Performance of Ignition Process

P M V Subbarao
Professor
Mechanical Engineering Department

Effectiveness of Ignition for

Efficient Combustion ..

The Efficiency of Coil

The Minimum Spark Energy

Minimum Spark Energy

The minimum energy required to ignite a air-fuel mixture .

Effect of Various Parameters on MIE:
Distance Between Electrodes
Fuel
Equivalence Ratio
Initial Temperature
Air Movement
Any situation leading to unavailability of required MSE will
create missing stroke/incomplete combustion stroke.
This will reduce the fuel economy of SI engines.

The effect of the spark plug gap on the brake

specific fuel consumption

The effect of spark energy

on the brake specific fuel consumption

Other Ignition systems

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Ignition By An Electrically Heated Wire

Ignition By Flame or Hot Jet
Plasma Jet Ignition
Photochemical Ignition
Microwave Ignition
Laser Ignition
Puff-jet Ignition

Laser Ignition
The importance of the spark time scale on the flame kernel size
and NOx production is well recongnized.
A laser ignition source has the potential of improving engine
combustion with respect to conventional spark plugs.
A laser based ignition source, i.e. replacing the spark plug by
the focused beam of a pulsed laser.
Laser ignition, or laser-induced ignition, is the process of
starting combustion by the stimulus
of a laser light source.
It was tried to control autoignition by a laser light source.
The time scale of a laser-induced spark is by several orders of
magnitude smaller than the time scales of turbulence and
chemical kinetics.

The Concept of Laser Ignition

Arrangement and Control of Ingition Region

Phases in Laser Ignition

The different phases of laser ignition can be defined in
chronological order
Electric breakdown and energy transfer from laser to plasma
Shock-wave generation and propagation
Gasdynamic effects
Chemical induction of branching chain reactions of radicals
leading to ignition
Turbulent flame initiation

Time Scales in Laser Ignition

Selection of Wave Length

Effectiveness of Laser Ignition

Control of Ignition Region

Impact of Modern Methods on Engine Cycle

Impact of Modern Methods on Engine Cycle

Ignition to Combustion
End of Combustion

Start of Combustion

Ignition

Crank Angle,

Initial phase of combustion

Pictures of the initial phase of combustion show an initially
quasi-spherical, relatively smooth flame kernel.
Thus, one can assume the initial combustion to proceed in a
quasi-laminar fashion, with the mass burning rate given by:

m b u Aunr
Here, u is the unburned gas density,
A is the flame area defined at the cold flame front, and
unr is the stretched laminar burning velocity based on the rate of
production of reacted gasof the initial phase of combustion show
an initially quasi-spherical, relatively smooth flame kernel.
Thus, one can assume the initial combustion to proceed in a
quasi-laminar fashion, with the mass burning rate given by:

Flame Propagation & Combustion in SI Engine

Flow

Phases in Flame Development

Flame development angle d crank angle interval during which flame
kernal develops after spark ignition.
Rapid burning angle b crank angle required to burn most of mixture

Mass fraction burned

Overall burning angle - sum of flame development and rapid burning angles

CA

Mixture Burn Time

B

tcomb

B/2
5 cm

0.2 s
Sl
25 cm / s

Sl : Laminar Flame velocity

How does the flame burn all the mixture in the cylinder in the time
available, especially at high engine speeds?
It is impossible to build an engine which runs more than
100 rpm with laminar flames !!!!

Laminar Flame Speed

Laminar flames in premixed fuel, air, residual gas mixture are
characterized by laminar flame speed Sl

Tu

Sl Sl ,0
T0
S l , 0 Bm B m

2.18 0.8 1
0.16 0.22 1

p0

fuel

Bm(cm/s)

Bcm/s

Methonol

1.11

36.9

-140.5

Propane

1.08

34.2

-138.7

Isooctane

1.13

26.3

-84.7

Gasoline

1.21

30.5

-54.9

Need for Turbulent Flow

High speed engines are possible only due to turbulent
combustion.
The turbulent flow field in an engine plays important role in
determining its combustion characteristics and thermal
efficiency.
Automotive engineers have learned that changes in the
combustion chamber shape and inlet system geometry, both of
which change the turbulent flow field, influence emissions, fuel
economy and the lean operating limit of an engine.
Most of this knowledge has been obtained on specific engines
through direct experimentation or from global measurements.
As it result there exist no general scaling laws to predict the
combustion and emission characteristics of an engine.