Simulation of knock probability in an internal combustion engine

Phys Rev E. 2018 Jul;98(1-1):012102. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.98.012102.

Abstract

In spark-ignition internal combustion engines, fluctuations of the in-cylinder pressure trace and the tendency of combustion knock are usually different from one cycle to another. These cycle-to-cycle variations are affected by the initial state at ignition time and the subsequent burning. The occurrence of the phenomena is unpredictable, and their stochastic nature offers challenges in the optimization of engine control strategies. In this paper, a simulator providing a series of cycle-to-cycle varied in-cylinder pressures is introduced. The Wiebe function and Livengood-Wu integration are used to describe the determinacy of combustion. Various means, including the Markov chain, are introduced to express the stochastic quantities during combustion. In addition, the combustion of a given knock probability is simulated.