Experiment and Analysis of a Direct Injection Gasoline Engine Operating with 2-stroke and 4-stroke Cycles of Spark Ignition and Controlled Auto-Ignition Combustion

Over recent years, in order to develop more efficient and cleaner gasoline engines, a number of new engine operating strategies have been proposed and many of them have been studied on different engines but there is a lack of different comparison between various operating strategies. In this work, a single cylinder direct injection gasoline engine equipped with an electro-hydraulic valvetrain system has been commissioned and used to achieve seven different operation modes, which are 4-stroke throttle-controlled SI, 4-stroke intake valve throttled SI, 4-stroke positive valve overlap SI, 4-stroke negative valve overlap CAI, 4-stroke exhaust rebreathing CAI, 2-stroke CAI and 2-stroke SI. Their performance and emission characteristics are presented and discussed. Results show 4-stroke positive valve overlap SI, 4-stroke NVO CAI and exhaust rebreathing CAI modes have better fuel economy and lower NOx emissions due to the low pumping loss and recirculation of the large amount of exhaust gases.