Tommy Cookers - I can understand why you say that, because you can't just mash up a direct injector on any engine and expect to reap the all benefits of stratified charge. But there is a subtlety to how stratification is applied which helps to improve the overall efficiency with "heat insulating benefits". So its not PR and if the charge preparation is done carefully - it will work better than homogenous charge.Tommy Cookers wrote:all types of engines seem to do some burning btdc
this is not wholly bad - most of that heat is still available for relatively efficient conversion to work
judging by the many schemes for lean homogeneous charge the heat 'insulating' benefits of charge stratification per se are more PR than actual
ie the overall AFR is the significant factor and the nominally homogeneous charge works just as well
lowering cycle temperature by increased air massflow is beneficial in-cylinder without disbenefit to the exhaust recovery
(and remember all cars used lean mixture till mandatory 3 way catalysts forced most/all running 4% rich)
...
The trick is in getting a good port design to generate a bit of swirl as well. And lots of CFD to understand the in-cylinder charge motion and how it interacts with the sprays. Its a balancing act.
It is the swirl motion that brings about the 'insulating' benefits. Combustion products are lower in density to unburnt fresh air. So when you have that bit of swirl, the centrifugal forces acting on unburnt air will be more than that on burnt gas. This centrifugal force will pull the cool, 'heavier', unburnt air outwards radially to the liner walls, will form an 'insulating sheath', and keeps the lower density burnt products in the centre of the cylinder for longer. Hence by having the hot burnt products in the middle for a bit longer - you reduce heat rejection to the liner. As a consequence this improves the overall thermal efficiency.