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During gasoline direct injection (GDI) in spark ignition engines, droplets may hit piston or liner surfaces and be rebounded or deposit in the liquid phase as wallfilm. This may determine slower secondary atomization and local enrichments of the mixture, hence be the reason of increased unburned hydrocarbons and particulate matter emissions at the exhaust. Complex phenomena indeed characterize the in-cylinder turbulent multi-phase system, where heat transfer involves the gaseous mixture (made of air and gasoline vapor), the liquid phase (droplets not yet evaporated and wallfilm) and the solid walls. A reliable 3D CFD modelling of the in-cylinder processes, therefore, necessarily requires also the correct simulation of the cooling effect due to the subtraction of the latent heat of vaporization of gasoline needed for secondary evaporation in the zone where droplets hit the wall. The related conductive heat transfer within the solid is to be taken into account.

The present paper deals with a comprehensive analysis of the knocking phenomenon through experiments and numerical simulations. Conventional and non-conventional measurements are performed on a 4-stroke, 4-cylinder, turbocharged GDI engine. The engine exhibits optical accesses to the combustion chamber. Imaging in the UV-visible range is carried out by means of a high spatial and temporal resolution camera through an endoscopic system and a transparent window in the piston head. This last is modified to allow the view of the whole combustion chamber almost until the cylinder walls, to include the so-called eng-gas zones. Optical data are correlated to in-cylinder pressure-based indicated analyses in a cycle resolved approach.

Internal combustion engines performance greatly depends on the air-fuel mixture formation and combustion processes. In gasoline direct injection (GDI) engines, in particular, the impact of the liquid spray on the piston or cylinder walls is a key factor, especially if mixture formation occurs under the so-called wall-guided mode. Impact causes droplets rebound and/or deposition of a liquid film (wallfilm). After being rebounded, droplets undergo what is called secondary atomization. The wallfilm may remain of no negligible size, so that fuel vapor rich zones form around it leading to so-called pool-flames (flames placed in the piston pit), hence to unburned hydrocarbons (HC) and particulate matter (PM) formation. A basic study of the spray-wall interaction is here performed by directing a multi-hole GDI spray against a real shape engine piston, possibly heated, under standard air conditions.

Gasoline direct injection (GDI) engines are characterized by complex phenomena involving spray dynamics and possible spray-wall interaction. Control of mixture formation is indeed fundamental to achieve the desired equivalence ratio of the mixture, especially at the spark plug location at the time of ignition. Droplet impact on the piston or liner surfaces has also to be considered, as this may lead to gasoline accumulation in the liquid form as wallfilm. Wallfilms more slowly evaporate than free droplets, thus leading to local enrichment of the charge, hence to a route to diffusive flames, increased unburned hydrocarbons formation and particulate matter emissions at the exhaust. Local heat transfer at the wall obviously changes if a wallfilm is present, and the subtraction of the latent heat of vaporization necessary for secondary phase change is also an issue deserving a special attention.

Present work investigates both experimentally and numerically the benefits deriving from the use of split injections in increasing the engine power output and reducing the tendency to knock of a gasoline direct injection (GDI) engine. The here considered system is characterized by an optical access to the combustion chamber. Imaging in the UV-visible range is carried out by means of a high spatial and temporal resolution camera through an endoscopic system and a transparent window placed in the piston head. This last is modified to allow the view of the whole combustion chamber almost until the cylinder walls, to include the so-called eng-gas zones of the mixture, where undesired self-ignition may occur under some circumstances. Optical data are correlated to in-cylinder pressure oscillations on a cycle resolved basis.

The work analyses, from both an experimental and a numerical point of view, the impingement of a spray generated from a GDI injector on a hot solid wall. The temperature of the surface is identified as an important parameter affecting the outcome after impact. A gasoline spray issuing from a customized single-hole injector is characterized in a quiescent optically-accessible vessel as it impacts on an aluminum plate placed at 22.5 mm from the injector tip. Optical investigations are carried out at atmospheric back-pressure by a direct schlieren optical set-up using a LED as light source. A synchronized C-Mos high-speed camera captures cycle-resolved images of the evolving impact. The spatial and temporal evolution of the liquid and vapor phases are derived. They serve to define a data base to be used for the validation of a properly formulated 3D CFD model suitable to describe the impact of the fuel on the piston head in a real engine.