Chapter 5

Combustion in spark-ignition engines

1- A normal combustion: in a gaseous fuel-air mixture ignited by a spark is
characterized by a rapid development of a flame that starts from the point of ignition
and spreads outwards in a continuous manner, the flame spread continues to the end of
the combustion chamber without any abrupt change in it’s speed and shape. When the
unburnt mixture ahead of the flame ignites and burns before the flame reaches it, this
phenomenon is called "autoignition" this causes a sudden increase in the reaction rate,
accompanied by a sudden pressure rise forming pressure waves causing another
phenomenon called "detonation" which causes engine knock.
Under normal combustion conditions, the combustion is controlled (the combustion is a
controlled combustion when it’s initiated by a spark) and this is a designers objective.
A theoretical pressure-crank angle (P-θ ) diagram in an ideal four stroke SI engine is
shown in fig:

However in an actual spark-ignition engine, combustion does not occur instantaneously, also
the volume is not constant during the combustion
(1-1) stages of combustion in SI engine. The fig. shows the pressure- crank angle diagram
indicating three stages of combustion in a SI engine

‫ عباس محمد اسماعيل‬.‫ م‬.‫أ‬ 1

  The first stage (AB):
It's also called ignition log or preparation phase, it corresponds to the time for the development
of a self-propagating nucleus of the flame, it starts at point (A) where the spark is produces and
end at the point (B) where the first measurable pressure rise against the motoring curve (the
engine is not firing) is observed.
 The second stage (BC):
Also called the main stage, it corresponds to the propagation of the flame practically at a
constant speed, it ends at point (C) where the maximum pressure is attained, this stage is both a
physical and chemical process ( the first stage is mainly chemical process and depends on the
nature of the fuel).
 The third stage (CD):
It’s called afterburning, it ends at point (D) where equilibrium is reached during this stage the
flame speed decreases and the rate of combustion is slow, it's important to understand the
difference between combustion and burning combustion proceeds until the point of chemical
equilibrium is reached, on the other hand burning is that part of combustion process which is
associated with the travel of a flame front across the cylinder, when the flame reaches the far
end of the cylinder, the charge is all burned and the burning process is over. The combustion of
the fuel will be incomplete because of the high temperature causing dissociation.
(1-2) flame speed pattern, the flame speed across the chamber follows a pattern similar to that
shown in fig.
The flame travel pattern divides the combustion
process into four phases:
1- Spark initiation
2- Early flame development
3- Flame propagation
4- Flame termination
As shown in the fig. the flame speed follows two
stages of low turbulence (stage 1 & 2) and one
stage of high turbulence (stage 2) where the slope
of the curve indicates the flame speed.

(1-3) fraction of burned mass, the mass fraction burned in a typical spark-ignition engine can
be calculated from :
mb
x b= where m b= mass of the burned charge
mb +m u
m u= mass of the unburned charge

The relation between the mass fraction burned and the crank angle can be shown in fig. The
major portion of the mass is burned during the stage where the flame speed is high ( second
stage)

‫ عباس محمد اسماعيل‬.‫ م‬.‫أ‬ 2

(1-4) Pressure and temperature variation as a
function of crank angle. The flame reaches the
cylinder wall farthest from the spark plug about
(15o) a TDC. At this point the maximum pressure
( Pmax ) is reached, but the combustion is not
completed, it continues for another few degrees
of crank angle, (T max) is obtained about (10o) after
the maximum pressure is reached.

(1-5) the effect of spark timing on indicator diagram, if the spark timing is over-advanced the
combustion process starts while the piston is moving towards TDC, so the compression work
(negative work) increases. If the spark is too much retarded, then the combustion process is
progressively delayed, the peak cylinder pressure occurs later in the compression stroke, the
optimum spark timing is the timing for which the maximum brake torque is obtained, it's
called (MBT) timing.
(1-6) the effect of fuel / air ratio on indicator diagram, the maximum flame speed occurs when
the mixture strength for hydrocarbons fuel is about (10%) rich, as shown in the fig. :

‫ عباس محمد اسماعيل‬.‫ م‬.‫أ‬ 3

 2- Factors affecting ignition lag: the ignition lag is the period between spark initiation
and flame development, it is a chemical process and it's in terms of crank angle is to be
(10o to 20o) and of the order of milliseconds decreasing ignition will increase the rate of
pressure rise and the maximum pressure.
(2-1) nature of fuel and air/fuel ratio.
(2-2) initial temperature and pressure, increasing the initial temperature and pressure increase
the temperature and pressure at the point of ignition therefore ignition lag decreases.
(2-3) compression ratio, the temperature and pressure at the point of ignition increase with the
increase in compression ratio, therefore the ignition lag reduces. High compression ratios also
reduce the concentration of the residual gas and therefore the ignition lag is further reduced.
(2-4) spark timing, advancing the spark timing increases the ignition lag.
(2-5) turbulence and engine speed, it's necessary to advance the spark timing at higher engine
speeds by using the ignition advance mechanisms to keep the ignition lag time fixed, excessive
turbulence of the charge in the vicinity of the spark plug causes flame quenching, so the spark
plug is usually located in a small recess in the wall of the combustion chamber.
(2-6) electrode gap of spark plug, a higher electrode gap
is required for an engine with lower compression ratio to
keep the equivalence ratio as high as possible.

3- Factors affecting combustion in SI engine:

(3-1) composition of the mixture.
(3-2) load, at part load the combustion of the fuel in SI engine is poor, causing incomplete
combustion which cause air pollution, a rich mixture will improve part load combustion.
‫ عباس محمد اسماعيل‬.‫ م‬.‫أ‬ 4
(3-3) compression ratio.

(3-4) speed.

(3-5) turbulence and shape of combustion chamber, as in (2-5)

(3-6) spark plug position, the central position of the spark plug ensures the maximum flame
front surface, and the distance travelled by the flame front to the most distant part will be the
shortest, also two spark plugs working synchronizlly reduces the flame travel and give a higher
rate of pressure rise as the case of aircraft engine.
4- Rate of pressure rise. For low rate of combustion requires more ignition advance to
complete combustion, if the rate of pressure rise is excessively high it may result in
abnormal combustion called detonation

‫ عباس محمد اسماعيل‬.‫ م‬.‫أ‬ 5

5- Abnormal combustion-autoignition and detonation, if the temperature and pressure
of the end-gas (gas ahead of the flame front) are high enough, it will ignite
spontaneously before the flame front reaches it, under this condition, the earlier stages
of combustion are normal, while about the last (25%) of the flame travel distance,
sudden inflammation of the remaining portion of the end-gas occurs, the end-gas is said
to be auto-ignited.
Auto-ignition cause pressure fluctuation nd the pressure increase (8 to 4) times from
about (50 bar) to (150-200 bar) which cause pressure waves which strike the cylinder
wall and set it to vibrate, giving rise to a characteristic high pitched metallic ringing
sound, this phenomenon is called knock or detonation, with flame speed during
detonation equal to (300-1000 m/s). intensive detonation causes loud knocks with a
higher frequency that arises in each cycle, the power of the engine drops and black
smoke appears intermittently, in the exhaust gases, it causes mechanical damage to the
engine.

‫ عباس محمد اسماعيل‬.‫ م‬.‫أ‬ 6

 6- Effects of detonation, an engine should never be allowed to operate for a long time
with knocking, with a heavy constant knock that will easily lead to severe damaging,
it's effects are shown below:
a. Noise and vibration
b. Increase in heat transfer
c. Mechanical damage
d. Pre-ignition
e. Poor efficiency
f. Carbon in exhaust.
7- Effect of engine variables on knock, the following factors tend to effect the tendency
of knock:
1.temperatue, pressure and density 7.the coolant temperature
2.the compression ratio 8.poor output
3.the mass of inducted charge 9.exhaust back pressure
4.the inlet temp of the mixture 10.cycle to cycle variation
5.the temp. of the combustion chamber walls 11.carbon deposits
6.spark timing.
8- uncontrolled combustion, initiation of a flame front by a hot surface other than the
spark is called surface ignition, it comes under the category of uncontrolled combustion.
Surface ignition occurring before the spark is called preignition, and that occurring after the
spark is called postignition.
9-Combustion in compression ignition CI engine, in compression ignition engine usually
air is drawn during intake stroke, a compression ratio between (12 to 20) are used, so
that temperature of the air near the end of the compression stroke is quite high. Just
before TDC, fuel is sprayed into the combustion chamber, this spray of fuel with the aid
of air movement distributes the fuel through the air, owing to the high temperature of
the air, the fuel ignites and burns almost as soon as introduced.

‫ عباس محمد اسماعيل‬.‫ م‬.‫أ‬ 7

(9-1) stages of combustion in CI engine,

1.Delay period, during this stage there is no visible pressure rise, the fuel is injected
through nozzle, but does not ignite. There is a definite period for mixing of liquid fuel
with air, vaporizing and mixing of fuel vapor with air pre-flame reactions of fuel and
then ignites.
2.Rapid (uncontrolled) combustion, fuel burns very rapidly, there is also partial combustion
of fuel which continues to be injected during this period.
3.Controlled combustion (diffusion flame), during this stage, the piston is near TDC where
maximum temperature is reached.
4.Tail of combustion (after burning), the rate of heat release in this phase of combustion
gradually drops to zero.
(9-2) knock in the CI engine, in CI engine the fuel is injected in to hot air and combustion
begins with auto-ignition, if the first peak in the pressure rate diagram is high enough a
knocking sound appears, this is due to long delay period and large amount of fuel prepared.

‫ عباس محمد اسماعيل‬.‫ م‬.‫أ‬ 8