Fuel Effects on Throttle Transients in PFI Spark Ignition Engines

The fuel effects on throttle transients in PFI spark ignition engines were assessed through experiments with simultaneous step change of the throttle position from part load to WOT and increment of the injected fuel amount. The test matrix consisted of various gasoline/methanol blends from pure gasoline to pure methanol, coolant temperatures at 40C (for cold engine condition) and 80C (for warm engine), and different levels of fuel enrichment at the WOT condition. The x-τ model was used to interpret the engine GIMEP response in the transient. Using the model, a procedure was developed to calculate the parameters of the transient from the data. These parameters were systematically regressed against the fuel distillation points, the increment in injected fuel mass in the transient, and the enthalpy required to evaporate the fuel increment as the explanatory variables. While there was no significant correlations between the engine transient response to the fuel distillation points at 80C, there were such correlations at 40C. For both temperatures, the values of 1/τ and the change in the port liquid pool mass through the transient were linearly proportional to the increment of the injected fuel mass.