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The authors have explored the potential of fuel to control spray and its combustion processes in a diesel engine. Fuel has some potential for low emission and high thermal efficiency because its volatility and ignitability are one of the ultimate performing factors of the engines. In present study, the ignition process of mixed fuel spray was investigated in a constant volume combustion vessel and in a rapid compression and expansion machine, The ignition delay based on the diagram of rate of the heat release, the imaging of natural flame emissions and the numerical simulation were carried out to clarify the effect of the physical and chemical properties of mixed fuel on ignition characteristics.

Gasoline engines employ various mechanisms for improvement of fuel consumption and reduction of exhaust emissions to deal with environmental problems. Direct fuel injection is one such technology. This paper presents a new quasi-dimensional combustion model applicable to direct injection gasoline engine. The Model consists of author's original in-cylinder turbulence and mixture homogeneity sub model suitable for direct fuel injection conditions. Model validation results exhibit good agreement with experimental and 3D CFD data at steady state and transient operating conditions.

There have been strong demands recently for reductions in the fuel consumption and exhaust emissions of diesel engines from the standpoints of conserving energy and curbing global warming. A great deal of research is being done on new emission control technologies using direct-injection (DI) diesel engines that provide high thermal efficiency. This work includes dramatic improvements in the combustion process. The authors have developed a new combustion concept called Modulated Kinetics (MK), which reduces smoke and NOx levels simultaneously by reconciling low-temperature combustion with pre-mixed combustion [1, 2]. At present, research is under way on the second generation of MK combustion with the aim of improving emission performance further and achieving higher thermal efficiency [3]. Reducing heat rejection in the combustion chamber is effective in improving the thermal efficiency of DI diesel engines as well as that of MK combustion.

Vehicle manufacturers developed two mixture formation concepts for the first generation of gasoline direct-injection (GDI) engines. Both the wall-guided concept with reverse tumble air motion or swirl air motion and the air-guided concept with tumble air motion have the fuel injector located at the side of the combustion chamber between the two intake ports. This paper proposes a new GDI concept. It has the fuel injector located at almost the center of the combustion chamber and with the spark plug positioned nearby. An oval bowl is provided in the piston crown. The fuel spray is injected at high fuel pressures of up to 100 MPa. The spray creates strong air motion in the combustion chamber and reaches the piston bowl. The wall of the piston bowl changes the direction of the spray and air motion, producing an upward flow. The spray and air flow rise and reach the spark plug.

Technologies for improving the fuel economy of gasoline engines have been vigorously developed in recent years for the purpose of reducing CO2 emissions. Increasing the compression ratio for improving thermal efficiency and downsizing the engine based on fuel-efficient operating conditions are good examples of technologies for enhancing gasoline engine fuel economy. A direct-injection system is adopted for most of these engines. Direct injection can prevent knocking by lowering the in-cylinder temperature through fuel evaporation in the cylinder. Therefore, direct injection is highly compatible with downsized engines that frequently operate under severe supercharging conditions for improving fuel economy as well as with high compression ratio engines for which susceptibility to knocking is a disadvantage.

Since the fuel supply specifications in a multi-point injection (MPI) system are usually determined experimentaly, the way fuel behaves in the induction port is still not clearly understood. In this study, a fuel behavior model is developed to gain a better understanding of how fuel behaves in the induction port so that the best fuel supply specifications can be determined on the basis of analysis. This paper outlines a model of fuel spray and wall film and presents some typical calculation results. Taking into account fuel properties, the vapor, the flow and other characteristics of fuel in the induction port are calculated using these models. A comparison of the calculated results with experimental data confirms the validity of the model. The calculated results show the effects of the fuel propeties and fuel supply system specifications on induction port fuel behavior.

Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF) is a very effective aftertreatment device to limit particulate emissions from diesel engines. As the amount of soot collected in the DPF increases, the pressure loss increases. Therefore, DPF regeneration needs to be performed. Injected fuel into the exhaust line upstream of the Diesel Oxidation Catalyst (DOC), hydrocarbons are oxidized on the DOC, which increases the exhaust gas temperature at the DPF inlet. It is also necessary that the injected fuel is completely vaporized before entering the DOC, and uniformly mixed with the exhaust gases in order to make the DOC work efficiency. However, ensuring complete evaporation and an optimum mixture distribution in the exhaust line are challenging. Therefore, it is important that the fuel spray feature is grasped to perform DPF regeneration effectively. The purpose of this study is the constructing a simulation model.

It has been reported by several researchers that the L-jetronic fuel injection system offers better idle speed stability than the D-jetronic one in port fuel injection engines. However, the volume between the throttle valve and the intake valves in the L-jetronic system acts as a first order lag element in the system and causes air-fuel ratio fluctuation which, in turn, induces idle speed hunting under certain conditions. This study employs computer simulation to determine the influence of three parameters on idle speed stability: (1) flywheel inertia, (2) intake manifold volume, and (3) air-fuel ratio calibration. It also explores means of improving idle speed stability by controlling the air-fuel ratio and ignition timing. The use of actual engine torque data to estimate the generated torque from the amount of air and fuel in each combustion cycle was the unique feature of this study.

This paper presents an atomization mechanism of a spray injected into the low-pressure field, as the subject of injection system in a suction manifold of gasoline engine. Pure liquid fuel, which is n-Pentane or n-Hexane is injected into quiescent gaseous atmosphere at room-temperature and low- pressure through pintle type electronic control injector. Fuel sprays are observed by taking photographs for variation of the back pressure and the changes in spray characteristics with the back pressure below atmospheric pressure are examined in detail. In particular, in the case of the back pressure below the saturated vapor pressure of fuel, the atomization mechanism is discussed from a viewpoint of flash boiling phenomena, those are bubble growth rate and so on.

This paper presents a study of mixture formation in the combustion chamber of a direct-injection SI engine. In-cylinder flow measurement was conducted using laser Doppler velocimetry (LDV) and particle image velocimetry (PIV), and visualization of fuel vapor behavior was done using laser-induced fluorescence (LIF). Further, fast response flame ionization detector (FID) was used to measure the hydrocarbon (HC) concentrations in the vicinity of the spark plug. Thereby mixture concentrations in the vicinity of the spark plug, within the mixture distribution observed using LIF, were quantified. Results revealed that an upward flow forms near the center of the cylinder in the latter half of the compression stroke and goes from the piston crown toward the cylinder head. This upward flow is caused by the synergistic effect of the swirl motion generated in the cylinder and the cylindrical bowl provided in the piston crown eccentrically to the central axis of the cylinder.

Simultaneous crank-angle-resolved measurements of gasoline vapor concentration, gas temperature, and liquid fuel droplet scattering were made with three-color infrared absorption in a direct-injection spark-ignition engine with premium gasoline. The infrared light was coupled into and out of the cylinder using fiber optics incorporated into a modified spark plug, allowing measurement at a location adjacent to the spark plug electrode. Two mid-infrared (mid-IR) laser wavelengths were simultaneously produced by difference-frequency-generation in periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN) using one signal and two pump lasers operating in the near-infrared (near-IR). A portion of the near-IR signal laser residual provided a simultaneous third, non-resonant, wavelength for liquid droplet detection. This non-resonant signal was used to subtract the influence of droplet scattering from the resonant mid-IR signals to obtain vapor absorption signals in the presence of droplet extinction.

This paper describes the new inline 4-cylinder QR engine series that is available in 2.0-liter and 2.5-liter versions. The next-generation QR engine series incorporates new and improved technologies to provide an optimum balance of power, quietness and fuel economy. Its quiet operation results from the adoption of a compact balancer system and the reduced weight of major moving parts. Power and fuel economy have been enhanced by a two-stage cooling system, a continuous variable valve timing control system, a dual close coupled catalyst system, electronic throttle control and an improved direct-injection system. The latter includes an improved combustion chamber concept and improved fuel spray characteristics achieved by driving the injector by battery voltage. A lightweight and compact engine design has been achieved by adopting a high-pressure die cast aluminum cylinder block, resin intake manifold and rocker cover and a serpentine belt drive.

A direct-injection gasoline engine that uses a stratified charge combustion process was developed by Nissan and released in the Japanese market toward the end of 1997. This new engine is based on Nissan's VQ engine, which enjoys a good reputation for its quick throttle response and low fuel consumption, and has been developed to accomplish the objectives of reducing fuel consumption by stratified charge combustion and securing high power output. The fuel injectors are connected by an arrangement of lightweight, small-diameter fuel lines that distribute fuel to each injector under high pressure. This system was adopted in order to reconcile the use of an aerodynamic straight intake port with the desired fuel injection position. The use of a casting net injector, which uniformly distributes the fuel spray above the piston, makes it possible to accomplish stratified charge combustion with a shallow-bowl piston.

An electronic engine control system that uses a microcomputer has been developed. It combines four control systems - fuel injection, ignition timing, EGR and idle speed control - utilizing the engine speed and intake air quantity for its main parameters. The control circuit is composed of an 8-bit microcomputer combining an 8k byte ROM, RAM, a custom designed input/output LSI, and two hybrid integrated circuits, one has voltage regulators and another has input/output interface circuits. The control program consists of a main program, a fail-safe program for noise protection and a check program for diagnostic functions. The main program uses interrupt techniques to control effectively the four items by one microcomputer. The interrupt requests occur from crankshaft position signal and interval timer signals.

In this paper, spray characteristics were examined to deduce the effect of ambient gas properties. Considered ambient properties were the viscosity μa and density ρa, and thus the kinematic viscosity νa. The objective of this paper is to reveal the effect of compressibility of the ambient gas to spray formation. In the experiments, the changed ranges were And a standard-sac volume nozzle of hole diameter dn =0.25 mm (ln/dn=3.0) was used at constant injection pressure difference (Δp=16.2 MPa). Also the injection pressure was varied in the range of 55 to 120 MPa with a mini-sac volume nozzle of hole diameter dn =0.20 mm (ln/dn =5.5). Several different gases were used to change the ambient viscosity at a room temperature. From the experiments, it is obtained that larger the viscosity, the more the spray spreads in the radial direction, thus the spray angle gets larger and the tip penetration became shorter.

In a direct injection gasoline engine, the impingement of injected fuel on the oil film, i.e. cylinder liner gives rise to various problems such as abnormal combustion, oil dilution and particulate matter emission. Therefore, in order to solve these problems, it is necessary to have a clear understanding of the impingement behavior of the fuel spray onto the oil film. However, there is little information on the impingement behavior of the fuel droplet onto the oil film, whereas many investigations on the impingement behavior of the fuel droplet onto the fuel film are reported. In this study, fundamental investigations were performed for the purpose of clarifying the impingement behavior of the fuel spray onto the oil film. A single fuel droplet mixed with fluorescence dye was dripped on the oil film. To separately measure the fuel and the oil after impingement, simultaneous Mie scattering and laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) methods were performed.

In previous multi-dimensional modeling on spray dynamics and vapor formation, single component fuel with pure substance has been analyzed to assess the mixture formation. Then it should be expected that the evaporation process could be performed for the multicomponent fuel such as actual Gasoline and Diesel gas oil. In this study, vapor-liquid equilibrium prediction was conducted for multicomponent fuels such as 3 and 10 components mixed solution with ideal solution analysis and non-ideal solution analysis. And the computation of distillation characteristics was conducted for the steady state fuel condition fuel condition to understand the evaporation process. As a result, calculated distillation characteristics are consistent well with experiment results. And the evaporation process of a multicomponent droplet in the combustion chamber has been calculated with the variation of ambient pressure and temperature.

This paper presents an analysis using a model of the dispersion process of a Diesel spray impinging on a flat wall. The objective is to simulate the spray / wall interaction process inside Diesel engines. This analysis has two parts: one for non - evaporative spray and the other for evaporative spray. For the non - evaporative spray analysis, a single spray of n - tridecane was injected at high - pressure from a single hole nozzle into a quiescent atmosphere at room - temperature. The spray impinged vertically on the wall at room temperature. Thus, the wall temperature Tw was less than the saturation temperature Tsat of the fuel, that is the boiling temperature. A new submodel including fuel film formation on the wall, its breakup process due to droplet impingement and the dispersion process of breakup - droplets was developed. Also, the droplet density distribution was measured experimentally by the laser light extinction method.

It is expected that the analysis of the evaporation process for multicomponent fuels such as actual fuels like gasoline and diesel gas oil could be performed to assess more accurately the mixture preparation field inside the cylinder of D.I.S.I engines and diesel engines. In this paper, we suggested the importance of this multicomponent fuel consideration relating to the mixture formation and combustion characteristics from the basis of their own fuel physical and chemical properties. Then, we introduce a treatment for the phase change of a multicomponent solution through the formation of two-phase regions with the basis of chemical-thermodymical liquid-vapor equilibrium. Next, we analyze the distillation properties of a multicomponent fuel as well as the evaporation process of a multicomponent single droplet by use of the chemical-thermodymical analysis.

In our new fuel injection method, the injector for each cylinder is triggered twice per combustion cycle. The first injection is triggered as early as possible to obtain a good fuel mixture quality. The second injection is triggered as late as possible and as close to the intake valve opening so as to obtain a constant air-fuel ratio even during rapid acceleration. Furthermore, in order to prevent, misfire, timing is calculated based on the fuel amount when the fuel injection occurs. Driveability is improved over a wider range of driving conditions while maintaining good fuel economy and omission control.