• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.7 no.6
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• pp.57-64
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• 1999

Initial flame development and propagation were visualized under the new ignition system developed to estimate the effects of ignition characteristics on the engine performance in a port injection SI engine. Effects of intake air flow characteristics were also investigated by three different kinds of the swirl control valve. Experiments were performed in an optical single cylinder engine modified form a commercial engine. Flame images were captured through the quartz window mounted in the piston by the high speed video camera and analyzed to compare initial flame development. Results show that IMEP tends to rise slightly as the ignition duration gets longer. The direction of flame propagation is decisively governed by the in-cylinder flow motion. Every flame grows toward the exhaust valve forming a kind of turbulent flame. Initial flame propaagation characteristics are very similar to ones analyzed form pressure data.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.45-56
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• 2001

A constant volume combustion chamber is employed to investigate the initial flame kernel development and flame propagation of gasoline-air mixtures with various ignition systems, ignition energy and spark plug electrodes. To do this research, four ignition systems are designed and manufactured, and the ignition energy is controlled by varying the dwell time. Several kinds of spark plugs are also made to analyze the effects of electrodes on flame kernel development. The velocity of flame propagation is measured by the laser deflection method. The output laser beam from He-Ne laser is divided into three parallel beams by a beam splitter. The splitted beams pass through the combustion chamber. They are deflected when contacted with flame front, and the voltage signals from photodiodes change due to deflection. The results show that higher ignition energy raises the flame propagation speed especially under the fuel lean operation. The wider electrode gap, smaller electrode diameter and sharper electrode tip make the speed of the initial flame propagation faster. The speed of the initial flame propagation is affected by electrode material as well. Electrode material with lower melting temperature help the initial flame propagation.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers
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• v.19 no.12
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• pp.3352-3359
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• 1995

An Eulerian-Lagrangian method is employed to simulate the ignition process and the flame propagation through the air/fuel spray mixture in a closed constant-volume combustor. The spray mixture is ignited by providing a hot wall at the end of the combustor or by firing the electric spark. The investigated parameters involve the initial droplet size, overall equivalence ratio, initial fuel vapor concentration, distance between the hot wall and the nearest droplet, and the ignition energy. Numerical results clearly show the existence of the optimum spray condition for minimizing the ignition energy and the ignition delay time as well as the critical dependence of ignition upon the distance of the heat source to the nearest droplet.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.59-65
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• 1993

In a spark ignition engine, in order to make research on flame propagation, attentive concentration should be paid on initial combustion stage about the formation and development of flame. In addition, the initial stage of combustion governs overall combustion period in a spark ignition engine. With the increase of the size of flame kernel, it could reach initial flame stage easily, and the mixture could proceed to the combustion of stabilized state. Therefore, we must study the theoretical calculation of minimum flame kernel radius which effects on the formation and development of kernel. To calculate the minimum flame kernel radius, we must know the thermal conductivity, flame temperature, laminar burning velocity and etc. The thermal conductivity is derived from the molecular kinetic theory, the flame temperature from the chemical reaction equations and the laminar burning velocity from the D.K.Kuehl's formula. In order to estimate the correctness of the theoretically calculated minimum flame kernel radius, the researcheres compared it with the RMaly's experimental values.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Visualization
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.42-48
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• 2011

Six different size of torch-ignition device were applied in a constant volume combustion chamber for evaluating the effects of torch-ignition on combustion. The torch-ignition device was designed for six different volumes and same orifice size. The combustion pressures were measured to calculate the mass burn fraction and combustion enhancement rate. In addition, the flame propagations were visualized by shadowgraph method for the qualitative comparison. The result showed that the combustion pressure and mass burn fraction were increased when using the torch ignition device. And the combustion duration were decreased. The combustion enhancement rates of torch-ignition cases were improved in comparison with conventional spark ignition. Finally, the visualization results showed that the torch-ignition induced faster burn than conventional spark ignition due to the earlier transition to turbulent flame and larger flame surface, during the initial stage. Finally, the initial flame propagation was affected by torch-ignition volume.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Visualization
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.19-24
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• 2010

Five different size of orifice were applied in a constant volume combustion chamber for evaluating the effects of torch-ignition on combustion. The initial flame development and flame propagation were analyzed by the mass burned fraction and combustion enhancement rate. The combustion pressures were measured to calculate the mass burned fractions and the combustion enhancement rates. In addition, the flame propagations were visualized by the shadowgraph method for the qualitative comparison. The result showed that the combustion pressure and mass burned fraction were increased when using the torch-ignition device. The combustion enhancement rates of torch-ignition cases were improved in comparison with conventional spark ignition. Finally, the visualization results showed that the torch-ignition induced faster burn than conventional spark ignition due to the earlier transition to turbulent flame and larger flame surface, during the initial stage.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.24 no.12
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• pp.1652-1661
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• 2000

A visualization study using the schlieren method is adopted in an optically-accessible, cylindrical constant volume combustion chamber to identify the mechanism of ignition energy and ignition system interaction in spark ignited, lean gasoline-air mixture. In order to research the effects of ignition system on flame propagation, two kinds of ignition system are designed, and several kinds of spark plugs are tested and evaluated. To control the discharge energy, the dwell time is varied. The initial flame development is quantified in terms of 2-D images which provides information about the projected flame area and development velocity as a function of ignition system and discharge energy. The results show that high ignition energy and extended spark plug gap can shorten the combustion duration in lean mixtures. The material, diameter and configuration of electrodes the flame development by changing the transfer efficiency from electrical energy to chemical energy and discharge energy. However these factors do not affect of flame development as much a ignition energy or extended gap does.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.48-57
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• 2003

A cylindrical constant volume combustion chamber was used to investigate the flow characteristics at spark plug and the combustion characteristics of homogeneous charge methane-air mixture under various initial pressure, excess air ratio and ignition times in quiescent mixture. The flow characteristics such as mean velocity and turbulence intensity was analyzed by hot wire anemometer. Combustion pressure development measured by piezoelectric pressure transducer and flame propagation acquired by ICCD camera were used to investigate the effect of initial pressure, excess air ratio and ignition times on pressure, combustion duration, flame speed and burning velocity. Mean velocity and turbulence intensity had the maximum value at 200 or 300ms and then decreased to near 0 value gradually after 3 seconds. Combustion duration, flame speed and burning velocity were observed to be promoted with excess air ratio of 1.1, lower initial pressure and ignition time of 300ms.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.96-103
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• 2003

In this paper, the heat loss to the constant volume vessel wall was investigated using instantaneous heat flux sensor, schlieren visualization, pressure rise curve. And the heat loss characteristics of plasma jet ignition were compared with conventional spark ignition. In case of plasma jet ignition, the flame kernel moves toward the center of combustion vessel in the initial period of combustion, and the flame surface spread out to the vessel wall. However, in case of conventional spark ignition, the flame surface contact with combustion vessel wall in the initial period of combustion. As a result, heat loss in the combustion duration for conventional spark ignition increase faster than that of plasma jet ignition. And the combustion enhancement rate of plasma jet ignition is higher than that of conventional spark ignition, and it was found that the heat loss rate is inversely proportional to the combustion enhancement rate.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2001.11a
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• pp.50-53
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• 2001

Flame propagation during the initial stages of ignition in a non-premixed swirl, having some of characteristics of the primary zone of an aero gas turbine combustor, has been investigated. Nd:YAG laser was adopted as the principal ignition source to allow arbitrary placing of the ignition site i subsequent flame development was monitored using a natural light high speed filming technique for many ignition site at two different swirl ratios and an overall equivalence ratio of 0.9. For ignition offset from the burner centreline, buoyancy force associated with radial pressure gradient produced a strong inward movement of the flame kernel. At the burner exit. flame kernels invariably developed into cylindrical form and a 'radial confinement /axia expansion' (RCAE) process was observed.