Study of combustion in a divided chamber turbocharged diesel engine by experimental heat release analysis in its chambers

A heat release analysis of experimental pressure diagrams, appropriate for divided chamber diesel engines, is developed and used to obtain heat release rate profiles during the combustion process in each of the two combustion chambers. Attention is paid to the correct processing of the data, due to the inherent complexity of the mass interchange between the two chambers. The analysis refers to a turbocharged, indirect injection (divided chamber) diesel engine, located at the authors’ laboratory, which has a small pre-chamber and a very narrow connecting passageway. The experimental indicator diagrams obtained from both chambers are processed in connection with the pertinent application of the energy and state equations. From the analysis results, plots of the history in the two chambers of the heat release rates, temperatures, heat fluxes, equivalence ratios, etc. reveal some very interesting features, which aid the interpretation of the associated combustion mechanism.