Effects of intake swirl on the fuel/air mixing and combustion performance in a lateral swirl combustion system for direct injection diesel engines

To study how intake swirl affects the combustion performance of the lateral swirl combustion system (LSCS), experiments under different swirl ratios were carried out in a single-cylinder diesel engine to optimize the circumferential injection angle (CIA) and test the eventual combustion performance. Then, simulation under different swirl ratios was conducted to reveal the influence mechanisms of intake swirl on the fuel/air mixing characteristics of the LSCS. Experimental results show that, as the swirl ratio (SR) was increased from 0 to 1.0, the optimal CIA increased 2.5° in the opposite direction to that of the intake swirl. Besides, the LSCS obtained better combustion performance with SR = 0 than with SR = 1.0, especially at high loads and low excess air coefficients. Simulation results indicate that, generating intake swirl weakens the wall-flow-guided and interferential interactions of the LSCS, thereby deteriorating the in-cylinder air utilization and fuel/air mixing uniformity, especially at high loads and low excess air coefficients, in which the interactions between the LSCS chamber and spray jets is strong due to the enhanced spray penetration ability. Therefore, the LSCS without intake swirl obtains the optimal fuel/air mixing and combustion performance in DI diesel engines.