In order to improve the spray spatial distribution and promote the mixture quality, enhancing airflow movement in a combustion chamber, a new swirl chamber combustion system in direct injection (DI) diesel engines is proposed. The mixture formation and combustion progress in the cylinder are simulated and investigated at several different swirl ratios by using the AVL-FIRE code. The results show that in view of the fuel/air equivalence ratio distribution, the uniformity of mixture with swirl ratio of 0.2 is better. Before spray injection, the turbulent kinetic energy distribution is primarily controlled by the squish. After spray, the combustion swirl and reverse squish swirl have an effect on temperature distribution and turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) in the cylinder. The NO mass fraction is the lowest at swirl ratio of 0.8 and the highest at swirl ratio of 2.7, while Soot mass fraction is the lowest at swirl ratio of 0.2 and the highest at swirl ratio of 3.2. The appropriate swirl is benefit to improve combustion. To sum up, the emissions at swirl ratio of 0.8 has a better performance in the new combustion system. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.