 to 4000 rpm). Regarding the effect of engine speed, there were no significant effects upon the accumulated air mass in the small engine. The increase in engine speed caused an increase of turbulence in the combustion chamber during the late stages of the compression stroke. The increase in turbulence enhanced the mixing of air and fuel and made the mixture more homogeneous. Moreover, the increase in turbulence directly increased the flame propagation speed. Further research is recommended using a new design with several types of intake ports as well as combinations of different intake ports and some type of piston face, so that changes in air flow characteristics in small engines can be analyzed. Finally, this study is expected to help decrease the number of experiments necessary to obtain optimized systems in small engines.

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Abbreviations

HWA :

Hotwire anemometry

LDA :

Laser Doppler anemometry

CFD :

Computational fluid dynamics

TKE :

Turbulent kinetic energy

PIV :

Particle image velocimetry

GDI :

Gasoline direct injection

RNG :

Renormalized group

bTDC :

Before top death center

aBDC :

After bottom death center

CA :

Crank angle

PISO :

Pressure implicit with splitting of operators

CAD :

Computer-aided design

Rs :

Swirl ratio

TR :

Tumble ratio

TR x :

Cross tumble about x coordinate

TRy :

Normal tumble about y coordinate

ω1, ω1, ω1 :

Angular speed of the flow about the center of mass in the x, y, z direction respectively

L 1, L2, L3 :

The angular momentum about the x, y, and z axis

I 1, I2, IL3 :

The moment inertia about the x, y, and z axis

ɛ :

Turbulence dissipation rate

c μ :

A turbulence model constant

le :

The turbulent length scale

CR :

Compression ratio

RMS :

Root-mean-square

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Acknowledgments

This research was financially supported by the Centre for Environmentally Friendly Vehicle (CEFV) as a Global Top Project of KMOE (2016002070009, Development of Engine System and Adapting Vehicle for Model 110 cc and 300 cc Correspond to EURO-5 Emission). This research was supported by The Leading Human Resource Training Program of Regional Neo industry through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by The Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (2016H1D5A1908826). Bambang Wahono acknowledges the support from the Program for Research and Innovation in Science and Technology (RISET-Pro) Ref. No: 272/RISET-Pro/FGS/VII/2016, Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education, Republic of Indonesia.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Mechanical Engineering, University of Ulsan, Ulsan, 44610, Korea

    Bambang Wahono & Yanuandri Putrasari

  2. Research Centre for Electrical Power and Mechatronics, Indonesian Institute of Sciences, Jl. Cisitu No 154/21D, Bandung, 40135, Indonesia

    Bambang Wahono & Yanuandri Putrasari

  3. School of Mechanical Engineering, University of Ulsan, Ulsan, 44610, Korea

    Ocktaeck Lim

Authors
  1. Bambang Wahono
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Correspondence to Ocktaeck Lim.

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Recommended by Associate Editor Han Ho Song

Ocktaeck Lim received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in mechanical engineering from Chonnam National University, Korea, in 1998 and 2002, respectively. He then received his Ph.D. degree from Keio University in 2006. He is currently a Professor at the School of Automotive and Mechanical Engineering at Ulsan University in Ulsan, Korea. His research interests include internal combustion engines, alternative fuel and thermodynamics.

Bambang Wahono received his B.Eng. degree in mechanical engineering from Gadjah Mada University, Indonesia in 2005, and M.Eng. degree from the Graduate School of Information Production and System at Waseda University, Japan in 2013. He works at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) since 2006, and currently, he is taking study leave to pursue his Ph.D. in mechanical and automotive engineering under the supervision of Professor Ocktaeck Lim at the School of Mechanical Engineering at University of Ulsan, Rep. of Korea.

Yanuandri Putrasari was born in Indonesia in 1982. He graduated from the Diploma III study program in mechanical engineering in the Faculty of Engineering, Gadjah Mada University in 2003. He received his B.Eng.Ed in mechanical engineering from Yogyakarta State University in 2005, B.Eng. in mechanical engineering from Mandala College of Technology in 2007, and M.Eng. in mechanical engineering from Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia in 2011. He works at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences, and he is currently taking leave to pursue his Ph.D. in mechanical and automotive engineering under the supervision of Professor Ocktaeck Lim at the School of Mechanical Engineering at University of Ulsan, Republic of Korea.

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Wahono, B., Putrasari, Y. & Lim, O. A study on in-cylinder flow field of a 125cc motorcycle engine at low engine speeds. J Mech Sci Technol 33, 4477–4494 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-019-0844-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-019-0844-6

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