• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.389-396
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• 1994

It is very important to clarify the ignition and flame propagation processes of methanol fuel in the Spark-ignition engine. High speed Schlieren photography and pressure trace analyses were used to study on combustion characteristics of methanol fuel in a constant volume chamber. Methanol-air mixtures equivalence rations from lean limit to 1.4 were ignited at initial pressure (0.1, 0.3, 0.5 MPa), temperature (313 343, 373 K) and ignition energy (40, 180 mJ). As the result of this study, we verified the characteristics such as ignition delay, effective thermal efficiency, flame propagation velocity, lean limit, ignitability and combustion duration. Obatained results are as follows. (1) The time to 10% reach of maximum pressure was 40-50% of the total combustion duration for this experimental condition hardly affected by equivalence ratio. (2) The Effective thermal efficiency, as calculated from maximum pressure was the highest when the mixture was slightly lean $({\phi} 0.8-0.9)$ and maximum pressure was the highest when the mixiture was slightly rich $({\phi} 1.2-1.2).$