Experimental investigation of combustion and heat transfer in a direct-injection spark ignition engine via instantaneous combustion chamber surface temperature measurements

An experimental study was performed to provide the combustion and in-cylinder heat transfer characteristics resulting from different injection strategies in a direct-injection spark ignition (DISI) engine. Fast-response thermocouples were embedded in the piston top and cylinder head surface to measure the instantaneous combustion chamber surface temperature and heat flux, thus providing critical information about the combustion characteristics and a thorough understanding of the heat transfer process. Two distinctive operating modes, homogeneous and stratified, were considered and their effect on combustion and heat transfer in a DISI engine was investigated. The stratified operating mode yielded significantly higher spatial variations of heat flux than the homogeneous mode. This behaviour is directly caused by the main features of stratified combustion, i.e. vigorous burning of a close-to-stoichiometric mixture near the spark, and a cool, extremely lean mixture at the periphery. The cooling effect of the spray impinging on the piston surface when the fuel is injected late in compression could be detected too. The local phenomena change with varying speed and injection parameters. Comparison between the calculated global heat fluxes and measured local heat fluxes were performed in order to assess the behaviour of classic heat transfer models. Comparisons between the global and local heat fluxes provide additional insight into spatial variations, as well as indications about the suitability of different classic models for investigations of the heat transfer aspect of DISI engines. Special consideration is required when applying classic heat transfer correlations to stratified DISI operation as heat flux values are lower by more than 30 per cent when compared with homogeneous operation of the same engine at the same load.