Technical Paper
Ducted Fuel Injection: Confirmed re-entrainment hypothesis
2024-04-09
2024-01-2885
Testing of ducted fuel injection (DFI) in a single-cylinder engine with production-like hardware previously showed that simply adding a duct structure increased soot emissions at the full load, rated speed operating point. In the authors’ 2021 SAE paper, which reported these findings, it was hypothesized that the DFI flame, which is faster than a conventional diesel combustion (CDC) flame, and has a shorter distance to travel, was being re-entrained into the on-going injection around the lift-off length, thus reducing air entrainment into the on-going injection. The engine operating condition and the engine combustion chamber geometry were duplicated in a constant pressure vessel. The experimental setup used a 3D piston section combined with a glass fire deck allowing for a comparison between a CDC flame and a DFI flame via high-speed imaging. Testing clearly confirmed the detrimental effect of the DFI flame re-entrainment hypothesis presented in the previous on-engine work.