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With a high thermal efficiency and low CO2 (carbon dioxide) emissions, Diesel engines become leader of transport market. However, the exhaust-gas legislation evolution leads to a drastic reduction of NOx (nitrogen oxide) standards with very low particulate, HC (unburned hydrocarbons) and CO (carbon monoxide) emissions, while combustion noise and fuel consumption must be kept under control. The reduction of the volumetric compression ratio (CR) is a key factor to reach this challenge, but it is today limited by the capabilities to provide acceptable performances during very cold operation: start and idle below −10°C. This paper focuses on the understanding of the main parameter’s impacts on cold operation. Effects of parameters like hardware configuration and calibration optimization are investigated on a real 4 cylinder Diesel 14:1 CR engine, with a combination of specific advanced tools.

A low swirl, low compression ratio engine with narrow fuel spray angle injector was used to investigate the cylinder wall wetting process of early direct injection strategies. A methodology was developed in order to detect liquid fuel impingement on the cylinder wall oil film. First, single injection tests were performed in order to investigate the effect of injection pressure and start of injection on the amount of fuel that can be injected in the combustion chamber without liquid fuel cylinder wall impingement. Then double injection strategies were performed to verify the existence of interactions between successive injections for early injection thermodynamic conditions. Finally an optimization of the injection strategy maximizing the fuel quantity without cylinder wall wetting is proposed. Results obtained for single early direct injection show that all conditions of injection timing during the intake stroke lead to cylinder wall wetting above a given injected mass.