Development of OpenFOAM application for

internal combustion engine simulation

G. DErrico, T. Lucchini, G. Montenegro, M. Zanardi
Dipartimento di Energetica, Politecnico di Milano, Italy

Summary
This work illustrates the current research activities carried out by the authors by developing OpenFOAM applications in the field of I.C. engine simulation: steady flow
analysis, gas exchange modeling, diesel combustion, 1D-3D simulations to model the
unsteady gas motion in complex intake and exhaust systems. A first use of the code
which has a significant interest in the I.C. engines industrial applications is the evaluation of the flow coefficients of intake and exhaust ports or other complex geometry devices. Examples of this applications, which make use of standard steady-state solvers,
are given. The next step is the simulation of the gas exchange phase. A fundamental requirement for this task is a reliable and efficient moving mesh strategy. This is
achieved by using an automatic mesh motion solver based on the Laplace equation of
motion and including the possibility to change the mesh topology to keep a high mesh
quality during the whole simulation. Concerning Diesel combustion modeling, the authors are currently evaluating two different models: the first one is based on the Eddy
Dissipation Model with reduced chemistry, while the second accounts for complex kinetics. To reduce the computational time required by the latter, the ISAT algorithm has
been implemented by the authors. A last application regards the coupling of OpenFOAM with a 1D fluid-dynamic code, Gasdyn, developed by the authors to simulate
the whole engine cycle. The proposed approach, based on the solution of the Riemann problems at each boundary cell, allows the simulation of the unsteady flows in
complex systems such as intake plenums, multi-pipe junctions and silencers.

1 Introduction
The development and assessment of a CFD methodology and its implementation into
a numerical simulation toolkit specifically tailored for engine simulation represents a
very challenging task. In fact it requires to describe into details many simultaneous
interacting thermofluids and chemical processes, which take place in a domain with
a complex geometry and moving boundaries. On the modeling front, the task is to
assemble a complete and accurate description of the involved physical process, while
on the numerical point of view the challenge is the development of flexible and efficient algorithms with respect to the implementation of the model equations and to the
description of the engine geometry [1]. The objective to aim at is the definition of a

reliable CFD code which can be used as a predictive tool from a qualitative viewpoint
in a design stage and as a diagnostic tool to achieve a deeper understanding of the
occurring physical phenomena. To these ends, the authors have contributed over the
last years to the development OpenFOAM applications for internal combustion engine
simulation, considering its prerequisites to be fully open-source and written in an highly
efficient object-oriented programming, which allow an easy implementation and testing
of new models.
This paper provides an overview of the ongoing research activities carried out by the
authors in this field:
OpenFOAM coupling to a 1D fluid-dynamic code for the simulation of the entire
engine system to model the unsteady gas motion in complex devices, including
acoustic analysis;
steady-state flow bench simulations;
development of moving mesh algorithms to cope with in-cylinder simulations;
simplified and detailed chemistry modeling of diesel combustion, applied to constantvolume experiments with optical access.

2 Coupling approach
MULTIDIMENSIONAL DOMAIN

t
W

SL

*
L

S*
*

star region

left state

WR

SR

right state
1D DOMAIN

xL

xR

Figure 1: Structure of the Riemann problem at the inter-cell region and its adoption at
the interface between the 1D and the 3D domain.
The issue of coupling 1D models to complex CFD codes is not something new in the
field of internal combustion engine simulation. Several works concerning this topic
have been published during the last few years, among which three common strategies
can be identified. The most simple approach consist in the adoption of CFD models to
determine flow coefficient of valves, orifices and abrupt area changes, which are then
adopted in the fully 1D simulations.
Another approach is the one way coupling, in which the 1D tool is exploited to calculate at a fixed position the pressure and velocity traces, which are subsequently

Figure 2: The 5 into 1 junction modeled in 3D and the 1D schematic of the Lamborghini
V10 engine.
imposed as boundary conditions in the multidimensional tool. With this method no
information are passed back from the multidimensional code to the one-dimensional,
allowing to study only the flow details in complex geometries under unsteady flow condition. To take into account the effects of eventual variation of the multidimensional
domain on the 1D side, the so called strict coupling was proposed. In this procedure
the two codes are passing forth and back information at each time step in such a way
that one domain is affected by what happens in the other one. Some authors attained
this purpose relying on the exchange of boundary conditions at the interface between
the two domains, however this strategy does have some constraints on the position of
the domain interface. In particular, to avoid the generation of instabilities, the interface
between the two domains has to be placed in regions where the flow can be reasonably considered one-dimensional.
A more stable procedure has been developed, to overcome the cited problem, in order
to truncate the 3D domain in regions that are close to highly 3D shapes. This approach
involves the solution of the Riemann problem for every cell which owns the face constituting the boundary surface. In particular, at the beginning of each time step (as
shown in Figure 1), the average of the conserved variables in the centroids of the cells
is assigned to the last node of the 1D domain, while the conserved variables in the
n-1 node are assigned to the left state of local Riemann problems. Therefore, each
face constituting the 1D/multiD boundary identify a Riemann problem, which is solved
adopting the HLLC solver or its extension to the second order accuracy.
2.1 Engine application
It has been already demonstrated that the integrated 1D-3D approach can give results
comparable to 1D calculation if applied to simple geometries [2], justifying the adoption of well experienced corrective lengths to tune the model, since the computational
burden brought by an eventual 3D domain would not add any detail at all to the final

Figure 3: Pressure versus crank angle: measured, calculated by means of 1D-3D

coupling and fully 1D calculation. The engine operating condition are at full load a) 2
000rpm, b) 2500 rpm, c) 3000 rpm, d) 6500 rpm, e) 7000 rpm and f) 7500 rpm.
results. Conversely, this approach can be very useful in the case of complex geometry systems, to capture the multi dimensional wave effects. The integration of the two
models has been applied to simulate a V10 high performance engine in which the 5
into 1 junction has been simulated by means of a 3D approach. This application is
particularly critical, since the interfaces between the two domain are characterized by
being crossed by contact surfaces, compression and rarefaction waves and the velocity
field is rarely uniform over the cross section. In particular, only the left bank junction
has been modeled by means of a 3D domain, while the remaining parts of the engine duct system have been discretized as 1D, as shown in Fig. 2. The experimental
campaign, carried out in Lamborghini laboratories, focused on the measurements of

Figure 4: Pressure and velocity field inside the 5 into 1 junction at 270 crank angle
degrees, 7500 rpm full load.
pressure pulses upstream of the junction and of volumetric efficiency. Several operating conditions were considered; in particular, the range from 2000 rpm to 7500 rpm
was covered at full load with a step of 500 rpm. A fully 1D investigation of this engine
has been recently published, in which a detailed description of the 1D approach for the
multi-pipe junction and of the combustion model can be found [3]. The 3D mesh of
the junction is composed by up to 18000 computational cells whose average spacing
is half centimeter. No refinement of the mesh was done, to avoid the increase of the
computational time. The simulation of 5 thermodynamic cycles, needed by the method
to converge to a solution, involved an average time of 20 hours on a single processor 2GHz PC. The comparisons between the measured pressure pulses downstream
of the cylinder and the calculations carried out adopting the two models, namely the
1D-3D integrated code and the fully 1D code, are shown in Fig. 3. It can be noticed
that the hybrid model is remarkably more predictive than the fully 1D approach, exhibiting a good agreement with the measured data both in the absolute value and phase
of the wave motion. The pressure and velocity field shown in Fig. 4 point out the unsteadiness of the flow field inside the junction and how the Riemann approach tolerates
strong flow non uniformities at the interface between the two domains.

L1

L2
D

Conf. A Conf. B

D
L
L1
L2

51
107
253
45
116

51
113
280
54
100

Figure 5: Layout and specification of the muffler configurations.

Figure 6: Transmission loss (TL) of muffler

Conf. A: measured, 1D-multiD calculation,
fully 1D calculation.

Figure 7: Transmission loss (TL) of muffler

Conf. B: measured, 1D-multiD calculation,
fully 1D calculation.

2.2 Acoustic simulations

For the transmission loss calculation the coupled approach was adopted mainly to
exploit the flexibility of the 1D boundary conditions. Two different configurations (Fig.
5) with a similar layout and different dimensions have been simulated. In particular, the
imposed boundary conditions were an inlet with a withe noise pressure signal imposed
and a anechoic termination at the outlet. The instantaneous pressure trends at inlet
and outlet were decomposed by the FFT algorithm and the transmission loss evaluated
according to correlation of linear acoustics, evaluating the incident and transmitted
acoustic power [4]. To remain within the validity range of linear codes, the white noise
perturbation was imposed with an oscillation amplitude of 50 Pa. In Fig. 6 and 7 the
comparisons of the calculated TL with the measured one, taken from the literature [5],
are shown. Simulations were also carried out with a fully 1D approach and the results
included in the plots.
The comparison shows that the fully 1D approach, being also very fast, is able to
predict with fairly good accuracy the global trend of the TL. However in certain points
some attenuation peaks are not well captured as well as transparency frequencies,
whereas the coupled approach predicts a transmission loss which globally agrees fairly
well with the measured one. This improvement can be due to the capability of the
multiD approach to capture the non planar wave effects present in correspondence of
the pipe extensions.

3 Steady-state flow bench simulations

The intake port design has a significant impact on Diesel engines performance and
efficiency: they have to provide a high amount of air to the cylinder, but in the same
time they must create swirl motion to enhance air/fuel mixing and combustion velocity.
Computational fluid-dynamics could be useful to improve these components, providing
an insight into the cylinder air motion together with an estimation of the flow coefficient
for new intake port configurations.

3.1 Engine Geometry and Case setup

In this work, OpenFOAM has been applied to simulate the air flow in the intake ports
of a high performance Diesel engine for marine applications. In Figure 8 the simulated
geometry is shown: the two ports have different lengths and curvature to ensure both
high air mass flows and swirl number. The main engine data are summarized in Table
1.
Engine type
Valve seat diameter
Maximum valve lift
Inlet pressure
p
Inlet temperature

Seatek 850 Plus

35.5 mm
12 mm
1 bar
0.025 bar
300 K

Solver
Convection schemes
Laplacian schemes
Relative Tolerance
Absolute tolerance

rhoSimpleFoam
upwind
linear limited 0.5
0.1 (0.01 for p)
105 (106 for p)

Table 1: Engine geometry and experimen- Table 2: Control parameters of the simulatal setup.
tion.
The rhoSimpleFoam solver was used to perform steady-flow calculations and the Table
2 displays the main control parameters of the simulation. The Algebraic Multigrid Solver
(AMG) was used to compute the pressure field.
An automatic, Cartesian mesh-generator has been used in this work. The user provides the STL geometry to the program and specifies the internal and boundary cell
sizes. Initially, a first attempt grid is created which is then improved and smoothed to
correctly account for the original geometry of the boundary. The polyhedral cell support
of the code allows grid refinement close to the boundaries [6, 7]. In this way the time
needed for grid generation is drastically reduced, furthermore the grid quality is rather
high for most of the computational cells.
The total number of cells is 900000 with a mean cell size about 3 mm. The grid is
refined close to the port and valve walls to a size about 1 mm. The details of the original
geometry are correctly captured: in Figure 9 the surface mesh of both the intake ports
is displayed. Concerning the boundary conditions, total pressure was imposed at the

Figure 8: Seatek engine

cylinder head

Figure 9: Details of the computational grid

inlet and static pressure at the outlet to correctly account for the experimental pressure
drop. The standard k model was used for turbulence. Inlet temperature was set to
300 K.

3.2 Results
The computed flow-field on cut plane passing through the valve axes is shown in Figure
10(a) for the a 8 mm valve lift. Most of the air incoming within the cylinder comes from
the shortest duct ports, while the other one is mainly used to create the air swirl motion
evidenced in Figure 10(b). When the flow comes out of the ports, it seem to be too
attached to the cylinder head as displayed in Figures 10(c)-(d): this should be probably
caused by the adopted turbulence model, which is not able to describe flow separation
at the port exit [8].

(a) through both valve axes

(b) 8 mm below the cylinder head

(c) through the short port

(d) through the long port

Figure 10: Computed flow field for the Seatek engine cylinder head. Velocity range: 0
- 90 m/s.
The comparison between the computed and experimental flow coefficients is finally
shown in Figure 11. An overestimation of 12% is reported for all the tested lifts, possible explanations for this discrepancy can be found due to the adopted turbulence
model and to the first order numerical methods adopted as pointed out in [8]. It is in
the authors intention to implement a hybrid low-Reynolds turbulence model to correctly
capture the flow close to the valves and improve the prediction of both the flow coefficients and swirl number.

Flow Coefficient

0.8

0.6

Calculated
Experimental

0.4

0.2

0
0

10

12

14

Valve Lift [mm]

Figure 11: Comparison between experimental and calculated flow coefficients.

4 Moving Mesh Algorithms with Topological Changes

Internal combustion engine simulation represents a very challenging task for CFD modeling: reliable computational tools are required to handle the multiple interacting thermophysical process and geometrical constraints imposed by the engine design. Generally unstructured grids are used to account for complex shapes like piston bowls,
cylinder head and valves. The presence of moving boundaries (piston and valves)
requires to move efficiently the grid points, to keep the mesh quality high and avoid
non-orthogonality and skewness errors. Changing the grid topology can be also useful
to keep an optimum cell size during the whole simulation.
In this context, the authors have developed moving mesh algorithms dedicated to engine simulation, where both the points motion and topology changes are performed,
significantly reducing the manual work required for the case setup. Two approaches
are possible:
The MUMMI (multiple mesh motion and mesh to mesh interpolation) approach
requires a series of meshes to cover the whole simulation. Each mesh is valid for
a certain crank angle interval during which its points are moved and the flow is
solved. Then the solution is mapped from the actual source mesh to the following
target mesh.
The FAMA (fully automatic mesh adaptation) approach allows to perform the
whole simulation with only one mesh. To do this, the grid point motion is coupled with topology changes to the mesh such as dynamic cell layering and sliding
interfaces [9].
4.1 MUMMI approach
This approach is widely used [10, 11] for its reliability and simplicity but requires a
series of different meshes to perform the whole simulation. Each mesh is moved for a
certain crank angle interval and the flow is solved on it, then all the computed fields are
mapped on the new mesh. The grid points motion should be correctly specified from

motion boundary conditions, and a robust algorithm should be used to avoid that the
moving mesh quickly becomes tangled and invalid. For these reasons, the polyhedral
vertex-based motion solver developed in [12, 13] has been adopted by this approach.
4.1.1 Polyhedral vertex-based motion solver
The grid points velocity is computed by solving the Laplace equation of motion with
prescribed boundary conditions:
(u) = 0

(1)

where the diffusion field can be constant or variable. The point velocity field u is then
used to modify point positions:
xnew = xold + ut,

(2)

where xold and xnew are the point positions before and after mesh motion and t the
time step. Solving for motion velocity is preferred over solving for point position: the solution is less polluted by round errors and a better initial guess is available. To preserve
the mesh validity, Equation 1 is solved on a tetrahedral Finite Element (FE) decomposition of the polyhedral meshes [12, 13]: a polyhedral cell is split into tetrahedra on the
fly by dividing its faces into triangles and introducing a point in cell centroid as shown
in Figure 12.
The Algebraic Multigrid (AMG) solver [14] is used to solve the Equation 1. Despite the
number of equations in the discretized mesh motion equation is considerably larger
than the number of cells, the form of the operator and the regularity of tetrahedral
decomposition result in a robust motion algorithm.

Figure 12: Cell-and-face decomposition of a polyhedral cell into tetrahedra.

4.2 FAMA approach

Advantages of this approach are represented by the very limited amount of time required for mesh generation, since only one mesh has to be provided, decomposed into
a series of different regions depending on their geometry or mode of motion. Within
each region, the grid motion is accommodated in different ways and after the mesh
motion regions are re-connected. To keep an optimum mesh size and avoid grid distortions close to the valves, a combination of different topological changes is used to add
or remove cell layers, to deal with sliding mesh interfaces and the valve closure event.

A multiple-region decomposition for a typical two-stroke engine mesh is illustrated in

Figure 14. Three regions can be identified: cylinder, scavenging and exhaust ports.
Piston motion is handled by mesh deformation and layering, with port section remaining
fixed for the entire simulation. When overlap exists, cylinder and port meshes are
connected using a sliding interface. The presence of moving valves increases the

Figure 13: Geometry decomposition

for a four-stroke engine mesh: ports
cells (red), valve region cells (cyan
and yellow), remainder of the cylinder
(blue).

Figure 14:
Geometry decomposition for a two-stroke engine mesh:
scavenging ports (red), exhaust port
(green), cylinder (blue).

number of regions used to describe mesh motion in four-stroke engines. A minimum

of five different regions can be identified in this case:
Intake and exhaust ports;
Cells above and below the intake and exhaust valve poppets, from valve seat to
the piston surface;
Other cells within the cylinder.
A series of sliding interfaces connects the valve regions with the remainder of the
cylinder. Piston and valve motion is handled by dynamic layering or deformation. The
reader is referred to [9] for a detailed description about the mesh topological change
algorithms implemented in the OpenFOAM code.
4.3 Application: intake stroke computation in a GDI engine
This study has been performed on the Mitsubishi-GDI engine: it has 4 valves per cylinder, a pent-roof combustion chamber and the fuel is directly injected in the combustion
chamber. The piston bowl shape is used to enhance the tumble motion and to create
a stratified charge close to the spark at the ignition time. The main geometry data are
summarized in Table 4.3. This engine has been object of several studies in the past
[15, 16].

Type
Bore
Stroke
Squish height
I.V.O.
E.V.O.
Maximum valve lift

Mitsubishi GDI
81 mm
89 mm
1.7 mm
0 CA TDC
210 CA TDC
8.7 mm

Table 3: Geometry data of the Mitsubishi-GDI engine studied.

4.3.1 Mesh generation and motion

The generation of a block structured, hexahedral mesh for a such complicated geometry is really time consuming, hence a tetrahedral mesh has been used. In this case,
only the MUMMI approach can be used to simulate the intake stroke. A series of target
meshes has been generated by using the NETGEN software [17, 18]. Eight meshes
cover the whole intake stroke process. Details about each of them are shown in table
4. The maximum cell size used is 3 mm, while the number of cells is between 100 and
200 thousands for all the adopted meshes.

Mesh 1
Mesh 2
Mesh 3
Mesh 4
Mesh 5
Mesh 6
Mesh 7
Mesh 8

Start

End

Cells

0
20
45
75
120
150
170
185

20
45
75
120
150
170
185
205

123082
101216
129108
154970
180797
186766
163129
180350

Piston position
at start
[mm]
89
85.4
72.2
48.9
16.6
4.1
0.5
0.4

Piston position
at end
[mm]
85.4
72.2
48.9
16.6
4.1
0.5
0.1
1.1

Valve lift
at start
[mm]
0.25
1.98
5.15
7.69
8.48
6.71
4.78
2.78

Valve lift
at end
[mm]
1.98
5.15
7.69
8.48
6.71
4.78
2.78
0.25

Table 4: Main features of the target meshes used to simulate the intake stroke of the
Mitsubishi GDI Engine.

The automatic mesh motion technique was used to move the grid points: fixed velocity
was imposed for the piston and valve patches, zero velocity for the intake ports and
walls, zero-gradient for the liner and the valve stem. Quadratic diffusion was used in
the Equation 1 [12] to increase the mesh quality and reduce its distortion close to the
moving valves.
An example of grid motion for the Mesh 2 is summarized in Figure 15: most of the
internal mesh remains almost unchanged, while the points close to the valves and the

piston move. This is because the quadratic diffusion is used in the Laplace equation of
motion.

(a) 20 CA

(b) 30 CA

(c) 45 CA

Figure 15: Grid motion for the Mesh 2 of the Mitsubishi GDI engine.

Each mesh is used until its resolution becomes too coarse or its quality in terms of
non-orthogonality and skewness do not strongly worsen. The quality of each grid is
summarized in Table 5 at the beginning and at the end of its crank angle interval.
Each mesh covers approximately 2 mm of valve lift and much higher values for the
piston displacement. Valve closure and opening phases might be covered with a higher
number of meshes to further increase their quality.

Mesh 1
Mesh 2
Mesh 3
Mesh 4
Mesh 5
Mesh 6
Mesh 7
Mesh 8

Start
Severe non-orth. Max Skewness [%]
faces
(skew faces)
1
<200 (0)
0
225 (1)
1
<200 (0)
0
<200 (0)
3
<200 (0)
8
<200 (0)
9
401 (3)
2
<200 (0)

Severe non-orth.
faces
79
2660
147
1
9
20
36
28

End
Max Skewness [%]
(skew faces)
403 (19)
665 (151)
231 (19)
<200 (0)
374 (3)
638 (12)
828 (27)
878 (33)

Table 5: Mesh quality for each target mesh at the beginning and at the end of its crank
angle interval.

4.3.2 Case setup

The inlet boundary conditions are specified in Table 6, total pressure was imposed at
the intake ports and no-slip conditions at the walls. The Table 7 shows the initial conditions in the computational domain. The standard k model was used for turbulence.

Inlet p (total)
Inlet T
Inlet k
Inlet

1.01 bar
320 K
4 m2 /s2
450 m2 /s3

In-cylinder p
In-cylinder T
In-cylinder k
In-cylinder

Table 6: Inlet boundary conditions.

1.01 bar
373 K
4 m2 /s2
450 m2 /s3

Table 7: Initial conditions.

4.3.3 Preliminary results

The Figure 16 shows the computed flow field for four different crank angles. It is possible to see the tumble motion generated by the incoming air jet, enhanced by the piston
shape.

(a) 40 CA

(b) 80 CA

(c) 120 CA

Figure 16: Computed velocity field during the intake stroke for the Mitsubishi GDI engine.

The computed turbulent kinetic energy distribution is displayed in Figure 17. As expected, high flow velocities generate turbulence across the valve lift as well as the flow
deflection close to the liner surface.

(a) 40 CA

(b) 80 CA

(c) 120 CA

Figure 17: Computed turbulent kinetic energy field during the intake stroke for the
Mitsubishi GDI engine.

Finally, the computed temperature field in Figure 18 represents the EGR distribution
within the cylinder.

(a) 40 CA

(b) 80 CA

(c) 120 CA

Figure 18: Computed temperature field during the intake stroke for the Mitsubishi GDI
engine.

It is very important that the total domain mass is conserved after each remapping
phase. Mass differences around 0.5% are reported, which are rather negligible and do
not influence the computed results.
This work is currently under-development: a real operating condition is being simulated
with unsteady pressure and temperature boundary conditions at the inlet. Then the
compression and combustion phases will be simulated, accounting for the liquid fuel
spray injection using the models implemented in [19].
4.4 FAMA application: scavenging in a two-stroke engine
The scavenging modeling has been extensively investigated in the past [2022], and
it has always been emphasized the importance of a good moving mesh algorithm to
correctly account for the piston motion relative to the scavenging ports. The data of the
simulated engine for motorcycle applications are taken from [23] and summarized in
Table 8. The engine has one exhaust port and five scavenging ports, with symmetrical
design. The ports geometry has been established according to [24].
Bore
Stroke
Compression Ratio
Displacement
Exhaust Timing
Scavenge Timing
Speed
Boost pressure

66.5 mm
57 mm
10.8
198 cm3
160 o CA
126 o CA
2500 rpm
1.05 bar

Table 8: Geometry, operating conditions and computational mesh for the simulated
two-stroke engine.
Total pressure and fixed temperature are imposed at the intake ports, fixed pressure at
the exhaust port. No-slip conditions and fixed temperature was imposed at the walls.

The standard k turbulence model has been used in this case, considering its reliability and robustness for high-Reynolds number flows in complex internal geometries
[25, 26].
Results The proposed approach used for mesh motion in two-stroke engines presents
a sliding interface to account for the dynamic connectivity between the cylinder and the
ports. Furthermore, layers of cells are added and removed close to the piston surface.
The sliding interface should ensure a correct prediction of the incoming fresh air flow
within the cylinder and exhaust gas discharge.
The scavenging process is summarized in Figures 19(a)-(d) where the residual gas
distribution is illustrated at four different crank angles. Early in the scavenging process,
the fresh air jet penetrates into the burned gas and moves firstly toward the cylinder
head and then toward the exhaust port [24]. Later short-circuiting starts to occur and
the outflowing gas contains an increasing amount of fresh air.

(a) 115 CA

(b) 145 CA

(c) 165 CA

(d) 185 CA

Figure 19: Residual gas distribution during the scavenging process. Computed range:
0-1.
The reader is referred to [9] for a more detailed analysis of this case where also the
computed in-cylinder flow-field and turbulence intensity are compared successfully with
literature experimental data.

5 Diesel combustion modeling

The high complexity of the interplaying physical and chemical phenomena occurring in
Diesel combustion has brought an increasing interest versus experimental and computational fundamental studies. In this study the authors implemented in OpenFOAM
two different combustion models of different complexity and applied them to simulate
a selection of significant test cases from the SANDIA Engine Combustion Network
database [27]. Global heat release rate and flame lift-off lengths are compared with
the available experimental data.
OpenFOAM contains a robust particle tracking algorithm and has been recently used
for Lagrangian spray modeling. The code already includes most of the widely used submodels for spray breakup, fuel injection, droplet collisions, evaporation and turbulent
dispersion. Further details about the spray implementation and validation can be found
in [19, 2831].

5.1 Combustion models

5.1.1 Modified Eddy Dissipation Model (EDM+ID)
In Diesel combustion, the fuel is injected into hot, compressed air and auto-ignition
plays an important role in the combustion and flame stabilization processes. After
ignition, combustion is generally mixing-controlled [32]. For these reasons, the fuel
reaction rate can be expressed as:
F = (1 ) F,HT + F,mix

(3)

where is used to switch from the auto-ignition ( = 0) to the mixing-controlled combustion mode ( = 1). Expressions of the two terms F,HT and F,mix are thus required. The approach of Pires De La Cruz [33] is used to estimate high-temperature
auto-ignition: a transport equation is solved for an integral function YHI whose source
term depends on the amount of fuel tracer in the computational cell and on the local self-ignition delay HT , which depends on the fresh gas thermodynamic conditions.
The ignition delay is computed by a linear interpolation in a tabulated database whose
values are the result of complex chemistry calculations, performed by the authors, with
an extensively validated detailed kinetic scheme for n-heptane [34].
The mixing-controlled fuel burning rate F,mix depends on the fuel (YeF ), oxidizer (YeO ),
product mean mass fractions (YeP ) and on the turbulent mixing time, estimated from
integral length scales as t = k/:
!
eO
eP
Y
Y

(4)
,
F,mix = Cmag min YeF ,
k
s
(1 + s)

where Cmag and are two model constants. In Equation 4, the reaction rate is limited
by the deficient mean specie. In the present work Cmag is set to 4, while is 1, following [32]. When the Eddy Dissipation Model is coupled with an ignition treatment it is
possible to predict both ignition and flame stabilization since fuel and oxidizer do not
immediately ignite as soon as they meet [32].
5.1.2 Perfectly Stirred Reactor (PSR)
In this model the mixture is assumed to be homogeneous within each computational
cell, hence any sub-grid scale turbulence-chemistry interaction is neglected. This
model has recently been applied in [3537] for both combustion bomb and diesel engine simulations. The reactive mixture in each computational cell is treated as a closed
system. When the chemical time scale is much lower than the fluid-dynamic time-scale,
an operator-splitting [32, 38] technique is used: at the beginning of the each computational time an ODE stiff solver takes the thermodynamic conditions (T, p, YI ) in each
cell and integrates the chemical problem within the time-step, solving the specie and
the energy equations. Then it updates the specie mass fractions as:
Z t+t
Wi

Yi (t + t) = Yi (t) +
i dt
(5)

where is the density, i is the reaction rate and Wi is the molecular weight of the
species i. The chemistry solver adopted in this work is based on a multi-step, SemiImplicit Bulirsch-Stoer method, SIBS [39]. Finally, the reaction rate Yi is estimated as:
Yi (t + t) Yi (t)
Yi =
(6)
t
The chemical mechanism can be provided to the OpenFOAM code in the CHEMKIN
format [40], then suitable functions and libraries compute the reaction rates. A skeletal mechanism with 32 species and 70 reactions was used to simulate the n-heptane
chemistry [41].
The operation-splitting technique increases significantly the computational time, making use of detailed chemistry. For this reason the authors have implemented in the
OpenFOAM code the ISAT (in situ adaptive tabulation) algorithm [42, 43], where the
chemical reaction rates are tabulated on-the-fly during the computation (in situ) and
used to approximate the reaction rates of the cells with a composition close to the
tabulated ones.
5.2 Validation
Experiments conducted in the SANDIA combustion chamber were used to evaluate the
proposed models. It is an optically accessible, cubical vessel where spray-combustion
experiments are performed under ambient similar conditions to those occurring in a
diesel engine at the time of injection. The fuel is injected by a common-rail injector
mounted on one side of the chamber with a Mexican-hat injection profile. A piezoelectric pressure transducer measures the vessel pressure during the experiments. The
experimental apparatus is accurately described in [44, 45].
Case 1
Case 2
Case 3
Case 4

amb [kg/m3 ]
14.8
14.8
14.8
14.8

T [K]
1000
1000
1000
1300

[O2 ]
21%
15%
10%
21%

Table 9: Operating conditions simulated: initial ambient temperatures, densities and

oxygen concentrations.
Different operating conditions were simulated, as summarized in Table 9. N-heptane
was used as fuel and the injected mass for each case was taken from [27]. The models
were validated in terms of
heat release rate;
flame lift-off location;
In this study, a constant spray angle is used in the simulations, while the initial droplet
diameter was derived by the injector diameter and its area contraction coefficient [28].
Both the Kelvin-Helhmoltz and Rayleigh-Taylor mechanisms are accounted for to model
the spray breakup [46]. The Ranz-Marshall correlation [47] is used to model the droplet
evaporation. Droplet to droplet interactions and turbulence dispersion effects are neglected.

5.2.1 Geometry
The computational mesh adopted for the calculations is displayed in Figure 20. Considering the axial-symmetric geometry, only a quarter of the combustion chamber was
modeled. After a mesh size investigation [41], a cell size of 1 mm close to the spray
axis was chosen: in this way the mesh is very fine where combustion takes place and
a coarse grid is used elsewhere, reducing the required computational time. The total
number of cells is 90000. A time step of 1e-3 ms has been used to better describe
the spray evolution at the beginning of the injection phase and correctly reproduce the
air/fuel ratio distribution at the ignition time [41, 48].

Figure 20: Computational mesh representing the SANDIA combustion vessel [27].

5.2.2 Vessel pressure history

The proposed case setup was then used to simulate the combustion process. The wall
temperature was adjusted to reproduce the experimental temperature cool down before
the injection starts [27]. To correctly predict the engine performance, a model for diesel
combustion should estimate the premixed and mixing-controlled combustion phases.
Measured data of vessel pressure and its rise versus time will be used to evaluate
the proposed approaches for the Cases 1-4. Figure 21 compares the experimental
pressure rise and its derivative with the computed ones for all the tested cases.
Both the combustion models correctly captures the experimental pressure rise during
both premixed and mixing-controlled combustion phases for the Cases 1 and 2 as
shown in Figures 21(a)-(b), representing no EGR and medium EGR (28%) operating
conditions. It is interesting to see that this happens also for the PSR model: the grid
size is fine enough that the sub-grid turbulence-chemistry interaction can be neglected.
Results for the Case 3 are affected by an overestimation of the ignition delay for high
EGR conditions (52%), as shown in Figure 21(a). However, the PSR model correctly
captures the mixing-controlled combustion phase. The results are not satisfactory for
the EDM+ID model, probably because the ignition delay table is too coarse around the
flammability limit for high EGR.
The Case 4 represents operating conditions similar to those found after a pilot-injection
and is characterized by a very short ignition-delay. In Figure 21(b), the ignition delay
time is correctly estimated by both models. The pressure rise is rather well predicted
by the EDM+ID model during the mixing controlled combustion phase, while it is overestimated by the PSR model, probably because the turbulence-chemistry interaction is
neglected.

300

60

150
100

30

50
0
0

0.0025

0.005

0.0075

0.01

Tamb = 1000 K, O2 = 10%, amb = 14.8 kg/m

90

200
60

150
100

30

50
0
0

0.0025

0.005

0.0075

0.01

Time [s]
3
Tamb = 1300 K, O2 = 21%, amb = 14.8 kg/m

300

250
200

60
150
100

30

dp/dt [MPa/s]

(c) 90

Exp
PSR
EDM+ID

50

Pressure rise [KPa]

300

Pressure rise [KPa]

120

(b)

Exp
PSR
EDM+ID

250

Time [s]

120

(d)

Exp
PSR
EDM+ID

250

90

200
60

150
100

30

50

0
0

0.0025

0.005

0.0075

0.01

Time [s]

dp/dt [MPa/s]

90

200

Pressure rise [KPa]

250

Tamb = 1000 K, O2 = 15%, amb = 14.8 kg/m

120

(a)

Exp
PSR
EDM+ID

dp/dt [MPa/s]

Pressure rise [KPa]

300

dp/dt [MPa/s]

Tamb = 1000 K, O2 = 21%, amb = 14.8 kg/m

0
0

0.0025

0.005

0.0075

Time [s]

Figure 21: Comparison between experimental and computed pressure rise and its
derivative versus time for the Cases 1-4.
5.2.3 Prediction of the Flame Lift Off
A deep understanding of the mechanism of lift-off stabilization is required as well as of
the interrelation with the following soot formation [49]. The computed and experimental
lift-off lengths are compared in Figure 22. The computed value was identified by a
2200K iso-line according to [50]. Both models predict correctly the lift-off dependency
on EGR and mixture temperature [49]. However, the EDM tends to overpredict the
lift-off length, showing significant errors for Case 3 and Case 6, where it fails in the
prediction of the ignition delay since it does not account for cool-flame effects.

6 Conclusions
The paper provided an overview of the research activity carried out by the authors by
developing OpenFOAM applications for internal combustion engines. The aim was to
propose OpenFOAM either as a CFD platform for fundamental studies either as industrial toolkit. This second field of applications motivated the development of a novel 1D3D coupling approach, which was implemented into the code to perform multiple cycle
simulations of the entire engine system or to evaluate the transmission loss of complex
mufflers. Another requirement which is strongly demanded by the industrial engine re-

Figure 22: Computed and experimental averaged lift-off length for the Cases 1-4.
search is the assessment of efficient moving mesh algorithms as well as the possibility
of performing steady-state tests for flow coefficient evaluation. The authors contributions and experience in these field were extensively reported in the paper. Finally the
object-oriented and open-source structure of OpenFOAM makes it very attractive to
perform collaborative fundamental studies. To these ends, the authors illustrated the
implementation of Diesel combustion models and its application to simulate the SANDIA constant-volume test cases, whose data are available to the research community
for model assessment.

7 Contacts
Dr. Gianluca DErrico, Politecnico di Milano
e-mail: gianluca.derrico@polimi.it
web: http://www.engines.polimi.it/CFD.html

8 Acknowledgments
This research has been financed by Advanced Marine Propulsion Technology SEATEK
S.P.A., Lamborghini Automobili S.P.A., MV Agusta S.P.A., Fondo Giovani Ricercatori of
Dipartimento di Energetica, CNR Istituto Motori.
The authors are grateful to Institut Francais du Petrole (IFP) for providing the CAD
geometry of the Mitsubishi GDI engine used in this study.
The contribution of Daniele Ettorre to the Diesel combustion modeling section is gratefully acknowledged.

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