An Experimental Investigation of the Effects of Common-Rail Injection System Parameters on Emissions and Performance in a High-Speed Direct-Injection Diesel Engine

An investigation of the effect of injection parameters on emissions and performance in an automotive diesel engine was conducted. A high-pressure common-rail injection system was used with a dual-guided valve covered orifice nozzle tip. The engine was a four-valve single cylinder high-speed direct-injection diesel engine with a displacement of approximately $12$ liter and simulated turbocharging. The engine experiments were conducted at full load and 1004 and 1757 rev/min, and the effects of injection pressure, multiple injections (single vs pilot with main), and pilot injection timing on emissions and performance were studied. Increasing the injection pressure from 600 to 800 bar reduced the smoke emissions by over 50 percent at retarded injection timings with no penalty in oxides of nitrogen $NOx$ or brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC). Pilot injection cases exhibited slightly higher smoke levels than single injection cases but had similar $NOx$ levels, while the single injection cases exhibited slightly better BSFC. The start-of-injection (SOI) of the pilot was varied while holding the main SOI constant and the effect on emissions was found to be small compared to changes resulting from varying the main injection timing. Interestingly, the point of autoignition of the pilot was found to occur at a nearly constant crank angle regardless of pilot injection timing (for early injection timings) indicating that the ignition delay of the pilot is a chemical delay and not a physical (mixing) one. As the pilot timing was advanced the mixture became overmixed, and an increase of over 50 percent in the unburned hydrocarbon emissions was observed at the most advanced pilot injection timing.