Front. Energy Power Eng.
China 2010, 4(3): 392–401
DOI 10.1007/s11708-009-0066-1
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Jizu LV, Minli BAI, Long ZHOU, Jian ZHOU
Effect of heat transfer space non-uniformity of combustion
chamber components on in-cylinder heat transfer in diesel
engine
© Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag 2009
Abstract Combustion chamber components (cylinder
head-cylinder liner-piston assembly-oil film) were treated
as a coupled body. Based on the three-dimensional
numerical simulation of the heat transfer of the coupled
body, a coupled three-dimensional calculation model for
the in-cylinder working process and the combustion
chamber components was built with domain decomposi-
tion and boundary coupling method, which adopts the
coupled three-dimensional simulation of in-cylinder work-
ing process and the combustion chamber components. The
model was applied in the investigation of the influence of
space non-uniformity in heat transfer among combustion
chamber components on in-cylinder heat transfer. The
results show that the effect of wall temperature space non-
uniform distribution of combustion chamber components
on heat transfer happens mainly at the end of the
compression stroke and expansion stroke. Therefore, it
can be concluded that wall temperature space non-uniform
distribution of combustion chamber components would
influence heat transfer during the intake and exhaust stroke
obviously.
Keywords heat transfer, space non-uniformity, soot
emission, in-cylinder, diesel
1 Introduction
During the working process in the cylinder of a diesel
engine, the fuel spray, evaporating, mixing with air,
Received February 15, 2009; accepted May 5, 2009
✉
Jizu LV ( ), Minli BAI, Long ZHOU
School of Energy and Power Engineering, Dalian University of
Technology, Dalian 116024, China
E-mail: lvjizu2002@yahoo.com.cn
Jian ZHOU
LTD No.2 Vehicle Quality Department, Guangzhou Honda Automobile
CO., Guangzhou 511338, China
combustion and emission formation are directly influenced
by the temperature of the local gas in the cylinder which
depends on the gas flow in the cylinder, the radiation
source, the radiation heat transfer intensity, the convection
heat transfer intensity, and so on [1–3]. Both radiative and
convective heat flux are a function of the gas temperature
in the near-wall region and the temperature of the
combustion chamber walls. Altering the wall temperature
will change the gas temperature by influencing the heat
loss rate. By three-dimensional steady coupling simulation
on solid combustion chamber components, it can be seen
clearly that there exists great space non-uniformity for
surface temperature distribution of combustion chamber
components, and that the local temperature difference is
even above 100°C[4]. It is obvious that this kind of space
non-uniformity would influence heat transfer in the
cylinder of a diesel engine greatly, and consequently
influence the whole working process in the cylinder.
Therefore, in this paper the multi-dimensional simula-
tion computation coupling flow and solid on the working
process and the combustion chamber components of an
internal combustion engine was performed using DTRM
radiation heat transfer model, zoning solution method and
boundary coupling method. Based on such simulation
effect of heat transfer, space non-uniformity of combustion
chamber components on wall heat transfer could be
studied. Therefore, this research can provide a foundation
for multi-dimensional simulation computation on the in-
cylinder working process of an internal combustion engine
and for the study of the effect of heat transfer space non-
uniformity of combustion chamber components on in-
cylinder working process.
2 Model formulation
This section describes some of the supporting submodels
used in this study.
 Jizu LV et al. Heat transfer space non-uniformity 393

2.1 Convective heat transfer model Fig. 1 which shows that the domain is subdivided into a
finite number of control volumes. An arbitrary ray is
The turbulent wall heat transfer model of Han-Reitz [5] shown for boundary face P.
was used to predict the heat transfer between gas and wall
surfaces. This model accounts for variable density,
turbulent flows and allows a coarse grid size to be used
near the wall while maintaining accuracy. The wall heat
flux is computed as

Cp uτ T lnðT =Tw Þ
qw ¼ , (1)
2:1ln ðyþ Þ þ 2:5
where, Cp is the specific heat of gas, uτ the friction velocity,
T and Tw are gas and wall temperature, respectively, and y+
is the dimensionless distance.
uτ y
yþ ¼ , (2) Fig. 1 Ray tracing in a 2D mesh


1 The change of radiant intensity leaving point R and

U þ ¼ yþ e – Γ þ e – 1=Γ lnðEyþ Þ, (3) along the ray until it reaches P is tracked. This is done
k
using the well-known recurrence equation
0:01ðyþ PrÞ4 Tg 4
Γ¼
1 þ 5yþ Pr3
, (4) ií í
nþ1 ¼ in ð1 – εðT , xi ÞÞ þ εðT , xi Þ, (6)
π
where, y is the distance normal to the wall, Pr is Prandtl where ií í
n and inþ1 are total radiation intensities at
number, k is Kaman constant, E is constant, μτ is the intersections of a ray with control volume faces, i.e., at
friction velocity places where the ray enters and leaves the control volume.
The symbol ε(T, xi) stands for the total-sum over all
τ ¼ Cμ1=4 kp1=2 , (5) wavelength-emissivity, which depends on the local
and ν is the gas kinematic viscosity. In Eq. (5), k is temperature and fluid composition.σ is the Stephan-
turbulent kinetic energy, Cµ is constant. Boltzmann constant.
This wall treatment provides the standard wall function In order to apply the recurrence Eq. (6), the total
for large values of y+ as well as integration of equations up intensity ií
0 at the beginning of the incremental path has to
to the wall for very small values of y+. be known, which is the intensity leaving the starting point
Similarly, the relationships for a dissipation rate and R in the example shown in Fig. 1. For all boundary faces
turbulence viscosity at the point next to the wall are (except symmetry and periodic), the incident radiation flux
derived. The production of turbulence kinetic energy near qin and the outgoing radiation flux qout have to be
the wall is modified as well to ensure that the results are the calculated. Wall boundaries are taken as gray and diffuse,
same for the small y+ as provided by low-Re models and thus the intensity leaving the wall is estimated as
for the high y+ as provided by the standard wall function. qout q T 4
[6] i# ¼ ¼ ð1 – εw Þ in þ εw w , (7)
π |fflfflfflfflfflfflffl{zfflfflfflfflfflfflπffl} |fflfflffl{zfflffl
πffl}
ref lected directly_emitted
2.2 Radiation heat transfer model
where, ε is the emissivity and Tw the wall temperature. That
The Discrete Transfer Radiation Model was used in this means that the outgoing radiation flux is composed of the
work [7]. The DTRM is based on solving RTE for some diffusely reflected and the directly emitted part, without
representative rays fired from the domain boundaries. Rays specular reflection.
are fired from surface elements into a finite number of solid The incident radiation at inlets or outlets is not reflected;
angles that cover the radiating hemisphere about each it just leaves the calculation domain. Therefore, on these
element and the main assumption of DTRM is that the boundaries, the radiation intensity is simply estimated as
intensity through a solid angle can be approximated by a qout T 4
single ray. The number of rays and their directions are i# ¼ ¼ εw w : (8)
chosen in advance and RTE is solved for each ray on its π π
way from boundary to boundary. The incident radiation flux at the boundary element j is
An illustration is given for a 2D example, as shown in then calculated as the sum of incident intensities for all rays
394 Front. Energy Power Eng. China 2010, 4(3): 392–401
(see Fig. 1) as
nrays
X
qin, j ¼ ! ií
j s⋅ndΩ  ií
j, i cosj, i ΔΩj, 
s⋅n<0 i¼1
nrays
X
ií

j,i cosj,i sinj,i singðΔj,i ÞΔφj,i ,
i¼1
where, s is the ray direction vector and n the face normal
vector.
In participating media, the energy gain or loss in internal
cells due to radiation is given through the radiation source
term. For a general control volume j and for one ray i
(Fig. 1) the radiation source contribution is calculated as
S j ¼ ðií í and combustion chamber components. The implementa-
nþ1 – in ÞAj cosj,i ΔΩj,i
¼ ðií í
nþ1 – in ÞAj cosj,i sinj,i sinðΔj,i ÞΔφj,i ,
where Aj is the area of the boundary face from which the
ray has been fired and Ω is the solid angle. The overall
energy gain or loss for a specific internal cell is due to the
sum of the contribution of all rays crossing the cell. Thus, if
k is the number of rays that intersects the j-th control
volume, then the total radiation source term is given by
X
k gas in the cylinder, and the top face of the piston. The
S j,tot ¼ S j,i
i¼1
The radiation source term, Eq. (11), is directly used in
the enthalpy equation.
Finally, the radiative properties—total emissivity in the
case in this study (see Eq. (6))—have to be modeled. As
already said, the total emissivity depends on local (control
volume) gaseous composition, soot concentration and
temperature. The Weighted Sum of Gray Gases Model
(WSGGM), according to Ref. [8], is employed in order to
model the total emissivity in current DTRM implementa-
tion in AVL-Fire.
2.3 Other models
k-ζ-f in AVL-Fire [9] was used as the turbulence model in
this study. The spray model included sub-models for spray,
breakup and vaporization, and droplet coalescence. The
sub-models involved were as follows [10]: Gosman model
was used for fuel turbulent dissipation, O′Rouke model for
particle interaction, Dukowicz model for evaporation,
Wave model for breakup, and Walljet1 for droplet
coalescence. A characteristic time scale combustion
model (CTM) [11] was used to simulate the combustion
process. The NO production was modeled using the
extended Z# edlovich NO model [12]. The Hiroyasu and
Nishida model [13] was used for soot formation, while the
Nagle and Strickland-Constable model [14] for soot
oxidation.
3 Implementation of multi-dimensional
numerical simulation of fluid-solid coupling
of in-cylinder working process and
(9)
combustion chamber components
In-cylinder working process and heat transfer among the
solid components of the combustion chamber belongs to
the typical fluid-solid coupled heat-transfer problems.
Therefore, domain decomposition and boundary-coupled
method were applied in the three-dimensional coupled
simulation calculation for the in-cylinder working process
tion steps are:
1) Control equations corresponding to the physical
(10) models concerning the domains of in-cylinder working
process and combustion chamber components (piston
assembly, cylinder liner, cylinder head, cylinder gasket
and cylinder body, etc.) were established.
2) Boundary conditions for each domain were listed,
wherein, the coupling boundary included the bottom wall
of the cylinder head in contact with the gas in the cylinder,
the inner-wall part of the cylinder liner in contact with the
(11) following two conditions were supported on the coupled
boundary:
(1) Temperature continuity on the coupled boundary
Tw ðx, y, zÞjcylinder ¼ Tw ðx, y, zÞjsolide , (12)
(2) Continuity of heat-flux on the coupled boundary
qw ðx, y, zÞjcylinder ¼ qw ðx, y, zÞjsolide , (13)
where, “cylinder” represents the domain of in cylinder
working process; “solide” represents the domain of the
solid components of the combustion chamber; x, y and z
are the three direction components of coordinates.
3) First, multi-dimensional transient numerical simula-
tion calculation for the in-cylinder working process was
performed based on a presumed temperature distribution
on the coupling boundary (fixed wall temperature). Then,
the time-average method was applied to obtain the spatial
distribution of heat-flux density on the coupling boundary.
Equation (13) was applied to obtain the surface heat-flux
density distribution of the combustion chamber compo-
nents, which was regarded as the heat boundary condition
for the three-dimensional finite element simulation calcu-
lation of the combustion chamber components. The
complete simulation method for the coupled heat-transfer
of the integral combustion chamber components was
applied in the three-dimensional steady finite-element
simulation calculation for all combustion chamber
 Jizu LV et al. Heat transfer space non-uniformity
components, so that the temperature field distribution on
the coupling boundary of the combustion chamber
components can be obtained. Afterwards, the
temperature field is transformed into the heat boundary
condition for the multi-dimensional transient numerical
simulation calculation of the in-cylinder working process
according to Eq. (12), so that the three-dimensional
coupled heat-transfer numerical simulation calculation
for in-cylinder working process and combustion chamber
components can be implemented (as shown in Fig. 2).
4 Computational conditions
4.1 Real diesel model
The test engine considered for this work was a single
cylinder version of a six-cylinder truck diesel engine.
Engine parameters are given in Table 1. Valve timings are
given relative to top dead center where 0°(ATDC) is the top
of the compression stroke.
4.2 Computational mesh
In the process of the multi-dimensional numerical simula-
tion of the in-cylinder work process, because of the exiting
of piston movement, in order to really reflect the true work
case, the dynamic cell should be applied. Thus, a kind of
special dynamic cell formation tool AVL-Fire software of
ICE was used to form the computation cell in this work.
Structured hexahedron was adopted to improve calculation
precision. On the one hand, the hexahedron mesh was easy
to control and could result in a high-precision simulation;
on the other hand, the hexahedron was adaptable to much
of the arithmetic. The cell formation is given in Fig. 3,
when the piston is on the BDC, which is constructed with
Fig. 2 Schematic of integrate analysis
395
hexahedral mesh and contains 194084 cells and 201570
vertices.
4.3 Initial conditions
For diesel engines, in-cylinder computation starts at the
time of intake valve closing, so the initial condition has to
be given. The initial condition of multi-dimension
numerical simulation of the in-cylinder work process is
the preceding in-cylinder airflow state at intake valve
closing, including: in-cylinder pressure, density, tempera-
ture, flow velocity, turbulence, etc. In this work, the initial
condition of multi-dimension numerical simulation of the
in-cylinder work process was obtained by multi-dimension
simulation of the intake process for improving calculation
accuracy [15].
4.4 Heat boundary conditions
All computations were done at the same engine working
condition. In order to compare the effects of non-uniform
heat transfer space of the combustion chamber on in-
cylinder soot, two kinds of wall heat boundary conditions
were applied.
4.4.1 Specified wall temperature (run A)
In the specified wall temperature mode the temperature of
all combustion chamber components does not vary with
time and space. The surface of all combustion chamber
components was divided into three zones: surface of
cylinder head bottom, surface of piston dome, and inner
surface of cylinder liner. Moreover, different zones were
given different temperatures. The surface temperature of
the different combustion chamber components is shown in
Table 2.
396 Front. Energy Power Eng. China 2010, 4(3): 392–401

Table 1 Diesel engine parameters (engine type: line six-cylinder four 4.4.2 Actual wall temperature distribution mode (run B)
stroke diesel )
parameter value In the actual wall temperature distribution mode it was
nominal power/kW 180 (2300 r/min) defined that the surface temperature of the combustion
compression ratio 17.5∶1
chamber components does not vary with time, and actual
wall temperature distribution was obtained by coupled heat
spray advance angle (ATDC)/(°) –8
transfer computations of combustion chamber solid
spray duration (CA)/(°) 26
components (see Ref. [16]). Then by liquid-solid coupled
intake valve — heat transfer model this temperature would be taken as the
IVO (opens) (ATDC)/(°) – 385 boundary condition for in-cylinder multi-dimensional
IVC (closes) (ATDC)/(°) – 140 transient simulation computation. Figure 4 shows the
exhaust valve — temperature of the piston and cylinder liner surfaces with
EVO (opens) (ATDC)/(°) 173 the intake valve closed.
EVC (closes) (ATDC)/(°) 386
number of nozzle holes/orifice 6
5 Results and discussion
nozzle hole diameter/mm 0.23

Figure 5 shows the predicted value of in-cylinder pressure

versus the experiment value in two kinds of combustion
chamber surface heat transfer conditions. The predicted in-
cylinder pressure traces show good agreement with the
experimental pressures, for all cases. The non-uniform wall
temperature distribution and radiation were found to have
little effect on the in-cylinder pressure, although peak
pressures decreased slightly.

5.1 Compression process

Figures 6–8 show the comparison of heat flux density

distribution on the piston head between two wall
temperature distribution models at different crankshaft
angles. It can be seen that the total heat transfer intensity is
Fig. 3 In-cylinder mesh at CA = – 180° ADTC greatly affected by wall temperature space non-uniformity
of the combustion chamber components during the
Table 2 Surface temperature of combustion chamber
compression process. However, the influence gradually
decreases with crankshaft angle increasing. This will
surfaces temperature/K
directly affect the distribution of in-cylinder gas tempera-
head 564.2
ture. Figures 9–11 show the comparison of in-cylinder
liner 445.6 temperature between two wall temperature distribution
piston 572 models at different crankshaft angles.

Fig. 4 The temperature of piston and cylinder liner surfaces

 Jizu LV et al. Heat transfer space non-uniformity 397

5.2 Spray and combustion process

Figures 12 and 13 show the comparison of heat flux

Fig. 5 Predicted in-cylinder pressure with experiment
density distribution on the piston head between two wall
temperature distribution models at different crankshaft
angles. It can be seen that the heat transfer intensity is less
influenced by the wall temperature space non-uniformity
of the combustion chamber components because the gas
temperature in the cylinder is much higher than the wall
temperature of the combustion chamber; as a result the
temperature difference between gas and wall is much more
than that of the cylinder wall itself. However, radiation heat
transfer space non-uniformity of combustion chamber
components has a certain effect on the local heat flux of the
cylinder wall. With the spray and combustion process
going on, the soot concentration in the cylinder increases
and reaches its maximum at a certain crankshaft angle, thus

Fig. 6 Wall heatflux of piston surface at CA = – 90° (ATDC)

Fig. 7 Wall heatflux of piston surface at CA = – 60° (ATDC)

Fig. 8 Wall heatflux of piston surface at CA = – 10° (ATDC)

398 Front. Energy Power Eng. China 2010, 4(3): 392–401

Fig. 9 Predicted in-cylinder temperature at CA = – 60° (ATDC)

Fig. 10 Predicted in-cylinder temperature at CA = – 20° (ATDC)

Fig. 11 Predicted in-cylinder temperature at CA = – 10° (ATDC)

Fig. 12 Wall heatflux of piston surface at CA = 0° (ATDC)

 Jizu LV et al. Heat transfer space non-uniformity 399

Fig. 13 Wall heatflux of piston surface at CA = 12° (ATDC)

directly acting on radiation heat transfer. Thus, the effect of
radiation heat transfer space non-uniformity of combustion
chamber components increases.
Figures 14 and 15 show the comparison of in-cylinder
temperature between two wall temperature distribution
models at different crankshaft angles. On the contrary in
the spray and combustion process, the distribution of in-
cylinder gas temperature was mainly affected by fuel
injection and combustion.
5.3 Expansion process
Figures 16 and 17 show the comparison of heat flux density
distribution on the piston head between two wall
temperature distribution models at different crankshaft
angles. On the contrary in the expansion process the heat
transfer intensity is less influenced by wall temperature
space non-uniformity of combustion chamber components.
The effect of convection heat transfer space non-

Fig. 14 Predicted in-cylinder temperature at CA = 0° (ATDC)

Fig. 15 Predicted in-cylinder temperature at CA = 12° (ATDC)

400 Front. Energy Power Eng. China 2010, 4(3): 392–401

Fig. 16 Wall heatflux of piston surface at CA = 60° (ATDC)

Fig. 17 Wall heatflux of piston surface at CA = 90° (ATDC)

uniformity of combustion chamber components enhances
and the effect of radiation heat transfer space non-
uniformity reduces. Moreover, it can be deduced that the
effect of heat transfer space non-uniformity would be
enhanced further during exhaust stroke.
Figures 18 and 19 show the comparison of in-cylinder
temperature between two wall temperature distribution
models at different crankshaft angles.
6 Conclusions
The multi-dimensional simulation computation coupling
flow and solid on the working process and combustion
chamber components of an internal combustion engine
was performed using DTRM radiation heat transfer model,
zoning solution method and boundary coupling method.
Based on such simulation, the effect of heat transfer space
non-uniformity of combustion chamber components on
wall heat transfer was studied. The results show that the
effect of wall temperature space non-uniform distribution
of combustion chamber components on heat transfer
happens mainly at the end of the compression stroke and
expansion stroke. Therefore, it can be concluded that wall
temperature space non-uniform distribution of combustion
chamber components would influence heat transfer during
the intake and exhaust stroke obviously. The effect of wall
temperature space non-uniform distribution of combustion
 Jizu LV et al. Heat transfer space non-uniformity
Fig. 18 Predicted in-cylinder temperature at CA = 60° (ATDC)
Fig. 19 Predicted in-cylinder temperature at CA = 90° (ATDC)
chamber components on heat transfer will cause different
distributions of in-cylinder gas temperature and will affect
in-cylinder work process.
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