Experimental and numerical analyses of the combustion process in a direct injection gasoline engine

Abstract

Gasoline direct injection (GDI) spark ignition engine technology is advancing at a rapid rate. The development and optimization of GDI engines requires new experimental methods and numerical models to analyse the in-cylinder processes. Therefore the objective of this paper is to present numerical and experimental methods to analyse the combustion process in GDI engines.

The numerical investigation of a four-stroke three-valve GDI engine was performed with the code KIVA-3V [1]. For the calculation of the turbulent combustion a model for partially premixed combustion, developed and implemented by Kech [4], was used. The results of the numerical investigation are compared to experimental results, obtained using an optical fibre technique in combination with spectroscopic temperature measurements under different engine conditions. This comparison shows good agreement in temporal progression of pressure. Both the numerical simulation and the experimental investigation predicted comparable combustion phenomena.