Investigation into the effect of bore/stroke ratio on a single cylinder two stroke opposed piston engin

Opposed-piston (OP) engine’s promising fuel efficiency has attracted the interest of automotive industry in the recent years. The opposed-piston two-stroke (OP2S) engine technology heightens this fuel efficiency benefit and offers advances in structure, power density and thermal efficiency whilst sustaining its lower cost and weight. Today thermodynamic modelling remains an indispensable and cost effective route in the development and optimisation of internal combustion engines (ICEs). To achieve this goal, the OP2S engine is simulated and validated against experimental results in AVL Boost™, which is hailed as one of the most reliable and advanced engine simulation tools. Detailed analyses of the piston dynamics, heat release, scavenging and heat transfers are highlighted in discrete sections of this paper. Having compared distinct heat release models, the Wiebe 2-Zone model emerged efficacious in replicating the heat release characteristics of the PAMAR™ engine. In comparing the numerical and experimental results, the simulation revealed minimal differences in peak pressure, peak temperature and maximum pressure raise rate, under ±2.5% differences for indicated power, IMEP, indicated thermal efficiency (ITE) and ISFC. Subsequently, confidence taken from the validated numerical model is then deployed to investigate the effect of stroke-to-bore (S/B) ratio on OP2S performance. Three combinations of S/B ratios (0.5, 1.25, and 1.69) with identical swept volume are analysed in this study. Utilisation of the validated model ensured the standardisation of intake, exhaust and the combustion systems in order to isolate the effects of S/B ratio. Results indicate that heat losses decrease with increasing S/B ratio because of the reduced surface area-to-volume in the cylinder. Consequently, an improvement in ITE and mechanical efficiency is observed with reduced ISFC for higher S/B ratios. A tendency of upsurge in combustion efficiency is also evident for higher S/B ratio due to reduced heat transfer near minimum volume of the combustion chamber.