Fuel injection control device for direct-injection engine

A fuel injection control device for a direct-injection engine, the fuel injection control device comprising:

• an engine body having a combustion chamber defined by a ceiling portion of a cylinder head, a cylinder provided to a cylinder block, and a piston reciprocating in the cylinder;
• and
• a fuel injection controller having a fuel injection valve disposed so as to inject liquid fuel into the combustion chamber, and configured to inject the fuel into the combustion chamber at a predetermined timing, wherein
• the fuel injection valve is configured such that an effective opening area of an injection port through which the fuel is injected increases as a lift amount of the fuel injection valve increases, and
• the fuel injection controller
• injects the fuel in a lift amount changing mode in which, when the fuel is injected into the combustion chamber in a terminal period of a compression stroke, the lift amount of the fuel injection valve is set to a predetermined large lift amount in an earlier period of an injection period, and in a later period of the injection period following the earlier period of the injection period, the lift amount is set to a small lift amount smaller than the large lift amount and is in a range where a fuel injection speed increases, and
• performs, when the engine body is operated at a rotational speed which falls within a predetermined high rotational speed range, a second-stage injection in which the fuel is injected in the lift amount changing mode, and before the second-stage injection, a first-stage injection in which the fuel is injected with a lift amount smaller than the large lift amount for an injection period longer than and spaced apart from the second-stage injection.