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The influence of different port designs on the generation of a swirl flow is described on the basis of stationary and non-stationary flow analyses. Subsequently, engine test bench analyses with a 3-valve one-cylinder engine were performed to assess the aforementioned port configurations with respect to their influence on the lean-burn behaviour. The most favourable port design was then used to analyse various combustion chamber shapes in order to further improve the engine behaviour during lean-burn operation and to select the most promising combustion chamber variant. Finally, the port and combustion chamber configurations thus identified were applied in vehicle simulation tests with lean-burn and EGR-burn operation to check the emission behaviour for compliance with the future European level 3 emission limits.

Pilot injection gas engines are commonly used as large stationary engines. Often, the combustion is implemented as a dual-fuel strategy, which allows both mixed and diesel-only operation, based on a diesel engine architecture. The current research project focuses on the application of pilot injection in an engine based on gasoline components of the passenger car segment, which are more cost-effective than diesel components. The investigated strategy does not aim for a diesel-only combustion, hence only small liquid quantities are used for the main purpose of providing a strong, reliable ignition source for the natural gas charge. This approach is mainly driven to provide a reliable alternative to the high spark ignition energies required for high cylinder charge densities. When using such small liquid quantities, a standard common-rail diesel nozzle will apparently not be ideal regarding some general specifications.

As the late combustion phase in SI engines is of high importance for a further reduction of fuel consumption and especially emissions, the impacts of unburnt mass, located in a small volume with a relatively large surface near the wall and in the top land volume, is of high relevance throughout the range of operation. To investigate and quantify the respective interactions, a state of the art Mercedes-Benz single cylinder research SI-engine was equipped with extensive measurement technology. To detect the axial and radial temperature distribution, several surface thermocouples were applied in two layers around the top land volume. As an additional reference, multiple surface thermocouples in the cylinder head complement the highly dynamic temperature measurements in the boundary zones of the combustion chamber.