{"title":"Repetitive Multi-pulses Enabling Lean CH\u00004\u0000-Air Combustion\u0000 Using Surface Discharges","authors":"R. Umstattd, C. Jiang","doi":"10.4271/03-16-08-0061","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4271/03-16-08-0061","url":null,"abstract":"The development of efficient and reliable ignition systems for lean fuel-air\u0000 mixtures is of great interest for applications associated with the use of\u0000 combustion in transportation, electricity production, and other heavy\u0000 industries. In this study, we report the use of repetitive nanosecond pulsed\u0000 surface discharges for the ignition of lean methane (CH4)-air\u0000 mixtures at pressures above 1 bar. Powered by ten 10-ns voltage pulses at 10\u0000 kHz, a commercially available non-resistive spark plug was used to generate\u0000 surface discharges, which were able to ignite CH4-air mixtures at 1.5\u0000 bar and with equivalence ratios (ϕ) ranging from 1.0 to 0.5. At the leanest\u0000 conditions, e.g., ϕ ≤ 0.6, nitric oxide (NO) and nitrogen dioxide\u0000 (NO2) emission were reduced to <10% of their values at ϕ =\u0000 1.0, demonstrating the advantage of lean burn in emission reduction. Consistent\u0000 ignition was obtained under extremely lean conditions (e.g., ϕ = 0.5) with a\u0000 minimum of five pulses and a minimum Coulomb transfer of 82 μC. Additionally,\u0000 the surface plug durability was tested for 114 hours or over 12 million pulse\u0000 trains by operating the surface plug in 3.5 bar of dry air at 30 pulse trains\u0000 per second. This study shows that the use of repetitive nanosecond pulses with\u0000 surface discharge-based plugs holds promise for a durable ignition solution.","PeriodicalId":47948,"journal":{"name":"SAE International Journal of Engines","volume":"16 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2023-06-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86550357","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}