Due to the kinematic limitation of slider-crank mechanisms used in traditional internal combustion engines, such devices driven by their piston motions have a difficulty to reach the better fuel efficiency. In order to make the fuel efficiency better, many engine mechanisms that can be tuned to obtain desired piston motions have been proposed. Since most of the proposed engine mechanisms have complex linkages and bulky size, they become impractical for real applications. The design of a conjugate cam engine mechanism containing a conjugate cam with a slider crank mechanism can be conveniently tuned to produce a desired piston motion in consideration of a limited space, weight, and the number of linkages. The aim of this research is to set up a systematic design and analysis procedure for conjugate cam engine mechanisms. First of all, the kinematic analysis of conjugate cam engine mechanisms is performed based on the rigid body transformation method to determinate the conjugate cam profiles. Then, the geometric properties including the pressure angle and radius of curvature are investigated. Also, in order to characterize the rigid body dynamic behavior of the mechanism, the Newton¡¦s Law is used to derive equations of motion. Finally, it is conducted to design and analyze a real system, and observe the real condition from the experiment to prove the theory is correct.

In the last decades, the focus of internal combustion engine development has moved towards more efficient and less pollutant engines. In a Diesel engine, approximately 30-40% of the energy provided by combustion is lost through the exhaust gases. The exhaust gases are hot and therefore rich of energy. Some of this energy can be recovered by recycling the exhaust gases into turbocharger. However, the energy losses in the exhaust port are highly undesired and the mechanisms driving the total pressure losses in the exhaust manifold not fully understood. Moreover, the efficiency of the turbine is highly dependent on the upstream flow conditions. Thus, a numerical study of the flow in the exhaust port geometry of a Scania heavy-duty Diesel engine is carried out mainly by using the Large Eddy Simulation (LES) approach. The purpose is to characterize the flow in the exhaust port, analyze and identify the sources of the total pressure losses. Unsteady Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS) simulation results are included for comparison purposes. The calculations are performed with fixed valve and stationary boundary conditions for which experimental data are available. The simulations include a verification study of the solver using different grid resolutions and different valve lift states. The calculated numerical data are compared to existent measured pressure loss data. The results show that even global parameters like total pressure losses are predicted better by LES than by URANS. The complex three-dimensional flow structures generated in the flow field are qualitatively assessed through visualization and analyzed by statistical means. The near valve region is a major source of losses. Due to the presence of the valve, an annular, jet-like flow structure is formed where the high-velocity flow follows the valve stem into the port. Flow separation occurs immediately downstream of the valve seat on the walls of the port and also on the surface of the valve body. Strong longitudinal, non-stationary secondary flow structures (i.e. in the plane normal to the main flow direction) are observed in the exhaust manifold. Such structures can degrade the efficiency of a possible turbine of a turbocharger located downstream on the exhaust manifold. The effect of the valve and piston motion has also been studied by the Large Eddy Simulation (LES) approach. Within the exhaust process, the valves open while the piston continues moving in the combustion chamber. This process is often analyzed modeling the piston and valves at fixed locations, but conserving the total mass flow. Using advanced methods, this process can be simulated numerically in a more accurate manner. Based on LES data, the discharge coefficients are calculated following the strict definition. The results show that the discharge coefficient can be overestimated (about 20 %) when using simplified experiments, e. g. flow bench. Simple cases using fixed positions for valve and piston are contrasted with cases which consider the motion of piston and/or valves. The overall flow characteristics are compared within the cases. The comparison shows it is impossible to rebuild the dynamic flow field with the simplification with fixed valves. It is better to employ LES to simulate the dynamic flow and associated losses with valve and piston motion. / <p>QC 20131204</p>