KIVA is a family of Fortran-based computational fluid dynamics software developed by Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). The software predicts complex fuel and air flows as well as ignition, combustion, and pollutant-formation processes in engines. The KIVA models have been used to understand combustion chemistry processes, such as auto-ignition of fuels, and to optimize diesel engines for high efficiency and low emissions. General Motors has used KIVA in the development of direct-injection, stratified charge gasoline engines as well as the fast burn, homogeneous-charge gasoline engine. Cummins reduced development time and cost by 10%–15% using KIVA to develop its high-efficiency 2007 ISB 6.7-L diesel engine that was able to meet 2010 emission standards in 2007. At the same time, the company realized a more robust design and improved fuel economy while meeting all environmental and customer constraints.
History LANL's Computational Fluid Dynamics expertise hails from the very beginning of the Manhattan Project in the 1940s. When the United States found itself in the midst of the first energy crisis in the 1970s, this core Laboratory capability transformed into KIVA, an internal combustion engine modeling tool designed to help make automotive engines more fuel-efficient and cleaner-burning. A "kiva" is actually a round Pueblo ceremonial chamber that is set underground and entered from above by means of a ladder through its roof; drawing on LANL's southwestern heritage, an analogy is made with the typical engine cylinder in which the entrance and exit of gases is achieved through valves set in the cylinder. The first public release of KIVA was made in 1985 through the National Energy Software Center (NESC) at Argonne National Laboratory, which served at the time as the official distribution hub for Department of Energy-sponsored software. Distribution of KIVA continued through the Energy Science and Technology Software Center (ESTSC) in Oak Ridge, Tennessee until 2008, when distribution of multiple versions of KIVA returned to LANL's Technology Transfer Division (TT). KIVA is used by hundreds of institutions worldwide, including the Big Three U.S. auto makers, Cummins, Caterpillar, and various federal laboratories.
Overview Fuel economy is heavily dependent upon engine efficiency, which in turn depends to a large degree on how fuel is burned within the cylinders of the engine. Higher in-cylinder pressures and temperatures lead to increased fuel economy, but they also create more difficulty in controlling the combustion process. Poorly controlled and incomplete combustion can cause higher levels of emissions and lower engine efficiencies. In order to optimize combustion processes, engine designers have traditionally undertaken manual engine modifications, conducted testing, and analyzed the results. This iterative process is painstakingly slow, costly, and does not lend itself to identifying the optimal engine design specifications. In response to these problems, Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists developed KIVA, an advanced computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling code that accurately simulates the in-cylinder processes of engines. KIVA, a transient, three-dimensional, multiphase, multicomponent code for the analysis of chemically reacting flows with sprays has been under development at LANL for decades. The code uses an Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian (ALE) methodology on a staggered grid, and discretizes space using the finite volume method. The code uses an implicit time-advancement with the exception of the advective terms that are cast in an explicit but second-order monotonicity-preserving manner. Also, the convection calculations can be subcycled in the desired regions to avoid restricting the time step due to Courant conditions. KIVA's functionality extends from low speeds to supersonic flows for both laminar and turbulent regimes. Transport and chemical reactions for an arbitrary number of species and their chemical reactions is provided. A stochastic particle method is used to calculate evaporating liquid sprays, including the effects of droplet collisions, agglomeration, and aerodynamic breakups. Although specifically designed for simulating internal combustion engines, the modularity of the code facilitates easy modifications for solving a variety of hydrodynamics problems involving chemical reactions. The versatility and range of features have made KIVA programs attractive to a variety of non-engine applications as well; these range from convection towers to modeling silicon dioxide condensation in high pressure oxidation chambers. Other applications have included the analysis of flows in automotive catalytic converters, power plant smokestack cleaning, pyrolytic treatment of biomass, design of fire suppression systems, Pulsed Detonation Engines (PDEs), stationary burners, aerosol dispersion, and design of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems. The code has found a widespread application in the automotive industry.
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