Calculations of Spray and Spray Combustion in a Stratified Charge Wankel Engine

A computer program -- LeRC3D.Wankel -- was developed to study the flow, spray, and spray combustion in the combustion chambers of Wankel rotary engines. LeRC3D. Wankel is based on an Eulerian-Lagrangian formulation. The gas phase was modelled by an Eulerian approach using the density-weighted, ensemble-averaged conservation equations of mass, momentum (full compressible Navier-Stokes), total energy, and species, closed by a low Reynolds number k-ε turbulence model. The liquid phase, made up of fuel droplets, was modelled by using a Lagrangian approach in which droplet groups are tracked in time. The combustion process which takes place after fuel droplets evaporate and mix with the surrounding air was assumed to be chemical kinetics controlled via a two-step global mechanism. This paper describes the formulation employed in the computer program as well as the essence of the numerical method used to generate solutions. Some computed solutions for the flow field are also presented.