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The paper describes the principal features of Omnivore, a spark-ignition-based research engine designed to investigate the possibility of true wide-range HCCI operation on a variety of fossil and renewable liquid fuels. The engine project is part-funded jointly by the United Kingdom's Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and the Department of the Environment of Northern Ireland (DoENI). The engineering team includes Lotus Engineering, Jaguar Cars, Orbital Corporation and Queen's University Belfast. The research engine so far constructed is of a typical automotive cylinder capacity and operates on an externally-scavenged version of the two-port Day 2-stroke cycle, utilising both a variable charge trapping mechanism to control both trapped charge and residual concentration and a wide-range variable compression ratio (VCR) mechanism in the cylinder head.

In the current study a single cylinder Spark Ignited engine has been operated in Controlled Auto Ignition mode with centrally mounted spray guided direct injection, employing negative valve overlap to achieve the conditions required for auto-ignition. The injector is a type known in the market and utilises air at elevated pressure to assist preparation of the fuel and delivery of the fuel spray into the combustion chamber. Operation of the injector enables a high degree of control for fuel and air delivery, particularly with regard to stratification of fuel, temperature, air and turbulence within the chamber. Engine test data show that variation in injection parameters at a fixed engine condition yields high authority over the CAI combustion process. A range of combustion phasing is achieved from 355 to 375 degrees ATDC for the timing of 50% Mass Fraction Burned, whilst the range of maximum pressure rise rate is 70 to 450 kPa / degree.