Effects of the injection timing on knock and combustion characteristics in dual-fuel dual-injection engines

To utilize ethanol fuel in spark ignition engines more efficiently and flexibly, a new ethanol/gasoline dual-direct injection concept in gasoline engine is proposed. Therefore, based on the dual-fuel dual-direct injection system, the effects of different injection timings and two injector positions on the characteristics of combustion were studied comprehensively, and the effects of different octane numbers and temperature stratifications on knock and combustion were explored. The results show that as for Position A (ethanol injecting toward spark plug), with the delay of injection timing, knock tendency and its intensity increase initially and then decrease due to the comprehensive effect of ethanol evaporation and fuel stratification; on the contrary, for Position B (ethanol injecting toward end-gas region), retarding the injection timing of ethanol can effectively reduce the knock propensity. As for the engine performance, a dual-direct injection performs best, especially the retarded injection timing of ethanol for Position A. It can be found that with the delay of the fuel injection timing, the torque first increases and then decreases. The brake-specific fuel consumption decreases initially and then increases at maximum brake torque spark timing.