Methodological Approach for 1D Simulation of Port Water Injection for Knock Mitigation in a Turbocharged DISI Engine

In the upcoming years, more challenging CO₂ emission targets along with the introduction of more severe Real Driving Emissions limits are expected to foster the development and the exploitation of innovative technologies to further improve the efficiency of automotive Spark Ignition (SI) engines. Among these technologies, Water Injection (WI), thanks to its knock mitigation capabilities, can represent a valuable solution, although it may significantly increase the complexity of engine design and calibration. Since, to tackle such a complexity, reliable virtual development tools seem to be mandatory, this paper aims to describe a quasi-dimensional approach to model a Port Water Injection (PWI) system integrated in a Turbocharged Direct Injection Spark Ignition (T-DISI) engine. Through a port-puddling model calibrated with 3D-CFD data, the proposed methodology was proven to be able to properly replicate transient phenomena of water wall film formation, catching cycle by cycle the amount of water that enters into the cylinder and is therefore available for knock mitigation. Moreover, when compared with experimental measurements under steady state operating conditions, this method showed good capabilities to predict the impact of the water content on the combustion process and on the knock occurrence likelihood.