LES of the Exhaust Flow in a Heavy-Duty Engine

The flow in the exhaust port and the exhaust manifold of a heavy-duty Diesel engine has been studied using the Large Eddy Simulation (LES) approach. Some of the flow characteristics in these components are: flow unsteadiness and separation combined with significant geometry-induced secondary flow motion. Detailed analysis of these features may add understanding which can be used to decrease the flow losses and increase the efficiency of downstream components such as turbochargers and EGR coolers. Few LES studies of the flow in these components have been conducted in the past and this, together with the complexity of the flow are the motivations for this work. This paper shows that in the exhaust port, even global parameters like total pressure losses are handled better by LES than RANS (Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes). Flow structures of the type that affect both turbine performance and EGR cooler efficiency are generated in the manifold and these are found to vary significantly during the exhaust pulse. This paper also clearly illustrates the need to make coupled simulations in order to handle the complicated boundary conditions of these gas exchange components.