Spark Ignition: Its Physics and Effect on the Internal Combustion Engine

Maly, R.

doi:10.1007/978-1-4899-2277-9_3

Cited by 110 publications

(87 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…The first two stages are of high importance in terms of in-cylinder pressure development [12][13][14][15][16]. These four stages are influenced by: spark energy and duration [17]; spark plug design and orientation [18]; in-cylinder flow field [19]; cyclic cylinder charging [20]; in-cylinder composition [21]; and other related factors. A detailed literature survey on the effects of these parameters on the four stages of combustion appeared in [12].…”

Section: Flame Structure and Propagationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment of elliptic flame front propagation characteristics of iso-octane, gasoline, M85 and E85 in an optical engine

Ihracska

Korakianitis

Ruiz

et al. 2014

Combustion and Flame

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a b s t r a c tPremixed fuel-air flame propagation is investigated in a single-cylinder, spark-ignited, four-stroke optical test engine using high-speed imaging. Circles and ellipses are fitted onto image projections of visible light emitted by the flames. The images are subsequently analysed to statistically evaluate: flame area; flame speed; centroid; perimeter; and various flame-shape descriptors. Results are presented for gasoline, isooctane, E85 and M85. The experiments were conducted at stoichiometric conditions for each fuel, at two engine speeds of 1200 rpm (rpm) and 1500 rpm, which are at 40% and 50% of rated engine speed. Furthermore, different fuel and speed sets were investigated under two compression ratios (CR: 5.00 and 8.14). Statistical tools were used to analyse the large number of data obtained, and it was found that flame speed distribution showed agreement with the normal distribution. Comparison of results assuming spherical and non-isotropic propagation of flames indicate non-isotropic flame propagation should be considered for the description of in-cylinder processes with higher accuracy. The high temporal resolution of the sequence of images allowed observation of the spark-ignition delay process. The results indicate that gasoline and isooctane have somewhat similar flame propagation behaviour. Additional differences between these fuels and E85 and M85 were also recorded and identified.

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Section: Flame Structure and Propagationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment of elliptic flame front propagation characteristics of iso-octane, gasoline, M85 and E85 in an optical engine

Ihracska

Korakianitis

Ruiz

et al. 2014

Combustion and Flame

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…During the arc discharge phase, the electrodes are heated to a few thousand degrees Celsius locally and wear because the material melts and some of the melt is ejected from the surface. Compared with the arc phase, electrodes experience lower wear rates during the glow phase (Maly, 1984). Therefore, it is necessary to use a material with a higher melting point to improve the resistance to spark wear.…”

Section: Implications From Studies Of Spark Plug Wearmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The arc phase typically lasts for ~10 microseconds and energy deposition is of the order of 1 mJ. The voltage during arc is around 50 V at 1 bar in air with a 1 mm gap, split into 15 V in cathode fall, 25 V in anode fall, and 10 V in arc plasma (Maly, 1984). The cathode fall voltage is a function of the cathode material.…”

Section: Global Circuit Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The glow phase is, thus, characterized by low currents and high voltages (relative to the arc phase). The voltage splits into the following typical components: 400 V for the cathode fall, 25 V for the anode fall, and 100 V/mm for the positive column (Maly, 1984). For an inductive ignition system, the glow phase lasts for about 3 ms. During this period, 30-100 mJ of energy is typically deposited, which is far more than for the other three phases.…”

Section: Global Circuit Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The cathode fall is required for sustaining numerous cathode hot spots. The arc voltage can be defined as (Maly, 1984):…”

Section: Global Circuit Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

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Railplug Ignition System for Enhanced Engine Performance and Reduced Maintenance

Ezekoye¹,

Hall²,

Matthews³

2005

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This Final Technical Report discusses the progress that was made on the experimental and numerical tasks over the duration of this project. The primary objectives of the project were to 1) develop an improved understanding of the spark ignition process, and 2) develop the railplug as an improved ignitor for large bore stationary natural gas engines.We performed fundamental experiments on the physical processes occurring during spark ignition and used the results from these experiments to aid our development of the most complete model of the spark ignition process ever devised. The elements in this model include 1) the dynamic response of the ignition circuit, 2) a chemical kinetics mechanism that is suitable for the reactions that occur in the plasma, 3) conventional flame propagation kinetics, and 4) a multi-dimensional formulation so that bulk flow through the spark gap can be incorporated. This model (i.e., a Fortran code that can be used as a subroutine within an engine modeling code such as KIVA) can be obtained from Prof. Ron Matthews at rdmatt@mail.utexas.edu or Prof. DK Ezekoye at dezekoye@mail.utexas.edu.Fundamental experiments, engine experiments, and modeling tasks were used to help develop the railplug as a new ignitor for large bore natural gas engines. As the result of these studies, we developed a railplug that could extend the Lean Stability Limit (LSL) of an engine operating at full load on natural gas from φ = 0.59 for operation on spark plugs down to φ = 0.53 using railplugs with the same delivered energy (0.7 J). However, this delivered energy would rapidly wear out the spark plug. For a conventional delivered energy (<0.05 J), the LSL is φ = 0.63 for a spark plug. Further, using a permanent magnet to aid the plasma movement, the LSL was extended to φ = 0.54 for a railplug with a delivered energy of only 0.15 J/shot, a typical discharge energy for commercial capacitive discharge ignition systems. Here, it should be noted that railplugs and the associated ignition circuit should not cost much more than a conventional spark ignition system. Additionally, it is believed that the railplug performance can be further improved via continued research and development.iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract iii EXECUTIVE SUMMARYThis Final Technical Report discusses the progress that was made on the experimental and numerical tasks over the duration of this project. The primary objectives of the project were to 1) develop an improved understanding of the spark ignition process, and 2) develop the railplug as an improved ignitor for large bore stationary natural gas engines.Due to these two objectives, the experimental subtasks involved 1) detailed measurements regarding the physical processes occurring during spark ignition, and 2) measurements of the factors that affect railplug performance. Similarly, the modeling subtasks involved developing an improved model for the conventional spark ignition process and developing a model for railplug performance and ignition.The four phases of spark ignition are ...

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Plasma Modeling of Ignition for Combustion Simulations

Yaşar

2001

Computational Science — ICCS 2001

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Detailed ignition modeling has been traditionally left out of the combustion simulations, mainly due to its relatively small time and length scales that could not be integrated into much larger length and time scales of combustion and fluid dynamics. Although the advancements in computing power has now made possible to integrate ignition and combustion modeling, not many researchers have shown interest due to the wide scope of knowledge it needs in both plasma physics and combustion dynamics. In this paper, we are reporting a preliminary analysis of an integrated ignition+combustion model for both spark ignition (SI) and laser-induced spark ignition (LISI) combustion chambers. A common aspect of both SI and LISI is the use of equation-of-state (EOS) tables at temperatures up to 5 times higher than those assumed in most combustion codes. We report use of an atomic physics code to generate EOS tables needed for our combustion and ignition simulations.

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Spark Ignition: Its Physics and Effect on the Internal Combustion Engine

Cited by 110 publications

References 16 publications

Assessment of elliptic flame front propagation characteristics of iso-octane, gasoline, M85 and E85 in an optical engine

Assessment of elliptic flame front propagation characteristics of iso-octane, gasoline, M85 and E85 in an optical engine

Railplug Ignition System for Enhanced Engine Performance and Reduced Maintenance

Plasma Modeling of Ignition for Combustion Simulations

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