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A transparent enlarged model of a six-hole injector used in the development of emerging gasoline direct-injection engines was manufactured with full optical access. The working fluid was water circulating through the injector nozzle under steady-state flow conditions at different flow rates, pressures and needle positions. Simultaneous matching of the Reynolds and cavitation numbers has allowed direct comparison between the cavitation regimes present in real-size and enlarged nozzles. The experimental results from the model injector, as part of a research programme into second-generation direct-injection spark-ignition engines, are presented and discussed. The main objective of this investigation was to characterise the cavitation process in the sac volume and nozzle holes under different operating conditions. This has been achieved by visualizing the nozzle cavitation structures in two planes simultaneously using two synchronised high-speed cameras.

The initiation and development of cavitation in enlarged transparent acrylic models of six-hole nozzles for direct injection Diesel engines has been visualised by a high-speed digital video camera in a purpose-built refractive index matching test rig. The obtained high temporal resolution images have allowed improved understanding of the origin of the cavitation structures in Diesel injector nozzles and clarification of the effect of sac geometry (conical mini-sac vs. VCO) on cavitation initiation and development in the nozzle holes. The link between cavitation and flow turbulence in the sac volume and, more importantly, in the injection holes has been quantified through measurements of the flow by laser Doppler velocimetry (LDV) at a number of planes as a function of the Reynolds and cavitation numbers.

An investigation into the spray structure generated by two swirl pressure atomisers under various operating conditions in a constant-volume chamber and the in-cylinder flow pattern in an optical research direct-injection gasoline engine has been performed using CCD camera and laser Doppler velocimetry, respectively. The results provided detailed information about the effect of back pressure on the spray structure generated by the two injectors and the in-cylinder flow field which the sprays encounter following fuel injection into the cylinder during the induction and compression strokes.

The in-cylinder flow, mixture distribution, combustion and exhaust emissions in a research, five-valve purpose-built gasoline engine are discussed on the basis of measurements obtained using laser Doppler velocimetry (LDV), fast spark-plug hydrocarbon sampling, flame imaging and NOx/HC emissions using fast chemiluminescent and flame ionisation detectors/analysers. These measurements have been complemented by steady flow testing of various cylinder head configurations, involving single- and three-valve operation, in terms of flow capacity and in-cylinder tumble strength.

A comprehensive set of computational and experimental results for high- pressure diesel sprays are presented and discussed. The test cases investigated include injection of diesel into air under both atmospheric and high pressure/temperature chamber conditions, injection against pressurized and cross-flowing CF6 simulating respectively the density and flow conditions of a diesel engine at the time of injection, as well as injection into the piston bowl of both research and production turbocharged high-speed DI diesel engines. A variety of high-pressure injection systems and injector nozzles have been used including mechanical and electronic high-pressure pumps as well as common-rail systems connected to nozzles incorporating a varying number of holes with diameters ranging from conventional to micro-size.

An optical single-cylinder four-valve high speed DI Diesel engine equipped with a high-pressure electronic fuel injection system has been used to obtain information about the spray development, combustion and exhaust emissions (NOx and smoke levels) for a range of operating conditions corresponding to engine speeds between 600 and 1800 rpm, injection pressures up to 1200 bars and fuel injection quantities from idle to full load. Two six-hole vertical mini-sac type injection nozzles with different hole sizes have been employed in order to investigate the effect of nozzle hole diameter on spray formation, combustion and exhaust emissions. Parallel to the experimental programme, a computational investigation of the fuel flow distribution inside the injection system and of the subsequent spray characteristics has been performed in order to assist in the interpretation of the results.

A production six-hole conical sac-type nozzle incorporating a quartz window in one of the injection holes has been used in order to visualize the flow under cavitating flow conditions. Simultaneous variation of both the injection and the back chamber pressures allowed images to be obtained at various cavitation and Reynolds numbers for two different fixed needle lifts corresponding to the first- and the second-stage lift of two-stage injectors. The flow visualization system was based on a fast and high resolution CCD camera equipped with high magnification lenses which allowed details of the various flow regimes formed inside the injection hole to be identified. From the obtained images both hole cavitation initiated at the top inlet corner of the hole as well as string cavitation formed inside the sac volume and entering into the hole from the bottom corner, were identified to occur at different cavitation and Reynolds numbers.

A new simulation approach to the modeling of the whole fuel injection process within a common-rail fuel injection system for direct-injection gasoline engines, including the pressure-swirl atomizer and the conical hollow-cone spray formed at the nozzle exit, is presented. The flow development in the common-rail fuel injection system is simulated using an 1-D model which accounts for the wave dynamics within the system and predicts the actual injection pressure and injection rate throughout the nozzle. The details of the flow inside its various flow passages and the discharge hole of the pressure-swirl atomizer are investigated using a two-phase CFD model which calculates the location of the liquid-gas interface using the VOF method and estimates the transient formation of the liquid film developing on the walls of the discharge hole due to the centrifugal forces acting on the swirling fluid.

An enlarged transparent model of a six-hole vertical diesel injector has been used to allow visualization of the flow at Reynolds and cavitation numbers matching those of real size injectors operating under normal Diesel engine conditions. The visualization system comprised a CCD camera, high-magnification lenses and a spark light source which allowed high-resolution images to be obtained. The flow conditions examined in terms of flow rates and pressures covered the range from low to full load of the real size injector while the needle lift position corresponded to that of full lift of the first- and second- stage in two-stage injectors. In addition, different values of needle eccentricity were tested in order to examine its effect on the cavitation structures within the injection holes.

A laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) system has been developed to obtain measurements of the instantaneous lubricant film thickness in the piston-cylinder assembly of a firing single-cylinder, direct-injection diesel engine. Measurements were made at top-dead-centre (TDC), mid-stroke and bottom-dead-centre (BDC) position by means of three fibre optic probes inserted into the cylinder liner and mounted flush with its surface. Following extensive repeatability tests, the cycle-averaged lubricant film thickness was estimated for different multi-grade oils as a function of engine speed, load and temperature. The results quantified the dependence of the film thickness ahead, under and behind the piston rings on oil chemistry and viscometric properties, thus confirming the important role of the LIF technique in the development and formulation of new engine oils.

Laser induced fluorescence (LIF) was used in the cylinder liner of a firing single-cylinder direct-injection diesel engine to characterise the development of the lubricant film during the first 200 engine cycles under cold-start conditions. The results have provided information on the rate of oil film development which has proved to be a highly unsteady process due to the complicated oil transport processes through the ring-pack.

Direct flame imaging and pressure analysis were applied to the combustion of gasoline and compressed natural gas (CNG) in a single-cylinder, four-valve spark-ignition engine equipped with optical access via quartz windows in the cylinder liner and piston crown. Tests were performed at three engine speed/load conditions and at equivalence ratios of 1.0, 0.9 and 0.8. The four-valve head incorporated two different port geometries, with and without metal sleeves to deflect the intake air flow, in order to investigate the effect of tumble strength on combustion and engine-out emissions of unburned hydrocarbons and NOx. The results showed that sleeving of the intake ports produced a significant increase in IMEP and a reduction in CoV IMEP for both CNG and gasoline, due to the greatly reduced bum duration.

An enlarged transparent model of a six-hole vertical diesel injector has been manufactured in order to allow flow measurements inside the sac volume and the injection holes to be obtained using a combination of laser Doppler velocimetry (LDV) and the refractive index matching technique under steady state conditions. The measurement points were concentrated in the sac volume close to the entrance of the injection holes as well as inside them on a vertical plane passing through the axis of two injection holes for two different needle lifts. The velocity flow field was characterized in terms of the mean velocity and the turbulent intensity. The results revealed that, under certain conditions, cavitation may occur in the recirculation zone formed at the entrance to the hole since the pressure in this region can reach the value of the vapor pressure of the flowing liquid; this was found to strongly depend on the needle lift and eccentricity.

Laser Doppler velocimetry, phase Doppler anemometry and Mie scattering were applied to a single-cylinder, four-valve, spark-ignition gasoline research engine equipped with a fully transparent liner and piston, to obtain information about the tumble flow and the droplet size and velocity distributions during induction and compression, for lean air/fuel mixture ratios of 17.5 and 24 and with closed-valve and open-valve fuel injection. The mixture distribution obtained with the two injection strategies was correlated with flame images, pressure analysis and exhaust emissions which confirmed the advantages of combining open-valve injection with tumble to allow stable and efficient engine operation at an air/fuel ratio of 24 through charge stratification and faster flame growth.

The diesel engine is the most efficient user of fossil fuels for vehicle propulsion and seems to best fulfill the requirements of the future. It is for this reason that Volkswagen has initiated a very broad research programme for diesels. The purpose of this paper is to build a bridge between fundamental research and technical developments which could allow evaluation of the prospects of direct- injection diesels as powerplants of choice for passenger cars in the turn of the century. The current knowledge on mixture formation, combustion and pollutant formation in diesel engines is presented and discussed with special emphasis given to the concept of the direct-injection diesel engine.

A diesel spray model has been developed and validated against experimental data obtained for different injection and surrounding gas conditions to allow investigation of the relative importance of the different physical processes occurring during the spray development. The model is based on the Eulerian-Lagrangian approximation and the Navier-Stokes equations, simulating the gas motion, are numerically solved on a collocated non-uniform curvilinear non-orthogonal grid, while the spray equation is solved numerically using a Lagrangian particle tracking method. The injection conditions are determined by another recently developed model calculating the flow in the fuel injection system, the sac volume and injection holes area which accounts for the details of the injection velocity, the fuel injection rate per injection hole and occurrence of hole cavitation. Thus, differences between the sprays from inclined multihole injectors can be simulated and analysed.

A computer model simulating the flow in fuel injection systems has been used in order to investigate the fuel injection processes in an in-line pump-based fuel injection system for direct-injection diesel engines. The model is one-dimensional and it is based on the mass and momentum conservation equations for the simulation of the fuel flow and on the equilibrium of forces for the simulation of the mechanical movements of the valves present in the system. The fuel injection system tested comprised an in-line pump whose characteristics were examined by using as input the measured line pressure signal and by modeling the pump operation itself as well as the fuel flow through single- and two-stage injectors. For the validation of the model, extensive comparison with experimental data has been performed for a wide range of pump operating conditions.

The spray development, combustion and emissions in a 1.9L optical, four-cylinder, direct-injection diesel engine were investigated by means of pressure analysis, high-speed cinematography, the two-colour method and exhaust gas analysis for various levels of exhaust gas recirculation (EGR), three EGR temperatures (uncontrolled, hot and cold) and three fuels (diesel, n-heptane and a two-component fuel 7D3N). Engine operating conditions included 1000 rpm/idle and 2000 rpm/2bar with EGR-rates ranging from 0 to 70%. Independent of rate, EGR was found to have a very small effect on spray angle and spray tip penetration but the auto-ignition sites seemed to increase in size and number at higher EGR-rates with associated reduction in the flame luminosity and flame temperature, by, say, 100K at 50% EGR.

A test-rig has been developed to simulate under idealised conditions the lubricating action between the piston-ring and the cylinder-liner in reciprocating engines. Complications arising in production engine piston-assemblies such as lubricant starvation, ring and piston dynamics, thermal and elastic deformations and blowby can thus be avoided so that the lubricant film characteristics are examined in isolation. The lubricant film thickness and friction at the piston-ring/liner interface were simultaneously measured throughout the stroke as a function of speed and load and compared with the solution of the Reynolds equation for a range of boundary conditions. The examined conditions included the Swift-Stieber (Reynolds), the separation and limiting cases of the Floberg and the Coyne & Elrod boundary conditions using a numerically efficient general purpose program.

A computer model solving the 1-D flow in a typical fuel injection system for direct-injection diesel engines is presented. A Bosch distributor - type VE pump connected to four Stanadyne pencil - type nozzles has been used to validate the computer model over a wide range of operating conditions. Validation of the developed computer code has been performed for eight representative test cases. The predicted values which were compared with the experimental ones include the pumping chamber pressure, the line pressure, the needle lift and the injection rate. Results using as input the measured pumping chamber pressure are also presented in order to identify the error in the injection rate signal attributed to the difference between the simulated and the experimental pumping chamber pressure. In addition, the total fuel injection quantity for pump speeds between 500 and 2000 rpm and lever positions between 20% to 100% was calculated and compared with measurements.