Intake Port Fuel Transport and Emissions: The Influence of Injector Type and Fuel Composition

Experimental studies have been carried out on a spark ignition engine with port fuel injection to examine the influence of injector type and to contrast this with the effects of fuel composition. Intake port fuel transport characteristics and engine-out emissions for fully-warm and warm-up engine operating conditions have been examined as indicators of performance. The investigation has encompassed four types of injector and five gasoline blends. Fuel transport has been characterised using the τ and X parameters. The influence of injector type on these is of similar significance as that of changes in gasoline composition between summer and winter grades. The latter will limit the in-service accuracy of open-loop mixture control during transients. Injector type has a small effect on engine-out emissions under fully-warm operating conditions but has a significant influence on emissions during the early stages of warm-up. HC versus CO plots from warm-up data provide good discrimination of the effects of injector type, which again have similar levels of significance as the effects of changes in fuel composition.