Alternate Fuels and Advances in I.C.

Engines
www.iitk.ac.in/erl

Lecture-6

Combustion in SI Engines and Ignition

Fundamentals

Course Instructor
Dr. Avinash Kumar Agarwal
Professor
Department of Mechanical Engineering
IIT Kanpur Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur
 Basics of SI Engine Combustion

Lecture-4 2 Alternate Fuels and Advances in I.C. Engines

Lecture-6 3 Alternate Fuels and Advances in I.C. Engines
Lecture-6 4 Alternate Fuels and Advances in I.C. Engines
Lecture-6 5 Alternate Fuels and Advances in I.C. Engines
 Combustion and Flames in SI Engines

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 Introduction of SI Engines
Fundamentals of Combustion

Combustion may be defined as a relatively rapid chemical combination of hydrogen and carbon in the
fuel with the oxygen in the air resulting in liberation of energy in the form of heat.
The conditions necessary for combustion are:
The presence of a combustible mixture
Some means of initiation of combustion
Stabilization and propagation of flame in the combustion chamber
In SI engines the combustible mixture is generally supplied by the carburettor and the combustion is
initiated by an electric spark given by a spark plug.

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 Essential features of process
In a conventional spark-ignition engine the fuel and air are mixed together in the intake system,
inducted through the intake valve into the cylinder.
Combustion is initiated towards the end of the compression stroke at the spark plug by an electric
discharge.
Following inflammation, a turbulent flame develops, propagates through this essentially premixed
fuel, air, burned gas mixture until it reaches the combustion chamber walls, and then extinguishes.

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 Flame structure and speed
Experimental observation:

Combustion in SI engine takes place in turbulent

flow field.

The approximately spherical development of flame

from the vicinity of the spark plug.

The geometry of combustion chamber and spark

plug govern the flame front surface area.

Larger the surface area greater the mass of fresh

charge that cross the surface and enters the fame
zone.

The center plug location gives twice the flame area

of side flame geometry and burn about twice as fast.

Mixture burning rate is highly influenced by the

engine speed.

Fig. Flame at the fixed crank angle after the ignition

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 Laminar burning speeds

Fig. Laminar flame velocity for several

fuels as a function of equivalence ratio
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 Flame propagation relation

Fig. Variation of flame geometry and velocity parameters during four individual
combustion cycle

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 Cyclic Variations

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 Cyclic variation in combustion, partial burning and misfire
Observation and definition:
Cycle by cycle variable parameters as follows:

1. Pressure related parameters

2. Burn rate related parameters
3. Flame front position parameters

Measured cylinder pressure

and calculated gross heat-
Individual cycle a. maximum pressure versus crank released rate for 10 cycle
angle, b. mean pressure versus crank angle

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 Cause of cycle by cycle and cylinder to cylinder variation
Cycle by cycle variation seen from beginning of the combustion process.
Dispersion in burning rate is evident throughout the combustion process.
The cause of variation in dispersion are as follows:
1. The variation of gas motion in cylinder during the combustion cycle by cycle
2. Variation in amount of fuel air and recycled exhaust gas supplied to a given cylinder each cycle.
3. Variation in mixture composition within cylinder.

a. Air fuel ratio variation for 50 cycle,

b.CO2 and unburned HC concentration just prier to ignition

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 Knocking in SI Engines

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 Abnormal Combustion: Knock & Surface Ignition

The abnormal combustion phenomena are of concern because:

1. when severe, they can cause major engine damage;
2. even if not severe, these are objectionable source of noise.

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 Principal causes of Abnormal Combustion

Effect of Abnormal
Combustion

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 Ignition Fundamentals

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 Ignition fundamentals

Ignition of the charge is only possible within certain limits of air-fuel ratio.
For hydrocarbon fuel, the stoichiometric air-fuel ratio is ~15:1.
Ignition limit for hydrocarbon fuel is must lie between 7:1 to 30:1.
The lower and upper ignition limits of the mixture depend upon mixture ratio and temperature.
The ignition limits are wider at increased temperatures because of higher rates of reaction and higher
thermal diffusivity coefficients of the mixture.

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 Conventional Ignition Systems

Spark plug
A spark plug is a device for delivering electric current from an ignition system to
the combustion chamber of a spark-ignition engine to ignite the compressed fuel/air
mixture by an electric spark, while containing combustion pressure within the engine.
❖ Fundamental requirements of the ignition source:
A high ignition voltage to break down in the spark-gap
A low source impedance or steep voltage rise
A high energy capacity to create a spark kernel of sufficient size
Sufficient duration of the voltage pulse to ensure ignition

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 Fig: Schematic Conventional Ignition System

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 For a spark to jump across an air gap of 0.6 mm
in an engine cylinder, having a compression ratio
of 8:1, approx. 8 kV is required.

Ignition system has to transform battery voltage

of 12 V to 8-20 kV and, has to deliver the voltage
to the right cylinder, at the right time.

About 0.2 mJ of energy is required to ignite a

stoichiometric mixture at normal engine
operating conditions by means of a spark.

Over 3 mJ is required for a rich or lean mixture.

In general, ignition systems deliver 30 to 50 mJ of
electrical energy to the spark.

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 Laser Ignition

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 Alternative Ignition Approaches

Laser ignition
Laser ignition is an alternative method for igniting compressed gaseous mixture of fuel and
air.
The method is based on laser devices that produce short but powerful flashes regardless of the
pressure in the combustion chamber.

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 Advantages of Laser ignition over conventional spark plug :
Possibility of free positioning of plasma
Absence of electrode erosion effects
Feasibility to ignite leaner mixtures together with higher ignition pressures, which
ultimately result in higher efficiency
Higher precision in ignition timings
The possibility of multipoint ignition allows combustion to be initiated by two or more plasma sparks
at multiple locations at the same time, which leads to
Reduction in maximum distance of flame travel, and
Shorten the combustion duration significantly.

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 Ignition in SI engines
When the mixture could be ignited:
(a) Spark energy must be higher than the minimum energy of ignition of the mixture,
(b) Distance between electrodes is larger than the extinguishing distance for a given mixture,
(c) Local gradient of velocity is smaller than the critical for a given mixture.
Improvement of spark ignition effectiveness

a) Energy of spark generated by spark-plug is in the range of 50-

100 mJ. This is enough for ignition of stoichiometric mixture,
but it could be not enough for the lean mixtures.

b) To improve the effectiveness of spark ignition of lean mixtures a

few modifications of SI engines ignition systems have been
proposed:

2- spark-plug systems (twin-spark),

Increase of ignition energy by:
Increase of spark energy
Laser ignition
Increase the distance between electrodes,
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 Stages of Combustion in SI Engines

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 Stages of Combustion in SI Engines

Detailed process of combustion in actual engine is different from the theoretical process. Sir
Ricardo describes the combustion process in an actual SI engine as consisting of three stages:

A shows the point of the passage of the spark (about 20° BTDC), B the point at which the first
rise of the pressure can be seen (about 8° BTDC) and C the attainment of the peak pressure.
AB represent the first stage (Ignition lag)
BC represent the second stage (Propagation of flame)
CD represent the third stage (Afterburning)
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 Stages of Combustion in SI Engines
Ignition Lag
There is a certain time interval between instant of spark and instant where there is a noticeable rise in
pressure due to combustion. This time lag is called Ignition Lag.
Ignition lag is the time interval in the process of chemical reaction during which molecules get heated
up to self ignition temperature , get ignited and produce a self propagating nucleus of flame.
Ignition lag is very small and lies between 0.00015 to 0.0002 seconds. An ignition lag of 0.002
seconds corresponds to 35 deg crank rotation when the engine is running at 3000 RPM.

Propagation of flame
Once the flame is formed, it should be self sustained and must be able to propagate through the
mixture. This is possible when the rate of heat generation by burning is greater than heat lost by
flame to surrounding.
The starting point of the second stage is where first measurable rise of the pressure can be seen on
the indicator diagram.
This stage is also called as main stage as about 87% energy evolved in this stage.

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 Stages of Combustion in SI Engines
Afterburning
Combustion does not terminate at this point and afterburning continues for a long time near the
walls and behind the turbulent flame front.
The combustion rate in this stage reduces due to surface of the flame front becoming smaller and
reduction in turbulence.
About 10% or more heat is evolved in after-burning stage.

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 Factor Affecting Combustion in SI
Engines

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 Factors Influencing The Flame Speed

Turbulence
Turbulence increases the heat flow to the cylindrical wall. It also accelerates the chemical reaction by
intimate mixing of fuel and oxygen so that spark advance may be reduced.
The increase of flame speed due to turbulence reduces the combustion duration and hence minimizes
the tendency of abnormal combustion.

Temperature and Pressure

Flame speed increases with an increase in intake temperature and pressure.
A higher initial pressure and temperature may help to form a better homogeneous mixture which
helps in increasing the flame speed. This is possible because of an overall increase in the density of
the charge.

Engine Speed
The flame speed increases almost linearly with engine speed.
Since the increase in engine speed increases the turbulence inside the cylinder.

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 Factors Influencing The Flame Speed

Fuel-Air Ratio
The Fuel-air ratio has a very significant influence on the flame speed. The highest flame velocities are
obtained with somewhat richer mixture.
When the mixture is made leaner or richer the flame speed decreases.
Less thermal energy is released in the case of lean mixtures resulting in lower flame temperature.
Very rich mixtures lead to incomplete combustion which results in the release of less thermal energy.

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 Factors Influencing The Flame Speed
Engine Output
The cycle pressure increases when the engine output is increased. With the increased throttle
opening the cylinder gets filled to a higher density. This results in increased flame speed.

Compression Ratio
A higher compression ratio increases the pressure and temperature of the working mixture
which reduces the initial preparation phase of combustion and hence less ignition advance is
needed.
Thus engines having higher compression ratios have higher flame speeds.

Engine Size
The size of the engine does not have much effect on the rate of flame propagation.
In large engines the time required for complete combustion is more because the flame has to
travel a longer distance.
This requires increased crank angle duration during the combustion. This is one of the reasons
why large sized engines are designed to operate at low speeds.

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