Analysis of large-scale flow characteristics in a four-valve spark ignition engine

Abstract

A digital particle image velocimetry (PIV) measurement has been carried out to study the large-scale flow characteristics in a single-cylinder engine with a production-type four-valve cylinder head under one intake port deactivation. The measurement plane was located 12 mm below the cylinder head parallel to the flat piston top. Two-dimensional velocity fields from 100 consecutive cycles were acquired at every 30 crank angle interval in the compression stroke to analyse ensemble-averaged mean velocity, cyclic variation of the swirl motion, low-frequency and total velocity fluctuations and their integral length scales. The analysis shows that as one intake port is deactivated, strong swirl forms at the end of the intake stroke and sustains its flow pattern up to the late stage of the compression stroke with the precessing of the swirl centre. Both swirl ratio and swirl centre show significant cyclic variations in the compression process. A low-frequency component with spatial frequency below 0.05 mm-1 (corresponding to a large-scale structure with a spatial scale over 20 mm) is absolutely predominant in the flow field and therefore the low-frequency large-scale flow behaviour determines the basic characteristics of the total in-cylinder flow. The flow field is considerably anisotopic because the integral length scale of any velocity fluctuation components along any direction is different. However, the velocity fluctuation field in the horizontal plane will gradually become homogeneous as the piston moves up in the compression stroke. The integral length scale is in the range of 4-10 mm at an engine speed of 600 r/min. When the engine speed is doubled, flow velocity in the cylinder nearly doubles and velocity fluctuation kinetic energy more than triples though the flow pattern hardly changes.