Energy Conversion and Management 48 (2007) 2751–2761

www.elsevier.com/locate/enconman

Combustion advancements in gasoline engines

Alex C. Alkidas *

Oakland University, Mechanical Engineering Department, School of Engineering and Computer Sciences, Rochester, MI 48309-4478, USA

Available online 11 September 2007

Abstract

This paper presents a critical review of the recent combustion advancements made in gasoline engines for the reduction of fuel con-
sumption and engine-out emissions, and the technologies associated with these advancements. For optimum combustion throughout
their speed/load range, engines should operate in three combustion modes: stratified-charge spark-ignited (SCSI), homogeneous-charge
spark-ignited (HCSI), and homogeneous-charge compression-ignited (HCCI). Key technologies to achieve this, with maximum reduction
in fuel consumption and emissions, are spray-guided direct-injection system, flexible variable-valve actuation, and, cylinder-pressure
based engine controls.
Ó 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Gasoline engines; Spark-ignition; DISI; HCCI; HCSI; HCSI; Direct injection; Homogeneous combustion; Stratified combustion

1. Introduction Limitations (a)–(c) result in significant increase in the

Port-fuel injection (PFI), spark-ignition (SI), gasoline
engines power the great majority of passenger cars in the
world. Despite the many advancements made, so far, limi-
tations, fundamental to this type of engine, could not be
overcome, and therefore we have sought other types of gas-
oline engines, which can overcome one or more of these
limitations. The fundamental limitations that plague the
PFI, SI, gasoline engine are (a) throttle load control, which
results in significant pumping losses during part-load oper-
ation; (b) propensity of the gasoline to knock under low
speed/high load conditions, which results in lowering the
compression ratio of the engine; (c) stoichiometric opera-
tion of the engine, required by the 3-way exhaust after-
treatment system, which results in unfavorable mixture
properties (low ratio of specific heats) due to the produc-
tion of high concentrations of CO2 and H2O; (d) high
engine-out unburned hydrocarbon (HC) emissions mainly
due to crevice HC; and (e) high engine-out NO emissions
due to the high combustion temperatures caused by the
stoichiometric combustion.
*
Tel.: +1 248 649 0180.
E-mail address: alkidas@oakland.edu
fuel consumption of the engine. On the other hand, the
high, engine-out, HC and NO emissions are not a problem
because the stoichiometric operation of the engine allows
for high conversion efficiencies of the 3-way catalyst.
The two gasoline engine combustion technologies,
which overcome some of the above limitations and have
great potential for passenger-car engine application, are
the direct-injection (DI) stratified-combustion spark-igni-
tion (SCSI) engine, and the homogeneous-charge compres-
sion-ignition (HCCI) engine. Both of these technologies
employ overall lean combustion, under highly diluted,
unthrottled operation. In comparison to the PFI gasoline
engine, the DI SCSI engine offers significantly lower fuel
consumption and engine-out NO emissions, and equivalent
levels of engine-out HC emissions. The HCCI engine offers
reductions in fuel consumption of similar magnitude to the
DI SCSI engine and it offers dramatic reductions in engine-
out NO emissions (greater than 90%, which may eliminate
the need for NO-exhaust after-treatment), but produces
significantly higher engine-out, HC emissions.
The main disadvantages, which are common to the above
two engine technologies are their limited speed/load (low-
to-medium) range, which dictates that the engines operate
in mixed combustion modes, and the lean-composition

0196-8904/$ - see front matter Ó 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.enconman.2007.07.027
2752 A.C. Alkidas / Energy Conversion and Management 48 (2007) 2751–2761

Nomenclature

AFR air–fuel ratio HCCI homogeneous-charge compression-ignition

BMEP brake mean effective pressure HCSI homogeneous-charge spark-ignition
BSFC brake specific fuel consumption HT heat transfer
bTDC before top-dead-center IMEP indicated mean effective pressure
CI compression ignition IVC intake valve closing
COMB combustion NEDC new European driving cycle
COV coefficient of variation NMEP net mean effective pressure
CR compression ratio NO nitric oxide
DI direct injection NSFC net specific fuel consumption
DISI direct-injection spark-ignition NVO negative valve overlap
EGR exhaust gas recirculation PUMP pumping losses
EVC exhaust valve closing SI spark ignition
FE fuel economy VVT variable-valve timing
HC hydrocarbons

and low temperature of their exhaust streams, which
require after-treatment technology, which unlike the 3-
way catalytic converters, is yet to be matured. An example
of a simple, mixed combustion mode engine is the mixed,
2-mode DISI, where the mixture is stratified with an overall
lean equivalence ratio composition during low load and
speed operation, while at the higher loads, and at all loads
at higher speeds, the engine is operated in the homoge-
neous/stoichiometric mode. More complex mode switching
will be presented later in the paper.
This paper reviews the advancements made on DISI
engines, operating under stratified conditions, to increase
fuel economy, improve combustion stability, and reduce
engine-out emissions, and the advancements made in
HCCI combustion for the control of auto-ignition and
the excessive rates of heat release, and to expand the limits
of HCCI combustion. Additionally, this paper discusses
the technologies needed for advanced gasoline engines to
operate throughout their speed/load range, by employing
various combustion modes. The focus of this study is solely
gasoline engines; therefore the discussion is limited to
engines with compression ratios below, say 13:1, although
occasionally it was necessary to reference works, which this
limitation was not observed. Furthermore, since the
emphasis is on combustion, exhaust after-treatment tech-
nology will not be treated here.
DISI engines. With lean combustion, pumping losses and
heat transfer losses are reduced and the cycle efficiency is
improved because of the improved thermodynamic condi-
tions. Moreover, with DISI engines, the engine compres-
sion ratio could be raised by a couple of ratios, because
of the extra charge-cooling effect offered by directly inject-
ing the fuel into the cylinder. This increase in compression
ratio obviously will raise the cycle efficiency further.
An example of the operational modes of a DISI engine
is shown in Fig. 1. As mentioned previously, the mixed-
mode DISI engine runs with a stratified charge and with
lean mixtures during low load/speed operation, and runs
with a ‘‘homogeneous’’ charge at higher load/speed points.
The homogeneous-charge operation could be split into
medium load regions where the charge is overall lean, or
highly diluted stoichiometric, and higher load regions
where the charge is stoichiometric or even rich. In some
cases the medium load region is eliminated, and the engine
is run either in the lean stratified mode, or in the stoichiom-
etric/rich homogeneous mode during the whole load/speed
range. With the exception at the highest loads, exhaust gas

2. Direct-injection spark-ignition engines (DISI)

There are two main variants of DISI technology cur-

rently of interest – the ‘‘homogeneous’’ DISI operated with
stoichiometric mixtures, and the mixed mode DISI, where
the mixture is stratified with an overall lean equivalence
ratio composition during low load and speed operation,
while at the higher load and speed the engine is operated
in the ‘‘homogeneous’’ mode. The mixed mode DISI, has
the highest fuel-economy (FE) benefit potential, and there-
fore we limit our discussion to the mixed mode type of Fig. 1. Operational modes of a DISI engine [1].
 A.C. Alkidas / Energy Conversion and Management 48 (2007) 2751–2761 2753

Fig. 2. Classifications of DISI combustion systems [6].

recirculation (EGR) is used extensively to control NOx stratified-combustion systems, is advanced, which will
emissions. The level of excess-air and EGR dilution used result in an increase in negative work, and consequently a
is determined primarily by the need to maximize fuel econ- reduction in the efficiency of the engine. Fig. 3 also shows
omy, while maintaining emissions and combustion stability the phasing advantage of the spray-guided system relative
at acceptable levels. to the wall-guided system, discussed earlier.
The combustion system of the direct-injection spark- Engine simulation computations, comparing a DISI
ignition engines may be classified into three broad catego- engine with a compression ratio of 11.2:1 and an equivalent
ries, shown in Fig. 2, according to the mechanism which PFI engine with a compression ratio of 9.4:1, showed that
dominates the mixture formation: air-guided, wall-guided the DISI engine had an overall 15% brake efficiency advan-
and spray-guided. In the air-guided and wall-guided com- tage, and consequently a 15% fuel-economy advantage
bustion systems the injector is placed a long distance from over the PFI engine on the FTP cycle. Fig. 4 shows the
the spark plug, and the fuel spray is directed towards the individual contributions of the various factors, which affect
spark plug by a well-defined, in-cylinder air motion or by the fuel economy. Positive contributions to the fuel
the interaction of the spray with the piston combustion economy of the DISI engine were obtained from the
cavity. In the spray-guided combustion system, the close
arrangement of the injector and the spark plug provides
a strong coupling between fuel preparation and ignition.
The development of the first generation of DISI engines
for production was mainly focus on the wall-guided com-
bustion system [2], however, most likely, the second gener-
ation of DISI may employ a spray-guided system because
of potentially additional FE improvements, wider stratified
combustion operation, and improved engine-out emissions
[3–5].
For the wall/charge-motion guided SIDI engines the
main contributors to their fuel-economy advantage over
port-fuel injection (PFI) engines are [7]: lower pumping
losses, favorable mixture properties due to lean/dilute
operation, lower heat losses due to the lower charge tem-
peratures, and higher compression ratio enabled by the Fig. 3. Typical heat release histories of stratified and homogeneous
charge cooling effects of direct injection. The fuel-economy combustion systems [26].
advantage of the SIDI engine would have been even greater
but for the lower combustion efficiency, combustion-phas-
ing losses, and the higher friction losses. In the case of the
spray-guided SIDI engines, both combustion-efficiency
losses and combustion phasing losses are lower, with the
result of a significant improvement of the fuel economy
of the spray-guided system over that of the wall/charge-
guided system.
The sub-optimal phasing of stratified DISI combustion,
observed by many investigators (e.g. [7–9]), is illustrated
very clearly in Fig. 3, which shows comparisons of heat
release histories of various stratified- and homogeneous-
combustion systems. In comparison to the homogeneous Fig. 4. The contributions of the various factors to the % fuel-economy
SI combustion (optimum phasing), combustion for both, improvement of a DISI engine over a baseline PFI engine [7].
2754 A.C. Alkidas / Energy Conversion and Management 48 (2007) 2751–2761
compression ratio (CR), heat transfer (HT) mixture prop-
erties (PROP) and pumping (PUMP); while negative con-
tributions were obtained from combustion (COMB), and
friction (FRICT). The results of Fig. 4 show that the big-
gest positive contributor to the FE advantage of the DISI
engine in comparison to the PFI engine was pumping,
which represented about 10% FE advantage, followed by
mixture properties (7.5%), heat transfer (2%), and,
compression ratio (3%). On the other hand, combustion
and friction, each resulted in about 4% deficiency in the
fuel economy of the DISI engine.
The break down of the 4% FE deficiency due to DISI
combustion is that 1% is attributed to phasing losses (i.e.,
non-optimal phasing of the heat release history) and 3%
is due to the decrease in combustion efficiency, primarily
due to the deterioration of the engine-out HC emissions.
On the other hand, the breakdown of the 2% positive con-
tribution of heat transfer is as follows: a loss of 4.3% in FE
because of the larger surface area in the DISI engine,
caused by the piston bowl and the non-flat piston crown
(40% higher piston surface area), and a 6.3% FE gain
due to the lower in-cylinder gas temperatures. The latter
is in spite of the fact that the in-cylinder convective heat
flux in DISI engines should increase relative to that in
the PFI engine due to the larger heat transfer coefficients
caused by the higher in-cylinder motions and the larger
densities occurring in the DISI engine.
Table 1 shows the 7-point steady-state test series used to
simulate the FTP cycle during warmed-up conditions.
These points were selected based on matching the engine
to a 2400-kg vehicle and a four-speed automatic transmis-
sion. The test points were divided into three categories
according to the test conditions: near idle, light load and
medium load. At near idle, and light load conditions, com-
bustion was stratified, by employing a late-injection strat-
egy. At the medium load conditions, combustion was
homogeneous, stoichiometric, by employing an early-injec-
tion strategy. Table 1 also shows the % fuel-economy
improvement achieved at each test point. As expected, DI
stratified combustion resulted in a 19–23% fuel-economy
improvement over the PFI engine, and the DI homoge-
neous, stoichiometric combustion resulted in about 7%
improvement.
For the near-idle conditions, the largest contributor to
the FE advantage of the DISI over the PFI engine is pump-
Table 1
Steady-state, 7-point simulation of FTP testing for the single-cylinder DISI engine [7]
Near-idle
Test points: 1 2
Speed, rev/min 600 846
BMEP, kPa 136 115
NMEP, kPa 158 133
Time weighted, % 19.7 38.98
Combustion mode Stratified
FE % improvement 20.2 19.4
ing, followed by mixture properties and heat losses. Com-
bustion and friction have a large negative impact on FE
at these conditions. At the light-load conditions, the gains
in FE improvements with the DISI engine contributed by
pumping is reduced due to the reduction in throttling losses
in the PFI engine as the load is raised. However, the con-
tributions of the mixture properties to the FE gains of
the DISI is seen to increase in comparison to that at the
near-idle loads, and it is here approximately equal to the
pumping contribution. The positive influence of heat trans-
fer with the DISI is still evident, while the negative contri-
butions from combustion and friction are reduced. Finally,
at the medium-load conditions, where early-injection strat-
egy was employed, mixture properties has the largest con-
tribution to FE, followed by compression ratio and
pumping. As expected, the influence of friction, heat trans-
fer and combustion are very small. It is to be noted that,
other than CR and the different piston areas, the main dif-
ference between the DISI and PFI engines, that could affect
the indicated efficiency at these conditions, is the use of
high levels of EGR in the DISI engine.
From the above results, it is very clear that by eliminat-
ing the combustion losses, through nearly optimal phasing
and improvement in the engine combustion efficiency to a
level comparable to that of the PFI engine, and by reducing
heat losses through reduction of the combustion chamber
surface area and reduction in the in-cylinder air motion,
one may expect additional fuel-economy improvements of
the order of 5–7%.
The stratified-charge, spray-guided DISI engine offers
much promise for achieving and surpassing the aforemen-
tioned goals [3,4,7]. The advantage of this system, which
its injector placement is in the vicinity of the spark plug,
is that combustion phasing is less advanced than the
corresponding wall-guided system [26], thus its combustion
phasing is closer to optimal phasing, it has better
containment of the fuel in the piston bowl, which ensures
lower engine-out hydrocarbons, and consequently, higher
combustion efficiency, it requires shallower and simpler
piston bowl design, with significantly lower surface area
[3,4,10] and it requires little or no in-cylinder air motion
[11,12].
Fig. 5 shows a sectional view of the piston bowl, spark
plug and injector, and the fuel spray and vapor distribution
in the combustion chamber of a spray-guided DISI optical
Light-load Medium-load
3 4 5 6 7
1133 1357 1400 1520 1736
204 401 260 445 549
232 291 431 484 590
15.29 9.91 6.09 4.97 3.28
Stratified Homogeneous
20.4 22.9 5.6 6.7 7.3
 A.C. Alkidas / Energy Conversion and Management 48 (2007) 2751–2761
Fig. 5. Photo showing the combustion geometry, and fuel spray and
vapor distribution for a stratified operating condition [10].
engine, for a stratified operating point. The piezo-electric,
outwards opening, fuel injector (fuel pressure up to
20 MPa), delivered two sequential injections. A very
important point, presented in this photo, is that there is
no evidence of liquid fuel present on the floor of the bowl.
This agrees with the findings of Raimann et al. [13], and is
probably due to the low penetration of the piezo-electric
fuel spray [5]. The presence of liquid fuel on the piston sur-
face is a source of HC and smoke exhaust emissions [14].
Frohlich and Borgmann [15] demonstrated that a vehi-
cle powered by an engine employing a spray-guided-com-
bustion system with piezo-electric injectors could have a
fuel-economy improvement potential of more than 20%
over a corresponding vehicle powered by a standard PFI
engine, and a specific power potential that exceeds
60 kW/L. Wirth et al. [3] performed tests on a 2-L, I4,
spray-guided, SIDI engine employing multi-hole injectors.
Based on a full mapping of the engine in the relevant
speed/load region they projected the following New Euro-
pean Driving Cycle (NEDC) fuel-economy gains, over an
equivalent PFI engine, without EGR: 4% for PFI with twin
VCT, 11% for wall-guided SIDI, and 15.5% for spray-
guided SIDI. Van Der Wege et al. [4] developed a spray-
guided, SIDI combustion system, which employed a
wide-cone angle (80°), outward opening, pintle injector
operating at a nominal pressure of 20 MPa. In this com-
bustion system, which was dubbed vortex-induced stratifi-
cation combustion (VISC), the optimum ignition location
is in the recirculation zone outside of the fuel spray, which
provides the benefit of avoiding any fuel wetting of the
spark plug. In contrast to the expected behavior of spray-
guided systems [11,12], they found that increasing the in-
cylinder swirl ratio to about 1.5 resulted in improved com-
bustion stability and combustion efficiency, a reduction in
the fuel consumption and elimination of misfires (based
on 300 cycles). The spray-guided SIDI engine had an
18% reduction in fuel consumption in comparison to a
baseline PFI engine, and a 6% reduction in comparison
to a wall-guided SIDI engine, over a simulated steady-state
test cycle, which neglects cold starts and transients. Com-
parisons of the spray-guided engine to the wall-guided
engine, at a part load condition, resulted in reductions of
11.2% in NSFC and 60% in HC.
2755
Fig. 6. Combustion stability for different injection timings as a function of
spark timing [12].
Based on the results of the above studies, it is clear that
the spray-guided SIDI combustion system has a fuel-econ-
omy advantage over the corresponding wall-guided and
air-guided combustion systems, but it has somewhat infe-
rior combustion stability (higher COV of IMEP), and like
the other SIDI systems, produces higher engine-out hydro-
carbon (HC) emissions than PFI spark-ignition engines. A
problem, that may have significant negative influence on
the potential application of the spray-guided combustion
SIDI system, is that the ignition timing range for robust
combustion is relatively narrow. Fig. 6 shows that, for a
given end-of-injection (EOI) timing, the range of ignition
timings, for which an acceptable combustion-stability level
(COV of IMEP < 5%) is obtained, is only 4°; indeed a very
narrow window. If however, injection and ignition timings
are swept together such that a difference between the end-
of-injection and ignition is maintained near 4° or 5°, the
acceptable operating range, based on combustion stability,
is much broader (ignition timing range 15°). The COV
results of Fig. 6 show that the optimum occurs near an
EOI timing of 37° bTDC with an ignition timing near
33° bTDC. At this set of timings for optimum COV, the
fuel consumption and engine-out HC emissions are min-
ima, and a sampling of 30,000 cycles showed no misfires.
The dramatic rise in COV, a few degrees away from the
optimum ignition timing, is attributed to misfires, the fre-
quency of which rapidly increases, especially for over-
advanced ignition timings. Here, it should be stated that
the misfire frequency may not be zero (1 in 10,000 cycles,
or less), even for well developed spray-guided DISI systems
operating at optimum stratified conditions.
3. Homogeneous-charge compression-ignition (HCCI)
engines
In a homogeneous-charge, compression-ignition engine
the fuel and air are premixed to form a homogeneous
mixture, which is then auto-ignited by compression.
The ignition and subsequent combustion of the charge is
2756 A.C. Alkidas / Energy Conversion and Management 48 (2007) 2751–2761

predominantly controlled by chemical kinetics, which, in
turn, implies that the gas–temperature and gas–pressure his-
tories, to a lesser degree, strongly influence the combustion
process. Also, auto-ignition occurs at various locations in
the combustion chamber (multi-point ignition), which may
cause extremely high rates of heat release, and consequently,
high rates of pressurization, if left unchecked. For HCCI
engines, ignition cannot be controlled directly, similar to
the spark for SI engines or in-cylinder injection for diesel
engines. Thus, a key challenge is controlling the start of com-
bustion and the rate of heat release, for a wide range of oper-
ational conditions of the engine.
The HCCI-combustion mode of an engine is limited to a
middle-load range. At light loads, because of low gas tem-
peratures and low equivalence ratios (low fuel concentra-
tions) the engine experiences ignition difficulties and
reduction in its combustion efficiency. The latter is caused
by the decrease in the in-cylinder oxidation of the crevice
hydrocarbons and the decrease in the rate of the conversion
of CO to CO2. At the high loads, the engine experiences
difficulties in controlling auto-ignition, which result in
excessive in-cylinder pressure rise that may cause combus-
tion noise, knock and engine damage. Fig. 7 shows the
region of HCCI-combustion mode of a 4-cylinder engine
and presents comparisons relative to the SI-combustion
mode of the percent change in (a) brake specific fuel con-
sumption (BSFC), (b) NOx emissions and (c) unburned
hydrocarbons (HC) emissions. It is clear that the HCCI-
combustion mode achieved large reductions in fuel con-
sumption, dramatic decreases in NOx emissions, but,
equally dramatic, increases in HC emissions.
The methods employed for controlling auto-ignition in
gasoline engines and expanding the HCCI-combustion
mode are
Intake preheating is an effective way to promote and
control auto-ignition. Fig. 8 shows the stable combustion
region for HCCI combustion as a function of preheating
intake temperature and air–fuel ratio (AFR), for a com-
pression ratio (CR) of 15:1. For these conditions, the max-
imum indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP) achieved
was 400 kPa for an AFR of about 30 and a preheating tem-
perature of 415 K.
In most studies, intake preheating was done using elec-
trical energy, which in a vehicle application would be a par-
asitic energy loss. However, recently, two investigations
employed the exhaust-stream, waste, thermal energy
[20,21] to preheat the intake air. In the case of Yang
et al. [20], the waste thermal energy of the coolant system
was also utilized. In a related matter, the work of Milova-
novic et al. [38] is notable for employing coolant-tempera-
ture control to expand the limits of HCCI operation.
Increasing the coolant temperature from 90 °C to 125 °C
extended the lower limit by 28%; decreasing the coolant
temperature from 90 °C to 65 °C extended the upper limit
by 14%.
Increasing the compression ratio facilitates auto-ignition
and expands the range of HCCI-combustion mode, thus

1. preheating of intake charge [16–21];

2. compression ratio [21];
3. exhaust-gas recirculation (EGR) [17,18];
4. residuals (internal EGR) [37,22–28];
5. direct injection [21,29–32];
6. direct injection during the NVO period [33–36]; Fig. 8. Stable HCCI-combustion region showing constant-IMEP lines
7. spark-assisted ignition [21,26,28,35]. [19].

Fig. 7. BMEP vs rpm showing % reductions of (a) BSFC; (b) NOx; (c) HC [37].
 A.C. Alkidas / Energy Conversion and Management 48 (2007) 2751–2761
one expects that the HCCI engines should favor higher
compression ratios. This, however, may not be the case.
Both, Najt and Foster [16] and Thring [17] found that
lower-compression-ratio engines were a better compromise
for smooth HCCI combustion. Corroborating evidence
was also provided by Christensen et al. [39], who found
that the combustion efficiency of a variable-compression
ratio, HCCI engine, fuelled with reference fuels (mixtures
of isooctane and n-heptane) of octane number (ON) rang-
ing from 0 to 100, decreased linearly with increasing com-
pression ratio. This decrease in combustion efficiency,
which directly effects negatively the fuel consumption of
the engine, was attributed to the increase of crevice HC
and the decrease in oxidation rates of HC and CO with
increasing compression ratio. The decrease in these oxida-
tion rates, in turn, was attributed to the resulting lower gas
temperatures during the post-combustion period of the
expansion stroke.
Charge dilution by combustion products, either by
exhaust gas recirculation or by trapping in-cylinder, resid-
ual gases, is probably the most effective method for facili-
tating and controlling auto-ignition and for expanding
the load/speed range of HCCI-combustion mode. Zhao
et al. [40], following the work of Ladommatos et al. [41]
for diesel engines, examined the role of recycled burned
gases on controlling auto-ignition in 4-cycle gasoline
engines. The effects considered were (a) increase in intake
charge temperature (heating effect); (b) reduction of oxygen
concentration (dilution effect); (c) increase in specific heat
of the mixture (heat-capacity effect); (d) chemical interac-
tions involving the CO2 and H2O species of the recycled
burned gases (chemical effect); and (e) stratification of the
recycled burned gases (stratification effect). They found
[40] that the dilution and heat capacity effects are responsi-
ble for reducing the heat-release rates and extending the
combustion duration, which, substantially is in agreement
with computational results obtained by Dec [42]. Addition-
ally, they reported [40] that the heating effect is mainly
responsible for the advance timing of auto-ignition, and
the residuals-stratification effect facilitates HCCI combus-
tion. In contrast, Law et al. [43] suggested that reactive spe-
cies, present in the residuals, facilitate auto-ignition, and
the inert species slow down the combustion rate (dilution
effects).
As mentioned earlier, HCCI combustion is controlled
by chemistry, which suggests that is strongly affected by
the in-cylinder temperature and composition. The role of
the recycled burned gases is to provide high enough tem-
perature to facilitate auto-ignition but keep the combustion
temperatures sufficiently low and provide enough dilution
of the oxidation species, such as to reduce the rates of heat
release. For engines with flexible valve-actuation mecha-
nism, trapping of large amounts of residual gases may be
achieved by different methods, which broadly, may be clas-
sified into two categories, namely: the recompression or
exhaust retention strategies and the rebreathing or exhaust
reinduction strategies. In the recompression strategy,
2757
which, most popularly, is termed the negative valve overlap
strategy (NVO), the residual gases are trapped in the cylin-
der and undergo recompression during the final stages of
the exhaust stroke. This is achieved by closing the exhaust
valve relatively early in the exhaust stroke. In the rebreath-
ing strategy, a portion of the already exhausted gases from
the cylinder is readmitted into the cylinder during the
intake stroke. This strategy may be accomplished in several
ways. For example, the exhaust valve after closure, reopens
during a segment of the intake process to admit (rebreath)
a portion of the exhaust gases, which is residing in the
exhaust port and manifold [22], or the exhaust valve clo-
sure (EVC) is retarded, beyond intake-valve closing
(IVC), which allows exhaust gases to reenter the cylinder
[24,27].
Both residual-control strategies were employed by Law
et al. [22], in a single-cylinder gasoline engine with flexible
valve actuation, which operated in the HCCI-combustion
regime. These strategies were found to be equivalent,
although in the recompression method there is some pump-
ing of the residual gases, which, however appears to be very
small [22]. On the other hand, a comprehensive study per-
formed by Caton et al. [27], in a single-cylinder engine with
flexible valve actuation, but at a compression ratio of
15.5:1, showed that rebreathing strategies resulted in signif-
icantly lower fuel consumption and NO emissions, but
higher HC emissions than recompression strategies. They
concluded that a rebreathing strategy, which employed var-
iable-intake-lift control, produced the best combination of
load range, fuel consumption and emissions.
Recompression or NVO strategies for residuals control
in gasoline engines was employed by Law et al. [22], Li
et al. [37], Kaahaania et al. [24], Koopmans and Denbratt
[23], Hiraya et al. [19], Fuerhapter et al. [26] and Caton
et al. [27], to name a few. Rebreathing strategies were
employed by Law et al. [22], Kaahaania et al. [24], Fue-
rhapter et al. [26,30], and Caton et al. [27].
A computational study performed by Dec [42] to inves-
tigate aspects of HCCI combustion, showed that at light
loads, say, idle and near-idle conditions, bulk-gas quench-
ing of the CO and HC oxidation reactions due to low com-
bustion temperatures, causes substantial combustion
inefficiency, and consequentially increase in fuel consump-
tion, and CO and HC emissions. This result, as pointed out
by Dec [42], suggests that there is a fundamental low-load
limit to HCCI combustion. Also, Dec [42], offered a possi-
ble method to expand this low-load limit: fuel stratification
to maintain high local equivalence ratio, which may result
in no engine-efficiency penalty, and possibly minimizing the
effect on engine-out emissions.
Direct injection, potentially, could be an ideal
approach to fuel stratification. Marriott and Reitz [44],
in a heavy-duty, single-cylinder, diesel engine converted
to a high-compression ratio (16.1:1), gasoline, DI engine,
showed that fuel stratification may be use to control CI
combustion, but not solely, over the speed/load range of
the engine. Stratification improved slightly fuel efficiency,
2758 A.C. Alkidas / Energy Conversion and Management 48 (2007) 2751–2761
due to lower HC emissions [45], but NO emissions were
significantly higher. Sjoberg et al. [29], also using a
high-compression ratio diesel engine converted to gasoline
(85% gasoline/15% ethanol) DI engine, showed that fuel
stratification causes a trade-off between combustion effi-
ciency and NO emissions. In a subsequent study, Dec
and Sjoberg [30] found that that fuel stratification is only
effective as control knob to HCCI-combustion for fueling
levels below that, which causes quenching of the oxidation
reactions.
Multiple injections, is one of potential methods in die-
sel engines to control combustion and emissions [46,47].
In the case of a gasoline DI CI engine, Marriott and
Reitz [44] found that split injection was very effective
in reducing the heat-release rates and expanding the
acceptable speed/load range of the engine. In the past
few years, several different investigations [33–36] were
made on HCCI engines employing a split-injection strat-
egy. In this strategy, the first injection, the pilot injec-
tion, occurred prior to TDC, during the negative-valve-
overlap (NVO) period, and the main injection occurred
after TDC, during the intake period. During the NVO
period, the combustion chamber of the engine contains
only hot, combustion products (residuals). The injected
pilot fuel undergoes reforming, thus producing radicals
and other intermediate species, which promote auto-
ignition of the fuel injected during the main injection
period.
Urushuhara et al. [34] found that a single injection during
the NVO period expanded significantly the low load limit of
the engine. A further expansion of this low load limit was
achieved with a split injection strategy. This is demonstrated
clearly in Fig. 9, which shows the amount of fuel injected
during the NVO period (injection time: hinj = 390°) on
the variation of fuel consumption with engine load. Also
superimposed in this figure are the results of a single injec-
tion during the intake process (hinj = 290°), which serve
as a reference for evaluating the split-injection strategy.
Injecting 3 mm3 of fuel, in comparison to 1 mm3, expands
the low load limit of the engine without affecting fuel con-
Fig. 9. ISFC vs IMEP for various injection timing strategies (IT = hinj)
[34].
sumption. However injecting all the fuel (about 12 mm3)
during the NVO period, increases significantly fuel con-
sumption, which was attributed to non-optimal auto-igni-
tion timing, and contracts the low load limit. Single
injection during the intake process has the highest fuel con-
sumption for most of the load range, with the exception at
the highest load.
Guohong et al. [36] found that split injection in the
NVO period extended the load range, not only at the
low-load limit, but also at the high load limit. Also, they
observed improvements in combustion stability. Koop-
mans et al. [33], found that the magnitude of advance-
ment of the auto-ignition of the fuel injected during
main-injection process was dependent on the amount of
oxygen available during the NVO period and the amount
of pilot fuel.
A likely method to expand the low load limit of the
HCCI combustion is spark assist. One may expect that
the extra ignition energy provided by the spark should
ignite fuel–air mixtures that are borderline non-ignitable;
therefore, one may expect to see improvements in misfire
frequency and combustion stability, but only at light loads,
and, consequently a lowering of the low load limit of the
engine. On the other hand, at higher loads, the effects are
not so clear because the spark may initiate flame-propaga-
tion combustion.
In agreement with the above speculation, Fuerhapter
et al. [26] found that spark assist improved the combustion
stability of their DI HCCI engine, especially at the lower
loads, despite the fact that the highly lean mixtures in the
chamber could not be ignited by the spark. On the other
hand, they found that the 50%-mass-burned fraction was
not significantly affected by the spark. Hyvonen et al. [21]
concluded that spark-ignition could be effectively used to
control auto-ignition of fuel–air mixtures of equivalence
ratio in the range 0.26–0.42 (k-range: 2.4–3.8). They found
that, for the same auto-ignition phasing, spark-assisted
combustion requires lower intake preheating or lower com-
pression ratio. For higher load conditions (1500 rpm,
k = 1.2, and around 45% residuals), Kalian et al. [35] found
that spark assist could control the HCCI combustion of a
DI engine. Fig. 10 shows that spark assist could advance
the start of HCCI combustion. The influence of spark assist
is more pronounced in the retarded-injection-timing case
(hinj = 90° aTDC), where fuel stratification is expected to
be stronger. Recently, in a related topic to spark assist,
Urushihara et al. [48] proposed a new engine-combustion
concept, called SI–CI combustion where a small quantity
of fuel, sufficiently large to sustain SI stratified combustion
(AFR = 300 at 1200 rpm), is directly injected into the
chamber, and port injection of the main body of the fuel
is employed to generate a homogeneous lean mixture in
the chamber for HCCI combustion. The SI combustion
‘triggers’ the HCCI combustion. Preliminary results
showed a significant extension of the high load limit, how-
ever, this was accompanied with a large increase in NO
emissions.
 A.C. Alkidas / Energy Conversion and Management 48 (2007) 2751–2761
Fig. 10. Spark-assist control of HCCI combustion in a DI gasoline engine: (a) hinj = 30° aTDC and (b) hinj = 90° aTDC [35].
4. Overview
A gasoline engine operating under stratified, spray-
guided DISI conditions offers a significant fuel-economy
advantage with similar engine-out HC emissions, and
lower NO emissions, over an equivalent PFI, SI engine.
Correspondingly, a gasoline HCCI engine with, however,
more technology content than the DISI engine, may have
equally good fuel economy as the DISI engine, but with
dramatically lower engine-out NO emissions. Additionally,
the HCCI engine has significantly higher engine-out, HC
emissions.
The problem however is that the great fuel-economy
advantage of both of these engine combustion systems,
could not be realized fully, because of their limited speed/
load range of application. Therefore, to operate through-
out its required speed/load range, an engine will be
required to operate under dual or multiple modes of com-
bustion. To illustrate, Fig. 11, shows a proposed speed/
load map of an engine with multiple combustion modes
of operation [31]. At near idle conditions, the DI engine
operates in a stratified overall lean combustion mode
(SCSI). At low and medium speeds and low loads, the
engine operates in a lean HCCI combustion mode. At an
intermediate-to-high load and speed range, the engine
operates at homogeneous-charge/stoichiometric combus-
tion with residual dilution (HCSI), and at high loads for
Fig. 11. Combustion modes of an advanced engine with VVT mechanism
[31].
2759
most of the speed range and for all loads at very high
speeds, the engine operates under homogeneous-charge
rich combustion (HCSI).
Thus, to optimize combustion throughout the speed/
load range of an engine, the engine should be able to oper-
ate in three combustion modes, namely: (a) stratified-
charge SI combustion, (b) homogeneous-charge SI com-
bustion and (c) homogeneous-charge CI combustion.
Key technology requirements to achieve this combus-
tion flexibility are
1. spray-guided direct-injection system and
2. flexible, variable-valve actuation.
To optimize these choices, one may employ a high
pressure (20 MPa) low penetration injector (e.g., piezo-
electric) to minimize soot or HC emissions resulting from
liquid spray impingement on the piston surface, and a
high energy ignition system, for reducing the chance of
misfires at very light loads. Additionally, thermal manage-
ment of the cooling system may assist in ignition and
combustion at very light loads, and may further expand
the high load limit of the fuel-efficient modes of combus-
tion, namely SCSI, and HCCI combustion. Likewise,
intake-pressure boosting (e.g., turbocharging, supercharg-
ing) may increase the high load limit of SCSI and HCCI
combustion.
Cold start, transients, smooth transitions (switching)
from one mode of combustion to another, aggressive cali-
bration for optimum fuel economy and emissions all
require excellent engine control, which may only be
achieved by cylinder-pressure-based engine control.
It is clear that an advanced gasoline engine, whose
development was such as described above, may have fuel
consumption and gaseous emission levels equivalent or bet-
ter to that of to-day’s technology diesel engines, but with-
out the serious problem of particulate emissions, which
plague diesels.
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