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In the field of gasoline turbocharged engines, the improvement of combustion efficiency represents a critical point when increased engine torque and reduced fuel consumption are simultaneously expected. Though gasoline port fuel injection is a well known and wide spread technology for fuel delivery in spark-ignition engines, detailed information on the features of the liquid fuel spray and the wall film formation could significantly contribute, in terms of emission control, to the engine development. In this paper, air-fuel mixture formation and smoke emissions of a turbocharged port-fuel-injected gasoline engine have been investigated by using experimental and numerical analysis techniques. The objective of this activity is to properly choose the injection system and strategy aimed to optimize both engine performance and emission levels. 3-D CFD calculations have been performed in order to deeply investigate the complex phenomena occurring before the combustion process starts.

A small spark-ignition engine, in wide spread commercial usage since numerous years, is at present under study with the aim of improving its performance, in terms of a reduction of both fuel consumption and pollutant emissions. In previous papers, the influence of piston geometry [1] and intake system [2] on the combustion process has been evaluated by means of a 3-D computational model. In this paper, a more extensive analysis of the parameters affecting the combustion rate, hence thermal efficiency, pollutant formation and engine stability, has been carried out. In particular, at ELASIS Research Center, three prototypes featuring different combustion chambers have been realized and analyzed to the aim of assessing the influence of the squish area percentage on the flame front propagating in a quiescent charge. Furthermore, the AVL FIRE computer code has been utilized in order to simulate the engine behavior at full load operation.

Hydrogen and gasoline can be burned together in internal combustion engines in a wide range of mixtures. In fact, the addition of small hydrogen quantities increases the flame speed at all gasoline equivalence ratios, so the engine operation at very lean air-gasoline mixtures is possible. In this paper, the performance of a spark-ignition engine, fuelled by hydrogen enriched gasoline, has been evaluated by using a numerical model. A hybrid combustion model for a dual fuel, according to two one-step overall reactions, has been implemented in the KIVA-3V code. The indicated mean pressure and the fuel consumption have been evaluated at part load operating points of a S.I. engine designed for gasoline fuelling. In particular, the possibility of operating at wide-open throttle, varying the equivalence ratio of air-gasoline mixture at fixed quantities of the supplemented hydrogen, has been studied.

Optimized valve timing, according to engine load, may lead to significant improvements in pumping losses and internal EGR generation. Thus, VVT technology constitutes an effective way to reduce both fuel consumption and pollutant emissions. In this paper, the behavior of a small displacement, 2 valve, Spark-ignition engine, with variable valve timing, has been numerically and experimentally analyzed. The use of VVT allows obtaining combined internal EGR and Reverse Miller Cycle effects so to achieve a significant dethrottling at part load operation. High EGR rates require high turbulence intensity in order to accelerate the combustion rate. The engine performs an accurate combustion chamber design and a tangential intake port able to generate optimized swirl motion, according to the engine speed and load, during both the exhaust gas re-aspiration and the intake stroke. Engine performances at different cam phaser positions have been calculated by means of a 3-D computer code.