Experimental Investigation of Impacts of Injection Timing and Pressure on Combustion and Particulate Matter Emission in a Spray-Guided GDI Engine

A detailed investigation of the impact of injection timing and injection pressure on combustion and particles of a spray-guided GDI engine was conducted, under different engine operating conditions. The results indicated that, more proportion of large particles were emitted when increasing engine load, and the peak of accumulation mode particles moved toward smaller size when rising engine speed. With retarding the injection timing, the in-cylinder pressure and heat release rate rose first and then dropped at 2000 rpm, but they continuously rose at lower or higher speed conditions. The total particles concentration curves at all cases showed a trend of U-shape, and the corresponding timing of the lowest particles concentration advanced as the engine speed or load increased. The minimum value of emitted particles first rose and then fell when increasing load at 2000 rpm conditions, and it continuously rose when increasing speed at 40 Nm conditions. Generally, injection pressure did no sensitively affect combustion process except that it showed a relatively strong impact at low load conditions. However, particulate matter could be effectively inhibited by elevating fuel pressure from 5.5 to 11.5 MPa at all cases. In detail, the total particles concentration continuously fell at low speed and mid speed-high load cases, but it showed a rose trend when further increase fuel injection pressure at mid speed-low load and high-speed conditions.