This paper was produced for the 2019 NAFEMS World Congress in Quebec Canada

Resource Abstract

Powertrain providers operate in a highly competitive market and are under pressure to produce fuel efficient engines & decrease emissions to meet stringent fuel economy legislation. This needs to be achieved without compromising desired performance attributes, such as power and torque. At the same time electrification is disrupting the automotive industry bringing new challenges in the world of engine development as engine manufactures look to increase efficiency.



To meet customer expectations, Original Equipment Manufacture’s (OEM’s) need to reduce the overall number of costly physical prototypes that they use during the design cycle. To achieve this, they need to manage many system complexities whilst balancing attributes to meet Government regulations as well design costs. They do this by increasing the use of simulation to evaluate powertrain components & systems to test virtually & reduce physical testing through Digital Twins. This can ultimately lead to optimized designs and reduced time to market which is key.



The implementation of Predictive Engineering early in the development process is essential for successful efficient product development at all stages of the design process. To manage the high levels of complexity associated with the design of a combustion system a streamlined workflow is required.



In this presentation we demonstrate a Fully Integrated Design Exploration Tool for In-Cylinder Simulation. Capturing the complete workflow from integrated Computer Aided Design (CAD) through easy to setup engine specific pre-/post processing to a fully integrated Design Exploration tool allowing for design sweeps and driving towards an optimized engine design.



This case study demonstrates the power of this workflow by significantly enhancing the performance of a generic engine at impressive turnaround times. We present the simulation of the transient turbulent flow field of 84 gasoline engine intake port designs, finding a design that doubles the turbulent kinetic energy at ignition timing at no relevant penalty on trapped mass - all this conducted in 44 hours total turnaround time from within STAR-CCM+/STAR-ICE.