COMBUSTION

IN
SPARK IGNITION (SI) ENGINES
INTRODUCTION :
 Combustion may be defined as a rapid chemical
combination of hydrogen and carbon in the fuel with
oxygen in the air resulting in liberation of energy in the
form of heat.
 The conditions necessary for combustion are
 the presence of a combustible mixture
 some means of initiation combustion and
 stabilization and propagation of flame in the
combustion chamber
IGNITION LIMITS :
STAGES OF COMBUSTION :

Fig. Normal combustion in SI Fig. Schematic of flame propagation

Engine in the engine cylinder during
combustion is in progress
STAGES OF COMBUSTION (cont.) :
Fig. Combustion Process in a Single Cylinder Engine
EFFECT OF ENGINE VARIABLES ON
IGNITION LAG :
 FUEL
 the higher the self ignition temperature of the fuel
the longer the ignition lag.
 MIXTURE RATIO
 the ignition lag is smallest for the mixture ratio
which gives the maximum temperature.
 INTAKE TEMPERATURE & PRESSURE
 increase in intake temperature & pressure reduces the
ignition lag
 increase in compression ratio and retardation of spark
also reduces the ignition lag
 TURBULENCE
 increase in turbulence
increases ignition lag
(measured in crank angle
rotation) due to increase
in speed.
 ELECTRODE GAP
 increase in electrode gap
reduces the compression
ratio for a given mixture
strength.
SPARK PLUG :
 FLAME FRONT PROPAGATION :
 REACTION RATE
Chemical combination
process in which flame
move into the unburned
charge.

 TRANSPOSITION RATE
Physical movement of
the flame front relative
to the cylinder wall as a
result of pressure
differential between the
burning gases and the
un-burnt gases in the
combustion chamber.
EFFECT OF ENGINE VARIABLES ON FLAME
PROPAGATION :
 FUEL – AIR RATIO
 The maximum flame velocity occurs when mixture
strength is about 10% richer than stoichiometric. The
flame velocity decreases when the mixture is made
leaner or is enriched.
 INTAKE TEMPERATURE AND PRESSURE
 Increase in intake temperature and pressure
increases the flame speed.
 COMPRESSION RATIO
 The flame speed increases when compression ratio
increased.
 ENGINE LOAD
 With increase in engine load the flame speed
increases.
EFFECT OF ENGINE VARIABLES ON FLAME
PROPAGATION (cont.) :
 TURBULENCE
 The flame speed increases when turbulence in the
combustion chamber is increased.
 ENGINE SPEED
 The flame speed increases almost linearly with
engine speed.
 The Crank angle required for flame propagation will
remain almost constant at all speeds.
 The ignition lag period measured in millisecond is
remain constant at all speeds.
 ENGINE SIZE
 Engine size does not have much effect on the rate of
flame speed.
RATE OF PRESSURE RISE :
ABNORMAL COMBUSTION :
Abnormal Combustion may be of following types:

A. DETONATION OR KNOCKING OR SPARK KNOCK

B. PRE-IGNITION

C. SURFACE IGNITION

I. RUN-ON SURFACE IGNITION

II. RUN-AWAY SURFACE IGNITION

D. WILD PING

E. RUMBLE
DETONATION OR KNOCKING OR SPARK
KNOCK :
EFFECT OF DETONATION OR KNOCKING :
 NOISE AND ROUGHNESS

 MECHANICAL DAMAGE

 CARBON DEPOSITS

 HEAT TRANSFER RATE

 POWER OUTPUT AND EFFICIENCY

 PRE-IGNITION
DETONATION OR KNOCKING :
 Factors affecting knocking in a SI engines are
 Temperature
 Pressure or Density
 Ignition lag
 Composition of Air-Fuel Mixture

A. DENSITY FACTORS
B. TIME FACTORS
C. COMPOSITION FACTORS
EFFECT OF ENGINE VARIABLES ON
DETONATION OR KNOCKING :
A. DENSITY FACTORS
 COMPRESSION RATIO
 Increase in compression ratio increases the
tendency to knock.
 SUPERCHARGING
 Increase in supercharging increases the tendency
to knock.
 INTAKE TEMPERATURE
 Increase in intake temperature of air increases
the tendency to knock.
 COOLANT TEMPERATURE
 Increase in coolant temperature increases the
tendency to knock.
EFFECT OF ENGINE VARIABLES ON
DETONATION OR KNOCKING (cont.) :
A. DENSITY FACTORS (cont.)
 TEMPERATURE OF THE COMBUSTION CHAMBER WALL
 Increase in temperature of the combustion
chamber wall increases the tendency to knock.
 LOAD ON ENGINE
 Increase in engine load increases the tendency to
knock.
 SPARK TIMING
 Tendency to knock increases by advancing spark
timing and decreases by retarding spark timing.
EFFECT OF ENGINE VARIABLES ON
DETONATION OR KNOCKING (cont.) :
B. TIME FACTORS
 TURBULENCE
 Increase in flame speed decreases the tendency
to knock.
 ENGINE SPEED
 Increase in engine speed decreases the tendency
to knock.
 FLAME TRAVEL DISTANCE
 The knock tendency is reduced by shortening the
time required for flame front to traverse the
combustion chamber.
 Engine Size
 Combustion Chamber Shape
 Location of Spark
EFFECT OF ENGINE VARIABLES ON
DETONATION OR KNOCKING (cont.) :
C. COMPOSITION FACTORS
 FUEL – AIR RATIO
 When the mixture is nearly 10% richer than
stoichiometric (F/A = 0.08), the tendency to
knock is maximum.
 Making mixture leaner or richer than F/A = 0.08,
the tendency to knock is decreases.
 OCTANE RATING OF FUEL
 Octane Number, also called Antiknock Rating,
measure of the ability of a fuel to resist knocking.
 A fuel with high octane number has low
tendency to knock.
 Paraffin series have maximum and aromatic series
have minimum tendency to knock. The Napthene
series comes in between the two.
OCTANE NUMBER :
 The Octane number of a petrol fuel is a measure of its
ignition quality.
 The Octane number of a unknown fuel is defined as the
percentage by volume of iso-octane in a mixture of iso-
octane (Octane number 100) and n – heptane (Octane
number 0) which exactly matches the knocking intensity
of the unknown fuel in a standard test engine under a
set of standard operating conditions.
 The engine used for finding octane number of an
unknown fuel is a CFR (Cooperative Fuel Research)
variable compression engine.
 The octane scale is extended beyond 100 by adding
tetraethyl-lead to isooctane.
OCTANE NUMBER (cont.) :
 Octane number determined by Research test (low
engine speed, low mixture temperature and high load)
is termed as Research Octane Number (RON).
 Octane number determined by Motoring test (high
engine speed, high mixture temperature and part
throttle) is termed as Motor Octane Number (MON).
 The difference between RON and MON is called
sensitivity.
 The higher the sensitivity the poorer its performance
under severe condition.
 In order to extend the octane scale the knock resistance
of a fuel is measured in terms of Army – Navy
performance Number (PN) which is given as follows: