Flow Field Investigation of a Single Engine Valve Using PIV, POD, and LES

Abstract

Due to stringent emission regulations, it is of practical significance to understand cycle-to-cycle variations in the combustion of fossil or renewable fuels to reach future emission regulations. The present study aims to conduct a parametric investigation to analyse the influence of the valve lift and different mass flows of an inlet valve of the test engine “Flex-OeCoS” on the flow structures. To gain a deeper understanding of the flow behaviour, an optical test bench for 2D Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) and a Large Eddy Simulation (LES) are used. Turbulence phenomena are investigated using Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) with a quadruple decomposition and the Reynolds stress transport equation. The results show good agreement between the PIV and LES. Moreover, the main flow structures are primarily affected by valve lift while being unaffected by mass flow variation. The turbulent kinetic energy within the flow field increases quadratically to the mass flow and to the decreasing valve lift, where large high-energetic flow structures are observed in the vicinity of the jet and small low-energetic structures are homogeneously distributed within the flow field. Furthermore, the convective flux, the turbulent diffusive flux, the rate of change, and the production of specific Reynolds stress are the dominant terms within the specific Reynolds stress transport equation.