SAN DIEGO--April 9, 2013: Reaction Design, the leading developer of combustion simulation software, has added knock prediction capabilities to FORT, the most advanced computational fluid dynamics (CFD) package for realistic 3D modeling of fuel effects in internal combustion (IC) engines. FORT can be used to accurately simulate both autoignition and flame propagation phenomena in the cylinder, allowing designers to create engines with optimal performance, better fuel economy and reduced emissions.
“When fuel improperly ignites, it interferes with the engine's cycles, causes damage to components and impacts the vehicle's performance. Using FORT, developers can gain confidence in their designs before beginning the time-consuming and expensive task of experimenting on real hardware.”
"Until now, CFD simulation approaches have been focused on modeling engine behaviors at a high level, but the true value of simulation is in being able to predict the key events during the combustion cycle that directly impact efficiency, reliability and emissions. FORT is the only CFD package with integrated CHEMKIN-PRO chemistry solvers which enable the prediction of autoignition events," said Bernie Rosenthal, chief executive officer of Reaction Design. "When fuel improperly ignites, it interferes with the engine's cycles, causes damage to components and impacts the vehicle's performance. Using FORT, developers can gain confidence in their designs before beginning the time-consuming and expensive task of experimenting on real hardware."
To meet computational time-to-solution goals, traditional IC engine CFD simulation approaches require the use of severely reduced fuel chemistry models that are unable to accurately emulate real autoignition behavior. Using its embedded CHEMKIN-PRO solver technology, FORT produces results 10 times faster and with greater accuracy than competitive CFD packages without the use of severely reduced fuel models. FORT utilizes multi-component gasoline fuel models that comprise the hundreds of chemical species and corresponding kinetic reactions that have proved necessary to reliably predict when ignition occurs.
"Designing engines with reduced emissions, enhanced performance and high reliability requires the consideration of both the physics and chemistry involved in the combustion process," said Professor Rolf Reitz, distinguished professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and director of the Engine Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is also a founding partner of Wisconsin Engine Research Consultants (WERC), a co-developer of FORTE. "FORT makes use of decades of study and physical model improvements, together with the latest numerical methods to provide truly predictive capabilities for important engine conditions where both accurate models of the physics and the chemical kinetics are critical."
The Model Fuels Consortium, founded by Reaction Design in 2005, developed and validated detailed chemical mechanisms and software including FORT, against real engines and real fuel compositions. As a result, engine designers have access to CFD models that accurately capture behaviors that exist in today's high-efficiency, low-emissions engine designs.