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In a previous study, we demonstrated that the isobaric combustion cycle, achieved with a split injection strategy, can be more suitable for the double compression expansion engine concept than the conventional diesel combustion cycle. The present work is focused on understanding the effect of different injection strategies on the heat release, efficiency, and emissions of isobaric combustion at the peak cylinder pressure of 150 bar. In situ injection rate measurements are performed to improve our understanding of the heat release rate shape and pollutant formation. A variation of load is performed to demonstrate the feasibility of the isobaric combustion cycle at higher loads, and the means of achieving them. The thermal efficiency reduces at lower loads because of heat losses. It peaks at a medium load point before reducing again at higher loads because of exhaust losses. The effect of altering the injection strategy on the isobaric combustion cycle is also studied at a constant equivalence ratio. The alteration of injection strategy is proven to have minimal effect on efficiency, loss mechanisms, and emissions when more than one injection is used.

Due to stringent emission standards, the demand for higher efficiency engines has been unprecedentedly high in recent years. Among several existing combustion modes, pre-chamber spark ignition (PCSI) emerges to be a potential candidate for high-efficiency engines. Research on the pre-chamber concept exhibit higher indicated efficiency through lean limit extension while maintaining the combustion stability. In this study, a unique pre-chamber geometry was tested in a single-cylinder heavy-duty engine at low load lean conditions. The geometry features a narrow throat, which was designed to be packaged inside a commercial diesel injector pocket. The pre-chamber was fueled with methane while the main chamber was supplied with an ethanol/air mixture. The 'avalanche activated combustion' or L.A.G. process was explored which relies on enriched pre-chamber combustion to generate radicals which, upon being discharged into the main combustion chamber, will trigger ignition sites distributed in the combustion chamber, thus achieving fast combustion. The ability of PCSI concept to enhance the lean limit with progressive enrichment in the pre-chamber was demonstrated. In addition, passive pre-chamber concept, where no additional fuel was injected into pre-chambers, was also explored and compared against the fueled pre-chamber experiments. The processed data features fast combustion rates with high combustion stability with the evident extension of the lean combustion limit. The engine-out emissions, measured by the exhaust gas analyzer, were reported together with the combustion data.