Effects of intake valve opening duration on performance optimization of an Atkinson cycle engine under part load

A comprehensive analysis of the intake valve opening duration (IVOD) effects on the performance of an Atkinson cycle engine is conducted in this work using numerical simulation and experimental validation. Through one-dimensional simulation, the relationship between the range of IVOD and the compression ratios is firstly investigated under the constraint of compression pressure. Two representative IVOD, 295 and 314°CA, are then respectively applied to the performance simulation and experiment of a practical Atkinson cycle engine. The simulation shows the combination of a late intake valve opening timing (IVO) angle and a late exhaust valve opening timing (EVO) angle is profitable for improving the fuel economy under part load operating conditions (i.e. 2000 rpm@2 bar and 3000 rpm@3 bar). The experimental results present the Atkinson cycle engine under both IVOD scenarios considerably improves the brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC) and reduces the pumping mean effective pressure (PMEP) compared to those of the original Otto cycle engine. Meanwhile, the comparison between two IVOD scenarios show that the shorter IVOD leads to an improvement of indicated thermal efficiency, especially at lower load. Considering fuel economy, a shorter IVOD is more favorable at part load for the Atkinson cycle engine. Two main contributions of this work are to numerically quantify the IVOD range for the Atkinson cycle engine under part load, and to experimentally validate the effectiveness of simulation. The findings of this work are expected to support the design of Atkinson cycle engines and provide a guideline of IVOD optimization under part load.