COMBUSTION STABILITY OF DIESEL-FUELED HCCI

Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) shows great potential for low $NO_x$ emission but is hampered by the problem of no direct method to control the combustion process. Therefore, HCCI combustion becomes unstable easily, especially at lower and higher engine load. This paper presents a method to achieve diesel-fueled HCCI combustion, which involves directly injecting diesel fuel into the cylinder before the piston arrives at top dead center in the exhaust stroke and adjusting the valve overlap duration to trap more high temperature residual gas in the cylinder. The combustion stability of diesel-fueled HCCI combustion and the effects of engine load, speed, and valve overlap on it are the main points of investigation. The results show that: diesel-fueled HCCI combustion has two-stage heat release rate (low temperature and high temperature heat release) and very low $NO_x$ emission, combustion stability of the HCCI engine is worse at lower load because of misfire and at higher load because of knock, the increase in engine speed aids combustion stability at lower load because the heat loss is reduced, and increasing negative valve overlap can increase in-cylinder temperature which aids combustion stability at lower load but harms it at higher load.