Abstract: Disclosed is a combustion system design method based on a target heat release rate, which belongs to the technical field of diesel engine combustion chamber design. The method includes: obtaining an ideal heat release rate based on Sabathe-Miller cycle; simulating the ideal heat release rate based on a double-Wiebe function and obtaining the target heat release rate; constructing a mapping relation among the heat release rate, piston geometric parameters and fuel injection parameters, which includes target start of combustion being an function of fuel injection timing and ignition delay, premixed combustion parameters being functions of throat radius, injection pressure and nozzle diameter, and diffusion combustion being a function of piston pit depth; solving target piston geometric parameters and target fuel injection parameters based on the mapping relation; and then designing a combustion system.