Railplug Ignition System for Enhanced Engine Performance and Reduced Maintenance

Ezekoye, D. K. ; Hall, Matt ; Matthews, Ron

University of Texas at Austin

关键词: Natural Gas;    Flame Propagation;    Spark Gaps;    Engines;    Kinetics;   

DOI  :  10.2172/860176
RP-ID  :  none
RP-ID  :  FC26-01NT41334
RP-ID  :  860176

美国|英语

来源: UNT Digital Library

【 摘 要 】

This Final Technical Report discusses the progress that was made on the experimental and numerical tasks over the duration of this project. The primary objectives of the project were to (1) develop an improved understanding of the spark ignition process, and (2) develop the railplug as an improved ignitor for large bore stationary natural gas engines. We performed fundamental experiments on the physical processes occurring during spark ignition and used the results from these experiments to aid our development of the most complete model of the spark ignition process ever devised. The elements in this model include (1) the dynamic response of the ignition circuit, (2) a chemical kinetics mechanism that is suitable for the reactions that occur in the plasma, (3) conventional flame propagation kinetics, and (4) a multi-dimensional formulation so that bulk flow through the spark gap can be incorporated. This model (i.e., a Fortran code that can be used as a subroutine within an engine modeling code such as KIVA) can be obtained from Prof. Ron Matthews at rdmatt{at}mail.utexas.edu or Prof. DK Ezekoye at dezekoye{at}mail.utexas.edu. Fundamental experiments, engine experiments, and modeling tasks were used to help develop the railplug as a new ignitor for large bore natural gas engines. As the result of these studies, we developed a railplug that could extend the Lean Stability Limit (LSL) of an engine operating at full load on natural gas from {phi} = 0.59 for operation on spark plugs down to {phi} = 0.53 using railplugs with the same delivered energy (0.7 J). However, this delivered energy would rapidly wear out the spark plug. For a conventional delivered energy (<0.05 J), the LSL is {phi} = 0.63 for a spark plug. Further, using a permanent magnet to aid the plasma movement, the LSL was extended to {phi} = 0.54 for a railplug with a delivered energy of only 0.15 J/shot, a typical discharge energy for commercial capacitive discharge ignition systems. Here, it should be noted that railplugs and the associated ignition circuit should not cost much more than a conventional spark ignition system. Additionally, it is believed that the railplug performance can be further improved via continued research and development.