A Two-Step Combustion Model of Iso-Octane for 3D CFD Combustion Simulation in SI Engines

The application of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) for three-dimensional (3D) combustion analysis coupled with detailed chemistry in engine development is hindered by its expensive computational cost. Chemistry computation may occupy as much as 90% of the total computational cost. In the present paper, a new two-step iso-octane combustion model was developed for spark-ignited (SI) engine to maximize computational efficiency while maintaining acceptable accuracy. Starting from the model constants of an existing global combustion model, the new model was developed using an approach based on sensitivity analysis to approximate the results of a reference skeletal mechanism. The present model involves only five species and two reactions and utilizes only one uniform set of model constants. The validation of the new model was performed using shock tube and real SI engine cases. The results show that the present model is able to deliver a decent performance for combustion predictions compared with the skeletal chemistry, as well as 60% computational efficiency improvement for 3D engine combustion simulations. The two-step combustion model has the potential to be applied in massive engine optimization and conjugated heat transfer analysis.