Journal Article
Experimental Investigation of the Initial Stages of Flame Propagation in a Spark-Ignition Engine: Effects of Fuel, Hydrogen Addition and Nitrogen Dilution
2010-05-05
2010-01-1451
An experimental investigation was conducted in an optical mono-cylinder Spark-Ignition engine in order to explore the influence of the fuel and of the dilution rate on the initial stages of flame propagation. Images of flame radiation were acquired through the transparent piston crown with a high speed CMOS camera operating at 6000 frames/second. Experiments were performed under stoichiometric and lean conditions (0.8 of equivalence ratio), and two engine speeds (1200 rpm and 2000 rpm). The spark ignition timing was set at 30 (iso-octane) and 25 (methane) crank angle degrees before top dead center. Image acquisition was synchronized with in-cylinder pressure to allow simultaneous evaluation of the Indicated Mean Effective Pressure (IMEP) and of the heat release rate. Image post-processing was performed to obtain the temporal evolution of the projected flame area.
