Calibration of Ignition Location and Pulse Energy in the Laser Ignited Engine

The spark plug has been used as the ignition source of the spark ignited internal combustion (IC) engine for many decades. It is limited in that once the plug has been built and installed, the ignition location within the cylinder cannot be subsequently changed. Multiple spark ignition of the engine for improved combustion control is possible with a spark plug, but this technology has significant limitations. The large dwell time of the spark plug makes firing multiple ignitions at different but close crank angles during a cycle impractical. Furthermore, to achieve multiple ignition locations with a spark plug requires multiple spark plugs to be installed on each cylinder, which creates severe constraints on the cylinder and valve geometry. The use of a laser as an ignition source however can in principle allow adaptive focusing to allow the on-line change of ignition location under the control of the Engine Control Unit (ECU) and so effectively remove many of the restrictions of a spark plug based systems. This paper presents the results of an experimental study on the potential benefits of changing the ignition position in Single Location Ignition (SLI) and the associated laser pulse energy and investigates the prospects of calibrating these parameters to control an engine for improved performance.

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