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In the present paper the KIVA3V code is used to model the behaviour of different combustion chambers, to be used in Common Rail engines with a single displacement lower than 0.5l. Some design parameters have been chosen to evaluate their influence on the combustion patterns. The optimum levels of turbulence and air mean motion have been selected with reference to some specific points of the engine map, managed by mean of multiple injection. Therefore the different combustion chambers geometries have been numerically investigated in terms of fluidynamic behaviour as well as in terms of combustion evolution. After that some chamber geometries, especially suitable for the second-generation common rail engines, have been selected.

This paper refers to the experimental results obtained using two different 4 cylinder diesel engines, with total displacement respectively equal to 1.9l and 1.3l, both equipped with an advanced Common Rail system. An optically accessed prototype engine, having characteristics similar to the four cylinder engine, is used to visualize the in cylinder phenomena. Multidimensional simulations of the combustion and pollutants formation processes are performed, comparing the numerical predictions with the experimental data. By this way, integrating the 3D C.F.D. computations, the visualization techniques of the injection and combustion processes and the field measurements on the real engines, different settings of the multiple injection strategy have been analyzed.

The fluid-mechanic behaviour of straight-sided and re-entrant chamber geometries has been studied using laser doppler anemometry (LDA) technique. Measurements have been carried out during the compression stroke in a direct injection diesel engine, representative of medium size family, operating at 1000 rpm under motored conditions. The mean motion and turbulence intensity have been computed using a filtering procedure on the LDA data. Using the second version of KIVA code, the air flow field evolution during the same crank angle period has been also computed. To perform proper comparisons between measured and computed values of mean velocity and turbulence intensity, a careful choice of the initial conditions for computations has been performed. Reasonable agreement has been found between computed and measured mean swirl velocities for both combustion chamber geometries tested. On the contrary, the computed turbulence intensities underestimate those measured.

A modified version of KIVA II code was used to perform three-dimensional calculations of combustion in a DI diesel engine. Both an ignition delay submodel and a different formulation of the fuel reaction rate were implemented and tested. The experiments were carried out on a single cylinder D.I. diesel of 0.75 I displacement equipped with sensors to detect injection characteristics and indicated pressure. A fast acting sampling valve was also installed in the combustion chamber to allow the measurement of main pollutants during the combustion cycle, by an ensemble average technique. Computational and experimental results are compared and the discrepancies are discussed. Today the demand for light duty engines that produce less emission and consume less fuel is increasing. Thus, if limits on CO2 emissions are established, the direct injection diesel engine for light duty applications will become an attractive option.

The paper describes some experiments carried out on two d.i. Diesel engines running with insulated pistons. Three different thermal barriers were tested; namely, a stainless steel cup, a Si3N4 cup and a stainless steel piston crown. The combustion process was characterized by heat release calculation and ignition delay measurements. The experiments showed that the indicated efficiency is not affected by thermal insulation adoption, Nox level increases while smoke level decreases consistently.

Two fuels having different aromatics content and different cetane numbers were tested in a direct injection diesel engine with thermally insulated pistons. Actually tests were carried out with a full aluminum piston, an aluminum piston modified to accept a stainless steel crown and a similar one coated with ceramic. Higher combustion noise and emissions were detected using the degraded fuel, having fixed the type of piston. Furthermore, the experiments showed that thermal barrier adoption has a positive effect on the combustion noise.

The status of the research carried out at the Istituto Motori aimed to optimize the direct injection light duty combustion system with regard to pollutant emissions is described. The influence of combustion chamber design on air flow field was investigated by means of a two colors LDA system as well as by engine test bed. Three-dimensional computer simulations of injection and in- cylinder air motion have been run in order to analyze some experimental results. In particular two configurations of axisymmetric combustion chambers were examined and, results were compared with those obtained from a four-lobe microturbulence combustion chamber. Tests showed that some improvement in the NOx-particulate trade off can be obtained at part load at both high and low speeds.