Assessment of a novel combustion chamber configuration

What is it about?

This paper aims to assess the viability of a novel configuration for combustion chambers of an internal combustion engine. Flow characteristics in combustion chambers of several non-circular cross-sectional configurations were numer8ically investigated. Different cross-sectional configurations, including annular and multi-sector annulus configurations with different fillets, were proposed, examined, and compared to the conventional circular arrangement. The effects of different design parameters, including convex and fillet radii, as well as some operational parameters, such as the angular velocity on the total pressure drop and the secondary flow characteristics like the swirl number, secondary vortex intensity, and helicity. The results revealed the optimum number of annulus sectors to be six, at which the highest hydraulic diameter was achieved for the same cross-sectional area. Optimum values of the inner and outer corner fillets were also obtained. Several valve arrangements were also investigated to achieve the highest possible valve area ratio for the proposed configurations. One of the proposed configurations, which incorporates six annular chambers with filleted corners with a hydraulic diameter ratio of 0.991 compared to the conventional circular design, denoted AFC4, achieved a more compact design while maintaining very comparable flow characteristics to those of the circular design. Although it needs more thorough investigations, it could present a viable alternative design option for the combustion chambers.

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