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With increasingly stringent emissions regulations and concurrent requirements for enhanced engine thermal efficiency, a comprehensive characterization of the automotive gasoline fuel spray has become essential. The acquisition of accurate and repeatable spray data is even more critical when a combustion strategy such as gasoline direct injection is to be utilized. Without industry-wide standardization of testing procedures, large variablilities have been experienced in attempts to verify the claimed spray performance values for the Sauter mean diameter, Dv90, tip penetration and cone angle of many types of fuel sprays. A new SAE Recommended Practice document, J2715, has been developed by the SAE Gasoline Fuel Injection Standards Committee (GFISC) and is now available for the measurement and characterization of the fuel sprays from both gasoline direct injection and port fuel injection injectors.

The current extensive revisitation of the application of gasoline direct-injection to automotive, four-stroke, spark-ignition engines has been prompted by the availability of technological capabilities that did not exist in the late 1970s, and that can now be utilized in the engine development process. The availability of new engine hardware that permits an enhanced level of computer control and dynamic optimization has alleviated many of the system limitations that were encountered in the time period from 1976 to 1984, when the capabilities of direct-injection, stratified-charge, spark-ignition engines were thoroughly researched. This paper incorporates a critical review of the current worldwide research and development activities in the gasoline direct-injection field, and provides insight into new areas of technology that are being applied to the development of both production and prototype engines.

The object of this research was to learn more about the effects of mixture motion upon ignition in spark ignited piston engines, and to determine how variations in mixture velocity alter the combustion process. To provide effective means for producing and measuring the mixture velocity, all tests were made in a constant volume bomb, using mixtures of propane and air. The effects of mixture motion on the lean spark ignition limit, rate of pressure rise, and burning time were determined for mixture ratios ranging from stoichiometric to the lean limit. The mixture pressures corresponded to those in Otto cycle engines at the time of spark occurrence. The results reveal that a mixture velocity of 50 fps, relative to the spark plug, requires an enrichment of 17% with respect to the stagnant lean limit. Increases in mixture velocity were found to greatly increase the rate of pressure rise during combustion. This effect was more pronounced for lean mixtures than for stoichiometric mixtures.