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Small gasoline engines are used in motorcycles and handheld machinery, because of their high power density, low cost and compact design. The reduction of hydrocarbon emissions and fuel consumption is an important factor regarding the upcoming emission standards and operational expenses. The scavenging process of the two-stroke engine causes scavenging losses. A reduction in hydrocarbon emissions due to scavenging losses can be achieved through inner mixture formation using direct injection (DI). The time frame for fuel vaporization is limited using two-stroke SI engines by the high number of revolutions. A high pressure DI system was used to offer fast and accurate injections. An injection pressure of up to 140 MPa was provided by a common rail system, built out of components normally used in automotive engineering. A standard electromagnetic injector is applied for the fuel injection. This injection unit is dimensioned for multi-point injections in diesel engines.

The investigation of transient engine operation plays a key role of the future challenges for individual mobility in terms of real driving emissions (RDE). A fundamental investigation of the transient engine operation requires the simultaneous application of measurement technologies for an integrated study of mixture formation, combustion process and emission formation. The major prerequisite is the combustion cycle and crank angle resolved analysis of the process for at least several individual consecutive combustion cycles during transient operation. The investigations are performed with a multi cylinder DISI engine at an Engine-in-the-Loop test bench, able to operate the engine in driving cycles as well as within target profiles (e.g. speed and torque profiles). The research project describes the methodology of analyzing elementary transient operational phases, (e.g. different variants of load steps).

At part load and wide open throttle operation with stratified charge and lean mixture conditions the Direct Injection Spark Ignition (DISI) engine offers similar efficiency levels compared to compression ignition engines The present paper reports on results of recent studies on the impact of the in-cylinder processes in DISI engines e. g. the injection, the in-cylinder flow, the mixture preparation and the ignition on the combustion, the energy conversion and the exhaust emission behavior. The analyses of the spray behavior, of the in-cylinder flow during compression as well as of the flame propagation have been carried out applying advanced optical measurement techniques. The results enable a targeted optimization of the combustion process with respect to engine efficiency and exhaust emissions. The benefits of an increase in fuel injection pressures up to 100 MPa are discussed.

Spray-guided gasoline direct injection demonstrates great potential to reduce both fuel consumption and pollutant emissions. However, conventional materials used in high-pressure pumps wear severely under fuel injection pressures above 20 MPa as the lubricity and viscosity of gasoline are very low. The use of ceramic components promises to overcome these difficulties and to exploit the full benefits of spray-guided GDI-engines. As part of the Collaborative Research Centre “High performance sliding and friction systems based on advanced ceramics” at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, a single-piston high-pressure gasoline pump operating at up to 50 MPa has been designed. It consists of 2 fuel-lubricated sliding systems (piston/cylinder and cam/sliding shoe) that are built with ceramic parts. The pump is equipped with force, pressure and temperature sensors in order to assess the behaviour of several material pairs.

Investigations of the fuel injection processes in a spark ignition direct injection engine have been performed for two different fuels. The goal of this research was to determine the differences between isooctane, which is often used as an alternative to gasoline for optical engine investigations, and a special, non-fluorescing, full boiling range multicomponent fuel. The apparent vaporization characteristics of isooctane and the multicomponent fuel were examined in homogeneous operating mode with direct injection during the intake stroke. To this end, simultaneous Mie scattering and planar laser induced fluorescence imaging experiments were performed in a transparent research engine. Both fuels were mixed with 3-Pentanone as a fluorescence tracer. A frequency-quadrupled Nd:YAG laser was used as both the fluorescent excitation source and the light scattering source.

Diesel engines face difficult challenges with respect to engine-out emissions, efficiency and power density as the legal requirements concerning emissions and fuel consumption are constantly increasing. In general, for a diesel engine to achieve low raw emissions a well-mixed fuel-air mixture, burning at low combustion temperatures, is necessary. Highly premixed diesel combustion is a feasible way to reduce the smoke emissions to very low levels compared to conventional diesel combustion. In order to reach both, very low NOX and soot emissions, high rates of cooled EGR are necessary. With high rates of cooled EGR the NOX formation can be suppressed almost completely. This paper investigates to what extent the trade-off between emissions, fuel consumption and power of a diesel engine can be resolved by highly premixed and low temperature diesel combustion using injection nozzles with reduced injection hole diameters and high pressure fuel injection.

A promising approach for reducing both NOx- and particulate matter emissions with low fuel consumption is the so called homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) combustion process. Single-cylinder engine tests were carried out to assess the influence of several parameters on the HCCI combustion. The experiments were performed both with port fuel injection (PFI) and with direct injection (DI) under various compression ratios, intake air temperatures and EGR-rates. Special emphasis was put on the fuel composition by using different gasoline and diesel fuels as well as n-heptane. Besides engine out emissions (CO2, CO, NO, O2, HC, soot) and in-cylinder pressure indication for burning process analysis, the combustion itself was visualised using an optical probe.

The spray propagation and disintegration is investigated in a pressure chamber. With Particle Image Velocimetry the direction and velocity of both, fuel droplets and induced gas flow are detected. By means of shadow photographs the spray cone geometry is visualized. To verify the predictions made of the measurements mentioned above and to rate the quality of the tuning of the parameters in-cylinder gas flow, injection pressure, position of Injector and position of spark plug under real engine conditions, a fast gas sampling valve is used in three different engines. The in-cylinder gas temperature and the soot concentration are measured crank angle resolved by means of the Two-Colour-Method in a 1-cylinder GDI-engine. The soot concentration and temperature show the influence of the injection pressure on emissions like soot and nitric oxide.

The hollow cone spray from a high pressure outward opening nozzle was investigated inside a pressure vessel by means of particle image velocimetry (PIV). The flow velocities of the air outside the spray were measured via PIV in combination with fluorescent seeding particles and optical filters. The high pressure piezo electric injector has an annular nozzle to provide a hollow cone spray with an angle of about 90°. During injection a very strong and stable vortex structure is induced by the fuel spray. Besides the general spray/air interaction, the investigation of double and triple fuel injections was the main focus of this study.

Modern direct injection spark ignition engines (DISI-engines) require increasing fuel-injection-pressures in order to accelerate mixture preparation. Therein the fuel-pump is an essential component. Non-conventional materials offer a high potential to realize high pressure combined with low wear and friction. An exemplary high pressure fuel pump was developed in order to evaluate the use of different combinations of ceramic materials and steel as sliding parts. Forces and friction coefficients can be retrieved as a function of the crank angle in the sliding contacts. The leakage in the gap between cylinder and piston was analyzed and an analytical model was developed. Important effects of clearance, stroke frequency and surface roughness on forces and friction coefficients are presented for different combinations of materials and fuels.