Ford Global Technolgoies, LLC

Claudia Olivia Iyer

Jianwen James Yi

Brad Alan VanDerWege

Steven Wooldridge

Xiaogang Zhang

George Carver Davis

David Bruce Reiche

James Yi

FooChern Ting

Stephen George Russ

Neal James Corey

Zheng Xu

Zhiyu Han

Gary Alan Coulson

Steven Paul Penkevich

Ruben Humberto Munoz Pascua

Methods and systems are provided for a pre-chamber. In one example, a pre-chamber comprises a plurality of slots fluidly coupling it to a primary combustion chamber. The plurality of slots comprising a plurality of corresponding flaps configured to direct gases through the plurality of slots.

Systems for a pre-chamber

Systems and methods are provided for air and fuel delivery within a pre-chamber. In one example, an engine pre-combustion chamber comprises a first chamber portion centered along a first axis, and a second chamber portion joined to the first chamber portion and centered along a second axis arranged at an angle to the first axis. In this way, wall wetting may be decreased while favorable charge motion for robust ignition may be increased.

Systems and methods for active pre-chamber ignition

A fuel injector having an injector axis, comprising a first nozzle aiming in a first radial direction; a first nozzle pair aiming in radial directions each equally angled relative to the first direction, closest to the first radial direction, and having a longest radial offset; a nozzle second pair in radial directions each equally angled relative to the first direction; and another nozzle aiming opposite the first radial direction and having a shortest radial offset.

Fuel injector spray pattern

A method of forming a bowl in a top surface of a piston for an internal combustion engine includes machining the top surface of the piston to form a spherical depression in the top surface wherein the top surface comprises a dome prior to the machining and a center of the bowl is displaced from a center of the piston by at least one-quarter of a diameter of the piston. In one embodiment, the method includes machining recesses in the top surface aligned, respectively, with intake valves, an exhaust valve, and spark plug when installed. Because the bowl is smooth and shallow, the surface area of the combustion chamber is less than with a deeper bowl of complicated shape. Lowering surface area in the combustion chamber leads to improved fuel economy.

Shallow piston bowl and injector spray pattern for a gasoline, direct-injection engine

A system and a method of facilitating fuel vaporization in a directly injected internal combustion engine are provided. As one example, the method comprises: closing an exhaust valve of the cylinder; opening an intake valve after the exhaust valve has closed; moving a piston of the cylinder away from top dead center between the closing of the exhaust valve and the opening of the intake valve to expand the cylinder volume and reduce a pressure within the cylinder to below a pressure of an air intake manifold of the cylinder; and initiating an injection of fuel directly into the cylinder via an in-cylinder injector after the exhaust valve has closed.

Approach for improved fuel vaporization in a directly injected internal combustion engine

A system and a method of facilitating fuel vaporization in a directly injected internal combustion engine are provided. As one example, vaporization may be improved by coordinating the timing of the directly injected fuel with intake valve opening while also utilizing negative valve overlap between the intake and exhaust valves to generate reduced pressures within the cylinder.

A system and method for operating an internal combustion engine include injecting fuel through a plurality of fuel jets of a fuel injector directly into a corresponding cylinder with at least a first plurality jets oriented to primarily support operation in a stratified mode and a second plurality of jets oriented to primarily support operation in a homogeneous mode. The first plurality of jets is oriented to spray fuel generally downward toward the piston bowl and the second plurality of jets is oriented to spray fuel generally across the cylinder toward the exhaust valves. The spray jets reduce or eliminate valve, liner, and piston wetting while providing good mixing in homogeneous mode and good combustion stability for light stratified charge during cold starts to achieve desired targets for feedgas emissions and combustion efficiency.

Fuel injector spray pattern for direct injection spark ignition engines

A system and method for controlling combustion in a direct injection spark ignition internal combustion engine inject fuel directly into a combustion chamber in a wide-angle, hollow-cone spray to form a vortex that draws fuel vapor out of the spray to form a combustible fuel-air mixture at a spark location outside the hollow-cone spray. Various piston combustion bowl configurations further enhance the stability of the vortex and reduce fuel impingement on the piston surface while providing a desired compression ratio. Cylinder airflow is controlled to produce substantial swirl flow resulting in a more compact fuel cloud around the spark location to reduce over-mixing and improve robustness to cycle-to-cycle variation in the mixing process.

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Canton, MI, United States of America

Claudia Olivia Iyer