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Engine downsizing can effectively improve the fuel economy of spark ignition (SI) gasoline engines, but extreme downsizing is limited by knocking combustion and low-speed pre-ignition at higher loads. A 2-stroke SI engine can produce higher upper load compared to its naturally aspirated 4-stroke counterpart with the same displacement due to the double firing frequency at the same engine speed. To determine the potential of a downsized two-cylinder 2-stroke poppet valve SI gasoline engine with 0.7 L displacement in place of a naturally aspirated 1.6 L gasoline (NA4SG) engine, one-dimensional models for the 2-stroke gasoline engine with a single turbocharger and a two-stage supercharger-turbocharger boosting system were set up and validated by experimental results.

Engine downsizing of the spark ignition gasoline engine is recognized as one of the most effective approaches to improve the fuel economy of a passenger car. However, further engine downsizing beyond 50% in a 4-stroke gasoline engine is limited by the occurrence of abnormal combustion events as well as much greater thermal and mechanical loads. In order to achieve aggressive engine downsizing, a boosted uniflow scavenged direct injection gasoline (BUSDIG) engine concept has been proposed and researched by means of CFD simulation and demonstration in a single cylinder engine. In this paper, the intake port design on the in-cylinder flow field and gas exchange characteristics of the uniflow 2-stroke cycle was investigated by computational fluid dynamics (CFD). In particular, the port orientation on the in-cylinder swirl, the trapping efficiency, charging efficiency and scavenging efficiency was analyzed in details.

With the application of valve timing strategy to inlet and exhaust valves, Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) combustion was achieved by varying the amount of trapped residuals through negative valve overlap on a Ricardo Hydra four-stroke port fuel injection engine fueled with ethanol. The effect of ethanol on HCCI combustion and emission characteristics at different air-fuel ratios, speeds and valve timings was investigated. The results indicate that HCCI ethanol combustion can be achieved through changing inlet and exhaust valve timings. HCCI ethanol combustion range can be expanded to high speeds and lean burn mixture. Meanwhile, the factors influencing ignition timing and combustion duration are valve timing, lambda and speeds. Moreover, NOx emissions are extremely low under HCCI combustion. The emissions-speed and emissions-lambda relationships are obtained and analyzed.

Gasoline engine downsizing has become a popular and effective approach to reduce CO2 emissions from passenger cars. This is typically achieved in the form of a boosted direct injection gasoline engine, which are typically equipped with variable valve timing (VVT) devices on the intake and/or exhaust valves. This paper describes the synergies between valve timings and boost based on experimental investigations in a single cylinder gasoline direct injection spark ignited (DISI) engine with variable cam phasing on both the intake and exhaust cams. Two cam profiles have been tested to realize Miller cycle and compared with the standard camshaft. One cam features a long opening duration and standard valve lift for Late Intake Valve Closing (LIVC) and the other cam has a short opening duration and low valve lift for Early Intake Valve Closing (EIVC).

Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) has the potential of reducing fuel consumption as well as NOx emissions. However, it is still confronted with problems in real-time control system and control strategy for the application of HCCI, which are studied in detail in this paper. A CAN-bus-based distributed HCCI control system was designed to implement a layered close loop control for HCCI gasoline engine equipped with 4VVAS. Meanwhile, a layered management strategy was developed to achieve high real-time control as well as to simplify the couplings between the inputs and the outputs. The entire control system was stratified into three layers, which are responsible for load (IMEP) management; combustion phase (CA50) control and mechanical system control respectively, each with its own specified close loop control strategy. The system is outstanding for its explicit configuration, easy actualization and robust performance.

A strategy to actualize the dual-mode (SI mode and HCCI mode) operation of gasoline engine was investigated. The 4VVAS (4 variable valve actuating system), capable of independently controlling the intake and exhaust valve lifts and timings, was incorporated into a specially designed cylinder head for a single cylinder research engine and a 4VVAS-HCCI gasoline engine test bench was established. The experimental research was carried out to study the dynamic control strategies for transitions between HCCI and SI modes on the HCCI operating boundaries. Results show that equipped with the 4VVAS cylinder head, the engine can be operated in HCCI or SI mode to meet the demands of different operating conditions. 4VVAS enables the rapid and effective control over the in-cylinder residual gas, and therefore dynamic transitions between HCCI and SI can be stably achieved. It is easier to achieve transition from HCCI to SI than reversely due to the influence of thermo-inertia.

In this paper, an experimental study was performed to investigate characteristics of flame propagation and knocking combustion of hydrous (10% water content) and anhydrous ethanol at different air/fuel ratios in comparison to RON95 gasoline. Experiments were conducted in a full bore overhead optical access single cylinder port-fuel injection spark-ignition engine. High speed images of total chemiluminescence and OH* emission was recorded together with the in-cylinder pressure, from which the heat release data were derived. The results show that under the stoichiometric condition anhydrous ethanol and wet ethanol with 10% water (E90W10) generated higher IMEP with at an ignition timing slightly retarded from MBT than the gasoline fuel for a fixed throttle position. Under rich and stoichiometric conditions, the knock limited spark timing occurred at 35 CA BTDC whereas both ethanol and E90W10 were free from knocking combustion at the same operating condition.

Using Exhaust Gas Recycling (EGR) on internal combustion engines enables the reduction of emissions with a low or even no cost to the engine efficiency at part-load operation. The charge dilution with EGR can even increase the engine efficiency due to de-throttling and reduction of part load pumping losses. This experimental study proposed the use of late exhaust valve closure (LEVC) to achieve internal EGR (increased residual gas trapping). A naturally aspirated single cylinder direct injection spark ignition engine equipped with four electro-hydraulic actuated valves that enabled full valve timing and lift variation. Eight levels of positive valve overlap (PVO) with LEVC were used at the constant load of 6.0 bar IMEP and the speed of 1500 rpm. The results have shown that later exhaust valve closure (EVC) required greater intake pressures to maintain the engine load due to the higher burned gases content. Hence, lower pumping losses and thus higher indicated efficiency were obtained.

In this research, numerical simulation using Star-CD is performed to investigate the mixing process of a single-cylinder experimental gasoline engine equipped with 4VVAS (4 Variable Valve System). Different engine operating conditions are studied with respect to valve parameters, including EVC (Exhaust Valve Closing), IVO (Intake Valve Opening), and IVL (Intake Valve Lift). The definitions of RGF (Residual Gas Fraction)/temperature statistical distribution and inhomogeneity are proposed and quantified, on which the influences of the aforementioned valve parameters are analyzed. Results reveal that, the distribution of in-cylinder residuals varies with valve parameter combinations. Intake valve timing has a greater effect on the in-cylinder distribution and inhomogeneity of residuals than intake valve lift. Earlier IVO leads to lower RGF inhomogeneity around TDC.

Poppet-valve two-stroke gasoline engines can increase the specific power of their four-stroke counterparts with the same displacement and hence decrease fuel consumption. However, knock may occur at high loads. Therefore, the combustion with stratified lean mixture was proposed to decrease knock tendency and improve combustion stability in a poppet-valve two-stroke direct injection gasoline engine. The effect of intake pressure and split injection on fuel distribution, combustion and knock intensity in lean mixture conditions at high loads was simulated with a three-dimensional computational fluid dynamic software. Simulation results show that with the increase of intake pressure, the average fuel-air equivalent ratio in the cylinder decreases when the second injection ratio was fixed at 70% at a given amount of fuel in a cycle.

Engine downsizing is one of the most effective means to improve the fuel economy of spark ignition (SI) gasoline engines because of lower pumping and friction losses. However, the occurrence of knocking combustion or even low-speed pre-ignition at high loads is a severe problem. One solution to significantly increase the upper load range of a 4-stroke gasoline engine is to use 2-stroke cycle due to the double firing frequency at the same engine speed. It was found that a 0.7 L two-cylinder 2-stroke poppet valve gasoline engine equipped with a two-stage serial boosting system, comprising a supercharger and a downstream turbocharger, could replace a 1.6 L naturally aspirated 4-stroke gasoline engine in our previous research, but its fuel economy was close to that of the 4-stroke engine at upper loads due to knocking combustion.

Controlled auto-ignition (CAI) combustion and engine performance and emission characteristics have been intensively investigated in a single-cylinder gasoline direct injection (GDI) engine with an air-assisted injector. The CAI combustion was obtained by residual gas trapping. This was achieved by using low-lift short-duration cams and early closing the exhaust valves. Effects of EVC (exhaust valve closure) and IVO (intake valve opening) timings, spark timing, injection timing, coolant temperature, compression ratio, valve lift and duration, on CAI combustion and emissions were investigated experimentally. The results show that the EVC timing, injection timing, compression ratio, valve lift and duration had significant influences on CAI combustion and emissions. Early EVC and injection timing, higher compression ratio and higher valve lift could enhance CAI combustion. IVO timing had minor effect on CAI combustion.

The Controlled Auto-Ignition (CAI) combustion, also known as Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) was achieved by trapping residuals with early exhaust valve closure in conjunction with direct injection. Multi-cycle 3D engine simulations have been carried out for parametric study on four different injection timings, in order to better understand the effects of injection timings on in-cylinder mixing and CAI combustion. The full engine cycle simulation including complete gas exchange and combustion processes was carried out over several cycles in order to obtain the stable cycle for analysis. The combustion models used in the present study are the Shell auto-ignition model and the characteristic-time combustion model, which were modified to take the high level of EGR into consideration. A liquid sheet breakup spray model was used for the droplet breakup processes.

The outward-opening piezoelectric injector can achieve stable fuel/air mixture distribution and multiple injections in a single cycle, having attracted great attentions in direct injection gasoline engines. In order to realise accurate predictions of the gasoline spray with the outward-opening piezoelectric injector, the computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulations of the gasoline spray with different droplet breakup models were performed in the commercial CFD software STAR-CD and validated by the corresponding measurements. The injection pressure was fixed at 180 bar, while two different backpressures (1 and 10 bar) were used to evaluate the robustness of the breakup models. The effects of the mesh quality, simulation timestep, breakup model parameters were investigated to clarify the overall performance of different breakup model in modeling the gasoline sprays.

In order to optimize the 2-stroke uniflow engine performance on vehicle applications, numerical analysis has been introduced, 3D CFD model has been built for the optimization of intake charge organization. The scavenging process was investigated and the intake port design details were improved. Then the output data from 3D CFD calculation were applied to a 1D engine model to process the analysis on engine performance. The boost system optimization of the engine has been carried out also. Furthermore, a vehicle model was also set up to investigate the engine in-vehicle performance.

This work was concerned with study of lubricant introduced directly into the combustion chamber and its effect on pre-ignition and combustion in an optically accessed single-cylinder spark ignition engine. The research engine had been designed to incorporate full bore overhead optical access capable of withstanding peak in-cylinder pressures of up to 150bar. An experiment was designed where a fully formulated synthetic lubricant was deliberately introduced through a specially modified direct fuel injector to target the exhaust area of the bore. Optical imaging was performed via natural light emission, with the events recorded at 6000 frames per second. Two port injected fuels were evaluated including a baseline commercial grade gasoline and low octane gasoline/n-heptane blend. The images revealed the location of deflagration sites consistently initiating from the lubricant itself.

The increasing concern about CO2 emissions and energy prices has led to new CO2 emission and fuel economy legislation being introduced in world regions served by the automotive industry. In response, automotive manufacturers and Tier-1 suppliers are developing a new generation of internal combustion (IC) engines with ultra-low emissions and high fuel efficiency. To further this development, a better understanding is needed of the combustion and pollutant formation processes in IC engines. As efficiency and emission abatement processes have reached points of diminishing returns, there is more of a need to make measurements inside the combustion chamber, where the combustion and pollutant formation processes take place. However, there is currently no good overview of how to make these measurements.

This research was focused on the effect of pre-chamber ignition and compared the knock limit of normal spark ignition in the main chamber and pre-chamber jet ignition combustion in a spark ignition gasoline engine. Experiments were conducted in a single-cylinder engine with optical access. Engine was operated with stoichiometric air/fuel mixtures at 1200 rev/min and different inlet pressures of 1, 1.2, and 1.4 bar. No auxiliary fuel was injected into the pre-chamber when jet-ignition mode was used. The results show that significant knock limit extension can be realized with use of a pre-chamber ignition unit. The main differences in engine performance, heat release and combustion, knock resistance and flame propagation were compared between the pre-chamber ignition and conventional spark ignition in the main chamber by in-cylinder pressure measurements and high-speed flame chemiluminescence imaging.

Controlled Auto Ignition (CAI), also known as Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI), is one of the most promising combustion technologies to reduce the fuel consumption and NOx emissions. In order to take advantage of the inherent ability to retain a large and varied amount of residual at part-load condition and its potential to achieve extreme engine downsizing of a poppet valve engine running in the 2-stroke cycle, a single cylinder 4-valves camless direct injection gasoline engine has been developed and employed to investigate the CAI combustion process in the 2-stroke cycle mode. The CAI combustion is initiated by trapped residual gases from the adjustable scavenging process enabled by the variable intake and exhaust valve timings. In addition, the boosted intake air is used to provide the in-cylinder air/fuel mixture for maximum combustion efficiency.

An experimental study has been carried out on the multiple fuel injection process and its effect on the mixing and combustion in a single cylinder diesel engine with optical access. The engine is equipped with a production type cylinder head and a high pressure common rail fuel system which comprises a directly driven high pressure fuel pump and a control system capable of 8 injections per stroke. The single cylinder optical engine could be operated lubrication-free for up to 5 minutes due to the application of special coating on the piston liner and careful design of the piston and extended cylinder block. The in-cylinder spray and combustion were visualized at 10,000 fps by a high-speed colour video camera and a copper vapour laser. The high-speed video recordings and in-cylinder pressure and heat release analysis for up to four fuel injections will be presented and discussed.