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Pre-chamber ignition systems enable the combustion of homogeneous lean mixtures in internal combustion engines with significantly increased thermal efficiency. Such ignition systems provide a much higher ignition energy compared to a common spark ignition by burning a small portion of the charge in a separate chamber, generating multiple ignition sites in the main combustion chamber and increasing the turbulent flame speed. Pre-chamber ignition systems are commonly used in large natural gas engines but the integration in automotive engines is not feasible so far due to the lack of suitable fuelling systems needed to keep the pre-chamber mixture stoichiometric at lean operation of the engine. Based on preliminary investigations we developed an ignition system with fuelled pre-chamber for automotive engines utilizing the available space for the conventional spark plug.

Homogeneous lean or diluted combustion can significantly increase the efficiency of spark ignition engines. Active fuelled pre-chamber ignition systems can overcome the problem that common spark ignitions systems are incapable to ignite strongly diluted mixtures. A small portion of the charge is burned in a separated chamber, which is connected to the main chamber by multiple small orifices. The combustion inside the pre-chamber generates hot gases, which penetrate into the main chamber and ignite the diluted charge on multiple sites. Active pre-chamber ignition systems feature a separate fuelling or scavenging system in addition to the one of the main combustion chambers. Preferably, gaseous fuel is used for the pre-chamber fuelling allowing better dosing accuracy and mixture preparation inside the pre-chamber.

This paper describes the principles, effects and the potentials of impulse charging systems applied to SI and Diesel engines. In general, impulse charging is realized by closing the inlet port upstream of the inlet valve during the intake stroke with an additional switching device. The piston, moving towards bottom dead center, generates a vacuum inside the combustion chamber and inlet port. By opening the switching device abruptly, the sub-atmospheric pressure level induces an enhanced volumetric efficiency due to the significantly increased gas dynamic effects in the intake manifold. One major advantage of impulse charging in comparison to the well known supercharging techniques lies in the dynamic behavior. The charging effect can be realized within one engine cycle. Furthermore, impulse charging provides high low-end torque, a nearly constant torque over a wide engine speed range with charging rates from 20% to 30%.

The spray formation of two different gasoline port fuel injectors has been studied in three stages of the mixture formation process using measured liquid fuel distributions. The injector characteristics were determined in fundamental chamber experiments providing the time dependent spray penetration and the internal structure of the spray in quiescent air by a laser light sheet technique. For the sane injectors the interaction between port flow and spray was investigated inside the port of a production engine. A strong dependence of the fuel distribution inside the port on the engine operation point was found for both injectors. This fuel distribution provides information on wall film generation and the optimum orientation of the injector inside the suction pipe.

The fuel spray behavior in the near nozzle region of a gasoline injector is challenging to predict due to existing pressure gradients and turbulences of the internal flow and in-nozzle cavitation. Therefore, statistical parameters for spray characterization through experiments must be considered. The characterization of spray velocity fields in the near-nozzle region is of particular importance as the velocity information is crucial in understanding the hydrodynamic processes which take place further downstream during fuel atomization and mixture formation. This knowledge is needed in order to optimize injector nozzles for future requirements. In this study, the results of three experimental approaches for determination of spray velocity in the near-nozzle region are presented. Two different injector nozzle types were measured through high-speed shadowgraph imaging, Laser Doppler Anemometry (LDA) and X-ray imaging.

Two-dimensional Mie and LIEF techniques were applied to investigate the spray propagation, mixture formation and charge distribution at ignition time inside the combustion chamber of a direct injection SI engine. The results obtained provide the propagation of liquid fuel relative to the piston motion and visualize the charge distribution (liquid fuel and fuel vapor) throughout the engine process. Special emphasis was laid on the charge distribution at ignition time for stratified charge operation. By means of a LIEF technique it was possible to measure cyclic fluctuations in the fuel vapor distributions which explain the occurrence of misfiring.

The nozzle geometry of fuel injectors has a strong influence on turbulences and pressure gradients within the nozzle flow. The flow situation at the nozzle outlet determines the spray propagation into the ambient atmosphere. This spray penetration is critical for gasoline direct injection (GDI) systems. When the spray penetration is too high, it can cause wall and cylinder impingement, which increases particle emissions drastically. However, prediction of fuel spray propagation in dependency of nozzle hole geometry is difficult due to the large difference in scale between the nozzle flow and the spray development. Because of this, spray measurements with varying nozzle geometry parameters and statistical evaluation of these datasets are useful for the future development of fuel injectors. In this study, shadowgraphy measurements of real-size single-hole glass nozzles are presented. The nozzles cover a wide range of geometry parameters relevant to a GDI system.

The influence of fuel composition on sprays was studied in an injection chamber at DISI conditions with late injection timing. Fuels with high, mid and low volatility (n-hexane, n-heptane, n-decane) and a 3-component mixture with similar fuel properties like gasoline were investigated. The injection conditions were chosen to model suppressed or rapid evaporation. Mie scattering imaging and phase Doppler anemometry were used to investigate the liquid spray structure. A spray model was set up applying the CFD-Code OpenFOAM. The atomization was found to be different for n-decane that showed a smaller average droplet size due to viscosity dependence of injected mass. And for evaporating conditions, a stratification of the vapor components in the 3-component fuel spray was observed.

In spark-ignition engines, high exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) rates have demonstrated their potential in reducing fuel consumption and emissions. However, irregular combustion at high residual gas concentrations limits the EGR rates. The following study presents a strategy that has been developed to investigate the influence of complex charge motion on mixture formation and combustion for high residual gas concentrations with the aim of extending these limits. An optically accessible single-cylinder SI Engine with direct injection was used to measure the charge distribution by means of laser induced fluorescence (LIF). A special device inside the inlet pipe gave the possibility to generate a defined swirl motion overlaying a tumble motion given by the design of the inlet ports.

New energy scenarios for decentralised stationary energy supply based on Liquid Organic Hydrogen Carriers (LOHC) offer an attractive application for hydrogen engines and are a reason why hydrogen engines become topical again. Since hydrogen stored in LOHCs is released under ambient pressure and temperatures of over 200°C, compression and cooling of the hydrogen is needed, lowering the system's overall efficiency. Direct injection of hydrogen is advantageous due to its low volumetric energy density and the tendency towards pre-ignition. The development objective is an injection and combustion strategy for an engine in the performance category below 15 kW and the described fuel supply scenario. Therefore, an one dimensional simulation model of the engine and the hydrogen supplying compressor was built. The simulation results show a large influence of the injection pressure on engine efficiency due to the hydrogen supplying compressor.

Momentum conservation is a principle rule that affects the behaviour of vapour jet and liquid spray penetration. The air entrainment and mixture formation processes are dominated by the momentum transferred from the fuel to the ambient gas. Thus, it is a significant factor in the development of spray and jet penetration. This mixture formation process is well described for small-scale passenger car injectors; however, it has to be investigated in more detail for large-scale injector nozzles. The current work provides qualitative and quantitative results of spray and jet parameters in a constant volume combustion chamber (CVC). Two optical methods have been utilized to evaluate spray and jet details: Schlieren photography as a method to visualize the jet penetration and cone angle as well as Mie scattering for the phase change evaluation and the determination of liquid spray parameters.

In a study using a single-cylinder engine a significant potential in fuel efficiency and emission reduction was found for stratified operation of a high pressure natural gas direct injection (DI) spark ignition (SI) engine. The control of the mixture formation process appeared to be critical to ensure stable inflammation of the mixture. Therefore, optical investigations of the mixture formation were performed on a geometric equivalent, optically accessible single-cylinder engine to investigate the correlation of mixture formation and inflammability. The two optical measurement techniques infrared (IR) absorption and laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) were employed. Mid-wavelength IR absorption appeared to be qualified for a global visualization of natural gas injection; LIF allows to quantify the equivalence ratio inside a detection level. While LIF measurements require complex equipment, the IR setup consists merely of a black body heater and a mid-wavelength sensitive IR camera.

The introduction of the so called Emission Controlled Areas within the IMO Tier III legislation forces manufacturers of maritime propulsion systems to adherence to stringent emission thresholds. Dual fuel combustion, which is characterized by the injection of a small amount of fuel oil to ignite a premixed natural gas air mixture, constitutes an option to meet this target. At high diesel substitution rates and very short pilot injection events, the injector is operated in the ballistic regime. This influences spray penetration, mixture formation and ignition behavior. In the present work, a seven-hole dual fuel injector was measured in a combustion chamber to provide data for the generation of a CFD model using the commercial code AVL FIRE®. The liquid and the vapor phase of the fuel spray were quantified by Mie-scattering and Schlieren-imaging technique for different chamber conditions.

Biofuels and alternative fuels are increasingly being blended with conventional gasoline fuel to decrease overall CO₂ emissions. A promising way to achieve this is the use of DISI (direct-injection spark-ignition) technology. However, depending on temperature, pressure, chemical composition and the spark timing, unwanted pre-ignition may occur. Despite higher compression ratios, this engine knock can be decreased by lowering the mixing temperature. This results from the larger fuel evaporation enthalpy of certain biofuels which provides a non-homogeneous mixture throughout the combustion chamber. This work focuses on estimating the biofuel evaporation rate from absolute local vapor temperature and concentration. Measurements conducted in a high temperature/pressure cell using a multi-hole injector are carried out by applying planar, 2-line, laser-induced fluorescence and phase doppler interferometry.

Modern direct injection spark ignition (DISI) engine concepts have the drawback of higher particulate matter emission as compared to port fuel injection concepts. Especially, when driven with biofuels, the operation of DISI engines requires a deeper insight into particulate formation processes. In this study a modern optical accessible DISI engine is used. Pure isooctane, ethanol, E20 (20vol% of ethanol in isooctane) and E85 were investigated as fuels. Simultaneous OH*-chemiluminescence and soot radiation imaging was conducted by a high-speed camera system in order to separate premixed combustion with the sooting combustion. Furthermore, a laser-induced incandescence (LII) sensor was used to measure exhaust elementary carbon mass concentration. Systematically, operation points were chosen, which correspondent to the main sooting mechanisms, poolfire, mixture inhomogeneities and global low air-fuel ratio. Furthermore, they were compared to a homogenous charge combustion strategy.

A previous study by the authors has shown an efficiency benefit of up to Δηi = 10 % for stratified operation of a high pressure natural gas direct injection (DI) spark ignition (SI) engine compared to the homogeneous stoichiometric operation with port fuel injection (PFI). While best efficiencies appeared at extremely lean operation at λ = 3.2, minimum HC emissions were found at λ = 2. The increasing HC emissions and narrow ignition time frames in the extremely lean stratified operation have given the need for a detailed analysis. To further investigate the mixture formation and flame propagation und these conditions, an optically accessible single-cylinder engine was used. The mixture formation and the flame luminosity have been investigated in two perpendicular planes inside the combustion chamber.

Spray- and flame-wall interactions were investigated in a combustion chamber with diesel engine conditions. Several techniques were used to perform time and spatially resolved measurements of the liquid fuel phase, the premixed and diffusion-controlled combustion close to a wall. Different wall and gas temperature variations were investigated. It was found that low temperature variations of 25K have a significant impact on the combustion process: The lower the gas temperatures, the more liquid fuel and larger vortex structures arise. Also, the ignition delay is elongated. Consequently, the premixing period is longer, which can lead to the complete disappearance of sooty combustion. The colder the wall, larger cooling of the spray and larger vortex structures of liquid fuel on the wall develop. The ignition delays again are noticeable longer at the colder wall. Therefore, the premixing period is longer and there is also much less sooty combustion when the wall temperature is lower.

The interaction between a combusting diesel spray and a wall at temperatures of 700K and 735K was investigated in a combustion chamber using optical measurement techniques. The temperatures were chosen as they appear in the range of the maximum piston surface temperatures of the latest production engines. Combustion was investigated with a dual camera setup, which is designed to take simultaneous pictures of the UV flame luminosity (FL_UV) and the visible flame luminosity (FL_VIS). The FL_UV is used to measure lean or stoichiometric combustion. The FL_VIS is capable of detecting the thermally excited soot. Mie scattering is used to study the liquid fuel phase. It was found that there is almost no FL_VIS signal visual in the 700K case, but a very strong signal in the 735K case. In general, one might expect that higher wall temperatures lead to an improved mixture formation and, consequently, lower soot production. However, the opposite was detected.