Investigation of the benefits of passive TJI concept on cycle-to-cycle variability in a SI engine

During the last years, the sales of vehicles equipped with Spark-Ignition (SI) engines have increased, to the detriment of those powered by Compression-Ignition (CI) engines. However, SI engines provide lower efficiency than CI engines, due to the low compression ratio and stoichiometric mixture operation. A way to increase the efficiency of SI engines is lean combustion, as it allows to increase the specific heats ratio (gamma) and reduces pumping losses at part loads. Nevertheless, the operation with extremely lean mixtures deals with ignition issues, promoting Cycle-to-Cycle Variability (CCV) and increasing the probability of misfire. The prechamber ignition concept, also known as Turbulent Jet Ignition (TJI), is a promising solution for enabling the implementation of lean combustion, without its drawback in SI engines. Such a concept can be implemented according to two approaches: In active TJI, there is an additional fuel supply system inside the prechamber, while in passive TJI there isn't. Therefore, the main advantage of passive TJI is its simplicity, as the prechamber can be installed into a conventional spark plug body, with obvious benefits in terms of packaging and costs. In this work, the benefits of passive TJI on combustion and performance are assessed by simulation analyses. Particularly, a 1-D engine model was developed to simulate the TJI combustion and was validated versus experimental data. Afterward, a 0-D method was applied to assess the impact of the relative air-fuel ratio on CCV. The analysis was carried out in a high speed and load operating condition, namely 4500 rpm and 13 bar of IMEP, under both stoichiometric and lean mixture. Experimental and numerical results demonstrate the effectiveness of the passive TJI concept in promoting faster and more stable combustion also in lean-burn conditions.