An Experimental Study of a Fluidic Type Fuel Injector in Comparison With a Solenoid Type Injector

An experimental study of a fluidic type fuel injector for spark ignition (SI) engines is described in this paper. The fluidic injector unit consists of four monostable fluidic devices controlled by a solenoid interface and air–fuel mixing nozzles for better fuel atomization. The prototype fluidic injector unit was implemented on a research engine. The results of air–fuel ratio (AFR) variations, engine combustion characteristics and exhaust emissions from the fluidic injector were compared with those from a baseline solenoid type injector. It was demonstrated from single cylinder engine tests that the fluidic system produces 9 to 20 per cent lower hydrocarbon (HC) emissions and 5 to 8 per cent higher indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP) than the baseline injection system. This has confirmed the effectiveness of the use of air-assisted fluidic injectors and the fact that improved mixture preparation and better fuel presentation are obtained by the fluidic injector. However, the lean misfire limit by the fluidic injector is reduced by 1 AFR compared to that of the solenoid injector due to large AFR dispersions caused by cyclic fuel delivery variations of the fluidic device. It is envisaged that the fluidic injector potentially offers cost and emission benefits for SI engines when the cyclic flow stability is improved.

Throttleless Premixed-Charge Engines: Concept and Experiment

A method of controlling the brake mean effective pressure (b.m.e.p.) of a premixed-charge engine is proposed which does not require the use of a throttle and does not exhibit significant throttling losses. In this method, a combination of adjustment of the mixture equivalence ratio and preheating of the mixture is used to control the b.m.e.p. The preheating serves two purposes: it reduces the density of the mixture and it broadens the lean misfire limit. Experiments on the performance of engines controlled with this strategy are compared with conventional throttled engines. As much as 16 per cent improvement in thermal efficiency was observed at the same b.m.e.p. The untreated NOx emissions are found to be much lower in the throttleless engine at the same b.m.e.p. while carbon monoxide (CO) and unburned hydrocarbon (UHC) emissions are comparable to but somewhat higher than throttled engines. Practical implementation of the concept is discussed.