K.

Yamane
e-mail: yamane@mech.usp.ac.jp

Y. Shimamoto
Department of Mechanical Systems Engineering,
The University of Shiga Prefecture,
2500 Hassaka, Hikone,
Shiga 522-8533, Japan

Combustion and Emission

Characteristics of Direct-Injection
Compression Ignition Engines by
Means of Two-Stage Split and
Early Fuel Injection
The objective of this study was to experimentally clarify the effect of two-stage split and
early injection on the combustion and emission characteristics of a direct-injection (DI)
diesel engine. Engine tests were carried out using a single-cylinder high-speed DI diesel
engine and an injection system, combining an ordinary jerk pump and an electronically
controlled high-pressure injection system, KD-3. In these experiments to compare the
combustion and exhaust emission characteristics with two-stage split and early injection,
a single-stage and early injection was tested. The FT-IR exhaust-gas analyzer simultaneously measured the exhaust emissions of 26 components. The results showed that
HCHO, CH 3 CHO, and CH 3 COOH were emitted during the very early stage of both
single injection and two-stage injection. These concentrations were higher than those
from diesel combustion with ordinary fuel injection timings. These exhaust emissions are
characteristic components of combustion by premixed compression ignition with extremely early injection. In particular, the HCHO concentration in exhaust was reduced
with an increase in the maximum rate of heat release after cool flame due to pre-reaction
of pre-mixture. At extremely early injection, the NO x concentration was extremely low;
however, the indicated specific fuel consumption (ISFC) was higher than that of ordinary
diesel combustion. In the case of two-stage injection, the degree of constant volume is
increased, so that ISFC is improved. These results also demonstrated the possibility of
reducing HCHO, NO x , and smoke emissions by means of two-stage split and early
injection. DOI: 10.1115/1.1473157

Introduction
Premixed compression ignition combustion, such as that accomplished by homogeneous charge compression ignition HCCI
Ryan III et al. 1 or by premixing at extremely early stages of
compression stroke by direct-injection Takeda et al. 2 has the
potential to achieve ultra-low exhaust emissions. However, although such combustion can sharply reduce NOx emissions, it is
still characterized by a number of lingering problems. For example, it is difficult to control the ignition timing and the operating region is limited to lower engine loads. In addition, premixed
compression ignition combustion is characterized by high THC
and CO concentrations and high fuel consumption. For this reason, a new combustion concept based on compression ignition of
a lean pre-mixture using multiple injection with a single injector
Yokota et al. 3 and a two-stage split injection with multiple
injector and injection systems Hashizume et al. 4 have been
proposed. The aim of both combustion systems is to obtain lower
NOx and particulate emissions by compression ignition of a lean
pre-mixture derived from preliminary injection at partial load and
by ordinary diesel combustion under lower concentration of oxygen by second-stage injection at higher engine load.
The combustion system proposed in the present study can be
outlined as follows. NOx concentration is reduced by combustion
of a over lean-mixture formed by the first-stage injection. Most of
pre-mixture is combusted by second-stage injection, and thus the

amount of second-stage injection controls the engine load. This

combustion system is based on a hybrid of premixed compression
ignition combustion and ordinary diesel combustion. The over
lean pre-mixture is formed by the first-stage injection between the
early and middle stages of the compression stroke, and then a
portion of that pre-mixture is combusted by compression ignition,
and the remainder by second-stage injection. In this study, we
investigate exhaust emissions, and particularly the emission of
HCHO derived from premixed combustion such as that in spark
ignition engines, and we clarify the relationship between combustion and emission characteristics.

Experimental Apparatus and Procedures

Test Engine and Operating Conditions. The experiments
were carried out on a single-cylinder, horizontal-type, four-stroke-

Contributed by the Internal Combustion Engine Division of THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERS for publication in the ASME JOURNAL OF
ENGINEERING FOR GAS TURBINES AND POWER. Manuscript received by the
ICE Division, July 13, 2000; final revision received by the ASME Headquarters,
December 5, 2001. Editor: D. N. Assanis.

660 Vol. 124, JULY 2002

Fig. 1 Combustion chamber configuration

Copyright 2002 by ASME

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Table 1 Main specifications of a test engine and injection

systems
Engine type
Bore x stroke
Displacement
Compression ratio
Swirl ratio
Combustion chamber
Fuel injection system
Injection nozzle

Direct-injection diesel engine

Single cylinder, water-cooled
102 mm105 mm
0.857 liters
17.8:1
2.4
Toroidal
KD-3 plunger dia.6.5 mm
PFR-1 plunger dia.9 mm
DLLA150P224

cycle DI diesel engine Yanmar NFD170 that was naturally aspirated and water cooled. Table 1 shows the main specifications of
the test engine and injection systems. A toroidal-type piston cavity
as shown in Fig. 1 was used. The engine was operated at 1800
rpm and at a fixed cooling-water temperature of 80C.
A nozzle orifice diameter of 0.22 mm was employed in this
experiment. An injection nozzle orifice was fixed for all experiments to compare combustion and emission characteristics under
ordinary combustion chamber shape and nozzle orifice. Therefore,
the injection nozzle orifice is not an optimum one to attain best
efficiency and lowest exhaust emission at the two-stage split and
early injection.
Injection System and Method of Split Injection. To realize
the two-stage split and early injection SPEI, two injection systems connected with a check valve were used as shown in Fig. 2.
The first-stage injection between the early and middle stages of
the compression stroke was achieved by an electromagnetic controlled high-pressure injection system, KD-3, as shown Fig. 3.
This injection system is applied oil-hammering in a convergent
injection pipeline, which was developed by one of the authors
Ikegami et al. 5. The injection timings of the first-stage injection were changed by this system, and the injection quantity was
fixed. To change the engine load, the injection quantity at the
second-stage injection was changed by means of a jerk-type pump
installed with an engine camshaft, and the injection timing was
fixed at TDC. To compare the combustion and emission characteristics with SPEI, a single-stage and early injection EI was
tested by using a KD-3 injection system.
Under engine-firing conditions, the injection fuel quantity was
measured by integration of an injection rate waveform which was
determined by applying a partial computer simulation technique.
This method uses the measured pressure at the nozzle holder-inlet,
the measured nozzle needle-lift, and the measured cylinder pressure as input signal data. The maximum injection pressure at the

Fig. 2 Layout of second-stage injection system

nozzle holder-inlet was controlled to 30 MPa to form a locally

rich-mixture for SPEI, and for EI it was elevated to 70 MPa to
realize the combustion by compression ignition with premixed
lean mixture.
Measurement of Exhaust Gas Emissions. Smoke density
was measured by a Bosch-type smoke meter, and exhaust gas
emissions of 26 components, including NO, NO2 , lower HCs, and
unregulated components, i.e., HCHO, etc., as shown in Table 2,
were simultaneously measured by an FT-IR exhaust gas analyzer
Horiba MEXA-4000FT.

Experimental Results and Discussion

Effect of First-Stage Injection Timings on Combustion and
Emission Characteristics. Figure 4 shows the effect of firststage injection timings, j1 , on indicated specific fuel consumption, b i , indicated mean effective pressure, p i , degree of constant
volume, glh , combustion efficiency, i , NOx , smoke
HC(C1 C7 ), HCHO, CH3CHO, and HCOOH for both the SPEI
and EI at fixed engine speed of 1800 rpm and equivalence ratio of
0.4. For SPEI, the amount of fuel injected at the first-stage
injection maintained at six times that of the amount injected at the

Fig. 3 Schematic illustration of a high-pressure injection system using oilhammering in a convergent pipeline, KD-3 Ikegami et al. 5

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Fig. 4 Effect of first-stage injection timings, jl on indicated specific fuel consumption, b i , indicated mean effective pressure, p i ,
degree of constant volume, glh , combustion efficiency, i , concentrations of NOx , smoke, HCC1 C7 , HCHO, CH3 CHO, and
HCOOH

second-stage injection. i was calculated as the ratio of the

amount of heat release at the combustion end derived from measured cylinder pressure to theoretical amount of heat release estimated from amount of injected fuel per one stroke, and glh was
calculated as the ratio of the product of rate of heat release and
Otto cycle thermal efficiency for small division in crank angle to
an integrated amount of heat release derived from measured cylinder pressure.
We can see in this figure that concentration of NOx is a very
low level of less than 100 ppm for both of SPEI and EI at earlier
injection timing of 70BTDC. The smoke number ranges from 1
to 2. It appears that this smoke resulted from the low injection
pressure of the second-stage injection, and thus that this smoke
would be reduced by the second-stage injection with high injection pressure Yamaneet al. 6. The concentrations of gas components, HCHO, CH3 CHO, and HCOOH for both of SPEI and EI
were remarkable high in the combustion. All three of these concetrations were clearly higher than the corresponding concentrations in ordinary diesel combustion. The pre-mixture formed by
extremely early injection is oxidated at lower temperature, then
HCHO is formed. The mixture with the oxidation reaction reaches
at cylinder wall layer and its reaction is quenched by wall layer
and ambient air, because wall temperature and ambient air are
lower than the mixture with oxidation reaction. As the result, exhaust gas concentration of HCHO indicates high level.
Figure 5 shows the courses of cylinder pressure, p, net rate of
heat release, q , mean gas temperature, T g , which is calculated
from measured cylinder pressure thermodynamically, and lift of
nozzle needle, h z , at different first-stage injection timings. In this
figure it is shown that there are two peaks in the rate of heat

Table 2 Gas components measured by FT-IR exhaust gas

analyzer
CO, CO2, NO, NO2 , N2O, H2O, NH3, SO2 , HCHO, CH3CHO
CH3 OH, CH3COCH3, (CH3 ) 3 COCH3, HCOOH,
CH4 , C2H4, C2H6, C3H6,C3H8, 1,3-C4H6, iso-C4H8,
n-C4H10, iso-C4H10, C6H6, C7H8, NONO2

662 Vol. 124, JULY 2002

release. The first peak results from the cool-flame caused by the
pre-reaction of pre-mixture and corresponding generation of formaldehyde, i.e., HCHO Yanagihara 7. The second peak of q
represents a hot flame of pre-mixture combustion. This peak at the
retarded injection timings is higher than that at the advanced injection timings. At SPEI, it drops before TDC and links with that
by diffusion combustion by a second-stage injected fuel. It lasts to
expansion stroke after TDC. Thus the indicated mean effective
pressure, p i , goes down at the late injection timing. In the case of
the late injection timings that the peak of hot-flame shows high
level in both EI and SPEI, unstable ignition occurs and combustion control is difficult.
In the case of the latest injection timing of EI, an event of q by
cool and hot-flame is exhibited at a little earlier crank angle than
that at other injection timings. This will be because the injected
spray impinges at the top-land of piston and pre-mixture is formed
more quickly. However, in the present study the spray penetration
and piston cavity shape on the formation and ignition of premixture are not clear, because of not changing spray nozzle orifices and piston cavity shapes.
The maximum of q in both peaks at SPEI is lower than that at
EI. This is because the injection pressure for the first-stage injection at SPEI is lower than that at EI. For this reason, the degree of
mixing of fuel and air is deteriorated and the rich mixture is
formed locally. As a result, the amount of combustible mixture
decreases and the degree of pre-reaction is controlled. For SPEI,
the rich mixture formed by the first-stage injection will be quickly
burnt in a diffusion combustion with the fuel injected at secondstage injection. As a result, glh in the case of SPEI was improved. For this reason, it is seen that p i became higher and b i
became lower than in the case of EI.
Figure 6 indicates the effects of first-stage injection timings,
jl , on the concentration of exhaust gas emissions including unregulated species measured by FT-IR. It is shown that the characteristic components in the exhaust gas species were HCHO,
CH3 CHO, CH4 , and C2 H6 for both SPEI and EI. This indicates
that the pre-mixture formed by the first-stage injection undergoes
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Fig. 5 Courses of cylinder pressure, p, rate of heat release, q , mean gas temperature, T g , and lift of nozzle needle, h z , at different first-stage injection timings n e 1800 rpm, 0.4

a lower temperature oxidation reaction with cracking of hydrocarbons, simultaneously, and these species are stored in the quenching zone; wall layer.
In generally, the chemical species of HCHO, which is one of
the species of ignition, is emitted and stored by an oxidation
chemical reaction referred to as a cool-flame reaction and characterized by lower temperature and sufficient reaction time. The
HCHO results in a quick oxidation reaction referred to as a hotflame at high pressure. Then, the HCHO is consumed. In Fig. 4 it
Journal of Engineering for Gas Turbines and Power

is found that a higher concentration of HCHO is emitted in the

exhaust. This result suggests that all molecule of HCHO do not
always transit to hot-flame. This is because the cool-flame with
HCHO is quenched at the wall region with lower temperature, and
HCHO is emitted with unburned hydrocarbons.
Effect of Equivalence Ratio on Combustion and Emission
Characteristics. Figure 7 shows the effect of equivalence ratio,
, on combustion characteristics and exhaust emissions at SPEI
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Fig. 8, rate of heat release, q , before the start of the second-stage

injection is slightly changed. This is due to the pressure fluctuation of first-stage injection. This fluctuation little affected combustion and emission characteristics in this experiment.
From Fig. 7, it is found that the engine performance b i , p i ,
glh by SPEI is worse than those by the ordinary diesel combustion. However, concentration of NOx is especially lower than that
of ordinary diesel combustion, which is below 100 ppm. And
smoke density is lower than that of the ordinary diesel combustion
under the range of lower equivalence ratio. Under higher equivalence ratio, smoke density in the case of ordinary diesel combustion reaches high in spite of high-pressure injection of 70 MPa.
This may be due to the secondary injection as shown in the
courses of needle lift h z in Fig. 9. There is a tendency for HCHO,
CH3 CHO, and HCOOH to be reduced with an increase in equivalence ratio. This result suggests that HCHO with high concentration is consumed and decomposed by diffusion combustion of fuel
injected at the second-stage injection.
At lower equivalence ratio, the concentration of unburned hydrocarbon HC (C1 C7 ) shows a high level, and b i increases remarkably. This is because that amount of fuel injected at second
stage is less. For this reason, most of the pre-mixture formed by
first-stage injection does not burn and remains.
From Fig. 7 it is seen that degree of constant volume glh
decreases with an increase in equivalence ratio in the case of
SPEI. This is because the combustion period is elongated to later
crank angle with an increase in amount of fuel injected at secondstage as shown in Fig. 8.
Figure 10 indicates a relationship between HCHO concentration in exhaust and the maximum rate of heat release, q max . It is
clear that HCHO concentration is greatly reduced with an increase
in q max . This shows that decomposition of HCHO strongly depends on the appearance of hot-flame linked diffusion flame. And
it is found that the slope falls quickly, as shown in Fig. 10. This
suggests that the oxidation rate of HCHO in the transition from
cool-flame to hot-flame is very high.
At a higher maximum rate of heat release, that is, at q max of
over 50J/deg, HCHO concentration increases. In this case, the
first-stage injection timing was retarded at EI. This result indicates
that the amount of HCHO quenched and stored at the cylinder
wall increases with the retardation of injection timings, and due to
the combustion without diffusion flame for EI the amount of
HCHO decomposition is limited. Hence, it is important to reduce
the maximum rate of heat release due to hot-flame in order to
reduce the concentration of HCHO in the exhaust.

Fig. 6 Concentrations of exhaust gas emissions including unregulated species analyzed by FT-IR for different first-stage injection timings, j 1 n e 1800 rpm, 0.4

and ordinary diesel combustion. Equivalence ratio, , was

changed by the amount of fuel injected at the second-stage injection of SPEI, and the first-stage injection timing, jl , was fixed at
82 deg BTDC. The amount of first-stage injected fuel to that of
second-stage was the same with the case of 0.4 in Fig. 4
which a stable combustion was obtained. The ordinary diesel
combustion was realized by using a KD-3 injection system. In this
case, an injection timing was fixed at 6 deg BTDC. The best
thermal efficiency was indicated in this engine speed and this
injection timing by employed injection and combustion system in
experiments. For this reason we fixed the injection timing to 6 deg
BTDC. Figure 8 shows the courses of p, q , T g and h z at different
equivalence ratios for SPEI, and for KD-3 the courses of p, q ,
T g h z and pressure in the nozzle inlet, p N , are shown in Fig. 9. In
664 Vol. 124, JULY 2002

Relationship Between NOx , Smoke, and Indicated Specific

Fuel Consumption ISFC. This section shows a present view
about the possibility of SPEI to reduce emission and fuel consumption by comparing ordinary diesel combustion in a limited
engine operating range of present experiments.
Figure 11 shows the relationship between smoke, NOx , and
ISFC at the first-stage injection timing changes and fixed the
second-stage injection timing, TDC for SPEI and EI, and the injection timing changes for ordinary diesel combustion. It can be
seen that the relationships between smoke and NOx , ISFC, and
NOx in the case of retarding injection timing for the SPEI and EI
is on the opposite relation of that in the ordinary diesel combustion. In the case of the SPEI and EI, and smoke density reduces
with a decrease in NOx concentration with extremely advancing
first-stage injection timing. This is because the pre-mixture over
lean-limit is formed and is quenched at the region of cylinder
wall. As the first-stage injection timing retards, smoke and NOx
concentrations increase. This is considered that a portion of that
lean pre-mixture becomes hot flame, then this flame heats the
quenched mixture reached at the wall region. For this reason, soot
is formed at the wall region and is emitted. But NO concentration
does not reach a high level because of a lean combustion without
a rapid pressure rise.
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Fig. 7 Effect of equivalence ratios, , on engine performance and exhaust gas emissions at SPEI and
ordinary diesel combustion obtained by KD-3 injection system

At the later injection timing of both EI and SPEI there is a

tendency to smoke reduction. This will be because the amount of
lean flammable pre-mixture grows, most of their mixture quickly
burns, and the rapid pressure rise with a fluctuation in a tail of the
heat release rate curve occurs as shown in Fig. 5. For this reason,
combustion temperature rapidly goes up and its burnt gas is kept
at higher temperature. Especially at EI, NOx concentration be-

comes high. But due to the excess air in the mixture, smoke density does not becomes high.
In the case of the ordinary diesel combustion, smoke and NOx
concentrations are reduced at extremely retarded injection timing.
This is because the ignition delay becomes long and a larger
amount of pre-mixture is formed. Due to lower gas temperature
by expansion stroke, smoke and NOx are reduced.

Fig. 8 Courses of p , q , T g , and h z for different equivalence ratio

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JULY 2002, Vol. 124 665

Fig. 9 Courses of p , q , T g , h z and the pressure in nozzle holder-inlet, p N , for different equivalence ratio, , by using a KD-3 injection system

Fig. 10 Relationship between HCHO from exhaust and maximum of rate of heat release q max

There is a tradeoff relationship between ISFC and NOx for

SPEI, EI and ordinary diesel combustion. At ordinary diesel combustion as the injection timing retards NOx decreases and ISFC
increases. At SPEI and EI, as the first-stage injection timing retards, NOx increases and ISFC decreases. At a late injection timing of first-stage injection, the level of ISFC at SPEI is lower than
that at EI, and that curve approaches a curve at ordinary diesel
combustion. But this ISFC level is approximately 50% higher than
that of the ordinary diesel combustion. This is due to a long combustion duration. This problem will be improved by reduction of
combustion duration by means of the second-stage injection with
higher pressure. Therefore, SPEI has the possibility to improve
ISFC at a late injection timing of first-stage injection. However, to
control the timing and intensity of the occurring of hot-flame is
indispensable.

Fig. 11 Relationship between smoke density, indicated specific fuel consumption ISFC,
and NOx concentration obtained from experimental results by first-stage injection timing
changes for SPEI and EI, and injection timing changes for ordinary diesel combustion

666 Vol. 124, JULY 2002

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Conclusion
This study experimentally investigated the effects of secondstage split and early injection SPEI on the combustion and emission characteristics of a DI diesel engine. The results showed that
HCHO, CH3 CHO, and CH3 COOH were emitted during the very
early stage of both single injection EI and second-stage injection
SPEI. In particular, the HCHO concentration in exhaust was
reduced with an increase in the maximum rate of heat release after
cool-flame due to pre-reaction of pre-mixture. The NOx concentration of EI and SPEI was extremely low at extremely advanced
timing of the first-stage; however, the indicated specific fuel consumption ISFC was higher than that of ordinary diesel combustion. SPEI have a possibility to approach ISFC to that of ordinary
diesel combustion at a retarded timing of first-stage injection. Also
SPEI can extend the engine operating region; changing engine
loads, which is one of the problems in the premixed compression
ignition combustion. However, at higher engine load, a high injection pressure of over 100 MPa, for the second-stage injection,
will be needed to greater reduce the smoke density and the fuel
consumption.

Journal of Engineering for Gas Turbines and Power

References
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2 Takeda, Y., Nakagome, K., and Niimura, K., 1996, Emission Characteristics
of Premixed Lean Diesel Combustion With Extremely Early Staged Fuel Injection, SAE Technical Paper 961163.
3 Yokota, H., Kudo, Y., Nakajima, H., Kakegawa, T., and Suzuki, T., 1997, A
New Concept for Low Emission Diesel Combustion, SAE Technical Paper
970891.
4 Hashizume, T., Akagawa, H., and Tsujimura, K., 1997, Emission Reduction
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Diesel Fuel Injection System Using Spool Acceleration and Oil Hammering,
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