High-speed photography and image analysis techniques applied to study droplet motion within the porting and cylinder of a 4-valve SI engine

High-speed cine photography has been applied to an optically-accessed version of a modern 4-valve, pent-roof, SI engine in order to observe the behavior of fuel under cold starting and warm-up conditions. A wall film was formed on the combustion chamber surface in the vicinity of the valves when fuel was supplied by pintle and disk-type injectors. This wall film survived combustion but was drawn into the exhaust system when the exhaust valves opened. The use of an air-blast atomizer avoided the formation of this wall film, but some wetting of the piston was apparent, as it was with the other types of injector.