Investigation of the optimal injection conditions for a PCCI diesel engine

Premixed charge compression ignition (PCCI) engines have the potential with their attractive advanced combustion process to achieve a more homogeneous mixture and a lower peak combustion temperature resulting in both lower nitrogen oxides (NOx) and diesel particulate matter (PM) emissions. In this study, the spray characteristics for a PCCI engine according to various injection conditions were introduced and then the effects of injection strategies such as injection angles, injection timings and times on combustion and emissions were studied for a single cylinder PCCI engine using early multiple injections first. Add more, a method of early-main type split injection was used for a 4-cylinder PCCI engine and the effects of injection conditions on the combustion and emission characteristics were investigated. Finally flame visualization tests were performed to validate the result obtained from the engine test. The experimental results showed that the mixture formation, indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP), and emission characteristics were dominantly affected by the injection conditions and the multiple injection method resulted in higher IMEP and still low smoke level characteristics. It appeared that more homogeneous mixture could be formed with decreasing of spray penetration and increasing of fuel evaporation rate for the early multiple injections. In case of the split injection, both injection timing and injected fuel ratio of the early and main injection largely affected engine combustion and emission characteristics. From the results, as the early injection rate increased premixed combustion was activated, on the other hand, as the main injection rate increased conventional diesel combustion was activated, therefore suitable split injection conditions could be selected for the 4-cylinder PCCI engine.