Back to Search Start Over

The Influence of the Intake Geometry on the Performance of a Four-Stroke SI Engine for Aeronautical Applications

Authors :
Fabio Anaclerio
Annarita Viggiano
Francesco Fornarelli
Paolo Caso
Domenico Sparaco
Vinicio Magi
Source :
Energies, Vol 17, Iss 21, p 5309 (2024)
Publication Year :
2024
Publisher :
MDPI AG, 2024.

Abstract

In this work, the influence of plenum and port geometry on the performance of the intake process in a four-stroke spark ignition engine for ultralight aircraft applications is analyzed. Three intake systems are considered: the so-called “standard plenum”, with a relatively small plenum volume, the “V1 plenum”, with a larger plenum volume, and the “standard plenum” equipped with a large curvature manifold called the “G2 port”. Both measurements and 3D CFD simulations, by using Ansys® Academic Fluent, Release 20.2, are performed to characterize and analyze the steady-flow field in the intake system for selected valve lifts. The experimental data and the numerical results are in excellent agreement with each other. The results show that at the maximum valve lift, i.e., 12 mm, the V1 plenum allows an increase in the air mass flow rate of 9.1% and 9.4% compared to the standard plenum and the standard plenum with the “G2 port”, respectively. In addition, the volumetric efficiency has been estimated under unsteady-flow conditions for all geometries at relatively high engine rpms. The difference between numerical results and measurements is less than 1% for the standard plenum, thus proving the accuracy of the model, which is then used to study the other configurations. The V1 plenum shows a fairly constant volumetric efficiency as the engine speed increases, although such an efficiency is lower than that of the other two geometries considered in this work. Specifically, the use of the “G2 port” leads to an increase of 1.5% in terms of volumetric efficiency with respect to the configuration with the original manifold. Furthermore, for the “G2 port” configuration, higher turbulent kinetic energy and higher swirl and tumble ratios are observed. This is expected to result in an improvement of air–fuel mixing and flame propagation.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
19961073
Volume :
17
Issue :
21
Database :
Directory of Open Access Journals
Journal :
Energies
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
edsdoj.775b31f9dc6c4542ac7041d9798e4ad7
Document Type :
article
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.3390/en17215309