Cyclic Variations in the Flame Propagation in an Spark-Ignited Engine: Multi Cycle Large Eddy Simulation Supported by Imaging Diagnostics

Experimental measurements and multi-cycle large eddy simulation (LES) are performed in an optically accessible four-stroke spark-ignition engine to investigate cycle-to-cycle variations (CCV). High-speed combustion imaging is used to measure the early flame propagation and obtain the flame radius and centroids. Large Eddy Simulation generates data-bases for the flame propagation as well as the kinetic energy in the cylinder and confirms the observations from the two-dimensional fields by three-dimensional simulation results. Experiment and simulation are compared with respect to the strength and distribution of CCV. Both approaches reveal CCV causing similar statistics of maximum pressures and combustion speeds. The cycles are categorized as slow and fast cycles using the crank angle of ten percent burnt fuel-mixture. Analysis of the flame centroids shows that slow cycles move further towards the intake-side of the engine compared to fast cycles. The kinetic energy during combustion is averaged for the slow and fast cycles based on the samples being in unburnt and burnt mixture. Studying the kinetic energy level in the unburnt and burnt mixture reveals higher turbulent kinetic energy for the fast cycles as well as larger separation between the global kinetic and the turbulent kinetic energy for the slow cycles, providing evidence for a source of the CCV variations observed in this engine.