Air‐fuel 

Mixing in SI and CI 
Engine

Dhananjay Kumar Srivastava
Assistant Professor
Department of Mechanical Engineering
IIT Kharagpur
Fuel Injection
• Carburettor
• Port Fuel Injection (PFI)
• Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI)
Port Fuel Injection (PFI)
Hot Film Anemometry 
 fuel injection pressure is constant
hence, amount of fuel is determined by
time for which the PFI is open. fixed
value is 3-5 bar for various uses

PFI Injector
Fuel Supply System
Port Fuel Injection (PFI)
electronic throttle :
drie by wire
technology
Injector Location
fuel is injected onto
the back of the inlet
valve. it utilises the
heat of valve during
engine runnig to get
itself varpourised

when engine has just

started temp of all
parts will be at
normal outside temp,
so fuel will not
vapourise ans also
will not go inside the
cylinder and this is
disadvantage of PFI
and this phenomenon
is called WALL
WETTING

so to avoid this, more

also in cold temp fuel (3x - 4x) is
conditions, at the injected at the
start of engine cranking(starting)
time
Fuel Injection Strategy 
Injection Strategy 
• Simultaneous injection
• All injectors open and close together.
• The time which is available for fuel evaporation is different for each cylinder.
• Fuel injected in two portions: half in one revolution of the crankshaft and the remainder in
the next.
• Group Injection
• Fuel injectors are combined to form two groups.
• For one revolution of the crankshaft, one injector group injects the total fuel quantity
required for its cylinders, and for the next revolution the second group injects.
• Sequential Injection
• The fuel is injected individually for each cylinder.
• The fuel injectors are actuated in succession in firing sequence
• Cylinder‐individual fuel injection
• CIFI has the advantage that the duration of injection can be individually varied for each
cylinder
• Stoichiometric operation of each cylinder requires a cylinder‐specific lambda recording here.
 Cyl 1 Cyl 2 Cyl 3 Cyl 4

Intake

Compression

Expansion

Exhaust
Injection Strategy 
Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI)
 fuel injection
pressure 50-200 bar
for homogeneous
combustion to
counter the cylinder
pressure and also to
atomise

Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI)

Homogeneous Combustion Stratified Combustion

fuel intake takes

places at intake fuel intake takes
stroke place at the end of
compression stroke
 CI engine : Diesel
engine from here on

Essential Features of Process

Fuel Injection Atomization in small drops
fuel injection
pressure is very high

Fuel Vaporization Penetrates into the combustion chamber

Mixing with air Combustion
 Spray Characterization
atomisation (liq ->
vapour) takes place
after finite length and
this length is called
• Spray Angle break up length
high speed camera` • Spray Break Up Length
• Spray Tip Penetration
• Droplet Size Distribution
Phase Doppler partcle analyser to
measue the droplet size
Common Rail Direct Injection (CRDi)
injection pressure :
200 bar - 1800 bar
8. high pressure fuel
pump
6. high pressure fuel
line
4. fuel rail (pipe)
5. pressure sensor
7. pressure regulation
sensor
3. solenoid injector
2. high pressure line
 fuel pressure can be
maintained based on
sensors 6 and 8
Common Rail Direct Injection (CRDi)

in CRDi fuel
injection pressure
1, high pressure pump can be varied but for
2. filter a given engine its
3. fuel tank constant based on
4. low pressure pump requirement and
5. rail engine operating
6. pressure sensor condition
7. solenoid injector
8. pressure regulator
sensor return line

light blue: low

presuure line
CDRi : can inject
dark blue : high
multiple injections in
pressure line
one cycle
1. pre injection
2. main injection
3. post injection
Common Rail System

• The function of pressure

generation & fuel injection are
separated.
• This takes place by means of an
accumulator volume composed of
the CR & the injectors.
• Injection pressure is independent
of engine speed or injected fuel
quantity.
• Presently, pressures range up to
2000 bar.
Stages of Combustion in SI Engines

 Detailed process of combustion in actual engine is different from the theoretical process. Combustion process
in an actual SI engine as consisting of three stages:

 A shows the point of the passage of the spark (about 20° BTDC), B the point at which the first rise of the
pressure can be seen (about 8° BTDC) and C the attainment of the peak pressure.

 AB represent the first stage (Ignition lag)

 BC represent the second stage (Propagation of flame)

 CD represent the third stage (Afterburning)

Assignments

Explain the conventional coil spark‐ignition system. What are the advanced 
ignition systems? Describe each ignition system (conventional and advance) in 
detail with their working principle and parts. 
 delay period: time after which the two situations :
fuel autoignites after reaching the 1. temp <
auto-ignite temp autoignition temp ==
no knocking
flame front speed: the time taken 2. temp >
for spark to travel into the cylinder autoignition temp
The Phenomenon of Knock in SI Engines
away from spark plug agaain two sub-cases
a. delay period <
flame front speed =
knocking takes place
b. delay period >
flame front speed =
auto ignition takes no knocking
place due to
compression of un
burned mixture(in
CC'D) and high
temp. hence there is
an upper limit to the
compression ratio

 Fig (a) shows the cross-section of the combustion chamber with flame advancing from the spark plug
location: Without knock.
 Fig. (c) shows the combustion process with knock.
 In the normal combustion the flame travels across the combustion chamber from A towards D.
 The advancing flame front compresses the end charge BB’D farthest from the spark plug, thus raising
its temperature.
 The temperature is also increased due to heat transfer from the hot advancing flame front.

in SI: knocking takes

place after TDC
in CI : knocking
takes place before
TDC
Heat Release Process from DI Diesel Engines

Start of End of
injection c injecction
d e
-20 -10 TC 10 20 30

(a)Ignition Delay Period

(b)Premixed Combustion
(c) Mixing Controlled combustion
(d) Late Combustion
When a diesel engine, originally designed to be naturally aspirated, is turbocharged the fuel/air equivalence ratio at full 
load must be reduced to maintain the maximum cylinder pressure essentially constant. If the naturally aspirated engine was 
designed for ɸ = 0.75 at full load, estimate the maximum permissible value of ɸ for the turbocharged engine at full load if 
the air pressure at the engine inlet is 1.6 atm. Assume that the engine can be modeled with the dual cycle, with half the 
injected fuel burned at constant volume and half at constant pressure. The compression ratio is 16. The fuel heating value is
42.5 MJ/kg fuel. Assume ƴ = 1.35, that the air temperature at the start of compression is 325 K, and (F/A)stoich = 0.0666.
Gas is sampled at 1 atmospheric pressure from the exhaust manifold of an internal combustion engine and analyzed. The
mole fractions of species in the exhaust are

H2O = 0.0468; CO2 = 0.0585; O2 = 0.123; N2 = 0.772

Other species can be neglected.

(a) The fuel is a synthetic fuel derived from coal containing only carbon and hydrogen. What is the ratio of hydrogen
atoms to carbon atoms in the fuel?
(b) Calculate the equivalence ratio at which this engine is operating.
(c) Is the internal combustion engine a conventional spark‐ignition or a diesel engine? Explain.

(d) Estimate approximately the percentage by which the fuel flow rate would be increased if this engine were operated
at its maximum load at the same speed (2000rpm).

1 𝑦 𝑦 1 𝑦 𝑦 1 𝑦
𝐶𝐻 1 𝑂 3.773𝑁 → 𝐶𝑂 𝐻 𝑂 1 1 𝑂 1 3.773𝑁
∅ 4 2 ∅ 4 4 ∅ 4
Reference
• J.B. Heywood: Internal combustion engine fundamentals
• Robert Bosch: Gasoline engine management
• Robert Bosch: Diesel engine management