FEARCE - Thermal boundary conditions

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FEARCE offers unique capabilities for the prediction of temperatures in IC engines. In any powertrain analysis, the accurate determination of the temperature distribution at key operating conditions is critical to component design. FEARCE has been developed specifically to address these needs and provides a number of tools for the application of thermal-boundary conditions to a finite element (FE) analysis.

Coolant boundary conditions

For coolant-side boundary conditions, FEARCE can quickly and efficiently map fluid temperature and heat-transfer coefficients (HTCs) from computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis onto the appropriate coolant surfaces of the FE models. This can be done by either linking directly to VECTIS, or by mapping HTC values from any major CFD solver. In addition to linking directly to VECTIS to extract results, the FEARCE graphical user interface (GUI) can display the VECTIS models, allowing an engineer to visualize the results alongside the loaded models.

The effect of nucleate boiling can be simulated as part of an iterative solution using a map of heat transfer coefficients dependent on the resultant wall temperature. In the locations where the resultant wall temperature is predicted above the boiling point, the heat transfer coefficient is adjusted (increased) and used for the next iteration.

In-cylinder boundary conditions

For in-cylinder thermal boundary conditions FEARCE-Vulcan considers all the heat paths of the power cylinder using physical models and semi-empirical correlations, without necessarily the need for CFD analysis. Alternatively, results from VECTIS or other CFD solvers can be imported to predict gas-side HTCs resulting from combustion. FEARCE then calculates cycle averaged loads from the imported full-cycle values to calculate steady-state temperatures.

Key features

  • HTCs mapped directly from CFD results
  • Links directly with VECTIS for results extraction and visualization
  • HTC and heat-flux profiles automatically generated for cylinder bores and flame faces