A direct 1D/3D (GT-SUITE/SimericsMP+) coupled computational approach to study the impact of engine oil pan sloshing on Lubrication pump performance

During a vehicle drive cycle the oil in the engine oil pan sloshes very vigorously due to the acceleration of the vehicle. This can cause the pickup tube in the engine oil pan to become uncovered from oil and exposed to air, which then affects the lubrication pump performance. Engine oil pan sloshing is inherently a 3D problem as the free oil surface is constantly changing. Multi-dimensional Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) methods are very useful to simulate such problems with high detail and accuracy but are computationally very expensive. Part of the engine lubrication system, such as the pump, can be modelled in 1D which can predict accurate results at relatively high computational speeds. By utilizing the advantages of both worlds, a coupled 1D-3D simulation approach has been developed to capture the detailed oil sloshing phenomenon in SimericsMP+ and the system level simulation is conducted in GT-SUITE where spatial data is not required. In this method, both the tools are run concurrently with the boundary conditions updated at the beginning of each time step. Experimental testing has been conducted and the lubrication pump performance is compared to this coupled simulation approach. While capturing all the needed spatial flow field details around the pickup tube, this direct coupled computational approach is one to two orders of magnitude faster than the equivalent fully 3D approach.