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An experimental study on emission formation processes, such as these of nitric oxide, particulate and total hydrocarbon in a small direct injection (D.I.) diesel engine was carried out by using a newly developed total in-cylinder sampling technique. The sampling method consisted of rapidly opening a blowdown valve attached to the bottom of the piston bowl, and quickly transferring most of the in-cylinder contents into a large sampling chamber below the piston. No modification of the intake and exhaust ports in a cylinder head was required for the installation of the blowdown apparatus. The sampling experiment gave a history of spatially-averaged emission concentrations in the cylinder. The effects of several engine variables, such as the length-to-diameter ratio of the nozzle hole, the ratio of the piston bowl diameter to the cylinder bore and the intake swirl ratio, on the emission formation processes were investigated.

A simple, but useful method is described for predicting the swirl speed during the compression process in a direct injection diesel engine. The method is based on the idea of dividing the combustion chamber into two volumetric regions and computing the variation of the angular momentum in each region. Laser doppler velocimeter measurements in a motored engine proved the validity of the idea that the volume in the combustion chamber should be treated as two regions, that is, the cylindrical volume inside the piston-cavity radius, and the annular volume outside the piston-cavity radius. Distributions of tangential velocities were measured for different conditions, including the intake port configuration, the piston cavity shape, the compression ratio and the engine speed. These results were integrated in the two regions and provided the measured “two volume-regions” swirl ratio. At the same time, the computation was carried out for the same experimental conditions.

In this study, formation behaviors of soot in laminar diffusion flames of diesel fuel with fatty acid or fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) were investigated. Oleic acid and oleic acid methyl ester were selected as fatty acid and fatty acid methyl ester. Combustion gas emitted from the laminar diffusion flame was sampled, and PM composition in the gas was analyzed. Laser induced incandescence (LII) and laser induced fluorescence (LIF) techniques were applied to measure soot and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) distributions in the laminar diffusion flames. As the results, soot emission and soot incandescence distributions were decreased by the addition of fatty acid or fatty acid methyl ester. Moreover, PAH concentration in the closed flame became high by addition of fatty acid or fatty acid methyl ester.

The effects of engine parameters, such as spray characteristics and combustion chamber geometry on performance and exhaust emissions in a small D.I. diesel engine were investigated to find out the optimum way of improving the engine. Diesel spray injected into a high-pressure vessel was photographically analyzed to guess the spray behavior in a firing diesel engine. The ratio of hole length to the diameter of a nozzle (L/D) was varied from 3 to 7 as the main parameter of the nozzle. Piston cavity diameter and intake swirl were chosen as the other parameters. The effect of the above parameters was investigated in terms of brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC), exhaust smoke, nitric oxides (NOx) and total hydrocarbon (THC). The L/D of the nozzle is concluded to be of major importance in terms of BSFC and THC emission. Smaller piston cavity diameters lead to lower exhaust smoke, but to a higher level of NOx emission.

The behavior of diesel spray impinging on an inclined wall was experimentally investigated in a pressurized vessel. To clarify the wall effect on a diesel spray, a relative angle of the inclined wall to a spray axis was varied. Spray penetration along the wall was observed optically and it was compared with that of a free spray. To evaluate various spray motion quantitatively, a spray path penetration which described a development of a spray tip along the wall was newly introduced. To observe an internal structure of the spray, it was visualized by a YAG laser sheet light and its tomographic image was captured on a film. The photo-image on a film was taken into an image analyzing computer using a high resolved image scanner. A high density zone in the tomographic image was extracted to clarify the internal structure of an impinging spray. The main parameter of the relative position of the wall was its inclined angle which was defined as the angle between the spray axis and wall.

This paper presents the experimental analysis for the turbulence in the combustion chamber of a direct injection (D.I.) diesel engine. A dual beam mode, forward-scattering laser doppler velocimeter was applied to the flow measurement in a four-stroke, single-cylinder direct injection diesel engine of 110 mm bore and 125 mm stroke. The turbulence component was separated from instantaneous velocity using a high-pass filter. As a result, the difference in turbulent intensity between the intake and compression processes was discussed. Also, the effect of intake port and piston cavity shapes, the compression ratio and the engine speed on the turbulent intensity were clarified. In addition, the empirical equation for the decay of turbulent intensity in the compression process was expressed by a function of the Reynolds number based on the mean swirling flow.

New empirical equations to represent the Sauter mean diameter of a spray injected by a diesel nozzle are presented in this paper. In order to determine the new equations, drop sizes of a diesel spray were analyzed by a laser diffraction technique. Liquids with different viscosities and different surface tensions were tested to obtain the generalized empirical equations. The maximum injection and maximum ambient pressures were 90 MPa and 3.0 MPa respectively. Both the minimum value of the injection pressure to produce a fine spray and the Sauter mean diameter increase the greater the viscosity and the surface tension of the liquid. At a high injection velocity, the Sauter mean diameter increases with an increase in ambient pressure, but it decreases when ambient pressure is increased at a low injection velocity.

In this paper, a new concept of an attitude control of a diesel spray was proposed. The Coanda effect known in the fields of the fluidics was applied to control a penetrating direction of a diesel spray injected into a combustion chamber of a D.I. diesel engine. In general, a jet moving along a wall was deviated by the Coanda effect. So if the shape of a cavity crown of the combustion chamber would be suitably designed and a diesel spray behavior would be similar to a gaseous jet, the spray might penetrate along the cavity wall. Furthermore, the switching effect of the penetrating direction might appear with a piston movement. To establish this method for an attitude control of a diesel spray, behavior of a diesel spray that was affected by a fixed interference plate located near the spray axis was experimentally investigated.

A high-speed photographic study is presented illustrating the influence of engine variables such as an introduced air swirl, the number of nozzle holes and the piston cavity diameter, on the combustion process in a small direct-injection (D.I.) diesel engine. The engine was modified for optical access from the under and lateral sides of the combustion chamber. This modification enabled a three-dimensional analysis of the flame motion in the engine. The swirling velocity of a flame in a combustion chamber was highest in the piston cavity, and outside the piston cavity it became lower at the piston top and at the cylinder head in that order. The swirl ratio of the flame inside the cavity radius attenuated gradually with piston descent and approached the swirl ratio outside the cavity radius, which remained approximately constant during the expansion stroke. Engine performance was improved by retarding the attenuation of the swirl motion inside the cavity radius.