Multiple Cylinder Simulations
Since there is no user time spent meshing with CONVERGE™, modeling multiple cylinders is practically as easy as simulating a single cylinder. This can remove the need to determine port boundary conditions using cycle simulation packages, as the user can include as much of the intake and/or exhaust manifolds as they wish with as much or as little mesh resolution as is desired in each region. This allows for a range of engine simulations that were not previously practical, including:
- Simulation of cylinder-to-cylinder effects. By adequately resolving all of the cylinders, cylinder-to-cylinder variations can be studied.
- Simulation of transient pressure conditions with emphasis on one cylinder. With this approach, adequate resolution would be used for one of the cylinders to obtain accurate combustion predictions. The other cylinders could be modeled in a coarse manner with the goal of capturing the correct cylinder pressure at exhaust valve opening. In essence, these “coarse cylinders” are included only to help determine boundary conditions for the “resolved cylinder.”
The movie below (AVI format - click to view) shows the pressure field for a four cylinder engine simulation.
