Due to the increasing awareness of environmental protection, limitations on exhaust emissions of diesel engines have become increasingly stringent. This challenges diesel engine manufacturers to find a new balance between engine performance and emissions. Advanced combustion modes for diesel engines, such as homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) and premixed charge compression ignition (PCCI), which can simultaneously reduce exhaust emissions and substantially improve thermal efficiency, have drawn increasing attention. In order to allow enough time to prepare the homogeneous mixture, the early injection strategy has been utilized widely in HCCI and PCCI diesel engines. This paper is aimed at providing a comprehensive review of the effects of early injection parameters on the performance and emissions of HCCI and PCCI engines fueled by both diesel and alternative fuels. Various early injection parameters, including injection pressure, injection timing, and injection angle, are discussed. In addition, the effect of the blending ratio of alternative fuels is also summarized. Every change in parameters has its own advantages and disadvantages, which are explained in detail in order to help researchers choose the best early injection parameters for HCCI and PCCI engines.

Dimethyl ether (DME)/diesel blended fuels are used to improve the emissions caused by spray wall impingement during the early injection period. However, experimental results have showed that the spray wall impingement still cannot be avoided due to the engine structure and low density of the in-cylinder charge at the early injection timing. Furthermore, the wall film formed in the spray wall impingement process directly affects fuel/air mixture formation, combustion, exhaust emissions and oil quality subsequently. In this paper, the wall film distribution of DME/diesel blended fuels formed during the spray wall impingement process has been experimentally investigated. The variations of wall film distribution, wall film area and average thickness with different injection pressures, impingement distances, impingement angles and blending ratios have been discussed under both dry wall and wet wall conditions. Results showed that the wall film distribution styles were mainly determined by the spray impingement momentum. The variation of the wall film area and average thickness were affected by three factors including the impingement momentum, wall film mass and fuel properties. Correlation analysis was introduced in order to evaluate the effect of each impact factor on the variation of wall film area and average thickness.

The effect of wall roughness with different lubricant film thicknesses on the characteristics of adhered fuel films of diesel-n-butanol blending fuels after spray impingement has been investigated. Four steel plates with different types of roughness (root mean square height-Sq) that were coated with different lubricant film thicknesses (h_l) were used as impinged walls. The experimental conditions included dry walls (h_l = 0), semi-wetted walls (SWW) with different thin oil films (0 < h_l/Sq < 1), and fully wetted walls (FWW) with a thick lubricant film (h_l > Sq). The results indicate that the adhered fuel mass ratio (ε) of blended fuel with 25% n-butanol (B25) was higher than that of blended fuel with 15% n-butanol (B15) under the same conditions. ε increased with an increase in Sq on the dry walls, but, under SWW conditions, it decreased with an increase in oil film thickness. The fuel film morphology was almost unaffected by the change in Sq, but the results implied that the roughness parameter-Skewness (Ssk) exerted a greater impact. The mean thickness h_a and accumulated diameter D_l of the adhered fuel film increased with an increase in h_l, but, under FWW conditions, the effect of the roughness on the adhered film’s features was insignificant.