Knocking and Combustion Characteristics at Rich Limit of Gasoline HCCI Engine

Variable valve timing is one of the attractive ways to control homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) engine. Hot internal residual gas which can be controlled by variable valve timing(VVT) device, makes fuel evaporated easily, and ignition timing advanced. Regular gasoline was used as main fuel and di-methyl ether(DME) was used as ignition promoter in this research. HCCI engine operating range is limited by high combustion peak pressure and engine noise. High combustion pressure can damage the engine during operation. To avoid engine damage, the rich limits have to define using various methods. Peak combustion pressure, rate of cylinder pressure rise was considered to determine rich limit of engine operating range. Knock probability was correlated with the rate of cylinder pressure rise as well as the peak combustion pressure.