Modeling Mixture Formation in a Gasoline Direct Injection Engine

Mixture formation and combustion in a gasoline direct injection (GDI) engine were studied. A swirl-type nozzle, with an inwardly opening pintle, was used to inject the fuel directly in a four stroke, four cylinder, four valves per cylinder engine. The atomization of the hollow cone fuel spray was modeled by using a hybrid approach. The most important obstacle in the development of GDI engines is that the control of the stratified-charge combustion over the entire operating range is very difficult. Since the location of the ignition source is fixed in SI engines the mixture cloud must be controlled both temporally and spatially for a wide range of operating conditions. Results show that the volume of the spark must be considered when discretizing the computational domain because it highly influences the flow field in the combustion chamber. This is because the volume occupied by the plug cannot be neglected since it is much bigger than the ones used in port fuel injection engines. The development of a successful combustion system depends on the design of the fuel injection system and the matching with the in-cylinder flow field: the stratification at part load appears to be the most crucial and critical step, and if the air motion is not well coupled with the fuel spray it would lead to an increase of unburned hydrocarbon emission and fuel consumption