Experimental investigation of characteristics of pressure modulation in a fuel injection system

A piezoelectric atomization device achieves fuel pressure modulation through vibration of a piezoelectric pressure modulator. As a consequence, the fast alternating and slow moving streams collide with each other and further break up the fuel drop. In this paper, an experimental investigation was carried out to study the fluid dynamic characteristics of the spray atomization process of automotive port fuel injectors with a piezoelectric pressure modulator. The investigation mainly focuses on: (a) the coupling characteristics between the piezoelectric stack and the hydraulic as well as the transfer characteristics of pressure modulation from the piezoelectric modulator to the point above the orifice; (b) the time history of the pressure dynamic response at the point above the orifice under a typical modulation frequency, which reflects the variation of pressure modulation while the fuel injector is working; and (c) the time-variation characteristics related to mechanical structure and fluid dynamics. The experimental results expose some important dynamic characteristics of pressure modulation, which will be very significant and lead us to greatly improve the fuel injection system, optimize the control parameters and implement spray atomization with a high quality performance in the near future.     

Experiments on knocking and abnormal combustion through optical diagnostics in a boosted spark ignition port fuel injection engine

In this paper, flame front propagation during normal and abnormal combustion was investigated. Cycle-resolved flame emission imaging was applied in the combustion chamber of a port fuel injection-boosted spark ignition engine. The engine was fueled with a mixture of 90% iso-octane and 10% n-heptane by volume (Primary Reference Fuel 90: PRF90) and commercial gasoline. The combustion process was monitored from the flame kernel formation until the exhaust valves opened. Different phenomena associated with abnormal combustion were analyzed, including the fuel deposition burning. Moreover, the ignition surfaces and end-gas auto-ignitions were investigated in terms of timing, location and frequency of occurrence. The analysis was performed by considering different knocking intensities for both the selected fuels.     

Combined effect of boost pressure and injection timing on the performance and combustion of CNG in a DI spark ignition engine

There is an increasing interest in supercharging spark ignition engines operating on CNG (compressed natural gas) mainly due to its superior knock resisting properties. However, there is a penalty in volumetric efficiency when directly injecting the gaseous fuel at early and partial injection timings. The present work reports the combined effects of a small boost pressure and injection timing on performance and combustion of CNG fueled DI (direct injection) engine. The experimental tests were carried out on a 4-stroke DI spark ignition engine with a compression ratio of 14. Early injection timing, when inlet valves are still open (at 300°BTDC), and partial injection timing, in which part of the injection occurs after the inlet valves are closed (at 180°BTDC), were varied at each operating speed with variation of the boost pressure from 2.5 to 10 kPa. A narrow angle injector (NAI) was used to increase the mixing rate at engine speeds between 2000 and 5000 rpm. Similar experiments were conducted on a naturally aspirated engine and the results were then compared with that of the boosting system to examine the combined effects of boost pressure and injection timing. It was observed that boost pressure above 7.5 kPa resulted in an improvement of performance and combustion of CNG DI engine at all operating speeds. This was manifested in the faster heat release rates and mass fraction burned that in turn improved combustion efficiency of the boosting system. An increased in cylinder pressure and temperature was also observed with boost pressure compared to naturally aspirated engine. Moreover, the combustion duration was reduced due to concentration of the heat release near to the top dead center as the result of the boost pressure. Supercharging was also found to reduce the penalty of volumetric efficiency at both the simulated port and partial injection timings.     

Effects of the fuel injection ratio on the emission and combustion performances of the partially premixed charge compression ignition combustion engine applied with the split injection method

Currently, due to the severity of world-wide air pollution by substances emitted from vehicles, emission control is being enforced more strictly, and it is expected that the regulation requirements for emission will become even more severe. A new concept combustion technology that can reduce the Nitrogen oxides (NOx) and PM in relation to combustion is urgently required. As a core combustion technology among new combustion technologies for the next generation engine, the homogenous charge compression ignition (HCCI) is expanding its application range by adopting a multiple combustion mode, a catalyst, direct fuel injection and partially premixed charge compression ignition combustion using the split injection method. This paper used a split injection method in order to apply the partially premixed charge compression ignition combustion method without significantly altering engine specifications of the multiple combustion mode and practicality by referring to the results of studies on the HCCI engine. Furthermore, the effects of the ratio of the fuel injection amount on split injection are investigated. From the test results, the adequate combination of the ratio of the fuel injection amount for the split injection method has some benefit on exhaust and fuel economy performance in a naturally aspirated single cylinder diesel engine.     

Effect of injection condition and swirl on D.I. diesel combustion in a transparent engine system

The objective of this work was to investigate the effects of injection conditions and swirl on D.I. diesel combustion using a transparent engine system. The test engine is equipped with a common rail injection system to control injection conditions and to obtain split injection characteristics. A combustion analysis and steady flow test were conducted to measure the heat release rate due to cylinder pressure and the swirl ratio. In addition, spray and diffusion flame images were obtained using a high speed camera. The LII & LIS methods were also used to obtain 2-D soot and droplet distributions. High injection pressure was found to shorten ignition delay, as well as to enhance peak pressure. The results also revealed that the heat release rate in the premixed combustion region was markedly reduced through the use of pilot injection, while the soot distribution and the heat release rate in the diffusion combustion region were increased. The swirl effect was found to shorten ignition delay at certain injection timings, and to enhance the heat release rate in all experimental conditions.