SBIR Phase I: Engine Combustion Simulator

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This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will prototype a novel software tool called the Engine Combustion Simulator for use by automotive engineers to more quickly and cost-effectively develop new engines. The use of combustion kinetic modeling by automotive engine researchers has been limited due to a lack of combustion kinetic mechanisms representing real fuels like diesel and gasoline, and efficient computational technologies to solve these large complex mechanisms within a practical time simulation time. This project will address these limitations by utilizing recent advances in software and database architecture for building complex mechanisms, and in numerical and symbolic methodologies that have shown excellent potential to speed up computation. The commercial value of this Simulator is high as there are currently over 5,000 automotive engineers paying over $30,000 per user in an annual license fee for commercially available engine modeling software. This Simulator brings an important capability that is currently not available in these commercial packages. New engine technologies under development such as the HCCI (homogeneous charged compression ignition) engine, hold a great promise in higher fuel efficiency and lowering emissions. If successful, this project can significantly speed up the commercialization of the HCCI engine and hence make an important societal impact in lowering the energy usage and emissions.