Direct Injection Strategy to Extend the Lean Limit of a Passive Pre-Chamber

Abstract Lean operation increases the efficiency of the Otto-cycle internal combustion engine and decreases its emissions. However, increasing the air-fuel ratio beyond stoichiometry requires higher ignition energy to maintain the stable operation of the engine. The pre-chamber emerges as one of the promising enablers of lean operation, providing much larger energy into the main combustion chamber than simple a spark plug at multiple sites to increase combustion stability. Pre-chambers are classified into two categories based on their fuel input; active pre-chambers, with a dedicated fuel injection system, and passive pre-chambers, which are solely charged with the main chamber air-fuel mixture through nozzle holes. Therefore, the passive pre-chamber type is favorable for existing engines because of its compact design and limited modification requirements. Nevertheless, passive pre-chambers have issues with igniting very lean mixtures. In this study, a single-cylinder light-duty engine is used to study the possibility of extending the lean limit of the passive pre-chamber using a split direct injection (DI) strategy and indirect enrichment of the pre-chamber mixture. The results of the split injection method were then compared to port fuel injection (PFI) measurements. Also, another set of experiments was performed with a standard spark plug using PFI and split DI for comparison. The results showed an increase in the lean limit of passive pre-chamber operation when using the split DI strategy compared to PFI, from λ = 1.5 to 1.7. However, increased soot production was observed when using the split injection strategy.