A control apparatus for a compression-ignition type engine is applied to an engine capable of carrying out partial compression ignition combustion in which an air-fuel mixture is subjected to CI combustion by self-ignition. The control apparatus creates a lean A/F environment where an air-fuel ratio as a ratio between air and fuel in a cylinder exceeds 20 and is lower than 35, or a lean G/F environment where a gas air-fuel ratio as a ratio between entire gas and the fuel in the cylinder exceeds 18 and is lower than 50 and the air-fuel ratio substantially matches a stoichiometric air-fuel ratio. Prior to planned timing of the CI combustion, in the lean A/F environment or the lean G/F environment, the control apparatus causes an ignition plug to generate a spark and to generate a high-temperature portion.

An opposed-piston engine according to an embodiment is a first fuel injection device configured to inject fuel from a circumferential wall surface of at least one cylinder into the cylinder, and a second fuel injection device disposed to be displaced in a circumferential direction so as to be opposite to the first fuel injection device across an axial center of the cylinder. Each of the first fuel injection device and the second fuel injection device includes a plurality of injection holes having different injection directions, in a cross-section orthogonal to the axial direction. A direction directed by a first downstream injection hole is configured to pass through a second injection region, and a direction directed by a second downstream injection hole is configured to pass through a first injection region.

A piston for an internal combustion engine is provided. The piston includes a piston bowl defined by a floor surface and a rim wall extending from an outer periphery of the floor surface in a system vertical direction to circumferential surround the floor surface. The piston bowl includes a center portion that extends above the floor surface. A plurality of protrusions extend radially from the center portion and from the floor surface and are spaced apart such that a spray guide is formed between each of the spaced apart plurality of protrusions. Each of the plurality of protrusions and spray guides are tapered so to terminate prior to the rim wall such that a continuous radius portion is formed from a portion of the rim wall and a portion of the floor surface beyond a respective terminating portion of each of the plurality of protrusions and spray guides.

The present invention discloses an apparatus for optimizing the fuel/air mixing process of an internal combustion engine. The bottom surface of the cylinder head is provided with a plurality of brackets; a ring is fixed to the brackets; and the ring may be an integrated ring body and may also be composed of a plurality of small segments. The ring is positioned opposite to a fuel injector and located in an area where fuel flows in the the combustion chamber. The ring can continuously guides the fuelduring the fuel injection process. The ring can be arranged in the liquid-phase region, the gas-liquid two-phase region or the gas-phase region. When the location of the ring interferes with the movement of valves of the internal combustion engine, the part of the ring body that interferes with the movement of the valves can be removed.

The piston has a contoured combustion bowl with a radially inner shelf portion that is spaced axially away from the radially outer lip portion a first axial distance, and a swirl pocket that extends radially from the radially inner shelf portion and defines a lower axial extremity that is spaced axially away from the radially outer lip portion a second axial distance that is greater than the first axial distance. The swirl pocket defines a tangent extending in the radially outer direction, forming an acute angle with the radially outer lip portion ranging from 70 degrees to 80 degrees.

A method for operating an internal combustion engine of a motor vehicle having a cylinder, the combustion chamber of which is delimited in the radial direction by a cylinder wall and in the axial direction by a piston and by a combustion chamber roof. The piston has an annularly peripheral piston stage which is arranged axially recessed in the piston compared with an annularly peripheral piston crown and which merges via an annularly jet splitter contour into a piston hollow arranged axially recessed in the piston in relation to the piston stage. An injector is allocated to the cylinder and via the injector several injection jets are simultaneously injected directly into the combustion chamber in a star shape for a combustion process.

Provided is an ignition control section and an injection control section. When partial compression ignition combustion is carried out, the ignition control section causes an ignition plug to carry out: main ignition in which a spark is generated in a late period of a compression stroke or an initial period of an expansion stroke to initiate SI combustion; and preceding ignition in which the spark is generated at earlier timing than the main ignition. Also, when the partial compression ignition combustion is carried out, the injection control section causes an injector to inject fuel at such timing that the fuel exists in a cylinder at an earlier time point than the preceding ignition. Ignition timing of the preceding ignition is set to be more retarded when an in-cylinder pressure specified by an in-cylinder pressure specification section is high than when the in-cylinder pressure is low.

A control apparatus for a compression-ignition type engine is applied to an engine capable of carrying out partial compression ignition combustion in which an air-fuel mixture is subjected to CI combustion by self-ignition. The control apparatus creates a lean A/F environment where an air-fuel ratio as a ratio between air and fuel in a cylinder exceeds 20 and is lower than 35, or a lean G/F environment where a gas air-fuel ratio as a ratio between entire gas and the fuel in the cylinder exceeds 18 and is lower than 50 and the air-fuel ratio substantially matches a stoichiometric air-fuel ratio. Prior to planned timing of the CI combustion, in the lean A/F environment or the lean G/F environment, the control apparatus causes an ignition plug to generate a spark and to generate a high-temperature portion.

Operating an internal combustion engine includes conveying fuel of spray plumes of directly injected fuel out of a swirl pocket in a combustion bowl in a piston, and impinging the fuel upon an anti-sooting ramp transitioning between a radially inner shelf surface of the combustion bowl and a radially outer squish surface of the piston. The shelf surface is spaced an axial distance (FA) from a plane defined by the squish surface that is from 1% to 2% of an outer diameter (OD) dimension of the piston. Impinging the fuel upon the anti-sooting ramp directs the fuel upwardly from the squish surface to limit wall-wetting in the combustion cylinder.

A combustion chamber structure for an engine includes a combustion chamber where SI combustion by spark ignition and CI combustion by self-ignition are conducted. A crown surface includes a cavity recessed to have a bowl-shape; a pair of first raised portions having a mound-shape along a pent roof shape; and a second raised portion provided to protrude at a position orthogonal to a ridge extending direction of the pair of first raised portions. With a height of the first raised portion relative to a height position of a deepest portion of the cavity being represented as H1 and a height of the second raised portion being represented as H2, H1/H2 as a ratio of the height H1 of the first raised portion to the height H2 of the second raised portion is set to be in a range of 1.92 or more and 2.75 or less.