Particlework Computes Complex Fluid Structures in Honda Vehicles

Particleworks, an innovative particle method simulation tool, playing an important role in previously-unattainable simulation problems

In this technical article, EnginSoft and Prometech explain how they executed a highly complex computational simulation on the fluid-structure interaction of the oil flow inside a reciprocating engine, on behalf of Honda R&D. Since such simulation usually involves high computational and time costs, the engineers opted to use the more sophisticated technology of Moving Particle Simulation (MPS) to approach the challenge because of its semi-implicit scheme for time integration in incompressible flow.

Predicting and optimizing the oil flow in a reciprocating engine is an important design task. The engineers explain how they simulated the oil separation process in two different breather chamber structures using Particleworks to investigate their efficiency in separating the oil from the blow-by gas. In a two-phase process, they first computed the drag force using grid-based Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software, after which the defined it as a spatial function of the external force in the breather chamber in the Particleworks simulation.

Image source: http://www.honda.co.uk/cars/new/civic-type-r-2015/overview.html