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In a direct-injection (DI) engine, charge motion and mixture preparation are among the most important factors deciding the performance and emissions. This work was focused on studying the effect of injector positioning on fuel-air mixture preparation and fuel impingement on in-cylinder surfaces during the homogeneous mode of operation in a naturally aspirated, small bore, 0.2 l, light-duty, air-cooled, four-stroke, spark-ignition engine modified to operate under the DI mode. A commercially available, six-hole, solenoid-operated injector was used. Two injector locations were identified based on the availability of the space on the cylinder head. One location yielded the spray-guided (SG) configuration, with one of the spray plumes targeted towards the spark plug. In the second location, the spray plumes were targeted towards the piston top in a wall-guided (WG) configuration so as to minimize the impingement of fuel on the liner.

Cycle-to-cycle flow variations significantly influence the combustion variations from one cycle to the next, particularly at low operating loads in small spark-ignition engines. Hence in the present work, cycle-to-cycle flow variations are analyzed at low throttle opening of 25% in a small spark-ignition engine using particle image velocimetry (PIV) technique. Experiments are conducted in an optically accessible single-cylinder, port-fuel-injection engine (volume: 110 cm3) at 1200 rpm engine speed. Images are captured at different crank angle positions during both intake and compression strokes over a tumble measurement plane bisecting the intake and exhaust valves, and processed using cross-correlation method to obtain the instantaneous velocity fields considering 200 image pairs at each crank angle position considered.

An experimental study is performed to investigate the fuel impingement on cylinder walls and piston top inside a direct-injection spark-ignition engine with optical access to the cylinder. Three different fuels, namely, E85, E50 and gasoline are used in this work. E85 represents a blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline by volume. Experiments are performed at different load conditions with the engine speeds of 1500 and 2000 rpm. Two types of fuel injectors are used; (i) High-pressure production injector with fuel pressures of 5 and 10 MPa, and (ii) Low-pressure production-intent injector with fuel pressure of 3 MPa. In addition, the effects of split injection are also presented and compared with the similar cases of single injection by maintaining the same amount of fuel for the stoichiometric condition. Novel image processing algorithms are developed to analyze the fuel impingement quantitatively on cylinder walls and piston top inside the engine cylinder.

Stringent emission regulations on one hand and increasing demand for better fuel economy along with lower noise levels on the other hand require adoption of advanced common-rail direct-injection technologies in diesel engines. In the present work, a small 0.9-l, naturally aspirated, two-cylinder, common-rail direct-injection diesel engine is used for the analysis of combustion noise at different engine operating conditions. Experiments are conducted at different loads and engine speeds, incorporating both single and multiple (i.e. pilot and main) injections along with different injection timings. In the case of multiple injections, the influence of pilot injection quantity is also evaluated on the combustion noise while maintaining the same load. In-cylinder pressure was recorded with the resolution of 0.1 crank angle degree, and it was used for the quantitative analysis of noise assessed from the resulting cylinder pressure spectra, and sound pressure level.

Flow variations from one cycle to the next significantly influence the mixture formation and combustion processes in engines. Therefore, it is important to understand the fluid motion and its cycle-to-cycle variations (CCVs) inside the engine cylinder. Researchers have generally investigated the cycle-to-cycle flow variations in moderate- to large-sized engines. In the present work, we have performed the flow measurement and analysis in a small spark-ignition engine. Experiments are conducted in an optically accessible, single-cylinder, port-fuel-injection engine with displacement volume of 110 cm3 at different throttle openings (i.e. 50% and WOT) using particle image velocimetry. Images are captured at different crank angle positions during both intake and compression strokes over a tumble measurement plane, bisecting the intake and exhaust valves and passing through the cylinder axis.

In the present work, the possibility of engine knock detection is investigated based on in-cycle speed data, which is readily available to the ECU. Experiments were conducted at 3000 rpm with wide-open throttle condition in a single-cylinder, air-cooled, port-fuel-injection spark-ignition engine at different levels of knocking. It was found that amplitude of speed oscillations increased with the knock intensity for considered window with the size of 100 crank angle degree, starting from the top dead center of compression. The proposed knock indicators based on in-cycle speed oscillations were found to be able to identify the knock-limited spark timings at different operating conditions. Results showed that the amplitude of speed oscillations, derived from in-cycle speed data with resolution of six crank angle degree, could also be used to quantify the knock. The knock frequency based on speed oscillations also showed a sharp increase at the onset of knock.

Gasoline direct-injection (GDI) engines have evolved as a solution to meet the current demands of the automotive industry. Benefits of a GDI engine include good fuel economy, good transient response, and low cold start emissions. However, they suffer from problems, like combustion instability, misfire, and impingement of fuel on in-cylinder surfaces. Therefore, to highlight the influence of fuel injection timing on in-cylinder flow, turbulence, mixture distribution and wall impingement, a computational study is conducted on a small-bore GDI engine. Results showed that air motion inside the engine cylinder is influenced by direct-injection of fuel, with considerable variation in turbulent kinetic energy at the time of injection. Due to charge cooling effect, mixture density and trapped mass were increased by about 10.8% and 9.5%, respectively.

An experimental study has been conducted to quantify the velocity and pressure inside an idealized intake manifold of a motored internal combustion engine assembly. The aim of this work is to provide the real-time boundary conditions for more accurate multi-dimensional numerical simulations of complex in-cylinder flows in an internal combustion engine as well as the resultant in-cylinder flow patterns. The geometry of the intake manifold is simplified for this purpose. A hot-wire anemometer and a piezoresistive absolute pressure transducer are used to measure the velocity and pressure, respectively, over a plane inside the circular section of the intake manifold. In addition, pressure measurements are performed over an elliptical section near the intake port. Phase-averaged velocity and pressure profiles are then calculated from the instantaneous measurements. Experiments were performed at 900 and 1200 rpm engine speeds with wide open throttle.

In many Asian countries a significant automobile market share is held by two and three wheelers. Generally, cost and simplicity considerations limit the performance and emission levels of small engines. Methanol is an excellent alternative fuel for SI engines due to its high-octane number, high flame speed, presence of oxygen in its molecule and thus can be used to enhance the performance of small engines. However, use of neat methanol in SI engines poses constraints due to low energy density and poor vaporization characteristics. Also, the effectiveness of methanol as a fuel has still to be thoroughly investigated in small-bore SI engines in order to assess its potential. In this work, a small-bore 200cc three-wheeler automotive engine was modified to operate in the port fuel injection mode with neat methanol as the fuel.

Internal combustion engines play a major role in biogas-based stationary power generation applications in rural areas, and serious progress on effective utilization of bio-resources by considering engine stability is not achieved yet. In the present study, combustion characteristics and cycle-to-cycle variations (CCVs) of a spark-ignition (SI) engine fueled with gasoline, biogas, and surrogate of bio-methane are analyzed. A single-cylinder, four-stroke SI engine (with a flexible gaseous fuel system) was operated at a couple of load points (8 Nm and 11.5 Nm) with a rotational speed of 1500 rpm. CCVs are analyzed using a statistical approach considering 1000 consecutive engine cycles for each operating condition. Results at 8 Nm showed relatively higher CCVs of indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP), peak in-cylinder pressure (Pmax), and flame initiation duration (FID) for biogas compared to methane.

An experimental study is performed to investigate the effects of charge motion control on in-cylinder fuel-air mixture preparation and combustion inside a direct-injection spark-ignition engine with optical access to the cylinder. High-pressure production injector is used with fuel pressures of 5 and 10 MPa. Three different geometries of charge motion control (CMC) device are considered; two are expected to enhance the swirl motion inside the engine cylinder whereas the third one is expected to enhance the tumble motion. Experiments are performed at 1500 rpm engine speed with the variation in fuel injection timing, fuel pressure and the number of injections. It is found that swirl-type CMC devices significantly enhance the fuel-air mixing inside the engine cylinder with slower spray tip penetration than that of the baseline case without CMC device. Combustion images show that the flame growth is faster with CMC device compared to the similar case without CMC device.

A direct-injection and spark-ignition single-cylinder engine with optical access to the cylinder was used for the combustion visualization study. Gasoline and ethanol-gasoline blended fuels were used in this investigation. Experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of fuel injection pressure, injection timing and the number of injections on the in-cylinder combustion process. Two types of direct fuel injectors were used; (i) high-pressure production injector with fuel pressures of 5 and 10 MPa, and (ii) low-pressure production-intent injector with fuel pressure of 3 MPa. Experiments were performed at 1500 rpm engine speed with partial load. In-cylinder pressure signals were recorded for the combustion analyses and synchronized with the high-speed combustion imaging recording. Visualization results show that the flame growth is faster with the increment of fuel injection pressure.

The distribution of fuel-air mixture inside the engine cylinder strongly influences the combustion process. Planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF) is commonly used for fuel distribution measurement, however, it is mostly reported on moderate- to large-sized engines. In the present work, PLIF is applied to measure the fuel distribution inside the cylinder of a small, four-stroke, port-fuel-injection (PFI), spark-ignition engine with displacement volume of 110 cm3. Iso-octane was used as the base fuel, and 3-pentanone (15% by volume) was added as a fluorescent tracer in the base fuel. The effect of equivalence ratio, considering ϕ = 1.2, 1.0, and 0.8, on in-cylinder fuel distribution was studied with low throttle opening of 25% at 1200 rpm. PLIF images were recorded at different crank angle degrees during both intake and compression strokes over a swirl measurement plane located at the TDC position.

A single-cylinder gasoline direct-injection engine was used for fuel spray and combustion visualizations with optical access to the combustion chamber. Experiments were conducted to investigate the effect of fuel injection pressure on spray and combustion characteristics inside the engine cylinder. A multi-hole high-pressure production injector was used with fuel pressures of 5 and 10 MPa. A Mie scattering technique was used to image the liquid phase of the fuel dispersion. The obtained spray images were then used to study the macroscopic spray characteristics such as spray structure, spray tip penetration and spray angle. Combustion visualization tests were performed to evaluate the effect of fuel injection pressure on combustion characteristics. In-cylinder pressure signals were recorded for the combustion analyses and synchronized with the high-speed combustion imaging recording.