Ansys Fluent solves the equations for mass conservation in the crevice geometry by assuming laminar compressible flow in the region between the piston and the top and bottom faces of the ring, and by assuming an orifice flow between the ring and the cylinder wall. The equation for the mass flow through the ring end gaps is of the form

(10–13)

where is the discharge coefficient, is the gap area, is the gas density, is the local speed of sound, and is a compressibility factor given by

(10–14)

where is the ratio of specific heats, the upstream pressure and the downstream pressure. The equation for the mass flow through the top and bottom faces of the ring (that is, into and out of the volume behind the piston ring) is given by

(10–15)

where is the cross-sectional area of the gap, is the width of the ring along which the gas is flowing, is the local gas viscosity, is the temperature of the gas and is the universal gas constant. The system of equations for a set of three rings is of the following form:

(10–16)

(10–17)

(10–18)

(10–19)

(10–20)

where is the average pressure in the crevice cells and is the crankcase pressure input from the text interface. The expressions for the mass flows for numerically adjacent zones (for example, 0-1, 1-2, 2-3, and so on) are given by Equation 10–15 and expressions for the mass flows for zones separated by two integers (for example, 0-2, 2-4, 4-6) are given by Equation 10–13 and Equation 10–14. Thus, there are equations needed for the solution to the ring-pack equations, where is the number of rings in the simulation.