Abstract
Recently gasoline direct injection method has been applied to gasoline engine to reduce fuel consumption rate by controlling fuel air mixture on lean condition by means of stratified charging, and to reduce simultaneously. Pollutant emissions especially NOx and CO by lowering the combustion temperature. But difficulty of controling local fuel air ratio at ignition area in flammability limit unavoidably appeared, because it is merely controlled by injection timing with spatial and temporal distribution of fuel mixture. In this study, the authors devised a uniquely shaped combustion chamber so called three-chamber GDI engine, intended to keep the more reliable fuel air ratio at ignition area. The combustion chamber is divided into three regions. The first region is in the rich combustion division, where the fuel is injected from the fuel injection valve and ignited by the spark plug. The second region is in the lean combustion division, where the combustion gas from the rich combustion division flows out and burns on lean condition. And the last region is in the main combustion division ie in the cylinder, where the gas from the above two combustion divisions mixed together and completes the combustion during expansion stroke. They found that the stable range of operation of three-chamber GDI engine on low-load condition exists in the lean area of average equivalence ratio. And they also found that the reformed engine reveals less specific fuel consumption and less pollutant emissions compared with conventional carburettor type gasoline engine.